Hobbling on his cane, Shealtiel makes his way over to where Kasdeja has confronted the young woman. A cold fear grips him as he forces himself to approach, remembering the brush of the Nephilim's psychic fingers on his heart, the tightening of arteries... but he will not allow himself to think of the creature, not directly, knowing that it can sense his terror and the desperate threats that terror engenders in his mind.

"Do you know this creature?" he demands hoarsely as he draws near. Looking at her, he can plainly see that she doesn't. "What goes on here? Who are you?" he asks her, straining to soften his voice. "Has Kasdeja said anything to you?"

Though it's hard to take her gaze immediately away from the Nephilim, Dara spots the old man making his way over. She is not so much surprised at his questions as still addled from this whole encounter, and the new man's appearance is nothing out of the ordinary for the last few minutes.

"I'm...I'm crossing the pass here" she speaks in an overly soft voice. "He," pointing to the man who is either Michael or John, "had fallen. I stopped to help." She pauses again, eyes flicking back between the Nephilim and the old man and lastly to the path the other group membere had taken before starting tentatively, "Which one is Kasdeja?"

"This thing is Kasdeja," he says, glancing sidelong at the Nephilim, who stills watches Dara patiently, seemingly content to let Shealtiel carry the conversation. "It is a Nephilim, bastard child of the angel Semyaza, and a child truth, albeit with the psykosis of a god." Feeling a moment of pity for her, at how bewildered she must be to have been fallen upon by their group, he adds, "I will not ask for your trust, but if you will permit me some advice: do as Kasdeja asks." He does not allow himself to add a silent for now, knowing that Kasdeja is witness to his every thought.

Dara looked back and fourth between the two. Having a name didn't make the Nephilim seem much differetn except that she now had some idea of what to call it. She turned to the old man. "He said everyone was going to Eden." She momentarily forgot about Kasdeja's initial vague statements to her, not yet sure what to make of them herself. "I didn't think people could go there."

Dante was slightly irked at being told to do something, but since he found Lev much less revolting than the other monster some several yards away, he got to his feet and trailed the gunman. The strange auras were making him nauseous, and he'd rather deal with Lev's nearly-invisible one.

Lev slowed down a bit, letting Dante catch up to him. He walked in silence for a few minutes, letting the distance build between them and the group. After a while he spoke to the blinded man, eyes staring straight ahead as he did.

"Kasdeja confuses me. He acts on emotions. But has none. Kills. Does not know meaning of death. Like..."

He held his hands out, trying to fathom what exactly Kasdeja was like.

"Like dumb child who has gun, is pretending to play war with real bullets. Shoots real people, does not realize that they do not get back up. How teach that, when they are pointing gun at you?"

"You don't. You shoot him before he can shoot you. Simple as that."

Like a dumb child with a gun... That pretty much summed up governments, what with their blindly sending out soldiers like some inexhaustible resource, and exploiting that sense of patriotism that permeated among new recruits. That was why he hadn't joined in the rioting in his hometown, with his friends battling turf wars, and also why he hadn't been killed. The dogtags that bore his friend's name clinked lightly as he walked behind Lev. Besides nostalgia, they also served the dual purpose of hopefully protecting Dante's identity if he died.

When he died. In his line of work, it was considered lucky if you got to die of old age. Slightly less lucky if you got a bullet to your head, but that was better than being beaten, right?

Frankly, Dante didn't think Kasdeja cared about the people he slaughtered. He was sure the nephilim knew they were dead, and what death entailed, but as to his feelings for them, he probably had none.

By the time Dara had her finger on him, Michael had already started down the road. His mind felt heavy as he sifted through the clashing auras to try and find sanctuary. The world spun counterclockwise as the cliff on his left..or was it his right...began to wrap around him, and soon he was seeing rainbows of greens and yellows and he was tempted to try a courage capsule because of how lost he was. Suddenly losing balance, he grasped his hand on the first thing that he nearly fell on, and nearly read their mind.
"But how do you outpace a thing that can see your mind's eye before you act on it?" he asked the voice. A periwinkle sea stood out in the distance and he got on his hands and knees to barf. It felt terrible, but after cleaning himself up a little, he could more clearly see the men he was talking to, either Lev or Dante-Lucifer.

As the man she first met began to walk away Dara found herself no further along in understanding the dynamics of this group, or if they were a group at all. She began to wonder if she ought to consider the Nephilim's demands as something of a kidnapping. Having been on her own for so long and wandering about in whatver direction seemed safe at the time, having any kind of destination in mind felt strange and that in itself was more unnerving to her than travelling with the group in general would be.

"You cannot kill that thing. I try, there might not be anything left for Na'lsa to bring back."

Lev shrugged, as if the point was rather obvious.

"No matter though. Any idea why such a thing would want to go to Eden? I assume that it is not kind of garden where tomatoes will grow."

He sighed, whispering under his breath that he missed tomatoes. He looked rather downcast now, what with the fight gone out of him. He knew there was no fighting the Nephilim now. Not until they had something powerful enough to at least hold him at bay.

Dante turned, startled.

...oh. Just the artificer. "Then you run. Or ignore it. Or take pleasure in pummeling it with sarcasm." Which probably doesn't even reach through that think skin.

"To steal something for power, probably. Isn't that everyone's goal? To take something not theirs to better their own pathetic lives? I take other people's lives so that I can live. Soon, I swear I'll reclaim Gabe's soul. Somehow. And my friends'. Don't you dare tell me it's impossible. It isn't."

Lev shrugged again, beginning to lose interest in their conversation.

"How should I know? I am man with gun. The hell if I know where people go after they, you know-"

He put his hand to his head, imitating a gun with it as he pulled the trigger and made a gunshot noise. He let his hand fall to his side, Walking in silence for a moment as they finally came upon the APC. As it came in to sight, he opened his mouth again.

"The rest of them are retarded. Why walk that whole way, and leave APC here? Why not just drive thing? And if we bring odd lady, where do we put her horse? Na'lsa eat people, but it can't be helped if the horse gets eaten."

Dante sprinted a few paces; Lev's height granted him an advantage in terms of walking speed, and the bounty hunter was already skittish on sand and gravel. He focused: the outline of the APC was barely visible. Was he really that tired from the pressure? He ran ahead and through the hatch ("Just me, Jeanne,"), but not before yelling back, "How the hell should I know? I wasn't the bastard who invited her in the first place. Hell, why am I even with you fools?"

In the tense silence that follows, Shealtiel looks from Dara to the Nephilim, trying to think of something to say that will put her at ease, but failing -- there is no ease to be found in the creature's presence, and it's refusal to speak further becomes more unnerving by the minute.

Eventually, he forces himself to speak, saying softly, "Kasdeja, every moment spent here is another in which Eden awaits. If... if we tarry too long, the others may try to leave us behind."

Dragging on his silence for an insufferable moment longer, Kasdeja eventually answers Shealtiel, still staring at Dara as he says, "Good point. I'd have to punish them if they decided to do that, and we don't want that, do we?"

Not waiting for a response, he sets off back toward the APC. Psychically, he sends back to Dara in a slithery whisper, "You're coming, too. I'm going to figure out what you are."

Shaking her head, Feenai wonders why she didn't do as Lev said, and just drive the APC closer rather than walking to the cliff edge. It's not like I made a difference at all. I probably should have just waited with Jeanne. She trudged back to the APC following the others, and slid into the drivers seat dejectedly. Carefully placing her gear behind the seat, she waited for Kasdeja and the rest to return and tell her where to drive.

Lev let the conversation drop, leaning down as he stepped in to the APC. He unslung his beaten rifle from his shoulder, resting it gingerly against the wall. Taking a seat on the cool floor, he tried to rest and regain his composure before he had to face Kasdeja again. His walls had crumbled slightly, and he was trying to rebuild them.

I want out.

Lev recoiled slightly, head slightly dizzy from the frankness of Na'lsa.

"Then come out, demon."

I am a son of God! But I am not fully ascended. I...have difficulty with this body. I need a catalyst to assume control.

Lev nodded, smirking to himself. He knew he must look insane, conversing with himself. But truth be told he was more himself in this moment, his own man, than ever before.

"Then you will be you, and I will be me."