#adrp

“How do we get her out?” Lhorcan was in no shape to go to the dreamscape again. He was wiped out from the last time.  Ash....wasn’t much better.  “Dusk is healing Midnight as fast as she can, but...your sister nearly gutted him.” It was quite simply going to take time to heal him. “Can you show her how to control the shadows?”

Rhalia whipped around just in time to dodge a lethal claw aimed at her neck. This was what Aria had become? The aura was so strong that she felt she might pass out from that alone. Aria wasn’t the sweet girl anymore. She was a monster on the hunt. And Rhalia was the prey.

Ash had a second of relief as Aria moved away from Dusk, only to immediately be replaced by apprehension as she vanished again. He was easily about to locate her as her powers were like a beacon. Ash found them in a clearing, watching as Aria quite nearly took Rhalia’s head off. Honestly, had it been anyone but her sister, Ash might have let her kill them.  And if she decided to in a calmer state of mind, he’d still let her.  But he didn’t want her to have to live with killing her sister and regretting it. “Rhalia. You should leave  While you still can.”  

Ash would have to deal with Aria because Dusk’s sole focus was saving Midnight.  She was working as fast as she could, but the damage was extensive and her powers were depleted. She had moved him from fatality injured to critically injured and knew he wasn’t out of the woods yet.  

Dusk looked at Ash and shook her head.  Maybe....maybe fully rested and her magic at its strongest she could pull Aria into dreamless sleep, but right now.... there was no way.  And in the dreamscape, she would be a sitting duck against someone as powerful as Dark.  

Aria’s eye twitched, but otherwise, she was completely unmoving. She was still hurt pretty badly due to the golden lightning. She barely seemed capable of doing anything at the moment.

Midnight stirred, shifting a bit in Dusk’s arms before settling down again, a soft purr rumbling in his throat.

That got a reaction from Aria, although it was slight and didn’t seem conscious. A bit of the darkness surrounding her backed into her shadow.

Ash took that as a positive sign. “What now?” He looked up at Dusk, but she shook her head. Everything she had went into healing Midnight.  

“I can give her a potion for pain when she wakes up. But that’s about all I can do for her right now.”  She wasn’t even completely sure she could open and hold a portal for Kam and War right now.  As it was, she was loathe to leave Midnight anyway, and he didn’t need to be teleported around either.

Aria hummed slightly. “I can’t remember when I met Midnight, it was so long ago. But as for my childhood…it was…like hell, to say the least. We kept having to steal all sorts of things just to stay alive, and when we were caught, they would beat us. Midnight would fight to keep them away from me, but back then, he wasn’t strong enough. He would get beat until he was unconscious, and then they would beat me until I faked falling unconscious. When Phantom came across us while Midnight was unconscious, everything changed.”

Aria exhaled sharply and closed her eyes. She needed to snap herself out of this. Stop the bloodlust so no one got hurt. Her demonic features started slowly receding until she was panting lightly, but back to normal. Her eyes were still slightly tinted red, but that was fading as well. “A-alright, ring’s over there. See it?” She pointed to it. It was in grass, a bit of sunlight glinting off it.

Aria pulled against his grip, but with her demonic form fading, she was left weak, her eyes still gold, but that was all of her demon form left remaining. Her anger was draining as well as some of her sadness and regret, but it was still there.

Aurum sighed slightly. “I’m afraid I can’t give boosts, but I can keep most chaos out of this general area, at least for the time being. But any chaos you start amongst yourselves is not my fault.”