Emlen had stormed away from his sister and her friends, because, they weren't his friends. Hell, Katan didn't like him, Valcroix didn't like him; Minoko had been his one friend in the room, and that was all shot to hell....Those azure eyes stared down to his feet as he trudged forward. It wasn't long before he met the chest of a rather large man, he hadn't had much height on him; an inch or so, but he had bulk, muscle" "Well if it isn't the failure?" There were four other men with him, just waiting for him to make a move, some of them, however, spoke up.

"You've got a lot of nerve showing your face here, kid?"

Great, now he'd been approached by man-child bullies" Emlen responded with laughter, "You guys have a point?" The boy asked, raising a brow. "Or do you have nothing better to do?" Brushing hair from his face, he growled beneath his breath.

"Novia is dead because of you, and you're making jokes?"

"I've woken up to this realization every day for the past five years, Alec" Suddenly you see me and she's in your memories?" Emlen's finger came up, "Let me tell you something," he mumbled and furrowed his brows as his jaw clenched. "She's more than a memory to me, I've spent my life crawling on my hands and knees, I've spent my life trying to bring her back. I'd give my very life to do so?" The immortal mumbled. "Would you? Because I'm willing to bet you hadn't a single thought of her until you saw me" So what is it' What would you give to bring her back?" Alec remained silent, and Emlen just shook his head and scoffed. "What I thought?" The boy turned to walk away from the man.

Grabbed from behind by two guys, Emlen was spun around to face the man who punched him in the gut with one hand and the mouth with the other as he was doubling over. "It wouldn't matter," Alec whispered to the downed Emlen. "If she had a real weapon like me, she'd still be alive?" Another man kicked him in his ribs in a shattering force, if he hadn't healed, he'd have been in the hospital easily' They began to walk off, leaving him there on the ground, and in pain.

The immortal spat up blood"he would have taken the hit but not the insult on their handler-weapon relationship. ?"Alec?" In a crouching position now. The man turned around with a smile on his face and his arms out as if waiting for the reason he'd been stopped. Emlen sprung, the chains on his feet span and gave him an extra boost, soon, he was airborne. He lunged forward and his foot; minus the chain; slammed into the man's chest and sent him backwards.

Another man spoke up, "You f"cking"!" He slammed his fist toward Emlen's jaw, but the immortal snatched it up with a single hand, and yanked the man forwards into his own fist. Blood sprayed from his nose as he toppled backwards, holding it. One lapdog grabbed Emlen by the shirt, tore it, and shoved his own fist forward to punch the boy in the nose. He maneuvered to escape the wrath of knuckles, and then his forehead, as hard as it could, was slamming forwards for the center piece of the man's face. Emlen gripped both the man's shoulders and all but grappled him, throwing him into the other man who had just been getting up. The two stumbled over one another and fell, and flopped, and flailed as if they were on ice.

Alec was glaring up at him, "I'm going to murder you Emlen, and nobody's going to care to find your body' Novia will finally be avenged?"

"Bigger men have tried, Alec?" Emlen muttered and elbowed a man approaching from behind straight in the nose. He cringed and cried out. Emlen span around to face him, but Alec grappled him from behind and locked his arms useless as Alec's fingers locked behind the man's head, arms looping up beneath his arms. The one uninjured man left, moved to take a cheap shot to his stomach, and Emlen took it like a man. Then his foot came up to slam into his belly, it was more to shove him away more than anything.

When the cheap-shot attacker stumbled backwards, Emlen took his heel and drove it back to Alec's shin, and when the man grunted, he was throwing his weight forward and attempting to flip the man from his arms, anything he yanked out of socket, the boy would repair in seconds. Emlen watched as Alec hit the ground, and his foot moved to drive into the side of his face. "Novia would have been ashamed to know each and every one of you?" The immortal made a point to mutter before taking a step backwards and letting the chain-blades spin around his body. "Get the hell out of here, before I chop each and every one of you to bits?" Emlen said, panting and nearly broken. "NOW!"

With too much shame to be spoken for, especially from the man who was essentially unharmed, the men turned away and stumbled off" They knew too well of Emlen's abilities, and knew pain only lasted moments on the boy's body. "Hmph." Emlen scoffed and waited for them to be out of sight before letting himself fall to his knees and punch the ground about ten times. "Damn it??

Legs pumped and gravel was sent flying out from under sandaled feet as she sprinted in the general direction of the Sama graveyard. A metal rod was clutched in her right hand, and if the item was noticed then the woman might have been mistaken for a relay runner. Some sort of late night race probably would have been a more reasonable explanation for holding the rod. Instead, Minoko was carrying around the weapon in case she was assaulted by a pack of sexually ravenous women. This was an actual problem in her everyday life, and she had Emlen to thank for that. The immortal had been a royal pain in the a*s for the last twenty-four hours. On top of summoning the slut squad he had managed to get in a few fights with obnoxious locals, reconcile with his village fianc" and, best of all, die at the hands of his own sister. Oh, what a fulfilling day it had been for all of them. That was all going to be forgotten, though. Minoko came to a halt at the edges of the burial ground. A golden heart-shaped locket was pulled out of her back pocket and examined in the moonlight. Before she went home, Minoko planned on leaving Emlen behind. A fingernail was jammed between the gap in the locket. The top lifted, revealing both the inscription and Emlen's smile. She mumbled the words that she couldn't actually read. "My darling Novia..." The nearest gravestone was approached, and Minoko carefully compared the epitaph to the inscription. Once she was certain that the words didn't match in the slightest, Minoko moved on. She did this for several minutes, slowly drifting from one grave to the next. Periodically she would look around to make sure that she wasn't being watched. Katan had known where she was going, but it appeared that the American hadn't bothered to follow her. Either that or he was taking his sweet time. Both seemed likely, and so when Minoko finally found the matching tombstone she felt a great sense of relief. Mission accomplished. "Hi."

Unsurprisingly, there was no response. Minoko carefully placed the open locket on top of the grave. "I, um....I wanted to give this back to you. He gave it to me....Said he didn't need it anymore." Well, this was awkward. She hadn't expected a conversation with a dead girl to be so difficult. A sigh was let out as Minoko sat down on the grass. It was then that she noticed a rusted hunk of metal sitting next to the grave. Not wanting to touch it, Minoko took ahold of the square object with her ki and lifted it into the air. A chain came into view, and she realized that the hunk of metal was in fact another locket. The large silver necklace fell into her hands. Fingers that glowed pink carefully brushed at the rust, sending copper colored flakes falling to the ground. She lovingly smoothed the rough metal in places and then managed to crack the locket open. Emerald eyes, frozen in time, stared back at Minoko. All at once the Asian was ashamed of herself. This was undoubtedly Emlen's, probably left here four years ago. Though she had found it discarded in the grass, Minoko still felt like she was somehow invading the man's privacy. Dark eyes shifted over to the engraving on the inside cover of the necklace. She recognized the first two words, as they were identical to the golden locket's inscription. The third one was foreign, but she assumed that was how you spelled Emlen's name. A frown appeared at Minoko's lips as she propped the open locket up against the tombstone. "He's still not over you....I don't know why he took the picture of himself and left the picture of you. Seems stupid."

Knees were hugged to her chest. She deeply regretted not grabbing a bottle on her way out. The effects of the rum that she had downed as she showered were fading. "I guess....I guess he wanted something that had been close to your heart. He said that he never took it off. I made him take it off, because he was wearing it when he was with me..." These things that she had never previously verbalized sounded terrible out loud. Minoko forced herself to make eye contact with the portrait inside the locket. "I'm sorry. You probably hate me. But Em and I, we had sex, so....It didn't feel right. Like there was a third person in the room. It doesn't matter now, though. That Orchid girl" I'm sure you knew her. His fianc"." The way Minoko stressed the word made it clear that she didn't think much of the engagement. "I don't like her. She referred to you as 'other plans'. They might be running off together....I guess I blew it." She forced a joyless smile onto her features. "I'm really good at that, I think. Ruining everything. Everyone else just dies, and Em can't die, so I ruined it in that regular way. I said all the wrong things....I don't even know why he liked me in the first place."

There was a pause. Minoko stared intently at the locket. Her head tilted slightly to the side in response to inaudible words. "I know. I probably should have said yes....But I just couldn't. Especially after the roof. I think he fell on purpose. He doesn't think getting hurt all the time is a big deal....And it isn't, I guess. But it makes me crazy. I've already seen him die once. To see him die over and over again..." Minoko's gaze fell to the grass. Dull blue eyes and the massive hole that had been in Emlen's chest would haunt her. She had known as it was happening that the incident was nightmare fodder, likely to join the ranks of scythe wielding girls and inextinguishable flames. "I'm sure you dealt with him a lot better than I did. You remind me of Ki." She looked back to the picture of Novia, her stony expression having gained a bit of warmth. "Have you met Ki" Is he there too, wherever you are" If he is then please send my love. Tell him I said thank you and that I'm sorry for not remembering, but I'm going to fix it. I decided that a few days ago. Sai offered to give me my memories back so long ago, but I wasn't sure until now. I don't know why I needed Emlen to help me realize....But I want to be whole again. Ki and my parents deserve better than to be forgotten. You deserve better than to be forgotten. Maybe this is silly, since I never actually met you, but....I plan on remembering." With that Minoko reached forward and shut the locket, condemning Novia's portrait back to its rusted inscripted prison. She had come here to drop something off. Who would have expected that Minoko would end up mourning in a graveyard" She picked the necklace up and hugged it to her chest. Surely this particular piece of metal was special, as it had sat next to Emlen's heart for so long. She could almost feel the beat resonating with her own. In the cemetery of this dangerous village, Minoko laid down to rest. On this particular plot of land she felt entirely safe. She was asleep within minutes. Sweet dreams soon followed.