The Blaze sits high in the sky, only half of the day has past and yet Alix sits in the empty walls of the Pirate's Worst Nightmare exhausted from stress. She had managed to finish checking out her area faster than she intended to so she came back hoping that the other three were also done. Sadly, they were not here and there had been no sign of them for the entire hour that she's been sitting here.
She had been staring at the doors to the tavern for so long that she could probably draw it from memory.
Alix let out a worried sigh. "I wish there was a way for those three to let me know whether they have found Trouler or not." She started to absentmindedly bounce her knee underneath the table.
"They may be able to talk in your head if ya get closer to them." Mo deduced.
"True but I have yet to gain any further interest in any of my self-proclaimed children. Leaving me with nothing except a deep feeling of anxiety and worry over Trouler."
"Not the other three?"
"You heard me." Mo bobbed his round fish head and returned to staring at the door like Alix. Every once in a while the wind would blow the doors open slightly but no one would enter. It was a spiritually draining sight but one that was made bearable by the two of them being together.
Time ticked away as they sat in silence waiting for good news to march through the doors. When someone actually did walk in through the doors. Alix immediately perked up but deflated again when she noticed that it was just some woman that she didn't know.
She had long, shaggy dirty blonde hair that fell just past her shoulders. Her eyes were a mix of red and violet. Her skin olive and rough looking. She wore a white blouse, black slacks and loafers all visible through the her open beige, worn trench coat.
Clearly not someone Alix knew.
The woman set her sights on Alix and approached her. "Greetings. Would you happen to be Alix Deminal and her pet fish?" she asked rather brazenly to this person that she'd never met. Alix slowly sat up, narrowing her eyes as she did so.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, right! You're going by the last name of Ren currently aren't you?"
"How do you-"
"LEXI LOOK OUT!" Mo shouted as the woman whipped her index finger in a tight circle activating a spell. The air in front of the woman bent and morphed as mana appeared in the shape of deep green seaweed in a ringlet shape. The woman then flicked her finger and lauched the ringlet in Alix's direction to which the girl dodged as quickly as she could.
To her surprise she had managed to avoid the spell only for her to realize that she hadn't been the target. "MO!" The ringlet attached to Mo's fishbowl and started to permeate it, making the water within start to shift colors from blue to a sickly green. Mo instantly jumped out of the bowl to get away from whatever had infected his water.
The woman gasped in amazement. "Did he just jump out of the water himself? What an intelligent species! Tell me Alix, where did you find such a fine specimen?" Alix's face scrunched as she glared at the woman.
"How do you know me? Who are you?" She ask through her teeth. The woman smirked at Alix with her head tilted to the side.
"You don't know me, huh? That's fair. I'm likely far past my prime years but I still thought I was hip enough for kids to know my work." The woman shook her head as she placed her hands on her sides. She sighed with acceptance. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. All that matters is..."
She reached into a pouch and pulled out a small vial with a slightly smokey substance within it.
"...I always get my specimen!"
She threw the vial at the ground before her. As soon as it shattered the smokey substance expanded within a heartbeat and started to fill the entire room. Alix swiped at the substance that she believed to be smoke but found it sticking to her as she did so. It also worked perfectly to block her vision due to its thickness.
"What the hell?!" She tried to removed the strange substance from her body but the more she fought the more it seemed to be attracted to her. It felt like nothing but Alix could swear that something was weighing her down. Eventually she was almost entirely enveloped in this strange solid smoke and couldn't move. "What are you doing? MO!"
Mo found himself in a similar situation as Alix but summoned the Abyssal Sea to protect himself. At least, that was the plan but a hand suddenly shot out of the this substance and grabbed Mo within the water.
He went to attack when he felt something sharp pierce into his body and within a second he felt something spreading through him. A strange feeling of exhaustion. A feeling of weakness. He was yanked in by the trespasser seeing her toothy grin up close.
"Hello there love. I bet that you'll be just as useful as the bird!" Alix flinched. She couldn't currently see her but she could hear her.
"Bird? Are you talking about Nuka? Where is she?!" She shouted, demanding an answer. The woman didn't even try to look at Alix while responding.
"Is that what you call her? I've always she called her my little freak of inspiration." Alix's eyes went wild as the woman insulted Nuka. She summoned the Abyssal Sea around her body and managed to slip free of the weird smoke. She then charged in the direction of Mo's heartstring, climbing onto a table and pushing through the smoke in the process.
"Where is she?!" Alix shouted again as she leapt off of the table blindly into the smoke with her only marker being Mo's heartstring. She swung as hard as she could using the Abyssal Sea as an extension of her body but her fist found no purchase.
"Where she is doesn't matter." The woman spoke but Alix could not tell from where it was coming from. It seemed to bounce on this strange physical smoke. "I've got what I came for but knowing how stubborn you are you'll likely try to chase me at the first chance you get. I should slow you down a bit more!"
Crash!
Alix heard something shatter but again couldn't see it. At that moment a gas began to perforate through the fluffy substance. A scent hit Alix's nose that made her feel as though she had just been thrown into a place worst than the sewers. Her face scrunched at the scent making her quickly try to cover her mouth and nose. That's not how things went, however, as she hit herself in the face on complete accident.
She fell to the floor, dizzy from her wallop to the nose when she could swear that she felt blood leaking out. She went to wipe it from her nose but instead slapped herself in the face. 'What?' Alix was confused. She seemed to have lost her control of her body but didn't understand why.
"Isn't alchemy a true work of art? It's truly a medium that I am blessed to have talent in!" A voice that Alix could swear came from right behind her gloated. Alix tried to swing behind her but ended up falling over in the process. She started to cough as something felt like it was blocking her airways. Alix started gasping for air when suddenly the woman appeared through the weird, smoke-like, substance and crouched over Alix while holding Mo who was freaking out.
"Hello child..." She said with an twisted sneer on her face.
"My name is Francis. I'm an alchemist by trade and passion. It was truly an inconvenience to meet you." Alix's wanted to feel shocked but she was in far too much pain to express any other emotion.
"Lexi! You damn demon! If you kill her I'll use everything I have to make you suffer you twisted piece of shit!" Mo shouted aloud but only Alix could hear. He tried to summon the Abyssal Sea to attack but it he felt far too weak. That didn't stop him from wearing himself out while trying, however.
Alix tried to lift her hand but ended up making a fist instead. This brought a smile to Francis's face.
"Look at you, still trying to save him, huh? That's cute but improbable." Alix's vision started to darken as she felt the last of her consciousness begin to fade.
"Ack! Aaagh! Raaaah!" She tried to say something but she couldn't! She tried to stand but she couldn't! The only part of her body that seemed to work as intended were her tear ducts which began to leak as she realized the helplessness of her current situation.
'Mo..." Alix called through her ability gaining Mo's attention.
"Lexi! I-I'll do something! Just stay awake! Please! Don't give in yet! I'll save you! I-I prom-"
'I-I'm sorry...mo..." Leaving Mo with that message Alix finally passed out making her hand drop lifelessly to the floor. She was still alive, of course, but she was no longer in any state to fight.
"Lexi? LEXI?! ALIX!" Mo called and called to Alix but she wouldn't wake up. He then felt another sharp pain in his side that doubled the exhaustion that he felt. He looked to the side where he saw a syringe being pulled out of his body and inside of it a strange black, space-like liquid. Mo then followed after Alix and passed out.
Francis held the syringe in front of her face and started to beam with joy. "I've found another one! I may finally make the breakthrough that I've been looking for!" She then looked down and lightly kicked Alix.
"And this is all thanks to you, daughter of the traitor. What a pleasant feeling!" Francis pranced out of the tavern with Mo alone in hand, leaving his fishbowl behind.
Alix lay on the floor with fresh tears dripping down her unconscious face as her last truly close thing had just been stolen from her.
She'd lost her first mate.