Rise of Souls - IC

[Sean Renaud]

Jermaine jumped when she attacked the cage. It send her sprawling just like it was supposed to and consciously Jermaine had know that it would hold against even her strength. Truth is that any man who claimed he was one hundred percent certain was either insane or a liar and Jermaine was neither, whe he'd caught that blur of motion part of him was certain that she was going to escape.

Seeing her sprawled out on the floor though, well that gave him other thoughts, the first being once again the breifest proposition that she might have been killed. Of course that wasn't possible, they'd calibrated the shock specifically for her. The second was a little less honorable, but in the end what he decided was to sit back down and watch her.

Truth was he really didn't have any place else to be and he'd only started to leave hoping that it would coax a response from her. Which to be perfectly fair and blunt about things it had. She had responded to his trying to leave, just not by asking him to stay. Somehow Jermaine doubted she wanted to burst from her confines to kiss him, embrace him and crush him up against her. . .

"Hurry up an wake up I know you're not dead." Jermaine said as he pulled up a chair and down. Maybe he'd be able to see it, her soul. Maybe she'd glow like like on some of the television shows he'd seen. Maybe she'd start weeping over all of the people she'd slain. Then again maybe it would be business as usual and the scientists would need to run a bunch of tests to confirm they had put something in place they couldn't even prove existed.

He sighed. At least she was beautiful.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

OOC: Still working on the restoration post, figured I'd just get this out of the way first
---

"Technically I am dead," Eliza said as she sat up, wrapping her arms around her legs as she did so.

"But I appreciate you're lack of concern for my well being. I'm fine, thanks" the vampiress added as she brushed aside some of her red hair.

"And I thought you had somewhere else to be? Or are you staying to make sure I get my soul back. Don't expect me to just start repenting or anything." she asked, noting that he had pulled up a chair instead of walking away.

A captive audience... only in reverse.

"I mean don't you soldier boys have to train or something? Maybe call your girlfriend or your mother? Tell her I send my best," she teased.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"If I wasn't sure you were both ok and very anxious to kill me I'd be in there giving you mouth to mouth right now. And you don't even breath." He was smiling slightly now. "If you really find my presense that annoying I can leave. Truth is that you're my assignment for the duration of, well if everything goes as planned my life. I mean even in a best case scenarior I've got another seventy years in me, and in this line of work, monster fighting, I'd be lucky to make it another twenty. You though. . .you'll be walking the earth when my great grandchildren learn to shave."

He turned his attention away from her for a moment looking down the halls. "I don't know how long this is going to take, is there anything you'd like?"

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

OOC: They're shutting the lab down soon, post might have to wait till tomorrow, unless I can borrow my roommates
---

"I'd like it if you let me out of here," Eliza said again. She knew saying that was pointless, but his question was practically begging her to say that.

She did notice that he never said anything about a girlfriend or a wife. In fact he had dropped a sexual inuendo and she smirked at it. Eliza brought a hand up to her mouth and she scratched at one of her fangs.

"Actually I am pretty thirsty. You don't have any blood I can borrow, do you?" she asked thoughtfully, dropping her arm again as it fell on her knee.

"Probably not," she grumbled.

"Cause I'm really really hungry," she complained.

"We're about ready," someone said to Jermaine as he approached her cell. Eliza raised an eyebrow at the scientist, and she decided to start taunting him as well.

"Hey cutie," Eliza said as she stood up. She walked over to the front of the cage and smiled politely at him.

"Major has been pretty mean to me. But I bet you know how to treat a lady," she said seductively. She brought her finger to lightly touch against the cage wall and a bit of electricty coursed over her fingertip, not enough to shock her at all.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Jermaine looked at the the scientist and nodded several times as the man spoke but when Eliza flirted with him, even in passing his eyes clouded over slightly. It was obvious that he was more than a little pissed off at the situation in a general sort of way.

"If you're almost finished then I suggest you hurry back to make certain nothing goes wrong with the process." Jermaine snapped. The scientist wasn't a soldier, in truth Jermaine, Captian or not, had next to no actually authority over him, certainly not enough to take that sort of tone with him. There was very nearly a confrontation and that was what stopped it. The scientist was fully aware of how poorly a genuine conflict with Jermaine would go.

"No I can't let you out, we do however have blood for you. Fresh from donors. I'll go retreive a bag for you." He said turning and walking way, he returned only a little while later with a pouch, about two liters of blood, he'd even bothered to warm it and he sat it down just outside her confines. The he stepped back and pushed a button opening a slot just large enough for her arm.

"Eat up." It was his blood, donated several weeks earlier amongst others. They'd screened heavily to keep from disease, though most of the scientists were certain that vampires were immune to human disease there was no reason to test it right now.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Eliza frowned when Jermaine stepped in, ruining any chance she had at twisting the mind of the scientist towards her. She had detected a slight hint of jealousy, or perhaps the Major was simply looking out for his coworker. Either way her fun had ended almost as soon as it began.

"You're no fun," she said as he walked away.

It seemed like it took forever for him to return, and Eliza occupied herself by doing some exercises. She began doing push-ups, but not in the traditional sense. She used one arm to hold herself up, her feet aimed towards the ceiling. Every so often she would balance herself on one finger. She returned to a normal sitting position by the time Jermaine had come back with some blood.

She watched him set a bag down and then a small opening appeared for her to reach out of. She moved forward and picked up the bag, bringing it back into her cage with her.

She eyed him for a moment before she sunk her teeth into the pouch. It wasn't exactly 'fresh' blood, but it was still well-preserved. She felt it pour down into her body, providing her with some nourishment. She wiped away any blood that happened to trickle down her chin, licking it off her hand. She looked up at Jermaine with a childish grin and extended the bag out, a little bit of blood left in it.

"Want some?" she asked with a smile before eating the rest. She toyed with the bag a little before she tossed it aside. Eliza then laid down on the ground and stretched her arms.

"Mmmm..." she said softly before sitting back up. She checked her nails and then yawned.

"So how long is this thing going to take? I'm bored," she complained, getting back up to do some more stretching. She stopped after a moment as her ears picked up some faint chanting. It was probably too far away for Jermaine to listen to, but she could hear it clearly.

They were chanting in Latin, and she understood it as if someone were talking to her in plain English.

She growled and punched the cage, elecricity coursing over her body.

"Tell them to stop," she complained.

She honestly didn't want her soul back. It would make her weak... she would become burdened by moral choices, thinking and feeling as a human does. The demon inside her fiercely struggled against the soul restoration spell, but in the fight between her demons and her better angels... the angels would win out in the end.

Eliza fell down to her knees and she felt a little weaker.

"Tell them to stop," she mumbled, a tear falling down her cheek.

From her tiny cage she could hear their words: Nici mort, nici de-al fiintei, Te invoc, spirit al trecerii. Reda trupului ce separa omul de animal! (Neither dead, nor of the living, I invoke you, spirit of the passing. Return to the body what distinguishes Man from the beast!)

In a room lit only by sacred candles and those chanting within, the tiny Orb of Thesulah that remained in the hands of the spellcasters began to glow as if it were pleading with a higher Power to restore her lost soul.

Lasa orbita sa fie vasul care-i va transporta, sufletul la el. Utrespur aceastui. Asa sa fie! Asa sa fie! Acum! (Let this Orb be the vessel that will carry his soul to him.
Restore this one. So it shall be! So it shall be! Now!)

The orb glowed brightly once more and then became extinguished. Inside her chamber, Eliza felt a powerful spirit drive out the demon inside her, and she was reunited with her soul that had moved on well over five hundred years ago. With her hands clutched over her ears, Eliza's eyes became as gold for a brief moment. She lowed her hands after a moment, simply staring down at the ground.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Jermaine watched as she begged him to stop the process. For a moment he actually considered it, going as far as to lift his radio and squeeze the button but then he stopped himself and just watched her. Of course he couldn't hear what was going on, so he had no way of knowing if she was going to survive this.

When he saw her eyes flash for a moment he knew that it had worked just fine, he would have to have the guys who handled the process explain it to him in greater depth soon. It worked.

"Eliza, are you ok?"

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Eliza stared down at the tiled floor in disbelief. She was covered in sweat, and seemed to be out of breath (which for a Vampire is rather ironic).

"Oh... God..." she muttered, her arms outstretched to the floor in front of her.

Eliza was suddenly filled with intense remorse and guilt as the voices of all those innocents she killed as a Demon started flooding her mind.

"I can hear them... screaming," she muttered, a tear forming near her eye. It dripped down towards the floor, splattering for a moment before it dried up.

Being cursed as a Vampire was one thing... but now she was cursed to live a life of regret and torment for all the lives she took as a soulless beast.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"Hear who screaming?" He asked towards the glass. He had to consciously resist the urge to touch the glass. "Eliza, are you ok?"

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

"Everyone," Eliza muttered as she sat on the floor.

"And I killed them..." she added, still a little shaken from the experience.

The demon inside her had removed all her human emotions, and now that it was gone she felt a huge pang of remorse over the crimes she committed. Eliza shook her head and wiped away another tear.

"No, I'm not okay. Just get away from me," she said, biting her lip sorely. She was a monster...

 

[Sean Renaud]

Jermaine looked at her for a moment then walked away. He needed to talk to the techs for a while before he could really do anything else for her or with her. Despite wanting to open the cage and hold her, he knew that she was still a monster and she probably wouldn't hesistate to kill him if she was given even half of a chance. So he wasn't going to give her that opportunity.

It was several hours later when he finally returned to her, he'd changed into his civillian clothing, a long sleeved black silk shirt and matching slacks and shoes. He had more blood for her, which he sat down next to the opening and stepped back.

"Eliza, it's time that you understood what happens to you at this point. At this point we use you as a weapon. It's hoped that your guilt will somehow make you love humanity and help us make the world a better place. The first step of which is going to be letting you out of that cage and running a few tests on you. After that we'll take you into the field but that's still a little ways out." He sat down to watch her.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Eliza was still reeling from the fact that she had soul back. It wasn't a pleasant thing... it never was meant to be. Giving a vampire their soul back was one of the cruelest forms of punishment imaginable. She was basically forced to live a life of regret, plagued by the knowledge of her past deeds.

When Jermaine finally came back to her cell Eliza hadn't even moved an inch. She was still just as much of a mess as before.

Jermaine set the blood down on the ground by the opening, but Eliza was hesitant in picking it up.

"Love humanity?" she repeated, as if the idea was just so... foreign and rather ironic. She shook her head in shame.

"How am I supposed to do that? I'm still a monster," she said, rolling the small container of blood in her hands.

Perhaps if she did eat a little she would feel better. Eliza sunk her teeth into the pouch and drank a little. She felt satisfied... good, even. She just wasn't sure she would ever taste the blood of another human again. Eliza would have to settle for these pouches.

"I just want to be left alone..." she mumbled. But she didn't have much of a choice.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Jermaine grabbed his radio and said something that in his head sounded really chivarlous in his mind, but out loud. Out loud it sounded suspiciously like I'm tired of life and I don't want to bother anymore. "Make sure I don't die." I hope she's just pissed and not pissed a brilliant. The shock collar would take her down almost instantly, course if she was holding him there was a chance it would kill him as well, and more than that she could probably break his neck, or rip off his head before anybody could react anyway. It wouldn't do her any good but who knows how rational she was going to be. Still he opened the door and walked over to her crouching down to be face to face with her.

"You're not a monster Eliza, you never were." He'd been warned that this was a possibility, that she'd feel guilt for what she'd done over the centuries but he'd dismissed it as legend. If the soul was what mattered her feeling bad about the people she killed made about as much sense a man taking responsibility for someone killed with his stolen car. Sure it's his car but he wasn't driving. The fact was that the supernatural often made his head hurt. "He reached out for her smoothing her hair back for a moment. Come on, we're on a bit of a schedule here and the boys would like to check a few things. I'll try to hurry them along if I can." He knew he shouldn't be as concerned about her mental health as he already found himself being. "Come on."

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Eliza glanced up as Jermaine walked into her cage, and she almost felt like shying away from him. But he knelt down next to her and ran a hand through her red hair. It felt... somewhat comforting.

"But I am..." she mumbled, repeating to herself in her mind that was a horrible killer. She hadn't felt this bad about herself since she was a young girl... and that was over five hundred years ago.

Eliza finally stood up on her feet after a moment, but she didn't really feel like going anywhere.

"Where are we going?" she asked, finally giving in to her situation. She could probably escape any time she wanted to, but given her current position they'd probably shoot her down before she reached the front gate.

And they probably wouldn't nice to her anymore (not that most of them were nice to her now).

Eliza tossed the empty bag of blood to the side.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"You're not. You didn't have control of yourself when those things happened. I'd go as far as to say you're a good person, otherwise you wouldn't feel bad. You had to kill to eat, we were prey like mice and birds to a cat. You killed to eat. Adolf Hitler, there's a monster, and he didn't feel an ounce of guilt and I'm sure his body count is higher than yours. John Wayne Gacey, monster. Saddam Hussien, monster. Eliza, victim." He truly believe that to be accurate, vampirism was a disease, a disease with great benefits but it was an STD.

Not that he really believe himself to have a chance with her, but that suddenly came to mind as an issue. He couldn't think of any diseases that were ONLY transfered by blood to blood contact, would sex be an issue. Well he'd just have to ask the tech wizards and hopefully they could answer him later.

"We're going down to the lab. I guess they are going to start by confirming that you actually have a soul, not sure how that works. Then they are going to test that all of the equipment is working properly, shock collar and the such. If they'll let me at that point I would like to take you out into the field. There are plenty of vampires that need killing and humans make poor vampire hunters you see, but you. You're the ultimate weapon."

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Maybe Jermaine was right. She wasn't a cold blooded killer when she was still alive. The demon inside her had simply used her body as a vessel through which it fed itself... kept itself alive.

"I met Hitler once," Eliza said.

"He was an idiot," she added.

She finally nodded her head when he said they were going to go down to the lab. But she knew that his scientists wouldn't be able to detect her soul. Not unless they had a really powerful Witch with them.

Eliza followed him out of the cage, and she was tempted to try removing the collar around her neck. But she thought better of it.

"So am I stuck wearing this thing forever? Or can it come off at some point? It's really itchy," she remarked.

"Plus it doesn't really go with what I'm wearing. Am I going to be able to change? Or will that come after all the tests?" she asked, tossing a barrage of questions at her captor. She was starting to feel like her old self again, minus the bloodthirsty and violent parts.

 

[Sean Renaud]

For a moment he was floored by her comment. She'd met Hitler and Dracula. It hadn't occured to him how many people she could have met over the last five hundred years. She wasn't as well documented as many other immortals, he had no idea where she'd been during either World War for example.

"You'll be able to take it off when I feel I can trust you. I don't think I need to remind you that not long ago I was firing shotgun blasts into your chest, electrocuting you, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to hold me partially responsible for you hearing those voices screaming in your head. If I were you I would trying to find a way to play twister with my entrails." He lead her down to the labs.

The techs wanted to do everything, blood samples, spectral analysis, some kind of that had her between two pannels that spun in circles making a RUMPrumprumprump RUMPrumprumprump noise every time it cycled around her.

Jermaine sat in the corner of the room watching the entire time, and occasionally hurrying one of the techs along, particularly the ones who were spending more time focused on her assets than on the fact that she was an asset. It was close to an hour later when the finished.

"I think in polite circles this is where I say Eliza, I got to do what I wanted to do, so what do you want to do?"

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Eliza was once again subjected to a variety of tests, some of which she thought didn't really have anything to do with her being a vampire, nor with her having a soul. It was somewhat embarrassing as they poked and prodded at her, at least until Jermaine ordered them to move things along.

At first the thought of playing with the Majors entrails crossed her mind, but she wouldn't go through with it. He was acting under orders, so she couldn't really blame him.

Thankfully these series of tests didn't take nearly as long as the other ones.

"Depends what time it is," Eliza said when she was all finished. She had lost all track of time while being kept in captivity, so whether it was light out or dark she had no idea.

She was certain that if they did let her outside she would have like an entire armed escort by her side, ready to dust her should she try anything funny.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"We've got hours until dawn if that's what you're asking." He studied her carefully, he was still in possession of a healthy fear of the woman and he wasn't certain if putting a soul in her had really made her docile or if she was just waiting until he wandered to close to her.

Another of the dozens of thoughts that had no answer to cross his mind was what igiving her a soul had actually made her docile. She'd be worthless as a weapon if she lacked ferocity of the beast inside her.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Had she been in captivity that long? It was more than likely. Eliza had long since lost count of how much time had gone bye, their tests taking up a good chunk of it.

"Well, maybe we can go outside then. I won't be running away if that's what you're thinking," Eliza commented. The collar around her neck would ensure that she would remain close enough.

But it was really itchy.

Oh well.

Eliza did have some pent up frustration, so if she couldn't kill humans then she might as well start fighting other demons. This was the Hellmouth, as a matter of fact. Trying to find a demon would be as easy as trying to find the New York Yankees during a home game.

"I figure it'd be a really good waste of a night if I'm kept locked up during my peak hours," Eliza added.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Jermaine smiled slightly but noticed that she was still stifled over the collar, of course who wouldn't be, after all it really did represent a near completely congrol over her. "We can go outside if that's what you want, it's not like you could run away if you wanted to." He shook his head and walked her down the halls. If you weren't familar with the compound it was pretty much just a maze of identical hall ways of marked with various alphanumeric identifiers. Getting turned around was easy.

"So what exactly did you have in mind?" He said as they stepped out into the night air, he'd chosen to leave through a building that was marked as a closed roller derby so they were relatively near the center of town. He had finally gotten used to her enough that he wasn't just blatantly gawking at her, besides he wasn't having to deal with other people looking at her either which let him relax slightly, it was then that he became accutely aware of the fact that he was unarmed. Sure he could trigger the shock collar, and the truth was that if the that failed even with his equipment he didn't have much chance of surving a fight with her. It was more than enough that his pulse picked up as he looked at her waiting for her to answer his question.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

"Define powerful," Shauna asked curiously. For the most part all the Vampires she had been dusting were pretty much just low-lifes, not worth her time. She could probably dust them just by blowing on them.

She glanced off towards the distance and saw the house/mansion that her Watcher was pointing to.

It looked old and creepy.

"You mean I have to go in there?" she asked, look of hesitation on her face.

"Well it better have electricity. I don't think training under the light of a candle stick will help. And shouldn't I train during the day? There's still plenty of night time left."

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

(Bleh short post)

Eliza 'breathed' in the night time air, emphasizing her joy at being back outside. She obviously didn't need to breath air, so it was more for the dramatic effect of being out of the compound. The stars above were shining bright and the moon was already high up in the sky, providing plenty of light for her to see in.

"Let's wander around for a bit," Eliza suggested.

"I'm guessing you'll probably take me down if I start running, so how about we take a nice stroll?" she added, already moving on her feet.

Eliza stretched her arms and cracked a few knuckles as she looked around her.

 

[Sean Renaud]

(It happens to us all, also to pre-emptively answer your question I have WAY to many questions about vampire psychology & biology)

Jermaine smiled as he watched her breath in, ok the truth was he was just fixated on her breasts for the moment. Vampires and breathing was always something that facinated him, they didn't need to breath but that didn't seem to stop them from trying. After a hard run or a fight many would breathe harder, he'd seen plenty of them smoke, so all the muscles required for breathing still seemed to function. Vampires were still in many ways human, which lead the the question would they panic if you held them under water? In the same way that people were frightened of movies, or rollercoasters? He started to ask then stopped himself, there would be time.

"If you want to run run, just let me keep up with you. The collar has a tracer in it by the way, so while I could take you down that's my last choice." He smiled slightly an started walking with her. "Since I seem to have answered enough of your questions I''d like you to tell me about Slayers."

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

(Well if you want to shoot them my way I'll try and answer as best I can)

"I can run pretty fast," Eliza said with a smile.

As they both walked down towards some unknown destination, anyone that might have looked at them from a distance would probably not have noticed anything unusual or strange about them. Eliza looked completely normal, save for the state of dress in which she was arrayed.

At first the night had been going well. She was outside again, she didn't feel threatened.

Jermaine wasn't being an ass.

At least until he asked her about Slayers.

"You want to know about Slayers?"

Eliza rolled her eyes.

"Legends tell of a chosen warrior who is called upon "To defeat the demons, the Vampires, and the forces of darkness". She's usually some teenage girl, and when she dies the spirit of the warrior becomes activated in whomever is chosen next."

Eliza yawned.

"Kind of an overrated description if you ask me. Only 'Slayer' I ever faced wasn't much of a threat. Of course she did have an annoying habit of falling me around wherever I went." she said.