Sacred Grounds

Des' back arched up and he stopped moving before his back crashed into the ground. His skin was a metallic gray color. His eyes completely black with small triangular shaped pupils. Weird ancient military markings all over his skin. Each breath was visible as if it were below freezing out. Des slammed his fist into the ground and began to rise. He examined his hands and smiled.

In a mono-tone deep voice Des began to speak. "I am almighty. No longer shall the Resistance threaten the Military. No longer shall people live in fear. I am the destroyer and master of war."

His head shifted up towards Zane and Dwyrin hanging by the branch of a tree. Des reached into his ripped military coat and pulled out a gun. He aimed it at the branch and readied his shot.

Zane's eyes widened. Man, I wanted to get some rest or something. But he ended up smirking. Is this what he got from being experimented on? But he knows I'm affiliated with the military yet he's pointing that gun over here - could it be he can't recognize who's who or he just doesn't care? Wouldn't put that past him.

"Rei, run!" he shouted back and looked at his surroundings, not far below was the ocean and hastily thought of something. "Dwy, I'm gonna jump down. Hold on tight," he said and with difficulty, swung their bodies and at the right angle, let go from the branch.

Partridge?? A retort had been ready to spring from her lips when she noticed Des had pointed a gun at them. She immediately thought of the one that still sat heavily in her pocket, but wasn't sure she was a good enough shot to actually hit Des from this angle. While dangling.

The next thing she knew Zane was telling Rei to run, and saying something about jumping down...
Then they were falling. She didn't know what to do, and only had a few seconds to react to what she knew was coming. She sucked in a big breath. I wonder if they know I can't swim.

Rei heard the command to run and nearly followed the order without thinking. Des had a gun trained on Dwyrin and Zane who were - what in the world? - falling. Several thoughts flashed through her mind, the foremost of them being that she would soon be left alone in the mountains with a creature that used to be Des on the loose. That one thought spurred her to action.

Rei grabbed her left hand and forced the fingers to point at Des. When her automail had stopped working altogether, she did not know, but she could not stop to think about it now. She activated the transmutation circle on her hand and fired at Des' feet. "Just to the left. Not too bad. The effect is the same; he'll be out of it enough." In the same moment, she turned to run away.

That is what she told her body to do at any rate. She remained where she was, unwilling to leave just yet for some strange reason. "Some day I'll stop being an idiot."

Des let his gun follow Zane and Dwyrin down without them ever leaving his crosshairs. He felt a shock hit his body and his arm lowered slightly. He managed to turn his head towards Rei who was just standing there with her left hand slowly falling to her side.

"You shot.....me. Just like old times...."

Des managed to force a grin from his monsterous face. He was able to slowly turn his hand towards him and point the gun at his heart. A single tear rolled down his cheek but was frozen from his breath. The droplet fell off his cheek and hit the ground shattering into microscopic pieces.

"What have I become?"

Des looked at his skin being able to move more freely than before. He held the gun to his face and looked at his eyes in the chrome. Black with triangles. Odd. He placed the gun back at his heart and closed his eyes.

BANG!

A bullet flew in and out the back of Des accompanied by a mixture of green and purple fluid, possibly blood. He smiled and dropped to one knee. Smoke excreted from his bullet wound and he began to pant heavily. The marking started to fade slowly but he wasn't out of the woods yet. He placed the gun back to his heart and shot twice more. Each bullet exited out the back and more blood spattered on the ground. Des slumped over on the ground and lifted his head to see Rei standing there. His skin returned to normal and his eyes began to revert back to Hazel before he shut them falling onto his face.

As they fell down, keeping Dwyrin on top so he could hit the water first, he wore carelessly a glove with a transmutation circle drawn on its palm.

As they neared the water he pushed Dwyrin's body up, not so roughly but not quite gently, and slammed his gloved hand's palm on the surface of the water.

A big enough part of the water turned ice, his palm now on ice not water and pushed him with that arm up. Just in time to catch Dwyrin.

"Sorry," he muttered to Dwyrin and put her down, feet on ice. And looked up. But he couldn't see Des and Rei from below but what bothered him was the thought of Rei and Des on their own - with Des unstable and... weird, overall.

When she was upright once more, and her feet were firmly on the ice, she let out the breath she had been holding needlessly. She felt like a ragdoll. She turned to tell Zane just that when she remembered something more important.

"Rei?!" She called up to her friend, trying to figure out what was going on. During the fall she had thought she caught a glimpse of Des pointing the gun at his own chest. "I think Des shot himself," she mumbled to Zane, waiting for an answer from Rei - Or Military Man...

Rei vomited; it was the only thing she could do as what happened played over and over in her mind. She could not look at Des. She had seen men killed before; it had been a sadly common sight growing up. Something about this set her stomach off, though. "Maybe it was the purple and green blood."

It occurred to her that someone had called her name. It sounded like Dwyrin, so she made her way to where she and Zane had fallen. She dropped to her hands and knees and looked over the edge. "Dwyrin?" she called, her voice slightly shaky. She was somewhat surprised to see a decent-sized chunk of white supporting the two on the water below. He's got skills I don't know about, it would seem.

(you can skip me atm)

He looked up to see Rei looking down at them, seemingly okay.
"He shot himself?" he repeated, a bit surprised. Does that mean he regained consciousness or something?

"At any rate, we need to get back up there," he said. Good thing I have the ocean to use.

Sighing, he transmuted the ice again, and it appeared like a staircase headed to where Rei was. Without waiting for Dwyrin, he headed up, wanting to see what happened to his target.

She followed him up the stairs, walking carefully on the slippery ice. There was still the chance of falling in the water and she'd just rather avoid that whole fiasco. At the top of the steps Dwyrin crouched down next to Rei, trying to relax her nerves. After a long moment, she asked, "He shot himself??"

Rei nodded, forcing herself to stare at the ground rather than look at Des. "It was no normal death," she said quietly, then added, "That is, assuming he actually died." She could not help but look over at him as she said that, suddenly very aware that she had no idea if he was dead or if he would leap up and kill them all.

[ Des said to skip him again. Zane's turn. ]

When he finally reached where Rei was, Zane stood by the ledge, trying to look at Des then glanced at Rei. "Are you all right?" he asked.

He thought for a while. I really doubt he is dead; but if he is, then that's too bad.

What should they do?? They couldn't just leave him there, could they?? If he was some wierd military experiment, it would have to be taken care of, and obviously with Zane here they'd find out what happened. But if he was still alive - which she privately thought he was - then maybe they could just leave him there. He'd regenerate. But...

"Something about this bothers me." She stood up and peered down at Des. "That doesn't seem like something he would do. It would be wise, I think, to figure out if he's actually dead."

"I'm fine," Rei said to Zane, getting to her feet, eyes on Des. She was silent a moment. "There's no way that guy's dead. Bullets to the heart wouldn't stop him. But," she paused, trying to think. "I don't want to get close enough to see. He'll probably wake up at that moment and kill you before anyone can react."

Zane nodded. "This is troublesome," he said. "We can't leave him alone but we can't go near him. Cause I won't," he sighed. My job is to watch, that's all.

He turned to Dwyrin. "But I think shooting himself is something he'd do," he said shrugging. It just seemed like the thing he'd do. But he couldn't act on mere speculations. "So what's the plan?"

Letting her mind settle, she thought about their options. The first idea that came to her was what she had been wanting to do ever since she spotted Rei and Des. That ancient site was still up there. But going up to see it brought them back to their problem - leaving Des there or not. Unless she could convince them he would definitely still be there when they got back. Doubt it.

She stepped back and looked up the slope to where she imagined the site to be, then to Rei. "Well, to be honest, I'm on this part of the trip because I'm hanging around with you. You're the one who came with Des." Dwyrin shrugged, glancing at Zane then back at Rei, "What do you want to do??"

Rei tore her eyes off Des and locked onto Dwyrin. "Leave him for now," she said, her voice giving out. She could hardly believe what she was saying. "Yes, I can."

She cleared her throat, trying to get her voice to strengthen. "If he's going to wake up, he'll probably do that soon. Watch him from a distance, perhaps?"

Zane turned to them. "So we're waiting for him till he wakes up or something?"

He sighed. "I've seen enough for this round," he said. "But your call, with what you do. But I do wonder if this sacred ground has anything worth its name."

I'm so bored.

She was suprised. Somewhat pleasantly suprised, actually.

She clapped her hands together. "Now that that's decided, let's go take a peek," she said, excitedly. All they needed was an easy way to get up.

Rei looked around and frowned. There was no solid ground anywhere and the incline was far too steep to just walk up it. "Anybody got rock climbing equipment or the ability to use alch--" She stopped, something clicking in her mind.

She knelt down and used her right hand to place her left on the ground. A moment later, all three were moving to the top of the mountain on pillars of earth. When they reached the top she smiled sheepishly. "My automail broke enough that I can use alchemy to an extent without hurting myself."

Zane smirked. "Very nice, Rei," he said and looked at a building that looked like it was made out of polished stones.

"Well, this should be interesting," he said to himself. I wonder if there's anything valuable here.

He looked at Dwyrin and stopped a laugh from coming out. She looked really excited for it. But that's a good thing.

Dwyrin looked around at the place they had landed. Long stone slabs had been laid into the ground long ago, creating a kind of even floor. There were pillars all along where she supposed the stone had originally stopped that were covered in various symbols. A section of the mountain had been cut into to make one side of a small pavillion.

She walked over to the closest pillar and examined the carved symbols, completely forgetting she wasn't the only one up here.

Rei followed Dwyrin without really thinking about it as she looked about. She had no ideas where to even begin exploring this place. She nearly bumped into Dwyrin when she stopped to examine a pillar. "What do you think we'll find here?" she asked, looking at the pillar over her shoulder.