It's hard to find true equilibrium.

[thesilentstorm]

Lindblum was, in Lumi's opinion, a singularly awful city.

Built atop a mountain, or possibly a cliff, it bore the sort of architecture that made it amply clear that it had been added to over time, that it had started off much smaller and had grown, almost organically, outwards and then upwards, like a particularly unpleasant fungus of mismatched brick and tile all contained within the immense castle's fortified walls.

Lumi's nose had wrinkled as they made the approach to the Falcon's Gate via airship. Even from a distance he could see that, without more space for the city to crawl beyond the walls, as most seemed to when they outgrew a castle's ramparts, it had just gotten ... taller. Idly, he had wondered how it would fare in the event of an earthquake.

Once the airship had docked and he and Marluxia had disembarked, he decided that the city was even worse than it had looked from their approach. The winding streets and irregular buildings did little but compound the fact that the city was not purpose-built. Some of the houses leaned like drunkards and some of them had larger, over-hanging upper floors, as though they had been added to at a later date by a less skilled builder. It looked disorganised, ramshackle and untidy.

With any luck, they wouldn't be there long.

They were in the city on a mission, or, at least, a favour. In deference to the alliance he had made with the most recently recruited of his old ... "colleagues", Marluxia had agreed to make a trip to Even's old home to pick up some items that he hadn't thought to bring with him on his would-be temporary relocation to Daguerreo. It wasn't safe for him to go himself, on any front, and Marluxia had the freedom of movement accorded to an established and voluntarily joined member of Clan Khamja.

Lumi stood in the street outside the Air Cab station, a frown on his face at the feel of the uneven cobbled floor under the soles of his shoes. It was a warm day, but it was growing clear that Summer was on its way out in this part of the world. The breeze that blew down the street carried upon it the scent of woodsmoke, hanging baskets and the promise of rain. It was, despite the pleasant day, cool enough to make Lumi stiffen where he stood. He scowled, looking up. The sky was, at least, still blue, though grey clouds were visible in the distance.

He looked to Marluxia for direction. It was he who had the address of Even's old residence.

Comments

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia had located some of the materials Vexen wanted retrieved. What he could make fit his pocket, he had, but Vexen wanted some books as well, and those didn't fit away as easily.

He'd stacked them on the desk, the one floorboard near to it creaking with the shift of his weight.

There was an answering creak from downstairs as one of the doors shifted on its hinges. Lumi was refreshingly uncurious a lot of the time, and he'd been particularly so when it came to Vexen's old house. He wouldn't be opening doors slowly enough for them to creak, and certainly not for no reason.

Marluxia paused, frowning as he turned his head and concentrated on senses other than sight.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi took the safety off his gun as the kitchen door creaked, though he scowled at the relative volume of his weapon in comparison. There was little chance the intruder wouldn't have heard the metallic grind and click.

He trusted that Marluxia had been both detected by the stranger and had detected him in turn. If he headed up the stairs, going towards the creaks, Lumi could take him out from behind.

He took a breath, a quiet one, and listened for the sound of feet on the threadbare carpet instead of the hard kitchen floor.

[notjustanyolddude]

Someone was upstairs. In the study from the sound of it. Xigbar listened for a moment longer, trying to pick up on who or what exactly he was dealing with.

Whoever it was, they were trying to hide. Their reiatsu was heavily suppressed, and suppressed even further now they knew Xigbar was here.

Then there had been that little telltale metallic click. Some chucklehead was lurking about with a gun, and they weren't himself.

He readied his own guns before he stepped out into the hall, aware that he could be shot at or worse any time now, and might have to beat a hasty retreat into one of the rooms. He slipped carefully towards the dining room first, not wanting to walk right past it and leave himself open to being shot in the back.

What was that reiatsu he could feel? It was familiar, and yet not one he ran into a lot. Certainly not someone from the Order.

Realisation was like a lightbulb being turned on. Now what the hell was he doing here?

"I wouldn't think this was your kinda digs," he called, "not enough garden, right? Marluxia?"

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia couldn't hear Lumi, but he could hear someone moving very carefully about the kitchen. Lumi was better than that, he wouldn't make any noise unless he couldn't help it.

Marluxia concentrated. He was a Geomancer here, he was more sensitive than most, though not as sensitive as the likes of Zexion, Ienzo, whichever he preferred now.

Amiable menace put him in mind of Gin, but Gin never felt this... Dark. This was Dark like Ulquiorra's when he had his mask out, but Ulquiorra's didn't smile at you like this did. This was a Dark that would buy you a beer, coax you in, make you comfortable, and then press a gun to your forehead once your guard was down.

Marluxia knew exactly who their intruder was before the voice confirmed it.

He hadn't fought Xigbar on this world, but this world had seen fit to give him an ear for the Green Word, to give Zexion his ability to smell reiatsu signatures, he highly doubted it would have taken away Xigbar's entire element. Unfortunately, he had no way to warn Lumi about Xigbar's peculiar abilities without also warning Xigbar about Lumi's presence.

Better to hope Lumi was being a good headhunter and had kept himself hidden the second he'd picked up on Xigbar's presence.

Much, much better to keep Xigbar talking. He'd always been chatty, and chatty meant distracted if he thought Marluxia was alone.

"Merely seeing what gil can buy, Xigbar," he responded, knowing Lumi would at least pick up on the name meaning the Order's current de facto leader, and moving towards the top of the stairs. He kept himself back, out of view of anyone slowly creeping round the stairs to come for him.

"What's your excuse?"

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi followed the sound of the intruder heading towards the dining room, knowing his direction from the muffled footsteps on the carpet and the door being pushed open. He didn't recognise the voice when it spoke, but the fact that he had addressed Marluxia by name made him narrow his eyes.

He had his suspicions as to who it might be, if only in a general way, and Marluxia confirmed them when he responded.

Xigbar's accent was strange, different to that of the other Ryoka, Marluxia included. The others he had heard ranged from well-spoken to upper class. Had the name not clued him in, Lumi wouldn't have known what he was up against.

Lumi kept himself quiet and hidden. Marluxia didn't want to alert Xigbar to his presence, that was obvious enough. There was no reason for him to have used his name, not when he already knew he was there and would have recognised his voice without it. No, that was for his benefit. To Xigbar it would be banter, to him it was information and a concealed instruction not to move.

[notjustanyolddude]

"Me?" Xigbar asked, his tone amiable as he checked out the dining room, content that it held no nasties. Marluxia wasn't a gun user, he knew, so that little metallic grind and click hadn't been him. "I'm house sitting."

Marluxia had a partner. Larxene had been real pissy about that. Some white haired dude none of them really knew. Marluxia always liked having lackeys, and where possible, he liked when they did the work and he got to play boss. It was highly unlikely he'd have come here alone.

And he was trying to distract him.

"You shoulda said you wanted to check the place out. I could have give you the guided tour."

He paused to change bullets. Marluxia's flowers had never been fond of fire. No one had been able to tell him what element the partner was, but Xigbar doubted it was that. He just wished he could pick up on the partner's reiatsu, but he was probably making damn sure he was hard to spot now, and mostly Xigbar could feel Marluxia, deliberately flooding the place with the tinge of his own reiatsu.

"Last I heard of you, you'd got yourself a new partner and joined Khamja," he said, amiably, while he reloaded his gun. "Lu something? Larxene's seriously got it in for him, you know."

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia felt the corner of his mouth twitch in a wry smile. Xigbar was letting him know that he knew about Lumi. Letting him know, even, that he thought Lumi was here somewhere.

Hopefully, he wouldn't have long to know how right he was.

"I think Lumi can handle her," he said, shifting slightly to peer through the banisters into the hall. He couldn't see Xigbar, still, and it sounded like he was in another room.

It didn't take much concentration to keep his reiatsu unmasked and let it fill the immediate vicinity.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi heard Marluxia upstairs and Xigbar still in the next room. Marluxia's voice put him at the top of the stairs, probably mostly out of view, and Xigbar, by the sound of it, had stopped in the dining room to load a weapon. He knew that sound well enough.

He listened to the conversation, taking in both what was being said and what very deliberately wasn't. Xigbar was aware that he was in the house, but he didn't know where he was, or he hadn't before he checked the dining room. The click of his gun would have given away which floor he was on, so he knew that he and Marluxia were currently separated. With the kitchen and the room he was in eliminated, it didn't leave anywhere else for him to be.

He gritted his teeth for a moment, frustrated. A narrow hallway wasn't the ideal location for a shootout. He edged to the doorframe and looked up at the stairs, keeping himself out of view of the dining room doorway. If he could catch Marluxia's eye it could make all the difference when it came to making their exit.

[notjustanyolddude]

"Yeah," Xigbar said, a nasty smirk on his face that was audible in his voice, "you always did like buddying up to powerful people."

Lumi was damn good at not making a peep. That was irritating. If Xigbar could get a fix on his location, he could shoot him without ever having to come out from cover. All he needed was a good idea of where exactly the bastard was standing.

But Marluxia would know that, or at least, would be able to surmise that, and would try and keep it from happening.

"So, what are you doing rooting around in Vexen's study?" He readied his preferred gun and slipped to the door of the dining room again. It was a pity it wasn't in Vexen or Saix's tastes to put mirrors about; they'd have been real useful right about now.

Was Lumi going to be waiting for him at the drawing room door, or just inside it, waiting for him to stick his head in and force him to turn his back on at least one of them to get shot at or.... Magicked at, judging by Marluxia's performance in the past? It wasn't a question Xigbar wanted answered the hard way.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia smirked. That had actually sounded like Xigbar was having a dig at him, and even without a heart Marluxia would have found that irony hilarious.

"You'd like Khamja, Xigbar," he said, danger and threat in his tone, "it would remind you of old times." Aizen was borne from the same model as Xemnas, there were scientists who lived in basements, mooks and minions ordered to do the grunt work, oh yes, there was a lot of similarity with the Organization of old. Complete now with the inclusion of Zexion and Vexen.

The doors to the drawing room and dining room were right next to each other. If Marluxia pressed himself back against the wall, he could just about see the bottom couple of feet of the drawing room door without risking making himself visible to Xigbar. If he'd got that far, he'd have to have got past Lumi, and that wasn't likely.

"You should consider it." He added, unable to see further without ducking, or bending, and leaving himself vulnerable.

[thesilentstorm]

Marluxia was stalling for time.

The banter between them was now unsubtly threatening and Marluxia had neglected to answer Xigbar's question as to why he was there. He didn't want him to know that Vexen was among their number now, it seemed. Easier to make their presence look like recon than a directed retrieval.

He couldn't see him from his position. The house was laid out wrong for that. He suspected that Marluxia had guessed where he was, but in order to not give away where he was to Xigbar, he couldn't make himself visible to him, either. Eye contact wasn't possible.

He stayed still, hidden from view. If he stepped out first, he risked being shot from the doorway of the next room. If he stayed still, it was possible that Xigbar would rely on his desire to stay out of sight to come at him directly. The house did have a front window, but if he moved towards it, he knew full well that the creaking boards underfoot would probably betray him with the efficiency of a nightingale floor.

Nevertheless, he risked a single, quiet half-step further into the room, far enough to see get a glance at more of the bay window than his former position allowed. He did, however, keep his gun trained on the door and, but for that brief look, his eyes also.

[notjustanyolddude]

Xigbar murmured, his expression dark. "Found out he's gone then," he said. If he kept Marluxia talking to him, then he wasn't talking to his little pet. Unfortunately, it also meant the little pet was staying quiet. "Bet you kow why, too. It must really sting to know Saix and Axel had you dancing like a puppet from their strings."

He edged, very carefully, beyond the doorframe into the hall, keeping his gun at the ready. Xigbar was a damn good shot, but unlike most gunners, he specialised in closed quarter combat. If Marluxia's friend was a gunner too, and it had sounded like he was, then he was probably really cursing his luck right about now.

"Let's be honest, Marigold, you're not as good as you tend to think you are."

The hall was clear. Xigbar's upper lip curled and he turned his attention to the drawing room. He moved back a step, so he was further from the living room door and it would only be a short step back into the dining room and cover, and extended his arm, letting the tip of his gun poke just beyond the edge of the door frame, so anyone in there, watching the door, would be able to see it. He pulled it back sharply, just out of sight, so it looked like it might be an accident.

[gracefuldahlia]

"Nor are you," Marluxia replied.

He needed to warn Lumi. Xigbar could afford to stay in cover, because he could shoot from there and still hit a target if he knew where it was. Lumi couldn't afford to break cover, because he couldn't let Xigbar know where to aim.

He concentrated his chakra, drawing up a fire spell. The Order didn't have portals, because the Order no longer had Zexion and Vexen, but Xigbar was one you could never be sure of. Twisting space was his trick, always had been. If it came to it, Marluxia could set the house ablaze, grab Lumi, and drag him into a portal, but it still posed the risk of getting past Xigbar.

He'd need to make himself visible to get at Xigbar, and the longer he lurked at the top of the stairs, the more likely Xigbar was to start taking potshots at Marluxia to try and draw Lumi out.

"Propensity for shooting around corners aside," he said.

It was blatant, there was no way Xigbar wouldn't miss it, but Lumi needed the warning before he moved.

[thesilentstorm]

The muzzle of Xigbar's gun caught Lumi's attention. He narrowed his eyes, his own weapon trained on the area just above where he it had protruded from. If Xigbar made himself seen now, it would be a headshot, had he judged his height correctly and, if not, a neck wound.

He listened to the tense conversation, the baiting. What Marluxia said stuck out and Lumi looked sharply in the direction of his voice, trying to process that information quickly. It was a warning, he knew that, but it didn't make much sense to him. How could anybody shoot around corners?

He felt Marluxia's chakra flare, not knowing if it was a distraction, a target or a risk taken to drive Xigbar back into the dining room. Either way, he wouldn't be expecting an attack from him while Marluxia charged a spell.

Lumi took a step back towards the door, abandoning the notion of an exit via the window.

[notjustanyolddude]

Xigbar narrowed his eyes. That was a pretty obvious warning from Marluxia to his partner in crime, and it came timed at roughly the same time as Marluxia's own reiatsu spiked. That bastard was drawing up a spell.

Marluxia was trying to catch him out.

Risk taking it was, then.

Xigbar stepped back into the dining room and opened a portal in front of himself, which he opened out in the hallway directly in front of the drawing room door. He couldn't guess height without seeing the other dude, so it was kind of random.

Anyway, he didn't need to hit, he only needed to make sure the door was clear enough for him to stick his head in and catch a look so he could really aim.

He fired through the portal.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia felt the strange draw of Xigbar's darkness, and knew he must be done playing. He dropped a couple of steps and unleashed the fire spell in the direction of the dining room door, over the stair banister.

Flames erupted, but not before the sound of a shot being fired.

The fire should give him a moment's clearance to get down the stairs without being shot at, anyway. It was time to get out of here.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi moved and then, all at once, everything seemed to happen.

First he sensed an odd Chakra signature, Xigbar's, he thought, and then he heard Marluxia move, caught the burst of magic from his direction and felt the heat of his spell.

In amongst it all, he heard the shot get fired ... from two directions at once. Once from out in the hall and once ...

He growled, his instinct getting the better of him, but the sound was cut off as he registered the sensation of pain. He held his breath, teeth gritted, and realised that, somehow, he'd been hit. A second passed before he pinpointed the source. Xigbar's bullet had caught him just below the left shoulder, at the front.

So that's what Marluxia meant about firing around corners.

He dropped his hand, his left hand, and transferred the gun from his right into that one. Only a fool dropped his weapon in a fight. Not pausing, he moved to grip the wound, looking up to search for evidence of the shooter.

He'd been shot before. He knew that numbness followed the initial burst of pain, that adrenaline took over shortly afterwards. It tried. A curious absence of discomfort spread through the wound-site, but not for long. A searing burn followed on its heels. It was agony like nothing he'd felt before and he dropped, back against the wall, into a crouch, the fingers of his left hand spasming enough that the textured grip of his pistol felt like sandpaper against his skin.

[gracefuldahlia]

It wasn't a large house. It didn't take Marluxia long to get down the stairs, and it took even less time to get into the drawing room.

Lumi had been hit. That was an irritation. He had not, however, been floored by it, but knowing Xigbar, he was using magical bullets. That's just the kind of person Xigbar was.

He didn't want to stay in the doorway. Fire or not, Xigbar would have noticed his movement in this direction. He grabbed Lumi's left wrist, not thinking for a moment about the possible risks of physically manhandling an injured Lumi in the seconds after the injury, and pulled him deeper into the room.

"He struggles with moving targets," he hissed, gathering his chakra to wrench open a Garganta in front of the window. It wasn't as easy, and didn't feel as natural as opening portals had been when he was a Nobody, but it was the same principle.

[notjustanyolddude]

Xigbar had been forced back into the dining room by the fire spell. Marluxia was too good at that, enough so that Xigbar was of a mind to call unfair advantage. He'd have preferred petals mixed with darkness, or Marluxia's other signature moves than him borrowing from Axel's repertoire.

The movement beyond the flames was little more than a flash of pink, but Xigbar knew exactly where it was going.

He opened another portal just inside the drawing room door and put his other gun to it. No point wasting his magic bullets for suppressive fire, and he'd only loaded the elemental ones into one gun.

If he could reliably master the knack of keeping two portals open at the same time, he'd have been able to shoot Marluxia and his friend, but the concentration that stunt required was immense. Two portals side by side were fine, but two opening in two different places resulted in one collapsing before he could use them both. It was like trying to shoot two different targets on your left and your right at the same time.

He fired off a few shots into the drawing room, aiming at around Marluxia's head height. Maybe he'd get lucky.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi let out a snarl when Marluxia grabbed his wrist, but upon seeing who it was, he swallowed the tail end of it.

With an audible sound of pain, he pulled his wrist from Marluxia's grip and raised his gun, firing blindly into the direction of both the doorway and the wall that divided the drawing room from the dining room, anything to stop Xigbar firing while Marluxia, quite literally, worked his magic.

It was hard to keep his arm up. The pain was starting to deaden his arm and he could smell blood, his own, intermingled with the scent of gunfire, actual fire and dust.

When his bullets were exhausted, he swayed where he stood, breathing ragged.

[gracefuldahlia]

The Garganta opened, and it lacked the familiar swirling smoky quality of the corridors, but it opened. Blackness beckoned them, like a hole in reality.

"Go," Marluxia said, ushering Lumi towards the Garganta with one arm as he raised his other and called up another fire spell. He didn't want Xigbar to get any ideas about following them, and if possible, he'd rather leave him with the impression that they'd escaped through the window. No point letting the Order know about this trick, after all.

He let the spell loose, twisting the fire to cover the furnishings near the door, and out into the corridor. It should effectively discourage any attempts to get near by Xigbar.

He turned and made sure to blast the window through as well, so their escape looked realistic.

[notjustanyolddude]

Xigbar had ducked at the sound of gunshots, planting himself below and behind the dining room table. The smell of fire was in his nostrils, and he reloaded his gun while he was ducked down, counting shots fired.

Marluxia was up to something too, Xigbar could feel the magic being worked in the room beyond. Bullets came through the dividing wall, they were only thin in this type of house, and that let Xigbar guess that they were heading for the window, trying to get away.

There was another pull of magic again as he finished reloading, and this time more fire erupted, and he could hear the sound of the window breaking.

The smoke was starting to get out of control. Marluxia didn't let loose wimpy fire spells.

He glanced at the back window. He was trapped in here unless he went out that way, or took his chances with the flames, and with the fire now being deliberately spread into the corridor, he'd rather not chance it with the flames.

He shot through the window and picked up a chair to put it through wide enough for him to make it out.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi hesitated, coughing on the smoke, but did as Marluxia said.

He stepped into the blackness, hand pressed to the wound in his shoulder, trying to ignore the increasing wetness beneath his palm and fighting the curious sense of tiredness that washed over him strongly enough that it urged him to sleep despite the pain.

"Marl..." he gritted his teeth again, his head spinning.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia stepped through after he was satisfied their escape would look convincing, and let the Garganta close behind him.

The sound and heat of the house and fire were abruptly cut off. This place was eerily quiet. The smell of smoke lingered, but it was fainter.

He looked at Lumi. He'd never seen Lumi vulnerable before. He'd seen him asleep, but he'd never seen him injured, and struggling. Blood was seeping between his fingers and through his clothes.

"Back to the Palace," he said. The fact that Lumi needed medical attention didn't require voicing. The fact that said medical attention would unfortunately come from a certain Arrancar, and that was probably the least unpleasant of the options also went unsaid. "Can you make it?"

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi nodded, the movement jerky and lacking his usual control.

"I should think so," he said, his voice not as flat nor as smooth as usual.

He tried to straighten up, to walk forward, but the moment he did, the black world slid out of focus and his gun fell from his fingers. Marluxia became suddenly bright in his vision, his pink hair standing out starkly in the darkness.

"I'm sorry," he heard himself saying, his words coming out slurred, and then everything went sideways.