~~Recap~~
"Ozzy, do not hurt them." Zory ordered far more firmly.
"Do not hurt him either." Vitale warned.
"Not planning to." Zory scoffed. "That'll be all you."
~~~~~~~~~
Nesterio could hear her, but not see her or them clearly. He couldn't bring himself to believe there was not some kind of threat in play. Never had Ozzy ever flown off the handle like he already had earlier. Never had he ever been so wound up over people occasionally swarming any members of the Nine Crowns either during meet and greets.
"I SAID BACK OFF!" Ozzy yelled but they were clearly too starstruck by Zory to care.
"Ozzy, they're not going to hurt me." Zory assured him yet again to no avail. "Mr. Scarface right there used to get this kind of attention himself too for other reasons. We can handle this just fine without you, okay? Go."
"They're merely paying their respects, Ozzy." Vitale added although he knew he wasting his breath.
"Respect demands backing off." Ozzy beseeched.
Some were rejoicing over either knowing or learning that she was still alive, boding the question of why they had been brought to believe she wasn't. Many were asking what she had returned to do, raising the question of when she had even left and why. Even more questions were growing regarding what she typically came to do or left to do either. Some were moved to tears, some balling happily rather than even just crying, many were laughing with child-like joy. Some were calling out in different languages, while others were using languages that some of the Nine Crowns could recognize easily but not interpret. They seemed to be rejoicing far more than anything else.
As Nesterio looked to Gia for any sign of what they could safely do regarding the various zelestial-types who were so helplessly drawn towards Zory, the lack of her having any idea what was really happening became clear. Her expression was hard and focused, she was still trying to figure this all out for herself right now too.
When his eyes found Tawney's topaz ones, she shook her head grimly. Whatever this was? It had only become absolute chaos the second Zory's marks appeared. As far as their high queen could manage to gauge on the empath level, this wasn't an effect she could nullify or reverse. Whatever they were all feeling was not being echoed by any of the active member of the Nova Alliance? It frankly didn't make any sense to her.
"Blaize?" Nesterio called sharply.
She was certain she had already missed every possible cue for her to run cross-interference like Vitale had asked her to but this was definitely the only moment Nesterio had sought her help to manage. The desperation shining in Nesterio's eyes was not something she had ever seen before either. She had even tried to siren some attention towards herself with no result just yet. The inward struggle amongst the others with feeling torn to focus on her rather than adding more empathic pressure on Nesterio to act was an uphill battle. He was an accomplished war hero turned an even more notorious doctor. He was cool as a cucumber under pretty much any circumstances. Whatever his connection to this woman was, it was well beyond whatever she did or didn't have with Ozzy.
"It's not siren nor tempest style pull either." She shook her head as well at first but offered a soothing nod and smile of encouragement. "If Vitale is certain any of us approaching will make it worse, we need to respect that… You know how he is better than anyone, Nero… Ozzy's comments weren't just in earnest at people who were involved with whatever we don't know about, he really doesn't trust us… Wherever Vitale just let Trixxie take off to was no mistake either."
Whatever she was not saying about why Vitale had looked to her earlier was far less important than wondering how she had managed to even notice Trixxie had left. Nesterio hadn't any awareness of her departure up until that point to begin with and his duty as her sworn protector falling by the wayside like that only made him feel even more at a a loss. He'd sworn every vow he knew how to as such and for what? She clearly was mixed up in who knows what for who knows how long too if she had the power to leave at will already like Zory had.
"Nero, I've got it, I promise!" Vitale called out above all of the mayhem before looking back to Zory. "Someone must be trying to make Ozzy go red on purpose, Mari."
"You think I don't already know that?!" She snapped in a fully unrestrained way at hearing something so redundant. "Why else would I let everyone think whatever it was they wanted to think about why I've been avoiding him?"
"She's been avoiding him?" Volo spat coldly. "Can't even imagine why after what we saw earlier."
Zory didn't even bother to give that jab at Ozzy a second thought. Volo probably couldn't even keep track of the dark rhetoric in his own mind that fed that only partially sarcastic remark. He would give anything to have ever felt his protective energy be reciprocated in ways this stranger had already won from Ozzy. The odds he was going to start giving either of them the benefit of the doubt any time soon was slim to none.
"Ozzy-? Easy." Vitale cooed gently.
"Don't touch her!" The real target in question warned as many outstretched hands began to do just that.
"Get him out of here, okay?" Zory told Vitale as she tried and failed to get a read on how long it would take for her now truly spiraling power to fully return to normal range. She was not a fan of threats to Ozzy any more than he was a fan of any threats to her. "Take him all the way off this grid until after I've started the next dance. Pin him until he really taps and vows he's calm whether he hurts himself trying to berserker his way out or not in the meantime… Do not ever dare to question my judgment about him again, General Vizarrio."
"I SAID DON'T TOUCH HER!" Ozzy popped off again when not even the ominous red glow that was radiating from him was enough to stop the frenzy.
I would have warded just about anyone off if it was just about anyone but Zory he was guarding. Her pull was far stronger than whatever range of repel going red should have naturally inspired their overzealous admirers to feel.
"Yeah, no." Vitale dismissed cheekily without registering the fact it had not been a request. He was being dismissed as well and he didn't like her questioning his judgment on what he knew he could still handle for a while longer either. "He has every right to be steamed right now, Mari, and I'm not leaving you in the middle of this all by yourself."
"First of all, I'm never truly alone." She shot back with an icy glare that sliced him clean through down to his core. "But second and more importantly? Cleaning up your messes has always been what I do best anyways… So go… Now."
Vitale didn't hesitate to do as he was then instructed at that point and the strange headlock he put Ozzy in didn't make a whole lot of sense to anyone either. Seeing their former head of training get put in a weird sort of bind they had never seen before by someone Ozzy was given credit for having trained himself made no sense whatsoever. When they disappeared and only Zory was left, something changed automatically. The crowd that was verging on becoming a true security nightmare then settled down by noteworthy degrees in just a disturbingly yet relieving scarce few number of seconds.
"Enough." She said softly.
With that one word, everyone within the circle Vitale created fell silent and knelt in submission.
"He had pull too then?" Volo whispered in dismay.
"Let's try this again, shall we…?" Zory scolded her new captives by gravity zoning, causing Nesterio to almost want to laugh at how very in control she now was over the situation. "First things first… Please don't ever make the mistake of crowding anyone you don't know like that again."
The fact that Vitale had left that line behind made Nesterio only more worried still. Blaize was anything but herself and her husband could tell, but the look he gave Nesterio said he was also far more worried about Zory. Pierce had never been quite the same about getting in the middle of anything he didn't have to in recent years. Once he had to watch Blaize crumble away under all of the added strain of things they had let themselves get dragged into historically, seeing how she was never the same again made him extremely cautious when it came to haywire situation like this.
How it was that most of the people now at her feet instead of Ozzy had even heard Zory so clearly over all the different commotion remained unclear. How it was that Tawney didn't sense any kind of telepathic pressure being asserted was even more unclear. Why Gia couldn't detect so much as a trace of hostility in Zory's demeanor despite the way they had just unapologetically swarmed her didn't add up either. Reacting to things like that with far more gusto was what repelling them would have entailed and the situation had warranted it.
How Zory had barely cast more than a small pebble at the swelling tides before the cascade of rushes had gone still and silent was in some ways more than just a little jarring. If this wasn't mind control, whatever it was could prove to be even more problematic at the wrong sorts of times.
"We didn't mean to scare the young miss, M'lady." A frail and elderly man seemed to bid for mercy.
"But you did nevertheless." Zory replied calmly, but coldly. "If you're going to apologize to me for anything it should be the effect your lack of restraint had on the Ozzball.'
"Is Vozylyzy a supernova too?" Someone asked in earnest confusion to which Zory scoffed.
"Nope." She dismissed with renewed irritation. "But his attitude about this sort of thing is just super, isn't it?"