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It was just an average evening for the nephilim. He’d kinda gotten into a routine since coming to Evermore, work on the club with Mikael from Monday until Friday and then Saturday night he would just take the evening off to enjoy himself. That could be seen in many different ways but tonight it was entertaining himself in a local bar down the street with a couple of glasses of whiskey and talking to a few of the regulars. Aeryn was generally a talkative and approachable person who could pick a conversation with anyone and before long the whole bar was throwing banter back and forth across the room.
This was what he enjoyed most about people, the way they could all come together in a certain way of solidarity. There was soft music playing in the background which set the atmosphere well and every so often when a good tune would come on, the whole place would sing along like it was a concert. Aeryn didn’t know the name of the guy he’d been talking to about anything and everything for the past hour but that was the joy of heading out to socialize, you never knew who you were going to meet or what they may be like.
They were about halfway through a drunken rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody when the power cut. The whole place was plunged into darkness which only elicited an annoyed grumble from everyone in the place. The nephilim stretched up from the booth he was sitting in to see if he could see what was going on and just as he did so, for a brief moment he thought he saw a glimpse of a shadow like light moving across the room. But when he blinked, it was gone. Confused he shook his head a little, was he seeing things or should he be panicking? Because that was the same thing he had seen surrounding people that fateful night on the Isle of Skye.
And before he had the chance to react he heard a blood-curdling scream and smashing glass before the lights flickered on. Aeryn jumped to his feet and moved towards where the scream was coming from, but before he could make his way across the room the whole place descended into chaos. People who were drinking and singing amongst themselves happily suddenly looked at one another with a sense of rage in their eyes and then one woman lunged across the room towards someone else.
Aeryn’s natural instinct was to throw himself in the middle of the two of them who seemed to be trying to claw at one another ferally. Aeryn felt a horrible sense of deja vu come over him but there wasn’t time to be dwelling over things when literally everyone around him was launching themselves at one another like they had no control over their own senses. The nephilim kept getting between the fights, trying to break people off of one another but nothing seemed to stop them coming. He backed up a little until he bumped into someone behind him. As he turned his head his eyes met that of another dark-haired male who also seemed to have the senses about him and was attempting to stop the fighting on the other side of the bar “Any idea what the fuck is going on?” Aeryn yelled over the sound of the bar brawl.
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Aeryn was used to seeing bar fights, he’d been in many in his immortal life, he’d also broken up many, but there was something about this particular fight that felt off, feeling in the bottom of his chest telling him that he should be afraid. And he didn’t like it one bit. He was trying to get people to see reason as he tore them apart but every fight he’d seen had been nothing like this, those fights were a bit of shouting and punching but no one was trying to kill each other. He’d just about realized there was no talking these people out of their own insanity when he backed into the seemingly only sensible person in the whole place. He heard the cuss and shook his head, he had no idea what was going on but if someone didn’t do something quickly he had the feeling it would be a massacre. Just like the Isle of Skye.
The dark-haired Nephilim didn’t know the other male but beggars couldn’t be choosers in a situation like this so when the other male suggested knocking them all out Aeryn nodded “Aye” he responded and then got to work, he started with the stronger looking males on the left side of the bar, one of them had slashed another’s arm with a glass and it had caused a fair amount of blood to spill on the floor. Thankfully Aeryn was a warrior and had been dealing with violent situations pretty much for his entire existence. He moved swiftly, getting between them and then knocking a really hard blow to the back of the male’s head. He fell to the ground with a thud, out cold. “One down” he muttered as he left him laying on the ground.
The other male that he been fighting him instantly turned his attention on Aeryn, coming at him with a knife, the Nephilim, however, dodged the stabbing motion he made with a confused expression, everything that was happening was completely irrational and insane, there didn’t seem to any reason for what was happening. He grabbed the male by the scruff of his neck but not before the smaller figure managed to land a pretty hard punch to his gut which caused him to groan out in pain a little “Bastard” he complained before landing another sharp hit to the side of the temple which caused him to collapse, Aeryn was kind enough to guide him towards the ground and lay him down next to the other male.
Having a moment to breathe he looked up at the other male from before noting that he was working on the right side of the bar and seemed to be able to handle himself pretty well, Aeryn was pretty sure he was supernatural considering how well he was able to take people down so he decided to trust that he could leave it in his hands. He moved on to the next fight to break up, doing his best to move quickly before anyone did any permanent damage. At the same time, he was trying to figure out if there was something that could have caused such behavior, something he could stop or control.
“Something in the drinks?” he shouted as a possibility, though he’d been drinking all evening so unless he was immune to it then that couldn’t be right.
Aeryn couldn’t say he felt good about any of this, as he weaved between the people doing his best not to take too many hits, he was doing pretty well at keeping hands off him but then he felt someone tackle him towards the ground, caught off guard he stumbled forwards grabbing the bar for stability before he kicked back into the male’s chest sending him flying “Fucking hell” he cursed with a shake of his head, he never seemed to be able to catch a break, wherever he seemed to go, some kind of drama followed. The kick wasn’t hard enough though as the male got back to his feet, with a roll of his eyes Aeryn used his Nephilim powers to simulate pain in the male’s mind as he made his way over to him and then knocked him hard with his elbow.
By the time the two of them were done with breaking up all the fights and knocking quite literally everyone in the room out he was breathless, bending over a little and taking long annoyed breaths as he looked around them. His expression showed confusion as he rubbed at his jawline where he had taken a pretty hard hit. Considering that there were only two of them, they had come off pretty unscathed though he did spot a line of red on the other man's face. Well aside from the two of them, everyone was laying out cold on the ground, including the bartender so he hopped over the bar looking for some kind of first aid kit. He didn’t find any but he did find some paper towels which would at least do for cleaning up the blood on the both of them. He rolled some around his wrist and then put it under the tap for a few seconds before he tore it in half and offered it out to the curly haired male.
“A virus is possible but something that spreads that quickly?” Aeryn shook his head a little, he’d never seen anything quite like this, the speed that it took people out and the lengths that it affected them was scary. He reached up with the towel to dab at the gash on his arm with a shake of his head, things in Evermore had been getting really messed up lately, he’d heard about several cases of out of control violence, one that had resulted in a couple of deaths. Police had put it down to gang activity but the Nephilim had to wonder if there was more to it than that “I hate to say it, but this looks like the work of magic” though Aeryn had never heard of any kind of magic that was able to affect people’s free will and that worried the hell out of him.
“I’m Aeryn” the immortal introduced himself with a tip of his head towards the dark-haired male, he could tell the male was allied with a dark species by looking at him and from the way he had seen him fighting before the male was pretty sure he was either a valkyr or a dhampir “I would say the fact we’re not affected is because we’re supernatural but” Aeryn moved his gaze over to one of the guys that were taking a nap on the floor and wandered over to him, the dark-haired Nephilim lifted his arm to show a tattoo that he had spotted earlier while they were fighting “Pretty sure this is a pack tattoo” Aeryn grunted, none of it made any sense. He reached up to scratch at the back of his neck as he tried to figure out what happened next.
“I’m gonna hope like hell they wake up with sane minds because I really can’t be doing with round two” he commented and then took a seat at one of the tables, furrowing his brow as he tried to find some answer in his mind for what had happened.
A sense of dread began to overtake the ancient Nephilim as he began to flash back to the night he had woken up on the Isle of Skye, he hadn’t seen the outbreak of what happened with his own eyes but he had seen the aftermath of it, people running around in a frenzy, using their supernatural abilities to tear away at the island until there was nothing left of it, he had seen if falling into the sea as he held onto the one person he had managed to get out of there that night. There was nothing he could have done to stop it then but perhaps today there was more he could do. The male’s comments about viruses made him pull a face that spoke the words ‘well true’ and he shrugged, there was no real ruling anything strange out when you lived in the supernatural capital of the world.
Taking the glass of whiskey that the male offered he nodded a thanks before he lifted it to his lips and downed the entire contents in one, he didn’t even recoil from the taste because he was so used to the burn in his throat by now that it felt second nature “Tell me about it” he grumbled as he turned back to the tap and poured a second glass, they had just saved all of these people’s lives so he figured they could spare them a couple of drinks as thanks. Magic was something that Aeryn knew well, he had spent the majority of his long life protecting a magical object and learning about how it was made had lead to him learning a lot about magic in general “What’s really troubling is that no kind of magic I’ve ever seen has managed to cross the grounds of affecting free will” the Nephilim shuddered a little, he didn’t think any of those people wanted to hurt one another which meant their minds must have been tampered with.
In response to the toast Aeryn nodded a little and downed the second glass of whiskey before setting the glass down on the bar, he noted the fact that the other male didn’t introduce himself in response though he didn’t mind much, he just continued to call him ‘that guy’ in his mind. The dark-haired Nephilim furrowed his brow as his question though, he’d been trying to search for some unique factor the two of them had that everyone else didn’t, the natural assumption was supernatural Vs not but he managed to prove that wrong instantly by finding a therianthrope who had been affected. Aeryn had noted the male’s supernatural strength when he tackled him earlier. “You’re either a valkyr or a dhampir right?” the ancient male asked with raised brows, it was hard to differentiate between the two but he’d hedge a bet on dhampir because he hadn’t seen the male use valkyr level speed in the fight “Immortality switch on or off?” he questioned curiously, therianthropes were supernatural but not immortal so maybe that was the link.
Somehow it always seemed to come back to him, Aeryn tried his best to stay out of supernatural affairs, he had enough to worry about with the stone of El’Ar which he still wore around his neck but somehow he always seemed to get dragged into situations like this and once he was involved he couldn’t help but to feel responsible so when the other male asked him if he was coming outside to investigate further the Nephilim already knew his answer “Magic like that would take some serious source of energy, maybe we can look for anything suspicious in the area” though he dreaded to think what someone might have to do to get access to that level of power. He grumbled but made his way to the door “Ain’t any use in waiting around for things to get worse so” he lead the way, heading out onto the streets of Evermore and gazed around suspiciously for anything out of the ordinary.
A first time for everything indeed, but he had to admit this really set off warning sensors in his head and made him feel a little sick to his stomach, the very idea that magic could take away someone’s free will was terrifying, if someone could make an entire room full of strangers want to kill one another, who knew what they could be capable with more power. “Definitely not a sentence I want to hear” he commented with an abrupt shake of his head, Aeryn had been around long enough to know there were things you just didn’t mess with unless you wanted to face dire consequences and trying to get in the way of free will was basically on the very top of the list, after all, he’d seen the effects of a magical object which sat on the edge of that line, the damn thing was around his neck.
Aeryn arched his brow curiously when the male said he was factionless, knowing how the system in Evermore worked it was almost unheard of for someone to be factionless as the ambassadors liked to keep an eye on most people “Do I want to know?” the Nephilim asked but quickly shook his head answering his own question, he probably did not. His theory about immortality did seem to hold weight though as he expected they were the only ones in the room that seemed to have it. He wasn’t sure why immortality might exempt you from magic though. Downing the last of his drink he nodded as name was put to face “I’d say nice to meet you but it doesn’t feel like the right situation” he dark-haired Nephilim wrinkled his nose “Nephilim yes, though not your typical one” he commented, most Nephilim had gotten their immortality a few years ago from the comet that landed in Evermore but Aeryn had been alive much much longer than that.
As he headed out of the bar, Aeryn scanned his eyes over the streets only to notice that it was like a ghost town, the Nephilim wasn’t a stranger to the nightlife scene of Evermore and this certainly wasn’t what a normal night looked like. He furrowed his brow wondering if perhaps something had happened to draw people away “Maybe we should try checking other bars?” Aeryn suggested with raised brows “If they targeted one it would make sense to target others too right, lots of people all in the same place and if they’re drunk then their minds might be more….” he searched for the word “susceptible”. Spotting another bar over the road he nodded and headed towards the door to test his theory but just as he was walking up to the window he heard a loud smashing sound and a women’s shoe came soaring past his head. The ancient immortal ducked naturally, placing his hands on his head to shield himself from the glass that sprayed out over the sidewalk and the road “What the fuck” he muttered under his breath thoroughly unimpressed by whatever was going on tonight.
Aeryn didn’t really rely on others, he hadn’t done so for the most of his very long life, he could thank the stone around his neck for that one, traveling with the stone of El’Ar had turned him into the flighty and paranoid person he was today, though not many people knew that about him, what they usually saw was a guy who refused to commit himself to anything and appeared wild and reckless. That was why it felt so strange to just begin working with a stranger as though they had been assigned on some undefined mission together. He had to admit though, the other male seemed to know what he was doing and frankly, the Nephilim feared he was going to need all the help he could get to figure out what the hell was happening tonight. It gave him a prickly feeling against his skin which he recognized as the feeling of fear. Because it reminded him so much of the night an entire island had been torn to bits.
Aeryn raised his brows at the Dhampir’s response to his question and he joined him in a chuckle, the Nephilim wasn’t the kind to judge others for the choices they made, he had hardly made the best path with his own to be trying to tell anyone else how they should live their lives. Beggars couldn’t be choosers in a situation like this anyway, it wasn’t like there were any other immortals wandering around offering their help to stop the fights breaking out so he decided not to pry any further, really it was probably better that he didn’t know. Hearing the other male turn his question around on him Aeryn gave a wry smirk and shook his head a little, well at least he had a sound sense of humor on him “I don’t think I even want to know at this point” he admitted with a shake of his head, sometimes he wished he could forget everything, but that wasn’t how the world worked unfortunately.
Everything felt wrong to the Nephilim, to the point that his stomach was screaming at him that he needed to get out of there, Aeryn was rarely the type to actually listen to his own instincts though, his need for knowing the truth always seemed to trump those self-preservation thoughts he had at times. The two of them seemed to be on the same page when it came to investigating this, though Aeryn was very glad he hadn’t drunk too much this evening and was clear-headed because he dreaded to think what might have happened if this had happened while he was out of it on any level.
After ducking away from the flying shoe he blinked a few times to gather his composure before he heard the other male laughing, the Nephilim shook his head a little, though he was right, it was pretty funny that of all the things to break a window with, it was a shoe “Damn things are sharper than they look apparently” he commented as he picked it up and studied it for a couple of seconds before being reminded they were here for a reason. “I wouldn’t hold your breath” Aeryn commented as he followed Scorpios through the door and peaked over his shoulder at what was to come “Oh for God sake” he cursed as he looked between the people in the bar noting that some people had already been knocked out, or at least he hoped that was the case “Just what we needed, a supernatural brawl” he commented with a shake of his head “I think we should pose as though we’re affected by the spell, it’ll draw less individual attention on us while we take em on one by one” the Nephilim suggested noting the way each fight seemed to be smaller groups of people dotted around.
“Agreed” he responded with a nod of his head, honestly, Aeryn didn’t need to know all of the details and it would take too long to share it all and by the time they managed to figure out if they could trust one another, it would be too late to do anything. So in that respect, it was easier to trust his instincts and then worry about the details of it all later. Scorpios was a good fighter and his intentions seemed to be in the right place right now and that would have to be enough for this evening. Though perhaps if they managed to get out of this unscathed then they could revisit the topic because the other male seemed to be the kind of person that Aeryn might be able to get along with, at the very least, they seemed to be on the same page when it came to tactics and investigation.
“You could definitely take someone’s eye out with it” he commented as he cast the shoe aside, he imagined there were probably some very clever female warriors that manage to turn their shoes into actual weapons from the looks of this one, though this was just a regular shoe which hit the window at the right speed and velocity. Watching the brawl that was unfolding through the doorway he bit on his tongue inside his mouth, it was feral, people going at one another like their lives depended on it and it made him wonder what was going on inside their heads, did they even know what they were doing or were they just blindly acting without any thought for consequence. One thing was for sure, they didn’t score any points on technique.
Aeryn was a little confused when Scorpios spoke at first but as he crossed into the bar he realized how he wanted to play this particular tactic, Aeryn had been in enough fights in his life to know how to handle a fake one and so he chuckled with a slight smirk before he lifted his hand and without hesitation landed a punch against the dhampir’s cheek and pushed them both forward into the room. He pulled the punch though so it looked much worse than it probably felt, though his punches still hurt because he was a Nephilim and his natural strength was enhanced.
The weight behind the push sent them both crashing to the ground which was exactly what Aeryn was aiming for because no one questioned their presence in the bar or instantly turned on them, too lost in their own fights, but also from down here it was easy to see where everyone was and gauge what was happening. The Nephilim quickly froze when he smelt the familiar scent of something burning though and he realized there was a fire Initia in the mix here “Hothead has to go first” he stated matter of factly as his eyes scanned under the tables to try and find where this particular Initia was.
Aeryn found it strange just how in sync the two of them were, their strategy and approach to combat was very similar, logical, tactical, think before you act kind of mentality but also able to handle things with natural reflex and brawn when it was required. That's why Aeryn wasn't phased or confused by the suggestion to punch the other male, it was very intelligent when you thought about it really. The Nephilim, in turn, used the blow cleverly to get them into the room and to a place where they had a good vantage point, it was just two of them vs a full room of unknown assailants after all and Aeryn knew they had to play tonight smart. He was also beginning to wonder if this was going to be the same case for every bar in the area because if it was then they were going to be here all night and they probably wouldn't come out entirely unscathed even with two of them.
Looking over at the dhampir he furrowed his brow, it became evident in the last fight they entered that he didn't have his weapon with him which confused Aeryn because he thought that dhampirs were pretty reliant. As they canvassed the room he reached into his belt holster and pulled out a dagger which he offered out to the curly haired male and gave him a knowing nod, with any luck they could get through this without needing to bring out the blades but Aeryn felt better going into this fight if the only person he could rely on was armed sufficiently. “Mind powers are my forte” he responded with a smirk “but I can only keep one of them down at a time and it takes a lot of focus, so watch your back” he nodded before his gaze zoned in on the woman holding the stake like object and focused his ability on her. It didn't take long for her to collapse to her knees from the pain.
Aeryn decided to stay hidden at first knowing that the element of surprise was going to be pretty significant, but while he focused on keeping the woman down someone decided to kick him in the face. He recoiled surprised at the sudden action before he grabbed at the leg who had attacked him and pulled them roughly down to the ground. It was hard to balance that and holding the woman in pain long enough for Scorpios to take them out, he grunted spitting blood onto the floor as the person came for round two and he returned the favor by kicking them clean in the neck, hard enough to send them flying across the floor and knocking them out when they hit the wall. Suddenly, a lot of the bar's attention turned around him and Aeryn's eyes widened “Back to the old fashioned approach then” he commented with an annoyed grunt as he wiped blood from the corner of his face, looked worse than it was but he was still cursing the fact they had to go for the face.
Aeryn was quite a skilled fighter, it came from spending the entirety of your existence running for your life, or rather, running to protect something that people would kill over. Thankfully when he fell into the sea 100 or so years ago, the memory of the stone of El’Ar, which hung around the Nephilim’s neck, became exactly that, a memory. But usually what Aeryn was up against was a few assailants after one thing, facing a room of people who were all seeking to hurt everyone else in the room, that was a whole new ballgame. He found his focus split all over the place not knowing who to tackle first in order to prevent the most damage. Thankfully the dhampir was here to help rationalize his thoughts throughout the whole thing and the two of them worked strangely well together considering that this was the first time they met, Scorpios didn’t have his usual weapons and both of them were confused as hell as to why this was happening or how to actually stop it.
Aeryn had been doing his best to keep his focus on that one woman, the fire Initia, they were dangerous because they could send the whole place up in flames, the last thing the Nephilim needed was the whole place going up in smoke and having to drag people, who were fighting and kicking and screaming, outside onto the streets. At least here in the bar it felt contained, which was probably a naive thing to think considering this was the second bar they’d found with this problem and there could be countless more, but he was trying to think semi-positive. Aeryn cussed under his breath when he saw Scorpios get kicked from behind losing focus on their Initia friend as he fought off to the side. The Nephilim was still focusing hard, trying to take the woman down and make her pass out but she was fighting back hard against his mind games and then he got kicked in the face. That took his focus off the woman and onto the other guy who he threw across the room. Suddenly the element of surprise was gone.
He didn’t have time to catch up on what Scorpios was doing because the moment he truly joined the fight he had a flurry of people coming at him and he had to move his pain infliction from her to pretty much everyone else he was taking on. For the most part he was deflecting and knocking people back from him but it wasn’t without its casualties, one woman grabbed his hair and pulled it hard almost ripping it out from the roots before he elbowed her hard in chest and then before he even had time to get himself back upright a guy came right at him with a broken bottle. The blood went everywhere as it made contact with his shoulder and cut into the skin, he let out a long grunt of pain but still forced himself to get up despite the pain. This guy got the full force of Nephilim’s pain infliction until he couldn’t take the pain any longer and passed out.
Aeryn’s attention was taken by the smell of burning though and he widened his eyes “Oh fuck” he spoke loudly as he wiped off as much blood as he could from himself and made his way towards the bar which had now been set on fire. His eyes looked around for where to get water to put it out and he hopped over the bar and opened the fridge, grabbing as many bottled waters as he could find and then opening them and beginning to empty them all over the area. It wasn’t helping at all, he looked up over at Scorpios with a concerned expression as the fire began to spread and be pointed out the lever to the fire alarm, this meant they would have to take the fight out onto the streets but they couldn’t afford to let the fire get out of hand and he could see the bar had a sprinkler system installed.
The fighting was vicious and completely untargeted, he had gathered so far as he fought his way through the crowd, in the commotion and crowd of people, he had lost Scorpios who was probably on the other side of the bar looking for the fire Initia. Aeryn didn’t really have time to look for him because they just kept coming, grabbing whatever they could find to use as a weapon, he’d seen a few broken bottles fly across the room and caught himself on a few of the shards of glass on the floor ripping open a wound on his hand. Still, he continued to grimace and fight back, taking people down one by one. He was a tactical fighter so as he fought he was trying to gather bearings on their fighting motivations. The problem was, that they didn’t seem to have any. Everyone was attacking everyone in front of them, it was honestly like a blind fit of rage and the fighting matched it, lashing out, throwing hands with anyone, attacking without thought of consequence. They were well and truly out of control.
Just as he was finally understanding the extent of what was happening someone came up behind him and hit him very hard and very deliberately in the back. Aeryn stumbled forwards with a loud cry of pain because they had hit him right in the spot on his back where his wings rested, a Nephilim's weak spot. His whole body sent him crashing to the ground from the sheer intensity of the pain that coursed through him and he gritted his teeth as he curled up for a moment and tried to recover from the shock of the blow to his back. It was at that moment that Aeryn was beginning to realize the seriousness of the situation they were in. There was two of them against an entire bar of people, including some supernaturals. If there was another bar out there like this then the two of them were going to end up incapacitated. He’d already take some pretty heavy hits which weren’t going to heal quickly. He grunted, trying to catch his breath as he forced himself back to his feet. That was the thing with Aeryn, he wasn’t the kind of person to give up, he was a warrior in his blood and he would never go down without a fight.
Still things weren’t looking great for the two of them, he felt his breathing getting heavier as he gritted his teeth through the pain and then the burning smell began, at first he thought the fire might be containable but after realizing it was spreading faster than he could put it out he looked to the other male to pull the alarm. As soon as the ringing started to echo in the room, most of the people started to file outside and the water was enough of a deterrent, still, the fire seemed to keep spreading. Aeryn coughed a couple of times just as he heard Scorpios yell over at him, he’d been trying to contain it but it seemed pretty hopeless now, he’d have to hope the sprinkler system would do its job. “On it” he called out over the bar though he couldn’t see the dhampir any more thanks to the thick cloud of smoke. Aeryn pulled his shirt up over his face to prevent himself from directly breathing in the smoke as he looked for those passed out on the floor. He grabbed a couple of the people laying unconscious and propped them up against his arms as he dragged them towards the door.
When he got outside he headed down the steps and laid them down on the pavement before erupting into a loud throaty cough and doubling over from the force of the action. What he noticed when he looked up was a lot of people standing on the streets looking very confused, they had stopped fighting. Aeryn had no idea what the trigger had been but it seemed like whatever had taken over them had stopped now. One guy had his phone pressed to his ear, seemingly contacting the emergency services. Aeryn looked around for Scorpios and debated going back into the bar to ensure the place was empty, he had scanned the crowd and had managed to account for most of the people he recognized….except for Scorpios and the fire Initia. He swallowed as he rushed up towards the door.
Aeryn had a really bad feeling in his stomach about this whole thing, everything about it screamed chaos and complete lack of sense and it felt just like that night on the Isle where he had been entirely powerless to do anything about it. Tonight, there were things he could do but he still felt like he was clutching at straws when it came to stopping the magic. That was the thing about magic, he couldn’t explain or rationalize it and that’s what truly scared him, that someone out there could snap their fingers and make something as completely catastrophic as this happen. He was trying to understand a motive in his mind, why turn people on one another? What did it achieve other than chaos and destruction or was that what they were looking for? None of it made sense to him.
Thankfully, the alarms and the sprinklers seemed to have done the trick on emptying the bar, people spilling out onto the streets looking confused and completely horrified with themselves, Aeryn wanted to ask around about the experience but as soon as he noticed the fact that Scorpios and the fire Initia weren’t accounted for he was making his way back towards the building. Thankfully, as an immortal with accelerated healing, he didn’t really feel fear for his own safety in these situations, sure, it made him reckless and it was probably worrying for those who cared about him but often it was the courage he needed to get the job done and make sure whatever goal he had remained intact. Most of the time that was protecting the stone of El’Ar but tonight it was protecting people.
The moment he realized Scorpios was still in there he headed back into the building, covering his mouth with his arm to stop him inhaling too much smoke and he looked around through the haze but it was hard to see anything at all, instead he focused his hearing, trying to find where the other male had gone. He heard him yelling from another room, possibly further into the bar itself? The Nephilim crossed the room, hopping over the counter and heading through the door behind it. His eyes kept looking for anything but all he saw was smoke and smoldering flames from where the sprinklers had tried to douse them out. He quieted as he heard some of the conversation from ahead and he pieced together what might be happening, the sound of the threat making his eyes widen.
Aeryn didn’t really know what he was walking into but he knew they didn’t have a lot of time, he was worried for the soundness of the building and while the emergency services had been called he wasn’t sure they had the time to wait for them to arrive before the whole place collapsed. Still, he wasn’t going to leave Scorpios in here alone, they’d started dealing with this whole thing together and while they were essentially strangers, the other male had watched his back several times over already tonight and beyond usual rationale, he did trust him. Actions definitely spoke louder than words for the Nephilim and what he had seen from Scorpios tonight was nothing short of heroism.
He crept into the room quietly as to not pose a risk to whatever it was that the dhampir was planning but Aeryn did have his blade raised, ready to take out the fire Initia if she decided to take a move towards the dhampir if he couldn’t talk her down. It seemed evident that she wasn’t just under some irrational mind control, this felt calculated and cold and the three people sitting on the chairs looked absolutely petrified. He tried to assure them they were going to be okay with an assuring look. Thankfully, none of them alerted his presence to the Initia who had her back to him but he was waiting for the dhampir’s lead on how he wanted to handle this.
Aeryn wasn’t typically the type of person who got himself involved in a community, wasn’t worth getting attached when he would just have to leave again in a few months but since coming to Evermore, he had begun to understand the appeal, being around people and letting them in for once, it did feel nice. But never did he think he’d find himself running back into a burning building for someone he just met. And yet here he was, doing exactly that and not even thinking twice about it. The smoke was thick and it was clear that despite the sprinklers, the blaze was still very much a threat. The Nephilim reached up to wipe sweat from his brow as he made his way through the building doing his best to cover his mouth so he didn’t inhale too much smoke. He remained as quiet as he could when he entered the room, eyes moving from Scorpios to the family tied against the chairs in the middle of the room., three of them, what he supposed were a mother, father and child. Thankfully, the dhampir was doing a good job of keeping the hot head distracted.
The moment their gazes met, he knew there was an understanding between the two of them, the family came first and the rest they would figure out afterward. Neither of them probably considered themselves heroes before tonight but the way Scorpios put the safety of others before his own, Aeryn would call that pretty heroic for someone who got banished from his own community. He heard the quiet whimpering of the young girl who was struggling to stay quiet as she remained there, scared for her life. He met her gaze for a moment and pressed his fingers to his lips to assure her he was going to help her but she needed to remain quiet. Aeryn widened his eyes when he heard Scorpios start to bait her, of course, he instantly understood what he was trying to do but the grimace on the Nephilim’s face was evident, pissing off an already angry Initia was a bold move. Still, he wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.
He stayed there for a moment, waiting for the opportune moment, holding his weapon out in front of him as he watched her slowly giving over to her anger at the taunting and heading across the room towards Scorpios. He really hoped the dhampir knew how to handle all this because he knew there wouldn’t be enough time to run back in here again before the building collapsed. As soon as she launched herself for him, Ryn forced his eyes away and he headed over to the family starting with the daughter whom he used his sword to slash the restraints on the ropes, he then went for the mother and finally the father. He heard her scream towards them when she noticed that it had all been a diversion, he quickly places a pain infliction on her as he shielded the family behind him, ushering them towards the door. He wanted to stay and fight but he knew to get through the flames below was going to take someone supernatural.
He gave Scorpios one more look, assuring him that he had what it took to take her out before he turned his focus away from her and the pain infliction wore off, he headed downstairs with the family, leading the way as they came down into the bar area. Just as they were about to step out into the room one of the beams from the ceiling fell and Aeryn ran to stop it before it could hit any of them. The beam was one of the key structures of the building and so the moment he took hold of it he realized he needed to keep holding it up for the structure to stay intact “Go!” he instructed the family while he used all the strength he had to hold it up, the heat and the flames licking at his skin harshly as he grunted out in pain. Thankfully, they did as he asked and ran through the entryway and out onto the streets of Evermore.
For a moment as he stood there everything felt out of place and surreal, what started as a night of drinking and generally trying to relax had become a tale of horror that felt like it wasn’t going to end. The Nephilim had seen a lot of misery and cruelty in his life, from his father’s hostile takeover of his village and endless pursuit of power to the people to chased him across the world for that very same power, when Aeryn woke from a 100 year coma he woke to carnage much like tonight, supernatural beings unable to control their own selves and attacking the very home they built and the people they knew and loved. It was becoming a relentless cycle that Aeryn had no idea how to end, he was starting to wonder if he was just a magnet for danger or if he just always happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, the warrior wasn’t the type to sit back and do nothing, he had been too late to stop the fall of Skye but tonight he had done everything he could to save every person involved.
He focused his gaze as his arms gripped against the beam, it was heavy, like holding up an entire building heavy and he could feel flames licking at his bare arms and burning his flesh, while he did naturally have better healing than the average human it still hurt like a bitch and he winced a few times. His eyes were trained on the exit door which was still propped open and he could see the family from before, wrapped up in a hug and assuring one another that everything was okay, that made him smile faintly. He was a wanderer and a warrior and so the idea of having a family and that kind of settling had never really been on the table or his mind before, but he had been in Evermore for a full year now and no one had come looking for the stone and he was finally able to be in the same place as his sister once more, everything felt different now and maybe a small part of him wanted what they had, the kind of undying love he saw in their eyes.
His somewhat delusional thoughts were interrupted when Scorpios finally emerged from the upper level with the Initia in his arms, he eyed them both for a moment before he coughed another lungful of smoke and nodded a little “You’re brave” he spoke referring to the fact that she could wake up at any moment and would probably try and kill her all over again but they hadn’t seen any casualties from tonight yet and he understood not wanting to have a first “I’m right behind you” he promised as he watched the dhampir make his way to the exit, by now his arms were shaking from the pressure he was putting on them and he knew he didn’t have long before it all collapsed around him. He took a deep breath before counting down from 3 and then opening his eyes, letting go of the beam and dashing forward as quickly as he could.
Unfortunately the moment he let go the whole place started to become engulfed in falling burning debris, Aeryn could barely see from all the falling dust mixed with the smoke, he did his best to dodge it but as he made it to the door he heard a large piece of concrete falling, he dived forwards rolling forward just in time to miss it landing on it but the stability of the whole place was no compromised and while he was now outside the building he shouted loudly “Everyone get back” to which statement a lot of people dashed backward away from the house, he got to his feet dashing with everyone else just in time to see the whole place collapse. He widened his eyes and ran his hands through his hair as he crouched down and took long and deep breaths as everything that had happened tonight set in. His eyes scanned over the people on the street corner who were all looking either baffled or ashamed. His eyes searched through the crowd for Scorpios just as the police burst onto the scene.
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