Snags and Snares

Author’s Note: From this chapter on in, I am using Ssquall and Mist’s Xenogears Script as a basic source, with their permission. Their website is at: http://www.xgam.org/xenogears/script/.

Fei and Bart looked from the white haired man to Aireel in open-faced shock.

"Do you know each other?" the pirate finally asked.

"We're from the same neighborhood," the woman replied in a rather dry and icy tone.

"Slightly an understatement. Aren't you supposed to be dead or in one of his experiment rooms?" he asked with a small sneer.

"Don't you ever mention that man again, Ramsus," she growled, "You have no room to talk about experiments...reject."

The white-haired man’s face turned into a very nasty expression of hatred at the single word she used. “Call me that again and I’ll kill you, regardless of what he says.”

"Aireel, what's going on? Who is this guy?" Fei asked.

"The enemy, that's all you need to know," she replied, then watched as the man's gaze shifted from her to Fei.

"Glad to see you guys here. Hey, Fei, who's the guy you brought along?" Bart asked quickly to the others.

"Bart, what happened? It was supposed to be a simple rescue mission," Fei asked, suddenly remembering where they were.

"Shut up! This Gebler geek got in my way and slowed me down! You didn't answer the question, Fei. Who's the guy?" the pirate asked.

"Fei?" the Gebler man asked, then seemed to be distant as he tried to remember where he had heard the name from...and then drew his sword, pointing it at the young man.

"Enough talk! Battling will reveal the truth about you," he added.

"Watch out! This Gebler guy's pretty strong," Bart remarked and saw Aireel sheathe her long weapon, opting to use her fists instead.

Miang simply stood and studied the four fighters while she routinely healed her ally and studied Fei and the red-haired woman.

A supposedly dead woman and him...teamed with the prince of Aveh...Studying this group will be most interesting, she thought and suddenly staggered back, gasping and looking at her.

"So...you're to be the next one," the indigo-haired woman remarked, "How ironic."

"Shut up," Aireel retorted, "and fight me!"

"Tempting, but another time. I am here as a medic, nothing more. Now, on with the battle!"

As the four battled Ramsus, Aireel and Bart occasionally glanced at the nearby elevator.

At one point, the white-haired commander took a certain pose and stood in place.

Aireel saw Bart start to move with his whip ready to strike when she said, "Hold still! He's about to give a nasty counterattack!"

Her remark came too late as the pirate struck with the whip. Almost immediately, the Gebler man retaliated with three sword blows.

"I told you not to..." she grumbled.

Matt grabbed his bag and came out with a bottle of something, which he threw at Bart.

The young man drank it and said, "Thanks!"

"I've got Alphasols but the one I gave you was an Aquasol S. I'm a friend of Aireel's and I'm sick of this war," was the reply.

"Any friend of hers is a friend of mine!"

“Now will you listen to me, pirate boy?” the young woman asked, shaking her head a little.

The party waited until the man named Ramsus struck Fei with his sword.

"Okay, now you can resume!"

The party started up their attacks again, Fei and Aireel preferring to use martial arts, Bart with his whip and Matt unsheathed a sword that he had concealed after the Tournament, joining in with quite a few expert slashes to the Gebler commander.

Miang refused to enter combat herself and merely would use an Ether ability to heal Ramsus every once in a while, but for the most part, she studied Fei, as well as Aireel.

The red-haired young woman, after a couple more minutes, got in a chop to the enemy’s sword arm to disarm him.

The aide shook her head, saying in a somewhat-impressed, yet clinical tone, “Surface life hasn’t dulled your battle skills…and you haven’t lost yourself yet either…”

“If you value your life—“

Miang began to laugh in a rather cold, sinister manner, “I think you’d better be more concerned with yourself, ghost girl. Now if you don’t want trouble, you’d better come back with us to see him.”

Ramsus then stood still while looking at someone in the group, mumbling to himself. Aireel simply shook her head, thinking, I could care less what he’s talking to himself about. That man’s always been a bit looney…

Right then, Fei used a particular combo that she had seen only once or twice, knocking the enemy to his knees.

“Gah!”

Before anything else could be said, the girl in the background, the one with the reddish cape, was preparing something. Before she did anything, she called out, “Leave the rest to me!”

A split-second later, as the enemy moved into his defensive stance once again, a type of bomb went off, covering the floor with, of all things…

Ramsus looked bewildered as he asked, “Rats?”

The girl replied, “Here’s some real rats for you!”

Aireel glanced at the elevator and noticed that the doors were starting to open.

“Fei!” she called out in a sharp tone while jerking her head in the direction she had been watching.

As he turned, the doors opened completely and a Gebler officer came out.

The young man nodded and called out to the others, “Now!”

The new entrant started to draw his weapon, noticing the situation, but the entire group charged into him like a bull, knocking him out of the way.

Aireel sneered as the elevator doors closed upon the sight of Ramsus and Miang simply standing there, “Bunch of kooks.”

Bart looked at her and asked, “Those two Geblers acted like they know you. Just what in the world’s name is going on here? You one of them or something?”

She simply replied, “I never graduated from Gebler. Hell, I wasn’t even around there when I grew up.”

“Then how do they know you?”

The woman turned to him and said in a cold tone, “You’re better off not knowing.”

Matt simply nodded in agreement, not saying a word.

After a few moments, Bart asked, “Hey, Fei! Do you know where this elevator goes?"

The younger martial artist replied, “I don’t know. Where does it go?”

“I’m asking you! This thing wasn’t here before.”

The pirate sighed and shook his head, then turned to the red-caped girl.

“Don't worry. We'll get you back home... somehow!"

“I’m not worried.”

Aireel turned to her with a quiet smile, “Ah, you’re the one everyone’s in such a fuss over. Those monsters didn’t hurt you, did they?”

“Um, no, they didn’t. I never did get any Chiffon Nisan, though.”

“When we get back to where we came from, I can talk to Maison about making you some. Would you like that?”

“Sure! Hey…” she replied in a normal tone, then asked in a whisper, “Are you the Angel that they were talking about? The one called the Kislev Angel?”

Her face went blank for a moment, then whispered right back to her, “That’s me, all right…but let’s keep that as a secret between us two women, all right Margie?”

“Ahh, I gotcha.”

“Good girl,” the older one replies with a smile and ruffled the girl’s hat instead of her hair, which caused the younger one to giggle a bit and blush slightly.

Bart, Fei and Matt looked at the two, puzzled, then the latter spoke, “I swear, I’ll never understand women and their penchant for secrets and girl talk.”

The other two males simply shook their heads, then the pirate asked, turning back to the youth, “Hey, how’d the tournament go, Fei?”

This brought the man from Lahan up short as he remembered all that had happened. Aireel’s collapse in the ring, her strange talking, Wiseman’s own unusual behavior and forfeiting the match…

“Um, I won…I guess,” he managed to reply in little better than a mumble.

The Aveh pirate nodded, “That’s what I thought.” He then frowned, “That means you beat Aireel too? How’d you manage a trick like that?”

The woman in question replied, “By luck. I had some leftover from the sunstroke yesterday and passed out.”

Fei was not about to contest her answer, even though he knew it was only a lie. It wasn’t sunstroke that caused her to faint, it was whatever had hit Doc, too, even if he had recovered faster.

“Considering where you’re from—“ Bart started to say before he yelped and hopped on one foot for a few seconds.

Aireel said in a rather conversational tone, “Really, pirate boy, you should watch where you put your feet.”

He shot her a look then whispered to Fei, “I knew you could do it,” and kept weight off of the foot until the doors opened.

As the group walked through the corridor that the elevator had opened into, Matt was constantly checking their left side, Bart the right, Aireel to the back and Fei to the front, with the red-caped girl in the middle. They remained silent, not wanting to be heard by anyone that could possibly be there. Once they entered the door on the other side of the corridor, though, they quickly went from compressed single-file into a more relaxed version of it. All five of them looked around at the apparent hangar bay, but what caught Fei and Aireel’s attention was the enormous battleship that was docked there.

“That’s…Gebler’s aerial battleship!” the young man exclaimed.

The woman nodded in confirmation, and said quietly, “The enemy has an underground headquarters. Pretty clever, that explains why the reports spoke of ships coming out from thin air…Matt, take note of our position in relation to the castle and town. The home base will want to know this.”

He nodded, “Right away,” but was cut in by Margie’s tense statement as she pointed at the battleship.

“Yeah, but look what's coming out of it...!”

Everyone looked and saw a bunch of Gebler soldiers running down the gangplank, most certainly headed their way.

“Persistant little sand worms,” Aireel replied, although a rather amused (although to the others it was frightening) smile appeared on her face.

Oh crud, Bart thought, I know that look, but spoke out loud, “Are you guys in the mood for another battle?”

Margie’s voice trembled as she said, “Bart, we’d better get outta here…and fast!”

Fei certainly agreed and said just before he poured on the speed, “Quick…run!”

Aireel nodded. Even though these were the kind of odds she liked, she had an innocent ward to bring to safe grounds. This was no time for battle. She quickly took Margie’s wrist, stated in an urgent tone, “Come, now!” and broke into a run herself, forcing the girl to do the same. She could hear Bart and Matt start running behind her.

The Gebler soldiers saw this and tried to run faster as well, although, in short order, the group had made it down the walkway, then to the soldiers’ right into a doorway that lead to the officers’ residence block.

***************

Within one of the quarters in the aforementioned area, Elhaym was resting when she saw the red flashes of light and heard the klaxons. She quietly wondered, An emergency situation…? What could be going on?

The reply came a mere second later in the form of an announcement, “There are intruders in the base! There are five intruders…presently heading…for the docking area. The three men may be killed…but do not harm the girl or the red-haired woman.”

Her first reaction was to head out of the door, although she turned towards a desk where there were several syringes, each filled with types of liquid.

She shook her head, thinking, No, then turned back to the door, walking out of it. The moment she did, though, she rather literally ran into someone. She looked up and saw someone she recognized from the Blackmoon Forest. Needless to say, both she and the individual in question were rather surprised.

“Fei!” she exclaimed.

“You’re…Elly? What are you doing here?”

“I should be asking you!” she retorted, then looked at the others with him. Two other men, one being the notorious Aveh pirate, a girl in a red cap and cape, a red-haired woman…

“Don’t tell me you’re the intruders, Fei?” she asked, catching on rather quickly.

The young man blinked, puzzled, and asked, “Huh?”

The pirate growled and stated, “If she’s in the way, just—“ then advanced towards her.

Almost instantly, Fei called out, “Wait a second, Bart! She... Elly is not an enemy!”

Matt growled and retorted, “Are you nuts, boy?”

Bart agreed, “Yeah. Not an enemy? Are you sane? Look at her uniform! She's a Gebler officer!”

Aireel snapped, “This isn’t the time to argue, we’ve got hostiles on our sixes!”

Fei remained silent, thinking, although as if to accentuate the woman’s reminder, there were the voices of Gebler soldiers shouting, “They ran in here!”

Elly quickly decided and said quietly, “Hurry! This way!” and ran back into the door that she had just come out of. She heard the others come in after her, then remain silent as the footsteps increased in sound as the soldiers ran towards them, and then decrease as they passed by.

After it was certain that the coast was clear, the Solaris woman said, “It sounds like they’ve gone…” then turned from the door to the back of her quarters, where the Aveh pirate was standing. Fei followed suit.

Bart started by asking, “Fei, can you explain to me how you know a Gebler officer?”

Fei began to reply, “Well…”when he was cut off by the pirate.

“I don't know where you met her, but no matter how you look at it...she's a Gebler officer! Not an enemy? Where do you get off saying that?”

Aireel glowered at him and snapped, “Shut up, Bart!”

Fei and Elly faced each other, looking right in the eye.

“Yes,” she confessed, “Special Forces of the Sacred Empire of Solaris...also known as Gebler...I'm Lt. Elhaym Van Houten of the Ignas Army's Third Assault Division. And…while returning from a mission to capture the newest model Gear from a Kislev military factory…I was attacked by pursuing Kislev Gears and crash-landed in your village.”

The younger man remained silent, although Aireel replied, “So, you’re the one that was the origin of Lahan being destroyed…and you said nothing?”

Elly nodded to Fei and the other woman, but said to the young man, “I wanted to tell you, but I just couldn't bring myself to. When I heard what my crash-landing in your village had caused... I couldn't tell you—“

“…I knew.”

She looked rather surprised, as well as puzzled. “Fei…”

“I overheard you talking with doc.”

“Then how come?”

“It was... all my fault. But I lashed out at you with my own feelings,” he replied, then paused for a moment to sigh before he added, “I'm sorry.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“Just forget about it. You couldn't help it. You had your own problems,” he answered in a tone that conveyed that that was the end of the subject.

“But, Fei…why are you with them?” she asked, looking at everyone that was in the room.

“I'm cooperating with Bart and his crew. We came to rescue Margie who was taken prisoner in the castle here.”

The girl in question smiled and waved at her, having a rather innocent demeanor at that moment as she held onto a fuzzy, pink toy.

“I see,” the Solarian replied, then quickly went to the door, which opened right away.

“Hey! Just a minute!” Bart exclaimed, suspicious right away, “Where do you think you're going?”

“You want to get out of the castle, right?” she countered, “In this confusion you can escape through the Gear launch door.”

“Great idea!” he replied, then changed his tone from an agreeing one to a rather questioning one, “But... do we really buy that?” It then changed one that was very cold, snide and hateful, “I don't think so! She talks sweet, but she's probably planning to turn us over to that old bald geezer.” He turned towards the two nearest the door, “It's a trick, Fei!”

Fei himself remained silent.

Margie stepped forward and said to him, “Wait Bart!” then added quickly before he could interrupt, “She's not a bad person. She said she'd help us, so let's go with her plan.”

Unfortunately, this infuriated him, and he replied, “You're always like this! Can't you see... she's in Gebler!? Don't be so damn trusting!”

“That's not true... is it, Elly?” she asked, her tone wavering a bit as she looked at the Solaris woman.

“Oh yeah? Look where your ability to judge characters got you...!”

Aireel growled, “Bartholomew, I told you once, and I’ll tell you once more. Shut the hell up!”

The Aveh pirate grumbled in a low tone, then looked right at the young man, “Fei, what about you? Do you believe her?”

He looked right at Elly and replied in a calm tone, “I made up my mind long ago.”

She blinked, rather surprised by what the statement meant, “Fei…”

He then made an angry, exhasperated sound, and retorted, “Gah! First you, now her!
The whole lot of you can go jump off a cliff for all I care!”

Aireel whirled on him with a very icy gaze that seemed to be accentuated by the color of her eyes, and replied in a matching tone, “Then you go ahead and jump off said cliff, and let the rest of us get out of here with our lives. If you want to stay here by yourself in this base, go right ahead. We don’t need you.” She then added to the woman, “Let’s go, Elhaym.”

“Right,” she replied and went through the door. A second later, she added, “Wait here a second,” ran out to the adjoining hallway, checked it, then ran back.

“The coast is clear,” she reported, “Quick, follow me!”

Aireel nodded and gestured to Fei, Matt and Margie, then followed the woman out of the quarters, across the hallway and into the door that Elhaym had indicated, pointedly ignoring Bart as if he was never there.

Once the group arrived in the room, they looked about them, recognizing it as a large Gear hangar. Elly lead them towards a Gear that looked as though it was of Aveh design.

“How ironic,” Aireel commented, “An Aveh Gear to get us out of here in one piece. Is it as roomy as I heard it is?”

“How do you know stuff like that…or even know what my name is?”

The woman laughed, although the laugh was half bitter and half warm, “My dear Elhaym, there are a lot of things I know, and a lot more that are better left unquestioned. I’m sure there are things about you that you would rather others not know, eh?”

The Solarian officer nodded, “I see your point. Now’s not the time.”

Aireel heard another set of footsteps behind her and immediately drew her gun, pointing it at the source.

“Hey, hey! Don’t go and shoot me!”

Aireel relaxed only slightly as she replied sarcastically, “I thought you rather liked this place, pirate boy.”

Bart, who was still on the business end of her gun, replied, “You’re still gonna need me to at least get to Nisan.”

She merely nodded for a moment, then holstered her weapon.

Elly turned to Fei and said to him, “This is the Gear's start up code. You can start any standard Gear with this code.” She then whispered a series of numbers to him.

He kept in his mind what she had said, but otherwise, looked rather puzzled, “Elly?”

“This is all that I can do for you. The rest is up to fate…”

Aireel looked right at her and said quietly, “Fate…I wonder…” She then added with a tone that had iron to it, “Let’s go.”

Bart nodded to her, “Alright! Let’s go, Fei!”

As the others hurried to the Gear in question, the Aveh pirate noticed that Fei had remained where he was.

“What’re you doing? Hurry up!”

The younger man remained quiet, then blurted out, “Elly! Come with us!”

The auburn-haired woman looked rather alarmed at this.

“You’re not suited for a place like this!” he added.

Aireel shook her head at them. She is, yet she isn’t. She certainly doesn’t fit well as what she is now, but…what would Erich say? She then heard rather distant steps, and called out, “Company!”

Bard nodded and yelled, “You heard Aireel. You're just wasting time talking!
They're coming! We're gonna get caught!”

“Elly...” Fei said, trying to think of a way to quickly convince her of what he was saying.

She shook her head, then replied, “Thanks, but it's impossible. I'm...a Solaris soldier...
This is where I belong. I can't go with you.”

She then started to walk away, to be stopped by a surprised, “Elly!” from the young Lahan man.

The woman stopped in her tracks, looking away from him. She said in a tone of warning, “Fei, the next time we meet…we’ll be enemies,” then ran off.

Aireel and Bart stood in the cockpit, the former glaring as she said, “Come on, boy! Forget about her and get in!”

“Don’t call me boy,” he muttered as he entered the Gear, “This code had better work…”

A few seconds later, the Gear powered up, then walked to the exit, where a conveyor belt awaited it. From there, it was only a few short seconds to the launcher. By the time that Ramsus had walked into the hangar, the Gear had been launched from there, already in the sky and headed back to the Yggdrasil.

***************

The white-haired man growled, frustrated that the Nisan girl had escaped…right along with the woman that everyone in his home country thought was dead. A ghost, all grown up, as it were.

In front of him were a line of Gebler personnel, all at-attention, all of them pale with a bit of fear and anger. They knew what Ramsus was like when he was infuriated, and none of them wanted to accidentally catch his eye, not right now.

One of the officers and the woman from before, Miang, walked in. She quietly hoped that she had come in time, before any orders could be given out that would contradict the contents of the messenger beside her. In the front row was Elly herself. She alone knew that the intruders had escaped him because of her.

Ramsus saw his assistant and ordered, “Miang, get my Wyvern powered up now! I must pursue them...”

Just in time, the officer said and picked up the pace. As soon as he reached the man, he called out, “Commander Ramsus!”

The man in question turned to the officer and nearly roared, “What is it?”

The officer then whispered, “Commander... I've a message from Hyu...” and gave him the paper, which said,

Kahr,

Let the group that took Mother Marguerite go. There are other eyes on them, my friend, including my own.

Hyuga.

He exclaimed, “What?!” as he read the note. He thought for a moment, then ordered, turning back to the troops, “Stop the power up! Recall all men back to base and wait for further orders!” He then said quietly, thinking out loud, “... That fool. What is he doing down here now...?”

***************

There was quite a group of people on the outside deck of the Yggdrasil. Fei, Bart, Sigured, Maison, Margie and Aireel stood about, with Bart’s back turned to them. Everyone else, including the Kislev woman, was facing the young girl.

“Well, Marguerite,” Sigurd asked, “Now that we have saved you, may we ask you one thing...?” He then asked in an incredulous tone, “Why did you go up against the enemy by yourself?”

“Yes, I’d love to know that myself,” Aireel commented, “You’re a little young to be fighting with uneven odds. It may be for me, but it’s not for everyone.”

The girl replied meekly, “Sorry... but... I heard a rumor in town that day...It was said that the Sect's sisters who were captured by Aveh were still alive...”

“Good heavens,” the red-haired woman whispered, closing her eyes, “So those Gebler lunatics did kill them…”

“Obviously a groundless rumor started by the enemy in order to lure you out,” Sigurd replied.

“Maybe so to experienced soldiers such as you or I,” Aireel said to him, “But to little girls, any glimmer of hope is better than none.” She said to Margie, “That doesn’t nullify your actions, though. Aveh is a battlefield, and what we’re fighting is a war. Remember that.”

“I know that, Miss Aireel! But…”

Maison stepped in, looking to both Sigured and Aireel, “Please, don't be so hard on her...The Nisan Sect is Marguerite's home. It's perfectly understandable.”

From his position, Bart suddenly cut in with a low, neutral tone, “Then... you thought you could save them alone!?” It then changed to one of exasperation and anger, “That was stupid!!”

Margie’s legs came together as she replied, “I believed it! So what!? I was wrong.
But...” Her voice wavered as she added, “But... grandma and mom were already executed...”

Aireel walked over to Bart and grabbed his arm, wheeling him around to face her. She then stared at him icily for a few seconds, right before she raised an arm and backhanded him across the face.

Just about everyone gasped at what she did and was doing. Bart stumbled back a step and rubbed on the spot where the blow had connected. Maison and Sigurd had called out in shock at close to the same time, “Miss Aireel!”

She ignored them and spoke in a voice of steel, “I had really thought that after that meeting three years ago, you had truly changed. Although you did pretty well in getting to where we met up with you, you bluntly jeopardized the mission, costing us valuable time with that hot-head of yours wired to your mouth. I thought I had taught you to not use your eyes and hears one-hundred percent of the time, but to also use your heart. But no, you had to get all huffed up just because of where Elhaym is currently at. If you hadn’t been so pig-headed, we’d have been out of here before now.”

“Hey—“

Her eyes took on an icy fire, “Did I tell you to talk?!” She then added, “And that bit just now…yes, this is a battlefield, but you can’t really blame her wanting to rescue her grandmother and mother. She just chose the wrong method for doing it, that’s all. And what did you do? You berated her, both in the Gebler quarters and just now. Marguerite made an error that got her captured, that’s true, but she’s learned some valuable lessons from it. That’s more than I can say for you. You haven’t learned a thing at all in three years, boy!” She accentuated the last word with a second backhand, using her other hand this time.

“M-Miss Aireel,” Marguerite spoke quietly, becoming a little frightened and protective as she saw what the woman was doing.

“Miss Aireel, I think that the young master understands what you’re saying,” Maison quietly added.

The woman then glared and nodded to them both before going belowdecks.

“Marguerite...Miss Aireel…” Sigurd said quietly, not knowing just what to say. In a way, it was and wasn’t Aireel’s place to say and do what she did. When he found out later just what had happened that she had been referring to, he would later tell Bart that he was very lucky it was her that punished the young master and not him. He might have done more than leave a couple of marks across his face.

In the present, Maison said, “At any rate, Marguerite is here unhurt. That's the main thing! Before luck runs out, let's take Marguerite to Nisan. We can talk more there.
Now, I'll go prepare Marguerite's room.” He then turned to Margie, “Miss Marguerite, may I ask you to accompany me?” and left the outer bridge, heading for the hatch. Margie started to follow him.

“Margie!” Bart shouted, still rubbing at his face where Aireel had hit him. He knew that there would be a couple of bruises come morning.

She turned around, not knowing what to expect.

“Next time, let us know!! We'll go for you!”

She nodded, “Yeah…I’ll do that.”

The girl then followed Maison into the hatch.

Sigured then turned to Bart and said quietly, “Marguerite is straining herself. Young master, you should be kind to her.” He then went into the hatch, followed by Fei, Bart and the others.