knightsoflegend | CHAPTER FOUR ♔ does it run in your blood to betray the ones you love

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CHAPTER FOUR ♔ does it run in your blood to betray the ones you love

WHO || Failboat, Rafael, Isabella, Nadia [Closed]
WHAT || After an exciting Grammy night, the Knights meet up with Nadia to hear what she has to say
WHERE || Staples Center, LA --> Warehouse
WHEN || Feb 8th, 2015 [back dated]
HOW || Actionspam

[ The Knights' mission to stop the signal and prevent Draken's cult from spreading whatever subliminal message was lurking beneath Keijen Blade's performance was a success. It didn't come without its bumps in the road, however: Alexander Anderson showed up, and the Knights ran afoul of the Mind Master. Buffy nearly died fighting Anderson, but in the end, he was defeated, beheaded, and hopefully put to death forever. Finnick, though, found himself thrust into a mental illusion that convinced him he might still be in the Hunger Games, and left him uncertain about whether any of his life here was real.

Another surprise came in the form of an announcement by Nadia Reichenov, an artist working with Crombe and company, that she was changing her band name and taking things in a 'new direction'. This direction was perhaps revealed when after her performance, she approached the Knights in Rafael's dressing room - and handed them the necklace that connects her to the Nightmare God Malaak'a, saying she was willing to tell them everything. ]

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[Just in case that's not enough, Spike turns around, fangs out, and growls at Rafael (intimidate 36 to help her out.)]

Don't you even bloody think about it.

[And he's going to position himself between Rafael and Nadia just to be safe IF THERE'S GONNA BE FRIENDLY FIRE IT BETTER BE AT HIM. He turns back to Nadia, shaking his fangs away (will 19).]

All right, that makes sense. But next time bloody ask first. With words, I mean. And just do me.

[He's pretty sure he doesn't know anything important that people haven't... blurted out already.]

[ Son of a —

She's not remotely surprised by the way Myri and Spike lash out, and truthfully, she's on their team. Someone mark this date on the calendar because sometimes it feels like a goddamn national holiday when Buffy's knight allegiances win out over her Rafael allegiances.

Anyway, since Nadia responds better to Spike and Myri for obvious reasons, Buffy turns to play bouncer a bit and hold her hands up to pacify Rafael. Except her words are anything but pacifying, but there's really no point to being delicate when Myri looks like someone just woke the dragon. ]

Let's be clear: Jack might have okayed you coming in here, but I have no problem dropping you right back out if you can't keep that thing in your pants. Whatever issue you have with her? We'll get to it. But you didn't bother to tell us a thing about where this is coming from for five months: you can wait your turn.

[ for a moment, he just looks so lost, the gun still held up in place. but their apparent very real threats, convincing as they are, combined with buffy firmly taking that side, seem to break something in his resolve, and he drops his arm looking completely and thoroughly defeated, and at a loss as to what to say. ]

Everyone, please. [ gar's tone is quiet, but insistent. ] Nadia, we'd love to hear anything you're willing to tell us.

[ she just waits for y'all to back the fuck up a second before she speaks ] ... I was born in Romania, daughter of Ivana and Mikail Reichenov. Mine wasn't an easy childhood, least of all because my grandmother lost her mind, and killed herself - and my mother - in the same night. I never understood my heritage, never knew what I was, only that my mother had violent, angry tendencies, and that my father cautioned me that I was going to be like her. That I was bound in time to lose my mind as well, and that it was a part of 'my nature'. I grew up in fear of what I would become, of the devil that lurked inside me.

[As Nadia begins to speak, Myri turns back to her and forces some of the tension to leave her shoulders. Her expression slips to sympathy, knowing that fear. How many times had villagers called her a demon, turned on her because of something they thought they understood about her and the nature she was born into. Perhaps it wasn't entirely the same, but it still tugged at that particular heart string for her.

She doesn't speak, though, as she assumes there's more to the story and doesn't want to derail it with questions. They don't have much in the way of time for that.]

[Spike also stays silent, but his expression softens as she speaks. No one should have to think themselves evil, no matter what they're born as. That's the point of free will, isn't it? Nothing's inevitable.]

[The only thing Rose looks surprised by is Myri's strong response, the shock quickly shifting into something caught between pride and amusement as the tension that had been making her body thrum at the pulling out of weapons, slips away and she, like the others, remains silent as Nadia's story unfolds.]

[ Gar looks really confused by this story as she tries to put this together with what they know of Keijen and Jade and their connection to Nadia and shit, but settles for: ] That's... that's a terrible burden for anyone. How old were you? When...

[ ♬ self deception - lacuna coil ]

Seven.

[ she looks down, black hair falling to frame her face as she avoids their gaze, her tone carefully even. ] I was seven when they died.

I was very aware as I grew of the impulses that came from what I am, but I understood none of them. Each was only proof of what a monster I was, of what fate waited for me. When my horns grew in, my father would cut them off, sometimes violently, reminding me all that time of what they meant.

[ she looks up sharply ] I'm not looking for your pity. But you need to understand what it meant for me when he found me. It was about four years ago that he first came to me - in a club, in Romania.

[ her eyes flash to buffy ] Blade.

He bought me a drink, convinced me to dance with him. [ she shifts in place ] While we were, he told me...

[ it takes her a moment to square herself enough to quote the words, but they're specific enough to have clearly stuck with her ] He said that he knew what dark thoughts lurked in my mind, the urges that drove me, the dark fire he saw in my eyes. [ she drags one hand back through her hair, unconsciously touching one of the horns there, visible for a moment. ] He said... 'I know who you really are, Alys'.

I did not know this name, did not understand how he seemed to know the darkest secrets of my heart. And yet there was something about him that called to every part of me. He knew it would, pressed that to his advantage. Took it as far as he could before he revealed the truth.

That he was my grandfather.

But Jade. You said she was your sister. [ that is the voice of a man when the floor falls out underneath his feet after he does a bunch of mental math that he really wishes he'd never done. the look on his face is basically like he's desperate for answers and doesn't want them ever all at once. ]

[while all of this is going on, Alainn is keeping half an ear on the conversation and the other half alert to the rest of the warehouse. Sure they have people outside, but there wasn't a guarantee that someone or something wasn't already in there with them. She's also checking in with Fede frequently, multitasking like she do. ]

[knowing what they do about Blade and his past with Jade, Myri swallows hard and shakes her head. Not sisters, no. Or at least she's starting to think she knows what's going on here.]

She was your...

[It's somehow hard to say the word, but her hand instinctively moves to her stomach.]

Aunt. [He looks over at Rafael with something akin to pity in his eyes. (Wis 21) This isn't anything anyone should have to learn. This shouldn't be something that's true.] No one ever told you who Jade's father was, did they?

Spike …

[ Buffy's voice has the warning tone of "I don't think that's what she means." And she looks like she might be ready to be sick. Turning to explain to Rafael, she gently begins, ] Jade wasn't the only one that Keijen was … fixated on.

[ The words are sour on her tongue, her stomach curdling as she finds herself forced into the position to explain something that no one should ever have to hear. ]

Something happened that gave him the chance to … to overpower Sehanine. He took it, and forced himself on her. Just like he did to their daughter, to Jade. [ As much as she wants to be cautious of Rafael's reaction in this (more than that, to reassure him as he processes that and leap to assure that Jade had always loved him, regardless of what they'd found in Venice), she turns back to Nadia with pain and sympathy in her eyes—fear that Keijen may have done to his granddaughter what he'd done to his daughter. ] She wasn't just your sister, was she? How many women has he done this to?

[ all the color drains from rafael's face as he stares at buffy, unable to process for a moment. as it all starts to slam home, revulsion takes over his features, morphing into what looks like baffled rage as his eyes that he has absolutely nowhere to direct right now. he exclaims something softly in italian, but seems speechless beyond that, turning to nadia to hear her answer. ]

Spike is right. [ she glances over at him, frowning ] Jade was my aunt, not my sister. It is all one to Keijen. He believes that we belong to him, in any and every way that he desires.

Our connection to Blade is what allows us to receive the power that NOVA needs. He had spread his seed across this world since his arrival many years ago - sometimes brutally, as in the case of my grandmother. Whatever he did to her left her half-mad. I've a feeling he haunted her nightmares for years after their encounter. Until finally...

[Myri's hand falls to her side, a breath leaving her that she didn't realize she was holding. The truth isn't...good, but perhaps slightly less horrifying than what she had imagined. Blade remains a shining beacon of everything that is terrible, though. That hasn't changed. She remains quiet this time, because she's not done well with making assumptions and would rather just hear the whole story instead of throwing in her extra traumatizing guesses.]

[ Buffy doesn't even reach the breath of relief stage because she's too busy being disgusted by the truth. Nothing is okay. So there's a cringe, she closes her eyes to stomach it, but she pushes through because Nadia is trying to share for a reason. ]

Until she killed herself. [ The hollow tone of her voice decries him a monster for that, as if the rest wasn't enough to settle that already. ] What's he want from you? Why try so hard to spread his bloodline and bring you into his creepy, Manson-family fold?

I don't know if he originally did it with the intentions to do what they're doing now. With how hard they've had to search to find some of them, I think the plan was laid after the fact.

But he met Draken Crombe - the one you've known as Chad Becksworth for so long - and his church, through Decker Greenwall, and made them aware of the abilities that he possesses. Blade and almost all of us who are descended from him have some latent psionic power; even those who can't find a way to manifest it otherwise have the potential to receive the dark gift that was offered to us. The ability to hypnotize masses, to implant suggestions into their mind and bury them in a protective shell.

Draken wants a world where all non-human Shadowkind bend to the will of humanity, acknowledging them as our masters. He's certain that his vision will come to pass and has gone to great lengths to secure it. Part of that plan involves 'preparing' the masses for when he gains the power he believes he'll receive from the Talisman, making them pliable to his belief system.

We were each found and given the same offer: in return for maintaining our freedom when that day inevitably comes, we would receive power from a dark god and help him enact his plan.

At least that's the plan as Crombe posed it to us. Blade told us something different. He wanted our help in undermining the Church's goals, said that he was the one who planted the idea for the plan in their minds in the first place, all while playing dumb about it and pretending to be interested in only saving his own skin in the end. Our ancestor was to return from his imprisonment, he said, and when he did, we would all live as gods while humanity bent knee to us.

What he offered each of us was unique, for the Nightmare Lord would grant us each a wish - our heart's desire - in return for accepting his 'gift'. The price for which, as you know by now, was to allow him to the freedom to use us as his eyes and ears, to see what we saw, hear all we heard in this realm. And to be present always in our minds, unable to hear our thoughts, but-- But there, a malevolent force that we could always feel, reminding us of his power.

I was terrified of what I would become on my own, especially with what glimpse Blade had given me of my true nature. The Nightmare Lord offered me the ability to control my powers, to master them. To make certain I would never lose my mind, become a monster, and kill those I loved most.

Is it so surprising that I took it?

[She sees the relief that rolls through Myri and immediately understands it, knowing that somehow this explanation only manages to be half as awful as what she’d started to imagine when Nadia began her story.

The relief is only momentary however, the story taking yet another twist into a world of depravity that she’d not even considered, her hand gripping the silver stake in her hand so tight that her knuckles turn white.

Rose looks at Nadia, face a mask (WS 25) as she asks herself that question; Is it so surprising that she took it? For Rose the answer is simple, black and white. Better to die than live as a monster or be turned into a pawn but she swallows her answer rather than give it voice, instead asking the next question that burns in the back of her mind.]

And where do the non-human Shadowkind fit into his master plan?

Blade gave us instructions separately for what message to really impart through our songs. Save for New York, where we went along with what Crombe desired for his test - making Shadowkind kill themselves - we haven't been spreading his message at all.

We've been doing the opposite.

[Spike has been listening to all of this, a lump in his chest where his heart doesn't beat and sympathy written all over his face. What can he say to all of that? That he understands? He does, even if he doesn't like it, doesn't think anything would be worse than letting the nightmare god into your head. But it's not like they'd get the full helping of information. It's not like there's a sticker attached to the necklace that says Disclaimer: Side Effects include exposing yourself to ABSOLUTE EVIL.

He blinks those thoughts back. It's not the time for sympathy or for reiterating that what Blade is doing is awful. There'll be time for that later.]

The opposite? Why do I get the feeling this'll end in a lot of dead humans?

Because that's Blade's plan. He wants chaos to reign when his father returns, and he wants the humans to be the ones to suffer - the ones who planned to punish the rest of us in the first place.

NOVA had the resources, and had their hands on the Talisman, so it's only made sense for Blade to continue to string them along while it's benefited him. Some of the others have bought fully into his plan, are happy to stand by him and hate humanity with every ounce of their being. I was the problem child, you might say, though nowhere near as problematic as Jade. [ her mouth twists into a grimace ] Jade was three-quarters divine, moreso than even Keijen himself, thanks to her parentage. Her abilities when coupled with the dark gift ... Well. It's not hard to see why Blade was hellbent on convincing her to join him.

Sure. Sounds reasonable, if you're a total megalomaniacal whackjob.

[ The sharp bite of her reply comes entirely unimpressed. But something else catches her attention, and she doubles back. ]

Wait. If you've been imparting this anti-human message in all your songs all this time, why hasn't there been a human massacre like the Hudson River? What exactly did he pull off at the Grammy's? [ Please don't say sleeper agents please don't say sleeper agents. ]

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