New in Town [Open]

[Cazador]

Finally, the liquid that most people depended on arrived. Kazasus wasn’t the type to put creamer or sugar in his coffee. Black was the way to go for him. Most people needed some kind of sweetener for coffee, but once you got used to the bitter taste it was hard to go back to anything else. He took a sip of the delicious dark liquid and set down on the table just in time to see her laugh. He chuckled a bit at her reaction to his joke and getting coffee all over her face. He was going to hand Annalise a napkin, but she beat him to it and got one herself to wipe off the coffee. He was ignorant like everyone else around about the vision that just transpired.

"Bless you…"

Kazadus looked carefully at Annalise. She looked like she had just seen a ghost or something. He lowered his eye patch back over his emerald eye and slowly sat back up as to not hurt himself more. As he shifted in his seat, he could notice her nervousness increasing and by the look of it, she was taking it out on the straw on creamer.

"I'll say...You good? You look like you seen a ghost or something?"

[Annalise Thergo]

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just saw some man in wizard robes appear and warn me away from helping you. Did I forget to mention he stopped time to tell me this?"

Naturally, she did not say that. The woman needed more time to accept what she had witnessed before unveiling it. Should she? Annalise took the mostly chewed straw from between her lips and dipped it into the coffee to stir in the cream. So much for tasting the coffee itself.

"Yes, I'm fine. My mind sometimes wanders if I don't keep it in check." Not entirely a lie. Annalise's mind did have a mind of its own.

Their food still hadn't arrived, but the diner was busy. Coffee would suffice for the time being. "So, he's reluctant to tell you who you are." Annalise decided to steer the conversation back to the prior topic. Sorry, sorcerer-man, but she disagreed with concealment. "Any clue as to why?"

[Cazador]

Kazadus took a look at what was formerly her coffee, now turned mostly creamer. He could only imagine how overly sweet it was. He wondered just how anyone could drink that, but he had to remember how it took him time to getting used to it black. That clicked in his head for some reason. He could remember useless facts about himself. His likes, his dislikes, his combat experience and survivor skills even if he didn't remember the past battles. The mind was hard to figure out.

"Yeah he hasn't told me too much. Mostly just how to control my power. Whenever I've asked about my past all he says is 'You have a chance for a new beginning. Leave the past alone.' Bastard knows who I am and won't say a word. Won't even tell me why I can't know."

He took a sip of his coffee before setting back down. The agitation in his voice could be heard. His frustration coming to the surface a little before calming back down.

"Guess I should be somewhat thankful for his advice I guess. It did save my ass a few times already… Still… Jokes on him. He can tell me not to, but he can't exactly stop me either. That file the military gave me had an old address where I lived. I'll probably fly out there soon and find out what I can."

[Annalise Thergo]

Annalise sipped her cream with coffee and put it down atop a paper doilies. If she drank enough of this sweet concoction, she could refill it with coffee, and things would balance out. "Rather cruel to conceal one's past. It denies some of the present." Annalise leaned back in her chair and glanced to the kitchen. Seemed their food was starting to come together on the counter. "Can't live in the moment if you're missing what you once were, both good and bad." Even a despicable soul had a right to know what they were.

Kazadus' determined pursuit did curl the corners of her mouth. The sorcerer would have his hands full in trying to stop Kazadus. What was he going to do? Stop time forever? No one was that powerful.

Then, multiple thoughts occurred to her. Why would this sorcerer tell her more than what he told Kazadus? To incite pity? To tempt her into helping him with reverse psychology? Annalise disliked withholding information, and so, she opened her mouth to tell him what she saw--

"I'm afraid your table isn't going to be large enough for all your food. Would you like to move to a larger table?" The waitress said, in Spanish, and motioned for a table that would hold their plates.

So much for that.

[Cazador]

She was right. He needed to needed to be made whole. Whether or not it was good or bad, he needed to know the truth. Without his memories, it was like having a part of his soul missing. Like the dead family he couldn't remember, he could still feel it even if it he had no memory of it. It was the phantom pain in his very being that needed correction. Though that correction could wait a bit longer. Upon hearing the news of their food being ready, he ignored all pain and distraction to get moving to the larger table.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Within the emerald eye, held an infinite void of magical potential to wield. In the vast emptiness, a mage floated in a meditative position. His eyes remained closed as arcane energy circled around him. Despite having no physical form outside the eye, he could still think and form his own thoughts

"I'm sorry Kazadus. I fear I may have been too late. I've done everything I can to hide you. I can only hope now that your soul is strong enough to withstand the horrors of what you have done."

Extending his power out to the physical world took great amounts of power to maintain and even then, the target has to have a strong enough spirit to hear him. Though it appeared his warning to her fell on deaf ears. While he couldn't stop time again for awhile, he could at least send Annalise quick messages via telepathy.

"I can hear your thoughts Annalise and you can hear mine. I understand you must have questions. Just ask them in your head and I will answer. You must understand why he can not be allowed to remember."

[Annalise Thergo]

Annalise froze mid approaching the table, flicked her eyes about, frowned, and sat down. What she just heard was within her mind, as though it were a thought, but distinct enough to be mistaken for a whisper. If Kazadus asked what happened, she had a borderline truth. How hypocritic of her to be willing to tell a "white lie" when she was all for honesty.

"I'm going to make my stance clear. I am not for one playing the role of a puppeteer in someone's life. You're depriving this man of who and what he is. Good or bad, you're denying his personal truth." Annalise slipped into her chair, and within seconds, the waitress brought their breakfast over plate by plate. Food was there to distract Kazadus, at least. "So, what is he? Does he devour worlds? Rend souls? Is he a harbinger of destruction? Regardless, he has a right to his own life. If there is a danger out there meant for him, then the hunted must know the hunter."

I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.

"Ketchup?" Annalise held the bottle out for him.

[Cazador]

Communication with anyone outside of Kazadus was strenuous to say the least. The sorcerer needed to stay focused to keep his thoughts and Annalise's thoughts away from Kazadus's mind. His interaction with the physical world was very limited to say the least. This was the first time since coming here that the mage gathered enough energy to talk to someone outside of Kazadus. More energies in the void circled him and entered into his soul.

"This is more than just about him. Should the one behind the veil of this universe find it him then it will mean the end of everything. I can sense that, the Vanguard is already on this planet trying to open the gate. It will take him some time to do so, but if Kazadus were discovered now then they very well might be able to open it right away. The energy emitted from the eye is masking his presence to them."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaz was in heaven. He sampled a bite of everything before jumping into the pancakes while occasionally taking a bite of his eggs. Upon being offered ketchup, he still had enough sense to say thank you after he swallowed his food. He drowned the hash browns in them. People walking by wondered if he had time to breath with all that eating going on. A child was pointing at him before a mother scolded the child for staring. In mere moments he could feel the pain his body subsiding.

"You're food's gonna cold get cold Annalise."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"His memory is not why he's an incomplete being though. He's one of two halves. A being divided in two. What you have been talking to is the representation of the light side of his being."

[Annalise Thergo]

"You're explaining things as though I'd understand what they all mean." Her thoughts were laced with irritation and impatience, but she kept her "tone" civil. "Who are the Vanguard? What would come through this 'gate'? If this entails my home, then I have a right to know what's going on and how to defend it."

Annalise's thoughts stopped when Kazadus smothered his hash browns in ketchup. She had no idea the sorcerer was struggling to maintain their connection. "I see you are a man of fine taste." He may think, at first, that she was mocking him, but then she took the ketchup back and did the exact same thing. Bless the soul who invented this liquid gold.

"Cold food? That would be tragic." Annalise unfolded a paper napkin, set it on her lap, snatched up her fork, and began digging into the omelette first. Cold eggs never tasted good. The rest of her dishes would still be delicious, even if they were lukewarm.

Annalise cleared her throat, coughed up a glob of eggs that became lodged, and sent it down the correct "pipe." "What?" That threw her for a loop. "So, let me see if my assumption is correct. If he is found, the 'dark' half would merge with him, and in doing so, this 'gate' could be opened?" She kept eating, but could no longer taste her food. Her thoughts were racing with this sudden turn of events. "I feel the inevitable is being delayed. Is there a more permanent solution? Have you considered telling him or would that lead to a merge?"

A game of hide-and-seek could only last for so long.

[Cazador]

"I'd say great minds think alike by the looks of it. Besides it's just what the doctor ordered. I'm already starting to heal."

Kazadus never understood the stigma of putting ketchup on anything, but french fries. Hot dogs were the perfect example. People would drown it in relish, mustard, Mayo, cheese, but God forbid if someone put ketchup on it. He didn't care though. With the pain subsiding finally, he was feeling alot better. Hash browns were down first and his eggs would be the next to go.

"So I've heard of the saying that diamonds are a girl's best friend right, but what made you get into jewelry?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time stopped once again. As Kazadus’s energy began to return, it became easier for the mage to gather greater energies from the void of his containment. Once again he appeared before Annalise. He needed Kazadus to hold off just a bit longer on his search for answers and in order to do this, the sorcerer would have to enlist her help.

"The Vanguard is not a group. It is one individual that infiltrates a foreign universe and prepares it for invasion. A universe has many ways to enter it, however it always requires a gate and a key for beings or gods too powerful to enter by normal portals. I believe the vanguard of this world has been attempting to open the gate of chaos for sometime now. The key to this gate is the sacrifice of numerous lives in a small amount of time."

The mage already had an idea of who the Vanguard was. Despite being locked away, his keen senses could recognize the darkness he left upon the world like the smell of a burning fire in the distance.

"If Kazadus is found then the gate of chaos will be irrelevant. The portals that have been opening on your planet will suffice enough for him to be used as a key. Should he regain his memories then his dark half will also learn where he is at despite my attempts to block Kazadus’s energy signal. The Vanguard will hunt him down and use him to open the gate for his master."

The mage understood Annalise’s disdain for withholding this information from Kazadus, but it would not be forever. There was a gamble behind all of this.

“I understand this may seem cruel, but this is the best course of action. I am not just delaying the inevitable. His other half… he’s… no IT… It is a horrendous monster that has committed unspeakable acts. It is a Harbinger of more than death and destruction. It is a Harbinger of finality and the bringer of absolute nothingness. However, in its current and incomplete form, it is weakened and killable. Should the Gods he has enslaved learn of this then they will be free to kill Kazadus’s dark half and allow them to return to their slumber thus freeing him to live a normal life. His wretched Empire will crumble and free the multiverse from tyranny. I am asking you to please help me.”

[Annalise Thergo]

Great minds think alike and heal alike, it would seem. Any thoughts of Kazadus having some link to Dr. Heisenberg were long gone with the presence of the sorcerer and the emerald eye. Annalise appeared to be more at ease with these confirmations, and she finished off her omelette, taking the time to enjoy the bacon, sausage, and ham that was stuffed inside.

"Mm, well--"

Time stopped again. Annalise froze in place, mouth still open as she formed another word to her sentence, and then she huffed a lock of hair from the corner of her eye. Well, that's just rude.

This time, she put her fork down and rose from her chair while the sorcerer explained things. It better be worth hiding this man's past or she would take action and tell him what she saw and heard. However, the more she learned, the less hardened her visage was, until finally, she had paled slightly and appeared uncertain on what to do from here. Her eyes flicked from Kazadus to the sorcerer, and she sat back down, her gaze seemingly directed at nothing.

Vanguard. Invasions. Sacrifices. Gods. The other half of an end to all things. What sort of messed up situation was this?

"This is..." Annalise drew in a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and inhaled again.

Don't be a hero. Eliza had warned her time and time again to avoid the spotlight. The doctor had many associates outside of the lab and Eliza dreaded the thought of her being caught. She was overly cautious, but considering all she saw Annalise was forced to do just to survive, she didn't fault her for it.

Still, would Eliza praise her for walking away when someone needed her help? Eliza didn't walk off when she had the chance, and there were multiple exits over the years.

I'm sorry, old friend, she thought to herself.

"What do I need to do?"

Hiding was becoming less and less of an option these days anyways.

[Cazador]

"He will not listen to me. You must find a way to convince him to stay. A false lead on his eye perhaps. Or the file the military gave him. It's at his new house on the dinner table. Find the address and destroy his old home before he can go back. It is where his darkness first awoke. If you need my advice and Kazadus is close by then whisper these words… 'Do Vah Kiin.' I will give you what little help I can muster."

In an instant, he was gone once again. Time was beginning to flow back to normal as the mage vanished back to the emerald eye. Kazadus looked at her waiting for her story of how she got into jewelry only to see her once again lost in thought. He paused from stuffing in face to check in with her.

"Annalise? You still with me?"

[Annalise Thergo]

How could Annalise convince someone who was desperate to find his other half? It would be like trying to make an angry mule change direction with a fragile stick! She gave the options the sorcerer gave her a quick thought, then shook her head. If the house was destroyed after she saw the address, Kazadus may suspect her having some part of it, and that would unravel things. Coming up with a convincing lie for the emerald eye...that required some thought.

"I can't do any of those things. I...I need time to think." No pressure, Annalise. No pressure whatsoever. It's not like the entire world may be counting on you to do your part. This was going to require her breaking her slightly flexible code, and that did not sit well with her.

"Hu--what?" Annalise hadn't realized time resumed. "Sorry about that, it's...been a long week." That was putting it mildly. "Well..." Gods, it had been so long since she thought about her original fascination with jewelry. "My adopted mother brought me a necklace when I was having a bad day." More like trying to convince herself that elder gods of chaos and destruction and madness did not exist, but that was a detail that didn't need to be added in. "It is one of those pendants that has a music box in them, and I loved the craftsmanship that went into it. So, I began reading up on that. I checked out making music boxes first but I shifted to jewelry."

Annalise began cutting into her pancakes. "I was gifted a starter set for my birthday. I played with wires and beads, and when I was done with that, I checked out more and more books on how to create more advanced patterns. It went from there." An idea did click in her head to distract him from his quest. "What of you, Kazadus? Do you have any artistic interests?"

[Cazador]

As Kazadus listened to her small story as he kept eating. The pain all around his body was finally gone. There were several small sounds of clinks hitting the ground underneath him. It dawned on him that the grinding pain he had been feeling around his ribs were bullets. Looks like he hadn’t dug them all out. Hopefully she didn’t notice the sound. He felt a small bit of embarrassment about it, but hoped she would be too focused on explaining her interest to notice. It did sound like she had a good adoptive mother, if she attempted to help her daughter find an interest. From what Kazadus saw in his short time here was that most parents were too focused on themselves to worry about their children.

“It’s good when a parent gets involved with their child. Your mom sounds like a nice lady. You two stay in contact with each other a lot?”

Upon hearing the question about his interest in the arts, he came to a blank. If he did have any, then he could not remember them. He had lost so much of himself that he had no idea what kind of interests he had. It wasn’t like he was some kind of drone going through the motions of life. So far the closest thing he had to an interest was bounty hunting, but wasn’t sure if he should tell her that. Would he come off as some kind of psycho that was obsessed with hunting people. Kazadus wasn’t really given much of a choice to become one, but that was the deal the military gave him… and he enjoyed every second of it. Except for getting his ass kicked by a vampire. He thought silently to himself ‘Fuck that vampire.’ He thought to himself, the hell with it and would tell her. She didn’t seem like the judgemental type and felt he could be open.

“Interests… wow… I don’t wanna sound dull, but I can’t remember what they were at all. I mean I do bounty hunting now, but there’s really nothing artistic about that. Guess I really have forgotten a lot of things.”

He thought of a joke to create some levity.

“Maybe I should hide my own easter eggs. I’ll just forget where I put them.”

[Annalise Thergo]

Annalise did hear the clinking of bullets, and she shifted her gaze towards the other diners and the busy waiters. Kazadus or herself may want to pick those up lest someone notice them, or worse, make a scene. To create an excuse, Annalise allowed her grip to slip on her fork, and it clanked to the floor. As she shifted back in her chair, her foot "conveniently" slipped and kicked the fork closer to the bullets. Excuse forged. "Damn, sorry, one moment. Let me get that." Since her napkin was on her lap, she used that to get any blood splatters on the ground.

If he was embarrassed, she did not notice. Annalise was more focused on keeping people from bothering them over a collection of projectiles. If "supers" were so looked down out there, gods knows what could happen in here. One thing was for sure, she was no stranger to bullets and blood. In fact, she treated them like they were everyday objects. The mess was cleaned up fast, and she pocketed the bullets in her torn up and bloodied napkin. She would need a new one. Now back in her chair, she picked up her spoon, and she used that to scoop up her food.

It was as if nothing happened.

His inquiry gave her pause, and her shoulders sagged noticeably. "No, she...died some time ago." I outlived her. I watched her age before my eyes, and I could not save her from mortality. Annalise picked at her food with her spoon until the waitress brought her a new one and took the other fork away. If she did not eat faster, her food wouldn't be that great, and so, she dug right back in. The pancakes were soon gone, and the hash browns were soon to follow.

Get in her belly!

Bounty hunter. Well, this just got interesting. But, just before she could offer her two cents on the matter, he cracked yet another joke. Annalise dropped her fork laden with ketchup-smothered hash browns onto her plate and snorted. It was fortunate she had no food in her mouth, or it would have become a case of redirecting to the correct pipe. Again.

Annalise had to give herself a moment or two before throwing her opinion onto the table. "I'll bet there is a fine art to bounty hunting. I imagine you have to gather intel, pinpoint a target's location, bring the right amount of weaponry, know what you're getting into--things like that." She raised a hand, "And art is open to interpretation, so therefore..." Annalise snatched up her fork, "It's an art."

Maybe it was a bit of a reach.

"How long have you been doing that?"

[Cazador]

Kazadus eating was slowing down more. Maybe he ordered too much, but he wasn't one to waste food. He just had a few pancakes left and had been saving the bacon for last. Though upon hearing the news of Annalise's mother passing he slowed down even more. He had hoped he didn't sour her mood in having to remember such a thing. Hopefully the memories she had of her were good. The only thing he knew about his family was that they were dead, but he had no memory of them at all. It was when he read the file on himself that his intrusive mage finally admitted their death though he didn't divulge anything else as usual.

"I'm sorry about your mother. I'm sure it must of been hard losing her."

While he continued his slowing feast, he wondered if she had anyone else or if she was just like him. A loner in a strange world. He didn't want to ask her though. There was no point in trying to lower her mood. After all, it was nice to have some company to eat with. Her commenting on his bounty hunting as an art did make him feel better about his predicament of not having a hobby per se.

"You know I never thought of it that way, but when you say it like that… yeah… I'm the Goddamn Michaelangelo of bounty hunting."

Just how did he even remember who Michaelangelo was? More useless things to remember.

"I actually started a week after I arrived. After I crash landed, the military picked me up kept me locked up and when they realized I was human they let me go. Though on the condition that I'd do some bounty hunting. Guess they wanted to test out how well a super would do hunting criminals and super powered criminals."