Termite: What... What was this empty voice in her heart? It never said a word, and yet she could hear it plain as day, promises of power and joy and the overwhelming pleasure of feeling another soul thrumming beside your own. A bit of her wanted that. It wanted the strength to stand equal to all that surrounded her. The power to take whatever she wanted. The right to grasp the world and bend it to her very will. It was intoxicating. Enticing. It made her want to take everything and more... And it was sickening... The fact that she harbored such desire was one thing, but this desire wasn't simply her own. Something had crawled into her, warped her pride, tried to replace her own natural power with some warped copy that would never truly be her own. And it thought it could do this to a dragon?! Alex's natural beast was infuriated, enough so that she felt like she was burning from the inside out as she stumbled to her feet. A part of her heard Zuki's plea, but she couldn't deal with that now. She needed to get outside, to open air where her power could do no harm. and drag it beyond the void and back to its realm. >>
Termite: Because she still felt herself slipping. Even with her father's indignation burning through her that wicked presence was still claiming her bit by bit. It felt like she was being eaten, the darkness wrapping around her and dragging her into whatever hell awaited. She couldn't fight this on her own. So she wouldn't. She stumbled out into the night, her body clutching at herself in absolute pain, and once she felt she had enough room she leaned back and roared. Her voice became an echo of the great beast that spawned her, and a moment later its power burst from her maw and spilled into the sky, a bright and powerful flame that warped the air with its immense heat. But as that fire burned and rose there was something within it. A voice that called out in an ancient language that few understood. A voice that only the dragonborn could hear and carried on the flames itself. It was a cry for help, a cry to a power even greater than her own. A moment later it answered. >>
Termite: Her flame began to change, to shift from the pure white of the highest heat to a darkness that blotted out even the night itself. Those attuned to the world would feel the boundaries of this dimension strain, as if something were about to break through. And if they tracked it to its source they would find it centered deep within Alexandra. She called out, her plea for help reaching out beyond the veil of the physical realm to her ancestors who had grown beyond the paltry limitations of the flesh. She offered them her flesh and her soul, the necessary bridge to allow them to manifest in this world once more, and once they did they would tear through whatever threat endangered their kin. Her fire took on a life of its own, flecks of the brightest light dancing within a background of pure nothingness, and for one moment a form could be seen writhing through the air. But in the next it descended, Alex's fire collapsing in on itself, and in an odd twist it plunged back into her mouth and dove straight into her body. Once the Black Dragon had seen its target it knew what it must do. An outside force was attacking its descendent, and no matter how much damage the woman would suffer it rip it from her soul
RJ: The power that Alex summoned quickly went force, and was met with resistance. Alex would feel why. The power within her wasn't exactly "eating" her, it was changing her, much like a mutation. When met with this resistance... She'd have to burn away a portion of her own soul to free herself of it.
Termite: When faced with this truth she focused her will into a voice that echoed across her soul. <Do it!>
RJ: Like tearing off an infected limb, the power did as it was asked, as Alex would feel the extraordinary pain of having a rather large portion of her soul burned away, and much of her power with it. The magic that seemed to consume her was deadly, and merciless, able to consume someone a thousand times faster than the corruption back home. Still, Alex was freed of the infection, though her troubles were not quite over... A green wing would be all she saw, before an impossibly powerful force slammed into her, while a massive claw wrapped around her head, smashing her down with such force that would have snapped even a greater creature's neck, and grinding her along the dirt as they slid along the ground as if it were ice. Once they stopped, she was allowed a glance.
RJ: It was Jade, and she looked infuriated.
Termite: Battered, burned, diminished and exhausted, Alex was an easy target for the blur of green that slammed her down and dragged her through the ground. Seeing this power up close Alex figured she would have been an easy target even at full strength. But she had nothing left to even offer a bit of resistance, so she simply looked up and waited for her elder to speak. If she even got that far It was quite possible she'd simply be destroyed. Either way she had no choice in the matter.
RJ: "YOU IDIOT! HOW DARE YOU!?" Jade screamed, before she stood, grabbing Alex by the tail and throwing her as if she were weightless, slamming her to the ground, Alex's natural strength enough to not be broken by her terrible strength. Suddenly, Alex would hear another. "Master!" Ashlotte cried out, seeing Alex like that, before the golem was rushing to aid Alex, just as she saw Jade turn, looking ready to destroy the golem.
Termite: "STAND DOWN!" She was surprised to see she still had the clarity let alone the strength to order Ashlotte to a stop. "This is a private matter." Her attention turned back toward Jade. She wasn't quite sure why the grand dragon was so angry, but all she could do was offer the motivation. "I will not allow myself to be changed."
RJ: Ashlotte skid to a halt, and just in time, as Jade looked ready to destroy her. Seeing the little threat stop, she looked back down to Alex. "IGNORANT! HALF-BLOODED CHILD!" Jade screamed, before slamming her foot down on Alex's head. "THE DIMENSIONS ARE NEVER TO BE BREACHED! I'M GOING TO END YOUR LIFE BEFORE YOU THREATEN VENICE'S WORLD!" she growled, the claw of her foot clamping down, threatening to crush Alex's head.
Termite: The foot falling on her head brought Alex back to a very dark memory, and for a moment she simply stopped. But it also summoned a deep anger, and with it she found the voice to speak even when she was about to have her head caved in. "So I should just allow myself to be warped into a parasite?!"
RJ: "ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE A CORPSE!" Jade replied, lifting her leg to do the final deed, before sending it crashing down. All she saw was a flash, before she was suddenly face to face with Venice, who was crouching and holding her arms protectively over her head in a cross, blocking Jade's foot. She heard a snap, Venice's bones were breaking. Blood quickly began to stain her white hair, and drip down profusely onto Alex's face. "Will you survive if I leave you for a moment?" she asked calmly, but urgently.
Termite: She really couldn't have hoped to avoid it, not with the look in the dragon's eyes, but Fate intervened. A flash revealed itself to be the undead Venice, and the woman intercepted Jade's clawed foot before Alex found her end. But Venice was not without her limits, and hearing those bones crack was not a good sign. "I will try." And try she did, what meager amounts of strength she had left flowing through her body and granting her a mere sliver of the power her Father held. It wasn't much, but it would allow her to move, and she rolled out of the way before Jade's foot could finish its deadly descent. She wouldn't be able to outrun her elder, and she sure as hell couldn't outfight her, but she didn't need to win. Venice said it herself. Alex just needed to survive.
RJ: "Why...!?" Jade exclaimed, at first stunned to see Venice. Venice replied by suddenly throwing Jade off. Her arms looked limp and broken, hanging loosely, her bones disconnected. But suddenly, there was a sickeningly loud crack, as Venice seemed to regenerate herself, and her bones snapped back into place, righting themselves. "You did well to follow my orders, Jade, but I will excuse this one from the rule. She didn't know any better." Venice announced. "I..." Jade growled, a dragon's fury never went away easily. "I WAS FOLLOWING YOUR ORDERS! DO NOT GET IN MY WAY!" Jade growled, and suddenly rushed to attack her own master. Jade slammed her claw forth, before Venice seemed to vanish faster than the blink of an eye, suddenly above Jade as she soared through the air, holding her palms together as she gathered a ball of energy, before blasting it at Jade. A blue beam of refined power blasted Jade, and buried the dragon in it's light. But suddenly, Jade revealed that that was not enough to kill her. Though she was burned, the dragon surged forth from the light, and fired a ray of fire from her mouth, which ran Venice through, creating a hole in her stomach.
RJ: But Venice wasn't through, she moved as if she suffered nothing, before energy gathered around her fist, and she slammed her knuckles into Jade, and kept going into she drilled the dragon into the earth. Jade didn't move once she did that, before Venice rose with a sigh, a hole still in her body as she looked, and smiled at Alex. "She gets rowdy occasionally. I apologize."
