Wrong Turn.

From the other side of the portal Joy fell unable to catch herself before hitting the soggy wet ground below. A small squeeked cry came from her lips with the sounds of anguish; her body still adjusting to movements; her torso still frozen. Light vapors released from her body as if she was beginning to warm and small trickles of water fell slowly in a stream down her arms. Her long messy hair seemed to be scattered, some of it within a small puddle other pieces hid a majority of her body as she attempted to use her hands and arms to push her frail self up. Eyes with broken emotions looked up at Pain, as Joy became almost two seperate people within seconds passing. Those wide eyes shifting between many different colors like a wheel spinning.

"I'm sorry Brother." The apology was obviously innocent for Joy's voice had changed dramatically to her young and helpless tone. Unable to control her ability to heal and noticing she reached a small hand behind her back only to find what she had been looking for gone. And as she moved herself to sit upright the small amount of tears were seen in her eyes but had not yet fallen. "My wings.. Brother please do not let him find me. I will help with anything, I promise!" The elegant wings she once had, at one point were ripped from her body while in the care of her brother Zero. Even the dark blood spots were still there with the two large open wounds on each side, the skin around it looked ice-covered. Even in some moments she was grabbing her head tightly, tugging at her hair as if some thing had been crawling deep within it. And yes there had been of course, some thing dark and even possibly psychotic playing in the shadows of her mind. Any more amount of what she had been through with Zero would show to make her lose any innocence she had. In whispers Joy repeated the phrase "I'm sorry" over and over, possibly to apologize to herself, or even to Zero, or towards Pain. It did not sound like she was stating it to any one person in general.

Pain let loose a sigh of frustration, he could not imagine his day getting any worse, first his human subjects not drowning, now he was babysitting. Pain rubbed his temples with the lower palms of his pale hands weighing the options on if he should help Joy or not, on one side she would only be a burden for him but her suffering was so tasty. After an internal battle he eventually said in a booming voice, his anger showing. "Fine!" Pain wonders how he managed to even spit out that word of actually helping someone.

His tall frame walked towards the girl, he leaned forward close waving one of his hands to make sure she was listening, "Just remember this, I am only protecting you because if you were to die you would no longer be in pain, the second you stop feeding me your protection is over." his voice at a low growl stretching his hands towards her picking her up underneath the arms setting her roughly on his shoulders like a father would a child, realizing that she would be very slow with any attempt at walking, and with this ending note he began walking in a random direction, not sure where they should go or recognizing why she was not regenerating.

His senses tingled with Joy on his shoulders, the pain mentally and physically was filling his system causing almost a primal urge to destroy, his teeth that were once flat adjusted to needle shaped fangs, his sword was very thin, not needing to cause pain to keep him going, body flaring with power. After walking like this his mind was cluttered, he could hardly see straight stumbling awkwardly. Curiosity was the emotion that was strong enough to float inward, his voice was calm and collected even though his brain was quite the opposite. "Who did this to you?" Pain wondered, he never did remember much due to his constant distractions and Greed not being the most intellectual company.

The forest around them was lush and green, however as he walked all of the animals vanished as if sensing a natural disaster imminent. The sound of Pain's foot steps made loud thuds, his feet physically imprinting into the floor. He was trying to find anyway to relief some of the built up energy from being in so close proximity with the suffering woman and it was not going with much success.

Joy flinched at his angry response, and her thoughts grew somber. She had not wanted to be a burden to her family, it was as if that was all she could ever be. The discomfort from her head began once again, as she attempted to push aside the bleak thoughts. Her eyes growing unsure of Pain as he walked to her jumping slightly as he waved his hand in her tired face. However his words seemed surreal, she questioned if her existence was truly to feel torment and misery. As he perched Joy on his shoulder she bit into her lip, her body felt as if it were melting on the inside and she could now feel where all her wounds were. Even if she grew accustomed to having pain inflicted onto her, she just could not be completely okay with it. Part of her mind was okay with it, the other was not.

"If this is what Brother needs to survive, then I will do my best." The once excited, happy little girl was just a shell of sick, plagued emotions. Joy looked around wide eyed, seeing all the lively forest and animals scurrying. Deep inside she wanted to smile, since she had seen nothing but sand, ice and mountain for a good amount of time. Her meager hands pressed harshly against Pain's shoulder to keep herself from falling back to the damp ground. The only thing she could concentrate on was fighting off what seemed to be a disease within her state of consciousness. Joy could feel the change, could sense some being birthed recently, and well it frightened her completely.

"Who?" She grew quiet for a moment as though she pondered Pain's question. At that moment it felt as though she had more trouble explaining who was torturing her, she had no name for him. "Big Brother in the sand. He kept asking me things about the family.. Wanted me to tell him everything." With each of Pains movements Joy felt her body yelling at her from it being so sore. Steadily making her mind go into a state of shut down, forcing her to attempt to not feel the pain even though it burned through her rapidly. Instead of expressing her aches she bit them back however her face would prove wrong to not feeling it at all. The tears welling up every few moments, with the small blood spots upon her lips.

Pain pondered the idea of a man using sand however his mind was fuzzy, his thoughts spurred away from the statement though as a massive crash sounded in the distance. A tree fell in the wood and everyone was around to hear it but soon another fell and another revealing in the distance a massive creature; it stood on its two legs, hunched over bracing its heavy body on his arms, curled tusk growing from its mouth its fur bounced with every step as its massive twenty-five foot figure brushed down trees similar a man brushing insects away.

"Dehbora's don't grow that big." Pain said stately as the creature saw them, a slight pause before it huffs and begins its charge. Pain sighs realizing any swift movements may be dangerous to Joy so he draws his sword and with a spiral motion of the wrist his sword slowly broke apart ripping up his hand melding with the spew of blood that escaped forming a solid crimson wall of steel in front of them. The creature hit the wall, Pain visibly shook as it hit, not expecting that sort of impact but tosses the creature back, his wall looking warped from the blow.

"Joy you best be holding tight." Pain gasp painfully as his sword re takes shape and he thrusts it into his shoulder, the long blade however not escaping through his back. "You did not choose the right target you beast." Pain says with anger, provoking the Dehbora into another charge. Pain's blade shredded through his own palm extending out like a metal snake curling and twisting lively. Pain waited for the Dehbora to hit a terminal velocity before making a move, a duck and spin put the both of them out of any immediate threat as his sword extended wrapping around one of the Dehbora's hind legs and winding tightly before Pain pulled with a strenuous groan severing the creature's leg.

The massive Dehbora fell with a cry, and Pain couldn't help but to walk up to it, his sword hilt sticking out of his shoulder, the blade twisting and turning while sticking out of his palm. "I never had a creature opening attack me today, I hope your not the last." he says grimly as his sword shatters spiraling like a tornado covering the creature in cuts however none being lethal. "What a strange new world we are in." Pain says with a chuckle ripping his hilt out of his chest every one of the shards flying through his body tearing at his insides as he focuses on the whimpering creature. "If you were not on my shoulders my wall wouldn't of knocked him off, I might of had to result to actually shifting into my true form." Pain muttered annoyed once again walking off slipping his sword into his shoulder merely for comfort but it was obvious he was slightly worried leaving the giant creature to rot and bring other carnivores to the area.

The loud crash almost made Joy fall from the shoulder she sat upon. The cracking of wood echoed through her ears, and once this creature appeared Joy had looked at in confusion. She to had never seen some thing this large in Eden. And nodded lightly in agreement to Pain's statement. Time around them seem to go still, Joy attempting to keep her eyes on what was happening in front of her but at the same time she was trying to dismiss the small amounts of aches from her wounds.

Observing how Pain placed up this bloodied shielded wall she realized that her family members were very strong in each of their own ways. The way each of them used their powers, and she had nothing. Her head began to hurt again with these thoughts of illness for herself. Slowly she began to understand her brothers power, each time he placed himself in the situation of causing harm he seemed to grow stronger. Astonished by this and even saddened, to have to enjoy this pain so much to help the output of strength, it seemed wrong. She gripped his shoulder even more tightly as he warned her. Joy could feel the warmth of wetness of one single tear drop along her cheek, representing the unhappiness she felt for Pain.

Joy turned her head away from the scene as the damaged creature cried. The images of seeing Pain do these things did not upset her as so much the fact that he really did need to do what he did to survive. "Brother, does hurting yourself make you happy?" A simple question she already knew the answer to, but she wanted to hear his words. As he moved away from this creature Joy looked over at it grieving for it's sadness. Seeing the blood surrounding it she knew this creature would die slowly or eaten by something else. Moving her face back away as she looked at the wet ground moving beneath them. Hearing his feet make squishing sounds each time one met with the earth, normally she could feel excited about something as this but in this moment she could not feel these emotions.

The question caught him off guard, so much so that he had to stop, frozen in the moment. The word happy seemed to have broken him, a slight shake fluctuated through his body before he continued forward, silence hung heavily for a few moments before he spoke, his voice once more calm and collected. "Pain is more of a neutralizing feeling." Was his only reply always looking forward, his blade flexing awkwardly on his shoulder clawing at his insides. It was a calm day, and eventually they made it to a cliff, the view itself casts over a, seemingly endless, line of trees, the sun setting beautifully on the horizon. Pain lifted Joy off of his shoulders setting her next to him as he sat down, kicking his feet off the side of the cliff.

Pain looked towards the sky seeing one of his heralds, a vulture. The vulture cawed at him flying towards him but he motioned it off not wanting to deal with the constant peck of his creatures at the moment. Pain's wings left a trail of black feathers now pooling behind him in a mass every once in a while flapping to blow them away into the wind, scattering them across the area. Silence was the only words exchanged between them merely because Pain couldn't think of anything to say, lost in thought and drunk with power. Far in the distance there was movement, it was hard to say what kind of creatures were lurking, but they were obviously avoiding Pain after a feat such as the one he did earlier.

Finally Pain decided to speak breaking the awkward silence. "Can you try and explain to me how you feel Joy?" His voice was as caring as it could be, however it was still very stern and more like a parent scolding a child. Pain turned to her, for the first time really analyzing her condition, it was strange that she was not regenerating, it did not seem she ever would either, but Pain realized spending time with Joy was sure to break him, his primal urges nearly peaking before that battle. A stirring was felt inside of him as he once again begun absorb the pain, he rubbed his face frustratingly trying to tone back the fangs however the more he absorbed, the harder and harder it became to stay human.

His words made some sense to her, picturing how she was always trying to push away the feelings she had been recently having. Feeling a warm breeze hit against her face as she thought about the differently possibilities for her Brother, but she just could not grasp an end point. It only came back to the questions. Joy's eyes peeked every so often at the blade resting in his shoulder, still trying to understand her brother completely. She had not realized he was moving her until she felt a pinch in her arms once again, and as she sat on her bottom she slouched forward a bit, biting her lip in response to the stretching of the wounds in her back.

The sounds of caws above intrigued her but they moved away as quickly as they came. In the distance she could hear her Potoo calling, but it did not come close to the both of them, which made her feel sadness. As her face looked down to the ground seeing the green of the grass mixing with the browns of the dirt, and a black feather moving across her vision within the wind she could not help but feel a bit at peace for that moment. Once again his words sat heavy on her heart, for a moment she thought about his question. How did she really feel? One of her hands moved to her mouth and lightly dabbed her bottom lip with her index finger bringing it up to look at it. Small smeared blood spots is what she saw, she sat here attempting to hold back something she did not understand.

Another breeze hit against her face, this time making hair strands whip across her face. She looked up at her brother with strong emotions lighting her expression. "Brother, there is some thing not joyful in my head.. I cannot heal because of these markings." Her finger now pointed to the wounds of the markings on her arms, poking it before flinching from the sharp pain. She wanted to tell her Brother everything, but here she could not feel completely happy doing that. Her eyes peeled away from Pain. Taking in the lands around them, the way the sun snuggled against earth. A hint of happiness tugged at her with the scene, but the lack of amount bothered her more. "I do not want to die yet.." Was the whisper from her trembling mouth. Unsure if she feared the death itself, or if she feared not being able to do what she was made for. Bringing the happiness to everyone around her even when they felt more despair, she wanted to be there to lift people back up and right now she questioned if she was even capable of that anymore.