flight ♔ pride can stand a thousand trials

[dragonsclaw]

I'm Kissing You - Des'ree

WHO || Failboat [closed]
WHAT || The Knights return in the wake of the Keijen Blade concert, much worse for the wear
WHERE ||On a plane
WHEN || Directly after the concert
HOW || Actionspam or prose

The mood is darker than it's ever been as the Knights' plane takes off from the blackening skies above Los Angeles, which continue to spread out after them.  They expected a trap, they expected the worst, but what actually happened dwarfed even those dire expectations.

Painful revelations about their teammates themselves, followed by the separation of Vi from the team, and then being forced to watch Blade enact a dark ritual in the concert-hall-turned-dark-temple that culminated in the sacrifice of hundreds, including the deaths of those who had been on the mission back-up team were only the beginning.  Realizing at the last moment that Crombe still had no understanding of what Blade was truly doing, the team made a last minute bid to change his mind and get him to stop the ritual, but it was far too late, and as things escalated quickly, the Nightmare God Malaak'a was freed from his prison, the seal broken with the final step - Nadia's death.  The god himself appeared before them, and Blade stood triumphantly behind him - only to use the dagger soaked in Nadia's blood to plunge into his father, and usurp his power for his own, ascending to some sort of deity-like powers himself.  

This scene lies further and further behind them now, the images forever etched in their minds, and the silent forms of two of their teammates - one mysteriously incapacitated, the other dead, act as haunting reminders on their journey back towards the castle of what has befallen and what may be to come.

Comments

[shootfirst]

[ guess who can't contain her questions to a whispered convo with rose? that's right, it's loudmouth mcgee over here. she can only spend so much time trying to comfort fred jr. over leaving wynn behind, because she's just not built for that kind of thing, so she's gonna wander back to the bathroom and stop to hassle des. ]

You know, all those times people told you to go to hell, they weren't exactly being so literal.

[nothingsodivine]

[des has his arm draped dramatically over his eyes, but it doesn't hide the fact that he visibly winces when she speaks to him.] I mean I hear it so often, is it any wonder I got mixed signals?

[he lets his arm drop and sighs, before looking up to hold her gaze..... and he falters. Kat breaks his stoic badassery.] I meant what I said about it not being personal. If I had really been fucking with you guys this whole time, I feel like I could've done better. I wouldn't call myself chivalrous, but I definitely haven't been diabolical.

[he twists his expression.] And I'm not saying that to make you think I'm not a jackass, because I am, and I'm not sorry for my choices. But the best I can give you is maybe you can look back on everything before now and think "well that part was real anyway."

[a shrug.] It's up to you whether you believe me.

[shootfirst]

I don't make a habit of believing people who've been lying to me for... years.

[ she pauses, still, arms folded tight across her chest ] When? When did you start all this?

[nothingsodivine]

Yep. I deserved that.

[he leans back and stares at the ceiling.] After my testimony at Rafael's trial, I kinda figured I'd done all I could. I was ready to leave and everything. Jade brought me back from a ledge I'd been standing on for years. When she died, I was right back again. I took the first offer that promised me a way out, and I came back because I couldn't leave the job unfinished. From there on, it's a longer story, and it's not even my story to tell.

Things just... escalated.

[shootfirst]

It's your fucking life, Des. How is it not your story to tell? [ a beat ] So I guess you deserved getting thrown through that table after all.

[nothingsodivine]

[he covers his face with his hands and laughs, a little brokenly.] Because I was cursed, Kat. Everything about it is just as much about the people involved with it as it had to do with me. I was just stubborn and idiotic for too many years.

[he doesn't lift his hand up.] You'll notice that I never once bitched about being beaten nearly to death for perjury... but it was a good incentive to keep my mouth shut. That was actually really painful.

[shootfirst]

So was finding out two of your so-called friends worked for Satan.

[nothingsodivine]

[he almost says something about the S word, but chooses life instead.] Fair enough. I can't really sugarcoat that one.

Hopefully, everyone is done having a go at me with their fists and stabbing implements, but I'm not holding my breath.

[shootfirst]

And it doesn't make you think there's something a might bit shady about the scenario that your fiendish boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever waited until you were at the sharpest edge of desperation to swoop in?

[nothingsodivine]

Yeah I do.

[so matter of fact.]

But I think he realized after four thousand years, that might be the only way he'd ever get me to listen. Don't make it less shady, of course. I can't even begin to make it less shady. I still stand by it, because it's complicated, and it's between me and him.

[shootfirst]

Look, I'm the last person to lecture somebody about claiming they hate somebody forever and then winding up with them, but then again, I'm not dating somebody with horns and a tail.

[nothingsodivine]

He doesn't have horns and a tail. [he scoffs lightly.] That's ridiculous.

[shootfirst]

Everything about this whole situation is ridiculous.

[nothingsodivine]

Well, considering it started out with me being a 4000 year old detective with a chip on his shoulder, chasing something that never existed, and that journey has put me in the path to what might be Drow Armageddon.... this whole situation was always ridiculous.

[shootfirst]

So if Hell doesn't want Armageddon either, why aren't your Hell hubbies here stopping it themselves?

[nothingsodivine]

Because they have to stick to their corners and don't get involved in things like this- same for the other side. We wouldn't be here either if it weren't personal to us. We could've just fallen off the face of the planet, and left y'all wondering without all of this... Mess. Maybe it would've been less cruel that way, but I'll cop to that being selfish- I need to finish this. This was everything Elena knew since she fell into this world, but as for me... Well, the Talisman may have been a pipedream, but it all led me here.

[shootfirst]

So it's 90% stubbornness.

[nothingsodivine]

I haven't really changed all that much here, so yeah... A good 90%.

[shootfirst]

What's the other ten?

[nothingsodivine]

I can handle politics a lot better than I used to...

[shootfirst]

I meant for why you're here.

[nothingsodivine]

Oh right. [He drags a hand down his face.] Because I don't want anyone else to die because of this. Because of her. [Three guesses who he means.] If I've got the means to prevent that, I'm gonna try.

[shootfirst]

Didn't seem to have the means back there.

[nothingsodivine]

I thought Buffy knew better than to punch the Mind Master after she almost killed three people the last time that happened. [he flinches again, and looks down at his hands.] Not that it would've helped Myri, but... I was hoping I could have done something to throw her off balance, something she wasn't expecting. I just didn't make it in time. Alainn was down, most of us were weaponless... I chose the option that helped the most of us it could.

[shootfirst]

I just thought the whole reason Wynn let you guys come along was because you had some kind of trump card to help us beat her.

[ a beat ] That word is ruined forever, isn't it.