Sacred Grounds

The air was thick, a dense mist covered the ground. Ancient inscriptions marked up the land all around. Des and Rei had finally reached their destination. After a few trains and a ridiculous hike up a mountain, they have reached the Sacred Grounds. What was odd is that Des nor Rei tried to communicate with each other all the way here. As they stood atop the mountain, Des turned around towards Rei and smiled at her. He reached into his pocket and drew out a coin. He flipped it in the air letting it land on the ground.

"Heads or tails? Heads i'll explain the note back in MerryVale. Tails, you tell me your interpretation of the note."

Des smiled and rubbed his gunshot wound then his stab wound. MerryVale wasn't the merriest of places for him. He took off his military jacket to reveal his gun holsters. One was empty, he remembers tossing it at Dwyrin.

"We will meet again, and i WILL get back my gun."

Des snapped out of his mind and focused back on Rei waiting for her to call the coin flip. He knelt down and looked up at her bouncing on his quadriceps.

[ "Bouncing on his quadriceps"? xD;; ]

Rei crossed her arms and watched the coin smugly. She was amused that the first thing he had said to her in many hours was to offer her a game of chance. She walked some distance from him and looked out at the view she gained from the mountaintop. She breathed in the clean air, then sighed.

"It hardly matters what I call since you just explained what each side means," she said without looking at him. "Besides, I can't make heads or tails of the note. It's written in some language I don't know, and I know a couple." She pulled the note out and tossed it to him. It had been crumpled in a ball at some point during their trip, so it landed in the grass and rolled to him.

Des picked up the piece of paper and stood up. He unwrinkled it and began to scan it over. It was obvious he writ it half-cocked and in an unfamiliar language to most. Des slapped himself on the forehead and smiled.

"Sorry Rei. I wrote this in Military Code. Allow me to read it to you."

Des stood tall and puffed out his chest. He cleared his throat a few times before holding the paper in front of his face.

"Yo Rei, I just wanted to let you know I never wanted to hurt you. Those things i've done were against my will. Please forgive me. On another note, I feel since we've been spending so much; I mean since you've accompanied me on a few missions we've bonded closely. So will you uhm.."

Des cleared his throat again and turned away. His face was turning red and he wasn't sure he could finish the note.

Rei walked over to a somewhat large boulder and leaned against it, arms folded and legs crossed at the ankles. She watched Des, her face void of expression. When Des stopped himself, she raised an eyebrow, noting the touch of pink that reached his cheeks. "He's capable of being embarrassed?"

"'Will I' what?" she asked, sarcasm slipping into her words. "Join the military so we can go on more crazy adventures together?"

Des' face grew more red and he turned completely around not even looking at Rei.

"This isn't easy ya know?"

Des lifted the piece of paper hands twitching every now and then.

Rei climbed on top of the boulder, hugging her right leg while the left leg dangled somewhat. "Oh, no, following a man who tried to kill me multiple times from one side of the country to the other and then climbing a mountain while not knowing what he wanted was clearly quite easy," she said, rolling her eyes as she did so.

Des turned around and walked up to Rei and stared at her blankly. He dropped the paper and placed his hand on her leg. He smiled and winked.

"Rei, I have feelings for you, that's what it is."

Des took his hand off and turned around to hide his red face.

In one fluid movement, Rei kicked out her right leg, her foot connecting with Des' forearm and knocking it away from her, and drew the dagger from the top of her boot. The changed position so she was in a semi-crouched position with the point of her weapon pointed at his neck. Her cold red eyes drilled into him, hunting.

"'Feelings'?" she repeated, disbelief and amusement mingling in her voice. "You expect me to believe that you have feelings for anything other than death, destruction, and weapons?"

"Finally!" she blurted louder than she had meant to. It had seemed like it had taken them forever to get here. She dropped ungracefully onto a fallen log and looked up at Zane. "I hope this ridiculous trek was worth it."

By worth it, she meant financially. By the time they had followed Rei and Des to the train station, the two were gone and it would be a while before another train, going to the same place came by. So, they had been forced to take a car - which was more money than she wished to spend. Then, of course, the car driver had stopped and said that was as far as he was going to take them. So a few hours walk after they got out of the car - here they were, at the base of the mountain.

By now Des and Rei's trail was lost and they had to go on guesses. She pointed up through the few trees that shielded them from the wind. "I bet they went that way."

Zane watched with amusement how Dwyrin handled everything. He didn't really mind using money except, he had rather use it for something else. But they had no choice at the matter - they had to follow the two, after all.

Zane nodded at Dwyrin. "It has to be," he said. Hate wasting unnecessary energy. He looked at where she pointed. "Sure, fine. Lead the way. Just make sure it is the right way, yeah?"

Des looked at her without making a move. HE figured this would be her reaction. I mean he never gave off human emotions. Des drilled into her eyes with his hoping she would see the sliver of truth he was telling.

"I'm not lying Rei, it's true..."

Des just stood there after that to see what she would do.

Kotaro treked through the trail, wishing he knew where he was going. I just had to go with my gut instinct. I had to wander into this trail. Kotaro shook his head. Wish I had a map. Kotaro continued on the trail, cursing his instincts.

Rei glared at Des. She noticed the tip of her dagger was shaking slightly; she pulled it away, though she was still ready to use it. She half-crawled to the other side of the rock and watched him. She wanted to shout and shove him off the cliff, but at the same time she wanted to - what in the world? - hug him. She frowned.

"You've nearly killed me on several occasions, you fight for the military, you stand for practically everything I hate," she said quietly. "And you expect me to reciprocate those feelings?"

He looked at her and frowned.

"These feelings are real. I know I stand for everything you hate but I could change?"

Des crossed his arms and looked the other way trying to hold back what could be tears.

Rei watched Des warily. She half-expected him to spin around and shoot her. "That'd be a change impossible for someone who was bred for this kind of stuff," Rei said, almost laughing. The thought of Des changing was both exciting and ridiculous.

Des spun back around with his gun pointed out. He looked at Rei and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"Is THIS how you see me? Is this who i'm ALWAYS destined to be?"

Des roared the words the arm holding the gun outright starting to shake wearily before dropping. Des slumped his head and stomped the gorund causing it to indent a little.

Rei stared in shock. "Is he... crying?" Keeping her dagger ready, she slid down the rock. She sat down, back to the stone and to Des on the other side, and stared out at the landscape.

"Are you destined to be the same or can you change?"

"What is DESTINY exactly? Those who have the power can change it. Those who are weak and bound to a predetermined course. Changing is a possibility. For the record, i'm not crying, I got something in both my eyes."

Des wiped his eyes again with his sleeve and dropped the gun on the ground.

"You imagine yourself to have power," Rei laughed. "Do you really have power or do you just bully your way through life? Power and physical strength aren't the same thing."

Des clenched his fists and smiled.

"I have power. Power greater than most can believe. I can show you power. I make people tremble at the very sound of my name. I demolish armies with my bare hands. I have power, whether I use it to change or to kill..."

Des unclenched his fists to see his fingernails had pierced his skin and was bleeding slightly.

"That's what I call bullying," Rei said firmly. She gripped the hilt of her dagger tighter. "You scare people is what you do. Power is making people want to obey you, want to help you, want to change." She nearly choked on the last word.

Des grinned at brushed his hands through his hair. The very thought of being a bully didn't bruise his ego.

"Bullying? The very thought makes me grin with ease. Well Rei, i've divulged my feelings and then we twisted off into the debate on bullying and power. What is the next step? Will you stab me with that dagger or will you let down that guard and show me your heart?"

The very sound of sympathetic and caring words from Des' mouth almost made him cringe.

She had been wrong. They hadn't gone the way she thought they had. Zane trailed behind her slightly and she wondered why, exactly, she had taken the lead in the first place. I should have just told him I had no sense of direction.

She followed this trail as closely as she could, and found herself out in the open all of a sudden. Looking up the mountain she though she saw something moving on a ledge above, and when she looked more closely, it looked human. It must have been them - one of them anyway. She stood staring for a moment not paying heed to the fact that if she could see it, surely it could see her.

[ Skipping Mikel for now because of waiting-ness. ]

"'Show me your heart'? What kind of line is that?" Rei thought, watching straight ahead. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement. She ignored Des and half-crawled away from him toward what could be considered the edge of the mountaintop. "A person. Two people? Either way, it looks like they see us."

She was out of sight of Des, so hand motions would hardly help here. She rose to her feet, half-standing and half-crouching, and began to make her way back toward Des. A loose rock beneath her foot caused her to fall. She landed hard on her left side - did something just snap? - and began to slide down the steep incline of the mountain. She did not travel far before stopping, but it was enough to make climbing back up difficult. "And it looks like they saw me."

Des snapped around and noticed Rei sliding down before stopping. He looked at her and frowned.

"This looks to be quite the predicament. Can you climb back up alone? Allow me to help?"

Des noticed the two below them but he only cared for helping Rei at the moment. Des stomped his foot into the ground and lowered his hand towards Rei.

"Grab on and hold tight. This'll be real quick. Do it now."