Upon Vestia: Chapter Five

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"All right... right, we'd better get him to the med... the med bay," Asher said. "And... and do some tests to see what's needed."

"Guards!" Jane yelled, regaining her wits after a few moments of shock and panic. This day wasn't going well at all, and she was disoriented by the sudden changes.
Guards rushed in carrying tasers and machine guns, all aiming at the intruders, then opening fire.

"Yo." Merith said, throwing a peace sign at Asher's shocked call of his name. Meanwhile Shock stood, groaning and rubbing the back of his head, "Man, you're gonna give me a concussion soon enough..."

Before Merith could reply, he paused as Jane called for assistance, and both men waited with unamused face as they waited for them to come, Shock quite literally tapping his foot while both of them crossed their arms. As soon as they open fired, the two sprung in action. Shock wasn't even a blur as his only 'superpower,' was revealed, the Quicksilver of the Avians racing along the room, effortlessly rushing up to the guards and beginning to disarm them fast as the speed of sound, a thunderclap-like noise booming through the room as each guard would suffer a whiplash, maybe even a cut or broken bone as he knocked their weapons out of their hands and returning to MErith's side with a cocky grin. Meanwhile Merith stood right where he was, and once the gunfire subsided, the hundreds of bullets hung, suspended in midair by an unknown force. Merith enjoyed how effortlessly he could control his arcane without it seeping into his emotions...

The man grinned, "My turn." and raised his hands as if to present something in his palms, six arcane blade swinging into existence behind him, hovering with their points facing the floor. They had an uncanny detail to them, something Merith would have been unable to create before, and would have instead made blades of untamed arcane beams, with no distinctive edge had he done this before his completion. "Are we all ready?"

Starr had to sit down again. It was too much happening at once here and her mind couldn't process it all with the lingering tranquilizers. "What?"

The humans didn't know exactly how to respond to such a display of power. Those who had been hurt let out gasps and cries of pain and fear, seeing that their future was going to be short and not bright. The others thought desperately, attempting to find a solution to these newcomers' immense strength.
Someone pulled a softly glowing protection charm from her pocket. Someone else prayed. A few tried to sneak closer.

Asher watched in horror, seeing that Merith was once again going to slaughter multitudes of people. He had to stop it this time. He couldn't let Merith do this again, no matter how guilty these people were. "Don't kill them," he begged Merith, "Not again."

Merith seemed to wince at Asher's words, hesitating for a few moments as his eyes flashed to the ground, dark and stormy with the weight of his guilt. Shock cast an angered glance at Asher, as if infuriated that he had used such words, "Chill, will you?" The bird turned to face Merith again, "Come on, you and I both know you weren't going to kill them anyway, so let's be done with it." He managed a weak smile, as if to assure his friend.

Merith blinked out of his trance, nodding in silence as he faced his hands down, and the swords all turned horizonatlly, facing the men. Without warning they raced forward, but oddly did not impale them, only to fade and pass right through them, sending a sort of sleeping spell on them all as they rushed through their bodies. Only Jane was left untouched.

Merith did not look at Asher again after his begging, the stabbing pain in his heart throbbing through his body. Come on, you knew they weren't going to welcome you back openly, be a little chipper. He told himself and tried to straighten his slumped shoulders again.

Starr watched the men fall to the ground, mostly unhurt and just asleep. She frowned and shook her head, raising a hand to her temple. Nothing was making much sense to her but one thing even she noticed was that Merith was different now, she wasn't entirely sure it was him that stood there now. "Merith?"

Asher flinched as the swords shot through the air, barely forcing himself to not look away. If Merith was dealing with living people, his actions should be recorded by someone whose memory was photographic, in case those actions caused a life to end.
Jane was still standing when it was over, and that worried him. He didn't want to anger Merith by begging further though, so he stayed silent.
"What are you doing, alien?" Jane asked Merith furiously.

Merith managed to force his eyes on Starr, but it was obviously difficult for him to meet her gaze as he smiled at her softly. "Hey." Sure, he had changed, partly weighed down with the guilt of his atrocity and the completion of his creation, to which he never knew that he had only been half perfected before. His face showed the guilt and grief he held for his crime, but now showed a certain purpose and clarity to it, more comfortable with the control of his magic than before. He turned back to Jane, staring at her, "Here to have you release these people, Terran. That is all for now."

Shock snickered, "Unless we all want some fun times? The women are pretty and the men don't seem too bad either. It could be one giant--"

Merith stared at Shock, who raised his eyebrows before gasping, "Shit! There aren't children here, are there?!"

"Children on the ship" Starr said quietly and shook her head again before standing to make her way to the bars to try to get them to open

Asher glared at Shock. "I do hope that you didn't intend that to sound as disgusting as it did. Hurting helpless people is never acceptable."

"Why would I release them?" Jane asked, hands shaking.

Shock turned back to look at Asher, talking to Merith as he did. "That's the android, right?"

"Yeah."

"Does he have a humor switch? Is it turned off? Or is he always has a stick up his metal a--"

"OKAY, moving on." The Keeper clapped his hands together, ignoring Shock's words now, and returned his attention to Jane, "Because I'm giving you a chance to release them on your own merit instead of making you fall asleep to leave you here while there's a gaping hole to the frigid mountain air above you. Your choice." Though it was a threat, it was certainly a bluff on the freezing to death part.

"Forgive me if my sense of humor is somewhat lacking at the moment," Asher said a bit icily. "I have no idea what sort of a person you are, my friends are delirious, and the only weapon I have available is my words. I am not in an especially good mood."

Jane faltered, thinking it over. "You won't let us die if I free them?"

Shock blew a raspberry at Asher, looking more and more unamused. "You must be fun at parties." Already he didn't seem to get along with the robot, which secretly worried Merith. The Creator did say herself that he was a hard head and vulgar-mouthed person, but he wasn't coherently bad. He was a person that helped Merith grow to cope with his mistakes, even if the other priests and priestesses gave him an uncertain glance. Merith nodded as he replied to Jane, "That's right."

Starr shook her head and looked at her door, frowning in concentration as she broke the lock then jiggled the door to open it. "No cage" She muttered then looked to Merith again

Asher bit back an angry retort, and tried to focus his full attention on more important matters, such as Merith, and the situation with the humans. There would be time to sort out his and Shock's disagreements later.

Jane Smith pulled an electronic key from her pocket and pressed a button, unlocking the cages. "Happy?" she asked.

"Very." Merith said, smiling. "Thank you for your cooperation." With that, the enchanted arcane swords danced behind her in silence before 'impaling.' her to put her asleep. The rubble from the destroyed mountain began to float upwards and heal itself to make sure the people didn't not die in the cold.

Merith fell silent, not looking at the newly liberated group, frozen in his place as he merely stared at nothing in particular, anything besides them...

Asher quietly stepped out of his cell, looking from Starr, to Kay, to Merith, unsure where to start. "Thank you," he said to Merith finally. It felt wrong to thank Merith for anything after what had happened, but now was no time to be rude.
Deciding that Starr seemed to be recovering quickly, he went into Kay's cell to check his condition.

Starr glanced to the others then walked over to Merith to stare at him for a long moment in silence before she slapped him across the face. "You killed so many, you ignored me."

Merith felt his face jerk to the side as she whipped the side of his face with his palm. He touched his cheek, feeling its sting as the red handprint would soon appear. Finally his tranced face twisted into a sort of agony as he turned away, "I kn-know..." His voice was quiet, as if he was exhausted, his very psyche bearing the weight of what he had done, and every step and word they made only surged the reminder, continuously taunting at him. Saying sorry just didn't seem to justify it.

Shock said nothing, stepping backwards but did snort as Starr gave the smack connecting to the man's face.

Asher didn't even flinch at the sound of Starr slapping Merith. Without the Laws forcing his actions, he was able to concede without difficulty that Merith deserved it.
Besides, he was busy right now. With someone who hadn't destroyed a planet.

"Why?" Starr asked, following his turn so she could see his face "Why do that? None on that world were guilty of that crime, that was Sulon that did that, she asked them to kill...her." She stopped, tears catching her unaware and shook her head, "We found the truth, she was the family spy that you warned us about, then you come here and save us?"

"I... I couldn't control it." Merith said, hating that she followed him, and instead forced his eyes to the ground. "There was... So much rage... I wish I ould take it all back, but I... Can't..." He closed his eyes for another excuse to not look at her.

"But I came to help because I still consider you friends... Even if you don't consider me one."

Starr looked to him then slowly nodded, thinking about what her own anger had made her do. Abruptly she shivered then shifted, changing to her star dragon because it couldn't feel the cold like any of her other forms could. "I am glad you remembered that now. Now can we go home before I pass out again? I only suppressed whatever they gave me." She said tiredly

He nodded, and went forward to help the drugged duo, only to stop and look at Asher. He felt a lurch in his stomach knowing the medic wouldn't want him anywhere near them and stepped back again. He nodded to Shock, who took the cue and stepped forward, dramatically bowing. "Evening, Ma'am! Would you like some help? Or should I help the Gent over there?" Shock pointed to Kay, who looked the way he felt.

Starr blinked and looked at Merith again "Matt and Thalia were with me not long before, I don't know where they are, or Ellie and Shane." She said then looked over to Asher and Kay. "We need to find everyone" She looked to the bird person curiously then blinked "Help Kay and Asher, please."

Kay was fairly delirious, looking up at everyone weakly. He wasn't hallucinating was he? this... really just happened? His eyes narrowed at Merith but he hadn't the strength or the mental clarity to say or do anything.
He tried to move, damn whatever they'd drugged him with, it kept him conscious but extremely woozy and spaced out.

Asher didn't have any first aid supplies with him except the handful of super basic ones in his pocket, none of which seemed likely to be useful. He took off his jacket to cushion Kay's head from the hardness of the floor, and sat down next to him. "You're safe now," he said gently, barely resisting the urge to hold Kay's hand, "Try to relax."