(Although it was never specified in FF: Incarcerated, this RP takes place in NYC. For me, at least. I'll probably leave anyway.)

Callum turned off the TV and looked at his clock. It was 2:00 A.M. He couldn't sleep ever since he learned a powerful game villain was inside him. Vanitas. Ever since Vanitas possessed him (If he did, maybe he was in there since birth, so gained influence) Callum had been a jerk. He didn't have any friends now. I hate you, Vanitas! He heard a scoff. Really? Do you? Callum summoned his keyblade. "I won't let this take me over. Vanitas, you won't win." His void gear looked ominous. Too ominous.

Vanitas shook his head. "Hmph. Aqua, is it? Callum was weak. I took over, becasue he needs someone strong to guide him. And to you, (Alex), don't start a fight you can't win." Vanitas turned and started to walk through the dark corridor, before turning around as it closed. His eyes flashed, and he was Callum for a second. He looked at Rebekah, and mouthed, 'Sorry', and then his yellow eyes were back, and the corridor closed, leaving a trail of dark wisps, until even they were gone.

***

Joy's mouth hung open. He just betrayed his friend's last wish; to protect Callum. He picked up Calder's body, and ran straight for Mariah's apartment. He needed somewhere safe, since Calder's body wasn't disappearing. He ran up to her door, and held Calder above his back (Like Aqua did with Ven) and knocked on Mariah's door.

“Wait!” Rebekah called right before Callum disappeared. But then he was gone. Aqua...what's going to happen to him?

 

“I wish I knew. Vanitas obviously has a very strong hold over his heart. I just hope he doesn't become a threat to us... Anyway, let's do what we can now and help James.”

 

Rebekah looked over at the battle that was going on between James and the armored man. She nodded, ran over to the enemy, and attacked him from behind with Triple Blizzaga.

 

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Mariah had become determined to be ready for the next fight, whenever that may be. Aside from preparing her, it would get her mind off of her problems with Joy and James, at least. After sleeping a little longer following everyone's departure, she had made sure to eat, and then did a light workout. Was it just her, or was she looking just a tinge healthier than she had just a couple of days ago? If it was true, she concluded it must have come from being Inhabited—the ability to heal more quickly than “normal” people.

 

At the moment, she was busy trying to find any information she could on Cain which, in turn, she hoped could possibly give everyone a better idea of what Cain's “apprentice” was capable of and where he might hide out in the case that he escaped them. So far, there was next to nothing. When she heard the knock at her door, she got up quickly and ran to open it, hoping that everyone had returned safely. When she opened it, she gasped, first at the sight of Joy, then of Calder on his back, unconscious, or... No, she thought. “Is he...?” she couldn't finish the question.

Edited April 20, 201213 yr by Always

Joy nodded sadly. "He's...dead. Unversed killed him. I promised to protect Callum, so I can't stay very long. Do you happen to know where I can keep Calder, or bury him? I need to get back to the battle, quick." Cloud, you there? He heard a sigh. Yeah, I'm here. Calder died, huh? He seemed to have meant a lot to you. Joy nodded. "He was my best friend."

Mariah felt the tears burning in her eyes. It was strange—she had dealt with so much death the previous year, it wouldn't seem like this would be a huge blow. But it was. Calder had been such a nice, upbeat person, and he was so young. It just wasn't fair. Despite this, Mariah swallowed and tried to blink the tears back, but they had already been brimming at that point, and they spilled over her cheeks. “Yes,” she replied, her voice wavering. “Get him into my car, and I'll...bury him. It won't exactly be the kind of burial he would deserve, but...I think he would understand. I'm so sorry, Joy.” It would take a couple of hours to get to the location, and she knew that Joy probably didn't have that kind of time. However, it was the only place she knew of to go where it was more than likely that no one would see the act of someone randomly burying a body.

(What I miss? I have been busy the past few days.)

(People have been killing the Behemoths, Sora has appeared Inhabiting Seichi, James is fighting Sumer [inhabited by Ansem SoD] and Rebekah is now trying to help James, I think Keilani and I think Troy are killing some Heartless, and Callum inadvertently killed Calder, then got taken over by Vanitas and disappeared, and Joy has brought Calder's body to Mariah's apartment while everyone else is still fighting. LOL I think that's it.)

Troy smiled and agreed, but couldn't help feeling bad that she was getting hurt by the heartless. No matter what he did, it seemed, she ended up getting hurt. He wondered if maybe she wouldn't have even met most of the others if he hadn't been there with her walking around the other day? Even if it wasn't his fault, he still felt bad. All he could do for now was smash in heartless until hopefully the numbers dwindled down.

 

(OOC: I don't see as how I can do all that much right now until this scene comes to a close.)

Sumer felt all three ice crystals hit him directly in the back and the thunder pounded into his skull. "I guess no one can get a good 1v1 anymore." Sumer jumped high into the air and called out, "Supreme Dark Maelstrom!" and thousands of copies of his sword came from behind him and rained upon the Inhabited below.

 

Tudi looked up as soon as she heard the yell. To her surprise many swords came down upon her and the others. She dodged few coming towards her and threw a shuriken aimed at his head.

Edited April 20, 201213 yr by Yuffie Kisaragi

Alex couldn't move from his spot.

"Cat got your tongue? You just stood there."

"That darkness...it's so strange."

"That's true darkness"

"It's awful."

"Yeah...Wait!? Are we sure Axel I still alive!?"

"Felix!"

James backflipped and dodged the swords coming down, though he did get cut by one or two. "Barrier!" he said, raising his hands up and creating a barrier around them that the swords bounced off of.

 

Seichi dodged some of the swords until James created the barrier. "Wow Riku, you're really strong!" Sora said in awe.

Rebekah put up a Barrier around herself, then wondered why none of the blades were bouncing off of it. She noticed that James was there, and had cast a larger Barrier around everyone closest to the adversary. James! she thought. When did he get here?

 

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Keilani gave a startled cry as the swords rained down, and she ran in front of Troy and blocked them with her Keyblade, both from herself and from him. She knew it may not provide Troy much protection since she was shorter than him, but she wanted to do what she could.

(Aria, Aria J, Noel)

 

With the full power of team work, Aria, Aria J, and Noel got rid of one of the heartless. They were sweating and breathing hard. "Why is it that we seem to be get into more action lately?" Noel asked. "I dont know, but how is it you can use powers Aria?" Aria asked. "I will explain at a later time, but right now we should try and help this people out. Aria if you believe it you can fly, and Noel if you try hard enough you can roar to the heavens thanks to Peter Pan and Simba. I on the other hand have more powers of my own, with the gipsy like way of Esmeralda." Aria J said. "Okay lets try and help." Noel said. Suddenly, they realized that the other Behemoths and the soilders were gone. "Why did they just disappear?" Noel asked. " 'He' must have gotten to far to keep his summoning skills up. Now we just need to get rid of Ansem SoD." Aria J said. They then ran into help. Aria J used fire and water behind Sumer, and Aria shot her gun and Noel went at him with his sword.

Joy nodded, and gently laid Calder's body on the ground near Mariah. He ran off, but stopped to look back. "I...I promise to come back this time. Just you wait." He then ran off, pulling his Buster Sword off his back. "I need help, Cloud. Take over!" You got it. His eyes turned bright blue, and he arrived back at the fight. Cloud looked around. "Anyone need any help?"

***

Vanitas arrived outside the barn in the country, a place he thought would be safe enough for now. He leaned against the door, watching the sun descending.

"Did someone ask about me?" Felix said pulling up in the bus. He'd missed the behemoth, and ended up going through the wooden fence that kept the hotel away from the interstate. He then followed the road back to the motel. "So, did I miss anything?" he asked with a smile.

The shuriken dented Sumer's helmet, making him lose his concentration and he crashed to the ground. "Maybe I should have planned a little better." He muttered.

'Nonsense! You planned fine! It's these people who refused to let you have a fair fight.'

'Anyway, I'm retreating. A little too many to fight for my taste.' Sumer vanished in a cloud of darkness.

'well, Callum turned into Vanitas and disappeared. What were you thinking about using a bus!!? You missed anyway, you could have died!' Roxas yelled through him.

Alex closed his mouth.

Why did you do that?

Axel killed himself once already, he is not going to do it twice.

Right.

Mariah watched as Joy left. “That's what you said the last time,” she whispered. She looked down at Calder's body, but quickly looked away—it was too painful. She then picked up the body and slung it over her back as Joy had done, and carried it to her car and drove off. As Mariah drove, she thought of both Joy and James. She cared for both of them. How could that be? Wasn't it supposed to be simple to choose the one person you cared about most? Of course, it wasn't like Inhabited people were considered when it came to these universal love principles.

 

Which brought her to the next question: how real were her feelings for Joy? Would she have fallen in love with him had it not been for their Inhabiters? James...she had fallen in love with him even though Tifa loathed Sephiroth. Never once did Mariah hate James. Feared him, maybe, as he had threatened to kill her and the others more than once, but never hated. And if that was the case, then she could just as easily have not had any special feelings for Joy, right? What she felt for him had to be real. She had fallen for him even before Cloud had affected his personality very much. And this made her think of something else: were Joy's feelings for her real? Did he even care about her anymore? When he ran away, was it to escape having to deal with his pain, or having to deal with her? Maybe these were the most important questions to be asking. Then she remembered that James had run away, too. What was his reason? She noticed she was getting close to her destination, shook her head to clear it, and started driving into a forest.

 

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Rebekah was filled with relief to see that Felix was unscathed, but she hid her relief behind annoyance. “Felix, you idiot!” she yelled. “Why would you ever do that? Like Alex—or, Roxas—said, you could have killed yourself! That was really stupid, you know.”

 

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Keilani looked back at Troy once it was over. “Are you okay?” she asked, panting. A second later, she fell to her knees, exhausted from everything that had happened that day. “Whoa, that wasn't supposed to happen. I swear, I'm not usually such a klutz.” She gazed up at him again. “Anyway, thank-you...for coming for me. That was really...” A tear finally rolled down her cheek. “Really sweet. And brave.”

Edited April 21, 201213 yr by Always

James dismissed his Keyblade and gave a sigh of relief. "Is everyone okay?" he asked, looking around at all the Inhabiters.

 

"I'm fine." Seichi said, walking up to him.

 

"Who are you?" James asked. Wait, I know that inhabiter! Riku said.

 

"I'm Seichi Richards, and I have Sora as my Inhabiter. Hey Riku! Sora said.

 

I knew it. Riku said. "I see. Well, good to have you with us Seichi, Sora." James said, patting him on the shoulder. He looked around and didn't see Mariah, but he did see Joy. Did that mean that they weren't together? "I've got to go." he said. He sprouted a wing and flew off to look for Mariah.

(Aria, Aria J, and Noel)

 

When they had finally caught their breath, Aria looked over at Aria J and Noel. "Okay, this has been someday already. I guess the only thing we can do right now is, well do whatever these people are doing." Aria said. They then walked over to the bus. "So whats next in this little adventure?" Noel asked Felix.

'Someone agrees.' Roxas said through Alex. 'Have you lost your head or something?'

Roxas what are you doing?

Trying to knock sense into my friend.

Do that without me included.

So this is the easiest way to talk to him.

This is humiliating.

As Keilani fell to her knees, Troy rushed to grab her shoulders, steadying her. "Sweet and brave, ya right. I couldn't even keep her from being captured in the first place!" Troy thought to himself, unable to hide the shame on his face. After gently wiping away her tear, he pulled her in and hugged her tight, mostly because he was just so glad to see her okay, but also to hide the matching tear that had escaped from his own eye.

Mariah finally reached a spot in the forest she deemed fit to bury Calder unseen. She got out of her car, dug a deep hole, and placed Calder's body in it. She had covered his lifeless face with a cloth because she couldn't stand to look upon it. "Sorry, Calder," she whispered through her tears. "I wish we could've given you a more proper burial." After she had finished burying the body, she picked some flowers and put them on top of his grave. "It was great knowing you for that short time. Thank-you for staying by Joy's side when I wasn't there for him." Physically and emotionally fatigued, she turned and sat against one of the trees, closing her eyes.

 

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Keilani hugged Troy back and sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder. She had known that he cared for her, but enough to risk his own life? On one hand, it was painful to think about, but on the other, it was...amazing. She had never known what it felt like for someone to care that much about her. And she realized...maybe she felt the same way for him. After all, she had risked her life and the lives of all the others to save his. It was just her automatic reaction at the time, and she hadn't been thinking about exactly what kind of feelings were driving her to that. But now, she was pretty sure she knew.

 

She then wondered about the look that was on his face right before he hugged her. "You're so quiet," she said, not taking her head off his shoulder. "Is something wrong?"

James arrived at the forest and lowered himself on a branch of the tree that Mariah rested under. His wing dissappeared and he looked at the grave she made. Poor Calder, he didn't really know him, but knew it was still a great loss. He decided to let Mariah rest a bit before talking to her.

Mariah opened her eyes, believing she had heard something in one of the branches. She looked up and saw James watching her. “James!” she exclaimed, standing up and wiping her tears away hastily. “How did you find me here? And...how did you even get here?” As she looked at him, she couldn't help but feel pained for hurting him earlier. She had never dreamed she could hurt someone that way.

"Riku could sense Tifa." he said. "As for how I could get here, some of Sephiroth's powers stayed behind even though he is gone." The wing sprouted from his back and he said "This was one of them."