The Duality Wars: The Alien Wars 6

Key: S = Session. Sty = Story. M = Mini. (more may be added with time)

Part I: Ebb and Flow

Arc One:

Verse 1, S.1: Session 11: Unnatural Crash

4.19.5990 CE
Departing from the Hapian Captial with a new teammate, Liana Windrunner, the group flies in style in a spirit magik carriage operated by Gwen. The group flies out and first stops to pick up Kito and Neekito, making their way to the Demonlands to explore the wonders of romance, love, sex and sexuality, and not necessarily in that order. The group departs with them as Vyvy decides to take charge of them.

Flying out for several hours, they're rudely awakened when part of the carriage is blown away. A dragon from the Naturalists attacking them. The group tries to hold on but the dragon forces them into a crash landing. After recovering, they find Gwen back in male form and in a tree. Rescuing him, patching him up and the others, Alita says she's going to explain why Gwen blacks out when Commodus comes out and explains it right then.

Gwen marches ahead of the others, seemingly close to exploding. They also find the map Female Gwen was given was doctored so that she would fly them over the border to the naturalists unwittingly. He has a minor explosion and the group seems to talk him down, they carry on until they find a clearing with a mysterious flower that Sasha has a deep need for. The group attempts to distract the dragon still tracking them and Sasha rushes out to get it. Things however go south quickly when the dragon is not so easily tricked. Forced into a fight, the group kills the Dragon's rider. When it's about to flee into the wild, some last moment shots connect and enrage the beast. The group is left with the choice of facing the enraged, powerful monster or running away to live another day.

Verse 2, S.2: Session 12: Nature's Wrath

4.19.5990 CE
The group, face to face with a dragon, largely attempts to make a run for it. However, Vyvy, displaying some questionable judgement, chooses to try and attack and hamper the monster while Commodus attempts to buy people time to escape. After a few exchanges, Commodus is forced to help Vyvy see the wisdom of escaping and the Dragon takes to the skies. Vyvy, almost killed by a poisonous claw, is saved by Alita's magik and the group is able to continue, albiet quietly, through the woods.

After several hours the group runs into a group of natives, and after showing themselves, thier leader Shoa agrees to show them some hospitality. They are escorted to a village covered in Dragons, making the group wary. After being given a guest tent to stay in, they are introduced to an Aurit girl named Spira. This girl is a slave, serving penance to make the crimes of her family right with the spirits. Vyvy, attracted to this, vies to get to know her and plans to free her.

The others head to the main feasting tent where they eat with Shoa and his followers. Shoa shows himself to be a naturalist zealot, believing all in Kumen to be a threat to their world as Kumen does not respect the spirits. He levels some chiding towards Sasha, while Alita seems to take interest in his words and at least plays along with his statements.

After Shoa excuses himself, the group heads back, sans the twins, who go to seek out Shoa. There they ask him for permission to cast a spell on his Queen Dragon, accepting that if it harms the dragon they will take on tattoos that show their shame. The spell seems to work, and Alita pushes their luck a bit further by asking Shoa for conveyance to the capital on dragonback. Not knowing this may interfere with Vyvy's plans with the slave girl, however, dialogue can always be made over that issue. The girls return to the tent to discuss matters with the group, and they begin to decide where they really want to go next and what to do.

Verse 3, M1

Vyvy uses her focus charm to contact master, the Great Dark Spirit Shade, and requests her aid in contacting the Great Wind Spirit Sylph. Once she gets in touch with Sylph, she asks her if she knows about the tattoos on the slave girl, who's name is Spira, and finds Sylph is horrorfied at the sight of them, saying that they are only used for the wrost of men, terrorists against nature, and that they are put there in the hopes that the people will be redeemed one day through hard work. And the only ones who can do it are her priests, so it seems it is one of her rogue priests. Removing the tattoos immediately and putting wings on the girl to symbolize it is her will, Sylph gives everyone wind shielding for up to 5 wind hits, as a gift, and moves to go before Vyvy invites her to chat, inadvertantly leading to Sylph to making a joke about Shade, which gets Vyvy, Spira, and Sylph pulled into the Dark Forest.

While they have tea, male Gwen and Liana talk, growing closer as they bond over the strangeness of the team, especially over Gwen learning about having a female half of him and not having a clue what she is like, and not having anyone to turn to about it. And since Liana is new, they seem to hit it off fairly well. Liana talks about her asperations to become a hero and mentions her grandfather traveling around the world, and Gwen hints a little about his past as a slave for the Amazonion culture. During all this, the two fauna have taken up being a servant for Sasha and work on being handmaidens, despite the fact they have sealed off their incredible power so the rest of the group will not feel jealous.

Verse 4, S.3: Session 13: Escape With the Goods

4.20.5990 CE
The group is roused by Shoa to leave. As they get up, he notices that the tattoos on Spira have been removed and demands to know how. He has difficulty accepting their explanation that Slyph herself performed the deed but lets it go. That is, until Vyvy pushes him further after he relents. The group is conveyed on dragonback halfway to the capital into a field where he promptly excuses himself to go check something after sending his other riders away. Suspecting the are abandoned, the group chooses to rest and wait for now.

That night, they are awakened by fire and smoke, getting up, they secure supplies and find the smoke too heavy to navigate, flames from three directions approaching. A dragon comes down on them as they retrieve Spira and missed a snatch. It lands and the female of the two riders that bore them, Peaches offers them escape from the flames. They stack on and fly away some distance to a copse of trees where they rest of the night, taking watches, hoping Shoa abandons the chase.

4.21.5990 CE
After resting and Peaches running a sweep to be sure no one is following the group heads for the capital and lands in the city's lower regions. From here they travel up through the middle class areas into the upper class, where they approach the Chief's manor. Here after meeting her weretiger secretary, they are granted an audience with Chief Fairchild. Commodus leads the discussion and explains their business, handing over the report missing information about the last mine and asks about studying the dragons. Fairchild sets them up with an inn room while she reviews the documents, but seems stiff lipped about letting them learn the secrets of the Naturalists or geting help from the academy. For now, the group rests.

Verse 5, M2

Finding the Cherry Pitt Inn to be relaxing, with the hot springs, the group manages to relax and enjoy themselves. The 12 year old girl seems to have some spunk to her and the group manages to slowly work on relaxation. Vyvy, having decided to bond with Spira, begins to work through techniques with her and Sasha uses the hotsprings to relax. Even Liana begins to slowly relax a bit in them and the two fauna learn from Ceilia how to wash and decide to practice on Sasha to become more intimate and close. Male Gwen spends his time enjoying the food and keeping an eye out for trouble.

Verse 6, S.4: Session 14: Natural Truths

4.24.5990 CE
The group has been in the city for three days waiting for a response and nothing has come up. During this, female Gwen emerges again, adding another kink toward things. However, on that morning, Spira comes in white faced saying she's seen Shoa in town and leaving the chief's mansion. Worried he may be causing trouble, the group sends to book a meeting with Fairfield and they're told to meet quickly. They head out, heading into the mansion where they find Fairfield meeting with a spymaster from the Dark Lands, Asue.

They explain the situation with Shoa and find that he's already relented, having heard from Sylph herself that Spira has been forgiven, he is not one to challenge that sort of authority. They also learn that it's possible that Peaches framed Shoa, starting the fires and running off with them. However, Fairfield also knows that Commodus' claim that the mining came are on the up and up is false, thanks to the information from the Dark Lands crew. She informs them after Alita inquires that they've decided not to help the Academy with dragon knowledge and there's a representative coming to them with a new assignment.

Heading back, Alita takes Sasha and Commodus aside when they're alone and explains to them why they failed, that it all had to do with keeping the info they knew too close to the chest and failing to truly explore the evidence with the Academy. After some argument and discussion, they resolve that they still need to complete their mission, and the one possible lead they have in getting help learning about dragon raising is Peaches, who may soon face trial for her betrayals. The group resolves to try and find her first and offer her sanctuary. It ends with Sasha taking command of the team to try to hold it together.

Verse 7, M3

Gwen and Vyvy hit some rocky spots when Gwen at first seems hurt by the fact Vyvy wants to bond another, taking that news strangely it seems. However, she soon realizes she is being silly, perhaps realizing that it will not impact their friendship. Though then Vyvy seems hurt, stating she thought they were something more, which confuses Gwen, who states of course they are something more, stating she considers Vyvy a special, dear friend. During all this, Spira spies on Vyvy and Gwen and it is clear she is becoming jealous, or perhaps afraid, of losing Vyvy and makes moves on her later during their training to kiss Vyvy, and after getting no reaction becomes withdrawn.

The two Fauna meanwhile wash Sasha, happy that she agrees, and chat with her as they do, and afterward Sasha speaks with Asue, the Daemon Spy, who discusses with her how the entire planet of Geyze is on a blade's edge of falling into a planet wide war and that trust is key for the Academy to function, pointing out how each faction was poised to go to war with the other. Giving her some personal information, Asue assured her she would try to calm Fairchild down and find the dragon training information for them, even if they got sent back.

Sasha, taking the advice to seek out Shade, asks Sylph after she plays a game of tag with Vyvy, Gwen, and Spira, to send her to Shade, and she complies. Their conversation proves enlightening to her, and she returns with a new outlook on things, asking Gwen to come with her and the two fauna. Questioning Gwen about who gave her the map, they determine it was one of the Priests of Sylph that went rogue, though what they intended to do with the group after making them crash remains a mystery.

Verse 8, S.5: Session 15: Wings of the Dragon

4.27 - 4.28.5990 CE
The team fails to locate Peaches and Lu finally arrives, appearing to be 17 now and very unhappy. Speaking with Sasha, the new leader, Lu is told by Sasha that the team lied about the report and that Commodus did so to protect Sasha and someone she cared about, and also in fear of her Aunt in the Hapian territory. Lu does not seem impressed, stating that they could have asked to come to a safe location and gotten the message through somehow, but she continues to listen to Sasha's report, as Sasha goes through all the events - the priests bringing them down to tattoo them most likely as prisoners, the information they found, the Peaches/Shoa and Spira incidents, and more.

Due to the amount of evidence Sasha did manage to acquire and coming clean, Lu states that she should be able to help the team when it comes time to face the inner council and that she will throw her vote in. She tells Sasha to make sure everyone is ready to leave the next day. As the stay the night, they run into a group from Kumen seeking out one of their member's sister, and the two sets talk. See Chapter 4: Moving Up, Verse 1, S.1 - Session 16: Mad Max and Verse 2, M1 for more on on those meetings.

Verse 9, M4

4.28 - 5.5.5990 CE
After returning to the Academy in a two day return flying carriage trip with Lu, the group surprisingly found Celes waiting for them, having somehow managed to escape the castle unnoticed, wanting to take what will likely be her last chance at freedom, with her engagement to Malfoy and her mother's navigating her to take over. As Sasha and Commodus slowly begin to train and whip the team into shape, many things are set into motion that forever change the destiny of the team.

Spira joins the Academy, starting off with the beginning students, though she is allowed to visit the Unit quarters. Celes, upon realizing Liana is the granddaughter of the Windrunner series of books, begins to engage in a series of conversations with her, revealing that she read her grandfather's books as a gateway for escape being locked in the princess. The two strike up a friendship, learning about the other, though Celes keeps a lot about herself close to the vest. Also joining the Academy is Cherry, the innkeeper from the Naturalist territory, and she gets on making her own kitchens and hotspring with the materials lying around.

Gwen begins to use the Academy records to learn more about his female counterpart, reading up what they have on her and asks Liana when she has a chance to ask her certain questions. Around the same time, Sasha finally tells Celes the truth about their relationship that she learned - that they are not cousins, but are infact sisters, and how it is so, with them sharing a father and how Celes' mother managed it, showing a new level of the Empress' deviousness. With Celes' fear of how her mother can control minds and influence people, changing their personalities, she wonders even more if she didn't make Sasha's mother go insane.

During this, Celes and Liana begin to strike up a friendship, flirting with each other that somehow leads into something more, to both their surprises, which throws the fauna, Kito and Neekito for a loop since they are technically Malfoy's bodyguards, so they try to ignore the relationship. Soon it becomes clear to most of the party that Celes and Liana have a crush on each other and Celes invites Liana to go swimming with her one night under the Kumen light without clothes, and they go back to her room, though neither say how far either of them go.

Kito, strangely, with two days left before they go on their next assignment, volunteers to do a portrait that Celes wants done of just the two of them, as well as a group portrait, so that Celes can remember Liana and the others, perhaps a sign that the fauna are growing in their understanding of intimacy.

Also during this time, Alita begins to watch Sasha a lot more, acting strangely.