Return of the Emblem Chapter Thirteen: Flight

[-Cynthia-]

[spoiler=A Meeting in the Clouds']

Empress Bethel is receiving visions from Mercy now? How intriguing, Isolde thought to herself, still pondering the situation.

<"If Joanna must be freed...then I volunteer to go. I know that I am not the most powerful member of Cloud Legion, but...I'll find a way somehow. I can't just sit back while everyone is in danger,"> Liam said, clenching his fist, not sure exactly who he was trying to convince.

[Phoenix]

HQ

"There's ... one more thing," Glen spoke up, not sure whether or not to bring this up now. "A woman that was at Weyland's earlier knows about what we're doing here and wants you to meet her inside the cathedral before you leave. I'm not sure what she wants, though."

"If she's a friend of Weyland's then she probably doesn't mean any harm ... and our extraction plan isn't exactly foolproof," Amon admitted. "We'll see what the situation's like once we have Joanna."

"And the emblem," Malik reminded Amon. He received a knowing, annoyed glance for it.

"Alright," Glen nodded, his job done. "I'll mind the wagon."

[spoiler=Meeting in the Clouds]<"Careful, Liam,"> Noah urged, <"That kind of thinking is why Joanna's a dark avian now.">

<"The Goddess wills that someone go, and so such an attitude is warranted here,"> Bethel noted.

<"Your training is not yet complete, Liam, however ... I'm beginning to think that this particular detail isn't going to matter a great deal. If the Goddess has plans for Joanna going forward, you'll likely be included in those plans, should you accompany her,"> Antares explained.

<"There is another reason to send him, as well. Joanna is no longer an ordinary citizen ... she is no longer in conflict with the Goddess' will that she remain here in Aria, removed from the conflicts of the outside world. This means that it is time for her to be bound to us once more,"> Bethel explained to the gathering.

<"Whoa, wait ..."> Griffin interjected, <"you're turning her back into an avian? Just like that? How often has this happened?">

<"It is extraordinarily rare for those with the conviction to leave Aria to change so radically and opt to return. Too often, one's inborn instinct to aid those around them traps them in the human world forever. None of us knew this would happen, Griffin ... she decided to leave before the Goddess had seen fit to task her with doing so. She will learn patience in these matters soon enough, but for the moment, she won't be denied the connection the rest of us share. That is why Liam will not only be taking her away from that place, but also reestablishing her connection to the Goddess.">

<"So it's decided, then,"> Antares half asked, half stated.

[scorri]

Smiling gently at Tia, Hoshi picked up the back holding her tomes and sighed. "I suppose that it is time I uhm went to see where I might be most useful. Tia... I, uhm, hope that you find new meaning in your life. But for now... Best you stay here, safe." Exiting the wagon, she went and stood by Amon. "I, uhm... However you want me to help, I will do whatever you wish."

Lumi meanwhile grinned, turning to Pete. "Hear that? Looks like it's time to move out soon! You all ready?" She pulled out her ice tonfa and shaped it into a simple shell around her arm as a shield. "There we go. Lets do this."

[Ether]

It seemed things were about to get under way, then. Shifting her position slightly, Angelica gave herself as clear a view of the cathedral itself as she could without leaving the wagon, hand running across a rifle by her side... if things went to shit she'd get involved, the adept supposed, but for now...

"I'll help with holding down the fort... wagon, whatever." Angelica noted, as she continued flipping through her tome.

[Toogee]

"If we all tried to go in, maybe. But if it's just Amon and a few of his friends sneaking in, I doubt it'll be difficult to get past that mess. No one even stopped to look at a wyvern landing! I don't think a few more in the crowd will tip anything off, even if they start bumping into folks." Eva stretched herself in front of Sasha when they got back to him, the wyvern having been a bit curious about what all the shouting was about. Not enough to stomp over, but enough to keep his head raised and stare.

The rider hopped back onto Sasha, and lowered a hand to help Jam up. "Ready for round two? You seemed pretty pleased about flying the first time."

"It was amazing!" Jam exclaimed as she eagerly took Eva's hand. "Now I know what it's like being a bird."

The dancer seated herself behind Eva once more, ready to deliver the news to Amon and the others.

[-Cynthia-]

[spoiler=A Meeting in the Clouds']

An interesting solution- I would have sent a more seasoned Cloud Legion member, but perhaps this one will serve well enough, Isolde decided, wondering what Mercy's plan was in all this. Speaking through those who were not the Archbishop was unorthodox.

<"I'm not going to help the humans- I'm going because Joanna needs help and everyone here may be in danger if the emblem piece is not returned to her,"> Liam clarified. <"If Empress Bethel believes that it is the will of the Goddess that I go, then I will go. I will protect Joanna and the emblem piece from any who threaten them by any means necessary,"> he swore with a solemn nod.

[Phoenix]

HQ

"It's not exactly hard to be ready when you're just the caretaker of the getaway wyvern," Haythem said to Lumi with a weak smile. He really wouldn't have much to do with any of this until the conclusion ... assuming all went well. If things didn't turn out the way they planned, well he might just have to fly to the rendezvous point without Joanna and group up with the others there, waiting who knows how long to learn of what happened.

Amon frowned when Angelica opted to stay behind, not because he thought they'd need every able fighter they could get, but because the prospect of the wagon even coming under attack was a grim one. Glen couldn't fight, Greta might only be able to take down one person with her pistol, and Angelica would be left with the rest. Fortunately, the wagon wouldn't be attacked unless some enemy somewhere knew exactly what they were planning and aimed to punish them for it. For now, though, they could afford to take as many fighters as they needed to make sure this rescue/retrieval worked. "Alright," Amon nodded to her.

To the others getting ready, he said, "Just a couple of reminders: No matter what happens, no civilian shields, and no offensive action unless the guards purposely block us off."

[spoiler=Meeting in the Clouds]<"I'm not certain what the Goddess' intentions are exactly,"> Bethel warned them all, <"You should be ready for any eventuality, Liam, even the protection of ... otherwise, hostile, humans. For now, I need to prepare you for the joining ritual. You will be the only one who can reestablish Joanna's connection to us and the Goddess, so you must learn it, and quickly.">

<"Ah yes, the ritual ... returning Joanna to the fold will have more benefits than simply making her a suitable vessel for the Goddess,"> Antares began, <"In battle, you two will be able to lend each other your eyes and ears as you've done with Noah, myself, and the other warriors. Use it well, because I fear there is much battle in the coming days ... and not just because you'll be in the human world.">

<"I guess I'll take him there once you finish with your spirit shenanigans,"> Griffin offered. <"It's faster than anything you people can come up with, at least.">

<"No, I will,"> Lilith amended him, prompting a confused/insulted look. <"Griffin, it's been long enough. You need to make another round or two. I'm not even half as fast as you are but he'll get there. Besides ... I have a feeling you would take it upon yourself to ask and ... bungle our attempt to get Nyx on our side.">

<"My mistress isn't really interested in seeing either of you, really ... just a fair warning,"> Ryder noted. <"Anyway, I have other messages to deliver, most a long ways from here, so ..."> Ryder quickly climbed into Phoebe's saddle, <"I'll be going now. Farewell ... all of you.">

<"And you as well, Messenger of Night,"> Antares nodded.

[-Cynthia-]

[spoiler=A Meeting in the Clouds']

<"I will learn any ritual that is required Empress,"> Liam said with a nod. How he was going to get to Ursium still seemed undecided at the moment, but it was out of his hands regardless. A vasilus taking me back to Ursium, seeing Joanna again...this is all happening so quickly.

<"If Nyx does not even want to see you, then it seems like visiting her would be a waste of time,"> Isolde noted to Lilith.

[Nanami Touko]

"That's great! Maybe you can have a little side career flying wyverns once you've got your dancing mastered." It was always nice to meet someone else who enjoyed flying. Eva grabbed the reins and patted Sasha on the head once again. The wyvern made a small roar and brought himself swiftly back into the air. Eva was really beginning to appreciate seeing Nyx, even for something so mundane.

----------

"Wait, what about...?" But Hoshi had already left the wagon. Tia would've followed, if not for the fact that she had no way of defending herself. "She didn't suggest anything..." Maybe I have to find something on my own. But how do I do that? I was born into liking magic, I never discovered it for myself... It was another problem that was just making Tia's head start to hurt once again.

[spoiler=OoC]Whoops forgot Tia. There we go. Also, having watched Avatar recently, it was really hard for me to not have Eva go 'yip yip' when Sasha took off. So difficult.

Edited July 22, 2014 by I have opinions

[Phoenix]

[spoiler=Meeting in the Clouds]Lilith waited until Ryder had disappeared to reply to Isolde. <"I'm not even certain the avians will be spared from what Wrath is planning. Perhaps that is why she's making a move now instead of waiting. If Mercy is no exception to whatever he's planning, then Nyx has even more at stake here than I do.">

<"Entire legions of loyal subjects that might never wake again,"> Griffin clarified grimly. <"It's not like with Aisha, where they were doomed from the moment the Gate consumed them ... they're all still here, inside of her ... waiting. That's about the only thing I know about it, and the only thing we've got to run with. As for how he might screw her over, well ... just use your imaginations.">

<"All of that aside, I doubt I'll be asking her today,"> Lilith said, glancing at Griffin. <"For now, I just want to keep you from going because I know you'll just want to get it over with one way or the other.">

<"To me, Liam,"> Bethel instructed, standing from her seat and starting for the exit east of where Antares and the trainees had entered. <"It's time to prepare you for your mission. Lilith, I'll have him brought to you in a little while.">

<"... understood.">

[Toogee]

"That's great! Maybe you can have a little side career flying wyverns once you've got your dancing mastered." It was always nice to meet someone else who enjoyed flying. Eva grabbed the reins and patted Sasha on the head once again. The wyvern made a small roar and brought himself swiftly back into the air. Eva was really beginning to appreciate seeing Nyx, even for something so mundane.

"Well, maybe," Jam replied to Eva as they prepared to take off. "Would make getting around a lot easier. Or..."

Jam stayed silent during the flight as her imagination ran wild

[spoiler=Inside Jam's Head]"Introducing Jamilla and her dancing wyvern!"

As the the curtains opened, the audience applauded as Jam appeared, mounted on her own wyvern. She held tightly on the saddle as the creature got up on two legs. Dressed in a bow tie and top hat, the wyvern began tap dancing across the wooden stage. His claws went clip-clap as the audience was stunned with the creature's agility of his hind legs. The performance ended when the wyvern flashed a pair of jazz hands to the crowd. Everyone roared in delight, throwing roses and slabs of meat onto the stage to the waving Jam and wyvern.

Jam only woke from her daze as they approached the camp. She hadn't noticed it before, but the group appeared like a set of toys from her vantage point.

"Heh, they're all so small," Jam remarked. The dancer then attempted to reach out and pinch her fingers around a tiny Alphonse, just to see if she could pick him up.

[-Cynthia-]

[spoiler=A Meeting in the Clouds']

<"But is it wiser to fight a battle we cannot hope to win as opposed to say, reaching some kind of accord? Wrath is not entirely unreasonable- the other gods keep him in check somehow,"> Isolde wondered aloud.

<"As you say, my lady,"> Liam nodded, heading for the east exit. Being instructed by the Empress herself- I'm not sure what I've done to deserve such an honor, but I must do my best.

[Nanami Touko]

"I like being up here. It's calming, weirdly," she said back at Jam, as they started their descent. It was far quieter; perhaps she heard this time.

Upon landing, she quickly vaulted off of Sasha and walked up to Amon. "So! If Norbert's plan was to get everyone fighting amongst themselves to the point of tension explosion, it's working. If you walked in there I don't think anyone would look twice at you, if even once. What do you need me to do now? Need me in your strike team?" She asked, getting straight to the point. They needed to work while this plan was still working.

[scorri]

Lumi frowned at Haythem. "Aww, you and Angel are both staying back? Seems like we have almost as many people guarding the wagon as we do going in. Hmmph. Oh well. More fun for me then I guess." As Eva reported on the situation, Lumi moved forward to listen. "Great. Looks like we should head out then, no?"

Hoshi was standing nearby and felt sick in her stomach. This time, if it came to blows, she wouldn't be facing monsters but humans. Hopefully she'd be able to control her magic enough to just knock people off their feet. Or... hopefully she'd be strong enough to get through battle and live with the deaths on her hands. She sighed and nodded to herself. She could do this. She could.

Edited July 23, 2014 by scorri

[Ether]

Ugh... this was such a bother... going in with numbers like that... they'd be toast if one of the contingents around here got to them. With a shake of the head, Angelica stood up... she wasn't suffering from her earlier strain anymore, atleast not to any noticeable degree... it wasn't optimal to fight again so soon but then, when did anything go optimally?

"Geez, you guys will need some actual field recon to do anything around here... Fizza had to go and step out to who knows where... the wagon should be fine where it's going, I suppose." Angelica noted with a sigh, slinging a long case around her shoulder... most might think it was some sort of instrument, but housed inside was an old rifle with her favourite sight... always useful for getting the layout of a skirmish down, and well... in a pinch, it shot bullets. Stepping out of the wagon into the rain, the adept cursed the weather for a moment... these kind of conditions would make marking targets a pain... let alone executing them.

'Hopefully me and Athrun will pass eachother by, in all this... no way in hell he's not here...'

[Eail]

Alphonse sighed at the sudden switch of Angelica's plans "The wagon can't be left undefended by something that actually knows how to fight... I really don't want to, but I'll do it if everyone else is determined to go."

Looking at their blonde haired 'leader' he continued "Do me a favor and keep Jamilla safe will you Amon? Not a chance she'll want to stay behind with me so I'm entrusting her to you." The Rexian should know how serious that statement was, and how much faith Alphonse was putting into him.

[Phoenix]

HQ

The news was good ... for the most part, but they should still hurry, Amon decided. "You'll be in the strike team, yeah. We're going to need all the help we can get and I've seen you in action."

Amon then noticed that Angelica had decided to join them in the fight ... that or at least do something at a safe distance. Given that there was no use for musical instruments on the battlefield (outside of a play or something), he figured she probably had an extra weapon or something of that nature tucked away inside of it. "Alright, once everyone's ready, we're heading in. Glen, you should get this wagon moving and head to the rendezvous point. Haythem, you need to get to the southern side of the plaza and wait there. If all goes well, we'll be coming out from there."

"Alright ... see you all soon," Haythem bid them farewell as he hopped up on Isis.

"Malik, you've got the emblem. Are you sure you can handle this all on your own?"

<"Of course I can, and unlike you, I'm not going to change my mind at the last second,"> Malik irritably replied. To his surprise, Amon immediately handed him the trinket Aisha had given him.

"Then you're going to need this," he nodded to him, not even caring about the mild contention between them at the moment.

[spoiler=Meeting in the Clouds]<"The government is falling apart and he's had to wait an entire cycle just to fulfill his original plan,"> Lilith explained.

<"That's your fault,"> Griffin noted.

<"I'd say he's run out of patience if he's using an avatar other than the archbishop ..."> Lilith continued, ignoring Griffin.

<"The problem Lord Wrath must have with these cycles is that they've outlived their usefulness ... outlived their entire purpose, even. As a being striving for a just existence, I doubt he'll abide this much pointless slaughter. Mankind is not of one mind and is thus completely unfit to determine its own fate. Even if he fails to put an end to all of this, the world will still likely be brought back under control. There is a lot of destruction coming one way or the other,"> Antares commented.

<"And that's why we need your help,"> Griffin said to Isolde, looking quite serious. <"If nothing else, we can keep each other from being killed off one by one.">

[scorri]

Grinning, Lumi grabbed Pete's arm and started to pull him forward. "Alright! Time to go. They'll never know what hit 'em, right Pete?"

Hoshi moved forward at a slower pace, a hand on the tomes in her pack. She'd brought along two strong offensive tomes and hoped that they would be enough to see all of this through.

[Nanami Touko]

That brought a smile to Eva's face. "Glad to be of use. I'll get my wyvern to head along with the other one so he doesn't get in the way." She turned to address this, and finally got a good look of this Isis. She was almost a dragon, if she even was a wyvern. It was rather disarming, for about a moment. Shaking her head, she jogged on over to Sasha, and gave his head another pat. "<Listen, Sasha. You need to go with that other wyvern. I can't exactly ride you into the cathedral if we're trying to be a little bit covert. I'll come back with the rest of them when we're done and get you, okay?>" Sasha whined, but nodded, understanding. He then trotted along to where Isis was, and got ready to take off alongside her.

With a bit of a sigh, she turned back to Amon and his growing infiltration group. "Whenever you're ready, Noatak Amon."

[-Cynthia-]

"If I get put in jail, don't be shy about usin' my gold to bail me out," Nadya reminded Haythem. Though we'll probably be killed for marchin' into the Order of Wrath and tryin' to free their prisoners and take their artifacts. Why can't we ever piss off the Order of Mercy instead?

[spoiler=A Meeting in the Clouds]

<"Mercy has forsaken the archbishop as well apparently- once must wonder if Nature and Truth are to follow. The gods are not as unified as they once were,"> Isolde remarked before returning to the matter of her involvement.

<"So have you gathered any other allies or is it just you two and baby Sol?"> she asked Lilith and Griffin pointedly.

[Ether]

As she looked over the ragtag group that had assembled, Angelica tried to recall what each of the fighters present was capable of. Going over each of the faces in her mind, the adept eventually made her way over to Hoshi... as she recalled, of the casters present, the alchemist was the one with the highest output and radius of effect.

"Hey, Hoshi, you got a second? I have a favour to ask."

[scorri]

Blinking, Hoshi turned to Angel. Blushing slightly at the memories of the last times they had interacted, she mumbled, "Uhm, ah, yes, I have time. What... what did you want? Is there something wrong with the knives I made you?"

[Ether]

"No, nothing like that. To be perfectly honest I haven't a chance before now to really give them any field testing, so we'll find out later about those..." Angelica replied with a shake of the head. This girl seemed to have a pretty big self persecution complex going on... she'd have to try and do something about that at some point... might be kinda cute if she let herself get dolled up a little.

"Actually what I wanted to ask is that, if things start getting really rowdy in there, I want you to fire out a pretty big burst of magic... I'll signal you when it's time. You've got a pretty strong aura, so if you shoot off something with a decent area of effect, it should mute out most other spells being cast... their mages won't be able to track anything unless it was giving off a good deal of magic units." Angelica continued, as she pulled out a rather mean looking rifle round, displaying it to the alchemist.

"If I can get to a good vantage point without getting noticed and pinned down, they'll have a hell of a time dealing with this thing." The adept concluded, pointing her thumb to the leather case slung across her back.

[scorri]

"Uhm... I could do that. I have a tome here that has a spell that would work for that. I could hit it with extra power and that would work..." She continued to mumble to herself for a few seconds before nodding. "Yes, uhm, I could do that."

[Ether]

"I knew you'd be up for it... just hopefully we won't end up needing to do this." Angelica replied, as she gave a light twirl of her finger, and began to speak again, though despite the movement of her lips, the sound appeared to originate from an entirely different place, coming as a whisper at the alchemist's ear.

"Now I trust you'll be able to make out a signal like this, right Ho-shi~?"