knightsoflegend | CHAPTER TWO ♔ a sigh escapes from heaven and worlds end

Entry tags:

CHAPTER TWO ♔ a sigh escapes from heaven and worlds end

♬ The Dream Within - Lara Fabian

WHO || Rafael Giovanni, Burt Becksworth, Isabella Alessandro, Finnick Odair, Myrilandel de Tanos, Buffy Summers, Spike, Elena Gilbert, Dawn Summers, Desmond Descant, Jeanne Gar, Kat Samcelot, Mark Sandazhard, Violet Fiore, Sterling Archer
WHAT || CHAPTER TWO: Following the traumatic and tragic events of Finnick and Rafael's concert, our heroes are taken to be interrogated at the police station
WHERE || Concert Hall > Chicago Police Department, Chicago, IL
WHEN || July 3rd, 2013 [ forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

Nothing is okay.

What was meant to be the Knights' triumphant collaborative effort to cut off Chad Becksworth's bid for total control of NOVA Records, allowing them to follow the trail elsewhere, has descended into chaos. Rafael's songs triggered some kind of reaction in Jade that allowed her to regain her lost memories, only to have their reunion cut tragically short by the actions of a hitman who took her hostage on stage, demanding her necklace. While Myri and Violet attempted to convince him that the necklace did not lie with her, Jade signaled to Rafael that she meant to utilize the distraction to break free - but things went out of control and Rafael's bullets struck Jade instead. The Knights felled the hitman, as the world watched, and Rafael begged a distraught and enraged Des to end his life. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure that only Buffy & Spike could see assisted Myrilandel in healing Jade enough to hang on for a little time more...

Time for people to say goodbye.

In the meantime, the police have arrived, arresting Rafael, Archer, and Des (or attempting to), and preparing Jade to be taken to the hospital. Everyone else is being ordered to head outside to be taken down to the station for questioning. It's a hectic scene, but people can finally snatch a few moments amid the chaos to try to make sense of what just happened...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Archer has a few thoughts to throw in about killing bad guys, and why it's a great thing - but Finnick is still glaring at him, so he'll just sip his Bloody Mary, and wait for something to happen.]

[ remain nameless - Florence + the machine ]

My part in this begins some ten years ago. I had returned to Italy from Madrid, where I had been living with my mother since my parents divorce when I was very young. When I was 13, she had passed away - cancer claimed her - and I moved to Napoli, to be with my father. But over the next three years, the face of the city changed drastically. Violent riots broke out between groups of Shadowkind attempting to move in, and anti-shadow vigilante groups in the city.

It was not something we concerned ourselves with much, at first, as we were human, and did not see it as our problem. Until a riot, ten years ago, in which our building caught fire from the apartment next door, which was housing shadow tenants. My father did not escape, but I was rescued, right before the building collapsed. I can still see his face as he plunged through the smoke, and found me curled beneath a table, weeping and coughing from the fumes. He looked exactly as he does now -he has not changed at all in the ten years that have passed. [ it's hard to miss the wistful note in her voice -or the clear awe of hero worship, although it seems tainted with something bitterer as well ]

Rafael had already been a member of some shadow resistance movement, it seemed, for several years at that point, since the death of his own father for being a vocal proponent of building a temple to Corellon in the city of Venice. But this had been the first time he had ever been armed and sent into a violent conflict to rescue protesters and innocents. But the times had turned to blood and fire, and it had to be met measure for measure. Rafael saw I had nowhere to go -I had my parents money, certainly, and plenty of it at that, and Rafael had very little of his own -only what he made from singing at clubs. He took me in, and together we survived. We had plenty of money to live on, and Rafael protected me, taught me much about the world that I had been blind to. He also urged me to protect myself, and so I began fencing lessons, every day, with the finest instructors. Rafael himself had become quite celebrated for his exploits in the napoli riot, and he was offered a special position in the Italian shadow militia. He accepted, reluctantly. He was learning more and more to live by the sword, you might say.

Italia said that after his dad died he started sticking up for the Shadowkind at school, picking fights -- that's how the resistance found him. [She shrugs idly.] Seems like a natural progression to me.

[ Isabella frowns ]

Perhaps. The militia specialized in the sort of work he had done during the riot - fast response to attacks on Shadowkind, sent to protect those who could not protect themselves. But to do this, Rafael underwent intensive training in combat, teaching him how to react, how to stay cool when all around him was chaos.

It hardened him, in many ways, forged his anger into something sharper. Sometimes it would almost frighten me, how much rage simmered before the surface, the more he saw. He made little time for those outside his circle - no other friends, no time for love.

Until the day she entered our lives.

[ the news about isabella is all new, and buffy listens with interest. it's no wonder she's taken it upon herself to be so protective (overly so, she still maintains) of rafael. but as it approaches a more familiar area of the story, her expression darkens. she remembers this bit all too well, and it still stings. ]

Jade.

[ it's not a question so much as direct clarification. when jade entered their lives. ]

[without a word, des gets up and walks to the other side of the room, keeping his back turned so no one can see the grief on his face. He's been strong for awhile now. it's only a matter of time before he breaks.]

[ so she dances - josh groban

isabella's expression becomes grim, and it is clear as she speaks that is almost as difficult for her to speak of this as it is for some of them to hear it. ]

Si. Jade.

Rafael met her in Sienna - he saw her dancing in a show and was immediately smitten, the way only foolish young men can become with someone they have never even spoken to. He followed her home, asked her to come work for Angelo, who had allowed Rafael to become a regular at his club by this time. Rafael has never been short on charm, and he got her to agree. She came to dance there, and the moment he heard her sing, he wanted to work as partners: sing together. It was difficult to blame him for being drawn into her. She was beautiful, of course, but there was something else. A fire about her, that was unforgettable.

Jade had no stable home of her own, it seemed, and soon she came to share ours. It was not long before she shared Rafael's bed, as well. At first, I was appalled, that any woman would dare to think she deserved him, or that any could actually turn his head.

But... any fool could see just how happy they made each other, and I was young, and naive, and believed then that that was all that love was: two people, who could bring each other more joy than anything else in the world ever could. [ the cynicism in her tone as she speaks of that belief is easily identifiable ] How wrong I would find that I had been.

Jade latched quickly onto the ideals we fought for - it was hard not to, with the passion with which Rafael argued our cause. But things took a dark turn, when an old political enemy of the Resistance brought forth a bill intended to drive dark elves out of the borders of Italy: identified them as 'naturally evil' beings, and even threatened the creation of 'internment camps' for those who would not be displaced. It was almost impossible to believe that it could ever pass, but the man who supported it was very... charismatic, and had far reaching influence. Nor was he above bribes and blackmail to get others on his side.

Jade had a strain of dark elf heritage, from her father, and so you can imagine how Rafael took the news. His friends in the Militia saw this, and used his passion to press him into a role he would never have considered before: they asked him to take the life of the politician, before the bill could go too far. To use fear of the people, and the Resistance, to crush it, by showing how far we were willing to go.

[This is sounding progressively more and more like the start of either world wars... an assassination and "internment camps"? Vi can see why they would want to use force to stop it before it could become law.

But it bothers her, how someone could manipulate Raf's love for Jade in order to convince him to do it and the grating on her already frayed emotions makes her seek out comfort from the flowers in the room, her mind letting them bloom until she can smell them, slightly cloying in the enclosed space. But it comforts her, so she doesn't care.]

Did he do it?

[ start the machine - angels and airwaves ]

Of course. [ her lips press together tightly ] And more than this, he was a natural at it. The Resistance was thrilled, Eterna was safe, the law was defeated. It seemed in every way to have been the right direction to take. And so there was no reason for us not to continue that way. I convinced him I could join him, that I could learn, and Jade was willing as well. The three of us forged a new kind of life together, and for a time that was enough.

They sang, we killed, we kept to ourselves. Jade was like a sister to me.

But Jade and Rafael loved passionately. And passion has two sides. As the years wore on... this became increasingly clear. For all the time they were deliriously happy, they spent the other half tearing the house apart with arguments. It was exhausting to be around. And made for a great deal of tension in our work.

[ her fingers pull at the cording of her chair ] But Jade had begun to turn her face away from the bloodshed, and Rafael...

Well, part of him relished it. So she began to beg him to walk away.

[That gets Des's attention and he turns back towards Isabelle to stare at her, trying to reconcile this whole "trouble in paradise" side of the story with the girl Rafael summoned back. It makes sense- they loved ideals of one another and maybe, just maybe, the girl who looked at Rafael with so much love in her eyes would have been fleeting had she survived.

It's cold comfort, considering she certainly wouldn't have remembered him or anyone else, but it sours him to Rafael all the more. The man loved to extremes. Did he ever really see the girl or did he just see the great romance he was trying to recapture?]

And he wouldn't do it. [If he weren't halfway across the other side of the room, it would have been a murmur, but he wants Isabella to hear it, so he calls out from his corner.]

[Dear universe, Myri is tired of learning all these really intense secrets all at once.]

So she did it for him.

[Her voice is quiet, almost emotionless for how tired she is from all the events that have transpired in the last 24 hours. After a moment, she raises her gaze to Isabella.]

She made the choice for him, just as he did for her last night- both thinking they knew what was best for the other.

[Or at least that's where she feels this is going. But after everything, she has no way to know what could possible come next.]

[ over the love - florence + the machine ~~obligatory gatsby song cue~~ ]

Rafael had a gift for killing that made him stand far above the rest. The good he did for the Resistance was impossible to deny, and he had come to see it as his duty, to do what others could not.

But he could never deny her anything for long. She began to wear him down, through endless arguments, and he admitted that his primary motivation for taking that work in the first place had been to keep her safe, and that perhaps he could keep her safer by removing her from that world of death.

It wasn't her own safety she was concerned about: Eterna saw what the work was doing to Rafael. It was changing him, changing the way he looked at people, the things he was willing to do, the lengths he would go for what he felt passionately about. Things came to a head when Jade convinced him to go with her to Chicago, to meet with NOVA Records, in hopes of procuring a contract. It was a large step - both of them had avoided any measure of real fame, in case it meant too much scrutiny upon their private lives. She urged him to leave business behind, so that they might consider what other kind of life they might make together.

But Rafael was contacted while he was here, by the Resistance, about a prime opportunity to hit a man they had long been after, who was there in the city. After meeting with Becksworth and a man named Smitland, Rafael snuck out to complete his business - and things went... poorly. Jade found out, tempers flared, and in the end, Rafael made her a promise: it was over. Never again.

And he meant it.

He returned and spread the word to our compatriots. I am sure you might imagine how they reacted to their top assassin putting in his notice.

I can take a guess.

[The story is absorbing, and heartbreaking, given she already knows how it ends, even if they haven't entirely gotten through the middle parts.

It's going to hurt all the same.]

What did they do?

Offered him a nice severance package, I imagine. [Spike gives a wry smirk, but there's not much amusement to the look.] Emphasis on sever.

Those people attacking his house in Venice ... those weren't enemies, were they? That was the Resistance, pissed off.

[ the worst part of all of this is that it's crushing buffy's soul to hear that the entire reason he wanted to call it quits was simply because of jade - because of someone he fought with as often as he loved, and had looked back on with rose-colored glasses and imagined as this perfect being. he'd put her on a pedestal and she'd died before she'd had a chance to prove him wrong and bring him back to reality. ]

[ she shakes his head ] You are both wrong.

You do not understand. What they wanted was to not lose Rafael. And they saw who was responsible for his decision.

[and from out of nowhere finnick speaks up again holy shit y'all.] So they made her pay the price. That's what they did, didn't they? They didn't think he valued his own life nearly as much as hers, so the Resistance turned on her. Do you think taking away her memories was something they were capable of? Or was it worse, before that.

[Vi shakes her head.] They didn't take her memories, though, she lost them when she came back from her mom. Is that... is that why she left? Her mom offered her a place, it was to protect her.

[ isabella stares at the floor, expression cold ]

It is. But there is more to it.

These others... people who had worked with us over the years, our only friends, wanted to both break the hold she had on him, and punish Jade for attempting to draw him away. They created a conspiracy among themselves, setting Eterna up to take the fall for Rafael's crimes, which were enough to lock her away for life, if not cause her to be executed. They worked a web of deceit and lies around us all, creating suspicion and doubt where there should have been none. Eterna was cornered, trapped, unable to remain above ground without being apprehended by Italian authorities. Others leaked poison into Rafael’s ears about her motives, but he never really believed them. She stayed with us through the worst of it, until... until there was almost no choice.

Apparently, around this time, her mother contacted her somehow. I do not know how. And it was then that Eterna revealed to us what she really was. The daughter of a Goddess... A true Celestial in the Shadowrealm. An Aasimar. Her mother offered her sanctuary, offered to take her back with her to the Celestial plane of the Shadowrealm, to escape the trouble she was in here on earth, never to return. It became a choice for her, of whether to go with her mother and leave us all forever, or to remain here and escape with Rafael somewhere, running forever from the law and from the past.

Goddess of visions... It seems like the common god mode of texting. [Distinct possibilty for parental contact, just saying. The long distance plan for the astral plane must be out of this world.

Oh. Oh then that could mean her dreams... No. Violet focus.]

She left. That was her choice, which I can see why. But he just let her? [That is what she can't figure out. He went through so much trouble to give her memory back, putting her in danger in the process -- putting Isabella in danger -- but he had just let her leave forever to be with her mother?]

Edited 2013-07-03 02:33 (UTC)

He thought she'd be safer. [Des still remembers the conversation with Rafael he had, even if it lacked a ton of context. This is where he gets conflicted about how he feels about this, because even if Rafael took her choice away- the only reason those memorie were gone was because she couldn't deal.] She would have run forever, so long as she was with him, but he sent her away. And she was so heartbroken that she had those memories locked up.

And he spent the next however many years regretting it. Gee. Glad we're all caught up. I don't see how any of this is gonna help us stop the Chicago PD from putting Rafael away for a very, very long time, which I think we can all agree is what we should be focusing on here, yeah?

[ isabella cuts buffy the most venomous look ever. ] If you do not want to know exactly who and what you're dealing with, and what the police might find, you are free to leave. I was not finished.

[Spike leans back, smirking a bit. Two hot ladies sassing at each other. It's like banter porn. Alas, not the time for it.]

Save the catfight for later, loves. Story's interesting enough without the added show.

[ wow excuse you spike, dirty look for you too. but she moves on anyway.

foolish games (reprise) - jewel ]

As I was saying. Eterna went to Rafael, and asked him his opinion on what she should do. You are right, in that he told her to leave, thinking that it was the only place she could be safe. That he had brought all this upon her life, and that he did not deserve to keep her at her own risk. That she would have a chance to be happy with her mother, something they could never have again here.

[ she shakes her head, lost in a particularly bitter memory ] He left, saying he had some errand to run, most likely to clear his head and stop himself from breaking his resolve and saying something else to change her mind. That is when she came to me, all tears, as she told me what he had said.

She was heartbroken.

All she had wanted was for Rafael to ask her to stay, she said, to fight for what they had, and be willing to do whatever it took to stay together. He had but to say the word and she would deny her mother, and live any kind of life they could have together. But she felt he had as much as dismissed her completely with his pronouncement.

[ she releases a long unsteady breath and says, as something of a sidebar: ] These are the kind of people they were, you see. There is such a thing as a love that burns too hot, so that instead of creating warmth, it consumes and devours everything around it. Instead of being honest with each other, they had to play their games, to see what they wanted to see. [ her tone is particularly crisp as she says: ] That is not love. It never was. It is a child's concept of the thing, and the closest Rafael had ever known to it.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject