Baby's black balloon makes her fly
I almost fell into that hole in your life
And you're not thinking about tomorrow
Cause you were the same as me
But on your knees

Jason leaned against the door of the car as Franz drove, thoughts of the chaos and disaster receeding days and miles behind them still plaguing him. In an effort to push tiresome thoughts out of his head, he murmured to Franz, "This Manchester place we're going. Who owns it?"

Franz piped up, "I told you Herr, it ist my own Sire, Fursa. Ze town is very quiet and safe. Sometink we need, ya?"

Jason hrmed under his breath, "Yeah...guess so. No offense, but she isnt some crotchety Ancient that is going to be all disapproving, is she? The last thing I wanna hear is the word 'Neonate' spoken like it was being spit at me...Ill go postal, I swear"

Franz smiled and shook his head, "No, no, Herr, she isnt like dat at all. Besides, I haf put in a good word for you, hmm? She is interested to meet you.."

Jason only murmured, "That could be bad or good. No offense Franz, but some members of your clan weird me out bad with the animal stuff. Well, given the choices, and the fact you are driving, I guess Im going to go meet her, hmm?"

A thousand other boys could never reach you
How could i have been the one
I saw the world spin beneath you
And scatter like ice from the spoon
That was your womb

Fursa leaned over, dropping the last stripe into a side pocket with a THUNK, before rounding the table towards him. Jason noted her approach and smirked, snapping his fingers, "Damn, guess you want that $5 now...". Her only comment was to lean in and whisper, "I'm probably too old for you anyway...", then turned back to finish off the 8-ball without even a pause. A small chuckle escaped his lips, followed by, "Older women know what they want..."

Coming down the world turned over
And angels fall without you there
And I go on as you get colder
Or are you someone's prayer

Magnus sat back to regard Fursa for a moment. He could feel something very different about her now-this was not the same woman who feel into despair and torpor a little more than half a century ago. He had a strong feeling that the young Brujah sitting at his table had a lot to do with that. Perhaps Odin had been listening to so many silent requests after all...of course certain other members of the family were going to be doing their damndest to keep that little Brujah on his toes. Honor demanded it.

You know the lies they always told you
And the love you never knew
What's the things they never showed you
That swallowed light from the sun
Inside your room

The Salubri looked at the thrashing kindred with great annoyance "You left her there?! For how long?" Arkien was flatly stunned by the scene and it troubled him deeply that it was someone to whom he owed his existence. Fursa had saved him from the Tremere in the previous century. When Magnus came to him with the news, he had dropped everything to follow the devoted childe here.

"23 days." was all Magnus said. Getting chewed out by a Salubri was not a pleasant proposition, but he accepted it silently.

"Why didn't you just stake her?" Arkien quipped in a cruelly sarcastic voice as he stepped over and began to focus himself on what to do about her. He brushed over her surface thoughts wordlessly and cringed. Her agony was more profound than he had seen in 3 centuries of life.

Magnus looked sternly chastened by such words from a Salubri and said in a shocked voice, "Staking her would have been cruel...." Fursa's howls were getting to him, no doubt of it. "Please, Arkien...this is too much for me...."

"Of course, Magnus." Arkien said as he reached out to touch the thrashing body. He knew Magnus was totally devoted to helping the woman in whatever way he could, even if his methods had the feel of inane cruelty. Even for a man posessed of such violent religious tendencies, the Gangrel was humane. The healer silently chastened himself for being so hard on the huge man. "We'll see what we can do for her." he was confident, thought he realized that Fursa was very broken in the mind. Concentrating his unique discipline on the matter at hand, he focussed his considerable will before touching his bare hand to her bare leg.

The howls stopped and the body went totally limp. Magnus gasped.

"Get her down from there." Arkien ordered solemnly as he looked on. "Let's get her to somewhere more pleasant."

Coming down the world turned over
And angels fall without you there
And I go on as you grow colder
And there's no time left for losing
When you stand they fall

Jason stepped forward, now standing on the crate that the idiot shooting at him had been hiding behind. His shotgun, long since misfired, had been discovered to make an excellent makeshift club, and it was being swung with determined abandon by the Brujah. Harvey could be heard somewhere in the distance behind calling various aspects of Jason's lineage into question with surprising creativity, but that was something that could wait.

Two more slugs tore into his jacket, neither doing much appreciable damage, but it was starting to add up. The object of Jason's attention finally went down with a sickening crunch to the head, leaving him enough time to turn to face the second shooter, only to see the machine pistol had been abandoned, replaced by a wicked looking machete that was aiming for his neck. A white hot sheet of pain separated his mind from his consciousness as he felt his shoulder chopped in half. The last image that passed before his eyes before blackness replaced the pain was the look of surprise on the man's face as Cameron stepped forward and separated his head from his shoulders. Cameron?

Maybe he could have used some help after all...

Coming down the world turned over
And angels fall without you there
And I go on as you grow colder
All because I'm...

"And I wanted to see if you were willing to swear the Bonding Oath to me and if you had the balls to swear it in front of Him." And the truth of it was that she wanted to also see if she did too.

Nodding, taken somewhat aback by the declaration, hackles involuntarily rising at the challenge, he then stilled himself and considered what she was saying. He had been certain that she loved him in some way, but she was not usually not very demonstrative. Either way, an open statement was a little out of character for her, even if he had pursued it. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the lack of mention of her previous lover preyed on his thoughts, but he couldn't put a finger on why. Either way, he realized the seriousness of what she was saying and drew a careful breath before asking with a certain solemness "What do I do?" It seemed to him that she had spent a long time considering everything, and that she had just proposed to him.

She watched him for a long moment before picking something off her hand again. As her eyes rose back up to meet his, she said rather simply, "Swear the oath to me, in front of Him," she gestured up and around "and the Nine Worlds."

Coming down the years turn over
And angels fall without you there
And I'll go on to bring you home
All because I'm
All because I'm...

He sat crosslegged on the floor a few feet away and watched her on the couch, waiting for her to wake and hoping to hell he hadnt screwed the ritual Thora had sent him. A Brujah playing Tremere for an evening? Slade would be having kittens right about now about how the Idealists had no hope of continuing now, and Molotov would probably offer to put him out of his misery at going against his own nature.

But then, that was it, wasnt it. This wasnt a relationship of childe and sire, or regent and thrall. She had become important enough that he was willing to, hell HAD, gone completely against his nature for her, and despite her constant affirmations that she was too old to be affected by typical clan bloodlines, he knew her choice in him was not the popular thing with family, and he saw how important family was to her, Magnus and the rest. It wasnt blind devotion, it was a matter that she was so important that it had to be done.

And as her eyes finally moved, and her body stirred, he finally realized. She already knew, and had been waiting this long for him to figure it out for himself...

And I'll become
What you became to me...