The Nightmare's Redemption [Plot][Fallen Nightmare Part 2]

[Drae]

The shattered moon hung bright in the night sky as a single figure stood at the edge of the cliff overlooking the Forever Fall Forest. Her silver hair swayed in the breeze blowing through as she gazed at the treeline, her hands curled into tight fists. Her eyes were unfocused and shifting at random, though she always kept her head towards the treeline in front of her. A thin, wavering purple outlined her form as another figure walked up behind her.

"Hey. You all right?"

Lucy's eyes focused back to reality at the sound of the voice, multiple memories rushing to the forefront of her mind as she slowly turned to the DJ behind her. Natalie was concerned, and it showed in her stance, the look in her eyes. Everything. Lucy hated that look, the look someone gave her when they knew what had happened to her. The Nightmare merely nodded in response, her eyes nor her body giving any hints as to the torment she was reliving.

"Alright," Natalie said, unconvinced but not wanting to attempt to pry. The expression on Lucy's face scared her more than the situation. Or rather, the lack of emotion on her face. "If you need anything at all, you know where to find me. Don't do anything reckless, okay? She added, her gaze lingering on the Nightmare for a few more seconds before she reluctantly turned to walk away.

A sudden gust blew, and a few leaves blew into the space in front of the silver-haired girl.

---Two Days Later. Approx. 6:47 p.m.---

"Are you sure?" Ishini asked. It was after class hours, and Natalie had caught Ishi in the act of packing up for the night. They had spent the last half hour talking about Lucy specifically. The wolf herself had suspected that the young Nightmare had been having some troubles as of recently, but didn't realize just how badly it was. If what Natalie said was to be believed then Lucy had regained more of her memory in the past week, and was having to relive quite a bit of it.

"Definitely. It worries me to see her stand there. I worry that she might fall forward and over the edge." Natalie confessed. They all had to do it at initiation, but that had been supervised closely. At night everywhere was dangerous, especially the Forest. "Not to mention that I've been seeing a lot less of her lately, from what I understand she's been hiding from Peter as well."

Ishini almost froze. For Lucy to be avoiding Peter meant that something was fatally wrong, not to mention that it had something to do with the bear himself as well.

"Have you talked to her within the past few hours?" She inquired, sealing up her bag and taking her phone out of the front pocket.

"No, that's why I went to you. If she's about to do something stupid then it'll take more than me to get through to her."

Ishini woke up her phone and went into her contacts, scrolling down to the C's and selecting the one person she knew would help her with this. "Natalie. Go. I'll follow you in a sec." Ishini commanded, the sniper nodding before rushing out as the wolf placed the phone to her ear and listening for the ringing. As expected, it was picked up after the first few rings.

"Corvou."

[Requiem]

Around the same, general time that the conversation across the campus had progressed and begun to wind down, Corvou himself had already tidied up his own, personal classroom. The bags that he owned and carried around were already packed and closed, and were each sitting side by side upon his desk. The drake himself had traveled up to the highest point upon the campus buildings, and was sitting silently on the edge of one of the rooftops high above. Should one have caught sight of him, they would notice him gazing up at the stars with a rather gentle, yet somewhat absent expression on his face. After a moment or so, he closed his eyes, holding his breath for a moment before releasing it and murmuring something to himself softly.

At that same moment, the tune of a particular song struck across the air, earning the man's immediate attention. Upon hearing it, he opened his eyes quickly and looked down at his coat for a moment, eventually lifting one of his hands and tucking it inside to fiddle with an internal pocket. A small smirk had found its way onto his lips as he listened to the tone, due to the fact that he had set a specific ringtone for each of his friends, and, thus, had made sure to remember which melody matched which person. Wonder what this could be about... he thought to himself before reeling his phone out. A swift flick across the screen would be all it took to unlock the device and answer the call as he answered, saying, "Yeah? Something up?"

[Drae]

"How fast can you get to the cliff that we use for initiation each year. I'm going to go out on a whim and assume I don't have to tell you which one." Ishini said as she grabbed her bag and hurried out of her classroom. The door shut and locked behind her with a thud as she swiftly walked out of the academy and towards the old motorcycle parked near the entrance.

[Requiem]

For a moment, the drake remained silent as he listened to those two sentences, his eyebrows raising as he pondered on his beloved's words from his end. He blinked quietly while slowly beginning to stand up, standing at the edge of the rooftop and gazing across the Vytal city spread out beneath him, tilting his head slightly. "...Not that long. Probably ten minutes at most, even if I'm walking.

With those words, he simply looked around another time before turning around and beginning to walk down to the lower and internal floors of the Academy. "Is something wrong? You sound a bit rushed.." he added as he trekked off. It took less than a minute for him to arrive back at his own classroom, and the same amount of time for him to already be on the way towards the assumed location with not his bags at hand, but his treasured weaponry. He'd return for them later.

[Drae]

Ishini transferred the call to her headset as she shoved her phone back into her bag and put on her helmet. "Lucy might be about to do something incredibly stupid. She's been growing a lot more distant lately, and she's probably at that cliff right now. Natalie's contacting everyone else to meet us there," She said, stopping in her motions momentarily as she leaned back in her seat. The keys were in the ignition, patiently awaiting her decision as Ishini whispered into the mic.

"This scares me more than anything else to date, Cor."

[Requiem]

Upon hearing those remarks, Corvou actually stopped dead in his tracks for a split second, his eyes widening slightly as he quickly repeated what he had just been told in his head a couple of times. As soon as he did so, however, he immediately began to walk once more- this time at a brisker and faster pace that, more or less, could've been jogging at that point, too. "Tch...so it's actually come up to this point, huh...?" he muttered absentmindedly to himself, although with the call at hand, it was pretty clear that Ishi heard him ponder to himself. His tone had shifted drastically, having gone from his normal, casual voice, to a lowered and dead serious one within a fraction of a second.

Silence would overwhelm his end as he was already well into the forest and was taking a few shortcuts he had found to the cliffs on a few, in-between-break walks. It would be ended as he seemed to sigh and growl at the same time. "...Just keep calm. We'll make sure that she's fine, I promise. I'll call a few of my own friends up right now to help out, if it makes you feel better," he said, already reeling his scroll out for some multitasking action as he shifted his call to a comm device he picked up for hands-free communication and went on to contact a few other people via scroll.

"We'll meet you there in a few minutes. Just get there as quickly as possible."

[Drae]

Ishini nodded as she muttered an 'Okay' and turned the bike over. Flipping the kickstand up and speeding off towards the Forest.

---Meanwhile---

Natalie ran up the slope to the cliff. Her legs burning as she fought the uphill climb. She had called everyone she could think of: Peter, Tai, Kuro, Leaf, hell even Misaki. As the sniper reached the top of the cliff, she caught sight of the Nightmare standing up at the top. Up here there was almost garunteed to be some sort of breeze, and Lucy had her face tilted up to the warmth of the sun as she stood there on the edge. At this angle she seemed almost calm.

The scene was serene, but held an underlying tension.

[Empoleon_Blownaparte]

Meanwhile, Pete was running up the hill as fast as he could "Ohgodohgodohgod this is all my fault, probably, this is aaaaaall my fault!!" he yelled at himself mentally as he ran up to the top, as soon as he saw Lucy he froze in place, not really knowing what exactly to do once she noticed him "Do I say something now or wait until the others who've been invited get here?! D-Damnit, say something!!" he continued to berate himself, but he was too nervous about the situation to speak up yet, just looking uneasily to Natalie, as if waiting for advice or a command of some kind...

Tai, who reached the bottom of the trail slightly after Pete, followed behind him "Damnit, I'm not good at talking people down from stuff like this...... I can talk them up from it, make'em feel better before or after, but not down from it...." she thought as she walked next to Natalie and gave a small, uneasy, near-silent sigh at the calm, yet heavy air the hilltop gave off...

[Paige weaver]

Misaki would be walking down towards them with a small sigh she was annoyed that people fucking called her about lucy a girl that in her best moments a complete bitch. "Why the fuck did you call me."Misaki would say as she casted a glare at the blue haired scank "And up a cliff to hey bitch if you want to jump then fucking jump stop making it a show."

[Drae]

"I would strongly advise that you change your tone, Miss May," Ishini said as she walked up the hill. Her eyes were set into glaring daggers aimed at the rather rude student as Natalie's eye twitched. There was no doubt in the professor's mind that had the situation been less tense then Natalie would've pulled out a gun. It seemed they were lucky, though, as Lucy herself didn't seem to have heard Misaki at all, but had lowered her gaze back to the ground.

The Nightmare turned to face the gathering crowd as Kuro and Leaf came into view. Lucy's eyes shifted between each person, her eyes glossing over on occasion as her memories dragged her back in. In her right hand she clutched her notebook, the sight alone causing a few raised eyebrows within some of the new arrivals.

"Why are you here?" Lucy murmured softly as her gaze passed over Peter. She stared at the boy for a few moments before shifting to look over at Natalie. "I'm not worth much right now."

[Requiem]

Not much later after those words were spoken, the last arrivals made their way to the scene. Corvou jogged up towards the back of the group in silence, stopping himself calmly, yet held a stern gaze as he caught the tail end of the conversation. Because of this, it was faint and somewhat unnoticeable, but he sent a quick and menacing glare over at Misaki before bringing his attention between Peter and Lucy. I get that you're a bitch and all, and that you're a student so I should be ensuring your safety above all things as a teacher... But as an acquaintance, I really hope that you get your ass thrown into the worst corner of Hell when you die... he thought bitterly as he crossed his arms, though said nothing as he merely waited for the situation to progress a bit.

Around the same time, Taeseung and Ryan also made their own entries, and had stopped further into the group and held their spots closer to the others. Though they weren't armed, it was obvious that they were less than a second away from changing that if the situation shifted away from their favor. Some ways in the trees nearby, Bai Hu was there, as well, though had his Semblance in tact as he watched from afar while out of sight.

Each one of the boys simply awaited any possible response from the others for the meantime.

[Empoleon_Blownaparte]

Pete glared at Misaki before anyone else could react, he was going to say something along the lines of "Why don't you jump instead?" but thought against it.

When Lucy spoke up he once again froze up and stared at her "....Pete, say something..!" Tai said...

"Uh..... H-Hey....... Please don't jump....." he said, clearly stressing out about the whole situation...

[Paige weaver]

Misaki would glare at them for a few moments before sneering a little bit. "How about fuck you."She would walk up to where lucy was and send a massive glare at her. "Go ahead and fucking jump see if anyone will care about you in a year."Misaki actually did care for lucy but this was her only way of saying that was by yelling at her like this.

[Drae]

Natalie's hand visibly twitched as she resisted the urge to shoot Misaki right then and there. She was extremely infuriated with Misaki for daring to speak to Lucy in such a tone; the situation was already hazardous enough as it was, and Natalie was skeptical of whether they could afford to be this mean to the girl that most of them were trying to save.

Ishi was still glaring rather harshly at Misaki as Kuro walked over and watched from the sidelines with Leaf at his side. The Princess seemed genuinely concerned, although was trying to laugh it off as usual.

"Come on, Luc. It can't be that bad can it?" She asked softly, moving as though to step further into the clearing before being stopped by her ex placing a hand on her shoulder. She glanced back at Kuro to meet his gaze, and bit her bottom lip in worry before reluctantly complying with the unspoken request of the Mercenary.

In utter, unbridled amusement at the situation that shocked most of those present, Lucy merely giggled softly at Misaki's words. "Showing our true colors now?" She asked, her voice slightly haunting and sadistic as her eyes unfocused again. Kuro had brief flashbacks of his encounter with Wrath. As her eyes refocused, the Nightmare spoke again: "Why would you care if I jumped or not? Not like either of us can get Pete's heart anymore now can we?" Lucy added, her voice slightly hollow as her eyes unfocused yet again.

She's behaving like she's insane... It's as though she's having trouble discerning reality from her fantasies and memories... Ishi thought, her eyes narrowing slightly in thought as she watched the Nightmare sway back and forth for a few moments. Lucy's face had been emotionless this entire time, the only visible change in her state of mind being the inflections present in her tone of voice when she spoke. And even then that didn't betray more than a sort of sick glee at Misaki's words.

[Requiem]

Corvou closed his eyes for a brief moment, gritting his teeth together while growling softly under his breath. ”Watch your tongue, little lady…” he hissed with some degree of agitation, crossing his arms over his chest. Although he merely spoke the words aloud while giving no gesture towards the intended receiver for them, it was pretty much obvious that they were directed at Misaki. He was about to say something more, though caught himself upon hearing Lucy’s reply to the comment that Misaki made towards her. This seemed to cause him to freeze in all terms of movement for a split second before he opened his eyes just slightly, gazing quietly at the Nightmare herself as his tail softly swayed behind him. …That’s…not good…at all… he thought to himself while eying the girl. Slowly, he unfolded his arms and slid his arms and hands down to his flanks. They then resided close to his waistband, each one less than a second away from being able to draw either half of Draconian Blaze from their clips. A moment’s time was all it took for Corvou to reflect on the prior times that he himself exhibited similar behavior – though under ‘tamer’, Semblance-influenced reasons – and tensed up a bit as a result. Blood’s gonna end up spilling here and there at this rate… Fuck…

Still in their own places, both Ryan and Taeseung remained as they were, despite the fact that they felt the need to intervene in some way- be it by trying to lighten the air and mood up with some degree of convincing, or to just try and take Misaki out of the scene altogether. Regardless of their thoughts, however, they just stayed back for the meantime, but it was obvious that they, too, were beginning to get a bit tense. Even Tae seemed to get slightly antsy and anxious as he nearly mimicked Corvou’s readied stance, slipping his hands into his pockets to give him an easy hold of Romulus and Remus if need be.

Bai, on the other hand, decided to listen from afar while staying perched within his spot in the trees, glaring at the scene before him with a tiger’s predatory intensity. By that point, he was on the verge of beginning to shout, himself, and to just initiate another, very much unneeded outburst for the group. Catching himself, however, he took a deep breath to calm himself, his ears twitching and a growl beginning to vibrate within his throat as he clenched his gauntlet-clad hands. For the fucking love of all things good in this world, just please shut the fuck up already… the feline pleaded silently, his eyes never leaving the conflict-to-be despite the discomfort beginning to settle within his stomach due to it. Don’t… Fucking. Don’t…

[Empoleon_Blownaparte]

"MISAKI, WE ALL KNOW YOU'RE AN UNLIKEABLE BITCH, SO JUST SHUT U-...." Pete froze up as Lucy gave her reply "So... That's what this is about...?" he said as he slowly started walking towards the girl as she slowly started swaying "Lucy... We can talk about that later... But to do that, you need to be alive.... So, y'know... It's better for both of us if you don't jump..."

[Paige weaver]

Misaki would shake her head in slight anger before walking closer and pushing pete away. "I may be a unlikable bitch but I know whats fucking right and for one lucy I fucking hate pete and two if you want to jump stop putting on a fucking show of attention like your doing you fucking self centered bitch."Misaki would sneer some as she turned around and started to walk away. "Or you know you could stop being a baby and realize you have people that care about you. Hell Even I care about your selfish ass other wise I would have not dropped every thing to come. So I guess what I'm saying is grow the fuck up."

[Drae]

...was that supposed to be a Compliment Sandwich? Natalie thought as she raised an eyebrow after hearing Misaki's words. Behind her, Kuro had drawn Ragnarok and was running the lotto in the hopes of getting his Short Circuit paradigm just in case.

Lucy smiled bitterly as she lowered her gaze. "That's where you're wrong, Misaki, she mutters as her eyes lose focus again. "I never wanted attention, and certainly not now," Lucy continued, her eyes glossing over as she shifted her center of gravity back. "All I want is to disappear in peace."

Natalie's eyes widened as time seemed to slow down. Much to their gratitude, Kuro's blade had indeed spun true, and he reacted first. By shifting her center of gravity Lucy had tilted herself back just enough to fall. It wasn't a jump, more like a Trust Fall, but nonetheless it still didn't bode well. In an electric flash Kuro's blade, along with his body, shimmered from sight to appear a short distance away from the location prior to activation of the Paradigm's special ability. The Nightmare had teetered over the edge and was now at the mercy of gravity.

Ishini herself only reacted a split second later than Kuro, but opted to tap Corvou lightly before rolling a short distance to activate her own Semblance, the shockwave blasting clear of anyone as she attempted to catch hold of the falling girl as well.

In a second, everything changed. And time seemed to stand still.

Natalie dropped to her knees in shock as Kuro closed his fist in frustration. Leaf simply looked on in surprise, not really knowing how to react as Ishini cursed fluently enough to put a sailor to shame. The Mercenary withdrew his empty hand from the drop and stood up abruptly. He walked over to a tree as Ragnarok reran the lottery, but came up with nothing. In one swift motion, Kuro's body radiated a dark blue, and he swung his blade as he stomped through the forest.

After a short pause, the trees within 35 feet on his right side dropped to the forest floor, cut clean by the claymore.

One second had been all it took to watch the world crumble.

---Plot Event 1, Complete---
[Lucy Raine; Status: MIA, Presumed Dead]

[Requiem]

The same, general time in which the Nightmare had begun her gradual tip over the edge, Bai Hu had been keeping a sharp and silent eye from a distance. Because of this, he was prompted to quickly and finally jump out of the tree from which he took hidden sanctity within upon feeling significantly more urked about the situation. At once, he deactivated his Semblance while angling both of his gauntlets behind him, giving each one a strong shot in attempt to propel him further and faster across the clearing, his mind caught up with the same goal as the others that made their advances. Alas, however, his efforts were for naught as he found himself staring over the edge, his ears pinned back as he grit his teeth and lashed his tail behind him.

On another end of the scene, Corvou himself had begun to sprint forward at the same moment as the others, seeming to barely feel the touch that Ishi gave him while doing so. All that he did was give her a small, barely noticeable glance at her before continuing his lunge outwards, managing to roll past the others who had ran forward. He reached out in a final, aiding attempt to bring Lucy back to stable ground, though only found himself crouching dangerously close to where she stood just seconds ago with nothing but the air within his grasp. Narrowed, silver eyes of his just stared out at the empty hand stretched before him before it clenched into a slow fist, pulsing boldly within a surge of his darkened, navy blue aura a single time.

Off on the sidelines, both Thanatos and Taeseung had done the same, though a moment too late. When they, too, would have arrived to make their feeble tries to help out, they decided to stay back for safety’s sake as the electrical ripple sent out by the amber-eyed professor afar strung clear through closer proximities. As a result, both cousins simply stared before them, frozen with shock and concern with the situation that had suddenly unfolded before everyone present.

Soon after the rightmost part of the forest had been cleaved down, Bai released a slow, yet rumbling and intense growl as his tail gave a single and final lash behind him. ”…Fucking batshit insane little fucker…” he hissed in a seemingly bitter manner, crouching a bit lower to the ground as he glared down and over the cliff. His behavior earned the attention of his drakian companion afar, causing him to glance over despite what was happening.

”Bai, what are you-…” he began almost at once, his tone low and stern. It would take little time for him to cut himself off, however, as he realized the positioning that his Huntsman-in-Training took. Upon coming up with the revelation, the professor widened his eyes slightly. ”…YOU IDIOT, DON’T YOU-!”

Regardless of whether or not the statement was completed, whatever the azure reptilian would have spoken would proved to be for naught. In the end, he ended up watching his friend vault over the cliff himself, giving another dual blast through his gauntlets to jet him through the air at a more forced pace. Within moments, he, too, disappeared down toward the depths of whatever lay at the bottom of the cliff’s dropoff point.

Seeing the secondary display not too long afterwards, the Azuryn found himself frozen in complete and utter shock as he slowly gazed down yet again. While frozen and silent for a few seconds, he snapped out of his inactive, statue-like display after another moment, ending it with a deep, silent inhale, which was followed by a slightly stressed growl outwards. ”…Fucking…idiot…” he cursed under his breath, clenching either hand of his so hard by that point that his nails begun to dig lightly into his skin. Tightly, he shut his eyes while clenching his teeth fiercely, though seemed to grow quickly yet eerily calm soon afterwards.

…You told me to keep an eye on my students. I hope you’re still holding me to those words by this point.

He lifted himself up slightly and into a crouch, glaring down beneath him.

…Sorry. You’ll have to find a substitute for my class for the meantime. …Heh… Or teach it for me yourself for now… You’d do a phenomenal job, and I’ll be sure to repay you for it…

With that thought, he, too, disappeared in the blink of an eye, with only a bold, clear, and aura-composed silhouette of his figure left in his place as he sent a shockwave out across the edge of the cliff to hurl him out of sight.

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