Temple of the Sun (Altamira)

Sand. Sand. Sand! That's all there was for distances upon distances and zenith upon zenith. Still, as Monroe sat on the camel he had rented for himself and Tracey, he looked back on what had happened over the week when they had been preparing. Monroe had picked up all of the photon cartridges he needed for when the fight would come, he hoped, and Tracey had gotten her new weapons and armor to help her fight when the time came. For now, it was time to prepare. After all, Zorlo did say that this Temple of the Sun was out here... somewhere.

"Soon..." Monroe whispered to himself as he thought about it. The time had come for the bounty hunter to finally free himself. The main reason the time had come for this was, simply, because he couldn't ignore the fact Set lived within him any longer. It was very, very dangerous to keep himself in this shape for much longer. If he did... he risked destroying Tracey and everything else. There wasn't much time. What had to be done had to be done.

The talisman that Zorlo had given Monroe was out of power now. They were hurrying as fast as they could. They had to get to the temple before sundown. If the bounty hunter fell to sleep, he knew what would happen. Also, if they didn't reach the temple before the sun set, Monroe would have missed his chance to finally gain the power he needed to free himself. That meant everything to him, since he'd finally be able to protect Tracey and not have to worry about hurting her any longer.

"Tracey... how much further?" he asked her, smiling at her as the sun began to move down from the noon time sun. They were running out of time. "I hope we get there soon... if we don't... bad things..." he said as something began to form in the distance. "Or maybe we've found it," he stated, looking at the form of what could have been a mirage.

Tracey looked out across the sand at the shape in the hazy sun that Monroe had indicated. Normally, she trusted charts more than her own eyes in the desert, specifically these big Rubatoian deserts that were notorious for making a man think a bunch of rocks were a whole lot of coconuts, or that a ditch was a icy cold pool of soda, but she had to admit whatever this was on the horizon did look promising.

Then again, maybe the sand and heat had just worked their tricks on even her great, keen mind and she was hallucinating like everyone else that wandered out here. There had to be some reason why no one ever found this place before, right?

Camels weren't subject to things like doubt or myth--and so the two Monroe and Tracey were riding on just plowed on as normally as if they were striding towards something as dignified and mysterious as an outhouse, completely oblivious to the detective's musings. The shape on the horizon was starting to become a little clearer--the mild, perpetual sandstorm that still clouded things couldn't be helped, but at least the distance between them and this place was being cut down bit by bit. Tracey found herself wishing she'd studied a little more about this place--there could have been some giant statue she'd know to expect or a lot of columns she should be seeing if only she'd read some more. It would have made recognizing the temple a whole lot easier, but they were out here now, so she'd just have to make do...

Monroe cursed under his breath. The detective glanced up again, looking out ahead of them towards the shape in the distance--closer now, she could tell what it was. A broken-down, dried-out old jailhouse. This wasn't the temple.

Unaware of their failure, the camels continued on...

Monroe sat silently, cursing his ill luck as they continued on. "I can't believe it... last time I trust Zorlo to lead me somewhere," he bellowed angrily as they moved on past the jail. The bounty hunter removed his map and looked it over, trying to figure out where in the infinite hell that was Rubato they were. The mercenary opened up the map and looked as the creature he sat upon trudged onwards, unbeknownst to where they were headed.

The dark clad man looked at the map and smiled as he placed his finger on the only old jail cell he could find. It was somewhere in front of them. On this first day of summer was the only day that the Temple of the Sun emerged in the absolute center of the endless desert that was Rubato. For it was sand, and nothing more.

The jail cell meant that they would be there any moment now. It was no longer a time to simply dawdle through this hell hole, mostly given that the hydration pills that Monroe and Tracey had taken would wear off soon; but instead a time to move onwards and find the temple. They were so close, and yet so far. After all, one is never close enough, nor too far, from their goal. When trapped in sand, there's nothing more.

The camels trudged on, their prints in the sand vanishing as the winds began to pick up. The bounty hunter and detective pulled their hoods over themselves and placed goggles over their eyes. A sandstorm was close, which meant they had two choice: find the temple, or be no more.

With those choice, Monroe kicked the sides of the camel. He saw a small shape in the distance. If that were it he'd go on, for nothing more.

Something else was out there. Tracey felt like she'd be saying that forever. Oh, what's that? they'd think, seeing a shape on the horizon, and it'd just be a cactus or a lost old traveler...hydration pills or not, this desert was hot, and Tracey had to give it her all to stand sitting under her heavy cloak in the sun...

She hoped to heaven, or wherever it was you were supposed to hope to, that this figure on the horizon that was slowly growing closer would be the Temple. Monroe looked so determined to find it, and that gave her motivation...she'd stay in this damned desert for months to help him.

Her goggles cleared out the interference of sand, the haziness of hot air, and zoomed in as much as possible on the shape in the distance. It wasn't a cactus or a person; that much seemed safe to say. This was something that held steady in the gradually-building sandstorm's gusts, something sturdy and structured. A building. But would it be another dried-out husk, like the jailhouse, or would it be the temple they were searching for?

Slowly, the camels, and the people on their backs, moved through the sandstorm into something... a little bit different. Here, the sand was calm, almost as if a barrier were around the building. Large spires lined a path towards a large pyramid shape with a large door on it. Monroe and Tracey dismounted from their camels, and moved past the spires. The bounty hunter was captivated by the markings on the spires.

Everything there had the feel of Ancient Egypt, except that the temple was closer to a Babylonian Ziggurat. Even the markings were close to some kind of Cuneiform or Hieroglyphics. As Monroe ran his fingers over the markings, the stone they were carved into was clearly held some kind of magical energy. A very, very strong magical energy. Monroe couldn't say how he knew that to be true, but he could feel it. It felt true. That's what it was.

Turning his head from the obelisks that surrounded the two, he walked towards the door. Tracey, still distracted by the obelisks, stayed back to examine them as the bounty hunter placed his hand on the door. A bright light erupted from it and the two suddenly heard a voice, as if from the temple itself. "Ye who risks defiling the light. Be weary! Once thou travelest within the walls of this temple, thou shalt never again know sunlight if the darkness is not cleansed!"

The light faded and Tracey walked over to Monroe, resting her hand on his shoulder as the shock on his face remained quite plastered there. "Monroe, are you okay?" she asked him, trying to help him to relax.

"Yeah... I'll be fine," he told her, looking back at her and smiling. "Anyway, we'd better start forwards," Monroe said as he looked at where the door had been. There no longer seemed to be a door, but that didn't matter. All that mattered for now was getting in. He'd figure out how to get out of that place later. He entered into the temple, followed closely behind by the detective. As they made it a few feet in, the temple door closed. Now, they would have to find their way to the center.

The inside would have been dark, but years of wear and tear seemed to have eroded down the walls. They looked thick from the outside, but now, walking through the main hall, sunlight stole in through the bricks in soft sheets, as if through a tapestry of sand, and made little diamond-shape patterns on the floor. It felt like another world...and it was beautiful.

But it was also empty, and forbidding. Untouched by humans for some time...there were ancient skulls and skeletons of animals and travelers lying in corners and under piles of white sand, bleached in strange patterns by the uneven sunlight. Strange script covered the walls too, as it had outside. Tracey ran her hand over one leading down a corridor that branched off from the main hall, blowing the centuries of dust away.

She'd had some language training back in Rochester, if you could call it that, but her main focus had always been science and other studies a bit more practical for her career, and well...a few semesters of Ancient Languages didn't make you an expert, as much as you might have considered yourself one after surviving the exams.

Whatever it all was, it looked interesting. There were elaborate pictures etched into the sun-baked stone...pictures of the sun, a lot of them, but of these people too, people that looked human enough, but there were swirls and orbs that looked magical about them, and a word Tracey vaguely thought she recognized, something like soul or spirit...

One drawing was smudged a bit. It looked recent, if the detective was going to be objective about it. The Temple was said to be formed, when it rose, from magic and the sand around it...had someone been out here, around this spot, when the Temple was not out? There were prints...like footprints...where someone might have been walking on the sand that went into forming the Temple today at sunrise...

...but who was around? Not even Monroe was near her, Tracey realized, seeing how far her little researches had carried her from the main hall. Where had those prints come from? Was someone out here, lost in the desert?

Monroe had wandered deeper into the cavern and found himself poking around for any number of things in there. He had lost the detective, but he knew she'd catch up eventually. For now, he was more concerned with finding his way into the center of the temple before the sun set. Only then would his nightmare truly end. Only then would he finally be free.

His footsteps carved themselves into the sand like nothing else. This place was normally hidden, except for every year on the first day of summer. On that day, this temple would appear, but Monroe had been told that there were other times this temple appeared. He had once heard that a strong enough force could force it to appear, so he could only assume Zorlo had done so once already. The bounty hunter continued his wandering around the empty halls, finding dead ends and redirecting himself.

It had only been a few minutes time of walking before the mercenary found himself within a room that was very bright. The square cell, about twenty ten meters in area, had light from the sun bathing it everywhere. As the dark clad man walked into the center of the room, doors fell from the ceiling, encasing him all around and trapping the bounty hunter. The suns rays all struck him so his shadow expanded several feet outwards, making him seem almost like a giant from his shadows length.

Suddenly, from the shadow and the sun, a mix of the suns rays became a figure. Monroe now stood before himself, only dressed in white instead of black. The copy held the same smallsword that the bounty hunter had once brandished, only in a white scabbard. "What in the world is this?"

"I am you. I am the assassin you once were, Monroe. How can a person who's so long stood in the darkness hope to be in the light now?" the assassin asked as it rested the sheath of its sword against the back of his arm.

"I have changed. I no longer desire to kill or fight for the simple sake of its my life. I have a new life, and new desires."

"Prove it!" the assassin commented as it drew its sword and dashed at the bounty hunter. In a flash, Monroe drew his photon sword and blocked the blade, the buzzing of the weapons echoing into the area.

"I swear to you, I will prove myself worthy!" the dark clad man muttered as he pushed his light filled counterpart away. "I have to be free of this chaos. I have to be able to defend the person I love!" he stated firmly.

Tracey held up the thing to the light. It had crackled when she'd stepped on it--at first she'd thought, as gruesome as the idea was, that it had just been a bone. But now that she'd reached down and grabbed it, blowing off the sand, there was no denying what it was...

...a candy wrapper.

Tracey's eyes had gleamed when she'd found it. What in blazes was a candy wrapper doing here? was her first thought, and she'd patted her pockets, making sure she hadn't accidentally planted this intriguing little clue herself. Nope, no forgotten sweets in her cloak. This was from someone else. She turned the waxy paper over and over under her magnifying glass, studying the writing...

It was in Rubatoian. Straight-up, street Rubatoian. You could tell by how there would be a few words of Gaian peppered in here and there. There was a picture of a lemon on one side, and the whole thing still smelled faintly of the fruit underneath all that salty sand--the detective felt a surge of excitement run through her at that discovery. This, like the footprints, had to be recent. Very recent, even. Had she stumbled onto a little mystery here? The Temple had sure sounded like the ideal place for one.

Pocketing the wrapper, Tracey turned down the next hall, where the smudges had continued...

The white clad Monroe slashed his sword fiercely and quickly. His blade and the bounty hunter's flashed in combat, the shimmering white blade of the clone easily blocking each attack that the mercenary threw. Suddenly, the two found themselves in a sword lock, standing face to face and trying to overpower the other one. "I can't lose to you!" Monroe yelled as he pushed the white clad copy backwards into a wall. The sound of the stone cracking as his body striking the wall made the real Monroe smirk as he looked at his clone.

The assassin leapt upwards and spun around quickly, slashing his sword down towards the mercenary. The modern fencer raised his blade and blocked the sword of the clone. A bright white emitted from the blade as the green energy blade blocked it. Suddenly, the white wearing warrior smirked as a bright blast of light erupted from his sword and blew Monroe backwards into a wall. The dark clad man pushed himself upwards as he looked at the charging foe, readying himself to make a move.

The tip of the sword narrowly missed the enhanced human's head as he narrowly evaded the attack. Blood dripped from Monroe's cheek as he swung his sword suddenly. The clone leapt backwards, evading the blade of the sword narrowly, but getting his jacket cut in the process as the bounty hunter rushed forwards. The photon sword flashed several times in three slashes on each side. One to the right, one to the left, and finally a diagonal slash, each blade clashing until the lock with the final attack.

As their swords clashed, the clone smiled as his blade began to shine again. Another blast, almost like that of hurricane force winds, hit the bounty hunter and blew him into the wall, nearly shattering him through it. His body ached all over, but Monroe stood up, smiling. He drew his gun from the holster and fired off a shot, the bullet blowing clean through the clone's right shoulder socket. "Take that," Monroe whispered as he smiled at the clone, who gripped his sword tighter in his left hand and charged.

One sort of thing you should never be occupied with thinking about while descending down a flight of dusty old stairs is: Just think of it! Tracey de Carlo saves some poor soul trapped in an ancient temple...it'd make headlines!

Tracey learned this the hard way.

She'd shut her eyes, just for a second, picturing herself walking amongst adoring reporters, when one uncertain step sent her toppling down a staircase to a deeper, darker level of the temple. It was chillier there...and not exactly the place where you'd expect to find candy wrappers, not that the first level had been either. The smudges along the wall here had stopped too--that was disappointing. Where was her little, sugar-eating temple dweller? She'd had such high hopes...

She wandered around for a bit, studying the etchings on the wall, and then let out a sigh. She'd lost the trail. Maybe she should head back...

...I will find out what left those prints and that wrapper...sometime.

OoC: Really short, but it moves things along. ^^;;

Monroe looked at the creature as it held its sword up, wincing at the pain in its arm. As the bounty hunter moved to fire his gun once more, a powerful blast erupted into the gun, blowing it into parts on the floor. The bounty hunter looked at the parts of his weapon as he recalled what had just happened. A powerful beam of light had erupted from the tip of the clone's sword and simply demolished his gun. It was truly a fearful event.

Still, as another beam shot towards him, Monroe dashed to the side, starting to run in a circle around the definitively square room. A series of beams shot towards him until the clone stopped firing off blasts recklessly. "Try this!" the white clad Monroe yelled as light particles engulfed the sword and rocketed from the tip. Quickly, the assassin began to spin, his sword cutting through the wall itself as it continued to travel with aims of killing Monroe.

The mercenary acknowledged the truth of this battle: He had to make a move and make it count! The bounty hunter leapt through the air over the blade which came swinging towards him suddenly. The clone looked back in terror as he tried to spin. In the blink of an eye, a sword had pierced through the body of one of the Monroe's. The beam of energy faded from the sword as it stood about three inches from the bounty hunter's face, his sword piercing all the way through his foe's body.

In a quick turn, the fighter sliced the clone in half. In its final words as the light clone vanished, the words, "Congrats, for your past leaves you. Go forth and be cleansed," left the clone's mouth. The door out opened towards the bounty hunter and he moved through it, into whatever lay before him.

As the dark clad man entered into the next room, he took it in deeply. The room was simply massive, standing about twenty meters in area total. As the dark clad warrior looked around, he saw four obelisks attached to the ceiling, with a bright beam of light shooting down the center. The room had glowing markings all around it, and the bounty hunter smiled as he looked around. He had finally found it: the center of the temple. Now he'd wait for Tracey, and finally be free of Set.

Her hands ran along the wall, feeling the crevices between the bricks. How could the smudges just end? It didn't make sense...glancing up, she could see they'd been all along the stairs! What does this mean?

Tracey went back up, step by step, studying the wall. The footprints continued on there, just as they had on the upper level. Then...then one foot led off, and the second never followed...that was where this mystery hinged.

There has to be a reason...

Goggles were adjusted into place over her eyes. What she couldn't see herself...maybe they would reveal. She toggled through settings: night-vision, ultraviolet, infrared. Nothing there. There was one other setting...it was supposed to detect magic, but the detective had never trusted what it reported back. Magic was too tricky...too unreliable. Not scientific. But there was no doubting that magic permeated this building like a plague...

Thaumaturgical view was switched on. Tracey had only used this once since she'd gotten these goggles, when she tried tracking down a gypsy...she thought it might be useful in the future against the Madrigals, but she'd never had the opportunity to test it. The whole room came to life in an array of neon purples and greens, thrumming with activity...here and there, traces of a different magic were found.

Found on the footprints.

These traces came up slightly yellow...they led away from the stairs, and--into the wall? There was no denying it--where that one foot had left off on the stairs, the other footprint was found behind this wall. There had to be something there.

Standing back as far as she could to build up speed, Tracey de Carlo charged the wall shoulder-first--

--and broke through into what could only be described as an elevator cabin made of sand. And here, along the walls, are the rest of the smudges.

The yellowish magic of the footprints glowed in the goggles' sensors. As did the rest of the elevator cabin, with the same purplish energy that covered the temple, only far more concentrated. There seemed to be only one conclusion--this was a magic-operated elevator.

And now, the doors were closing, and Tracey, whether she liked it or not, was going up.

Luck would have it that in a matter of moments, the young sleuth was emerging, breathless, from the elevator door set into the sand stones to stumble in across the room from Monroe Vossler.

"Hi..." she mumbled, and slumped against the wall.

OoC: That was a fun post to write. :3

Monroe smiled at Tracey as she entered as he looked at the mass of light in the center of the room. "Hi," he said backwards as he smiled at her. Something about her timing seemed impeccable. Still, he had to go through the normal stuff before he went about their business of freeing himself. After all, that would be the dangerous part, wouldn't it. "Find anything interesting?"

"Just some foot prints and a candy wrapper. It seems someone else is here and I'm on the case," the detective said excitedly as she looked at Monroe. Her almost complete focus on this mystery she found made the dark clad man smile as he looked into the room. "So, where is this, by the way?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"This is the ritual room. It's about time that I finally end this curse I've been living with. To protect you... and everyone else from... me..." he said the last word with a soft, almost heartbroken sigh. He couldn't help but hate himself for what lived in him, and that was why he was here: to remove that problem and finally be free. The time of cleansing had come, and that meant it was time for him to become a step closer to whole.

The dark clad man stepped into the light. A flash erupted as his body became suspended a few feet off of the ground, light shining through his mouth and eyes as a dark force began to emerge head first from his chest. Slowly, the brown furred jackal-man took form. Encased in a black and orange lightning storm around his body, the creature's bright blue eyes stared at the woman as it was slowly forced from its former confines. Finally, the light became massively bright and the two body's were shot apart into different walls.

The bounty hunter stood up, only woozy, as the God of Chaos rose and smiled at him. "Thank you, Monroe. Now that I'm free, I can have free reign to destroy you," the dark creature said as it stepped towards the modern fencer stood up.

Monroe stood up and reached his hand towards the photon sword at his side, but as soon as he tried to grab his blade, the dark creature stepped forwards, stealing his sword and turning it on. The mercenary stumbled backwards and looked at the monster as it turned on the blade on and thrust the sword into Monroe's chest. Nineteen centimeters to the right of his heart, to be exact.

Set kicked Monroe in the chest, driving the sword deeper and the warrior's body into the stone wall. The dark clad man slowly slid down the wall as his body wound up pinned into the wall. "You're doomed," the God of Chaos stated as it turned towards the woman. "And now you'll die with this fool," the monster spoke as it held its right hand out and a sword of darkness formed, quickly being covered in orange Chaos Lightning.

As Monroe's eyes fluttered open and shut, he felt something strange. Suddenly, all of the Photon packets and the photon knives in his jacket and vest exploded into a bright green flash of energy. The dark clad man's body floated into the air and suddenly wound up being encased in an almost cocoon. The fighter's clothing were burned up by the intense energy as the photon energy flowed through him. Something new was growing in him. He could feel it.

Monroe smiled. The war of his mind was over. Now was the war of his spirit. Tracey... give me time. I'll protect you... just give me time.

OoC: Just for anyone who might be reading this and didn't know--"thaumaturgical", in layman's terms, basically means relating to the use of magic. ^^;;

IC:
Thaumaturgical view was on. Chaos was a bright, pulsating mass of neon orange energy in the readout of the sensors, not much unlike how he was in reality...but there was an added benefit to seeing him this way. Before every attack, every blast he launched from any part of him, Tracey could see the magical energy building up as he charged, collecting together at one point...in other words, she knew where he was going to attack before he did attack. This did worlds of good for keeping her alive in what was to follow.

Essentially, she tackled him. She had her electro-gun, basically a technologically-advanced stun gun of sorts, in her hand, but she didn't even think to place her hand on the trigger. She just threw herself at the creature, knocking him as far away from Monroe as possible...

Magic built up, an even brighter spot of orange than the rest of Set. It was going to come out of his mouth--Tracey rolled out of the way, righted herself back on her feet, shot out a bolt of electricity. It did almost nothing to the creature, but his attention was on her now, and it wasn't going anywhere until she ceased to be a distraction.

"S-so, you like lemon candy, do you? I found a wrapper you left laying around here..." the detective said, knowing she wasn't making a scrap of sense, but just talking for the sake of confusing him. Set had been in Monroe this whole time--the candy was obviously from someone else, but if she could just cause him a moment of bewilderment, that was enough...

He seemed to pause for a second, and then there was another massing of the orange energy, and her goggles' sensors thrummed wildly in warning...

Overload...overload...shutting down sensors to reboot...

"Damn it!" Tracey cursed under her breath--that few seconds' extra warning before an attack had been saving her skin this whole time. What was she going to do now without it? She gave Set a very sheepish smile, shot off another electrical blast that he easily avoided, and felt herself begin to tremble in fear...

Tracey was hit by a blast of energy. Monroe couldn't see it, but he felt it. He tried hard to move, but everything seemed to be unwilling to do any kind of movement at all. He cursed his luck as energy continued to rush through his wound. He felt the scar forming in the shape of a pentacle. What in the world was going on within him? More to the point: Why was it taking so damn long.

The former bounty hunter. The former assassin. The former mercenary. The former fighter for hire. These things he would be no longer. He wanted to be something new. Something powerful. Something beyond reality. Something larger than life itself. He needed to be if he planned to defeat Set.

Suddenly, the cocoon responded to his desires. Suddenly, the dark clad man felt fabric forming over his arms and legs and covering his body again. The cocoon cracked slowly, and power seemed to surge from within it. Suddenly, the great cocoon of energy shattered, and there, where Monroe had been, stood a man attired entirely in black still, but his demeanor was different.

The air flowed not with his blood lust or violent anger or hatred or any of the things Monroe had been known for before, but was instead replaced with a sense of calm and peace. The dark clad man's clothing finished forming and the photon particles on it scattered, creating small orbs of green emitting from his body. He now wore black pants with a black jacket. Hanging from his neck was a steel half pentacle, and the same design was sewn into the back of his jacket.

The former bounty hunter smiled as he held his hand up. "Howdy," the enhanced human said as photon particles scattered out of his hand. In an instant, they suddenly formed a bow and the dark clad warrior clenched his hand around the bow. "Time to say good bye!" Monroe said as he drew the bow string back, an arrow of photon energy forming as he did so. With a keen eye, a blast rippled through the area, blasting into the God of Chaos and shooting him through the wall of the temple.

Suddenly, Monroe's eyes, which had been glowing since he had last appeared, ceased glowing green. He looked around as the bow scattered back into photon energy and the dark clad man was left with nothing. He had no idea what had just happened, but what he did know was this: there was an exit from the temple. Quickly, Monroe rushed to check on Tracey. He hoped that she was okay. If not, he'd destroy Set here!

Tracey was more than a little fuzzy on the events that followed. She just remembered the blast, coming too quickly for her to move out of the way, and then she'd rolled across the floor, barely clinging to consciousness. The next thing she knew, she was cradled in Monroe's arms, and they were emerging out into the day...

He'd set her down a moment to rest, and given her the last of his hydration pills. He seemed a little occupied with something, and when she tried to struggle through her pain to think about it, the truth was he did seem different but...her head was throbbing too much to pursue the line of thought much more than that right now. She turned over onto her side to block out the glare of the sunlight, and soon was taking a little nap.

The detective awoke some time later to the smell of lemons. It seemed to stir some memory within her...

When a shadow crossed over her, she sat bolt upright and saw a black-and-brownish shape scurry around the corner of the temple.

"Who's there?" she called. Monroe was a little way's over, lost in thought, the camels were next to him...just what on earth was that shape then? It looked sort of small...

Tracey picked herself up, edging towards the temple's corner, pulling out a little granola bar she'd had in her pocket. "Come on out," she said, "...I won't hurt you."

There was a little glimpse of straight black hair, being blown by the desert wind. Then, a tan little hand reached out, shaking, and took the granola bar. Little chewing noises followed, and then...

"Gracias," a young girl's voice said shyly.

Tracey rounded the corner, and saw the owner of the voice. A young Rubatoian girl, not a day older than eight, with dark hair, hazel eyes, and...

...My god. She looks like...like...Vivace Madrigal!

The detective felt faint. She was immensely thankful that a wall was so close by to lean against. This was too much to handle.

"What...what's your name?" she managed to ask.

Monroe was heading over at this time. He'd seen Tracey stumble and gotten worried. He, too, was speechless when he caught sight of the young girl.

"My name's...Alessandra," the girl said, finishing the granola bar.

"Just Ales...Ale...er, Alexandra?" Tracey asked. "No last name?"

"Just Alessandra, as far as I know..." she answered, managing to put a little pinch of that familiar sarcasm in even though her voice was otherwise still nervous...

Monroe and Tracey exchanged looks.

"Where are your parents?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow.

Alessandra looked a little upset by this question. She was quiet for a moment, before finally saying, "...I...don't know. I've been wandering around here for as long as I can remember...I go into towns and nice people give me food and water sometimes. An old lady knitted me my clothes...I don't know where to go."

Another exchange of glances between the adults. They seemed to be reaching some sort of decision, but Alessandra couldn't really tell when all they were doing was nodding or whispering.

Then, the redheaded woman unexpectedly extended a hand towards her and said, "Alexandra...why don't you come back to the city with us? At the very least, I can use the resources at the police department to find out who your parents are, and until we find out, we can give you a safe place to stay."

The girl blinked, looking the pair over. They seemed nice enough... "Um...I...okay. Gracias," she said.

Alessandra in tow, Tracey and Monroe headed back to the camels. Once again, Monroe seemed troubled by something, occupied by his own thoughts...

..he turned to Tracey, holding something clenched in his hand. The detective had the feeling he was waiting for her to hold out her own hand, so she did, and he pressed whatever the object was into her palm with a sigh.

"Tracey..." he said, before she'd even gotten a chance to see what the thing was, "I...just wanted to tell you I won't be following you back to the city right now. I know, I know, before you ask why, just let me explain--see, I need to go to the Dome for a little while, to figure out what's going on with me...something about me changed back there in the Temple, and I need to figure it out. The Dome's the only place I can do that."

Tracey was finding it hard to meet his gaze. Instead, she just looked down at this little metal thing in her hand...

"I want you to keep that...to remember me by while I'm gone. It's the pentacle I just got now, when fighting Set...keep it, will you?"

The detective nodded, trying to hold back the tears she could feel were coming. Monroe was leaving--so soon? They'd just been through so much lately, and she was hoping they'd get a chance to relax together, but now...

"Watch over the girl while I'm gone please too, okay? I'll be back as soon as I can, Tracey..."

In pain or not, the detective couldn't just let things go like that. She threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around Monroe in an embrace, and cried, "Y-you better be!"

The man smiled, hugging her back, burying his face in her warm, soft hair and ever-present hat before letting her go, giving her once last smile, and hefting himself back onto his waiting camel.

"Goodbye, Tracey!" he called, and Alessandra and the detective watched him ride away into the desert before saddling up themselves to return to the city...

OoC: A little too much bland, straight-up "she did this, she said that" for my liking, but I'm tired and it gets the job done, so I'm okay with it. ^^;;