Where time stands still

[Luxord]

Such a peculiar place, the circus. Tents and stalls and side show attractions, all decorated with flair. People gazing around in wonder or hurrying to the more thrilling rides. So fixated on their surroundings and destinations that a man in a black robe could just appear out of practically nowhere and walk around as if there was nothing peculiar at all about walking around in the heat with his hood pulled up.

Luxord stopped in front of one stall in particular, where a man was trying to wow people with a deck of cards and some slight of hand. In fact he only barely managed to not laugh at the display.

[Aideen]

Aideen had the afternoon off and had left her son with a friend, so she was alone for the first time in many months. She had decided that it would probably be fun to go in to Paris and maybe go shopping, do the things she had never been able to do until now.

As she passed Ivan's magic show she felt a strange sensation hit her chest. It wasn't like when Adrien was about, no, this was different, this seemed emptier, if that was even possible. She stopped to catch her breath and took sight of a strange man in a dark robe.

She decided that it might just be her nerves and shook her head as she headed for the circus exit.

[Luxord]

Luxord's entertainment came to an abrupt stop when he felt something. A sudden pulse within him, where his heart was supposed to be. He turned around, searching the crowd, when his eyes fell on a woman with shocking red hair heading away from him. He paused and rested the side of one hand on his lips, thinking. How strange, he pondered while beginning to strut towards her, a smirk on his thin lips, It would seem my coming here wasn't a total waste.

[Aideen]

The feeling hadn't left her even as she exited the circus, it stayed with her, like a nightmare, or the smell of dead flesh. It was the same empty feeling that she had felt the day she lost her heart. She knew of course that the man in the dark robes was following her and she lead him down a road not normally traveled.

But she was all to familiar with the surrounding wood, and if worse came to worse, the strange man would never be found.

Eventually they came upon a clearning, the one she had used to practice in previous days.

Turning abruptly she shouted "All right sir, come out here."

[Luxord]

Luxord smirked as he stepped out of the woods. It was easier now that they were in such close proximity to explore the magnetic pull towards this feeling. The emptiness... yes, that hollow echoing void that filled his being. The cries that echoed through this chasm were not his own and he knew them to be hers. She was just as much of a nobody as he was.

She must be powerful, for she was strong enough to retain her form instead of falling into the lesser nobodies ranks. Perhaps the Organization would have use for her...?

Luxord pulled back his hood, and twisted his hand in a greeting gesture.

[Aideen]

If Aideen wasn't so concerned with what in the world he was doing following her, she probably would have found the man to be completely gorgeous. Her lips pulled back in to a disapproving frown and she wrapped her arms around her chest. "What are ya doin following me?" She growled her lips barely moving.

Now that he was closer the feeling intensified, had he too known Adrien? Had his heart been taken by the one she once knew as her love? It wouldn't be possible... she was the only one that he had ever let live.

[Luxord]

"Such a crude way of putting it," He drawled in a smooth English accent, "I was merely trying to pinpoint what had pulled the empty crevice of my heart to you... but I can see now."

Luxord tilted his head and surveyed his surroundings, lazily taking in the trees and the distance they had put between them and the circus. "I have to wonder however, how such a beautiful nobody came to be in such a place as this, when I have not felt even an inkling of the darkness for miles."

[Aideen]

"Nobody?" Aideen furrowed her brow and allowed her arms to drop to her side in order to clench her fingers in to fists. It might have been the fact that he had been following her, but she figured it was more the accent, but she all ready had decided she didn't like the man "What in tha lords name are you talkin about boyo?"

[Luxord]

"Nobodies," Luxord pronounced carefully, "are what we are. Creatures who live without hearts. For most this is impossible but for some... we suffer the worst feelings of emptiness and despair." Luxord lifted a hand towards the red haired woman and bowed dramatically, "You are not alone in that aspect at least, for there are thirteen others including myself."

[Aideen]

"Oh my god" she stuttered "how in tha world do ya know about me?" It was a stupid question she knew, he obviously was just like her, only- "Wait didja say thirteen more?"

It seemed Adrian had been busy.

[Luxord]

"Why yes," Luxord smiled, "Thirteen. In fact we have formed a special organization with one purpose in mind..." He let his sentence trail off purposefully and just continued to smile in a suggestive manner.

[Aideen]

Oh lord Aideen felt a rush of anxiety as he let his sentence lie. With a flick of her fingers her hands were suddenly on fire, the flames rolling about in spirals of different shades "He sent ya ta kill me did 'e?" She rolled her neck "Well you tell him I aint going down without no fight."

[Luxord]

"A fight it is, is it?" Luxord pondered out loud. He raised his hands in what he meant to be an innocent manner, "I think you must be mistaken, I have no intention of taking your life. That would just be rude."

[Aideen]

Aideen straightened up, the fire on her hands growing stronger "So he wants me alive then? At least I know isn't that much of a coward" she growled and turned her heels in to the ground.

[Luxord]

Luxord sighed and touched his first two fingers to his temple, "Oh dear. Were not getting out of this without violence are we?" Luxord flipped back his hand and suddenly was holding a hand of cards. "Then lets play a game, shall we?"

The area around them seemed to become distorted, and a leaf stopped mid-fall towards the ground. One after another a wall of giant seven foot tall cards surrounded them like a barrier. "The rules are simple," Luxord rumbled, "The first to run out of time, loses."