One Final Fight For This Tonight. [Sangsue]

[{ Sixx]

In a state of absolute panic and hysteria, Sixx flew from the body that he had tried to protect so passionately. His spirit was without limit now, and he felt that he was going to drift away into nothing at any moment. It was a scary feeling, and he didn't like it. But he flew faster than he was sure any other Phantom ever had, through the space that his entity took up none of. He had to find a human, and fast. Because if he didn't, he couldn't get help. And he was sure that Thomas would die in the horrible state he was in. It terrified Sixx just to think of Thomas's mangled body lying limp on the ground next to the lake. Six raced to the outskirts of the city, an invisible spirit, and flew into the back of the first person he saw, which was a tall guy that looked to be about in his mid twenties.

Now in his new body, he ran all the way back to the lake, picking up the limp body of Thomas, who's hair was beginning to change to a color of dark brown, having Sixx out of him. All the while, the living body of the man that Sixx was now possessing was beginning to change. His hair was black at the ends, and his eyes were beginning to turn to the bright blue-green color that the eyes of Thomas formerly were. Sixx, in the new body, ran as fast as he possibly could (which was a little faster, seeing as he was a Phantom) to the city, and straight past every person that looked at him a weird way or tried to ask what he was doing or what was wrong. He didn't need any of them. The only people he needed right now were Thomas and someone who could help him. He knew that none of these humans could.

Sixx made his way down the narrow streets to the Royal House, where he knew that he could get some help. The Phantom looked down at the thin, lifeless body in his arms. The pitch black color of the choppy-cut hair was draining even more, returning to the dark brown color that it had originally been. Sixx's eyes went wide. Suddenly, he recalled an image of Thomas before he had been possessed. A relatively healthy looking boy with gorgeous dark brown hair and light blue eyes. That was before Sixx ruined him. Before Sixx made him bone thin and ghostly pale, with jet black hair and bright, blue-green eyes. But why had the Phantom done such a thing to an innocent teenager like Thomas? Sixx could barely remember a thing from that era. He only remembered that Thomas had been his best friend. His only friend.

As Sixx rounded the corner that would lead him to the large mansion that was the Royal House, tears began to spill from the new body that he'd found. He had preserved Thomas for three years less than a century, and he wasn't about to let the one and only thing that he held dear just be torn away from him. He would truly be miserable then. Like he suspected all the other Phantoms were. But there was one thing that Sixx knew made him different from all the rest. And that was Thomas. He had a best friend. Sixx looked once again at the brown hair he'd not seen for nearly a century, and saw that the black stripe that was running from the right side of Thomas's mouth was beginning to fade. Finally, Sixx burst through the front doors of the Royal House. He was nearly sobbing by this point.

"Help him!" was the only thing that Sixx could get out of the body he occupied, before he altogether withdrew himself and let the tall man fall to the floor in the doorway, unconscious. Thomas fell to the floor with him. As Sixx once again took no form at all, there was a very loud whisper that blew through the entire lobby like a blow of harsh wind. "Hurry!" it screamed at the people in the front desk and the guards next to the doors and stairways. If Sixx's entity alone could weep, it would have. He really was weeping, but without having a form, the others in the building couldn't know that. As some of the guards hurriedly went over to see Thomas, Sixx's spirit whisped over them, creating a cold sensation on all of their necks. He really didn't know what to do in his state of anxiety, so he threw himself back into the body of Thomas.

Instantly, the limp body came to life again, and the fading of the black started in reverse. The pitch black color was once again taking over the shaggy hair, and the stripe from the right side of Thomas's mouth and under his eyes began to darken. Sixx managed to get himself into a sitting position, but it looked like he could fall over at any moment. His right hand loosely clasped his stomach, where the deep laceration from the sword that went all the way through him had been. A long, mournful wail ripped itself from Thomas's throat, and Sixx began to physically sob once again. Convulsions wracked through Thomas's body as Sixx began to scream at the people (who were not having a clue what was going on), "Help him! Help my Thomas!" His voice was shrill and piercing, as he was panicking more than he had in all century and a half of his life.

Sixx didn't know what he would do if he lost Thomas. He'd already lost him once, and he absolutely could not stand to lose him again. And if he lost him this time, Sixx would never have Thomas again. Sixx wrapped both of his bone-thin arms around his abdomen, the nearly-black blood still slowly oozing out of the wounds on his forearms. "Help him, help him. . ." Sixx repeated over and over again in between each sob, in a hushed and hysterical kind of voice.

[~Sangsue~]

We are the vampires, like living stone.

Another quiet day. Sangsue was becoming rather bored with things in her valley. Nothing was happening. Sure, that meant nothing bad was happening, but it also meant there was nothing to do. She had only one friend, and Sydonia was always doing something else, so she couldn't fill her time with people. There was really nothing she did except take care of the people and their complaints about the humans, or the humans with their questions and concerns about the people. But those had become few and far in between lately. Right now, she was letting Mou run up and down her and the furniture. Sangsue sighed at the fact that the only company she had was a ferret.

Her head snapped up at the noises coming from downstairs. Someone had unceremoniously come in through the main door, and people were bustling about. Conclusion: there was something she needed to attend to. Quickly. She set Mou in his cage and turned toward the door, hoping that it wasn't that panther angering someone again and coming to her for protection. He hadn't seemed like someone she would take particular joy in punishing, he just seemed to get himself in to trouble without trying. A lot. Since that little encounter, she'd had small complaints about a cat fitting his description causing inconveniences. Apparently, they couldn't deal with things on their own. They had to come to her. Even if she didn't have better things to do, it was still annoying, so she just ignored them.

In seconds, Sangsue had made it to the top of the grand staircase, and looked down upon the scene taking place just inside the doors, which she observed were still wide open. Someone had yelled for help, but it was unclear who, as there were two humans unconscious on the floor, and everyone else was panicking and trying to get closer for a better look. She knew the two passed out were human by the scent, but there was something else moving around that smelled strange. She had encountered it before, but could not recall what it was. She heard a whispering in the room. It sounded like it was telling them to hurry. Then one of the bodies started to change a little in appearance. The hair got darker, and it suddenly jumped up and started screaming. Sang realized what it was that was going on.

It was a phantom. Odd creatures, Sangsue didn't have many dealings with them, and never out of a human body. She just always smelled the human scent mixed with the phantoms, not the phantom by itself. This phantom had possessed a human body, and that body had been mortally wounded. The one thing she didn't understand though, was why he had bothered to come here to save that body. Every phantom she had seen would just have discarded it and found a new one. If he was in that much distress over this body, then she would do what she could to help. After the few seconds it took her mind to put all that together, she snapped in to focus on the scene below her. First things first, clean up the unnecessary mess.

"Remove that one," Sangsue shouted, indicating the discarded body at the entrance, which the phantom must have used to bring his original one here. "and close the doors. She didn't want this to become a spectacle for the outside world as well as the palace staff and residents. "And summon the doctor." She ordered a little more quietly, as she reached the broken body at the bottom of the staircase. While she did have a good knowledge of how to care for wounds, she wasn't licensed, and she was out of practice. Sang didn't get hurt very often. She would feel much more comfortable if she was not the only one caring for someone with such extensive injuries.

She bent over the body and shooed the crowding people back a few feet. What she observed astonished her. Slash marks covered the arms, and she observed two holes in the shoulder. A vampire. This disgusted Sang. Hopefully this vampire had not thought this body was human. That was clear from the dark blood that oozed slowly from each wound. But even if it hadn't seen that before, the scent that strayed too far from the generic human smell should have made it obvious. And she thought most tried to stick to just human blood. But that aside, no vampire should have left a body as weak as this alive. If the phantom had been able to bring it this far without it dying, then the vampire should be ashamed.

Her eyes roamed lower, and saw that there was a large wound under the frail arms clutching around the body. She gently unwrapped them, shushing the quiet pleas for help. Sangsue gasped at what lay underneath. This person had been impaled by a thin blade. She replaced the arms over the hole as the doctor pushed his way through the crowd. Sangsue slid her arms under the shoulders and legs of the frail body and followed the doctor to a small room filled with medical supplies. Once she set him down, she told the doctor of what she had observed, and he set to binding the smaller wounds right away. She bent over him and shushed him again, telling him not to waste the breath of the body they were trying to save, and assured him that they would do whatever they could to preserve it.

We are loyal, enduring, longing, for a life besides our own.

[{ Sixx]

The Phantom sat, trembling and crying, rocking himself back and forth as he cradled himself in his bone thin arms. He could feel the pain of the wounds that Thomas would have felt if he was alive. Sixx did not feel the hot liquid flowing out of him, because his body was not alive. He barely felt the thick, cold, black liquid slowly oozing out onto his ghostly white skin. Sixx watched with watery, blue-green eyes as everyone was rushing around him, not having any idea of what to do. But then he heard a voice come from somewhere. Remove that one. The Phantom looked up from himself in surprise. Someone seemed to know what to do. And summon the doctor. Sixx let out a loud sob, but this time it was in relief. Finally, someone understood. He briefly wondered who it was that was so quick acting, but his first and foremost priority was Thomas, who was the one who needed desperate help.

Sixx watched the elegant, calm woman, who was blurred with tears in the Phantom's vision, come toward him. As she bent over to inspect Thomas's body, Sixx looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Please help him. Help. . !" Sixx choked on his words that he could barely get out of his throat because he was in such hysteria. Even trying to talk again made a new wave of convulsions wrack through the body. Sixx looked away from the one tending to him for a second with fear in his eyes as he saw some of the guards of the Royal House pick up the body that he had so absentmindedly used to get Thomas here. He hoped that the man would be okay. He looked back to the woman with pitch black hair, almost the same color as his own, when he felt her tug on his arms a bit, as he had been hugging them around his abdomen, cradling the large wound there.

Sixx almost batted at the woman in instinct because she had touched Thomas's body. He never allowed anyone to do that. But he merely twitched before he realized that she was the one that was going to help him. The one that was going to help Thomas. Sixx could feel her sharp intake of breath when she saw the wound that had befell his body. He couldn't help but releasing another wail of remorse. "That stupid halfbreed! He ruined Thomas!" he sobbed, screwing his eyes shut in the process. He felt his arms released, and he tightly wrapped them around his middle, trying to cause himself as least pain as possible. He had to resist trying to curl himself into a fetal position when he felt himself being picked up. He opened his eyes wide in fear, not knowing what they were going to do with him. He wanted to trust that they would help him, but he just didn't know. . .

Sixx lay as still as possible when he was set down, though the soft sound of his cries were still coming from Thomas's body. He wasn't really listening to the voices of the woman and the doctor, but he could tell that they were discussing him. Sixx let his arms be handled by the doctor, and could feel that they were being wrapped promptly. The Phantom really couldn't hold his sobs in any longer, and another mournful sound tore itself from his throat. He was instantly hushed by the woman with brown eyes as she told him not to waste breath. He looked at her with wide, tear filled eyes, and nodded as best as he could with his body still shaking. As she went to turn away, the arm that the doctor was not attending to shot out to clasp onto one of the vampire's arms. Sixx was breathing heavily, and had terror written in his eyes. "Don't let him die." he said, and then softly let go of her, and looked down to the ground. His tears spilled over once again.

[~Sangsue~]

We are the vampires, like living stone

Sangsue was confident in the skills of the palace doctor, but she was not convinced that this body would survive. Even with the phantom staying in it, the wound was not exactly fresh. The blood had spilled out and stained most of the shirt and covered the body's - who's name she assumed was Thomas - forearms. It had gone all the way through Thomas's stomach. She went over what the phantom had cried out besides the pleas for help, and remembered something about a half breed. A vampire half breed. She kept an eye on them, because she knew how they could be. Testing their human bodies as best they could. They also didn't always have the self control that comes with vampirism. And she recalled only one vampire half breed every registering in the city. That made things a little easier.

Sangsue turned to go send someone to retrieve the half breed, but something cold clamped down on her wrist. She whirled around to see what it was, and saw Thomas's hand holding her. She looked at his face and saw sheer panic and terror written all over it. This phantom was genuinely terrified that he would lose this body. He begged her not to let the body die. She was too astonished to respond, so gently pulled her hand free and walked out the door. Sangsue didn't understand it. She had never seen a phantom this attached to anything. She pondered as to why in the world he would hold on to a body so tightly when he could so easily get another one, as was proven by the one he took to transport Thomas here. She had no idea how a phantoms mind worked, but she couldn't think of what would possess him to keep that one alive.

She reached the main hall, and everyone bustled over to pester her with questions about what the situation was. She pushed through them without a word to the other side. Stopping in front of a guard, she instructed him. "Find the records for the vampire half breed and bring him here." He bowed his head, then headed off quickly in the other direction. The crows had been trying to inconspicuously listen in on what she had said, but appeared disappointed. She made her way back through them and back to the small room where the doctor continued to tend to the body of Thomas. "We'll do what we can." Sang told the phantom, not wanting to promise anything she couldn't be sure would be upheld.

We are loyal, enduring, longing, for a life besides our own.

[Sin]

"Why hello there. What would the occasion be for an invitation to the royal house? Have I done something wrong?" Sin asked calmy. He didn't see Sangsue as a threat. He thought she would understand, and couldn't wait to find out. He had already fought around the city, he knew ways out of the city. This would be quite fun.

Moments before he was contacted and escorted he had been stalking around the city, seeing who he could leech from. If he couldn't find a human for blood, then he could steal off of someone. That was always a good way to profit. Of course, it was generally frowned upon... Everywhere... But it kept him alive for quite a few years.

He didn't know why he decided to bite the phantom. It was a terrible taste. He just thought the body was human, and didn't know the age. It was a test. He hadn't fed on humans many times, and he had just been away from humankind shortly. He was new to the world of the supposed mythical. It was a quite interesting test, though. He would know to ask a phantom about themselves before biting. Even in self defense. This is what it must be about. He was so attached to the body, Sin thought. Please tell me he didn't contact a higher authority about punishment, was the last thing to run through his mind before he stepped in.

[{ Sixx]

Sixx was left with his mouth hanging open and his eyes still wide when the vampire helping him merely turned away at his words. She seemed to be a little surprised at his words, or in the least, just not used to his behavior. But her lack of an answer struck a new wave of fear into the Phantom's heart. Was she really that doubtful about the possibilities of Thomas's survival? Sixx looked down at the floor and began to lower his arm when the doctor snatched it away from the path it was following to bandage it. The Phantom didn't care. He just wished as hard as he could that Thomas would be okay. He watched the woman out of the corner of his blue-green eye walk out of the room to be bombarded by the curious folk that awaited her. He had a clear view out there, but he just didn't want to watch.

The Phantom was being uncharacteristically impatient with the doctor that was trying his hardest to make the best of Thomas's wounds. He still had tears in his eyes, but he was pretty much done sobbing for now. He watched the doctor with hard eyes and a frown on his face as the man finished patching up the other arm. Before the doctor had even finished tying the bandage that he'd wrapped Thomas's forearm with, Sixx tore it away from his hands and glared at him with piercing eyes. "Can you do something about this?" Sixx asked the doctor sharply (although it was more of a demand), gesturing toward the huge gash in Thomas's upper stomach. The Phantom raised up the arm that didn't hurt as much to wipe away the tears that ran down his face.

He looked away from giving the doctor a hard look as he saw the vampiress walk in again. Sixx looked up at her with tear-stained eyes that were filled now with curiosity and dispair. We'll do what we can. He frowned at her. It didn't sound at all like things were going to go well. He'd heard people say that before. That meant that she really was doubting the survival of his best friend. Sixx twisted his eyes shut, wincing as the doctor had him raise his arms up so that he could pull off the dark, blood-stained shirt that Thomas had had on. It was practically glued to his body by the thick, sticky blood, and hurt to peel it off of the laceration around his stomach. Sixx looked to the side when he was allowed to lower his arms, but when he opened his eyes again, he did not like one bit what he saw.

Through the open door of the small room that they were trying to treat Thomas in, the Phantom saw the halfbreed who had done this all waltz in through the front doors. At the sight of this horrific figure in red, Sixx brought the back of a fist up against his eyes, almost a jerking motion, to attempt to stop the new wave of tears that threatened to come. But Sixx couldn't stop. Not when the one creature who'd nearly destroyed Thomas was standing there in the same building as him.

Finally, the Phantom couldn't hold his rage in any longer. He lowered his arm from his eyes, and looked straight at the halfbreed with an expression that could kill through tear-blurred eyes. He pointed at the horrid creature with the other arm, and all out shrieked at the sight of him, a shrill sound that would send chills down anyone's spine. In the Phantom's anger, a few bolts of ebony energy arced through the room at the moment he pointed, but he didn't intend for it to happen. Sixx started to scream. "He's the one!! The one that ruined my Thomas!! Why is he heeerre?!" Sixx really wasn't sure if he could stand the sight of the one that had ruined his most valuable possession, his best friend. He really couldn't fathom why he was here, or why they had brought him here.

[~Sangsue~]

We are the vampires, like living stone

The half breed arrived sooner than Sangsue had expected. Either that was a good guard, or that one had been all too easy to find. But that hardly mattered. Sang started out of the room again, until she heard the phantom practically shriek at the sight of the man. She whirled around in surprise at the intensity of the phantoms reaction. Well, at least they knew for sure that they had the right person. She went to calm the phantom, reminding him not to waste breath, and assuring him that they would not be near each other, that he would not hurt Thomas more. "He's here for possible punishment for doing this."

She then turned to leave once again, making sure with a backwards glance that there wouldn't be any more freaking out, then walked out to the entrance hall where the half breed stood flanked by guards. The look on his face suggested that he did not seem to be all too worried about being summoned. Sangsue did not like this guy, that much was clear by the scowl on her face as she approached him. She took a second to evaluate him and think about what actions might be taken, then instructed them to follow her. She led them to outside the small medical room, and had a guard stand in the doorway to prevent hysterics from the phantom, and demanded from the half breed the reason for his actions.

We are loyal, enduring, longing for a life besides our own

[Sin]

"Well, you see, it attacked me first. I was laying out in the sun on the rocks, and it approached, looking pale and sickly. I asked what someone so ill-looking was doing out alone, and he said he wasn't alone. The I said he was weak. And he attacked. After that, I hit him once and jumped into a tree. He brought this on after he impaled me with the tree." Sin started to chuckle with good memories. "I thought he was just a human at first, that he was crazy. After I bit him, I realised that it was a corpse. That he actually was a phantom. It was quite hard to discern the scent, I'm new around here."

Sin began to pace. He examined the room. He wouldn't take punishment. He nonchalantly strolled in circles, looking at every entrance and exit, thinking of a possible way out. That was only if the vampiress didn't believe the truth. He wasn't really in the mood for this, but it seemed amusing. A phantom so attached to one body, and unwilling to get another. He was truly crazy. This will be an interesting night, he thought.

[{ Sixx]

The Phantom was going to go on as he was steadily inclining in his level of how upset he was. The appearance of the stupid halfbreed had just sent him over the edge, if he hadn't been already. Sixx was stopped, however, when the vampiress rushed over to him to hush him. He looked at her with worried eyes when as she was explaining to him. Another reminder not to waste breath. He kept forgetting that. As a matter of fact, he glanced over at the doctor who had stopped doing what he was trying to do as soon as Sixx had let out his screeching. But as soon as the woman mentioned punishment for the halfbreed, he lighted up a little bit. At least it would be assured that the creature wouldn't hurt his dear Thomas any more than he already had.

Sixx's bright blue eyes followed the vampire out of the door, to meet the horrid halfie, before he looked down to see that the doctor was inspecting the wound on Thomas's stomach as thoroughly and carefully as possible. He saw the two outside of the door come closer, and then one of the large guards blocked his view. The Phantom knew that they were right outside of the door, and he could hear the vampire say something to the guard to get him to stay there. A frown was perched on the elegant face as he tried to strain his ears to hear everything that was said. He didn't really recognize most of the words that the woman spoke, because she was quiet with her speech, but he heard the halfbreed clearly. Well, you see, it attacked me first.

Thomas's mouth drew up into an angry sneer, and he screamed at the words so that he knew they would hear him. "He's a liar!!" He was almost snarling when the doctor reminded him once more not to waste breath while he was working on the body. Sixx angrily snapped toward the doctor with "Nobody asked you!" The doctor continued working. Sixx continued to listen to the things that the halfbreed was saying, and every word only angered him more. He had absolutely no reason to have done what he did to Thomas. No excuses.

[~Sangsue~]

We are the vampires, like living stone.

Sangsue listened to the half breeds story with growing irritation. It didn't exactly match up with what she could see, and what she knew. According to him, he had been impaled with a tree. Well that hardly made sense, seeing as he wasn't the one with a hole straight through him. In fact, he looked to be in perfect health. Nothing the phantom had done had left any visible marks, let alone warranted such an action as what he had done. She heard the phantom's shrieks from behind her, but ignored them, deciding it was useless to try and get him to keep quiet. Sang addressed the half breed coldly. "So let me get this straight. He impaled you. And yet he is the one dying in there, while you are seemingly unhurt. Maybe he had misspoken. Because that didn't even make sense.

But that aside, he had bitten the body, and left it. Even if the body was alive, you never leave it that way. Never leave any evidence for others to find. "And as for discerning the scents, I think even someone who hadn't encountered a phantom before should know the difference between a live human and a corpse." Sangsue was angry with this person, this person who was so confident in himself, but seemed to hold no common sense. She had half a mind to cast him out of her precious city, so there wasn't the risk of him doing this sort of thing again. But she did have the tendency to overreact. Perhaps she would consult Sydonia, if she could find her.

She watched the man for a minute as he paced, evaluating the room. As if he planned to escape. As if that was possible. A half breed couldn't outrun a palace full of elite vampires. It would only get him in more trouble. Let him try. Let him understand that this wasn't something he could shrug off, as his attitude so naively suggested he thought. Sangsue scowled, then turned to check in on how the doctor was coming along with preserving the dead body. She didn't think it would heal very quickly, if at all. It was dead. It was unfortunate, that after all this the phantom might very well still lose the body. She kind of pitied him. It would be a shame if he lost pretty much all he had.

We are loyal, enduring, longing, for a life besides our own