Azure Talon

After all; I am Azure Talon, the Princess of Uminari Academy, and I will do whatever I have to and duel whoever I must to protect my school!!

### Epithets

The Cursed Avenger (temporary) The Voice of Pain

Azure is one of the main protagonists of the Seaside series, especially the Rumble Seasons - by the end was essentially the main protagonist. In Seaside Rumble, she was a first year student to begin with, in the Yellow dorm. By Season 2 she got a very rare mid-year promotion into the Blue Dorm, in part for her grades and in part for winning a very public exhibition match against Suenami Midori.

## Personality

Azure is a generally cheerful person, though she's quick to rush to her friends aid in danger. Something of an adrenaline junky, she found many of the events of Seaside swirling around her, mostly because unless Yamato Nao held her back she was generally rushing into the dangers the protagonists faced. In a duel, she was referred to as 'fierce' and 'ruthless'.

## Biography

### Backstory

Azure grew up in a happily middle class household in the United States, her parents being a school teacher and ER Nurse respectively. This left her and her brother, Griffin Talon home alone a lot. She was unusually competent in her game of choice, though Griffin continued to be her main opponent. At one point, she dated Kendar Rdan, but had a messy breakup with him due to him routinely losing in Duel Monsters against her; causing him to break up with her because he didn't want to lose face amongst his friends for constantly "losing to a girl". This gave Azure a lot of self worth problems that plagued her throughout the beginning of the series.

### Seaside Rumble 1

Azure began the school year in the Yellow Dorm, with lots of hopes and dreams of making it big as a duelist. The start to her career didn't exactly go as planned, as she rode a 4 game losing streak right out of the gate with her dad's old Galaxy-Eyes deck from his days as a duelist. After a meeting with a mysterious fisherman who just called himself "J" who lived at Uminari, she found her way back to her childhood deck; her Magnet Warriors she had brought with her. After upgrading the deck quite a few times, she quickly turned into a powerhouse of the Yellow Dorm. Her roommate, Suenami Ryuko was an odd person, but odder still was her accidentally seeing Ryuko's phone at one point, and its mention of a strange card type called "Pendulums", and a request to tell her if Azure saw one.

Things started getting strange when one of the red duelists, Tabooru, discovered a copy of Gandora printed by a company besides Industrial Illusions; a company called "RD". This Gandora could cause actual physical damage, and that caused Tabooru to investigate RD... or so he thought, since he couldn't remember the trip. A couple nights later, several students including Azure raided the RD warehouse at night, only to encounter a White student named Monochrome. A fellow yellow, Wallace was the one to duel Monochrome, and Wallace likely ended up a bit traumatized by the words "I chain." following Monochrome's PSYFrame deck. Having been defeated, the group left the warehouse, not having found anything other than Monochrome there.

Her first personal experience with the unusualness of the school year occurred with a duel outside the Red Dorm with the first person she had dueled at the Academy, Takahara Akahito. Unknown to her, he had been "gifted" with Pendulum cards by Loptr, giving him the ability to cause physical damage with his cards. She found that out first hand however, when an alpha strike by Akahito took out all but a few hundred of her Life Points in a duel, and the physical backlash of the attack knocking her off her feet. She landed badly, her body landing on top of her duel disk in such a way she broke a couple ribs. Regardless, she managed to get back up and make a comeback in the next turn, defeating Akahito (and causing him to run off being pursued by other students) and retreating herself to the infirmary, though on the way there Akahito dueled a blue named Mezah as well, and escaped right before ViiBaCi appeared demanding to know the identity of Akahito, and seeming to know about the Pendulums.

Before she could get a hold of Ryuko again, she got a message of Vii dueling against Akahito, after having just shot up Kerath with his Pendulum fueled deck. She was slow getting there, due to the broken ribs, but arrived just before Vii lost, getting sucked into a void upon losing to Akahito, showing her further that some kind of weird magic was in play in the Academy.

She first met Charlotte Desirae Lord the next day during the practical exams, handily defeating the small headmaster, though her score wasn't as high as it could have been, as Lord pointed out to her to "remember for your future exams that winning is not everything. Your goal is to demonstrate your abilities, beyond just that of how much you can attack someone." - This being similar to some of the lectures she had been giving Akahito about not hurting people with his Pendulums, this did hit home with her. Shortly after, she did finally encounter Ryuko again, and found that Ryuko already knew about the Ba'al; a term she had only heard of from Vii, and that the Pendulums were the "weapons of the Ba'al". Having decided on a course of action, Azure, along with Akahito, Lance, Wallace, and Tabooru went back to the RD warehouse again to try to find any more information on the Ba'al or their Pendulums. What Azure encountered instead was her first meeting with the High Ba'al, XaaCi, and the unfortunate side effect that High Ba'al tended to shut off phones in their general vicinity. Given that Akahito was well under the Ba'al's influence at this point, a tag duel began; XaaCi and Akahito versus Azure and Wallace (that is, after XaaCi had taken a sucker punch at Azure's broken rib). Azure and Wallace came out victorious, though XaaCi was taunting Azure about her dueling. "But I will congratulate you, Azure Talon; you played viciously and mercilessly to reach your goal. That's how living things should be." As a result of the duel where the "table was set" to Loptr, Akahito was "Devoured", vanishing like he was eaten by nothing in front of them. The only thing more surprising to Azure than that was that Akahito appeared the next day before them in the arena, without any memory of the last couple of weeks.

Vii appeared before the group again, now inhabiting Ryuko's body, and told the group about Loptr so they could actually understand what it was that happened to Akahito, though she learned before long that Ryuko wasn't exactly possessed by Vii - they were willingly sharing the body, so that Vii could exist in this plane. In order to centralize their group to try to mount a resistance against the Ba'al encroachment, Azure and the others formed a group; the Seaside Raiders. Thanks to Casimir, a third year and in the White Dorm now, they were able to claim an unused classroom, officially for a tutoring group, but really it was the Raiders' headquarters to plan or gather information about the Ba'al threat. At this point, Azure began earnestly trying to focus her deck and her skill - embracing that her dueling style was "fierce" and "reckless" to try to get strong enough to save the world. Of course, that's put to the test when the new Raiders have a visitor in their Room - Loptr herself appeared, partly thanks to Tabooru's presence (since Loptr had gotten a bite out of his soul once before). Azure stepped up to duel Loptr, eventually defeating the Devourer's Dinomists with Valkyrion the Magna Warrior - though Loptr had further confused Azure, calling her "Seed of the Dying World", as well as informing her she was favored by XaaCi (which Azure also didn't appreciate the knowledge of). After winning, they were gifted with a glimpse of Loptr's true form, before being returned to reality.

Their next encounter with the Ba'al was Azure and Akahito being tricked into attempting to rescue someone who turned out to be a puppet of another High Ba'al - SaaZe, the Betrayer, in the body of a talent acquisition company CEO linked to RD called Reimei Corp. They expected the trap, but went into it nonetheless; and in the end, Azure and Akahito prevailed in a tag duel, but once more XaaCi was off the hook for paying the price of losing, given that SaaZe was able to essentially feed Loptr eternally using her Definition as "Propagation" - SaaZe was an eternal, if unfilling, food for the Devourer. Additionally, two employees of the corporation were turned into Leftovers by Loptr, and "gifted" to Azure and Akahito; Soulless puppets who would only do as ordered.

Their next plan was to take down Monochrome, "The Corruptor" - to do this, they had to find bait for Monochrome to feed off the "twisted desires of" - and per Ryuko, the best target of this was Lord, who as she put it "runs this school entirely because she wants to sleep with as many cute schoolgirls as possible" (which Azure had also not realized during their previous meeting). Azure, who was starting to crave the danger involved in interfering with the Ba'al was more than willing to be the bait. She met Nao and Aoi the first time while plotting this plan, getting some "tips" from the princegirl Nao on how to try to charm her way to Lord, as embarrassing as the entire situation was for her. Finally, they moved to spring the trap - Aoi escorting Azure to Lord's office, with Ryuko/Vii waiting outside. After Mist gently prodded the situation and Azure using as much loaded language as possible, she went with Aoi and Lord to Lord's bedroom, where as they hoped Monochrome was waiting. What they didn't expect was Ryuko transporting herself into the room using Vii's power, crushing the White Duelist/Lesser Ba'al, and then literally choking Monochrome to death before Azure's horrified eyes. As she left Lord's office though, leaving the main building with Akahito and Jack, Loptr appeared before them in yet another borrowed body. And this time, she left a "gift" to Azure for all of Azure's hard work, by shifting roughly half of Azure's deck into Pendulum cards before vanishing.

She thought she was okay, at first, until a voice started talking to her in her head the next day while she talked with Akahito. A quiet voice that whispered sweet violence in her thoughts, her own voice. She revealed the Majespecters to the raiders, with a plea to let her know if she was acting any differently than normal; because she might not realize it herself, after seeing what Pendulums did to Akahito, Saitei, and Rei. She learned later that same day that Lord had put a travel restriction on her leaving the island, due to the potential threat of her Pendulum cards.

She tested them the first time later that night against Jack. Her Majespecter monsters did, as she expected, cause physical damage; but not her other cards, as she won the duel with a top decked Rank-Up-Magic - The Seventh One, summoning an ace from her other deck - Number C107. The voice in her head was disappointed, wanting more pain to be dealt to her opponent, but she ignored it; though she quickly discovered that as the voice whispered "hunger" into her mind as well, that food was less satisfying for her. Everything about the Yellow Dorm was, really... as was dueling without using her Pendulum cards.

She staved off the impulse to use them, until one day while being pestered out on the beach, she was offered of all things an exorcism by a Red Duelist she barely knew, Celeste. This meeting... did not go well for Celeste. An attack from Azure's Utopia, punctuated by her mocking "Where's your God now, Celeste?" that ended that duel cut clean through her jacket; thankfully, Celeste was turned, but "Somehow the attack wasn't too deep, looks like the same kind of injury you can get with a kitchen knife. Except, you know, that it crossed from right shoulder to left hip across her back." Azure froze upon seeing blood stain the sand of the beach, and fled. Thankfully for her, Akahito found her before she followed through on her impulse to throw herself into the ocean and drown, because it felt good to make her bleed, good to try to kill Celeste. She attempted to go promptly turn herself in to Lord, but Lord was busy; however, she was surprised by another's reaction, as Nao's arms wrapped around her. "You're not a monster." She retreated to the Raider's Room with Akahito and Nao, and explained everything that happened to Nao. As the voice in her head becomes more coherent (and grasping Nao's hand tightly as an "anchor") she has a deep mental coversation with the voice, coming to terms with it so to speak; the voice she began from there to call her "Talon". Through Talon's primitive senses, she begins to see just how far SaaZe has already spread throughout the school. After making a plan to hunt down Rei, she borrows an Obelisk Blue jacket from Isao to sneak into the Blue Dorm, to spend the night at Nao's to try to get some peace and quiet (and not go anywhere near Smoke/Vii, who she's desperately afraid of. That night ends without anything unusual, although Talon expressed some disappoint at Azure not trying to make any moves on Nao who clearly showed interest in Azure.

Azure reported to Lord the next day (while being stalked by Vii, who had taken to watching Azure) to explain the situation. They ended up in a Duel; Lord wanting Azure to prove to her that Azure -could- duel without causing damage to others. Since only her Pendulum cards (or things summoned with them as materials) could cause damage, she used her Galaxy-Eyes deck, defeating Lord without upsetting a hair on the headmaster's head despite a direct attack from Number 62: Prime Photon Dragon. While Azure remained restricted to the island, Lord let her go free to try to hunt down SaaZe (with a quip asking Azure if she was sure she was not going crazy, and Azure cheekily responding with Talon's assertion that she simply had Advanced Sanity.)

The plan was sprung shortly after, after Talon had pointed out what had drawn Rei out before was Azure's duel with Celeste: more specifically, the painfully obvious columns of light that appeared when Pendulum Scales were set. To draw Rei back out, Isao dueled against Vii; the plan was successful to a degree, since Rei and two other hosts of SaaZe appeared. Azure dueled with the conditions being the freedom of the two extra duelists if Azure won, and if Azure lost they'd lose the ability to refer to SaaZe as "The Betrayer". Azure quickly mopped up the High Ba'al, freeing those two duelists. Kerath was not so lucky against SaaZe/Rei, but the terms he had set resulted in Rei's freedom either way; losing simply transferred the worm from Rei to Kerath himself, as frustrating as that was to Azure. Kerath handed over his decks with instructions to pass them to Celeste, before disappearing into the island's woods.

While investigating further levels of the SaaZe infection, Azure determined through Talon's senses that two members of Nao's fanclub were also infected; due to the proximity of that many people, she couldn't determine who exactly. While Nao found out when Azure warned the group chat, she asked Nao to meet her behind the arena to explain in more detail; Nao didn't spend hardly any time with the Raiders, so her knowledge of SaaZe was probably non-existant at that point. Waiting for her behind the arena however wasn't Nao, but Akahito. And not really Akahito, but Loptr; using his form after she had eaten part of his soul. After expressing her disappointment in Azure not pushing SaaZe to take her seriously yet, she vanished, though not before grasping Azure's hand and holding it just long enough for Nao to see. Once she cleared up the confusion, she explained the situation to Nao, realizing in the process how personal she was making the request, and for what reason; Azure had found herself caring for the "Prince" a lot more than she had expected to, but when Nao had been there after she had hurt Celeste it had really made an impact on Azure's damaged emotions. With a bit of minor prompting from Talon, She decided to follow her baser instincts, and after a hesistating, whispered request to "be your princess", Azure shared her first kiss with the prince, before being whisked away back to the Blue dorm for a less chaste stay in Nao's dorm.

During her weekend in "paradise" so to speak, she returned to find that Celeste had been influenced by the Sovereign, Ec Tisia; she had loosely felt The Sovereign first appear when Celeste had been struck blind, thanks to Talon's senses, but she had been too busy being forced to relax by Nao to have investigated it further. Before anything could be done on that front though, she narrowed down SaaZe to two victims in the Yellow Dorm... with a third just awakening before her senses. Keeping an eye out for people acting unusual (via Vii's suggestion), she finally spotted someone who simply glared into empty space for a moment before running off to their own room. Following her, Azure had her first meeting with Kay, who had just awakened into the second stage of infection with SaaZe. Kay still had enough control over herself to be very afraid of the voices whispering in her ear, so when Azure promised her help Kay was tearfully appreciative.

She was unable to solve Kay's issue that day, so after reporting Kay's infection to Lord (and dragging a SaaZe-free Kerath out of Lord's new holding cell) she went to report Kerath's cleansing to Celeste, given that she had been tasked with turning over Kerath's decks to the girl. She was able to sense Ec Tisia's aura on Celeste, though could tell it was not a possession like what SaaZe or even Monochrome had done. Celeste took the news well, gathering his belongings before rushing to the infirmary to find him. Later that day, while discussing events (and starting to explain them to Sehr, who had helped her with Kay the day before) Celeste had approached, and upon Ec Tisia overhearing their desire to talk without being heard, Denied the area they were sitting in from the world, bringing a group consisting of Azure, Sehr, Kuro, Delaga, Akahito, Celeste, Isao, and Jas to the Sovereign's Throne. Azure was mostly quiet while Celeste tried to convince the party of Ec Tisia's benevolence... right up until The Sovereign approached them directly, temporarily overwhelming Azure's Ba'al-based senses. Querying the Sovereign, she did come to the full realization at least that the Lesser Ba'al are *essentially* human (with minor differences) so her mental excuse for Monochrome having been murdered before her eyes was shot down by sheer logic. They also learned Ec Tisia had a particular dislike of SaaZe - "*Who do you think it was who gave her such a name?"* On further questioning from Azure, they learned that those who are early in the process of SaaZe infection can pray to Ec Tisia for salvation from SaaZe's presence, giving Azure an avenue on how to help Kay: have Celeste help the girl. After they left the Sovereign's space, she got Celeste's number so she could contact her soon; Celeste looked beat with the events of the day, but she needed to enlist her help.

The next day after class, Azure brought Celeste to see Kay. While Kay was paranoid at first, some of SaaZe's influence allowing her to see the Spirit of Benevolence in Celeste, Celeste talked her into trusting her enough to get Kay to pray for salvation from Ec Tisia. Ec Tisia denied the early stage SaaZe infection, and the worm was forced to leave Kay. Azure quickly snagged the worm and turned it into Lord, getting some information based on who was rooming with who on who the likely Yellow SaaZe victims in Nao's fanclub were. This was her main priority, her and Talon agreed; nobody would take *her* prince, especially not SaaZe. She tried to meet up with Nao later that night, but ran into Rei instead, who insisted on dueling a duel against Azure's Pendulums (Rei revealed later to Kerath she had swiped Nao's phone, so Nao was unaware Azure had been trying to message her). Azure forced Rei to forfeit before delivering a final blow, despite that afterwards she wished she had as Rei tried to wind her up into thinking Nao was sleeping with numerous "princesses"; finally leaving the wooded area to return back to the yellow dorm alone.

She had a bit of a mental break the next day, when Akahito was trying to give her a pep talk and point out how heroic she had been in the fight; she ran off crying, screaming that she didn't *want* to be a hero, and even going so far as to playing a Majespecter Cyclone out of duel to blow back any of the Raiders who had been chasing her to try to help her calm down. Of course, Kuro who had just gotten the snot beat out of him by Kerath, landed badly and broke his leg on a tree he was blown into. She collapsed right as Nao found her again, and they talked for a long time, Nao reassuring Azure that Rei's taunts had not been accurate: "Of course I've had more than one, but I'm not like Lord." Azure didn't care about before, she just cared about now, so this fully reassured her, as much as it made Azure realize how dangerously dependent she was on Nao for her mental balance.

Lord, however, didn't appreciate much Azure's actions, and ended up placing her her the holding cell that had been prepared for Kerath to give her time to properly reflect on the danger she put people in without thinking about it, over Azure's protests that she hadn't honestly known she had caused any damage. Azure spent a day reflecting as requested, and made a choice that would help carve the path of the future. She decided she couldn't handle Loptr's gift any more, or the risk inherent with Talon. Even if they had come to a kind of peace, Talon was making her more aggressive, more dangerous, and she couldn't handle it any more. She had gotten too comfortable with the destructive power. Talon's powers were not something that would help in the coming fight; after all, Gods don't bleed. So she prayed to Ec Tisia, to help her.

Though Ec Tisia had warned her what would happen, she still wasn't prepared. Though Ec Tisia removed the extra soulstuff within Azure that had shifted into Talon after Loptr had put her there, Loptr intervened as well; infusing the partial soulpiece with more pieces she "had in her jaws". She quickly found herself face to face with the Azure Gorgon, the High Ba'al Defined as Pain.. with a full deck of the Majespecter cards that no longer inhabited Azure's deck. In a duel to determine who would be the "real" Azure, Azure Talon won. Loptr appeared then as well, to explain to Azure just what her 'Talon' had become, before vanishing and taking the Gorgon with her. Lord then set her free early, now that the Pendulums were gone (although with detention for having admitted to sneaking into the Blue Dorm).

When the Azure Gorgon appeared again, she attacked Akahito, defeating the Magician duelist in a duel. Azure managed to get Akahito out of the Gorgon's snakes by the expedient approach of giving her a more valuable target, and she tried to hug it out with her dark counterpart. This did not end well for Azure, as her flesh was pierced by dozens of fangs from the Gorgon's snake hair. Only a quick prayer for rescue from The Sovereign managed to blast the Gorgon away from Azure, though Azure passed out from the pain of it all even after being healed by Celeste. Kerath ended up taking Azure to the infirmary, and she missed the subsequent appearance of Loptr and Yuusha-Ou.

In the prelude to the finale, Azure finds herself passing out with a searing feeling of Pain; she finds herself in the back of the Gorgon's head, able to toss a couple thoughts Talon's way but unable to really communicate. The link is broken abruptly when the Gorgon looked up and saw the Eye of Loptr in the sky. Azure was distressed to find that she could see Loptr's Eye in reality, too, not just through Talon's senses. This was mitigated by Ryuko approaching, and letting her know they had a plan to rescue the Lesser Ba'al without Loptr's aid - they'd hold a ritual, a gathering of energy in a duel hyped up by thousands. A duel against someone with a bond to the Ba'al (Azure) against the strongest human who had a penchant for being able to break things and/or worlds... Ryuko's mother.

When the season 1 finale commenced, she took on Schneider's Duel Armor and fought with all its power against Suenami Midori (although the Armor was there more to protect Azure than anything else). Midori played a deck based on the Outer God cards, but Azure's fierce and ruthless dueling style overpowered them, and in a crushing blow Berserkion's final attack actually destroyed the entire main arena in the academy... and the foundation underneath it... (although not actually damaging Midori significantly - she really was a monster). The aftermath did however generate the energy Midori needed to pierce the veil between Earth and Greater Ba'al, allowing controlled evacuation of the Lesser Ba'al.

The epilogue of Seaside Rumble 1 included the long awaited duel between the Prince and her Princess, as Nao showed her new Link monsters to the dueling arena, taking on Azure, with stakes on the duel; if Nao could defeat Azure, than Azure would hold herself back, try to rest and recover - she had been pushing herself too hard, for too long, and dealing with more stress and danger than any normal person could handle. Nao feared that if Azure didn't dial herself back, she could become a monster like Midori... and she was partly right already. Although Nao was victorious, she noted in the aftermath of the duel that her prototype Link Monsters (designed to fight the Ba'al) did cause some minor physical damage to the area. Azure had noticed they actually hadn't hit her, so she assumed this was because they were designed not to. Azure's assumption was incorrect; *"The problem is that it didn't hurt you." Nao says softly. "They aren't weapons, but they're still very real. They don't cushion themselves against people."* When Nao pointed it out to Azure that they weren't designed like that, Azure came to the startling realization; even without Talon, she still had some degree of power, and Nao's worry she could end up a monster like Midori wasn't entirely unfounded. Bending her knee once more to her Prince, Azure relented as she had agreed on, agreed to hold herself back and let Nao bear more of the burden so she could recover. As a symbol of that, Azure handed over one of her more prized cards; the Gorgonic Guardian. In the end, it was a representation of the part of Azure that could become the Gorgon, and she felt it proper to relinquish that as part of her agreement to back off the front lines.

### Seaside Ride 1

Azure first appeared in Ride playing a cardfight against a priestess who went by Toitoi, practicing her new Bermuda Triangle deck that Nao had set her up with. Her second appearance managed to have her running straight into her brother, Griffin Talon - surprising her given that she didn't even know he was in town. Worse, was she quickly started suspecting he was involved in the Ba'al situation, given the hints he started giving such as mentioning the "eye in the sky", or Odd referencing snakes with an odd emphasis. After Nao pulled Griffin aside for a chat, Azure put all the pieces together; despite the jokes about them sharing embarrassing Azure stories, she simply told them that she wasn't an idiot and knew what they had been talking about. "The people I love want me to be safe. I believe in both of you. You'll do what needs to be done. If and when I'm needed, I'll be ready and waiting; just like you told me to be."

That said, once Griffin disappeared for several days (after his loss to Charna and subsequent rescue by Machen) Azure began actively seeking information on her missing brother, and the girl he was so obviously attached to (given that Odd disappeared too.) Griffin's cryptic response didn't help her any, and she kept pushing for more information, at least until Nao heard of it from Griffin, and essentially grounded Azure for a while. As another result, when Azure and Nao did make another appearance at Card Capital, she had a very hard time *sitting.*

Once Nao had gotten confirmation by Griffin and Delaga of Loptr's involvement with the tournament, Nao forced Azure to sit out of the tournament, despite Azure's protests; though, Azure did insist on accompanying her prince (Nao's disapproval was shown by Azure having a difficult time sitting at the tournament as well.) In the lead up to the tournament, she did play a few rounds to give Akahito and Jas practice, as well as learning of her new shadow - Nimi, Nao's Knight and ninja (for lack of a better term) was assigned to help keep her safe.

Azure was forced to watch in horror as Nao's group was defeated by Team Ragnarok - Elizabeth (one of Nao's fans and former princess) and Nimi both being defeated by Sol=Firle. She was the one who first realized Loptr's plan to use the hype from the tournament as a form of dysjunction to break her Seal, just like she and Midori had to open the path to Greater Ba'al without Loptr's assistance. She told Midori of the plan, and tried to get her to work with Ec Tisia to possibly resupport the Seal if they did win. When victory was Suncalibur'd out of reach, she went with Celeste and the Lesser Ba'al to offer support to Ec Tisia to recast the Seal - making Celeste the second person she saw die before her eyes. She wasn't able to tap into any latent power, and feeling worthless she managed to at least recall some of the medical knowledge she had second hand from her mother to help patch Midori up in the helicopter, from the injuries Midori got reflected on her from Vii's attacks. In the end, this was enough to push Azure over the edge, and she vowed to not be set on the sideline anymore - to which her Prince reluctantly agreed.

### Seaside Rumble 2

The night after the tournament ended, Azure found herself unable to sleep, hearing whispers of Talon's voice begging for help. She made her way out to where the outcropping of rock used to be, where Ryuko had fallen against the Gorgon, and encountered Akahito; who surprisingly enough was also hearing the voice of her Talon. They figured out that Vii had filled the empty part of Akahito's soul with part of the Gorgon's soulstuff (later they discovered it was the Gorgon's heart), and then Kay appeared with Talon's eye, being possessed by the fragmented High Ba'al by contact with the part. Azure lost her duel to Kay, and Kay forced the Eye on Azure before passing out, although in the end she relinquished the Eye to Akahito, where it resonated some with the part of Talon within him.

She quickly found another problem; the aftermath of the tournament had, to a degree, broken Nao. Nao couldn't forgive herself for being weak enough to allow some of the people who were only present at the arena to watch her play to die, and Azure found herself in the unusual circumstance of having to support her lover instead of being supported by her, although Azure privately welcomed the temporary role reversal. Her admission about her realization of her extreme confidence mixed with her complete lack of self worth had led to her blindly charging into the fight, and knowing that now she had a reason to come home helped ease Nao into not holding Azure back anymore. *"I not only have a reason to fight, I have a reason to survive. And that's why I think I'm ready." - "...If that's the case, then I think you're ready too. If you can see things like that, and value yourself as you are, you're not going to lose yourself to being like **her**."*

Azure and Griffin were both present the next day when Lord dropped the news of zombies being sighted, and Azure and Akahito both explained what had happened with Kay and Talon's eye as well. After a whisper of "hurt" when Akahito blasted Jas in a duel (and caused damage), Azure got Akahito to stop the duel immediately while Griffin moved to intercept another victim of a Talon piece. He defeated the student with the kind of overkill Griffin was going to get famous for amongst the Raiders, and Akahito claimed another piece of Talon - her hand. Which had a creepy habit of moving around on its own.

Later in the arena, when heading back over to Nao's group after a practice duel with the long absent Wallace, she was met with a surprising sight - everything around her stopped, and a small girl in a rabbit-like costume sitting there waiting for her. A Flower from the bad future, Marchen. After complaining at Azure for not participating in the tournament that she was supposed to fight in, Marchen told Azure she'd be her Guardian Angel, so to speak - essentially, she'd pop in from time to time to let Azure know if she was doing something "wrong". She also let it slip to Azure of Nao's inherent sense of what is "supposed to happen" - her confidence in the tournament, her sense that nobody should die were both because that's what was supposed to happen. Azure's participation in the tournament was supposed to ensure they won, and nobody would have died. But due to Griffin's interference, Azure sat out, so what was "supposed to happen" didn't - and that messed with Nao's mind, because she understood how wrong it was.

She was awoken early in the morning the next day when she felt Talon screaming; she arrived at the zombie a bit too late, as someone with teal hair hanging upside down in the air had already claimed Talon's thigh. Azure dueled her, not thinking to make terms beforehand, and was surprised to find the girl was injured by Azure's attacks, despite Azure not having any of Talon's power at the time. She got precious little out of the gravity defying girl before she walked off, mentioning how much she hated talking.

Azure's next meeting with the priestess came during a surprisingly friendly chat with XaaCi, who was offering to try to help her with her Jas situation (after Jas had been sent into the stratosphere by the priestess after a meeting with Kendar and Griffin). With Loptr Sealed harder than usual, XaaCi wanted to focus on helping Loptr's family so to speak, and that included Azure's 'Talon'. In the priestess's observation then, XaaCi and Azure dueled once more - and for once (likely due to Azure using a new deck to practice Link Monsters) XaaCi actually came out victorious, and as the winner she had claimed she would take something from Azure. Azure knew she had agreed to the terms, and waited in anticipation for what XaaCi would do... she wasn't expecting the High Ba'al's move, however. *XaaCi kisses her. Not roughly or meanly, but in a naive, almost innocent way, soft and sweet.* After recovering from the strangeness of the situation, XaaCi sided with the priestess (her name revealed as NoNoN) and Azure traded Talon's Jaw for Jas's safety.

A new issue then presented itself in Azure's life - regular school drama for a change. A new "Prince", Chyva, appeared and began leaching off parts of Nao's fanclub. Worse, Chyva herself kept showing up in Azure's subconscious, no matter how much Azure tried to forget about the troublesome prince that Nao had said she'd deal with. Of course, when Nao defeated Chyva in a duel to become one of her "knights" and won, Chyva backed out of it, since there was no observers she didn't hold up to her end of the bargain, which at least alleviated Azure's fears of Chyva been Ba'al.

After observing a duel between Tilia (who had further synchronized with MjR) and Akahito, they sensed Talon once again, and went tearing off into the woods to find it. They found NoNoN with many pieces of the Gorgon, possessing a girl - NoNoN left them to it, while Talon (who had enough pieces to regain some of her Powers, including Beast of Seven Heads) dueled Akahito. Akahito with his new deck powerup (having added Windwitches) defeated the conglomorate, but having not set terms he chased after the retreating Gorgon. After using Talon's own power twice to try to stall her, the Gorgon turned her power on Akahito directly, trying to reclaim the piece of Herself that was used by Vii to patch Akahito's damaged soul. Appealing to MjR however, Tilia moved; with several white limbs of power she gathered the pieces of Talon into pure soul stuff... and shoved them into Azure.

*It's not obvious to Azure at first. But to everyone else, when they take stock of the scene, it is vastly more apparent. Azure's hair is now black, after all.*

When her hair color change is pointed out to her, she screams - which is cut off when Azure is promptly displaced from time by Marchen, who Azure promptly yells at, since Marchen had said she'd warn Azure before things like this would happen. To be fair, Marchen had no idea this was possible, since in her reality MjR wasn't a thing at all anyway. She pulled her hair forward to see if it ends in snakes... which it doesn't. Until she thinks about it. Then it does. While Tabooru goes to chase a fleeing Tilia, Akahito and Azure try to take stock of what happened until XaaCi appears. Azure can *sense* XaaCi's Divinity now, while XaaCi can sense Azure is something like a hybrid of Lesser Ba'al and High Ba'al - having a large portion of the Gorgon infused into her making her an incomplete pseudo High Ba'al. Azure and XaaCi send Akahito away, so that XaaCi can teach Azure a few things about being a High Ba'al, like how to turn off the phone signal dampening aura that's just part of being a High Ba'al - XaaCi agreeing to help because it'd be bad for their side if Azure lost control as well.

She returned to her dorm rooms mentally exhausted if not tired, and surprised to find Nao wasn't there. Talon however "woke up" and began speaking with her, through snakes made out of her hair. The next day, she showed in the arena in a duel with Arma that she could restrain herself and not cause damage if she chose in a duel, though that was when she used her mortal duel disk and deck instead of manifesting High Ba'al cards of light. She unfortunately also made quite a stir in the local Lesser Ba'al population - Spira ran from her in fear, Rai bowed and scraped in fear and obedience, and Sin immediately thought she was the Devourer and began kneeling. Azure took the title "Cursed Avenger" - cursed by Loptr with this eternal pain, and Avenger for what she would do if any of hers were harmed by the dark forces in the school. She also began the process of convincing Akahito that when the time came and she did go to reclaim her piece of Talon from him, she would and it was for the better for him as well. Akahito, predictably, didn't take this too well.

Akahito however was the one to warn her when Nao reappeared, on the arm of Chyva. Azure approached quietly, not making a scene, and talked things out with Jas and Nimi - the latter of which she was surprised to find had still been shadowing her, and hadn't heard from Nao in as long as Azure hadn't. She left without destroying anything (to the relief of the Raiders that Akahito had raised an alarm with) even after making eye contact with Chyva and Chyva deliberately taunting Azure by kissing Nao immediately after. Of all people, Azure then went back to XaaCi - asking the High Ba'al for advice, and seeking the possibility that Chyva was gifted power by Sol=Firle. While that turned out to not happen, she had the misfortune to attract Loptr's attention once more. Knowing she couldnt' do much to the Sealed goddess, she offered a deal - given that Loptr was threatening to eat her to learn what her "Pain" felt like - a duel, of course, that if she won she'd be free of the Devourer's meddling until the Seal broke again, but if she lost she would change sides, betraying her humanity and joining the Devourer's "family" for real. With Beast of Seven Heads in her grasp, she dueled XaaCi who was under orders to hold nothing back - this time, however, the Harbinger did not beat the newly titled Avenger, and Azure was saved for now.

Knowing she couldn't leave the island but having a renewed priority in searching for pieces of Talon, she set the Raiders looking for them. She also claimed Sin as her own, marking him as such with a snakebite from her hair. She also finally talked Akahito into coming out so she could relieve him of his part of Talon's soul, while encountering Muse for the first time in the process (and marking her as one of Azure's as well).

With Ba'al problems temporariliy on hold, Azure went to solve another problem. Using Kay to trick Nao into a room where Azure could get Nao to herself, they made up so to speak, though Azure realized then that the hold Chyva had on Nao wasn't purely the intoxicating effects of Chyva's perfume. Nao legitimately had come to love both of them, though the speed of which she fell for Chyva boggled Azure's mind. Once Azure realized that Chyva was necessary for Nao's stability, Azure knew she had to change tactics, and went to talk to Chyva directly - confirming at the same time that Chyva was in fact a seed, helping explain some of her own and Nao's attraction to her. The meeting did not go over well at all, despite Azure's attempts to smooth things over and make peace between them, however. After Nao got Chyva to agree to a meeting with all three of them, Azure got Lord's permission to go to the City for a quick trip. She wanted to be able to accept Chyva, for Nao's sake. After all three laid their hearts bare and open, an agreement was made, and all three of them entered a mutual relationship; even Azure and Chyva, because all parties had to be equal in this sort of thing.

Though she had heard about Neue from Akahito and Griffin in the group chat, she got to learn more about the girl when Marchen (her Flower Guardian Angel) appeared before her and Akahito in the arena; partly to apologize to Akahito, because Namiko would be sad if he got hurt and she wanted to at least try to make him feel better (it didn't work, this is Akahito). *"...She is the eldest of the Talon sibilings, the daughter of Griffin and Azure Talon. The hunter of Lucille's enemies. The executioner to Charna's regent. And the holder of the remains of God's daughter."*

When the true Huntress, Vii reappeared she did so by invisibly harassing Azure for a bit, before appearing, demanding *it* back. Azure didn't quite know what she meant, but when she allowed Vii to "sniff her out" (literally) Vii concluded it was just fragments of her power. Assuming Vii referred to MjR, she mentioned that it had long left. Vii expressed her desire to work with Azure and the Raiders again against Loptr, as well as her secondary goal of eliminating the Lesser Ba'al - to secure Vii as an ally, Azure compromised that Vii wouldn't harass any Ba'al Azure had marked as her minions, but what Vii did with followers of Loptr and their ilk or Ec Tisia was between Vii and the other High Ba'al.

Sin approached Azure after she had marked Rai for her own protection, with the unfortunate news that Spira was dead. He had stumbled on Spira and Muse who had both been corrupted to degrees, and under SaaZe's influence Spira and Sin dueled with the Table set - Sin came out victorious. On learning that Muse was playing double agent against her, she seriously considered listening to Talon's suggestion to kill the girl, or banish her or even just out her in the group chat, but resisted the urge to do so mostly thanks to Nimi's disapproval. That was a step too far, even for what Azure was now, and she reluctantly agreed to just keep a closer watch on Muse.

Azure traveled to Suenami Headquarters, not long after to retrieve the rest of her Talon that Griffin had won from Ryuko. This process didn't go well for Azure, as the individual parts and their remembered pain completely overwhelmed them; first the Gorgon itself, then Azure both fell unconscious. She was given a hint to go off of for how to recover by a voice of one of the High Ba'al that made up the Avenger, "The Quiet One", since once awake only near constant morphine kept her out of black-out levels of pain. This clue sent her lovers and brother to Greater Ba'al itself, to seek out the Martyr - a High Ba'al that is the parent of Caritas, and has even greater power than Caritas had.

Azure's time in waiting was mostly spent unconscious or in pain, though she did manage to take a call from Serah, who let her know about what happened to Jas when NoNoN attacked; as well as a surprisingly pleasant meeting with Ryuko, and while neither of them were in anything resembling good shape compared to the beginning of the year, they were both happy to still be alive and promised not to feel self blame over the damage each other had exchanged.

When they returned with XIO, she found herself restored, and quickly found herself with an only partially expected problem; the Gorgon was whole. The Gorgon wanted to be her own person, and the body they shared was more Gorgon than Azure, now; being entirely High Ba'al soulstuff. A discussion was had, and a compromise was made, and with Midori and Aoi's help, Azure Talon's soul was removed from the Gorgon, and placed into the soulless body of Celeste. Celeste's face had been reconstructed to look like Azure's to help with the transition, but it was still unfamiliar in a million little ways... and with the lack of the Gorgon's power, she became quite aware as well of the mark of her own lack of control, as she felt the pressure of the scar across her own back.

She had heard of Akahito's disappearance after being pulled out of time by Lucille, and understandably took it hard; they were still seeds, and he was her first friend there. When he post-mortem dropped an email her way, a final goodbye, she lost herself for a bit, lamenting in her mind about her own weakness and that when she -had- the Gorgon's powers, she managed literally nothing with them. She did however receive a bit of a pep talk from Talon, and a promise to help Azure in getting her revenge when shew as more physically capable of handling the Avenger's undescribed gift.

During the Season 2 finale, Azure refused to stay bedridden on the sidelines, and she and Nao began the process of heading back to Duel Academy. On her way, she had the rather displeasing view of coming face to face with Spira. Given that she knew Spira was dead, that meant Loptr was the one before her today. While Loptr challenges her, the fight is interrupted: Suenami Ginko, not seen since the Vanguard Tournament stepped forth, giving Nao and Azure a chance to escape to the Academy, where Azure was needed. When a building came down behind them, Azure just knew that Ginko's was another name to add to her list, of people who had fallen while helping her. They encountered JoJo and Sora at the Academy side of the Maglev, and while JoJo's emotions were still suppressed by the experience she had gone through with Loptr, she still seethed with anger at seeing Azure in Maya's body.

Azure, Nao, and Griffin were on their way to the main building when Charna appeared, along with a veritable army of Flowers. After the disturbing news that Marchen was gone, having been "Corrected" (her parents had died in the Vanguard disaster), they found themselves in danger. Most of the Flowers weren't the problem of the Talon siblings though, their difficulty was Neue who appeared before them to "save" them. First challenging Griffin with her Gladiator Beasts, she actually somewhat quickly surrendered, rather than risk taking the damage to herself with a Warrior Disk from Griffin's Gren Maju Da Eiza. Azure dueled her next, and though she was shakey her skills were still sharp, and the little huntress fell to her mother as well. Neue began throwing a High Ba'al powered tantrum, but Griffin actually gets through her fury, upon uttering the line she herself uses so frequently - "We won't lose to anything!" After hearing that, Neue just seems to drop, her energy spent. Griffin refuses to just leave her around, so takes her with them to the main building.

While trying to get the Lesser Ba'al to redirect their thoughts to the Sovereign, she encounters NoNoN. Having sworn to try not to let the girl die, Azure makes a bet with her; not on the outcome of a duel, but the outcome of this entire situation. If Azure's side loses, and Loptr wins, Azure would belong to the Priestess. But, if they won and Loptr was defeated, NoNoN would back down and try to make amends with her sister again. It saved Azure a duel on her flagging stamina, and didn't really put Azure in a worse situation if they were to lose, so it was a safe enough bet for her.

XaaCi appeared before Azure then, and beckoned Azure to follow. She did, wavering on her feet as she did so (and had the strange sight of XaaCi looking like she was about to try and go help her). XaaCi wanted one last duel; because she knew that if they didn't duel now, they'd never get a chance to again. She asked XaaCi her terms, and surprisingly XaaCi asked Azure what *her* terms were. Azure's terms were simple; if she won, XaaCi would stay out of the fight, so that if Loptr did get re-sealed, XaaCi wouldn't get caught in it. If Azure lost, she would belong to XaaCi; the High Ba'al would overwrite NoNoN's claim and own Azure. She figured in the worst case scenario, being owned by someone who seemed to care for her wouldn't be as bad. Predictably, Azure's Magnets just *bodied* the Harbinger, and XaaCi yielded as soon as Azure summoned Imperion, especially since she was about to follow it up with Berserkion as well. XaaCi lamented that she just couldn't draw anything but the worst hands against Azure, while Azure pointed out XaaCi's "cards" were representations of her will, and maybe that just meant she didn't really want to beat Azure anymore, a point XaaCi conceded was possible.

Collapsing, Azure admitted that she had nothing left, but had done her job and removed a High Ba'al from the fight. Without the strength to rise anymore, she just sat in the clearing behind the arena, leaning on XaaCi until she passed out. Word passed to Nao through Burak who had followed her, to Griffin, and Nao rushed out there. Of course, XaaCi didn't understand why Nao would be so worked up coming out back to find Azure asleep on XaaCi's lap, but Nao was understandably upset. XaaCi however turned the mostly unconscious Azure over to her fiancé however, though she never did quite understand why Nao was so upset about things.

### Seaside Ride 2

Azure appeared alongside the Avenger after the former got an invitation to the Serpent's Get. Azure, the now Voice of Pain, didn't honestly understand at first what was going on, until she realized the Bartender and servers all laughed in unison - SaaZe. And the guest eating a near endless array of food at a table was none other than Loptr herself. Once she got herself to calm down - Loptr was no longer a threat, after all - she had a friendly fight in the new card game, Buddyfight, with the former Devourer.

Her second trip to the Get included her future daughter, Neue, and Sayo managed to say something to set her off almost instantly - Azure got Neue cards and left with her, coming back another day to ask a favor of Loptr to try to have Sayo behave around Neue, so as to not have a repeat of that day's occurrence. Loptr says she'll try, though she isn't exactly the one with an advantage in negotiations with SaaZe anymore. Of course, this was also the day she finally encountered her ex, Kendar once again, and he got to be the first person to learn what her being the Voice of Pain meant. After a lovely little Pain Touch to get him to shut the hell up, he wisely retreated from her presence.

When Azure got her Core Deck Case, she was shocked to find it manifested in a form far too reminiscent of the Gorgon for her peace of mind - a Black serpent with red eyes, her deck held in its mouth, and the tail of it going across her back, wrapped around her other arm and a rattle at her opposite wrist.

She was present the first time the Serpent's Get revealed that not only Loptr and Sayo lived there, but Sol=Firle too. Using her powers to create Pain, she jolted a few unsuspecting humans out of Sol's attention, though she herself needed a similar jolt of Pain from the Avenger over a distance for herself, when Sol=Firle turned her full attention on Azure. The bigger revelation from Sol's appearance was that Elizabeth, missing since the Vanguard Tournament, was still alive and at Sol=Firle's side. That said, spurning the advances of the Pleasures of Flesh caused a bit of a divine scene, as NoNoN pointed out to her that Sol=Firle could see that as a slight from The Avenger, given that is who Azure represented, and in the end she whined her way into owing Loptr a favor and having Loptr talk to Sol about it, rather than subject herself to their aura again. She did end up having to pay the piper eventually, though, and agreed to a compromise; if she could hold herself back after accept a kiss from each of the Sol=Firle twins, they would stop. She did, although it required every ounce of willpower and self control she had (and given what she'd been through this year, that was a lot).

Azure was visited by Marchen - despite the Flower having been Corrected as a result of the Arena incident. Marchen had ascended, however, into a kind of *angel*. She offered Azure, who had been someone she had been tasked to watch, a way to travel to the Flower's timeline, with a warning that her own timeline would be Corrected for going too far off the intended path. Azure, of course, took this connection to the Authority of Timespace and gathered a crew instead of her fellow Raiders to go Raid the future, and save Akahito, Namiko, Odd, and the rest of the people the Flowers had kidnapped. In preperation for this, she started by challenging Kendar to a best 2 of 3, for Rdan tech disks - with the 3 games being Buddyfight, Duel Monsters, and Vanguard if needed for the tiebreaker, since she knew Kendar had Akahito's Magia deck.

She attended a concert that Robin held, when he clearly shouldn't have by the condition he was in, considering he almost died on stage in front of everyone. That was when Azure discovered a startling and distrubing aspect of her position as the Voice of Pain - she *fed* on pain to a degree, even emotional pain; she felt stronger, and calm and collected when everyone around her started losing their shit when Robin collapsed on stage.

A party of Azure, Kerath, Tabooru, Serah, Sin, Jack, The Avenger, and Neue went into the Flower's Bad End Future in order to try to save their friends. Surprising Azure, Nimi was there as well, having managed to catch a ride with some of the Flowers long ago from their perspective. When they reached Lucille's throne looking for Akahito (after Azure finally realized Lucille was the current incarnation of XaaCi, though Lucille didn't appreciate the reference) they found something utterly shocking - Lucille getting the snot beat out of her in a duel, by a small white haired girl. The Oblivion Correction, in person.

They were told to go find the other Flowers, while Lucille held off the person; though Neue refused to leave Lucille behind, even when the white haired girl stripped Lucille's powers away. Neue retrieved Lucille, though lost many pieces of her High Ba'al soulstuff in the process, and then transported the two of them back in time. Azure and the others found the gathered flowers, led by Charna, and transported the Flowers back while Charna and Nimi went to go retrieve the Flower's "new god" - a slime like being that was the offspring of Loptr, undefined.

### Seaside Rumble 3

Azure started the new school year with a bit of confusion, now that Nao has graduated and is moving on to research Greater Ba'al before the dimension dies. After making a quick stop in her unused room, she gets invited to stay in Chyva's with Chyva and the Avenger; Azure hadn't gone there first as she wasn't sure if doing so would be intruding on her other half and her other fiancé - she's not distant with Chyva, but she's not as close as she is with Nao, though she figures this will be a good time to fix that at least.

After the first day, she was meeting with Namiko (having been temporarily trained in how to help the formerly kidnapped Seeds) and Akahito for a while. Akahito left to go back to the Academy, and shortly after Marchen appeared - Namiko's former Mistress and current Angel. Like Kerath before her, she found herself face to face with the Angel Taliel, and also like Kerath came out victorious. Unlike Kerath, she didn't get a card gifted from God; instead, she got a card she'd learn to regret seeing. Her own card, that she couldn't even bear the thought of sharing the existence of with her Patron and other half, the Avenger. Numbers -51: Finisher the Lariat.

Azure was present when Asuka, possessed by the angels, defeated and de-soulled Rebecca after Sayo/Muse failed to defeat the White student. Of course, Sayo only got the chance because Azure hesitated, worried about losing her card. Her Number. She even tried to lightly jolt Rebecca back to herself with her Pain touch before Aoi arrived, but there was no response to a body without a Soul, just like Celeste had been before Azure moved bodies.

Azure found herself in a sparring match with Lucille the next day, and it was finally time for her to use it. *"Swirling Numbers that shouldn't exist converge to create a power beyond sanity!  Xyz Summon; Numbers Negative 51: Finisher the Lariat!"* Azure ended up losing the duel in the end, and Lucille warned her that the white-haired girl who had defeated her also had used Negative Numbers like that - of course, Azure had used it in that duel because she was sure Lucille could have handled whatever happened anyway. She disagreed with Lucille's caution of the card, given that she wasn't feeling unusual still since getting it, and she had won it - rather than it being forced on her when she lost a duel.

However, before she managed to beat anyone with it, things got much, much worse; Akahito tapped into the primal power of the entire world somehow, summoning Zerachiel. He didn't adequately resist humanity's "Mother", so Azure took up her disk to try to save him. She failed, and both of them were inflicted with Negative Numbers as well; Azure received Numbers -30: Death Acid Golem to compliment her Negative Number 51, and Akahito received Negative Numbers 7 and 74. In the process, she unlocked the power latent within her, that Loptr had confirmed to her existed. Burning, Searing Light shot out in all directions... to be snuffed out by Zerachiel. The Earth's power can't be used against the Angels, after all.

Azure called Chyva out for a secluded duel, to try to gather her family to her by the end - unfortunately, Aoi had tipped Chyva off about Azure's corruption after freeing Kerath, so she was aware ahead of time of the situation. Even more unfortunately was that Chyva, even with her upgrade, was no match for her princess, and Azure defeated the prince, causing some damage in the meantime because the Searing Light that had awakened at the end of her duel with Zerachiel manifested her Negative Numbers physically, causing them to cause real harm. Before she could pass on a Negative Number to Chyva, however, Azure found herself face to face with the wrath of a God besides the one trying to erase existence: The Avenger.

The duel was vicious on both sides, a true slugfest you'd expect from the two Azures, both fierce and ruthless to the extreme. In the end, after both Numbers were removed, Azure promptly summoned her own strongest monster; Imperion to face Talon down. However, Talon could even outstrength Imperion. Azure used her Imperion to negate one of the Gorgon's effects, allowing Beast With Seven Heads to devour her ace monster, and leaving the Gorgon to use her power to directly attack her Voice to finish the duel. The Gorgon's strength was at 800, while Azure's Lifepoints were at 700, and with one final strike, Azure skidded backwards into the grass, and didn't move. After a moment when she finally came to, in Chyva's lap, she found herself agreeing to punishment for her deeds, while ashamed of the insulting, petty words she had spoken in the duel - words that were her own, from deep within her that she would never admit to having felt at times.

She spent most of the next day dueling with The Avenger to focus the control on her gift, though that left her in as much Pain as her punishment, nearly enough. Dueling the Goddess of Pain was not a pleasant experience, after all, especially when Talon had some extra aggression to get out. She was present and approving with the Avenger marked Terrana and Namiko as her own - more followers for the Avenger was always something helpful.

It was with a lot of surprise when one morning on her regular walk that she felt a familiar set of eyes on her - XaaCi had finally returned. Sworn to the Sovereign now, XaaCi took up residence in Azure's unused dorm room, being a go between from Azure and Talon to the Sovereign (since communing with the Sovereign was dangerous for Chaos based High Ba'al like Azure Gorgon).

Of course, the joy in reuniting with XaaCi was just the honey before the stick of reality came crashing down on her again, as she got a text in the arena from Nao - who should have been on Greater Ba'al. Worse, it was a goodbye message, implying she had been taken by the enemy and might not even be herself anymore. This forced the young girl who was so deeply in love with Nao she couldn't understand it to utterly lose her mind - not that her Goddess was any better, since Azure Gorgon was in it just as deep. After all, they were one in regards to this. Her howl of heartache and emotional pain racked everyone in the arena save Amber, who was protected by being a Priestess of Sol=Firle. Not so protected against the white light radiating out of control from her, melting chairs in the arena. It wasn't until Rinku, out of ignorance or stupidity, tried to touch her - and got literally burned for his trouble - that anything broke through her pain, and she just shut down completely until Midori showed up, and Chyva called her.

Once they had investigated Nao's apartment (since that's where her cell had been) and Azure was beginning to suspect who this Angel was, the Angel struck again to confirm it, as Charna arrived to tell them "Neue was compromised". This let Azure piece together Lailah's identity - reclaiming her long lost lover and daughter? The Angel was the future version of Azure from the other timeline - which possibly angered Azure even more, since now of all things she had to figure out how to defeat herself.

Disaster occurred not long after, when Azure saw Neue in the arena, and went to greet her - Neue didn't even recognize who she was, since Lailah had basically substituted all of Neue's mental connections about her "mother" from Azure to Lailah. Crushed by the revelation, she was then assaulted by Neue's new priestess, a girl named Koi who attached with Negative Numbers. Azure defeated Koi, but on seeing the near defeat she took in the assault from Negative Number 32, she went berserk - when Berserkion leveled its final direct attack, it was quietly, angrily glowing white, as Azure recalled the words of her Goddess - *But never let those who do things you think are unforgivable off the hook. That's our way.* Koi was lifted off the ground, blasted into the wall of the arena so hard she started to cough up blood, and didn't stir as students left the arena screaming.

After getting scolded by Lord (which Azure thought was totally unfair) she went searching for Chyva. Since Chyva was missing doing damage control socially for her princess, she met Talon again - Talon didn't scold Azure, as what she did wasn't out of character for the Avenger. However, she did point out to Azure that were Nao here, *she* would certainly scold her, which deflated Azure quickly. She quietly accepted her punishment from Talon in Nao's place, for acting inhuman while refusing to give up her humanity.

They began their plan to harass Lailah into the open, utilizing Charna - unfortunately, Charna was defeated by the Mistress of the Night, as they learned when she returned. Azure tried to duel the Flower, but unlike Lailah - she was not successful. However, since Charna hadn't even summoned her negative number (which holding off for that is a great deal why Azure lost) Azure wasn't harmed by the defeat. Shortly after, Lailah tried to spring her trap on Chyva, but after Jibril (the Angel Nao) defeated Chyva, Talon interceded and put a huge bet on the table with Lailah - all of Talon's side against all of Lailah's, and those she converted. Talon won effortlessly, and Azure and Chyva got their Nao back.

When Sin went after Akahito to try to save him, he predictably failed, and Talon warped Azure (somewhat hastily dressed) to fix her mistake. Akahito tried talking trash, and got Harmtouched for his trouble. While Akahito's Negative Number 74 was troublesome, it actually led to one of the more epic moments in the long series of duels between Azure and Akahito; since -74 could negate things multiple times in a chain and couldn't be effected by non-targeting effects until it was out of Materials, it led to Azure targeting it for destruction with Berserkion, -74 negating Berserkion, Gorgonic Guardian negating -74, -74 negating Gorgonic Guardian as well, and finally Imperion shutting down the chain of negations once and for all, ending the duel in Azure's favor.

In the aftermath of Amber's disappearance, Azure went to the Serpent's Get to tell Loptr what had happened, and has the unfortunate experience of running into Ginko - of course, she knew it wasn't actually Ginko, since Midori's wife had died to protect her from Loptr, ironically enough. Azure didn't do much besides watch Ginko... well, Void really, threaten Loptr, since the one time Azure tried to interject in the discussion Void awoke all of Azure's old pain from her merger with Talon, flooring her instantly.

When reading about how Amber had been turned into an Angel, and Lord had been outed, she worried Nao who she had been trying to spend time with. While they talked about things, one of Azure's deepest fears reared its head, as Nao seemed worried, if not scared of Azure - or that is, what Azure could become. After all, Nao had seen what could potentially become of Azure, in the worst scenario. One set of words through the whole discussion resonated with Azure, more than she ever wanted it to, and for the first time made her doubt if she would stay human enough to stay at Nao's side. *You're dangerous.*

Azure finally had a chance to get a Key when Void appeared before her again, in Ginko's body. Azure agreed to duel her readily enough, but Azure wasn't really rising to her bait about wanting Azure at her most 'vindictive and vengeful'... at least until right before the duel started, when Ginko threatened to go after Nao if Azure lost. She barely even had a chance to unwind from the stress and reaction of dueling a fragment of God when Chyva and Nao tackle hugged her, having rushed out when she had texted them about dueling an evil void god.

Afterwards, Azure got to deal with some relatively normal teen drama for a bit - well, normal by her standards - when Chyva defeated Kay and her Negative Numbers. Azure let Chyva deal with this, partly because she knew Chyva wanted to prove herself, and partly because Azure knew Kay had been through so much that she needed Chyva's gentle touch. What started out as a bit of spoiling of Kay turned into learning more about her, and Azure felt herself drawn to the girl as much as Chyva was. Though Nao had gone back out on her expedition, the two kept Kay around for a while, and even at one point got a message to Nao - with an a-ok - and the 3 girls plus a demigoddess had become four.

Azure organized one last Raid, getting a group together to go deal with Suzuki - to save Muse for Sayo, and to save Xiu... mostly for Kay's sake, but also to remove the Angel's foothold. She teamed up with Akahito against Ace and her assistant Samantha, and the two defeated Suzuki's employees without much difficulty, including Azure's first use of her Searing Light against a human - and thankfully she had in fact figured out how to dial it back, so it caused little actual damage.

Immediately prior to the finale, Azure received a new card from Rebecca, along with the rest of the keyholders; Omega the Magnet Warrior - a walking Necro Fusion, this card would help Azure theoretically turbo out her ace faster.

During the finale, the fights were savage. She watched in horror when Ryuko vanished having lost to Eriel, before Tabooru defeated Amber's doppleganger. Alicia defeated... another Sayo of all things, then Namiko did her Goddess proud defeating Taliel. Mary died to Samael, before an emotionally numbed Amber savagely OTK'd Death before running out of all steam and just kind of limply following where Aoi and Kerath led her. Aoi was the one who suggested the obvious one to use the key to God's door - Azure, of course. So she stepped forward with the hopes of humanity behind her to take on the final trial. It was, perhaps, fitting that Azure's final attack was with Knightmare Phoenix. Because of course, God would be defeated by a Link Monster that shouldn't exist.

God stood back up after Phoenix had bowled her over, and told Azure to come with her. Where they arrive is somewhere that Azure struggles to comprehend, as it was never really a place a human was meant to go. At the center of the platform they're standing on, though, is the one stable point in the crystalline, fractalized world she's found herself in; what looks suspiciously like an old fashioned astrolabe, and offered Azure the simple prize for winning - besides their world still existing, she was allowed to change any one thing. Of course, changing stuff in the past would then let the chips fall where they may - she considered asking Greater Ba'al to not die, which would have prevented the Ba'al from appearing at all - but then, she'd have never met Nao, or Chyva, or anything else. She knew she had grown through her experiences, and didn't want them to have never happened. She wanted those who had died or fallen... Ryuko and Mary, Owain and Anzod, and anyone else - to come back, though God couldn't promise what would happen in whatever new timeline that Azure created. She was floored - a 17 year old girl shouldn't be determining the fate of creation and the timeline, though God pointed out to her that was what she had done the moment she raised her duel disk, which Azure conceded the point.

Finally, her choice was simple - they didn't lose the Vanguard tournament so those fifty thousand people weren't lost. Loptr was still defeated by Aoi and Midori's plot, and they still settled down at the Serpent's Get. The Flowers would never have happened, so they wouldn't have come to harass people and mess things up, either. God even promised that in that case, the souls of the Flowers would be preserved, so that maybe they'd come to pass in the new timeline anyway, in a more natural fashion. With that one bit of worry eased, she made her wish, and everything changed. Yet, it still mostly stayed the same, as she woke up sandwiched between Nao and Chyva, content and happy - though Talon had to have been Destroyed by Midori within her body, that was a small lonesome note to her. The only problem she could see would be caused if Chyva didn't stop flirting with Kay!

### Post Seaside

Eventually, Azure married Kay while Chyva married Nao - all 4 were truly a single unit in their own hearts, but this takes care of the legal issues and the societal issues, given Nao and Chyva's background as a business heir and royalty respectively. Azure went on to the pro leagues, taking on the title as the Railgun - specializing in Borrel cards powered by her Electromagnets. However, her pro career came to an abrupt and sudden halt, right before taking on her old school friend Akahito when in a sparring match with Kay the broken pieces of the Avenger finally woke back up... fused with her inner potential, her Searing Light. This awoke Azure herself (with no voice in the back of her head anymore, as Talon was well and truly destroyed) as the Pseudo High Ba'al of Pain, leading her to have to take up that mantle and its responsibilities herself - though with the support of her wives, and Celeste who she regularly visited to cleanse her of her buildup of Pain, while making Chyva her Voice to keep easy communication with Chyva and Nao as they continued to preserve Greater Ba'al.

## Abilities

Azure began Seaside as a very normal teenage girl, but as the Ba'al situation spiraled out of control she quickly found herself in possession of several abilities at different points, including her own latent gifts awakened during Season 3.

### Seed

Azure is what is referred to as a "Seed" - a human on the cusp of the evolutionary leap that will manifest humans with a physical soul, like the Lesser Ba'al (although in the Bad-End Future, such humans were referred to as "Flowers"). One of the main characteristics of Seeds is a kind of drawing in attraction to other Seeds; as is Azure's case with both Nao and Chyva, and at one point Akahito.

### Azure Gorgon

During Season 1, Loptr inflicted Pendulum cards upon Azure, giving her a voice in her head that whispered at her to cause Pain to others, as well as the ability to do physical damage with her cards. The voice eventually became distinct enough she could talk and reason with it, nicknaming it her "Talon". However, as she grew more and more comfortable with the power, she grew more and more comfortable with using it, eventually severely injuring another student. This resulted in her getting Talon's power cleansed from her by Ec Tisia, the Sovereign.

This power returned to her in Season 2, when the pieces of Azure Gorgon (her Talon) that Vii had ripped to shreds in the Season 1 finale were being found and possessing people. They started to collect the pieces, but everything changed after a large part of Talon was defeated in a duel by Akahito. The power within Tilia they knew as MjR (a part of Vii's own power) collected the Gorgon's soulstuff and shoved it back into Azure. The first thing she noticed was her hair turning jet black. This combination made Azure into a pseudo High Ba'al herself, with the Gorgon's definition of Pain. She claimed the epiteth of the Cursed Avenger, seeking vengeance against Loptr and all of her minions. While combined with Azure Gorgon, she had many of the powers of a High Ba'al - she could generate "cards of light" to duel with, emit a field to shut off signal and Seal areas. She also gained control of the Gorgon's primary duel based Power - The Beast of Seven Heads (allowing her to banish opponent's cards face-down if one of hers was removed from the field). She didn't inherit a High Ba'als power of teleportation - not because she couldn't, but because she wouldn't, since that would involve travelling across Loptr's Seal. This power was lost to her before the end of Season 2, when after Griffin and Aoi helped reclaim the rest of Talon's pieces, she managed to assemble the entire High Ba'al within herself. She and Gorgon both wanted to exist, however, and in the end she took up Midori's offer to have her soul transferred to the soulless body of Celeste, leaving her old body behind to become the true High Ba'al of Pain.

### The Voice of Pain

In Seaside Ride 2, while Azure and the Gorgon were fully separated by now it was revealed that Azure (as the person who knew the Avenger's way of thinking better than anyone since for a long time they were one and the same being) had become the head priestess of Azure Gorgon, the Avenger. As the Gorgon's Voice, she had the Authority to Speak in the Avenger's name, as well as a reflection of the Gorgon's power - her pain healed more slowly than most, she gained the ability to feel pain in others and grow stronger in the presence of pain - even emotional pain "fed" her. She also gained the ability to inflict Pain on others at a touch.

### Searing Light

In Seaside Rumble Season 3, the event Midori and Loptr had forseen and Nao had feared came to pass. Upon her possession by Zerachiel's Negative Numbers, Azure's latent Power erupted, and for quite a bit of time she didn't have control over it; she was tutored by both Aoi and XaaCi on how to try to refine her power she called "Searing Light". Ironically against yet more opponents that could not be hurt, the main aspect of the power of her Searing Light was to manifest cards into reality without the use of a Hard Light generator, as well as combining her Light with the power of the Voice of Pain to create searing beams of sheer pain and destruction. Her most obvious usage of this power was involuntary, when it was revealed that Nao had been kidnapped by Lailah, she lost herself for a short time, melting down a radius of chairs in the Academy's Dueling Arena that had the misfortune of being in her general vicinity when she read the message. By the finale, she had learned to control it potently enough that she could use it in a duel:
**Once per duel, during your Battle Phase; Destroy 1 monster on your opponent's field with DEF of 2500 or less; and then inflict damage to your opponent equal to the difference between that monster's DEF on the field and 2500.**

After the cosmic retcon, Azure's Searing Light did awaken but in a different manner. Since in this continuity, the Avenger and her never separated bodies (instead Midori "broke" the Avenger in Azure's), while working her way up the pro leagues, the shattered pieces of the High Ba'al of Pain found their way in her soul to her latent potential, and awoke again - the Searing Light combining with the High Ba'al power within her to awaken Azure as the new High Ba'al of Pain, the successor to Azure Gorgon's power. Though her Power set in duels was slightly different than the Gorgon's (Gorgon's "Beast of Seven Heads" was changed to Azure's "Serpent of Searing Pain" for example) the result was the same, and Azure quit the pro life to settle into her new existence as a pseudo High Ba'al.

## Relationships

### Yamato Nao

Azure knew Nao at first mostly by reputation, not actually meeting until right before the planning session on how to lure out Monochrome by having Azure try to rile up Lord. Nao offered Azure pointers on how to try to seduce a woman, given that it is not something Azure had ever even considered. She helped keep Nao updated with what the Raiders were doing, but their relationship truly started after Azure almost killed Celeste - after Akahito convinced Azure not to throw herself into the ocean, Nao joined the two of them and was her anchor when she started to communicate fully with her "Talon" - she ended up spending the night at Nao's room, and jokingly offered to become one of the knights of Nao's fanclub. The next time they met (Azure having an excuse to share intel about SaaZe having infiltrated the fanclub), Azure offered instead to become her princess.

They began dating after that, although it wasn't fully official until after the end of Rumble Season 1, when Azure got promoted to the Blue dorm. Nao used her newfound leverage on Azure to strongarm her off of the front line with the Ba'al. Both of them knew how fragile Azure had become, and how toxically dependent Azure had become on Nao for her mental stability, so Azure for the most part acquised; although the events at the end of the Vanguard Tournament put her back on the front line, especially once pieces of her 'Talon' began surfacing. Their relationship seemingly broke when Chyva stole Nao away from Azure, at the same time that Azure recombined with the Gorgon. However, due to some trickery of her own, she "reclaimed" Nao. Nao was despondent, having come to care about both of them in equal but seperate ways, which caused Azure to swallow her pride and make a truce with Chyva, and the three of them entered a relationship together.

This relationship lasted past the cosmic retcon, and Nao and Chyva were legally wed, while Azure married Kay (who was added towards the end of their school career). That said, all 4 of them were as close as if they were all married, this setup was simply a measure of convenience for all parties and families.

### Takahara Akahito

Akahito was probably Azure's oldest friend in the entire Academy. The very first duel to kick off the school year was actually Azure and her Galaxy Eyes getting one-turn-killed by Akahito's Dark Magician deck. They met many times after that, though the defining moment at the beginning was when Akahito, manipulated by XaaCi's pendulums accidentally caused Azure to break her rib. She also helped him figure out fitting back in with the rest of the group after his return from his time being eaten by The Devourer, and he tried to help her when she was losing her minds to her own Pendulums. In the end, while there was a mutual attraction between the two (at least partially caused by both of them being Seeds) she fell harder for Nao and ended up dating her instead - even if, for a time, Akahito literally held her heart. Well, the heart of the Azure Gorgon, at least.

### Charlotte Desirae Lord

Her first actual face to face meeting with Lord went both exactly as intended and not as well as desired, considering the ending of their meeting was a Lesser Ba'al masquerading as a White Dorm student got strangled to death by Ryuko before them both. Her next meetings were just as bad, considering it was after Azure had been gifted Pendulums. She willingly worked with Lord for the most part, since she was the de-facto leader of the Seaside Raiders, and they two got along well enough. As well as anyone who never ended up sleeping with Lord, anyway.

### Kaori "Kay" Suzuki

Azure got to know Kay in bits and pieces, since it seemed like Kay had the worst luck of any student in the academy. She was the first successful case of cleansing a student of SaaZe via divine intervention (from Azure and Celeste), she was the first possessed by a piece of Azure's "Talon" to hand over a body part to one of the Raiders, and she found herself possessed by a Negative Number given to her by an Angel, due to the perceived threat of her roommate being a host to SaaZe and then passing the corruption to the Suzuki corporation's leader, her cousin Xiu. After the last situation was dealt with by Chyva (while Nao was still off-world on Greater Ba'al), Chyva and Azure managed to bring her into the fold of their relationship - Azure hesitated at first, but she knew Kay was always part of the fanclub, and she felt great sympathy for the girl. After the cosmic retcon, she still found her way into their relationship, eventually being Azure's legal wife.

### Loptr

Azure had a hate-hate relationship with Loptr, which after the events of Rumble 2 turned into a tolerate-hate relationship; mostly because she came to realize who she hated was The Devourer, and after the breaking she was just Loptr. Azure even defended Loptr against some of Akahito's rants due to this. By the end of the series, she had a somewhat favorable view of Loptr and Sayo; given that she was "family" at the Serpent's Get as the Avenger's Voice, and actively sought volunteers to help Loptr reclaim one of her Sayos from the corrupted Suzuki Corp.

### Azure Gorgon

Once separated permanently from Azure, their relationship which was always a bit strained became much clearer cut, and the Avenger quickly volunteered Azure for her Voice, given that they were in many ways similar beings given that the Gorgon was "born" from Azure's baser instincts. The Gorgon even worked her way somewhat into their dating circle, with Chyva becoming a Priestess of the Martyr she was able to use a variation of Celeste's healing powers to take the Gorgon's pain away, making her a much more tolerable being to be around. After the cosmic reset, the Gorgon was gone; broken in Azure's body instead of alone in Azure's body while Azure moved to Celeste's, because they couldn't come to an agreement while sharing it.

### Suenami Ryuko

Although Azure knew her much better as Smoke, Ryuko was Azure's roommate in the Yellow Dorm and the first to inadvertently show her a Pendulum Card. Ryuko became Azure's primary go-to of the other factions of anti Ba'al fighting in the Academy, especially once Ryuko began hosting Vii. When Ryuko "died" at the end of Rumble Season 1, Azure was highly disturbed by this - considering she knew that Ryuko had fallen in battle against "her Talon" while Azure dueled her mother.

### Celeste

Azure's relationship to Celeste started out very, very badly. Celeste came to try to "exorcise" Azure's demons at just the wrong time in her mental state, and nearly died for her trouble when Azure's Pendulum fueled rage caused Utopia to nearly cut the girl in half. Celeste never once blamed Azure, only herself for her weakness. Azure worked closely with Celeste as Celeste became a priestess of Ec Tisia, and left helping her brother to Celeste when she was on 'house arrest' by Nao during the lead up to the Vanguard Tournament.

Celeste continued giving Azure gifts up to and past her death, however; blessing Midori's plan to move Azure's soul into Celeste's vacated body to seperate Azure from The Cursed Avenger, although in doing so Azure realized she'd have to live the rest of her life with the scar she herself caused as a reminder of what happens when she crosses the line. After the cosmic reset, Azure and Celeste remained friends, including Celeste offering Azure a weekly cleansing of the gathered Pain she couldn't be rid of as the Avenger.

### Griffin Talon

It took a long time for Azure to get over her hurt towards her brother. She had made the mistake of starting to date Griffin's best friend, Kendar Rdan. This relationship didn't end well, and Azure ended up hurt by Griffin refusing to take sides in the break up, given the logical point that she had put herself in that position over his protests in the first place. They finally did make up during Seaside Ride, and this filled her with worry when he disappeared in the course of the leadup to the Vanguard tournament. After, they kept in contact with Griffin watching things in the city while Azure was watching the school, and Griffin also helped Azure's girlfriends to find the Martyr to heal the Pain she was in after completing the Gorgon within herself.

### Kendar Rdan

They dated in Azure's backstory, and things didn't end well. Kendar refused to accept so regularly 'losing to a girl' and broke it off with her over the mocking of his friend group. They never were friends again, though Azure was able to swallow her pride and accept some aid from him during Ride 2 (although he was a great demonstration of her new Pain Touch), and the Suzuki raid in Rumble 3.

### XaaCi

Azure's relationship with XaaCi was... complicated. Their first meeting was painful, including XaaCi sucker-punching Azure in the broken rib, and their second meeting wasn't much better when Azure and Akahito dueled XaaCi and SaaZe. After Loptr was re-sealed at the end of the Vanguard Tournament, XaaCi was a lot more chill, however, and Azure and she met several times in almost friendly situations - XaaCi for example was there almost right away when Azure was turned back into the Gorgon by MjR, and helped Azure learn how to handle her new found High Ba'al powers (such as turning off cell reception around her). When Azure's powers awoke in Rumble 3 after she was cleansed from her Negative Numbers, XaaCi along with Aoi were her main teachers - Aoi to teach her control, XaaCi to teach her utilization of her newfound gifts. While XaaCi had a mocking tone towards Azure's deck (Frequent mutterings of "I hate that card." accompanied by smiles), they were as close as anyone Azure wasn't actively dating - had things with Chyva and Nao fallen through, she might have even pursued that avenue (though that would likely drive Akahito to even more despair).

### Sue 'Nimi' Onimi

Nao's knight and ninja, once Azure was forced to sit out of the Vanguard tournament she met Nimi. Not only was Nimi her replacement on the team, but also Nao assigned Nimi to Azure as a kind of personal watcher. She often appeared as a voice of reason or advice to Azure during her darker times as the Avenger, and stayed with Azure rather than returning to Nao when Chyva claimed Nao.

### Chyvalia von Reinhardt

Azure found herself instantly attracted to Chyva, as much as that shamed her when she was - though she later determined that's as much the magnetism that exists between Seeds talking as much as anything, not to mention the light aphrodisiac in Chyva's perfume. When Chyva claimed Nao out from under Azure the very night Azure became The Avenger, her attitude towards Chyva turned very, very dark - only using all of her self control did she resist the urge to use her Purpose of Pain on the true Prince. Eventually through some trickery she met back up with Nao, and on learning that Nao's feelings for Chyva were 100% legit instead of manipulation or drugging, Azure changed her course - her main goal was to make Nao happy, after all. This directly resulted in Azure and Nao meeting with Chyva, and deciding on a mutual relationship between the three of them, which only grew over time until Chyva was just as dear in Azure's heart as Nao.

### Neue Talon

Learning of Neue's existence sickened Azure at first; her sensibilities wrapped up in modern day ethics told her that the child of her and her full blood brother was an abominable concept. Once she learned more about the girl, her disgust turned to horror, that her child had been infused with essentially Vii's corpse and used to murder her friends in the other timeline. Once Neue tried to claim one or both of her parents in the finale of Rumble 2 (and was put down by each of them in turn), her horror turned to sympathy. After Loptr's defeat, when Neue's timeline ceased to be possible and was Corrected, Azure and Griffin tried their best to help Neue adjust. In Rumble Season 3 she was happy that Neue had found a place by Lucille's side in the new Black Dorm, and still kept in regular contact with her future-daughter, and was infuriated when Neue was forced to "forget" her temporarily when the girl's true mother, now in the form of the Angel Lailah had corrupted her temporarily. Post cosmic recon, one of God's promises had been proven correct; the souls of the Flowers did indeed move on in the new reality, although Neue ended up the daughter of two different Seeds - Griffin and Odyssey, though with frequent visits to her "Aunt Azure".

## Decks

### Seaside Rumble

Azure began Seaside using a Galaxy-Eyes deck she had received from her father as a gift to start school with, but quickly found the deck didn't respond properly to her. After a losing streak to start the year, she switched back to her childhood deck of Magnet Warriors, which is the main deck she used for the rest of the series. When temporarily gifted with Pendulums by Loptr, some of her Magnet deck had been converted into Majespecters.

### Seaside Ride

In Vanguard, Azure used a Bermuda Triangle deck focusing on Coral, gifted to her by Nao as a way to try to get in touch with her feminine side a bit more. While playing Buddyfight, she goofed around with a Danger World deck focusing on Armorknights, with a special spot for Infinite Armament, Dangerous Cradle that she found as an amusing reference to a show she liked.

### Custom Cards

Both from her time corrupted by Zerachiel and her Custom for the Final Gauntlet, these custom cards were at one time or another held by Azure:

Numbers -30: Death Acid Golem

Numbers -51: Finisher the Lariat

Omega the Magnet Warrior