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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 9, 2017 16:14:04 GMT
When Anna yelled her hurtful words at Shadow she expected to see nothing but anger reflected back at her. The last thing she expected to see in his eyes was fear.
For a long time she couldn't process the expression that she saw on Shadow's face. Never in all the time that she had known the homonculus had she seen him look frightened. And it was only after staring at him for several moments that she realized the fear was directed at her. Upon realizing this all she could do with stand and stare. This was a mistake.
Suddenly Shadow and Axel were both standing by the fume hood, the cover standing partially open. And even though both of them we're speaking to her she couldn't seem to hear anything but a loud buzzing as Shadow pulled the fume Hood open completely and Axel held of a single flame in his hand.
Suddenly she couldn't seem to catch her breath and it felt as if the walls we're closing in on her, crushing her.
"What are you doing?"
Ana's voice sounded far off even in her own ears as Axel held the flame less than a foot away from everything she had been working on.
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 9, 2017 16:57:31 GMT
"We didn't want to do this, but...we have no choice."
The hood came up with a loud buzzing. Shadow stared at everything in front of him. Axel had a flame ready. The homunculus looked around the room, seemingly pausing. The last time he caused a wreck in the department, people would have gotten hurt. He zipped out quickly, returning with a fire extinguisher and setting it aside.
It was only when he heard it clunk that he knew what had to be done. He fired a chaos spear at the sample of his blood, it glowed yellow before it exploded and ignored.
The flame was small, but before it could grow, he smothered it with the extinguisher,
There was no joy in any of it. Nothing but frustration.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 9, 2017 18:23:39 GMT
Axel felt his hand twitch. That small little voice of hers, hurt and betrayed and quiet. This wasn't right. Not coming from Anna, not someone who he had come to be so happy and perky. Even if she was open to more hurts than she let on. He didn't to be the cause of her hurt. He exhaled slowly, before he could lose the guts to do it, he placed his hand on one of the papers in the fume hood and everything took care of itself from there. The fire slowly started to spread. He removed his hand and the blaze on his skin extinguished.
He was furious. Mad at Anna for doing this. Mad at Shadow for putting him in that position. Mad at himself for doing it. Mad at everyone. But the fire was controlled, contained and spreading. He turned to face Anna, arms outstretched to bar her way in case she tried to save her materials. She would never forgive him. Not after this. That didn't leave him with a good feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't want that, but what choice had he had? She refused to talk to them. She refused to see the repercussions her actions would have even if her intentions were the purest thing he had ever heard. She wanted to help so much that it hurt.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 10, 2017 1:40:23 GMT
Everything seemed to slow down around Anna as she stood frozen to the spot and watched Shadow, not comprehending his words and only seeing the look of pain on his face, watching as he moved a hand forward that started to glow, directing his hand towards the vial that contained his blood while the other held a fire extinguisher. She seemed petrified in that instant, like someone had cast a spell over her that had turned her into marble that could see but couldn't move.
Her paralysis finally broke when the vial of Shadow's blood shattered, his chaos blast briefly setting it on fire before he put it out with the extinguisher. In that instant, she began to wail. The sound was reminiscent of an animal being tortured, a horrible sound that bespoke of nothing but pain and sorrow.
And when Axel followed up Shadow's example, letting the flames from his hand leap into the fume hood and start to consume all her work, the wail became a scream. She ran towards the smoking chamber but was stopped when the Fire Demon stepped in front of her and blocked her path. She threw herself against him and desperately tried to push past him, but he was too strong. No matter how hard she tried to shove, no matter how she pulled or pushed or punched, she couldn't seem to get around his arms. All the while the flames raged, eating away at the work she had sacrificed so much for.
As she watched with huge eyes, she saw her notes curling up into burnt wisps and could hear the sound of the vials cracking as the intense heat shattered them. All the while Shadow and Axel stood by silently and watched.
Soon enough the flames in the chemical hood began to die and the smoke began to disperse. Through the acrid black clouds all that was left of her serum were blackened pieces of broken glass, charred bits of paper and chemicals that were rapidly evaporating in the heat. She stared at this all in complete silent, the screams dying on her lips as she realized everything she had strove for, the hopes she had for making Bellerouge a better place...... they were gone.
Suddenly and without warning, her legs gave out from under her and she slid silently to the floor, her eyes never moving away from the ruins of her experiment. The expression on her face was completely blank in that moment, her voice gone. And yet tears began to course silently down her cheeks as she sat on the floor between the two people who had destroyed her dreams.
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 10, 2017 19:00:37 GMT
The heat from the combined chaos and fire was strong. They went up like brigh orange and yellow tongues, eating the work that could have been a repeat of the Gray Dawn hd Axel not come to Shadow about his concern. The notes were turning into black curls, rolling upward. Glass shattered, and he had to rush back and forth and use the extinguisher as a shield so none of them could get hurt.
The fire died slowly, but just to make dubly sure, he turned ont he exntinguisher. A blanket of chemicals covered the mess in something not unlike snow. Whatever heat in there was died down and smothered.
The only sounds in the room as Shadow turned off the extinguisher was Anna's pained breaths. She wasn't ugly crying, but he knew all too well that they had broken her. He set the extinguisher down, avoiding looking at her. He didn't want ay of this to be true. It cpuldn't be. But this was no manipulation on Disparion's part. Worse of all, he had gone to means he never wanted to go for. He was grateful that this time, the rage wasn't so out of control and people weren't physically hurt.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 11, 2017 2:11:52 GMT
When Anna's knees gave way, he helped ease her to the ground. He hadn't wanted her to hurt herself. Once he was sure she could sit on her own, he let go of her as if her very touch were made of emeralds. She probably wish she had some to burn him with. The research was gone. All of her hard work was gone. She had every right to hate him. He hated this. He was just trying to prevent a Sister Sapien event. However, telling himself it was the 'right thing' to do didn't make him feel any better.
"Damn it," he muttered. "Damn it all."
Shadow put out the blaze. Ashes. That's all that was left. That was the only thing ever left in Axel's wake. He was a creature of flame and destruction. It was stupid of him to think otherwise. This was also what he got for letting anyone get close and getting involved with his patrons. He had his 'no involvement' rule for a reason.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 11, 2017 5:29:44 GMT
Anna didn't see Axel or Shadow in that moment. She didn't see her surroundings or hear the Fire Demon's soft cursing. She didn't even feel it when he lowered her slowly to the ground.
In that instant, all she saw were the burnt out remains of her work smothered in extiguisher foam. All she saw were her destroyed hopes and dreams to protect Bellerouge.
She continued to stare at the mess, the tears falling down her cheeks. She could only sit on the floor and stare.
It was all gone.
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 12, 2017 1:43:43 GMT
Ourside of Axel's frustrated mutter, the room was absolutely silent. All three of them were looking at the remains, buried under the foam. Shadow set the extinguisher down and walked away. Nothing he could say would make it better. Nothing he could do with some kind of comfort for Anna would make it feel better. Being quiet was the best thing for him to do right now.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 12, 2017 2:22:30 GMT
Axel didn't know what to do. He thought they could have talked her down. They almost had her to a good talking down point but then Shadow got all emotional and the Anna got all emotional. Axel wanted to let off some steam - literally. But he couldn't just leave Anna despite the fact that saying something to her, might trigger her rage again. He slowly got to his feet, not looking at either Shadow or Anna. This was what he got for getting close to patrons. This was what he got for leaving the bar and getting involved in personal problems.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 12, 2017 6:26:58 GMT
Anna didn't even glance around when Shadow and Axel walked out of the lab without a word, the doors closing softly behind them. However, when they were gone she finally did make a sound, weeping quietly into her hands as she pressed them against her face. The floor was cold and hard under her but she didn't move from where she sat on the floor.
Eventually she wrapped her arms around herself to try and keep from completely falling apart, the racking sobs making her stomach hurt almost as badly as her heart. However, as her hand went to her right side, she felt something bulging in the pocket of her lab coat. Without even thinking, she reached her hand into the pocket and her fingers ran over a cool glass tube.
Suddenly and jarringly, her sobs came to a halt and her eyes, red and swollen, grew wide. No, it couldn't be. Her mind was just playing tricks on her.
Slowly and hesitantly, she pulled the tube out of her pocket and looked at it. It was a simple glass vial like those that had been destroyed, but instead of being filled with blood, the liquid in this vial was a clear, bluish substance that was almost white. She stared down at this substance in utter amazement, realizing that Axel and Shadow hadn't destroyed all her work. Indeed, resting in her palm was the very serum she had worked so hard to create.
She remembered now. She'd finished this batch that very night and started to run tests on human blood samples. They had all been positive and she had been estatic with joy. She had placed this vial in her lab coat while examining a sample when Shadow and Axel had come in. She'd forgotten all about it in the wake of what was happening....
Slowly, a small flame of hope began to ignite in the young woman's heart, but it was such a small thing. There was no chance for continuing her research, no hope for testing it out appropriately on animals and then willing subjects, no opportunity for her to create other serums. The very framework for her experiment was gone and all that was left was in this tiny vial. And if Shadow and Axel found out....
Suddenly, the emptiness in Anna was replaced by a consuming rage towards the two men she had counted as friends. They would destroy this as they had destroyed her other work if they found out about it. And if her dreams had any chance of surviving, she had to take a risk, a very dangerous one....
With the fire of her anger fueling her, burning away any common sense or need for her own safety, she picked herself shakily up from the floor and went over to a table near the end of the room, away from the remains in the fume hood. Slowly, she opened the top drawer to reveal and collection of medical equipment and a single hypodermic needle.....
In utter silence and with a set expression, Anna cleaned the inner part of her left forearm thoroughly, placed the needle into the tube and pulled up the plunger. Bluish-white liquid flowed into the chamber. Putting the now empty tube down, she stretched out her forearm and found a single vein, bluish under her rosy skin. She placed the tip of the needle just over the vein.
For a second that stretched into an eternity, she paused.
However, before her reasoning could return to her and she put such foolish notions aside, the image of Axel and Shadow burning her life's work came into her mind's eyes. And with the final burst of anger that fueled this image, she pushed the needle into her arm and pressed down on the plunger.
(End Thread)
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