She felt numb. The operation to stop the Saint's Cradle... well, it had succeeded, but in name only. Nanoha and the other mages had been unable to breach the throne room despite their best efforts, and in the end the TSAB's fleet had been forced to open fire in order to prevent it from reaching orbit. The image of the Cradle bursting into a yellow-orange flower of fire and death in midair was seared in her memory, and her hands wouldn't stop shaking. She'd failed. She'd failed that little girl who had been scared and alone and waiting for her mama to come rescue her
( ... )
It was late. Very late, or maybe it was very early - it all really depended on how a person looked at it. Jo closed her eyes, leaning against the partly destroyed house with her M-14 hugged close to her body. It was quiet, almost eerily so, but that's what happened sometimes. The quiet never lasted more than a short time and then they'd be dealing with insurgents
( ... )
Gunshots. An actual gun, not a magical one. Someone was nearby - she'd missed somebody, evidently. Nanoha turned slowly to see the figure down the hall... it was fuzzy and hard to make out, but it was clearly a person.
The girl was very dimly aware that she was moving, leveling her staff down the hall at whoever--whatever--it was.
No, wait... why am I...?
It felt like she wasn't in control of her own actions; the power and white-hot rage surging through her moved her arms of their own accord. Nanoha felt like she was viewing the scene through a tank of water, the sound muted and the vision blurry.
Stop. Please, stop. I wouldn't want to...!
Magic energy flared up around her as light slowly gathered at the crown of her staff, casting a dark red hue down the corridor instead of its usual magenta. She couldn't reclaim control of her own body, no matter how much she willed it so.
When Arha turned, she could already see this was not a good thing, this energy. She didn't think. She moved, using The Weirding Way along with Jed-Eye reflexes to slam the staff down and away. It was obvious the girl wasn't in control.
"I will make this better...later," she hissed, and promptly launched a punch towards Nanoha's jaw. "You will regain control of yourself."
Through the fog, Nanoha was aware of the punch as it connected with her jaw, throwing her backwards - though the wings on her heels kept her upright - and knew it should have hurt. But it didn't; it felt muted. Everything felt quiet, as though the her that was experiencing things was not the her in the flesh of her body. Was this how she dissociated herself from the grief of losing her world? Was the energy surging through her, the desire to fight - was it now in control instead of the other way around?
She righted herself as she hit the ground, and a dark red shield interposed itself between her and the newcomer. And then, Nanoha squeezed her fist shut.
"Barrier Burst."
The shield exploded outward in a blast of energy directed toward her attacker.
If you had asked him before, Sam would have said that he'd already lived his worst nightmare. Those four months when Dean had been dead were easily his own private hell on Earth
( ... )
Gauron's nightmares had always been more physical than a lot of his crewmates', from the persistent, spreading numbness to the chunks of skin sloughing off to the perpetual sensation of things moving under his skin - recently, there had even been holes in the muscle beneath the skin that had fallen away, which was creepy as hell, because he couldn't feel it - but it had to be an illusion because he wasn't dead yet and his mind was still clear, for the most part. Yet, even that had been fading, too - the little details of his environment had been shifting on him. There was a creeping blackness around the edges of not just his sight, but his memories - little chunks of time that he couldn't remember as the dreams bled further and further into reality. And, worse than that, it was tainting what he could remember of the ship from before the Nightmare King had begun its attack
( ... )
One of the voices is still talking. It's a Middle Eastern dialect Gauron doesn't recognize, but he thinks he can pick up a bit of Farsi in it. At last, his eyes have adjusted enough for him to open one of them; it won't focus properly, but he can at least distinguish light and shadow, and judging by the pattern of them, one of the dark shapes in front of him is a video camera. Someone places their hands on the sides of his head, and he catches a phrase similar to the Farsi for explosive decapitation. The significance of those words set in with a terrifying jolt when his head is tilted upward with an impossible lack of resistance.
This can't be happening this can't be happening this can't be happening-- the words echo over and over in his head, but to no avail - there is no doubting the fact that he is awake, and this is real. As his head - he'd shudder if there was anything left to do it with - is turned to display the cannulae entering the ragged remains of his neck to the camera, he realizes what that has to mean. None of it ever
( ... )
He closes his eyes, and disconcertingly, he hears the whirr of the bypass pump grind to a halt - but there's no point in being afraid. Even if there's nothing but oblivion waiting to meet him, he doesn't care. Suddenly, he can remember the prayers Roxie taught him in perfect detail, and inside his mind, he screams them into the deepening blackness. It's not even that he believes in them - if it was all a hallucination, what would be the point? - but he believes in the defiance behind them, and the thought that he can snap himself back into the dream as his brain begins its death spasms
( ... )
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The girl was very dimly aware that she was moving, leveling her staff down the hall at whoever--whatever--it was.
No, wait... why am I...?
It felt like she wasn't in control of her own actions; the power and white-hot rage surging through her moved her arms of their own accord. Nanoha felt like she was viewing the scene through a tank of water, the sound muted and the vision blurry.
Stop. Please, stop. I wouldn't want to...!
Magic energy flared up around her as light slowly gathered at the crown of her staff, casting a dark red hue down the corridor instead of its usual magenta. She couldn't reclaim control of her own body, no matter how much she willed it so.
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"I will make this better...later," she hissed, and promptly launched a punch towards Nanoha's jaw. "You will regain control of yourself."
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She righted herself as she hit the ground, and a dark red shield interposed itself between her and the newcomer. And then, Nanoha squeezed her fist shut.
"Barrier Burst."
The shield exploded outward in a blast of energy directed toward her attacker.
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This can't be happening this can't be happening this can't be happening-- the words echo over and over in his head, but to no avail - there is no doubting the fact that he is awake, and this is real. As his head - he'd shudder if there was anything left to do it with - is turned to display the cannulae entering the ragged remains of his neck to the camera, he realizes what that has to mean. None of it ever ( ... )
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