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**** Vincent ****

The holoscreen the Kid had spun up on the plane had been very beneficial, they had an actual plan of action before hitting the ground running. They'd not have known to check the warehouse out. Vin was glad he didn't get stuck with the little song as his back up, she was good in a fight, he was sure of that but he didn't like the idea of only a monster at his back. Even though he thought of himself as a monster at times too. Such was life, everyone had their limits.

Dorian sitting next to him on the landing had been rough, but it probably would have been rougher if the kid hadn't gotten it together. Vin found it odd that the kid didn't know how to do what D walked him through. Aria had tried to teach him and had failed, it made sense too once Dorian explained it to her. He used it everyday, a life saving mechanism. He'd noticed that she didn't walk around completely in that emotionless state as she had when she was younger. So clearly her control was better, but he still didn't want her at his back being the only one there. He'd much rather have Red anyway.

When the plane halted Aria insured Nox stayed sitting, and the stewardess were jostled out of the way when Vin got out of the plane. He shook his body like he'd exerted himself but it was just releasing the tension of the place. Not everything had been to his liking though it could have been worse.

Red was the first one off after him. She pulled those fancy sunglasses down over her eyes as she stepped out of the doorway to the plane. She walked over to him, "So hotel, then to our side of town?"

Vin nodded, "Sure thing Red, but I need a smoke now." He pulled out his pack and lit a smoke and pulled on it, it had been too long. He blew a puff of smoke into the wind and it carried over to Red. She glared at him, it was an accident really, "Oh where you standing there?" But he couldn't let her know that.

The little song was next followed by the kid, some color had returned to his face and hands. Dorian was following behind him, putting a cold beer over the kid's shoulder. Vin laughed to himself, "D's got it bad."

Red turned to see what he was looking at. "He's just being a good leader, he is just a kid afterall. Probably no where near any of our experience."

Vin shook his head, "You don't know D as well as I do Red. He's got it bad for the kid."

Red shook her head, "If you say so, as long as it doesn't affect the hunt, I don't care what Dorian does in his spare time, or who for that matter."

Vin couldn't help but laugh, "Oh you'll care. You're one of those types, Cool so long as you don't see them holding hands or god forbid kissing."

Red frowned, "And you are so enlightened?" She laughed.

"Sweetheart, D and I've been friends along time. I've seen him with a grand told of one man that was worth any thing. And that man used Dorian. D never recovered. He was completely gone for that guy, and when he left with a bunch of things Dorian could care less about he was pretty upset. So seeing him like this, it's a good thing. D might losen up a bit. Kid actually has that going for him. He says 'look at me' just by being in the room. Not a hunter I know that does that." Vin laughed, "It's usually get out of my way, or where is the monster. But never, 'I'm here.'"

How the kid missed it was beyond him, it was obvious, even Aria knew, she saw, felt it probably too. He couldn't be that clueless.

**** Aria ****

Dorian walked Nox through the ritual she preformed nearly daily at the drop of a hate. He'd been right, she'd rushed him through it. She could see the calming affect it had on Nox and felt horrible about her rush. She would have to do better next time. This would help immensely in their overall goal. Nox could easily surpass her if he could use the technique.

Everyone got off the plane, Nox was looking a million times better as Dorian handed him a beer over his shoulder. Nox grinned and took the beer with a thanks called back at him. Aria rolled her eyes, he was milking it now. He was enjoying Dorian's attention, even if he had no clue what it meant, and from what she could tell he didn't have any clue. If he did he was hiding it from her, and that alone could speak volumes. She'd have to ask him at a later date.

There were several cars waiting their arrival as they strode towards their luggage. Dorian had big black SUVs ready for all their gear in one, and them in another. Dorian of course didn't drive. Aria wondered if he eve knew how, but he sat in the passenger seat in front even after Vin had loudly called shot gun. The look Dorian gave him made Nox laugh, "Boss man says no. He veto'd that."

Vin had laughed, "I didn't want it anyway, I just wanted to see what he'd do. He's thrown things at me before. D gets car sick in the back. He even rides in front in his Daddy's limo, pisses his father off to no end."

Antoinette laughed, "That would be a sight. Emilio Vega hissing at Dorian for improper editquite. Actually that sounds pretty normal from what I hear."

Dorian didn't say anything, he just climbed into the seat and shut the door. Vin took seat in the very back, Antoinette in the second row, which split up her and Nox. Nox sat in the front, though he'd probably have been more comfortable in the back. Aria smiled, he may not realize it, but he was falling into the trap. Vin leaned over, "You see it too?"

Aria smiled and whispered, "Dangling some pretty impressive bait."

Vin jabbed Aria in the side with his elbow, "Ouch."

He laughed, "Baited Hook, taking the bait, care to wager on the outcome?"

Aria turned and looked at him. He was deadly serious. "Not the outcome. That's pretty obvious."

Vin asked in a quiet whisper, "You think?"

Aria nodded, "He needs this."

Aria could see Vin raise an eyebrow out of the corner of her eye, "Who?"

Aria smiled, "They both do."

Dorian cleared his throat from the front seat, "If the two in the back will listen I'd like to go over the game plan again."

Nox turned around and put a finger to his lips and hissed, "Shhhhh!"

Aria laughed to herself, Aria heard Dorian chuckle up front, "And the class clown has to make his presense known." Nox's smile brightened, he really did enjoy being noticed that he was trying to steal the attention, it was part of what drove his sister mad.

They went over the plan again. Nothing really had changed from the events on the plan. But with Nox actually able to have a full conversation, he was able to elaborate on the land warriors they had in their stash. It helped that Aria had worked with ex-military supply guy. She was able to get some through him instead of the usual routes. These were top of the line black market specials. And Aria didn't want to know where they came from. Neither did the Atharim.

**** Antoinette ****

Dorian informed them as they pulled up to the hotel, it wasn't a five star like she had been expecting, but it was at minimum 4 stars and they had the most expensive suite in the joint. Because Dorian claimed it was better the five of them be close, so the room had a shared common room with four bedrooms off the side. Dorian hadn't worked out sleeping arangements, which sent Aria and of all people Vin into a fit of giggles and whispered conversation. However it was Nox who fixed the arrangment issue, "Aria and I can share a room, not that big of deal we do it all the time."

Vin looked at Aria with look that said he didn't beleive a word she said. She grinned at him, "It's not like that."

Vin nodded, "Sure. Like hell."

Antoinette was surprised to see Nox waiting impatiently just outside the car door. Aria moved past him but then she moved, she wasn't quick enough. The moment Vin stepped out of the SUV Nox had him up against the black vehicle with his hand pressing at his throat. "I have not slept with Aria. I will not walk on the toes of other men, nor do I think I will ever have that privledge because of my own damned problems with it. So I would kindly like you to stop impying otherwise."

Antoinette looked at Aria who was stopped by a single hand on her arm by Dorian. He was whispering to her, Antoinette couldn't figure out what it was. He saw her looking at him and smiled before he looked towards the two men. Vin was in tears near laughing, and Nox's face was scrunched up in anger. Vin could hardly speak for his laughter, "Your own damned problems? What you gay?"

Everything happened so fast, Aria pulled free of Dorian and caught the punch that was clearly going to land in Vin's face. Nox didn't looked stunned, they looked like this had happened before. Nox was no longer looking at Vin, but at Aria as she pushed the tall lanky kid away from Vin. Aria spoke in that deadly cold voice of emptiness she used, "Nox will likely have to kill me one day. Sleeping together, having more than what we already share will make that difficult." She turned her self around and looked at Vin with a look tha she meant it. "Lay the fuck off him."

Vin stood up and straightened his collar with a grim grin. "Whatever you say little song. Kid ain't worth it anyway. And for whatever it's worth, sounds like a shit friendship you two have."

Nox took a step forward but he didn't push past Aria. Antoinette followed Vin, Dorian stayed with the other two, Antoinette was pretty sure that he was trying to assess the situation between the two so-called friends. Vin was right, knowing you might have to kill a friend was not a good thing to feel. And rather shitty thing to ask of a friend if you asked her.

Inside Antoinette was surprised by all the white and gold, they were going to get this place dirty, living on the road you became accustomed to crap motels and sleeping on the ground, but not Dorian. She wondered if he was this soft always, or if he was just playing it up for his new team. She rarely hunted with him, but she'd heard rumors. And Vin clearly looked at home as he checked in under Dorian's name, well rather his father's name. Antoinette began to wonder why Vin even cared about Dorian, it's not like they were even at all alike. Men were confusing, always had been, probably why she was still single.

Vin handed Antoinette a key and she graciously accepted the key card and followed him to the elevator. Antoinette laughed, "He's a hot head."

Vin grinned, "I goaded him into it I wanted to see what shit he'd take. He's in a bad mood today. I barely got a rise out of him yesterday. Flying must really be bad."

Antoinette shook his head, "Why do you care?"

Vin looked at her with a frown, "Why don't you? We have to work with him. Get to know him a little better, same with the little song. Dorian probably could use a good second of your time too. We are here to hunt gods, but if it works you might find you are working with them even more. This high and mighty act might have worked before, but we need to work as a team, and you aren't being very team like. I needed to know how far to push Nox before he broke, so I don't do it when it counts. I'd hate to break him and have him at me when it mattered most. Or worse yet, he doesn't save my arse because I've been a dick too much. I guarantee you, when he's in the room, it'll be like nothing ever happened. He and Aria will have it out under Dorian's watchful eye, just like he and I did. But I think that she was more worried about me than what I could to do Nox. They are hiding something."

Antoinette sighed. "Whatever. I'll need a drink after this is all said and done, probably several."

Vin laughed, "We all might."

**** Nox ****

Nox had expected Aria's intervention, it was slightly more delayed than it usually would have been, he counted on her to temper his own temper as much as she counted on him to do the same. He glared at her as Vin left. It wasn't worth it was right, but he was tired of the implication that he and Aria were more than friends.

Nox could feel Dorian's eyes on them as he glared at Aria. She never said anything to him just stood there devoid of emotion ready for a fight if he chose to give her one. Her hand held his fist with little effort, she'd taken the brunt of the blow and he probably bruised her palm with his knuckles but she didn't seem to be complaining. She didn't seem to be angry at him either.

Dorian stepped up behind him his hand on his shoulder before Nox shook them both off and walked towards the back of the van to help get things out. It was the doorman's job and the bellhops and all that rich and fancy things that they were about to embark on but Nox had to do something other than glare at Aria for stopping him from doing something stupid. He was more pissed at himself than at her anyway.

The bags in the back weren't heavy, though he was surprised to see Vin had so many things with him, each weapon individually cased with their own slings, he was even more anal than Aria was. He grinned, his normal good humor returning. He listened while he and Dorian spoke, he had to grab the power to overhear their hushed conversation.

Dorian asked, "Is he okay?"

Aria answered simply, "It's been a trying few days to say the least. Too many plane rides and he's just not feeling himself, not a good combination."

Dorian frowned, "If we didn't fly anymore would he calm down? We can't have him going off half cocked like this."

"I don't know. Probably ease the panic attacks. Don't know about the rest of it." Nox saw Aria smile and wondered what was passing through her head. "I'm sure he'll snap out of it sooner or later, a hunt always picks up his mood."

Dorian laughed, "Don't we all. We live to hunt."

Aria nodded and moved towards him in the back, "You okay?"

Nox nodded, "Yeah, so maybe we won't fly again on this trip. That should be fun, locked in a car with Antoinette spewing hate at you. Not sure that's much better."

Aria grinned, "You shouldn't have been able to hear that ya know." She picked up her bag and headed for the doors. Nox sighed and followed suit, Dorian was already inside and standing at the eleveators holding the doors for them. He had two extra key cards he handed to them.

The three of them went up the elevator all the way to the top floor, the elevator opened into a hallway almost nicer than the lobby had been, apparently the clientel that stayed up here was better than the normal folks down below. Nox shook his head, he had to comment, "And then five hunters in their dirt covered shoes, and the blood covered weapons come sauntering into the white walls of luxury. Yeah we aren't going to stand out here. Dorian, you spoil us, but make us look very bad in the process." Here he was in jeans and a t-shirt under his black leather jacket. Yeah he fit in real well in this joint. A pair of men in buisness suits proved his point exactly as they looked him and Aria up and down with a sneer and a look of disgust as they skirted the wall as they walked past. Nox laughed. "See?"

Dorian opened the door to their suite, it was as luxurious as the hallway, except better. The floor was a very tasteful red and gold, in fact those were really the only two colors in the entire common area. The couch was red and gold, the tables were a dark brown that matched rather well with the rusty colored red. Aurora would have liked the place. It reminded him of the suites in the casinos his dad would stay in on rare occassion when they had a night out for just the two of them.

Vin and Antoinette had already chosen their rooms and were patiently waiting their gear to show up. Aria was the only one with anything, her entire life as it were was in that one bag, it still made him sad.

Vin looked at him and Nox grinned, he felt bad, but hopefully it would set things straight between them. Vin laughed, "See, Red, told you he was all sparks no real heat, nothing but show. Like a Sparkler." Vin's smile grew wide as he nodded to himself. "Sparkler, it is."

Nox groaned audibly. "Well I did ask you not to call me Kid." Aria giggled under her breath and gave him a very knowing look. What they didn't know made it all the more funny. Granted he was a little more dangerous than a sparkler.

**** Dorian ****

Dorian thought it was funny to see Aria and Vin whispering like school children. He wondered what they were talking about. Those two were not exactly people he expected to be gossipping, they were the least two likely people to do that in his eyes. So very stoic in most cases, maybe he hadn't read her right, she was friends with Nox.

He had expected the altercation between the two other men. It was bound to happen, he had stopped Aria and whispered to her, "Let them deal with it." It stayed her hand only long enough for Nox begin a punch that she intercepted like it was something she did on a day to day basis. It was interesting watching them play through the emotions they were both wrestling with. But it ended with Nox walking away to his surprise.

Dorian wasn't surprised by the suite, and he had to chuckle at Nox's assessment of things, perhaps he should tone it down just a little. If they didn't fly back to Moscow, they'd end up in whatever cheap place they could find along the way or they'd be sleeping on the cold hard ground, neither of which appealed to Dorian at all. He'd have to wait and see how this event played out.

Their gear arrived and everyone set to work sorting through what was needed. Nox pulled out three land warriors and handed two to Antoinette and Vin. He guided them through the basic operations of it. Vin couldn't stop throwing out the new nickname he'd made for Nox, his temper seemed to be the backbone to Vin's harrassment. He would find something that spoke a lot about Nox as a person, he was a lot of show, he had a temper and from what he saw of their home he also had a flare for playing with fire and the lingering smell on Nox's clothes. Dorian's thoughts drifted to more primal curiousities and he had to excuse himself to straighten things out, in all manners of the term.

His room was pretty standard as far as he was concerned, a large private bathroom off to one side, with plenty of space in the armoiure. Dorian ran his fingers over the up turned sheets and smiled with satisfaction. Egyptian cotton, almost better than silk sheets. Almost.

When he returned Vin and Antoinette were wearing the googles and learning to manipulate them. Nox was a pretty good instructor, even though Vin continued to call him Sparkler which Nox seemed to pretty good natured about. Their little confrontation didn't seem to hamper them working together.

Aria sat back and set up the laptop for collecting data. They all seemed to pull things together rather well, he was impressed. Aria looked up with a smile and held out the third pair of land warriors. "Here, you can play along with Nox."

Dorian smiled at her and took the pair of goggles from her and joined the others. Nox smiled, "Let me get boss up to speed. Play around with the settings, get them where you like them."

Nox turned his attention to Dorian. He took the googles from him and put them on the handed Dorian back them. He raised his eyebrow at the other man in question. Nox grinned with an answer, "Just seeing where they are at so I can tell you what to do."

And much like Dorian had helped Nox on the plane, Nox proceeded to tell him how to operate the land warriors. However Dorian was not a quick study. After 10 minutes of struggling Vin laughed, "You would think that the son of a tech mogule would be able to follow simple instructions."

Nox put his hand on Dorian's shoulder and Dorian couldn't help but feel a a stir deep down. "That's okay, man, let me get them going so they can head out, then I can show you how to use them without impatient mooks getting in the way." He gave Vin a mock glare.

Nox sat down on the arm of the couch and started rattling off a few more things for Vin and Antoinette, on cue Aria turned around the laptop and showed the feeds each pair of goggles were sending the machine. She pointed out a few things that as Nox spoke, vitals and other statistics.

Dorian sat down next to Nox and listened and tried to absorb what he was saying but he really could not care but he enjoyed listening to him speak. He couldn't place the American accent. It was pretty non-comittal if you asked him, like he was from everywhere and no where.

Ten minutes later Antoinette and Vin were out the door in their gear, the goggles darkened down to look like sunglasses, and they were taking one of the SUVs to the residence of the goddess they were hunting.

Nox leaned back against the back of the couch still on the arm of the chair and started toying with the dials on the side of the land warriors. His left arm reaching around the back side of Dorian's head. He asked, "Can you see it better?"

Dorian opened his eyes, he hadn't realized he had closed them when Nox's arm wrapped around his head. He actually could see things a little better, "Don't tell me that's what's been wrong."

Nox grinned, "Yeah, part of it." Nox started again, a little more slowly with a bit more instructions, and a lot more hand gestures, like he could see what Dorian could. He didn't treat him like a child, nor talk down to him, he just spoke on a level he could understand. It was refreshing.

It wasn't long before Dorian finally understood what he needed to so they too could get on their way. Dorian hadn't seen when Aria left, but she'd put all the luggage in their respective rooms and had her and Nox's things ready. He hadn't realized Aria had left them alone.

Dorian finalized his own gear and they started towards the warehouse in the second SUV. It was going to be an adventure.