(GS3) Field: Cardfight Training Area

[Cherry]

Of course Yunos was about to say something, but then Salome yanked him out of reality by his ear. Ahmes bowed to Seifer, and left with the swordsman of darkness. Yugure felt like a rag doll, but her body wouldn't move by her command. She trusted the brunette enough to lead and carry, at least. Not only that, but Darren helped out too, showing her friends were still around to help... like last year... It all felt like it lasted forever... getting picked up, getting led, getting to resting areas. The woman wanted to rewind time as fast as she could, but the temporal state of her mind not only kept marching forward, but did so at an agonizingly slow rate.

Sleep?

How could she?

The queen simply lied there, staring at the ceiling.

[Cipher Izanagi]

Seifer thanked Darren before pulling up a chair to sit between the girls, putting his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. He was tired, but he thought he couldn't sleep for the night it didn't help that.

'Se..er...L..ten...to...e" That voice was still a thing. "Shut up please... I don't need this right now..." the brunette didn't actually realize he spoke out loud, and it would definitely bring attention to either his state of mind, or something else.

[Golden Sage NovaRaizer]

Darren nodded to Seifer in response before looking down at Yukino. It only took a moment of looking down to tell Darren that she was staring at the ceiling, not actually sleeping. He didn't want to leave her by herself, not after what happened to her. Darren took a seat near the bed, turning it at an angle that he could watch both Yukino as well as Rose. He sighed lightly as he thought to himself again.

It's not like I can go home now. Even coming here, I realized there were Reverse Fighters around. Its not worth the risk until I heal a bit more.

The thought of that made him look at his hand, red with dried blood from his outburst before. The bandages that would have been tending to it were with Yukino now. That was for the best. Darren himself couldn't sleep either. How many could with all that happened. He placed his hand on his deckbox, wincing as he did as Daikaiser spoke to him.

Don't even think about it. You have nothing left to change right now. Besides, you need to rest and recover.

Darren could only sigh, not wanting to argue as he muttered to himself, "I haven't been able to do anything for them all this time." He honestly felt like he had to be some kind of failure to try so hard and get nothing out of it. Its wasn't like it was without reason. No normal human should have to deal with things like this. Still, he saw these people as friends and they needed him. What had he done so far in response to that need?

When he realized that Seifer spoke to himself he said, "Let me guess, yours is bothering you as well?" He spoke it as a joke but Daikaiser still wasn't pleased about it.

[Cipher Izanagi]

At Darren's response, Seifer froze before sighing and shrugged. "More like... After I got unreversed, a voice has been pestering me on and off. It's not from the invaders... Not in the slightest... I just... Don't know who it is or why it's trying to talk to me." he sighed again leaning back in the chair, shutting his eyes and trying to relax some. He wasn't lying. He didn't know what the voice was.

[Golden Sage NovaRaizer]

Darren blinked lightly at his response, then looked up and said, "About that... How even did you get unreversed? Rose couldn't have fought it out of you in her state... She was too frantic to actually do that. I dunno, everything is so complicated right now. One minute I'm just trying to enjoy Vanguard with my friends, the next I'm trying to save the world while a lying fake hero tells me what I should be doing, and now I'm here... watching everyone I've met since I got here all in so much pain... Not a good weekend."

[Cipher Izanagi]

"I'd rather not talk about it. No one really needs to know." it was blunt, and probably rude as hell, but Seifer just wasn't into revealing it right now. In any case, Seifer started to drift slowly, yawning and leaning over in the chair slightly. "Doesn't matter... We'll be safe here... I'm going to go to sleep now..." before Darren could even reply to it, he was out like a light.

Rosalia AF+10
Yugure AF+7
Ahmes AF+5
Darren AF+5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Throughout the night though, Seifer would have a rather interesting dream. Something he'd never had before. He was in some kind of... Shrine..? There were dragons everywhere and large braziers that had massive flames coming out of the top of them. All of the dragons in the dream were staring at him, and he recognized some of them: Dragonic Burnout, Conroe, Bellicosity Dragon, and several dragon dancers he recognized like Barbara and Monica. They were doing some kind of... Ritual like dance? As he looked around though, his eyes locked on a decaying statue. He couldn't make out what it was but he had a feeling he knew something about it.

"So you've made your way here. And it seems you can finally fully hear my voice. Interesting..." it was the same voice that had been pestering him for a while now, and that sent a chill up his spine.

"What do you want? Why do you keep bothering me?" his question was straight to the point, and he was afraid that he'd accidentally offended the disembodied voice. And yet... It just laughed.

"I'm not surprised you don't know. Sad to say all I can reveal to you as of now is that I heard the call of your wish and responded. Your soul is both powerful... And yet broken. You lost someone close to you recently. ...My wish is to help you achieve your wishes." it was odd, it almost sounded like a reverse's offer and yet...

"If you truly desire to help me... Who are you?" Silence. It didn't seem he was going to answer. "That's what I tho-"

"As of now, I do not have a name. It will be up to you to decide. And up to you to grow into my power. Prove that my choosing you was worth it. And once you do, all of my power will be yours."

That was the end of the dream, and the rest of the night was spent in darkness. Not that there would be much of a night really for the sleepers.

[Golden Sage NovaRaizer]

That answer wasn't exactly satisfying but it had been a long day. It made sense if he didn't wanna say anything now. Darren crossed his arms as he still wondered who's side Seifer was really on. Well, if he wanted to do anything to hurt someone he would have done it already. Yukino was basically defenseless after all. Darren gave a yawn as he closed his eyes, beginning to fall asleep.

You still need more time to be able to use all of my powers. Give yourself time to heal and we can take back your friends one by one.

Seifer AF+4
Yugure AF+4
Rosalia AF+3

[Cherry]

Yugure awoke, feeling incredibly disorientated. The queen likely dozed off at some point in the night, since there was no work to keep her up. Holding her face in hand, a reminder that yesterday wasn't a dream settled in all too quickly. She couldn't be here right now, but letting this waking nightmare keep her still wasn't an option. Almost mechanically engineering her drive, her body stood up. An announcement to the war floor was made: she's heading home to meet with Father Espoir to create their anti-invasion weaponry.

"You will each be given one. We will not rely on miracles happening by chance, we will create them on our own."

Despite her heartache, she spoke as the leader they needed to hear. Not falling back on luck, rather, humanity's own tenacity was something the woman expressed faith in.

"Be patient with us, for our counterattack will ring true, and the accursed binding forces of the black rings, along with the catastrophic outbreak of Reverse shall end."

With cheering from such a short speech raising the morale of the teams and even Cero's trainees, Yugure departed for home.

[Beryl]

Satoshi had stayed the night, but in the labs. Having entered the previous night, the scientists were, of course, initially quite skeptical of observing him and researching him, but confirming he was in control of his body, they relented. He sat hooked up to a brain wave machine, through which his very essence was being analyzed.

One of the scientists showed him a replica of Luquier Reverse Yugure had attempted to make, but failed. The art was faded and only half-formed, as though the card was incomplete. Satoshi smiled and held the card in his marked hand, the rings glowing strongly. The rest of the card developed itself: first the art, then the text, and finally the name and power at the bottom of the card formed itself in full color and energy.

He chuckled and shook his head. "The black rings are the hardest part. I wouldn't expect someone who wasn't directly involved with them to be able to forge such cards as these, even the Chosen Sword herself. Anything I can do with this, do tell me." He laid back on the table he was being analyzed on and closed his eyes.

"Do me a favor, too. If you see Seifer, tell him I need to know about what happened yesterday. Bring Rosalia as well, if you could."

[RosaliaIzanami]

During the night, Rosalia moved little in her sleep, though her dreams were almost the same as usual. Like always, she saw the world of gray, and the blackened stage with the red ring. What was different now, however, was that the colorless world started to bloom in color. Faded pinks and blues, yellows and greens; the world was lighter, but not necessarily full as it once was before. At least it was progress. As for the stage colored black, and the ring of silver thorns glinting crimson, the spotlights that shown down from above had the same hues as the miscolored world: rays of pink and yellow shining down, green and blue circles on the floor. Where they overlapped, things like purple and orange started to appear. Are these the colors you mentioned?... Sort of... There's lots more... and I promise I'll show you them all...

By morning, or heck, whatever time it was the following day, the redhead finally shifted and rubbed her eyes. In one hand she still held her deck, while the other helped prop herself up in bed. It felt.. strange to wake up anywhere that wasn't her home, but given the situation, even school didn't cross her mind. Actually, it brought up the memory of when Seifer explained the War of Liberation, and how before she never thought that all this.. magic could be real. Well.. I'm sure its real now, given I was a victim of it... Bu-ut I'm not longer a victim. I'll do everything I can to pull through... She paused, looking down at the deck in hand and flipped to the second card, her Luquier Reverse. A small smile crept to her lips, rubbing her thumb over the artwork of both versions of Luquier. I'll find all the colors... but right now, my friends need me... so help me through this, alright? We can discover the colors together...

Rosalia put her deck away and glanced around the room at that point, seeing that others had joined in on the other beds. Seifer and Darren are here... but that bed there looks to be used too. I wonder if it was Yugure or Satoshi... Giggling softly to herself, trying not to wake the others, the redhead moved to sit on the edge of Seifer's bed, stroking his hair lightly like she had done in the park. Quietly, she started to hum again the lullaby from before. May there always be angels to watch over you... To guide you each step of the way... To guard you and keep you safe from all harm... Loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay...

[Golden Sage NovaRaizer]

Darren stretched as he gave a small yawn. His eyes started to open from the break in silence. It was a peaceful way to awaken. He looked around for a moment to gather the origins of the melody before seeing that Rosalia was awake. He couldn't help but give a small smile at the fact that he was singing the one she loved to sleep. "So that's what a good alarm clock sounds like," he said lightly.

[Cipher Izanagi]

Seifer remained asleep, drifting around in a dark space, left alone to his thoughts and thinking hard about the dream, while in a dream. Dream-ception. Anyway, in the middle of it all, he heard a soft humming sound, echoing in the depths of his subconsciousness. What... was that? It sounded familiar and now... Light. His eyes opened up slowly, blurry... The figure of a red head looming over him. But it didn't startle him, rather he just smiled, reaching up and taking the hand that was in his hair. "You actually woke up before me for once... Impressive." he teased, whispering softly in case anyone else was actually asleep.

[RosaliaIzanami]

Rosalia looked up to see Darren had woken up, a bright crimson filling her cheeks at the comment. "A-ah so-orry, I didn't mean to wake you.." she answered, but felt a hand on her's soon after, which quickly calmed her nerves. The female smiled again and shrugged, entwining her fingers with Seifer's. "Well, even if I normally sleep before you, you had a rough day yesterday... But, today is a new day, so let's try to get one step closer to finishing this whole mess..." She got up from the bed and stretched, running her hands through her signature, obnoxiously long red hair, which combed out nicely within seconds for as much hair as there was. "I guess.. what's on our agenda today?... Should we try finding Yugure or.. at least someone who knows what's going on around here? There's a bunch of those scientist guys but..."

[Golden Sage NovaRaizer]

"Don't worry about it, Rose. I needed to wake up anyway."As he stretched his body out, Darren started to stand from the chair. He looked down at his deck and made a decision. He was tired of watching everyone around him hurting and not being able to do anything for it. He needed to get moving. Yukino wasn't around either, so that took away his reason to stay for now. As much as it seemed dangerous for any of them to be moving around alone, Darren knew he could handle himself.

After what's happened already, I'm pretty sure I can deal with things. Besides, there are some things I have to do myself.

He went to the door, looking back at Seifer and Rose. He was glad they were happy and together, even if he still had reason to distrust Seifer after what happened before. I mean, Yukino is gone now, what happened to her? It didn't look good for him, but he also didn't really care if he wouldn't hurt Rosalia. She was the last person here he knew well enough to care that much about. With that, he waved lightly and said, "I'm heading out. Take care of this place for me." With that he left.

[Cipher Izanagi]

"Well... I can simply just... Do this.." he scrolled to Yugure's contact info in his phone after he stood and stretched a bit, standing close to Rosalia.

'Where are you. I kind of have something important to talk to you about. If you'll let me.' he hit send after the text, sending it to Yukino's phone before looking over at the red head, sliding if hand into her's and entwining their fingers. "Not really sure what else is on the agenda past that though." he spoke to Rosalia before waving Darren bye.