The Eleventh Hour [Type-0]

[Naghi Minatsuchi]

Naghi found himself asking himself a question he rarely asked anyone - what now?

"I need you as close to those monsters as possible. What we need is intel, not a few blurry pictures. Do you want us to lose the academy?", he demanded over the COMM to one of the pilots from the regular army, as he hovered over the centerpiece of the Suzaku ops room. There was a slight delay on the response, but it was generally what Naghi had expected to hear, anyway. "We'll get what we can, but with our numbers, if these things attack us..." The line went dead, leaving Naghi to stand back up and let loose a puff of air that blew at the bangs of his hair. Everyone's problem right now was with their numbers.

The ops room was now basically in charge of all Peristylium activities. That bit of information should have been enough to tell what kind of miserable situation they were in. The school faculty and leadership was gone. Just...left. No sign that they'd ever been there save for their empty rooms and offices. Rubrum's l'Cie were dead, from what Naghi had been hearing. Even if they weren't dead, they were nowhere to be found. Most of the commanders were dead or missing. Some students were still out fighting. That in and of itself would have been bad enough with the Milites still a threat. What made the whole situation overwhelming, though? The fact that several of Rubrum's outer bases had gone dark within seconds of reporting something was attacking them. And the fact that whatever it was that was attacking was moving across land as fast as anything as the Rubrum pilots had ever seen and clearly weren't human in nature. And Naghi was basically the person in charge of finding out what it was and how to combat it.

And he could handle it. But the problem was, aside from a handful of people still left at the academy - mostly scattered class members, cadets and a member of the faculty scattered here and there - there was no one around to stop these monsters, a fuzzy picture of which Naghi turned to stare at, from mowing down the school as fast as they'd mowed down the military bases on the border. Well, there hadn't been anyone around, until Naghi had, on a stroke of luck, managed to contact Class Zero, who had bogged down in the field, and told them to get back here to stop this thing that was coming. Naghi may have never been all that fond of the whole lore around Class Zero or anything, but damn if a time like this wouldn't remind him they were really the best fighters the school had. He'd only admitted that fact to a couple of them once before, and now he'd be perfectly glad to tell them again if they'd ever get back here and give him some assets to make use of, because right now, his hands were tied. It was frustrating him to no end, and it was probably obvious as he swung around sharply from the center of the room and put himself in front of one of the security camera feeds, just waiting to see when those monsters were going to show up... Anytime now.

"...tell Naghi immediately that we've returned..."

Naghi whirled around on a heel, looking at the entrance to the room. Ugh, he'd know that matter-of-fact voice anywhere. Jogging his way over to the source of the voice, the tall, blond head of Class Zero's archer, Trey, stood prominent in the hallway outside. He was the only obvious one, but Naghi could see any number of shorter heads gathered around him. "Class Zero, everyone get in here," the ninja spoke over the head of the young member of his own class that Trey was addressing. Naghi turned barely in time to avoid Trey's impression of a chicken as he popped his head up to look the speaker in the eye, moving his way back towards the center of the room before he heard Trey inform the others to follow him in. With a solemn expression on his face, Naghi propped himself up there with arms folded over his chest, watching as Trey entered followed by the rest, all of them, unsurprisingly, looking tired already. Naghi was tired too, though he didn't notice. What would being tired matter if a bunch of monsters overran the academy? They'd feel the same way, that he wasn't worried about. But as he waited for them all to file in, rolling over all he needed to tell them in his mind, he couldn't help but think this was the one time it wouldn't matter if they had the motivation to go out there and fight...just if they had the motivation go out there and win and keep living on through this war. It was getting way too long for him...

Tagged - All signed up.
Words - 885
Muse - Excellent!
Location - Ops Room, Suzaku Peristylium
Outfit - Uniform
Notes - I put a couple more things in chatzy. :3[/size]

[Queen (No. 12)]

She was exhausted, her muscles were aching, mind was on the death of her two companions, and she was overall sick to death of this war and fighting. Yet, she voiced none of her complaints. Queen knew that the rest were feeling the exact same way, if not the same way. In all honesty, she didn’t know how much further they could go with this. The forces were just increasing it seemed like, no matter how many they destroyed. More just continued to come. How much longer could they last? Queen hadn’t gotten a break in fighting for so long she couldn’t remember the day or the hour. Still, she continued on with the hopes that if she continued to fight, her fellow Class Zero members might get a rest themselves. Deuce, Cinque…those two were younger, smaller, and though they contributed just as much, Queen worried about them more. Ace might be their leader in this mess, but she took the lead as well, trying to make sure that things would go as well as they possibly could. Things had been looking bleak, and still were, but they had a moments reprieve from the constant fighting. How Naghi had gotten in contact with them, she would never understand. They had all been scattered on the battle field, trying their best to stay alive. But somehow he had, and they had pulled back.

Yet, this didn’t seem like it was going to be a way out, really. Simply something else, something larger that was coming. She didn’t know what, but from the sounds of it, it was a force to be reckoned with. Would they ever get a break from this? So far it didn’t look like they would until the enemy rested under the ground, or they did. And where the hell were the faculty members? Queen had heard nothing about them for quite some time. Had…had they skipped out of town as soon as this damned mess had started? A dark look crossed her features. As they walked quietly, each in their own thoughts, Queen took a look around her. Each face was haggard, serious, and showed the strain that they were under. Still, each of them were boldly and courageously continuing on. She felt proud to be a part of this class.

Without intending to, she bumped into someone on her left. Glancing over at the silver haired girl, the eldest of them, she adjusted her glasses tiredly. “Excuse me.” Queen got the impression the other girl hadn’t even noticed, or barely had; by the look she was given. “It’s fine,” came her calm reply. They were all exhausted. Seven looked calm though, and probably was. She had always had a steady character, but Queen could see the haunted look that was in her eyes, hidden behind a face seemingly void of emotion. No doubt she was thinking of Nine and King. Whenever she herself thought of them, she cringed. Nine had always been simply an annoyance, but now that he was gone, she couldn’t believe how much she missed them. And King-…she immediately closed the thought in her head. How were they going to get through this? The question continued to run through her mind over and over again, but she tried to put it to the back of her mind and ignore it as best she could. They would get through this because they were strong, independent black women who don’t need no men

[/i] young adults that had been brought up to take care of themselves.

Trey’s deep voice spoke out, and Queen simply glanced at him, before the door opened up, and immediately they were ushered inside. Nodding her head, she allowed Trey to lead them, then Seven and a few others to file in before her. Walking in with steady steps, even if her aching muscles demanded she take a seat, Queen glanced at the young man standing there. Queen had never felt so glad to see him there. Lifting her glasses a bit, Queen rubbed her eyes behind them and then readjusted the glasses, looking at the small number of people that were now standing in the room around her. Seeing them all there brought a measure of confidence back to her. They could live through this, even if it didn’t look like the odds were in her favor. Without asking to see, Queen advanced on the security cameras that were placed there to be studied. Peering into one, she quickly scanned some more, placing her hands on the table there and leaning over it. “How much time do we have before another attack?”, she asked quietly.[/size] [/blockquote]

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Words:; 955
Muse:; Great!
Location:; Ops room
Outfit:; Student uniform
Tagged:; People!
Notes:; I hope this was alright !
Listening To:; Kings and Queens - 30 Seconds to Mars

[Machina Kunagiri]

The battle was over for now, but that didn’t mean they’d won the war. If anything, it just meant that they’d have to sit around doing nothing for a while rather than getting a head start and taking down as many Milites as they possibly could. Machina hated this waiting around and not doing anything. It made him nervous, because once he got to sit down, it meant he had enough time to think about the consequences of war, and the risks they were all taking by fighting along in it. On the battlefield, he still felt anxious, but at least then he had other things to distract himself with. With a worried expression, Machina looked from person to person to gauge just how well they were doing right now. None of them seemed to be doing particularly well, but considering what they’d all gone through the past couple of days, they were still holding up amazingly, especially the younger kids in this class like Cinque and Deuce. There had been times when he’d honestly questioned the decision to place these two in the same class as all the others, but after today, he’d never doubt them ever again. Both of them were much stronger than they looked, and the same was true for some of the others as well, such as Ace. He may not look all that tough, but he’d shown that he could handle himself in a fight. Maybe the short blonde wasn’t a front-line fighter like Queen or Sice or even Machina himself, but from a distance, he was just as lethal as the rest of them, and maybe the fact that he didn’t look all that strong would be an advantage. Being underestimated during a fight sounded like an advantage, anyway.

“You okay?” he asked the younger boy when he met his eye. Hopefully he was doing alright, because there was more fighting coming up, and soon, by the looks of it. After checking up on Ace, he checked up on the other young members of the class. Cinque was a bit too far away to hear him, but Deuce was practically next to him, though in her mind she seemed to be just as far away from this place as Cinque, because she was staring down at her feet with a sad and pained expression. She wasn’t hurt though, not physically anyway. Apparently she was still upset about what had happened to King and Nine. Machina knew the tiny brunette had been close to both, and he honestly did feel bad for her. He could only imagine how hard it had to be to lose someone you cared about so much. In all honesty, he probably wouldn’t be handling all of this as well as these guys were had Rem and Izana been hurt in any way. Thank Etro they were both safe, but that was something that could change within the blink of an eye as well, and Machina was all too aware of it. He looked over at Rem and frowned to himself. Would he be able to protect her if push came to shove? He wanted to say yes, but his fear of war and conflict might very well get in the way of that. He really did need to man up and get tougher if he was to protect her, and Izana, and heck, all of Class Zero too. He wasn’t as close to them as he was to Rem, but he did care about their wellbeing. They were his classmates, some of them were his friends, it would be weird if he’d felt nothing towards them, right?

After standing outside for a little bit, Naghi called them in to discuss the situation with them. Deuce didn’t seem to hear it however, so he lightly shook her shoulder, “Hey, let’s go,” He told her quietly, feeling his heart sink a little when he noticed she was crying but trying hard to hide it. He lightly patted her shoulder before walking in. It seemed the brunette was finally ready to enter the room as well, though she still kept her head low. As soon as everyone entered the room, she sat down on the floor, leaning her back against the wall and pulling her legs up to her chest. Poor kid. He really wasn’t sure what he could say or do to comfort her though, one of the others would be better equipped at handling that situation. They knew her best, after all, and they knew what to say to cheer her up some, though he did have his doubts about whether anything or anyone could actually make her smile again for a while. Losing someone you love is a bitter pill to swallow, and no amount of joking or talking would make it better.
His attention was drawn to the front of the room when Queen spoke up and asked about how long they had until the next fight. The dragoon took a few steps closer to the monitors and peered over her Naghi’s shoulder from a distance, but didn’t say anything yet. On one hand, he hoped the next battle wouldn’t be upon them anytime soon, but on the other, he just wanted to get this war over with as soon as possible, and the best way to achieve that was to keep fighting, was it not?

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Words: 898
Tagged: Dem peoples
Location: Ops Room, Suzaku Peristylium
Outfit: Uniform
Notes: Izana being alive makes Machina a nice person instead of a jerk. =D Also, sad Deuce is sad.

[Cater]

Sadness, that was the emotion that swept over most of the members of Class Zero. King and Nine had both died and now it was just down to them. They all struggled to keep fighting but no matter what they did, their effort just didn't seem to be enough. Could they survive this? Cater wasn't exactly sure but she wasn't happy. None of them were happy and yet...she had the strangest feeling something like this had happened before but Cater was pretty certain she had never experienced this at all. Keeping this feeling of deja vu to herself, Cater glanced around at the other Class Zero members that were in the given area.

Cater could see a mixture of those willing to keep going despite the odds while others had a more deeper sense of loss than the rest of them. In a way, Cater was stuck between the two. It was hard to believe that King and Nine were gone. She settled for silence, her face serious but in pain. Granted, it was probably not as deep as Seven's or Queen's but Cater did care about Nine and King. They were all family, after all. Nine even more so to Cater than the others because they treated each other very much like a brother and sister would. If she wasn't pranking the hell out of him, she was teasing him with pokey or his crush on Seven. While Nine was the bumbling, over protective big brother that not many wanted to mess with. King was pretty much the mother hen of the class. If someone so much as stepped one toe out of line, you could always guarantee that King would set them straight. He was a very good cookie baker and he even once let Cater and Rem prank Nine. With him gone, no one would be set back in line. It was really difficult to think of them as dead.

Right now, as they entered the school grounds, Cater felt like an empty shell void of emotion. They had been called back by Naghi. Cater only just barely listening to those around her as the battle around them continued to rage everywhere they went. No doubt, there were students out there who had lost those close and dear to them as well. War was a nasty thing. Considering they were suppose to be the best, the fact they had already lost two of their number unsettled Cater. What did it mean?

"FIRE!" Cater exclaimed, sending a bullet of fire at an enemy soldier. The armor was no match for the fire which singed right through it and, no doubt, ended the man's life rather quickly. Compared to her usual though, Cater felt her attacks were half assed. Only because right now, she felt void of emotions. The loss of two of their number was staggering for the group. However, she forced herself to go on. She was one of the only ones that could launch projectile weapons at the enemy. With the loss of King, they had to put more effort into protecting those that were still alive.

She almost jumped when she suddenly heard Trey's voice over the tumult indicating for where they were to go. Cater had been so fixed on covering everyone's backs by shooting occasionally behind and every which way that she hadn't really noticed much of anything else. She had become somewhat of a robot. If she allowed herself to lose it now, she knew that she'd be letting the others down. Cater had to be strong for the sake of those still alive. Queen, despite her loss, was still going strong. If Queen and Seven could carry on, Cater knew that she could too but it was hard.

Once they stepped into the room where Naghi had requested they join up, Cater had seen Deuce. Seeing the younger girl breaking down made Cater want to cave in but she forced herself to look away. She couldn't comfort her if she wanted to without risking herself bursting into tears too. Cater wanted to comfort her but she couldn't find it in herself to find that strength since she was teetering on the edge between having a break down like Deuce and keeping herself together. Class Zero had known each other for a very long time save for Rem and Machina. So, it was no wonder that most of them here would be feeling so sad.

'Keep it in, Cater. Don't think...' she thought, doing her best to gain control of her emotions and lock them in a chest sealed deep within herself. Either she would voluntarily unlock it later or simply burst, one of the two. Even now, she peered over at Naghi with growing impatience. King and Nine deserved to be avenged. The enemy needed an ass kicking. The sooner, the better! Where sadness and emptiness had been, anger was now gradually replacing it. She was thankful that the others were alright, even Machina and Rem despite her not getting along well with Machina or knowing the two for very long. Rem had become Cater's partner in crime when it came to pranking other students.

Cater heard Queen inquire about how much time they had left before another attack. Hearing this, Cater let out a sigh. Just how much more did they have to endure before everything fell apart? What had they been called in for? Glancing at the security screens that Queen had wandered over to, Cater couldn't really make out what was being shown. Quietly, she walked over to peer around the taller figures to glance at the screens.

"What was that?!" she stated. One looked like the blur of something with nasty looking teeth but she wasn't sure. It moved too fast and the screen died only for the video to be repeated again.

[Rem Tokimiya]

If Rem could feel any worse than she did right now…it’d be a real miracle. She did what she could to keep her face expressionless, not wanting to meet the eyes of her fellow Class Zero members. She especially didn’t want to see the pained and tired looks on their faces. She knew how awful they were feeling, not only from the physical fighting, but from the loss they had heard about. The loss of King and Nine had been pretty bad, it’d shocked many and even Rem was feeling just as awful as they come. Her heart went out to everyone within the class, but they needed to continue on. She put on her expressionless face, kept her eyes on the ground and simply trudged along behind her classmates.

Shaking her head slightly, Rem folded her arms across her chest as she walked, finally lifting her head as they waited to enter the room Naghi wanted them in. As they filed in, her eyes looked to Machina as he looked over his shoulder at her. Seeing him safe was always comforting, but when she looked past her childhood friend towards Queen, even just the back of her head, Rem was reminded about how she’d been too late to help Queen and King. Apparently they’d been looking for her through the fields of war after King had been shot…and by the time they found Rem, it was too late, it was beyond Rem’s ability to bring someone back from the dead, no matter how amazing of a white mage she was…it was simply impossible. It made her stomach turn on the inside, knowing she was being depended on and failed. It made her want to cry horribly, knowing someone else’s life could’ve been saved had you been around, but she simply had to take deep breaths and remind herself that she needed to be strong for the younger members of Class Zero. She needed to be strong and collected as she always was.

With her head finally held high, Rem followed the other members into the room and looked at them, all adjusting in their own ways. Queen leaning on the table to get information, Deuce back against a wall with her knees tucked up, it made Rem’s heart sink. She continued to stand there in the background of it all as she moved her hands down to fiddle with the lace at the hem of her skirt. It was a nervous habit, not that she was nervous now…but simply worried. Worried about what was to become of the rest of them, what was going to happen with their loss of two great fighters and the attacks simply coming and never ending? It was enough to make someone want to rip their hair out, wasn’t it? Stepping up and placing herself closer towards the table so she could hear whatever it was Naghi wanted to say to them, Rem kept herself quiet, her eyes still wandering as they moved from Queen to Machina, from Machina to Seven, and so on and so forth. She desperately wanted this war to be done and other with, she’d give anything for things to be peaceful…for lives to be restored and for war to never exist.

‘I’m sorry.’ She thought in her head as her eyes went downcast, looking at the table top as she continued to listen, her emotions still being held back by the strong mask she’d put on for everyone else. The sooner they got this fight over with the better, then maybe she’d be able to explode into these emotions she tried to hide so well. Hearing Cater speak up loudly, Rem’s gaze flickered upwards as she moved around to take a glance at the screens from a distance, placing herself next to Machina and peering around Naghi slightly so she could see. The images were startling, and they made her look away, putting her hands together and placing them close to her chest. “I don’t think we have a lot of time, judging by what I’m seeing.” She spoke quietly, keeping those words brief and leaving herself silent after that. There was no room for her to speak, nor did she really have a right to. All they needed to do was get information, strategize and get going.

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Words:[/color] 826
Muse:[/color] Good!
Tagged:[/color] Dem peeps!
Wearing:[/color] Class Uniform
Listening To:[/color] The Kill: 30 seconds to Mars
Notes:[/color] Special things will be happening in my next Rem post >>;

[Naghi Minatsuchi]

It was a pathetic procession that filed into the room while Naghi stood watching them. Who could blame them? He'd been right here in this room for every report sent back about the fighting they'd been stuck in, and all of it was pretty terrible even after the l'Cie had blown half of the Milite forces to hell. What had been a structured war for a while had turned into a series of skirmish after skirmish after skirmish now, with every single nation either trying to pull their forces back and being cut off by another nation or with some idiot of a commander still trying to keep the fight going. As far as Naghi was concerned, the real war was over now, and the Milites had lost it. With him basically in charge of the Peristylium now because of every single member of the faculty disappearing like cowards, he figured he had the right, by default, to say Rubrum had won and was out of this war whether the other nations wanted to admit it or not. None of the enemy armies were going to break through all the way to the Peristylium to tear it down. These monsters could do that, whatever they were.

Once everyone was in and situated, Naghi turned to glance at the closest ones he could see - Queen at the monitors, Cater and Machina not far behind her, Rem standing attentive nearby and Trey waiting in front of him expectantly. The rest seemed like they might have been showing their exhaustion more than these few, considering how they were piled around the room in different places. Naghi didn't break off into his relay of bad news just yet, giving the ones at the screens a chance to take a look at the reels repeating themselves and the cameras stationed around the school. Then, the questions came, and Naghi hated when he didn't have an answer for one of them...but this time around, he couldn't have answered either Queen or Cater's question if his life had depended on it.

He raised an upturned palm at them to start. "We could have five minutes. We could have five days. I have no idea right now, and no one does," he told them, obviously frustrated. He jabbed a finger at the monitor Cater was glued to. "And it's because of those things that I don't know. That's the only footage we have of their attack on three of our biggest bases on the northern border. Every single base went dark in the span of half an hour. Thirty minutes. Those bases are at least ten miles apart." Even though Naghi had known that fact for well over an hour now, saying it aloud really made it hit home. Not even the finest Milite ships could move that quickly and wreak such destruction in such a short amount of time. Class Zero knew that, as well. "Now we've got ships in the air...but we lost two ships out of mid-air that were trying to track those things. The ships that were left are saying the monsters don't really have any pattern to their attacks, but eventually, they're going to end up here."

Trey seemed ready to say something. Naghi didn't want him to go off on one of his tangents, but he guessed he had to let them ask their own questions. "Are we sure the creatures aren't something that the Milite scientists had developed for a desperate situation like the one that they find themselves in now? Could they be Concordian, even?" There were worse questions he could have asked, and this was one Naghi actually had an answer to. "Milites don't have any kind of organic technology like this. That I know for a fact. If they were attacking us, they'd send more of their machines. And everyone in Concordia of any note who could control this many creatures is dead now. Logic says it's neither one of them."

Naghi propped his hand on the center hub, staring at the screens again, wishing he wasn't at a loss here. Even during this whole mess of a war, he'd kept up with every fact and tidbit of information from every corner of the world. Now some huge wave of monsters was tearing across Rubrum's fiefdom and he didn't know a damn thing about them. He was holding one small bit of information in his mind, though, that was strictly abstract. "I did find out one thing from a Milite satellite broadcast, though," he spoke up, returning his arms to their crossed position. "Right after Caetuna's summoning, a high-ranking member of their military sent out a broken message to their commanders still in the field. Their communications are shot to hell. All I could make out was 'prepare' and 'eclipse' and something about the day after tomorrow. This was yesterday afternoon."

At that mention, Naghi noticed Eight's head pop up from where he was sitting up on a stack of chairs at the back of the room. "An eclipse?" Naghi didn't make any response, just keeping his eyes on the martial artist. Eight looked around at all his classmates, expectantly. "We learned something about that in class...something bad about an eclipse... From the Commander. Right, guys?"

So, their studies were good for something, then...Naghi waited for one of the others - hopefully one of the smarter ones - to actually confirm that.

Words - 983
Muse - Excellente!
Notes - Rem has to go last each turn, so we're starting round two here. Keep order through Cater, then those that didn't get in the first round can jump in. Be quick with it, though.[/size]

[Ace (No. 1)]

Ace felt knackered, with tender limbs as an extra. They felt like they were about to fall off. He could tell he would be sore in the morning. That much was obvious. All of this pain was caused by fighting, and war. However, the battle was over for now. Emphasis on ‘for now’. They would have to fight again soon. Maybe too soon. Surely the rest of Class Zero felt sore and tired too. Definitely tired of this life they were living. Yeah, read it and weep. Ace rolled his shoulders forward and back a little, before letting them slump. He knew the others could handle this. They were all in that class for a reason. They could take whatever was thrown at them, and get out alive. That was what counted, right? He knew that from experience. But everything added up. They were more than likely all exhausted. Every single one. Ace knew he was. If anything, he just wanted to go to sleep, and dream everything away. But alas, if only that was possible. No, he had responsibilities to do, things to figure out and so forth. Maybe that was why he suddenly felt everything weighing down on him. Maybe all that lost sleep was catching up. His eyes were held half open. Suppressing a yawn, Ace blinked a few times, rubbing his eyes. Ok, now he felt a little bit more awake. Now that he thought about it, maybe staying up until who-knows-what-time working on schoolwork and strategies wasn’t such a good idea… Nope. Definitely not that good of an idea. Ace looked around at the others. They seemed like him, tired. He looked at Machina, and nodded a little. He was okay. He wasn’t good, or great… let alone fantastic.

Ace nodded. ”I’m ok… How about you?” Honestly? He couldn’t help but feel a little worried about his classmates. Younger or older, family was family. He would make sure nothing would happen to them. At least, not as bad as what had happened to King and Nine. He couldn’t try and leave them all unscathed completely. Ace took a step back, and winced a little while doing so. Ok, not doing that again. Every movement felt like a ton of bricks. Painfully sore. He just wanted to go and rest. No more fighting. At least for a day or two. If he had a battery, it would be down to it’s lowest right now. His eyes flicked between them all. They all needed rest. If not, their performance wouldn’t be there best, right? Ace held back another yawn, before stretching his arms up. He felt stiff, and he clicked his tongue. He felt stressed too, with the whole Operation Apostle. He worked hard, because he wanted to do well with this. Was that so hard? Was that a stupid goal? Wanting to win this and not have to fight all the time? Ace swallowed, and scratched the back of his neck a little. Yeah, he felt a little under pressure, but he had to try and not show it that much. Was that good? Or was it only adding it the problem? He rubbed his eyes, and shoved his hands in his pockets, curling his fingers over and over. Ace looked to his right, and saw Naghi calling them in. He followed the others into the room. What was this about? Entering the room, he looked over to wear Naghi was, and looked at the security screens. He was right. How much time they had was forever indefinite. His eyes widened ever-so slightly at the thing on the screens.

Ace leant forward slightly, his arms crossed. If it wasn’t the Miltes or the Concordian, then who developed the thing? Or had it already been developed, just unseen? Then Naghi mentioned an eclipse. Could it really be the same eclipse they had learnt about? He tried to think back about it. ”Yes, I believe so…” He raised his hand to his mouth in thought, and shut his eyes for a moment. Ace was trying to sort out the things going through his mind. Wait… it couldn’t be that eclipse, could it? Oh, what did the Commander say about it again? He couldn’t seem to recall. That was a little annoying. Ace opened his eyes and looked at the others, and then back at the screen. Would there be another fight? He clicked his tongue again, and scuffing the toe of his shoe against the ground. ”It’s not like an ordinary eclipse. It’s different in some ways more than others… That’s as much as I can remember at this moment…” He couldn't really remember what was so different about it though. That was a little unhelpful... He shrugged a little, before casting his eyes back to the others, seeing what they thought.

[/size]

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Words:; 975
Muse:; Great!
Tagged:; You know who you are :3
Outfit:; Uniform
Location:; Ops Room
Listening To:;
Notes:; xD Got this out ASAP! :3 Hope it's ok!!!

[Sice (No.6)]

This was just perfect. Damn perfect. They were in the middle of a war. They had already lost two of her closest friends...brothers. Suzaku and the Peristylium were being taken over. And yet, they had moved inside at the orders of a gossipy ninja. She was tired and exhausted from all of the fighting they were doing, but she still would have liked to be out on the battlefield, continuing to fight. Sice easily hid the fact that she was tired from all that they had done, but as she glanced around t her teammates, she could see others that weren’t as good at hiding, and others that did the same as she did. At least this was giving them a chance to catch their breath before they jumped back into the fray once more. She could fight against exhaustion. She needed to fight against the army that was invading their home. And yet, she was there, waiting with her teammates to be let in so that they could talk strategy. Sice had never been one to talk about strategy. She would much rather just run into a battle, and take down anyone who got in her way. But, she knew that that method was never the best. And so, here she was. Clutching her scythe tightly in her hand, she would much rather have it out to comfort her, she waited to be let in with all of the others. Trey went and told Naghi that they were there, and the finally filed into the ops room.

As soon as Sice entered the room she moved away from the group to lean against a nearby wall, her right leg bent so that her foot was pressed upon against the wall with her. She crossed her arms over her chest, keeping a strong hold on her scythe, as she waited for Naghi to start informing them. Scanning the room, she saw Jack had a hand on his katana hilt and seemed to be ready to listen to whatever was going to be told to them soon enough. Everyone was finally situated in the room, and Sice perked her ears up as Naghi turned around and began debriefing the rest of the group. As the ninja began to talk, Sice focused her eyes on the screen and noticed the same blur that Cater saw as well. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. What was that? It was too fast to be human. Wait, those attacked the base? Thirty minutes...ten miles apart. Airships were already being hit out of the air. This sounded like hell. No, this was hell. If bases such as those were being taken down in the span of half an hour then that meant that this was a very big force to be reckoned with. Sice could feel worry and nervousness start to settle in her stomach, and she noticed it in Jack too as he tried to make himself look calm, but his expression and suddenly crossed arms gave it away.

An eclipse, huh? That seemed...rather odd, but Sice knew there was no time to worry about such a thing as whether or not an eclipse should be occurring at this time of day, or in the year, for that matter. Wait, Eight said that they had heard about in class. Sice racked her brains for all of the lessons that she had until now. Eclipses...eclipses. Ace was right. It wasn’t like any ordinary eclipse. There was something special about it. Something sinister. Sice scowled. Dammit! Of all times for her brain not to think of something sinister, since subjects like that always caught her interest, at this very crucial moment. Sice stared down at the floor, her eyes moving back and forth, trying to remember what it was exactly. Eclipses...beasts...transfo-that was it! Her head popped up. “The eclipse...it transforms whoever touches it into some sort of beast. That’s what is attacking the bases! People who were changed from the eclipse.” That had to be right. It seemed like the most logical answer. Well, for a world such as theirs. She could hear Jack pipe up farther ahead in the room, as he hit his fist against the palm of his hand. “Yeah, that sounds about right!” Well, at least the subject matter came back to him at points.

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Words: 734
Muse: Excellent!
Notes: Hope it is alright!

[Queen (No. 12)]

Queen hadn’t paid much more attention to her class mates as soon as she had gotten into the room and was now staring at the screens. She was dead on her feet, eyes swimming, yet she simply set her jaw and continued on. Hell, what else was there to do in this situation? Seconds strung to minutes, minutes had strung to hours. She barely knew what time of the day it was any more. What she did know was just that she was alive and they were still fighting., and would still be out there if Naghi hadn’t called them back to get him to come in here. Queen wished she knew exactly what they were going to be dealing with here, but at the moment, she didn’t, and she didn’t like that. Running a hand through her hair in frustration, she wavered on her feet, setting her hand on the table to steady herself. Her body screamed at her to find somewhere to rest, but her mind refused. She had to be strong for her classmates. They looked to their leaders to shape their own actions, and Queen knew she was one of those. Not because she was cocky, but because when no one else wanted to, she would stand up to help take the lead, it was simply fact.

So she couldn’t show her emotion or weariness. Couldn’t show her grief at losing those close to her, or give into the fear she had. When Cater came to peer into the monitors, Queen glanced at her, and so she missed the being that must have flashed across the screen. Shifting her gaze back to the fuzzy screen quickly, she was disappointed to realize she had missed it, and blew out a breath in frustration. Obviously it had been an ugly son of a bitch, or Cater wouldn’t have had that reaction, especially with what they had lived through in the past few days. Her eyes then flickered back to Naghi to see what it was that he had to say. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Seven push herself away from the wall and walk heavily over toward where Deuce was. The silver haired girl slowly sunk down until she was sitting on the floor beside the younger flutist, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer and against her shoulder. “It’ll be okay,” came her quiet voice, barely above a whisper, before she patted the younger girls knee.

Queen watched the display and was comforted to see Seven reach out the way she did. Queen had never been good at that sort of close personal comfort, and so she relied on others to do it generally speaking. Rem mentioned at that moment that it didn’t seem like they had a long time. Queen had to agree with that, and nodded slowly, wishing that this weren’t the case. She was ready to pitch forward, and might have a minute ago had she not steadied herself, she couldn’t imagine how the others felt. Looking around the room, she saw haggard face after haggard face. They weren’t physically prepared for the battle that was going to come. No, all they had was their own guts and determination. Queen desperately wished that they had more time. More time to rest up and prepare for another round of fighting, if only for an hour. But they didn’t. No, they had to rely on the reserves they each had.

Would it be enough?

As Naghi told them what was happening, she had this sinking feeling that it wouldn’t be enough. While he caught them up on the situation, Queen started grinding her teeth quietly, while her dead pan gaze simply took in the monitor he had jabbed at, and then looked back at him. In all appearances, she looked calm and sure. Inside she was shaken up. Nothing could move that fast…no, it didn’t-…shit. This day was just getting better and better. Taking off her glasses, Queen rubbed at her weary eyes and then readjusted the glasses on her face, trying to completely take in the situation. Quickly she did just that. So in five minutes they could have this place crawling with monsters they might not be able to track and that might be simply bouncing from one place to the next, phantoms really. “Shit,” she muttered out after he got done with the first bit of explanation. They couldn’t take that kind of casualties, with their airships being shot down. They needed all the help and support they could get. They might be the best in the entire school, but that didn’t mean that they could single handedly take down these monsters, could they? Or could they…

Even as Trey was speaking, Queen was shaking her head, but Naghi beat her to shooting down that thought. The Mllites had nothing like that, and Concordia either. Queen remained generally silent as Naghi continued to talk about what else he had learned. Slowly she nodded along, but Sice put into words what she remembered from their studies. But the Milites had started it? Byakko? “You mentioned that it was a message intercepted from the Milite forces, yet it doesn’t seem like they would have that sort of technology. How could they have managed such a thing?” Seven's voice came calmly from the wall, where she still had her arm around Deuce. "And how do we stop them?"

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Words:; 1086
Muse:; Great!
Location:; That room!
Outfit:; Student uniform
Tagged:; You know the people
Notes:; --
Listening To:; Come Again - Staind

[Machina Kunagiri]

“I’m alive, that’s something, right?” he replied to Ace, smiling weakly at the younger boy, “Perhaps that’s the most we can ask for right now…” he glanced over when Cinque pushed past him and stood between the both of them, “So long as we’re together, we’ll be fine…” she told them in an un-Cinque like quiet tone before nodding towards the door, “Let’s go, yeah?” the others seemed to be entering the room as well. Machina really didn’t want to go inside to hear about what was no doubt to be more bad news, but what choice did he have? If things were going to get even tougher from this point on, it was best to know about it so you could prepare for what was to come, wasn’t it? With that mindset, Machina followed his classmates into the room and immediately moved over to the monitors to check what was going on. Only Cater and Queen stood closer to them, the rest kept a fair distance away. “I’m sorry…” he heard Deuce whisper quietly as she buried her face against Seven’s shoulder and wiped at her cheeks with one hand, “I’ll… I’ll smile again in a minute, okay?” Seeing the two girls share such a close connection almost made Machina feel like an outsider. All of these guys and girls had spent almost their entire lives together. They really were a closer group of friends and perhaps even family than Machina had ever seen before. It was good to know they all cared about each other so much, but it also made the dragoon feel bad, because he didn’t share that connection with them. He’d felt upset when King and Nine died, but because he hadn’t gotten the chance to know them as well as the rest had, his grief wasn’t even half as strong as theirs. With a frown, he turned away from Seven and Deuce and focused on the monitors once more.

Machina kept mostly silent as he watched the images on the monitor and took them all in. The situation looked dire, and judging from the reactions of his classmates, he was right in that assumption. This was going to get even harder than it had been before, wasn’t it? Looking away from the monitor, the dragoon looked over at Rem, “We’re doing well so far, all things considered… we can do this too, you’ll see,” how strange was it to have Machina of all people be positive about their chances for a change? He could only imagine how weirded out some of his classmates must’ve been right in that moment, because even Machina felt strange for talking like this. Maybe his ‘talk’ with Queen really had knocked some sense into him. “An eclipse?” he’d heard something about that as well, but he’d never delved into that sort of information too much. The things they were talking about sounded more like scenes from a horror movie than something that could happen for real, but Machina wasn’t about to argue with their expertise, so instead, he just listened to what they said, trying to form a picture in his head about what all of this meant for them. If this eclipse turned everyone into monsters, what could they even do to stop it? Was there a way to stop it? “Do we… do we have to fight those things?” Cinque at this point had knelt down next to Deuce and Seven as well, and leaned her head on Deuce’s shoulder, a fearful look replaced her otherwise happy smiling expression, “I don’t wanna fight that… it’s scary… we don’t have to fight it, do we? There’s another way to stop it, isn’t there?” she spluttered fearfully, clinging onto Deuce even tighter and reaching a hand out to grasp Seven’s hand as well in an attempt to ease her nerves, but it wasn’t helping much. “This is… Finis, isn’t it? That's what it was called?” Deuce spoke quietly, holding onto the hands of the classmates next to her, but looking mostly at Seven as she spoke, “Mother and Kurasame both said it, didn’t they? When Finis starts, the Agito must rise up to keep the end of the world from coming.”

Machina still couldn’t say anything. Everyone seemed to have some sort of theory about what was happening right outside, but none of them were actually certain. What they said terrified him though, an eclipse that turned people into monsters? The end of the world? Mysterious technology that the Milites weren’t even supposed to posses, but did anyway? With each bit of added information, Machina felt his resolve grow weaker and weaker. He wanted to help his classmates end this war, but before today, it had ‘just’ been a war. A war against a nation, against other people. As awful as it was, that was something they had at least been trained for. But this news about monsters he’d never even heard of… that was just way more than he’d signed up for. He wouldn’t abandon them, but he couldn’t deny feeling as terrified about this as Cinque. “Is there a way to stop it?” he asked finally, “Or is this a battle you know we can’t win? I’d like to know before going back out there.” If he was going to die, he wanted to know about it. He wanted to know if this would be the last chance to tell Rem how much she meant to him, he wanted to know if this would be the last time he got to apologize to Class Zero for his somewhat difficult personality. He wanted to know if there was going to be another tomorrow for any of them, or if this was the end.

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Words: 955
Tagged: Dem peoples
Location: Ops Room, Suzaku Peristylium
Outfit: Uniform
Notes: These text colors make my post look like a freaking rainbow, I love it! Also, Machina is now like that puppy you smacked with a newspaper, whenever Queen so much as looks in his direction, he cowers.

[Cater]

Strategy, Cater wasn't the one to do that kind of thing. She always reacted to situations based on her instincts alone. She didn't use thought, only instincts. They were what had gotten her this far but for something like this, she just kept quiet after she had said what she had to. They all didn't need to be told that no doubt, something bad was on the move. Cater had exchanged a look with Queen. Queen was one of their leading figures in their group. Queen had been right, it took a lot to make Cater react the way she had after all of the things they had been seeing. Monsters were what they had seen.

It wasn't until Eight mentioned Eclipse when most of the members took pause. If it really were the eclipse they were told about then Class Zero had just found the purpose for their very existence in this school. "...Eclipse..." Cater trailed off as the others discussed it. One of them was to become...the what? It wasn't until Deuce spoke up that Cater remembered the name. It was Finis and one of them had to become the Agito to put a stop to it.

"Figures, we're dealing with that now!" she grumbled. "First Nine and King, now this?" Cater took in a deep breath before crossing her arms, her gun idly resting on her left elbow. They were all far too tired to do much of anything let alone stop the apocalypse! Still, they were Class Zero. If they couldn't do it, then no one could. It was all up to them to save the world from Finis. The issue was, who would become the Agito? None of them looked like they were in any kind of condition to amount to something such as that. Or were they all to fight as one? That didn't seem to make much sense. Like it or not though, Finis was finally upon them.

Hearing Cinque's frightened words about not wanting to fight those things, Cater very much felt the same way. She wanted a rest more than anything and now they had to keep fighting. Monsters were on their way and they didn't have much time. Remaining by Queen and Rem, Cater couldn't help but wonder. Where was the Agito if it turned out that neither of them were it? Then, Machina spoke up. It was a question everyone wanted to know. Would they survive it? Probably not, their chances looked pretty grim here. Was there a way to stop it? Only one but even then it was unclear how that would take place.

"One of us is to become the Agito. That's the only thing that's suppose to stop it. One teeny problem though...which of us is to become the Agito? Is that part even true?! Why did this even have to happen now?!" Cater said to the others. How were they to become the Agito if one of them was meant to be it?

Cater couldn't help but feel despair creeping up on her but she fought it back. It was hard not to when the whole lot of them was struggling a lot with it already. They were just kids! They shouldn't have something this serious depending upon the whole lot of them! What did the adults all expect for them to do? Sure, they were a very talented group of students but they were still just kids! Kids shouldn't be fighting in a war for Etro's sake! They should be busy worrying about their studies and passing classes rather than worrying about the fate of the world and how they were going to put a stop to Finis!

She went silent again, looking toward Trey, Queen and Ace for any idea of what they were thinking. They would probably know more than she and the others could. It's not that they were all stupid, it's just they all looked to those three for advice. Ace and Queen especially. Queen more so out of them all since she carried the lead when it was needed. Picking everyone back up and motivating them.

"I guess we could just swear and make rude hand gestures to them all..." she trailed off, not sure of whatever answer would ever come to them as she gave the rest a shrug. Point of the matter was, they were all royally screwed. Their chances of surviving didn't look all that great from where she was standing but man was she going to put up one hell of a fight! Cater was tired but she would keep going. They needed to stick together.

[Rem Tokimiya]

Rem wasn't sure where to go from here. Everyone seemed down and depressed as well as both mentally and physically exhausted. As they should be. Having lost King and Nine seemed to bring the entire group down, but when you added fight after fight after fight...Rem was ready for a nap. With a rather blank expression on her face, the white mage looked to her classmates. Seeing their faces, seeing the pained expressions of tiredness and despair that they wore. Her heart went out to them, and even though she was too saddened by the loss of two excellent people, Rem was sure it hurt the others more rather than herself and Machina. Those deaths had hit class zero right where it hurts. It certainly hit home.

Looking at the monitors, Rem felt a sour look cross her face. Seeing beasts and not finding anything about this war to be easy anymore...not that it had been easy when it started. Damn Cid and his Milites Empire. Damn them all for causing such madness. How many lives had been lost so far? Rem cringed at the thought as everyone spoke. She could only keep silent though, her mind working around many different topics regarding the war...regarding this. She still felt awful for not having been close enough when King was hurt...she could've potentially saved his life. Even if she couldn't have helped Nine...knowing that King and Queen had been looking for her only made the brunette feel even worse about all of this. She could only imagine the pain and heartache Queen was feeling...that's when she took a glance towards Machina. There was her someone that she didn't want to lose.

Finis. The time of Finis. That's what the eclipse was all about. Everyone started to catch on, and Rem was getting ready to question what it was they were supposed to do. If one of them became the Agito then that was great. Who though? The rest of the group couldn't just abandon that one person though. Rem was certain that they would have to go fight those things eventually, before they destroyed the school as a whole. As she stood there though, her silent still lingering, she saw something out of the corners of her eyes. Shifting slightly and turning, pigtails was all Rem noticed at first...heading into a sea of class zero...men.

"There are monsters getting close to the academy! Someone has to do something!" Kayla dramatically stated as she wandered towards Machina. "Are you going to protect us all?" she fluttered her eyelashes before trailing towards Trey. As she continued to talk about each man within the room and their...heroic qualities, Rem felt her blood boil under her skin. This was no time for games! Or rather...this was no time for Kayla to be playing the speed dating game. Frowning, Rem kept her eyes on the blonde girl, her feet moving a bit towards the table within the middle of the room. She wasn't thinking straight...her mind was too muddled by the anxiety and frustration of this war. So...it wasn't expected when Rem took a step into one of the chairs surrounding the table, her eyes still on Kayla. It was a good thing Rem had red eyes naturally...she was practically seeing red. "Oh who will be the one to save us? I can't wait to figure out this hero-" Rem went flying.

Arms wrapped around Kayla, weight was being filled to the ground and already Rem wasn't sure what of was she was doing. When she hit the ground hard, landing on Kayla's back as she had practically flattened the girl, Rem felt a smirk of satisfaction form on her lips as she sat up and pressed a hand firmly against the blonde's back, keeping her down. "Kayla! Make yourself useful and go keep watch. And no. Not of the men because none of them are worried about you right now. Obviously we have more important things on our hands so get a grip, keep your skirt on and get lost before I give you a reason to run!" Rem scolded before getting off the creepy girl and standing over her in an intimidating fashion. With Kayla scuttling to her feet, Rem kept her eyes on the girl as she fled. Rem was going have to remember her stern side in the future.

And now back to business.

"So what do we do now?"

[/size]

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Words: 792
Muse: goodish
Notes: Sorry for the crap.

[Naghi Minatsuchi]

Immediately the support to Eight's voiced thoughts started ringing in, Naghi swinging his eyes to each face in the room to try and determine who was saying what. It was a slow buildup until Sice finally brought up something about the eclipse in relation to the monsters. Honestly, what she said made no sense to Naghi whatsoever, and he was about to say as much. But a few other voices chimed in, either confirming or adding to her words with things Naghi had never heard before in his entire life. Finis. Agito. Becoming the Agito, at that. Naghi simply rested with his arms crossed over his chest, letting them sort it out among themselves. Well, whatever they were talking about, it didn't involve him. The school had always made the claim that there was something different about Class Zero, and while Naghi could reluctantly admit they were probably the best overall class in the school, maybe he hadn't fully understood what the people who had made such a claim about them had really meant. He sure hadn't learned anything about an eclipse, Finis or Agito in his school career, and Naghi was not a young man who forgot such things.

His eyes settled on Queen when she spoke up, and immediately he started to shake his head at her, finally opting to interject because the subject of the Milites' involvement was one of the few things that wasn't going over his head at the moment. Naghi didn't know one damn thing about an eclipse that turned anyone into a beast, but he did know the Milites hadn't gotten any sort of planetary phenomenon going in the shape their nation was currently in. They were a mess of scattered troops and an occasional officer. They were barely struggling to remain intact as it was. "No, it's not that the Milites sent these things out for the attack," he clarified, briskly. "They only knew what was coming. They were preparing because they were trying to protect themselves from these things, and they apparently had protocols for defending against them. How they knew before us is beyond me, but the officer definitely wasn't too confident that their preparations would be worth anything." In fact, Naghi thought he'd heard outright fear in the man's voice, though connotation was nothing to judge off of, especially with them on extremely thin ice for the next few hours, waiting for the attack to arrive as it surely would.

Once he finished, their conversation with each other continued and they discussed how they would fight...or do whatever it was they were supposed to be doing now that this "Finis" was happening. Trey was speaking, apparently addressing what Machina had just said. "Whether it's a battle we can win or not shouldn't matter. We can't let the school fall without trying to protect it or, at the very least, learning what we can do to have everyone transferred somewhere we know is safe. Naghi, who exactly is left at the school?" Naghi shrugged weakly, making sure they knew they couldn't exactly count on good news on that front. "Whichever members of the classes weren't in the field for the war. Carla's here. Mutsuki and Ryid are gone for all I know. Quon too. Not answering any of our messages over the COMM," he said, to mention the few people who had, along with him, been "pinned" to Class Zero's operations. "There may be one or two staff members left, but anyone with any real influence is gone. We're-"

Speaking of who was left at the school, the ever-annoying form of Kayla walked in. Naghi watched, jaw set, as she carried her way through each of the male members of Class Zero. As usual, she was a waste of space. Naghi was about to yell at her to get out, but a flash of a tiny redhead in the corner of his eye stopped him short. With eyebrows raised, Naghi watched Rem, one of the few people he hadn't exactly expected to rip into someone, drive Kayla, who was probably two or three inches taller and thirty to forty pounds heavier (not to mention a monk), into the ground. He cut his eyes to the other members of Class Zero as they witnessed it. Widened eyes. Frozen in staring at the scene before them. Naghi kept his mouth shut while the whole exchange took place, wishing he could have told the exact same damn thing to Kayla a few times over the course of the years when she'd been bothering him. And the girl, who would have gone after one of the guys to get back at Rem any other time, scurried on off, leaving Naghi to look through the faces of Class Zero again. The ones he could see were still apparently in awe.

Eight was the first to snap back to attention, once Rem attempted to return things to normalcy after her little explosion. "I don't see why we even need to talk about it. If they come here, we have to fight them, and there's just no way around it." Trey, as usual, also chose to chime in, nodding in agreement along to Eight's words. "And what worth would we be as candidates if we ran from Finis, if that is what we're facing, only because we didn't fully know what actions we're supposed to take? Mother apparently thought we were ready, if she's left us at this time. The commander died, apparently thinking we were ready. Of course, that was when it was all of us..."

Words - 1011
Muse - Excellent!
Notes - Two more rounds of posting and this'll be over![/size]