A Painful Awakening

It was a strange morning, what once was looking to be warm and comforting day was almost instantly changed as clouds rolled in to flush out any dream of a pleasant day. Snow drifted aimlessly from the clouds decorating a lone figure and the massive tree he sat on in a blanket of white. How the shadow of the tree seemed to cover the entire area was beyond comprehensible, but it seemed to extend forever, stretching itself over the entire island like an umbrella, the snow still finding its way to the floor below. The figure itself was mostly dressed in black, an open hole where his eyes and nose would be, only an emotionless mouth to distinguish his feelings. Extending from his shoulder was a red handle; it looked as if the handle was sharp enough to cut with, the blade embedded deeply into his shoulder instead of any holster.  

The physical location was strange to the world of earth; the tree itself located in the center was alien. All around the island was a thick river sealing them in completely; leaving a secluded area for the seemingly endless rows of coffins.

A sigh exited from his lips as he leaped off the tree, his black wings that are forever molting refusing slowing his descent. His legs shudder, making a cracking noise as he lands, but he does not falter on his forward motion, leaving a trail of black feathers in his wake. With an elegant gesture of his hand, shadows fly off of the massive tree and take the form of hundreds of vultures, immediately relieving much of the shadow that covered the landscape. Two vultures land on his blackened armor clad shoulders and immediately begin to peck furiously at his rapidly regenerating flesh.

The recent flood had left the ground moist but he did not mind, looking left and then right not only to survey the area but to allow the vultures to pick at every bit of the white flesh on his head revealing bright red spots beneath for only a moment before resealing themselves. The vultures survey the area for food, one unfortunate soul was found in his coffin before even awakened and much to Pain's delight the vultures began to pick at his body leaving him much too maimed to be useful when it was his turn to wake up. "Awaken..." Pain said softly, his voice sounded as if he was on the verge of tears as it echoed endlessly around the island, pausing his walk in between the rows of coffins as his grim voice spoke, waiting for his subjects to arise from their graves.

With a jolt, Revy's eyes snap open inside the coffin. " Where...am I? Ugh...What a headache." Moving as little as he could, he taps his hands over the inside of the coffin, establishing his location " A coffin? Well, dont that take all?"  He bangs his hand against the lid, causing it to pop open a bit. " Heh, shoddy design, too." Pushing the lid as far open as he could, Revy climbs out of the Coffin, surveying his surroundings. " The heck? This is....a graveyard?How'd I wind up here? Last I remember, I fell through a collapsing dock in England and drowned."  Looking around, Revy takes notice of himself as well. " Ok, Revy, you meet your death via drowning, and suddenly wake up in a coffin, in a strange place, surrounded by similar coffins. You also happen to be devoid of clothes. Now what?"

There was one thought that ran through Oriana's head when she awoke. Food."I'm hungry..." She says tiredly. Only after a few minutes did she realize she was no longer in a dungeon. She pressed her hands all around to find herself in some kind of box and started to panic. She pushed the top of the coffin to find that it moved slightly. She pushed it again, this time with all her strength, until the snow covered lid slide aside and hit the ground with a thump.

The freezing air bit her exposed flesh and only now did Oriana realize she was naked. She immediately sat up and hugged her knees while shivering, wishing she had left the coffin closed. The outline of her ribs could slightly be seen through her skin, but she was actually less skinny then what one would expect from a starving girl. Her long unkempt hair spread out around her like a cloak, but that didn't do anything to protect her from the cold. "Whe-where am I?" She whispered to herself. Her eyes looked around in random directions, from herself to the coffins, to the sky before they finally landed on the huge form of Pain.

Her eyes widened for a moment, but Oriana didn't feel afraid. Her eyes locked on the monster with curiosity. She stared at the Avatar in wonder. Her piercing green eyes, that seemed almost too green, seemed to have some sort of camaraderie in them. The rest of her expression was unreadable as she rested her chin on one knee and continued to gaze.

The voice of Johnny made Pain twitch and sigh in annoyance "Out of all the people to be here." Pain wasn't sure what he was, but he knew exactly who he was. He turned to greet the other two, however, the loud snoring threw off his train of thought. The two vulture on his shoulders flew over to the coffin where Johnny was, and immediately began pecking at it.  Mr. Riot, why don't you come out and tell the lessers about your daring adventures." Pain said with a growl, rubbing his temples with two fingers. Pain lifted up his arm and grabbed his sword, twisting it before drawing it from his shoulder, flicking his blood to the ground which melted the thick snow and even killed the grass under it. "You others, welcome to Eden, this is a new chance for you to die, don't disappoint me." He chuckles as a group of vultures picked apples from the tree, dropping one of them for Revy, and one for Oriana. Pain pauses tapping the bladed sword to his head, considering his options.

"I have decided to give you clothing so that you may suffer a bit longer." Pain reached into the hole still fresh in his shoulder, dropping a bloodied bit of him that expanded into an ash white colored chest filled with clothing from different time periods. "Now, you all better go make me very proud, survive just long enough for me to enjoy your death, now please wait for me to deal with this nuisance." Pain seemed out of his sorts, his serious tone and stature broken when Johnny appeared. Frustration could be visibly seen from his mouth as he turned to deal with whatever Johnny was about to do.

At this point the cloud just began dissipating, the snow stopped falling and a warm sunlight shined through revealing the massive swarm of vultures flying the area, all looking to feed off of Pain, however they turned to Revy and Oriana landing in mass, awkwardly walking towards the two of them, their beady eyes stared blankly at them as more and more swarm the area, none making any movement or aggression, merely curiosity.

Revy sized up the number of vultures, not liking the curious looks he was getting from them. Were they sizing him up for an meal? Shifting quickly through the clothes Pain had set out, Revy settles for a simple grey shirt and pants, donning them as quickly as possible before taking one of the apples. " Did I hear you correctly, Sir? You said this is Eden? And that this is a new chance to die? Does that mean.....I've been revived? Wonderful. Simply wonderful. I am Fortune's Fool indeed."  Dressed in the simple outfit he picked out, he decides to sit down on the coffin that had housed him and awaits to hear what Pain had to say. He examines the location again, noticing Oriana, but turning his glance away when he saw that she too had emerged naked from the coffin. " Hmm, seems I've drawn the Fool today. A new beginning branches out before me."

Oriana was startled by Johnny's outburst and turned her sight from Pain to the coffin he had emerged from for a moment. She turned back to face Pain as he started speaking. She listened to his words carefully, not entirely understanding what he meant, but all questions were forgotten when the apple was dropped in front of her. She quickly crawled forward and snatched up the apple without hesitation. She stopped listening to Pain and bit off almost half the apple with the first bite, reducing the entire fruit to nothing but a core in less than ten seconds. She was surprised she hadn't thown the apple back up when she suddenly clutched her stomach in pain. She felt as if she'd been hit in the gut with a steel bar and started coughing violently. It felt like her organs were torn apart from the inside, but pain suddenly stopped as suddenly as it had began, leaving her heaving over the side of the coffin, almost falling out into the snow.

Oriana spotted the chest of clothes and felt another wave of cold run through her body despite the warmth of the sun overhead. She crawled out of the coffin and walked over to the chest in half a daze. She slipped into a childish looking pair of panties and a black dress that had a few frills before she fell back into the melting snow to catch her breath.

With Johnny's departure, Pain let loose a sigh of relief, slipping his sword back deep into his shoulder wincing slightly, but with a smile spread across his face as he strolled to the two mortals. His smile was slightly distorted as he watched his vultures flock around the two; wordlessly he motions them towards the river, quite a few of his vultures dived into the river to symbolize the location, drowning themselves for their master. "There are a few things I should tell you. One, that to return to this place is forbidden and I will personally destroy you for it." Pain chuckles, stretching his wings at this comment. "Two, that you will probably die to the creatures around in the forest if you do not find shelter, you are not the first I have awakened and if all things go as planned you will not be the last."

Pain seemed to ignore their voices until he was finished talking, turning his head to Revy, the hole through his head revealed as a vulture leaned through, gnawing on the softer inside. "Your discussion on something as trivial as luck bores me. Disposing of you may benefit me more than leaving you alive, but I will offer you the chance to suffer." His voice echoed darkly as the water seemed to forcefully part, allowing them a small gap to climb in and out of to get off the island. "Oh, one more thing." he paused as if trying to think of a word as a monstrous shadow flickered overhead. "Motivation." He laughed sinisterly. A vulture unlike the others swooped down, its height nearing twelve feet. It picked up one of the coffins in one of its mighty talons and flew high into the sky, the smaller vultures all flying away simultaneously in fear. The coffin toppled from the sky, smashing into the floor with a crash. a blood stain formed beneath the broken coffin, signifying the state of the human within "Best get going, wouldn't want to be a snack." His twisted smile was genuine, the only safe creature besides Pain was the vulture residing on his back still visibly enjoying its free meal.

Revy gulped a bit, taking in Pain appearance a little more. " Right, leaving sounds nice. I wouldnt want to waste this second chance so soon."  He begins to back away slowly, eyeing the much larger vulture with worry. " Survival first, questions last."  He turns and makes his way to the river, eyeing the small gap in it cautiously. Shaking his head to clear his mind of doubt, He crosses the gap, heading further away to put some distance between himself and the being that had revived him. " i can assess my situation after the risk of being buzzard food isnt so pressing"

Oriana was still confused. Even though she was smarter the average girl of her age, she didn't quite understand what Pain was talking about. Johnny's random shenanigans didn't serve to help. She was still hungry and the apple she had eaten was hardly anything substantial. She felt like just lying in the now drenched grass but she regrettablely stood up as Pain began warning them about the tree. The back of her newly donned dress was now soaked but she didn't really care. She found something strangely exciting about watching the vultures eating Pain's flesh.

Oriana took Pain's motive as the obvious threat it was and looked back toward pathway, also spotting Revy for the first time in the process. She had known someone else was there but she hadn't really paid attention to what he was saying. A mixture of fear, disgust, hatred and guilt ran through her as she saw another human. She started to walk towards him but instead backed off and made a break for the gap in the river, running far ahead of Revy. She doubted he even saw her leave.

Pain could only chuckle, watching them run not as equals, but as singles. Oriana made it to the river and climbed down into the hole between two bodies of water. "You were suppose to drown together." Pain voice echoes with a tinge of regret as the force he was using to keep the water apart dissipated, sending the waves crashing down onto Oriana and leaving Revy without a way off the island without swimming "Do you feel lucky, swine? do you save the girl or leave her to drown? Pain chuckled, motioning him into the water, the bird in the sky limiting his time to think. Even though the likely hood of Oriana actually drowning in the river, no matter how unexpected, was very unlikely, Pain's voice urged Revy to dive underwater and see if he could find the strange girl.  

Pain smiled, grabbing one of the small vultures off of the floor, his arm extending, pulling it to his mouth and taking a single bite out of the vulture, letting it bleed out slowly, its cries were music to his ears. He watched from afar wondering what they were going to do. The huge vulture flies down once more picking up another coffin, this one very close to Revy, the empty casket being thrown at him from a very large height, it flickered in the sun and blood splattered on impact, the corpse was hardly devoured merely tossed for unknown intention.

"Bloody hell. I just woke up from a water nap, too."  Revy doesnt hesitate to dive into the water after the girl. The current quickly pulled at him as he cast his eyes around for Oriana. Come on, girly, where are you? Revy lets the current carry him, choosing to let it do the work and save energy.  He soon spots Oriana, and readjusts himself to swim with the current to reach her quicker. Once close enough, Revy wraps an arm around her waist, and pulls her to the surface. Doing his best to hold them both above the current, Revy angles his body so that they eventually wind up on the opposite bank. He pulls Oriana onto the shore first, before tiredly doing the same, coughing as he lets go of his held breath.  Ok, Now what? That...whatever he was, may already be sending the vulture to get us. geez, why revive us if your only gonna kill us again?

Oriana coughed up the water on shore as she got up. She'd never learned how to swim and was completely helpless when the water had caved in around her. When she finally caught her breath, she looked over at Revy with wide eyes and immediately crawled a few feet away from him. "Don't come near me..." She growls. Her dress was completely soaked and useless now and she was starting to shiver. Despite this, she didn't take her eyes off Revy. Her express was hard to determine, some kind of mix of fear and mistrust.

Pain smiled as the two escaped the river, he did not want them to die, not yet. Seeing them soaked by water made him realize surviving would be hard enough and didn't want to immediately end them motioning his Queen Vulture back to him with a wave of his hand, the huge vulture immediately began biting bits of Pain following a similar rule to Greed and not consuming him too quickly knowing the immediate repercussions for its ignorance. His white skin glistened in the recent sunlight and those parts of him almost glow attracting the eyes of the vulture making it immediately attack those areas, stretching his molting wing he releases a sigh of relief.

Pain pet the vulture with one hand which it immediately bit off and he could only chuckle. The humans had been awakened and if Pain was lucky they would suffer and die so he could awaken some more only to endure a similar fate. "Humans have such strong emotion, their pain is always so much more satisfying when it doesn't involve hope." He laughs darkly as he speaks to his hearld. Pain drew his sword with his recently regenerated hand. Swinging the sword with a heavy hand in an angle, he drove it into the ground, ripping a hole in the air creating a portal away from the tree. "I'll be back my friends, I don't want to be here when my brothers and sisters get here." Pain says to his larger herald as he pulls his sword from the floor and steps through the portal. Where he was going was much drier plain, a great place to absorb the delicious emotion of pain.

Revy coughed a little more. " Sorry, lass. But having died by drowning myself, I didnt want you to suffer that same fate so soon after getting a second chance." Standing shakily, he looks back across the river, to see Pain and his vultures were no longer in sight. " Ok, I think we're safe for the moment. For how long, though?" Revy turns his head to face Oriana. " Ah, where are my manners? My name is Reverance. everyone calls me Revy though." he offers a hand to Oriana to help her up. " I know you probably don't trust me, but i think we'll survive better if we stick together for now. What do you say?"

Oriana looked at Revy with disgust. She didn't like how friendly and carefree he was acting. It annoyed her. She looked at his hand but didn't bother to take it and rose to her feet on her own. She didn't like him, but going off on her own was would be a bad idea. "I'm Oriana..." She says while glaring at him. This didn't really look that threatening with her damp hair all over the place and her dress constantly dripping water.

Oriana pulls the hair out of her eyes and looks away from him at the forest ahead. Her confidence fell a bit after seeing how big it was. She bit her lip in frustration and suddenly recoiled in pain. She felt her teeth with her fingers to find that her teeth were now razor sharp for some reason. She had no idea when that had happenend. Everything that was happening was just making her more and more confused and she just wanted to sit in a corner and sulk. Of course she wouldn't do that in front of ther so called new companion.

Revy sighs. He could already tell Oriana wouldnt be warming up to him anytime soon. " Well, allright then."  Revy shrugs and faces the forest. " Looks like it'll be a bit of a hike, but the trees should provide cover in case our mystery giant sends more vultures." a brief image flashes in Revy mind, resembling a familiar playing card. hmm? bah, no time to be thinking of cards. He glances at Oriana and sighs again. " Food and shelter should be first priority. and a fire to warm up as well. While i hope we run into other people, it'd be safer to assume everyone else is hostile until proven otherwise." He begins walking towards the forest. " Eden, huh? I get a bad feeling just saying that."

(Exit Scene)