Private Finished Imagine...

He knew for sure now that this was an ongoing occurrence. There was no way some minor infection was causing this, it was certainly something much more serious. He noticed that no one seemed to be around except for them - perhaps it was too late? So Tara didn't have to worry about anyone else noticing her unfortunate illness take over. He also wondered how to go about getting a janitor over here to clean it up. Surely there were one or two on duty at an academy like this, even late night. Maybe they had supernatural abilities that allowed them to easily clean up things!

Wait.

Supernatural abilities. That's right... that was what this school was here for. He remembered that piece of information just now. Crud, his "bad landing" really did a number on him. But if this school was for supernatural abilities, did that mean Tara had them too? What sort of abilities did she possess? Perhaps they had something to do with her illness? Or was it coincidence? What sort of ability would cause her to suddenly take ill anyways? He came to the conclusion that, perhaps, the type of ability she possessed wouldn't be obvious to him if she used it, even if she was directly in front of him if she did so. While in his normal state, Corona was completely immune to anything mind-affecting. His mind could not be read or controlled, and nearly all forms of attacks that targeted his mind didn't really work. But he wasn't sure how Alistair's brain would work. Normally, he knew if someone had tried to read or control his mind, even when it didn't work on him. But if it failed on Alistair's brain, would he be able to notice? A possibility came to him that, perhaps she had a mind reading ability that caused her pain if it backfired. Or maybe it didn't backfire.

He had absolutely no idea how well someone could read the information processed in his human brain.

Only a couple short seconds passed before he responded to Tara's words. "You don't need to apologize for something so clearly beyond your control, Tara. If you would've informed me you were ill, I would not have so easily allowed you to escort me to the check-in area. Perhaps you should go to the nurse? If you're not feeling up to it, I can carry you. You'll just um..." He looked to the side. "Well, you'll need to guide me there, because I do not yet know my way around." He could also find out what sort of illness she had. Maybe he knew of a cure not yet known in this world. Then again, introducing knowledge to a world when it hadn't yet found it on its own was typically forbidden. He figured that maybe he could make an exception in this case, though, with the excuse that she had helped an angel find his way around. Not that she would ever know what she had really done, of course. But his heart certainly ached at watching her suffer.

Wait, what was he doing? This was ridiculous. Every second he fraternized with the citizens of this world was every second closer that "they" had to find "it". Not that time really meant anything to him, "them", or anyone else related to his kind. He knew what he was doing was wrong, that he should have found a way to escape from Tara the second he had a chance.

But Adonai had a strange way of doing things. Maybe he wasn't meant to go along this mission alone like he had originally intended. Maybe he would need the citizens of this world to help him. He didn't know. For a being that rarely lacked an answer for anything, he sure found himself unable to answer his own questions a lot lately.

Well, Tara had done it now. He became rather annoyed at her attitude. He rolled his eyes and made a 'this-girl-is-unbelievable' face when she wasn't looking - and when she was, he switched back to a normal concerned face, then back to his silly face again when and if she turned away - and decided to just change her decision for her instead of doing what she wanted - or what she had said she wanted. He bent over and scooped her up into his arms, attempting to force her into it even if she struggled. He used her current weakness to assist him, knowing that she would have a tough time resisting even if she tried. He pretty much had a 'we-are-doing-this-and-you'll-like-it" attitude, and even if she started yelling at him he wouldn't stop. "We are going to the nurse, regardless of your feelings on the subject. I apologize sincerely for my actions, but your well being takes priority over my checking-in as well as what you think of me." Indeed, it was irrelevant to him even if she hated him for doing it.

"You're going to give me directions to the nurse. If you won't or can't, then I'm going to wander around and find my way there." Is what he would say once/if he was able to scoop her up into his arms. And he most certainly would do as he said, even as his stomach tightened in the agony of starvation. He knew that what he was doing could be dangerous for him, especially if he fainted and dropped her. But he had confidence in his own ability to stay focused. He did owe her big time, after all. She could have single handedly destroyed his mission. Fudge, she could have caused a rift to open and "they" could have unleashed themselves upon the world as soon as they sensed a lone archangel suspiciously roaming this world. He was rather amused at how big of a difference this girl's decision truly made.

Assuming that he would succeed in taking hold of this girl, he would begin to make his way to the hospital wing regardless of whether or not she told him. He had hoped to use his empathic ability to detect whether or not she was lying, but he would have to wait and see how well that worked.

Among his usual thoughts, an idea occurred. How much Divine energy could he unleash without "them" noticing? He knew it had to be a fairly large amount. Would he be able to invoke minor mantras without "them" noticing? And how much stress would it place on his body? He wondered if his own Lesser Healing Light could help her. He was sure it wouldn't remove whatever illness she had, but it might temporarily ease her symptoms.

Another thought occurred. Why was he bringing her to a nurse when he could probably assist her just as well if not more than the nurse could?

Don't disrupt the balance, Corona. You know full well that, in helping them, you could destroy them. Do not act out of place...

Elazul's warning wrung true. He couldn't involve himself too much. But he began to think that it might have been too late with this girl already. He doubted after all this that he could easily make a clean break from her. And now, since he was beginning to form a bond, her very life could be changed drastically - or even ended - because of his own actions.

Indeed, the path she took in life could now very well be his full responsibility. Good or bad.

Alistair made his way down the hall attempting the best he could to find his way to the nurse's office. He was able to recall a faint memory from his true mind - that is, the mind of his actual angelic self rather than the brain he was required to use as a human - that gave him the general location of the medical wing within the academy complex. He was able to sense that his current face direction was north-north-east, and he knew the general direction to go from there. However, he was unknowing of the direct route, and that posed a problem.

Especially when his eyes darkened once again.

The hunger pains came at him full force once more, so much that he would pause for a few seconds. Tara might feel his arms start to lower as if he were about to drop her. His vision began to blur and he felt his sense of balance waning. As much as he tried to force himself, it just wasn't working. His body was too exhausted. The amount of energy his body required to sustain itself and suppress his form was absolutely ridiculous. How would he be able to do this!?

The possibility had actually entered his mind that, right here and there, he was going to fail. He discerned that there was an 86.54692 percent chance of him fainting and dropping Tara. There was an estimated 12.6733 percent chance of his body dying within the next ten minutes and thirteen seconds, and an estimated five minutes and thirty-two seconds after his body died that "they" would arrive after sensing his presence.

He was not going to let that happen so easily.

Tara was likely starting to feel the horrible "I-am-going-to-fall" feeling when suddenly his entire body stiffened and slowly regained posture. She would be overcome by an absolutely overwhelming aura being so close to him, an aura that made her feel as if she was in the presence of some Divine being (well, she technically was). But in less than half a second that aura would fade. It was possible she would question it ever happening at all. And for about a second after that aura faded, she might noticed his eyes were giving off a bright golden glow. Then they would return to normal, and she would feel his body relax as if it, too, had returned to normal.

He would blink and look around a few times, with a rather confused look, then continue down the hallway as if nothing had happened. He happened to pass a janitor's closet on the way, and the door happened to be open with an older gentleman rummaging around inside. He paused for a moment and turned to the gentleman.

"Oh, excuse me, sir?" He said, the old man turning around and eying both him and Tara suspiciously. "Yes, sorry to interrupt, however I'm afraid I have consumed too much alcohol and have.. how you say... tossed my animals in the hall down there - he used his head to motion down the hallway. The man gave him an absolutely crazy glare. What in the world did "toss my animals" mean? Did he mean "tossed my cookies"? That was a typical slang phrase for throwing up, anyways. Saying that as if he were trying to act like a typical rowdy teenager sounded horribly out of place, however. Alistair bowed as best he could with Tara in his arms and continued walking down the hall, while the confused custodian walked out of the closet and stared at the two as they made their way down the hall.

—
Earlier...


Corona's eyes shot open and he gasped for breath. Which didn't make much sense, considering how he didn't actually breathe. What a strange reflex. But then his body suddenly stiffened and he felt a jolt of pain along its entirety. He fell to the ground from his sitting position and had a seizure-like moment, as it felt as if his own soul was being torn in two. He could only look upwards at the large tree he was under, and the blue sky above it, while his body convulsed in pain.

He was losing control of his body. It required so much energy that it was starving to death, and his soul was threatening to be ripped from it. The starvation had become so terrible that his mortal form lost consciousness, and his mind awakened in its Dreamworld. The Dreamworld was a small realm all by itself, comprised with a forest and mountains on the outskirts, a lake, and in the very center a hill with a large oak tree. This was where Corona found himself whenever he "slept". It was also where he found himself when his mortal body went unconscious. He still could hear, smell, and sense everything around his mortal form. But he couldn't interact with it. Was that voices he was hearing? It was difficult to tell.

The pain was horrendous. Usually, he could just break from the body and the pain would cease, he would be fine. But he could not let that happen now. Too much was at stake. He forced himself to stand, white feathers from his wings molting in the stress. He cried out loudly in prayer, which he made to sound like a song the best he could in his current state. He sung loudly for help, for assistance in his dire time of need. He had no other way to stop this situation. He needed Adonai's help, or that world would be doomed. He begged for Him to cease the pain and spare the world the hardship his mistake had caused.

And then it was done.

"Hm?" He looked down at her when she asked him if he was alright. "Of course I am, Tara. Should I not be?" Maybe he didn't remember what had just happened a few minutes ago? Of course he did, but he certainly didn't act like it. The hunger pains seemed to have ceased for now, but he had no idea why and for how long. His prayer seemed to have worked, but he wasn't sure if Adonai had just relieved the pain for if maybe he had nourished his body. It was possible that as soon as he completed his current task of bringing Tara to the nurse, that the starvation would come back in full force.

Indeed, Adonai had surely done this for the sake of His human children.

Calculating the strength of his hunger when he had "landed", subtracted by the amount of nourishment he received from Tara's food, and added to the amount of hunger he had gained in between that point of time and just a few moments ago when he nearly died, he was able to determine that he would need food about every three and a half hours before the hunger was at the point that it weakened him. By the time the fourth hour was up, he would likely pass out and be in danger of dying.

Three and a half hours... And that was a full course meal. Not some sandwich or snack. The average human needed three meals a day within the time frame of about 16 hours after accounting for 8 hours of sleep. This meant that the average human needed to eat once about every 5.33~ hours a day, again not counting the 8 hours of sleep. He figured his mortal form would require about 6 hours of sleep a night, for its brain connected to his mind would allow his sleep to be about three times more efficient than the human mind - but considering how it was suppressing a Divine being it would require more than that. He could probably get away without eating for those 6 hours, for the amount of energy his body required was greatly reduced during that period. By his calculations, he would need to eat 5.1428571 full course meals a day. Well, eating a partial meal didn't make much sense, so perhaps 5 full meals with some mild snacking in between! Going by the definition of "full course meal" he surely would require more than twice as much food as the average human. And that was just on a normal day where he didn't do anything. If he invoked any Mantras - which he was still not sure he could actually safely do - he would likely require more.

This was around the time that she poked him and corrected him. "Oh, I see. It would appear I had gotten my slang phrases mixed up.. likely with another language. Thank you for correcting me, Tara." He smiled. At this point they came to a fork in the road. He appeared confused as to where to go next.

Alistair gave her a strange look when she suddenly stopped in the middle of saying something, and while he knew that she was referring to the incident that had just occurred, he was glad when she let it go and he didn't have to lie - or even bend the truth a little - to her. It wasn't something he liked doing, and sometimes he would not do it at all - even to the cost of his own safety. But considering what was at stake, he really didn't have a choice in the matter.

"Oh... Uh." Good point. He clearly had erred in his explanation, and he really should have worded his sentence more specifically. What he had told her was true, though. After all, he knew practically every language in existence (barring a few... not-really-languages) and while they mostly all had slang phrases, sometimes the words were different or in different order. Sometimes he mixed them up. "Far from here, heh." He smiled. "Doubtful you ever heard of it." Well, she probably did.

He was afraid of more follow-up questions, so he thought of a way to get out of them. "Ah, thank you." He said when she pointed the direction out to him. If his memory served him correctly they were almost there. "Hopefully the nurse will be in, yes? If not, we'll have to find another way to make you feel better. Is there typically one on duty through the night?" He assumed there would be, especially in a place like this. Surely injuries were not uncommon. What kinds of abilities did people have? What kind of ability did she have? He didn't even know. Not that it made any difference. She, and every one else here, was irrelevant to his objective. Unless he screwed up. Then they became beyond relevant. They would become priority. He hoped not to see that come to pass.

Unknown to Tara, he had already come up with a way to break from her. If everything went according to plan, and there was an 88.9869% chance it would, she would never see him again.

It is of your own words that you never receive the proper items for your delegated tasks; but I ask you, my friend, have you tried asking?"

- Saint Corona Starfire

—

Well, that certainly was a giant wave of emotions out of nowhere. Considering how his sense of emotions was dulled while in a human form, she certainly made him feel a truckload of empathy. What in the world was wrong with her? It was like her mind was spiraling out of control. It was rare to see a sane person show such a vibrant display of emotion all at once, and it made him truly wonder what her characteristics were. Did this have something to do with her abilities? He wondered again if maybe she had the ability to do something he was just immune to, and maybe he couldn't tell she was doing it. Maybe it annoyed her. He had no idea, but she was suddenly feeling incredibly depressed.

He cried out when he noticed she was biting her thumb. "WOAH!" What are you doing!? Stop!" He stopped moving once they had reached the doorway but with both his hands carrying her he couldn't do anything to stop it. He considered shaking her or something along those lines but it could cause her to grit her teeth and hurt herself even more. "Knock it off! Why are you doing that!?" Immediately he had noticed the nurse had been absent. The door was closed and the room was dark. Well, he had brought her all the way here, time to find a bed.

"It looks like the nurse isn't here for now, but if we're here then I'll find a bed for you to rest on." The doors to the rooms and the offices were all closed though, and assumingly locked. Gosh dang it. Even he had to admit this was somewhat frustrating. It wasn't that he minded helping her - quite the contrary, in fact, he would absolutely love to do stuff like this for all of eternity - but every second that passed was one less second this world could exist for. But there certainly was a way - there was always a way. He just had to find it.

"It looks like everything is closed down for now." No students in the hospital wing right now? It would appear so, otherwise there certainly would be someone on duty. "What do you propose we do next?" He still hadn't gotten a chance to properly talk to her about that whole thumb-biting incident!

He didn't seem to have much to say about how the nurse would have handled her condition, he simply frowned. When she suggested being let down and squirmed he let her, but reluctantly. He made sure she could stand on her own well enough before completely letting her go. "Are you sure you are alright? Perhaps I should bring you to your room. I am not sure I am comfortable allowing you to walk on your own just yet." He considered asking about her condition, but decided against it not only because of their location but also because he decided that he really should try to distance himself as much as possible.

"I'm not so sure making me breakfast is a good idea, Tara. It is recommended you get some rest. It has become rather late (early?) as it is, and it is not good for your health to exert so much energy in such a state that your body is in. I will find nutrition of my own accord, you can live up to your promise another day, if you wish." He looked at her in the eyes with a sincere smile as he said this. He had hoped he would hit a weak spot with his sincere look and persuade her to do as he said. Many humans didn't realize just how important annunciation and body language was when trying to persuade others into doing things, but considering what he was, this simply came naturally to him.

But now was coming the hard part. His plan was to break away as soon as she fell asleep. Originally, he was hoping to persuade the nurse into convincing Tara that he had simply been a hallucination. Perhaps a side effect of one of the drugs. The story was that he and Tara had gone out on a date and, after seeing Tara suddenly take ill he decided that he wanted nothing to do with her and never planned on talking to her again. It was a rather common human male excuse, and he certainly could act the role if necessary. Surely he could convince the nurse that he just didn't want to hurt her as much as possible, and perhaps she would agree out of care for the girl.

But that was not an option now, he needed another way. He didn't want her to think that he had simply ran away from her, but he absolutely had to find a way to keep her away. It would spell absolute disaster later if he didn't.

He seemed rather concerned that she wouldn't be able to make it back to her room without being carried there. But for now, he would let her at least try to. He decided that she felt humiliated enough after what had happened, and that the least he could do was allow her the chance to get back some self-esteem. It was of his opinion - decided from the emotions that he sensed - that whatever illness she had caused her to be rather emotionally unstable. It was likely the medication she had to assist her with it didn't help much either.

"Lying? I am afraid I do not understand." He kept his eyes on her's the entirety of his time speaking. "What is it I could be lying about?" He was rather confused by her question, admittedly. Maybe she could read minds and she knew he was planning on leaving her as soon as she fell asleep! Of course, put that way, he certainly did sound like the bad guy, even if his intentions were purely good. "Is something wrong, Tara? Maybe we should see if we can find the nurse. I am sure they will come if it is an emergency."

He started to wonder if maybe she was just delirious. After what she had been through tonight it would not be surprising to him if she was just tired and not thinking straight. Perhaps it would be best to just bring her to her room and let her sleep. He could find and inform a nurse of her condition before leaving for the nearby city.

This was the thing he had been trying to avoid. He didn't want to hurt her feelings by leaving, but he simply had no choice in the matter. If he allowed her to get too close to him, he would become responsible for her until his mission saw its completion. And if his suspicion was true, that "it" really did lay in wait somewhere on this world, then the chances of her being harmed were rather high. Too high. He chose to not to respond to her at first, until she mentioned returning to her room on her own. At the very least, he would make sure she got into bed safely.

"At least allow me to return you to your room safe and sound, Tara. You almost look like you are about to fall over. Forgive me, but I do have my doubts about you walking all the way back alone safely." Of course, even if she didn't grant him permission, he would still walk her back. He would compromise not entering her room again, but that was about as far as he would go. This entire situation was still his fault, as far as he was concerned, and he wasn't for not taking responsibility for it. It isn't like he cared about how she viewed him anyways, and if she hated him for it then at the very least she would never have to deal with him again.

Not that he liked leaving people in such terrible moods. That was just terrible. But he had priorities, here.

She was an emotional mess. Even he could barely sift through her feelings properly. He wasn't sure if it was something he had done or said, or if it was a side effect of her condition. He knew that she didn't hear him though when he asked one final time if she was alright, and it made him unsure if he should really just let her leave like that. In his quick thinking, he used his foot to stop the door just before it closed. However, he was able to do so in a way that the metal from the door still hit the metal on the frame and caused a "click" noise, and it was his hope that she wouldn't notice it due to her exhaustion.

And a good thing he did, because she didn't even make it to her bed. Assuming she didn't notice him stop the door from closing all the way, he quietly made his way into her room as she fell to the floor. He took a rather long time to make it to her fallen body just to ensure that he was almost perfectly quiet. He wasn't going to let her just sleep on the floor like that. He silently prayed that she wouldn't awaken, for he didn't want to come off as some pervert or something. Slowly and quietly, he made it to her bed and unmade it, before making his way over to her.

Gently, slowly, and with great accuracy and control, he would pick her up and transfer her from the floor to bed. This entire process, from entering her room to putting her on the bed, took him nearly an hour. The amount of patience and precision he used to ensure that she would not awaken was absolutely incredible. When he had finally placed her onto the bed, he gently placed the blankets of her bed upon her and tucked her in. He gave her form a once-over, hoping in vain that he could tell what it was that made her so ill - knowing deep down that it was impossible in this set up - before silently wishing her goodnight and turning off the light (assuming she had turned it off earlier?). He could see in the dark well enough regardless, even if the light had been off the entire time.

Slowly and quietly - taking over 5 minutes - he made his way out of her room, silently closing the door behind him. He sighed as the hunger pains overwhelmed him and he nearly passed out again. He felt horrible for leaving Tara like that. But it was necessary. It had to be done. He also knew that he couldn't stay at the school like he had intended. It was too close to her. The last thing he wanted to do was simply ignore her. If he wasn't around any where she might think it was just a dream. If he were in his true form, he could have made it so that it had all seemed like a dream. But he wasn't, so he couldn't. He knew that the island had a good-sized city on it, and hopefully he could find a place to stay there.

But he really needed to find some food.... until it was too late...