Their Ball And Chain

Adell was stuck with his younger sister Yulina for the whole day. Most older brothers would have groaned and dragged their feet at this, but Yulina and Adell were a special case. For one Adell actually liked spending time with his sister when he wasn't too busy with other things. Today was pretty slow and since it he had recently graduated from school, he had more then enough free time.

Until college anyway... He thought, trying not to grimace.

"Adell, what's wrong? Did you eat something bad?" Yulina asked her big brother, noticing him grimace slightly out of nowhere.

"Uh, no just thinking." He ruffled her hair, changing the subject. "You wanna get some ice cream kiddo?"

Yulina's eyes brightened up that. "Yay! Can we get strawberry too?"

"Of course, anything you want." This seemed to do the trick, and a excited Yulina dragged Adell to the nearest ice cream parlor.

While this was going on, a man in a cloak silently stalked them from a far distance on a roof top, pulling out a picture of Yulina. Their target was in sight, they just needed to be careful since his target's brother was supposed to be very strong.

Little did they know, the hunter would soon become the hunted.

The person Ariana was after didn't seem to notice someone was now trailing behind them. Whether they truly were that unaware or Ariana was truly that good remained to be seen. They waited for both Yulina and Adell were a bit closer to the parlor.

After they got within reasonable distance, the figure sneered. Nothing personal kid, but I have a job to do. He wasn't suppose to kill that Adell person, but he would if they got in his way.

Then he jumped down from the roof, making cracks in the alley way, reaching into his pockets and pulling out a black ball. The ball was clinched firmly into his hand as he casually made his way through the crowd, then when getting close enough, discreetly tossed the ball downwards.

Thick puffs of strange unnatural mist clouded everyone's vision, causing the few people around to scatter and panic. While this was in motion, the was a sound of two swords of unsheathing before they rushed for their target: Yulina. All with the intent to end things with one blow, via impalement through the young Angel's chest.

Adell couldn't make out what exactly happened, the strange mist distorted his vision so he had to rely on his Ki sense to find anything. There were too many people all at once gathered around so it was hard to focus on any one thing, but he knew something was off.

Someone's behind that mist, so if I focus on any abnormally high Ki signatures then...

Eventually Adell did find a stronger then normal one that seemed to be closing in fast towards them, he tensed, body ready but then all of a sudden it just..stopped. It's Ki level plummeted and began to flicker in and out before vanishing completely. Just like that it was gone--meaning they had been killed. He couldn't make out exactly what happened, only seeing what looked like a female figure stopping them.

From Ariana's perspective, however things were a bit different. The robed figure was shocked at first but before they died they tried vainly to glare hatefully at Ariana. With the last of their strength, they managed to put a curse on the 'Bloody Rose' as a parting gift. It would definitely be worth seeing, but unfortunately they wouldn't be around to see.

The body turned to ash upon death, only the shattered blades remained scattered around the floor as any sign of their existence.

Adell waited for the mist to clear, and when it did he was surprised to see a woman that looked roughly around his age at the most. Yulina still hid behind him, having nothing to do with Ariana and more of picking up something was off.

The demon relaxed a little, putting two and two together. She didn't feel bad and she had apparently saved his little sister from some unknown assassin. Still he didn't know why she was here or what her intentions were, but he could give her the benefit of the doubt at least.

"..Did you do that? Thanks." Yulina slowly removed herself from Adell when the apparent danger had passed and hearing her big brother speak again. She watched Ariana curiously.

Adell frowned a bit. Geez, what the hell is her problem? I was just thanking her for saving my sister. He didn't stop Ariana from going to crouch down by Yulina and talk to her, especially when she was being far nicer to her. He thought it best just to be diplomatic in this case, let her talk to Yulina then they would be on their way.

Yulina blinked a bit, then smiled. "Ah, I'm okay. My name is Yulina what's your name?"

Usually, Adell was a pretty nice guy and it took a lot to really get him mad most of the time. However he found himself very irritated already, no thanks to how she was treating him and the last comment of making blanket statements. Not to mention that while he was nice, he was by no means a door mat. He didn't really know her, maybe she had a reason for acting like she was but all and all as far as first impressions went; it was a rocky start to put it lightly.

Yulina shook her head. "My brother's not bad."

Adell bit his tongue for about two reasons. One he didn't want to argue with her right now with Yulina there. Two, she was leaving already and rather then have it dragged out more then needed with Yulina there, it was best to just take it in stride and let it go. In this case.

Still..for some reason the further she got the stranger he started to feel..

Adell didn't react angrily to what she said, in fact he pitied her a bit. There was definitely something there that was making her act that way, but he also read between the lines. It sounded like she was more cynical then anything, though what made her that way was anyone's guess. Cynic's are made, not born. He remembered hearing before, maybe it was Kieth, he couldn't remember.

"Let's go home Yulina." He stopped her before she could protest, it wasn't worth it.

"Oh, okay.." Yulina was obviously bothered by what Ariana had said, it didn't help she wore whatever she was feeling like flash cards everyone could see.

When they got far enough, Adell slowed to a stop, pain shooting through him. Then he eventually dropped to his knee's clutching his chest.

"Adell, what's wrong?!" Yulina was worried about her older brother, he seemed to be in pain for some reason she didn't know and it scared her.

"Don't..know.." He managed to grit out. It was like a heart attack almost, but it certainly wasn't one.

Adell, almost instantly felt the pain fade away as if had never happened. He was only confused briefly before he realized Ariana was closer and when they had gone further apart the pain had gotten worse. So maybe that person had done something to them to force them to be stuck together..

Oh great.

Yulina seemed confused, looking to Ariana, then to Adell. "What happened?"

"..I think that man you killed did something to us before he died." Adell answered slowly. He was hoping that wasn't the case, but it seemed too much of a coincidence for the pain to stop the moment she came closer again, that and he wasn't too eager to test it again. He could handle pain, but even for him that had gotten a bit much.

If that was the case, it meant he'd have to deal with her until they fixed whatever it was.

Judging by how things went now, that was going be as fun as cleaning an oil-tanker with a tooth brush.

Yulina went over to Ariana, and gently held out a soft glowing hand of silver energy. It was faint and brief but Ariana would feel a very warm and comforting feeling for it, she would also have the pain subside as if had never been there, if any remained at all. Though after doing that, Yulina looked visibly tired.

"Whoa, take it easy Yulina." Adell was a bit concerned about Yulina but understand why she did what she did, since while he didn't like Ariana he could tell despite her cynicism she was a good person. Plus, he was a softie to begin with so he generally didn't like seeing people in pain.

"Sorry." Yulina said.

"You didn't go anything wrong, just be careful since you're not used to it.." Adell noticed Ariana hadn't gotten up, but he assumed that was because of lingering pain--which Yulina had healed. He brushed a hand through his hair. "I guess we should figure out what to do, if we're stuck together."

Either they would have to go with Ariana, or the other way around. Judging by first impressions, though, he doubted she was the trusting type. So, to him, it made more sense for her to go with them but he couldn't be sure.

"Right." Adell sighed. "I'll lead the way then." How he was going to explain this to his mom, we'll that was going to be interesting but she'd believe it as she was no stranger to odd things. Ion had seemingly vanished off the face of the earth, so counting on them who could show up and vanish on whims. It wasn't uncommon for them to disappear for days or even months at a time.

* *

The motely crew of three finally arrived at the Kronos house, Adell knocking opening the door with the key and letting everyone in before closing the door behind them.

"Adell, I was.." Samantha had come into the room and noticed the stranger, blinking. "Guest of yours?"

"You can say that." Adell said. "Me and Yulina were out doing our own thing when someone tried to attack her but it didn't go how they wanted. Before they died though, they did something to us and now we're stuck. If we go too far from each other, it puts us in pain." He didn't mention Ariana's name, because she was already irritable anyway and didn't want to step on her toes, so he would let her introduce herself if she wanted on her own.

Samantha frowned a bit. She didn't like this girl so far. The fact she called her son a 'thing' naturally wasn't a way to get on her good side. From her aura though, Samantha could tell she was a good person but that didn't mean anything else.

After a bit of silence, she spoke. "I see." Her tone was very neutral, but if knew Samantha enough a neutral tone was usually not a good thing. "I'll look into seeing about how to reverse this. In the mean time you'll have to work something out with Adell if you can't get further then ten feet away. My name is Samantha by the way."

"Yulina, come on its time for bed." Samantha said to her daughter who sort of pouted by relented, but not before giving both Ariana and Adell a good bye. "I'll be back shortly." She said to the two and left to tuck in Yulina in.

"Twelve, maybe thirteen feet. Somewhere around there. If worse comes to worse you can take the bed and I could sleep on the floor somewhere." Adell wondered if she was to be this disagreeable the whole time he was stuck with her.

"We'll, we might not get along but you're still a guest." Adell said simply. "Besides, being on the floor isn't going to kill me."

He wasn't too surprised she seemed skeptical, it didn't take a genius to figure out she had no love of men and considered them trash. Adell wasn't sure if her opinion would ever change being around him, but either way he wasn't going to change how he normally did things; just be himself and let Ariana come to her own conclusions.

Adell noticed that while she seemed to be cold to just about everyone else, she wasn't that way to Yulina. Then again it was hard to be mean to her, even to people who normally didn't like kids or were generally not nice people to begin with. He however, didn't comment about it out loud.

When ever she was ready he'd lead her to his room, not that they could go far without the others permission and causing pain. Adell got some blankets and a pillow and began making himself a pallet somewhere off in the corner, as promised. He was honestly all right with it, it didn't really bother him at all.