Griffin

Nero was no longer sure, if He was still dreaming or not, for the preposterous things that had occurred so far seemed far too ludicrous to be real, Rocketing through space consumed by some strange crimson light, waking up in a crater, finding and killing that terrifying Black monster that He realised He had not seen at least not properly, saving and being blown by that strange horned woman who one moment He did not understand and then did in that strange dual mixture of Latin and English that had been crammed into his brain by that strange gem... but now... as he eyes opened and closed, feeling something very strong carrying him over its shoulder, feeling the deathly cold, hearing clicking voices, and briefly spotting beside him, a woman with red skin being carried beside him, by a creature with two sets of arms. This is why Nero's mind, muddled and confused, was lost as to what was real and what was not, but He eventually managed to close his eyes properly, allowing himself to fall into a restful and much-needed sleep.

Griff's feet dragged against the sandy stone ground as the two, large Litchen savages held her tightly around each arm, pulling Her tired, damaged and exhausted body along, pausing at one of the deep man-sized holes the littered the long, dark sandstone tunnel.

Griff barely had the strength to move, let alone fight bag, after the savages had found Her and dragged Her back to the Hive, that... shaman of theirs, sapped her of every bit of her strength, making her unable to fight physically or with Her Mysteria

"I'd heard stories about Litchen Mysteria, Leecher Glpyh users that could sap a person dry of Their power and leave them as a dull, exhausted wreck for a time, how lovely it is to feel it first hand." She thought to herself, feeling as the Litchen-Warrior tribeswoman tossed her into the Hole.

Grif, hit the ground of the cell hard, Her body thumping against the Red sandstone harshly as the Litchen above sealed the hole, laughing in their horrible clicking voices all the way until their cackles echoed in the far off hall.

Pulling herself up on her quaking arms, Griff sat flat against the wall of the small stone Cell, contemplating the three solid walls, each engrained with bright Golden gems that shone, illuminating the cell slightly "Savages my Ass... the amount of Bolt Anchors I've seen, these guys must have learned a thing or two since the Empire last managed to contact them." She thought, grateful to not be sat in the pitch black.

But Her own cell was not the only thing that the Shining gold Bolt anchors illuminated, for right in front of her, separated from her cell by thick Stone bars, was another cell, identical to her own, where another person, who was definitely not Litchen, lay, obviously **** on the ground.

Griff's eyes widened, looking closer at the Vermillican Man laying on the ground, she was shocked, How did a Vermillico... like Her... a male one at that, get here?

The Empire couldn't have sent him, and He was obviously a Half-breed, He had to be! No Vermillico male was as small as him, the Males usually being nearly 9 feet in height, but He was just above the Female average, a bit taller than she was by the looks of it also.

She narrowed Her eyes, trying to pull some of Her power out, **** Her Mysteria to work so that she could awaken Animo and enhance Her eyes to get a better look at him... but she was too weak. Griff grunted with annoyance, trying to catch any other detail that she could on the Male, still face down in the dirt, She saw his horns... they weren't like any of the Nobility She'd seen, long backwards curling horns that spiralled beautifully upward and towards his scalp, one was slightly shorter than the other... Most Half-breeds had defects sure, but from what she could see, other than that, He was pretty much a perfect Male specimen. His horns were marked, so they were definitely real and his curly jet black hair dropped over his face so that she could not see it.

He looked strong, his lean form prominent under his very strange apparel, which was like nothing that she'd seen before, but it was the Marks on his Bare Bicep that caught Her eye. He was a Mysteria, that much was clear, she saw the Tattoos, the circular spirals with the symbols of his Glyphs within, though she couldn't see which He boasted, she could see well enough to count Two Glyphs.

"A Dividum... But he's too old to have not unlocked his four glyphs?" She thought, Dividum usually unlocked their four Mysterian Glyphs by the time they reached adulthood, as opposed to Solus who only boasted a single Glyph, the powers that came with being able to wield four Mysterian Glyphs was incredible indeed, Grif would know, she was a Dividium Herself, but how highly irregular that a Male of his age wouldn't have all four of his Glpyhs present on his arm.

Griff was fascinated by this Male, but... He had to have been from the Empire, She hadn't been to a Ball or fraternized with Nobility in Months and doubtless, New and exiting Half-breeds had been submitted into the Patricians in Her absence, She couldn't trust him, she couldn't trust anyone, Not even Brutus, even if... even if she had saved Her life... twice now.

All Griff could do it bide Her time, and try and find the Son of War, They had come when summoned, the Impact proved that they had to be out their somewhere, it was all a case of bidding her time until she could get out of the grasp of these damn Litchen.

Nero opened his eyes, the terrible, groggy feeling that made him unable to move, made Nero contemplate the emotions of a Fly stuck on a windscreen. Wherever He was, it wasn't comfortable, it face ached where it had been laying on the stone for ages, his chest and legs felt numb... not that He really wanted to get up, He wasn't even sure what to do if He was still dreaming or not-

From another corner of the room adjacent to him, Nero heard a furtive cough, "H-Hello?" He called, trying and failing to sit up, "Is anyone there, You think You could help me stand?" He asked, trying to sound calm, though his heart was pumping in his chest again, that is when He said the first name that came to his head, not that He was sure He really wanted it to be her "Calliope... is that You?" He whispered.

For a moment, there was silence, nothing but cold and quiet in the strange stone room as He tried to get a better look around, his neck cramping as He did. Eventually, however, "How You know that Name?" Said a calm, feminine voice

"H-Hey, look, I need Help, I-" He tried to ask but she interrupted,

"How, tell How You know Name." She said again in a weird, kind of segmented lingo, Nero had strength enough to clutch his head, feeling it throb painfully again as He spoke

"I... Helped her, She was injured and this thing tried to kill Her... b-but I killed it first... I don't know How?" He said, tactfully leaving the part where He blew his load off into her mouth, The Woman in the Cell next to him went quiet again for a moment, before whispering

"You Killed a Centurion?" She said, in a kind of shocked disbelief "Nonsense." She quickly added, going quiet again. Nero lay there... for a while, his fear was starting turn into irritation, He was in a lot of pain and all He wanted at the moment was to sit up. Summoning all of his strength, Nero pulled his arms out and placed them on the ground, grunting fiercely, Nero tensed pushing and pushing with everything he had, lifting up, up... just a little further

"Come on!" He roared, throwing himself backwards, his body shifting up against the hard stone wall, Where his bed hit against the wall "Gah, Fucking Wanker." He grunted, rubbing the back of his head, and wincing as His horns scrapped against the wall-

"Fuck!" He shouted, touching the Long, ribbed horns that emerged from his head, looking at His deep Crimson skin and gritting his teeth "This isn't a dream... all of it is real... fuck." He said, his arms falling weakly on his lap.

Nero let his neck relax for a moment, his head turning to look through the thick stone bars, to see the Woman on the otherwise. With skin bright Red, Inward curving horns that had strange markings on them, but Her face.... He saw Her face, transfixed by the High cheekbones, the soft lips, Her button nose... She was so beautiful that He had to have been staring at Her, taking in her Ear-length wavy Black hair and Her Bright Blue eyes that shone like sapphires in the low light, she was wearing long rags that covered the majority of her body, save for her long and sexy smooth legs, weird considering He was still wearing his tattered shirt and jeans.

"Who are You?" He heard the Woman call, in Her weird sounding voice, He winced gripping his forehead again as his headache worsened,

"Nero..." He grunted, clamping his eyes shut and trying to nurse his headache away "Ah, My head." He said, his ears ringing, The woman shifted, looking at him curiously

"Bad Transfer?" She asked Nero opened his eyes, looking at Her with hope

"You know why I have this headache?" He asked, pleading with fate to let Her have a way to fix this horrible pain, She nodded, but didn't move from Her spot, by the looks of her, she must have felt just a weakened as He was

"You were, give something that You have not completely understanding, its is clashing with any other that You already having..." She said in her strange broken jargon again, making his head ring further "what kinds of Knowledge did You gets?" She asked

Nero grunted trying to ignore the headache "I don't know... um... She um... I couldn't understand Her, so she used this stone thing... and it filled my head with Latin... that's what we're speaking in now isn't it... but it feels like we're speaking English?" He said, shaking his head "I need to get the Hell out of here, I need to figure out what's going on." He added the Blue-eyed woman raising an eyebrow at him

"You are not knowing where You are... the bad transfer is being the Common Tongue, did Your Houses not teach You?" She asked in general confusion, He looked her dead in the eye, saying completely seriously

"I am not from here, okay. I'm a Human Being, from... somewhere else, I don't know what You mean." He said, cupping his eyes in agony, The Blue-eyed woman's eyes widened, scooting forward slightly with a smile on her face

"You!?" She said with a smile, "You, are the one who was summoned, You were falling from the sky!?" She asked pressingly, Nero looked at Her again gravely and nodded. Her face lit up, scooting forward on weak limbs to get a better look at him

"Be listening to me, Closely." She said quickly "We are needing to get out of here." She added, looking up to the ceiling for a moment "I can be helping You if You will be helping me in return!" She said, sounding very excited, Nero could barely hear her, his head was ringing too much, she sighed, glancing up at the ceiling again "I don't be knowing when the Litchen will be returning, but I may being able to building up the strengths to fix Your Bad Transfer." She said with a very pretty smile, Nero huffed

"If it's somewhere safe... and You can make this headache go away, then I'm down for anything." He said earnestly, she nodded sitting back with a look of sudden determination... Nero merely looked at her, even with her devilish features, she had to have been the most beautiful woman He had ever laid his eyes on.

It had been a little while since the Blue-eyed woman had spoken, she had been sat in silence with Her eyes closed for a while now... but Nero could tell that she was doing something important, He could feel it in the air, a spark lingered in the air, like the electric buzz just before a thunderstorm. Nero felt a strange feeling inside of him, his instinct had been relatively calm despite the number of stimuli he had been encountering... but now, as the Woman let out this aura of power, the flames inside surged and writhed like a rousing beast, growing and gathering within.

After maybe an hour of sitting there, his headache slowly reducing to a subtle ache and his muscles beginning to regain their vigour, The Blue-Eyed woman's eyes shot open, Her arm snapping upward as a familiar crimson glow began to sear against her left arm before He could say anything, a quick crimson bolt flew from her index finger, striking him directly in his forehead, where the bolt surged through his mind, making him cry out as He felt it riddle through his thoughts, pushing and pulling the pieces in place like a puzzle, His neck shook as his head quaked until... Pop.

Nero gasped, his eyes wide as the throbbing in his brain completely vanished "There You go." The Blue-eyed woman said only... She sounded English, she wasn't speaking English, it was Latin, he knew that, but it was strangely like having google translate installed in his mind, a really accurate, very clear version anyway

"I sound better, right, Your mind will be able to distinguish the two conflicting parts, now." She said she had a very beautiful speaking voice, smooth like butter but strong enough to show that it commanded respect, "Are You just gonna keep staring me or are You going to say something?" She asked, add slightly sarcastic to that list of Sexy Blue-eyed demon lady lingo.

"Yeah." He said, nervously

"Yeah, You're going to say something?" She said, smiling a little solemnly at him, He shook his head, quite happy to have it clear enough for him to think

"You never told Your name." He said, She nodded

"You're right, I didn't, and I don't think I will... But, Griffin will do, I'd prefer it if You didn't call me Griff but people usually insist." She said with a Grin, He looked at her, the Woman called Griffin and raised an eyebrow

"Listen, I don't know if I really properly explain before, I'm not from here, I have no idea where we are... what we are, or what anything is, just a fair warning." He said earnestly, She seemed more fascinated than anything, curious

"If You're who I think You are, then this comes as no surprise to me, falling from the stars and colliding with Marte gave me a special insight, You know?" She said, still grinning at him, He raised an eyebrow, blinking

"Marte? You mean... Mars?" He said She tilted her head

"Mars, is that what You call this Planet where You're from?" She asked, still beaming at him, He nodded, still a little unnerved by Her cheery look

"Where I'm from, we know for a fact that there is no life here, maybe once a long time ago, but this world shouldn't have any inhabitants." He said resolutely, she raised an eyebrow

"Well, It obviously does, as You can see, Son of War." She said, Her smile widening, He looked at Her like she was crazy

"My name is Nero." He corrected, but she nodded in agreement

"I remember... and I must say, I am very happy that You're here... If You are what I think You are-" Griffin paused, sticking her ear upwards, "They are coming... Okay, listen, we need to find a way out of Litchen territory, I know You're probably very confused, but I need You to focus, once we are out of here, I'll tell You anything You want to know, Okay?" She asked, Nero, looked at her nervously, hearing the sound of many footsteps thumping above, He wanted answers, He wanted to figure out what was going on, and Griffin was offering that too him

"Okay, What do You need me to do?" He asked, Griffin, who nodded with an appreciative smile

"Good... all I need You to do, is stay calm, composed, no matter what You see or what they do, just stay very calm and let me do the talking." She insisted as the footsteps grew closer and closer above, but He nodded, feeling his heartbeat hard in his chest, as the footsteps finally stopped, just above his cell.