Rhy'Din: It is a Realm that is too amazing to describe in words. The Realm has no limits, no imagination, and blends every type of known and unknown culture, race, color and creed. Throw them all into a blender, and that's Rhy'Din. Getting there is the easy part, believe it or not. *Leaving* is the hard part. Brehnic had been able to contact Jarrod Van Rico, the Rhy'Din version, who was also a former Realm Walker, and he was able to open a 'back door' into Rhy'Din without tipping off the Daemon Lords.
Reality vs. Fantasy? That's Rhy'Din. Some poor teenaged boy's (or girl's) wet dream come to life? That's Rhy'Din. Ultimate dream? Rhy'Din. Darkest nightmare? Rhy'Din. Get the picture? Good, because there will be a pop quiz later!
The line-up: Evan Lizt, Eve X with Lilith, Brehnic Kohnar, Jara Rico, and the star of our show .... Eeeeve Lizt!
Recovering from the fun little ride of getting there wasn't easy. Eve had done a fair job of shrugging the vertigo off, and tried to ignore the feeling that everything spun around her again every now and then. Just part of the travel, wasn't it?
... Though she wasn't sure it was all a result of their method; the place seemed, *Felt,* incredibly, impossibly *weird.* She was starting to understand why it was referred to as a Fantasy Realm. It just didn't Feel like something that should have been able to exist, that should have been tangible, but there was it was, undeniably. "Okay, I don't suppose anyone has the slightest clue as to where exactly we should be heading, do they?" Hey, she figured it was worth a shot to ask.
Eve X was back in control at the moment, and she was watching her counterparts quietly, Eve more than Evan. Save for a continual nibble of her bottom lip, she stayed out of everyone's way.
Evan gave Eve a shoulder nudge in response to her out of the air question. "That's easy, kiddo. We look for the places that Steele would be. The Coffee Shop, his humble abode, the PSD headquarters. It'll all be here, right?"
Jarrod glanced up from chatting with Brehnic. "Ye got it, in a nutshell, boyo. Jus' be careful, because the Daemons will be lookin' as well."
Jara was checking out her Rhy'Din version with a tilt of the head and a gleam in her eyes. It was the whole 'Pirates Of the Caribbean' look that had her. Mental note: she was *so* taking that look with her back to their own Realm!
Brehnic? He was seriously intense. Too intense. Hold a quarter so tight between his butt cheeks, that he'd make change, intense! He and Jarrod were having a serious conversation, and on more than one occasion, Eve might find herself being glanced at when they thought she wasn't looking.
"Brehnic, ye be takin' Evan and Jara. I'll take the Eve girls." Eve X was close enough for Eve to hear her mutter, "More like keep an eye on us."
"Exactly." Eve didn't hush her own voice when she responded to Eve X's quiet words. She was a bit on edge right now, particularly because of the hush-hush behavior of the two men. "Though I'll be much happier when you two *tell me* what it is that you're trying to keep quiet. I'm not an idiot, nor am I going to just 'forget' that there's something you're trying to keep from me, Brehnic." Her tone said that it was something she *really* didn't appreciate in this situation. What could she say? The stress was beginning to get to her, along with the pressure to locate Steele before the Daemons.
"Look, I - "
That was all Brehnic would be able to get out before Jarrod placed a hand on his chest. "Jus' nail down wha' ye need to do with yer team. I'll explain everythin' to them. *Everything.*"
Brehnic wanted to object, but Jarrod waved him off. Taking a deep breath before letting it go, he turned and looked at the two girls before pulling an apple from his satchel. "Let us go for a walk, ladies."
Eve X watched the brief exchange with a hint of bemusement, then shrugged her shoulders at Jarrod's request, her steel grey eyes holding little to no emotion, as they stepped out of the room - only to find themselves in the middle of a grassy meadow. Think 'Little House on the Prairie' sans the opening theme.
Jarrod stood quietly, with his hands clasped behind him, not speaking at first, just looking out over the hill.
Eve X plucked a blade of grass, placing it between her teeth and kicked off her shoes, sitting Indian style in the waist high grass. "He knows the truth, Eve."
She had to raise a brow. "The truth? Okay, you've got to be a little more specific there. There are a lot of weird little truths in this particular situation." Eve had taken on that relatively empty-eyed expression, and folded her arms loosely. She couldn't really be still, either; whereas Eve X had sat down, Eve paced a little, wandering back and forth and around the pair. Too much nervous energy had built up, and she knew she wouldn't be able to relax. Then again, she never was very good at relaxing and letting tension just slip away. "I'm just ... I'm sick of the ducking and dodging, tired of things being withheld. If it has any bearing here, we need to know."
Without look at them, Jarrod replied, "I could not agree wi' ye more lass. 'Tis why ye be wi' me. No more riddles. No more half truths."
That caused Eve X to do a double take, then murmur "Dehm. He's telling the truth. Lilith read him, and he's not lying, not at all. Wow. You sure you're real?"
"Rico's tend to be pretty truthful. Usually. Anyway ..." Pace, pace, pace. Eve let her head droop for a moment before straightening and giving a shake to toss her dark hair back over her shoulders. "... What exactly was all that about?"
"I kno' Argus Steele better than anyone, lass. He was - *is* like a brother to me. I've seen him at his best an' at his worst. I was there when he became Tainted. I was one of the few that didn't turn my back on him because of his crimes against humanity." Glancing over his shoulder, eye contact was made with them both. "Ye ever felt the sensation of falling at such a high rate of speed ye felt yer skin would be pulled off its bones? Fallin' so fast, but never hitting bottom, in a void of total darkness? Hearing nothin'. Seeing nothin'. All ye senses stripped from ye? Tha' was wha' they decided fer him. Killing him would hav' upset the natural
balance, so this way it killed two birds wi' one stone."
Eve X shivered at the thought. "So this way he lived, and the order was maintained. Euw. I'd lose what little sanity I had left. "
"Same here. Not that I think I'm that stable to begin with." She had her good days! "... But maybe he did. Or maybe he slipped. Then again, I can't really imagine the mental strength it would take to deal with that." Eve had paused, her attention focused squarely on Jarrod, unblinking. Waiting. She had the feeling he was going somewhere with this - or hoped he was.
"The Daemon Lords discovered tha' Argus was still alive, an' if they could free him, they could get him to join their side. Some things are not meant to be tampered with, and the Abyss is one o' them. The Daemon Lords were arrogant enough to assume tha' their evil magics could force open a hole big enough to snare Steele. The Abyss imploded, an' fer just an instant, Reality blinked. Tha' glass shattered."
Eve X flopped onto her back. "Why is it that all of a sudden, *everyone* seems to say that now? You guys don't have *any* idea how much that creeps me out, save for Eve."
"Yeah. I've heard that part before. Well, most of it." Eve rolled her shoulders in a slow shrug, trying to shake a little of the tension there. "Well 'X, I don't think they have the slightest idea exactly *what* I've Seen behind the glass for years - though she's been oddly absently, lately. Instead, it was nothing or ... ah ... Lilith." Okay ... she wasn't sure she liked where this was going. Bad enough that they had to locate Steele, worse that Daemons were on the hunt too ... but if they could turn him to their side? Problem. Serious freakin' problem.
"Durin' that *blink* Steele fell out o' the Abyss, through the hole, only his mind was nearly gone from his time there. He instinctively inserted himself back into any random Reality - Yers."
Eve X muttered, "Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuun! ... Sorry."
"Mmm. Yeah, I heard he was pretty good at that adapting thing, and I have to say that I wouldn't have known a difference until ... well ... the real weirdness with Reality Blinks and Glitches and Shifts started." She wasn't pacing anymore, but she'd taken to kicking a little at the grass. "Not exactly to rush you, Jarrod, but...are you going somewhere with this?" Her tone was curious and serious at once, and she was watching him carefully. While Eve had nothing against rehashing things on occasion, if nothing else to get it through *her* often-thick skull, she had the feeling they didn't really have *time* for that now, or that Eve X could be filled in while they were on the move or something. It was just a push at the back of her mind to move, make a plan, do *something.*
"It was because o' him tha' we were stripped o' our abilities, but they never took his. Small oversight; I guess they figured he was trapped forever, an' tha' would be secure enough to keep the order intact. Problem was he was a Walker without *knowin'* he was one, and it started affect yer Reality. Causin' ye to *Glitch* in an' out o' Reality, an' affectin' alternate Realities o' yerself as well. He started gettin' himself back together, an' yer Reality was tryin' to fix itself as well. Problem is that it's not fixed yet. An' it won't be unless ... Argus is killed."
Eve X was waiting on that part. She pushed herself up, knowing that was not going to sit well with Eve. Holding up her hand she'd try and stop Eve before she got started. "Just give him a chance to finish first, okay?"
She'd had the feeling it was coming - after all, poor Amber had caused Reality Glitches too, and look where *she* was now - but it didn't mean she had to like it. At all. Eve wore that blank expression, and it didn't even flicker as she glanced at Eve X, then looked back to Jarrod. "Then I suppose he'd better start talking, fast, before I say 'over my dead body' and *mean* it."
"He won't *die* lass, just reboot himself, but we need to do it before th' Daemon Lords find him an' do it first."
Eve X sighed loudly. "He's not mentioning that it's going to have to be one of us that does it. "
"'Reboot himself?' You make it sound like he's a computer program instead of a human being - one that you claim is like a brother to you, I might add." Okay, maybe it was petty, but Eve was on the defensive side now, for good or ill. "Besides, how do you *know* he won't die? I mean ... what? One of us is supposed to just trot up and pretty much *off* him somehow? That''s just ... You can't ..." She gave up on trying to verbalize that, instead breaking off with a shake of her head and falling back a step. Yep, there went that spinning feeling again..
"Because that's how Argus always adjusted Reality, lass. One big ol' reboot. As fer him not dyin', the bugger has lives infinity. Everytime we thought he was dead, he'd pop up. An' lastly? He told me to."
Eve X was already on her feet, grabbing her counterpart just in case. "It makes sense in a weird sort of way. Didn't Evan die? And he's back. Just *saying* that it does not always have to make sense, you know. Like us, and our thing with mirrors. How many looks did you get with that one? Your boyfriend can adapt, right? If he was guarding Rhy'Din all that time, what's to say he didn't adapt to it? Or it to him? That's why the uber-bads want him right?"
Jarrod was actually stunned. Someone had finally figured it out.
Eve shook Eve X off with a glare, and tucked her hands into her back pockets. She understood why the other woman grabbed her, but it wasn't as if she were bolting or throwing herself at Rico. Right now, she was more than a bit ticked and unsure; there were too many 'what-ifs' floating through her head. "Yeah, Evan came back - when Reality was reset with *Amber's* death. Funny, but I haven't seen her around anywhere." Yeah, so that part made her a little uneasy; no one lived forever, and there would eventually come a situation that was inescapable. The idea that this one could be it wasn't sitting well with her. "And he's not my boyfriend. I don't ... I don't know what he is to me." But that was for her to try and sort out at another time - provided there was one. "So how exactly is it that we're supposed to do this? Just ... track him down and put a bullet or blade in him?" Or would it be even harder? She liked to think she was getting a little gutsier since getting involved in all of this, but she still wasn't sure about doing that - especially to someone she knew and cared about.
"Hey, don't be gettin' all pissy at me because you don't like the answer to your question. Or the - " Pointing up to the title of the session. " - Final Solution! And *this* is why we avoided you to begin with. "
Jarrod calmly looked back and forth at the two girls, before taking a bite from his apple. "That's easy enough, Eve. The Daemon Lords had to believe I was dead." The voice came from behind the two girls, and it was - wait for it.
Amber!
She stared at Eve X for a moment, and had to bite her tongue to keep from opening her mouth and popping off the first thing that came to mind. Count to five. Then: "I'm not stupid, X. I had the feeling that was what was being whispered about and kept from me all along, but what I don't like is that I wasn't given an answer the *first* time I asked." Simply put? It made her feel like the people around her thought she couldn't take it, and it irked her. A lot.
She'd finally dropped down to sit in the grass, legs folded, hands tucked in the hollow between, features set with a frown. "Amber. What took so long?" Dryly. "Sorry if I don't jump up and down with excitement - because I am glad to see you - but I need to be still for a minute." It was either force herself to sit down, or run herself in circles, and she figured she'd done enough pacing for the moment. She'd trampled circles into the grass. Okay, so Amber's appearance took a little bit of the edge off. If it worked like Jarrod claimed, the he wouldn't die - just 'reboot.' But first ... they'd have to find him.
"To be honest, your Reality, your Realm, before Steele Tainted it, was unique. Things like this only existed in movies, and books. Granted you had a random UFO sighting, but nothing concrete. Imagine my *shock* when I came back ... I was rebooted as a *human girl!* If we reboot Steele, he should be alright and so should your Realm. You adjusted rather quickly yourself to whatever happened around you, and *to* you. It sucks, I know. You read the script, but it keeps changing on you. I don't agree with how things are done, but it's not a perfect world. But I *do* agree with you. We reboot Theo - " She smiled. "- *without* killing him. That's out of the question. We find him first, and somehow make him remember who he was, and what he was. Hopefully, he will handle the rest."
"It's a bit more agreeable when put like that." Eve dropped her head back and slumped her shoulders briefly before straightening. The idea hadn't sat right with her before, whether because the word 'kill' was involved or not, she couldn't really say. A little selfishly, she hoped he *would* remember enough to recall what had gone on very recently, but more, she hoped to find him well and as yet, untouched by the Daemons; she wasn't even sure *what* she'd say if he *did* remember, anyway. "So are we *all* going on the hunt for him?" She was trying to think of the locations to look for. Steele's place. Coffee Shop. Was there anything like a PSD headquarters there? Longshot, maybe. She still found the idea weird that those places might even exist in this convoluted kind of Realm, but who was she to pick at Reality?
"I knew Argus Steele. You knew Theo/Tohmaz. You get first pick of where the three of us will look. Amber has to stay here until we need her, okay?" And that's when Jarrod clutched at his chest, falling to his knees, his body covered in sweat.
Amber was right by his side. "Jarrod? What happened?"
Eve X knew. She gave Eve a look. "One of his other selves just died."
Eve froze for a second, wide-eyed, staring at Jarrod as he fell, before skittering back up to her feet. She hadn't been sure what was going on, until ... "Other selves." Her eyes widened even more then. "... Jara?" Oh, but she really hoped not.
