Here it is, I'm trying to get this sequel to Ramsus and the Elements put up on RPGamer.com, hopefully you'll like this as much as I did writing it. Thanks for reading it.

JC

Citan Mizuki sat alone in his small workspace at his home, waiting for his guest. His guest was expected anytime now, so Citan took this free time to continue writing more of his memoirs of everything that had happened within the past two years. He'd been writing his account of everything for the past few months, in between helping to rebuild his home, and the destroyed village of Lahan that he lived near. He was writing memoirs so they could someday be read by everyone, and hopefully even be passed down long after he died so future generations could know what mistakes his had, and not have history repeat itself. It was around seven months after the whole ordeal had ended, and although the world still needed more healing than anyone in Citan's lifetime could do, there was for once, peace.

Just as Citan was writing his account of the first meeting with Id, there was a knock at his office door. When it opened, Mui, Citan's wife, was standing there with a tall, blonde haired young man.

"Citan, Billy's here." Mui said, holding a cup of tea in her hands. She walked in, and gave the cup of tea to Citan, and he thanked her.

"Thank you, dear." Citan said, taking the tea. She nodded, and walked out as Billy Lee Black, 17 year old former priest, walked in and sat down on the couch near Citan's desk.

Billy looked much different than he had when he was a fighter. Instead of the blue priest's robe he used to wear, now he wore a brown trench coat much like his father's, a light blue dress shirt, brown slacks and brown hiking boots. Billy reminded Citan so much of Jessie when he was Jessie's age.

"Thanks for coming, Billy." Citan said.

"It's kind of important."

Billy shrugged. "There was really nothing to do at the Snowfields anyway. There's enough food for whole year, and we've been able to get power running so there's light all the time."

"How's your father?"

"He's fine, so, Prim. The old man's trying to be New Kislev's sheriff because Rico's trying to get the place back in order, and offered him the job. Age never seems to catch up with that man."

Citan chuckled, then the look on his face turned serious.

"There's something I'd like you to do, Billy."

"What is it?"

"Remember a little while before we fought in Merkava, Fei, Emeralda, and I went to a large lighthouse."

Billy started to think back, and remembered hearing about it, but never visited the underground city he'd heard so much about.

"I remember, but I never went down there." Billy said.

"That's what I called you here for." Citan cleared his throat, and stood up in front of Billy.

"Being you're not so busy, I wanted to send you on what I'd call an investigation of this underground city from the Zeboim era. We never had too much time to spend on it when we first explored it, we had other concerns. So although I'd like to go back down there and see more of what I can explore, I'd rather you and some others go down and report what you've explored for me and everyone else curious."

It didn't sound like such a bad idea to Billy. He was curious about the Zeboim era himself.

"Why choose me though? There are quite a few other people who'd like to explore below the lighthouse, and I'm not exactly a scientist." Billy said skeptically.

"Don't doubt yourself so much, and like I said, there are two reasons I'm sending you and some people to accompany you. The first of which, is because of your youth."

"My...youth? What has that got to do with anything?"

"Simple. As it will always be, the future belongs to the young. Although you're definitely wise beyond your years, you still have much, much to learn. In fact, when I was your age, I thought I knew everything, only to find out I barely knew anything myself. All youth make that mistake. I'd like to make sure you avoid that as much as you can, and get a little knowledge of history."

Billy smirked, and leaned back in the seat.

"Why learn history? I was apart of it." Billy said sharply.

"Still, I'd like to go. What was the other reason you were sending me?"

"When we were last down there, there were a few nasty monsters there. They may be gone now, they are hopefully gone now. If they aren't, however, I need you and your team to handle whatever dangers you might encounter. I've already written down the suggested people you should take with you, who are...young, like yourself. Also strong like yourself."

Billy rolled his eyes. "Is this one big class field trip, Citan?"

Citan straightened his glasses and chuckled. "You could see it that way. Even you must admit, however, that there are too little things for you, the younger people to see or do."

"You especially, Billy, missed the many things youth has for you. Did you ever just...explore somewhere? This will be very fascinating, learning things about the old civilization before anyone else does. If you don't want to do this, however, I'm sure someone else would like to. Why, Elly would love more than anyone..."

Billy waved his and, cutting Citan off. "She's too busy and you know that. I'll do this, and tell everything you missed, everything I'll know back to you."

Citan nodded. "It's important we know the mistakes history makes, Billy. Or else we'll always, always be doomed to repeat it. That's the main purpose of this. Enlightenment would be a close second."

"Who exactly do you want to come along with me? Do I know them?"

Citan grinned. "Ah yes. Very well indeed."

Citan reached across his desk, took a sheet of paper, and handed it to Billy. The sheet of paper included the aspects of the mission he was being sent on, and the people he was suggested to take with him. Billy slowly lowered the paper from his face as he read it, and the look on his face showed just how annoyed he was.

"Oh no. Don't do this to me, Citan. Not them."

"Come now, Billy. They're you're friends!"

"No, one is my friend. The rest of them are ditzy, headstrong she-devils who wouldn't even be interested in this kind of thing."

"Don't be so sure, my friend. Go ask them first. Ditzy and headstrong, yes, but they are certainly clever and their strength exceeds possibly your own. So please...try them."

"Tell me again, why are you switching the power from the backup generator to the main generator?" Tolone asked her little sister Seraphita, standing over her as Seraphita kneeled at the bottom of the large battery generator.

"Because we have more power in backup right now than we do for main power! If we take away more of the backup power and put it to main, maybe the power wouldn't go out so much in this junkhole!"

Seraphita exclaimed.

Tolone and Seraphita were doing what they did best, which was argue. They were both wearing their brown worksuits that every worker at the Snowfield Base used, and they looked very conservative from what they looked like only a year ago. They were working with the large power source, like a battery, located in the bowels of the Snowfield Base, which was being called Shevat again.

It would never fly again, but could still be the main home for the refugees of the apocalypse until more of the cities could be rebuilt. Tolone still had her white hair, but kept it in one ponytail in the back of her head, not two on the side of her head. Seraphita however, still kept her short, fiery red hair,

and her fiery attitude as well.

"The reason the power keeps going out around here could be, possibly...your constant cutting it short!!" Tolone yelled.

"That's not true. Everytime the power goes out around this base, we have enough backup power due to my switching it, so we can always turn everything back on even when it goes out! It's genius!"

Tolone sighed, feeling the situation hopeless.

"What goes through that little, boy-crazed head of yours I'll never guess."

Tolone turned around, and saw Billy Lee Black walking towards herself and Seraphita, his hands in his trench coat pockets. Tolone nudged Seraphita, and she turned around quickly straightening her hair and trying to look her best.

"Oh...hi, Billy!" Seraphita said happily, standing up. She was trying to flirt as much with Billy without him taking too much interest in her. It was a shame Billy didn't think of her like that, at all.

Billy simply nodded at her and Tolone.

"Have you two seen Kelly around?" Billy asked.

"They wouldn't let me see her on my way back here, she's working sonar duty on the Yggdrasil."

Billy said, disappointed.

Tolone shrugged. "I have no idea, we've been down here most of the day."

"Is there anything else we can help you with?" Seraphita offered excitedly.

Billy nodded. "Yeah, meet me in my room on the Yggdrasil tonight, both of you. We all gotta talk."

Before Seraphita could give her next enlightening response along the lines of asking Billy if she should dress up, Billy had turned around and was already on his way out. Seraphita pouted.

"All the good ones really are taken." Seraphita said, disappointed. She quickly continued on with her work, while herself and Tolone kept bickering over absolutely nothing.

Kelvena brought two trays to the table that she and Primera sat at in the Yggdrasil's lounge. She slid the second tray of hot food over to her younger friend, and took a sip of her tea.

She looked the same as she always did, her blue uniform kept immaculate and her sea blue eyes were wide open. Primera still never talked, but would show how she felt about people with her emotions, and with her body language. She stayed around Kelvena much of the time she was off, Primera sort of looked up to Kelvena, as they both had a disability they struggled so much to overcome.

Primera actually wanted to talk, but just couldn't bring herself to.

"We'll be here at the Snowfields until tomorrow morning." Kelvena told Primera, who was eating the ice cream on her tray.

"Sigurd told me they need refueling then we're going to Kislev, which means you can see your father for a bit. Just think, the Snowfield Ruins will be empty soon. The cities will be full of people trying to start over, like the survivors of Shevat and the people the Yggdrasil rescued all over the world."

Kelvena sighed.

"When that happens, I'll actually miss the place, despite all those times the power goes out."

Primera smiled, just a little.

Just as Kelvena was drinking her tea more, Billy walked in the door of the lounge, but Kelvena didn't notice him. He walked behind her slowly, then affectionately wrapped one arm around her neck and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Hey blue eyes." Billy said, releasing her, smiling. Kelvena turned to him, and smiled back.

"Hey Billy. What did Citan want to see you for? They don't alter the course for the ship unless it's important."

Billy pulled up a chair and sat next to his blue haired girlfriend, and put both hands on the table.

"I'll explain later. I need you, Tolone, and Seraphita to come to my room tonight."

Kelvena stopped drinking, and for a second seemed real paranoid. Billy smirked.

"No, we're not taking our relationship to that level." Billy said, laughing.

Billy and Kelvena both laughed like crazy, Primera didn't seem to get the joke though.

"Actually, Citan has asked the four of us to go on a little field trip."

"Field trip? We don't have time for that kind of thing, I work too hard on the sonar here. I'm actually better than Franz at it, and Sigurd is starting to get used to me. Maybe even trust me."

"I don't know about trusting you, but your hearing is like ten times better than everyone, and your one of the best workers on this ship. The ship's in mint condition, it doesn't need any kind of repair. You can take time off, what kind of sonar will be going on when you're airborne? We're not at sea right now, and no kind of sea trips are planned, so why not come along?"

Kelvena hesitated, and started to think. "Give me the details of the trip first." she said finally.

"Great." Billy said, whipping the chair away and standing up. "

"In my room after your shift is over, then we're all gonna talk about it. Take care."

Kelvena heard Billy walk away quickly, even hearing the door slide shut behind him.

"Field trip...what is in his head now?" Kelvena asked Primera. Primera just shrugged casually.

That night, the four of them met in Billy's quarters to discuss what he so eagerly wanted to ask them. Even Primera showed up, but just for the purpose of hanging around. Everyone came in and sat down at a square table, then began their meeting.

"Can we hurry this up a bit? I've got two guys who want to fight over me up in the lounge. It'll look bad

if I'm not there for it." Seraphita said.

Tolone rolled her eyes at her, and went back to her favorite saying about her little sister.

Not even the apocalypse changes some things. Tolone thought.

Billy ignored the comment, and took out a packet of notes Citan gave him.

"I called you three down here because Citan wants me to do something that he said only we could do."

Billy started.

"There's an underground city that I heard about, but never went into. It has something to do with the Zeboim era, the one before ours. Citan feels he didn't find out enough when he went there the first time. I know Emeralda had some kind of weird thing happen that made her grow older, but besides that and a few other things they found, they didn't uncover everything they wanted to."

"Yeah, something about the world coming to the end must have distracted them." Tolone said sarcastically.

Billy glared at her briefly, then continued. "Citan didn't find out the exact name of the city, he didn't find out enough about how the people lived, he couldn't even find out what identity Miang occupied."

The three girls sat up quickly. "Miang?" Kelvena asked.

"He told me they have an archive of news reports, one includes Miang's picture as she appeared before Ramsus killed her. They're the same person, and Citan's guess is that a few thousand years ago, she helped destroy the world."

Tolone scoffed. "Kinda like now."

Miang had been the trifling force in all of the lives of the former Elements. At first, it just seemed she was their main recruiter, and the woman they all hated because of her snobbish ways and their own petty jealously. Then it turned into them having to save Ramsus from her and Krelian's raising Merkava,

their being trapped on a Salvager and being rescued by the Yggdrasil after killing the Reapers on the Salvager with them, only then to find out from Ramsus that their time as Elements had been destined since their birth, and then the greatest shock of all, that a body Miang occupied produced them all.

They hated a woman for the longest time that in the end proved to be their mother.

So just the mention of her name struck a nerve in all of them, even Dominia, who noone had seen for over 6 months.

"That's worth finding out." Kelvena admitted.

Seraphita sighed. "Why...why should we learn more about her? I don't even want to think about, or hear the name Miang again."

"Like Citan told me, if we don't learn from history's mistakes, we'll be doomed to repeat it." Billy spoke up.

"History won't repeat itself with Miang!" Tolone exclaimed. "Miang's gone! She's never comin' back."

Kelvena lowered her head, and frowned. "How do we know this?" Kelvena asked.

"How do we know Miang can't come back? Miang was alive since the dawn of this world's time, how do we know she's not still out there, waiting for just the right time to return? Or how could we defend against someone like her who'll weave her way into the heads of world leaders, then take the world down?"

Billy nodded at her. "In that respect, Miang's got a record of 2-0, so I think it's time we learn from our mistakes. Maybe if we knew before...billions of lives could've been saved. Citan says we're part of the younger breed, and told me the future belongs to us. Also told me all of us missed too much of a youth we should've had, and maybe this is a chance to learn something that's pure...not someone else's programming. What do you all think?"

Kelvena nodded quickly. "Something real to learn...I'd like that. I'll go, Billy."

Tolone and Seraphita looked at each other, like they were reading each other's mind.

"There's been a lack of adventure around here since all the fighting's stopped, and maybe we do need to learn from history's mistakes." Seraphita stated.

"I'm in."

Tolone bit her lip and nodded. "I'll go, there's not much to do here besides fixing stuff and the bad food."

"What about Maria though? How come Citan didn't ask her to go, or Emeralda?"

"Maria insists on being Queen Zephyr's personal bodyguard and actually, Emeralda has opted not to leave. She was already there once, twice if you count her birth." Billy said.

"There's one more person Citan wants us to take...I can't believe it, though."

Seraphita tried to peek at Billy's notes, but couldn't see the next person on the trip.

"Who else is goin' then?" Seraphita asked. Billy immediately sighed.

"The bitch." Billy said simply. Although not everyone at the table referred to her that way, everyone knew who he was talking about.

Kelvena nodded. "It's going to be hard to get in touch with Dominia. We haven't seen or heard from her in over 6 months."

Not long enough. Billy thought to himself.

"And I'd appreciate if you didn't refer to her, or any other woman like that, Billy." Kelvena said sternly.

"It's true though." Billy said with a smirk.

"Citan told me when he went down there, there were quite a few...monsters."

"Were they hard to fight?" Tolone asked, interested by the idea of fighting.

"Well...he went down there in Gear. We don't exactly have those anymore, but hopefully there shouldn't be anymore monsters down there. Which is why we have to take precautions, still. We're being given some small arms, enough rations for two weeks, and full communications to the Yggdrasil in case we need to bail. Emeralda would actually be the expert on what's there, meaning she knows just a little bit more than Citan. Still very little, but we're gonna change that."

Tolone nodded, and turned to Kelvena.

"How the heck are we gonna find Dominia? She could be anywhere, and we have no way to reach her. I'd also be lying if I said our losing our powers didn't leave us a little bit weaker." Tolone said.

"I'll take care of reaching Dominia. She's can't be too far away I hope, and as for our powers being gone...we survived on a Salvager for two weeks without them. Just our brains and our hands to work with, which are the two best weapons anyone can have." Kelvena said confidently.

Billy nodded, and stood up. "I'll get word to Citan and tell him we've decided to go through with it. Kelly, just try to find Dominia before we leave by the end of the week. If not, we're goin' without her."

Kelvena stood up, already thinking of the way to get ahold of Dominia.

"I've got it covered. Just get your guns ready." she said, walking out the door.

Billy started leaving after her, followed by Kelvena. Tolone and Seraphita still sat in Billy's room, silent, thinking of what else to do. Then it hit Seraphita.

"Hey Tolone, we're in Billy's bedroom." she started.

"I wonder if he has some kind of porn collection under the bed!"

Tolone wanted to roll her eyes and call Seraphita an idiot, but for some reason the idea didn't sound so crazy.

"Come on, Seraphita, Billy was a priest." she said.

"Which mean now that he's not, he's definitely got some porn under his bed." Seraphita said excitedly.

Tolone and Seraphita spent the next five minutes searching Billy's room for his porn collection.

The young girl sat alone, surrounded by the bodies as the fog surrounded her. It was like nothingness, it was like she was standing in a void. No sound, nothing to see, only the gray void around her. Then the girl's vision started to adjust, starting to adjust to seeing something more. Then she saw a older woman, just laying still about 3 feet from her. The girl crawled over to the woman slowly, and touched her. She was bloody on the chest, her head and face was bloody, and she wasn't moving. She was dead. The girl's cold shock from touching was nothing compared to the next frightening realization.

This was her mother.

The young girl screamed, and started crying for her dead mother, trying to call her back, then stood up to run for help, screaming for help now. The void started to fade more, and she saw an older man, lying still and bleeding the same way her mother was. She ran over to him, and saw he was bloody in the face, his body riddled with bullets, and saw he was dead. Worse was this was her father.

All this young girl could do was scream for help, and run from these bodies, looking for it. Then the void faded more and more, and all she saw were more dead bodies. That's all she saw as the void faded more. She could just scream, but noone could hear her. Noone would.

Dominia awoke panting and in a cold sweat.

It's the same damned dream again...it never stops, it never ends.

Dominia had nightmares every night she slept. It would either be that same, terrifying dream of her former home Elru, or it would be one of her victims calling out to her. Someone she killed, someone who she or someone higher than her had deemed an "Enemy of Solaris". Solaris was gone now, but the nightmares weren't. A lot of good that Enemy of Solaris line did her now.

Ramsus was in the other tent, he couldn't hear her panting and waking up at nights because of nightmares. He was likely having his own. Dominia stood up, put her gray jumpsuit on her body, and went outside where the fire they built to keep warm was still going. She'd been around Ramsus for over six months now, left her partners behind and was still hoping for a love that she wasn't sure could ever be returned. They had kissed, sure. That was about it though. They both knew she loved him. Neither one knew if he did, or ever would have really strong feelings for her. All she could do was hope, and all this went through her mind as she kneeled in front of the fire, trying to make sense out of things again.

As she was thinking more to herself, Ramsus walked out of his tent, wearing only his boxer shorts, and was obviously sweating himself. He quickly started to act cool as he saw Dominia in front of the fire, looking on. He strolled up, and sat beside her casually.

"Couldn't sleep." Ramsus said. Dominia looked at, and saw he was sweating and looked uneasy, but kept himself so calm, so cool.

"Nightmare?" Dominia asked.

"No. One of the best dreams I ever had, of one of the best memories I ever had." Ramsus said honestly.

"It was of my disposing of one of my tougher enemies through my command of the military, and after Cain himself announced my victory on Solarian-wide news networks, and I got acclaim for being a genius, Miang was there, saying she was on my side all along."

Dominia's stomach wrenched every time she not only heard that name, but had to hear Ramsus say it.

His infatuation with the woman had greatly diminished, but he still hadn't totally got over her. Like he said, he might not ever.

"Why...why would all that be such a bad dream then, Kahr?" Dominia asked.

Ramsus's head snapped to her quick. "Because look what we were once, Dominia, and look at us now." he said, staying cool.

"The higher you are on the ladder, the longer the fall is."

Finally, Dominia grew tired of his depressing talk. Strangely enough though, Ramsus thought this was his reaching out. Dominia just thought it was annoying.

"Oh...please!" Dominia sneered, standing up. "If I have to listen to you moan about your falling from grace one more time, I'm gonna show you what falling down really is."

Ramsus stared at her with contempt. "You don't have to stick around, you know. Why don't you go back with your ditsy little sisters, I'm sure they're bored."

"You know what, Kahr? That's actually not a bad idea. I would've split from you awhile ago, except..."

"Except what?" Ramsus jumped in. Dominia's heated attitude suddenly started to shrink down, and she quickly stopped being angry.

"Except you...need my help." Dominia added in, sullen. Ramsus smirked, and invited her to sit back down.

"I don't need anyone's help, Dominia. I thought you understood this. I don't really need anyone except myself and my depression. A man must hold on to something."

Dominia sighed. "And obviously misery loves company. I want to stay around you Ramsus, but I don't need to be depressed along with you. I'm trying to forget all the events of my past life, you can't seem to though. I have nightmares myself...you won't see me complaining about them."

"Try it sometime. It may make you feel better." Ramsus said sarcastically. Dominia took it seriously, though. Sense of humor was not something she had.

"Really? Does that work?" she asked.

"A little." Ramsus admitted. "What you always seem to call my complaining to you I always seem to consider...opening up just a little."

Dominia nodded, and Ramsus's idea of talking about what's on your mind didn't seem like such a bad idea. She never tried it before. For the next two hours she talked with Ramsus about the kind of dreams she'd been having, about the kinds of nightmares she saw, and how she felt about them. Strange enough, she actually felt better after it was over.

"I thought I had nightmares." Ramsus said, feeling tired. "The nightmares are telling you something, you know that, right?"

"Kelvena told me something like that. I just thought it was more of her good-karma, bad-karma crap."

Dominia said.

"Well, she was right. You have these nightmares with your victims reaching out to you, screaming at you, some of them innocent, some of them not. You're going to have them for a long, long time."

"Until I make things right. Considering the circumstances, it doesn't look like I can do that."

Ramsus nodded. "You can always pray for their forgiveness. You can always fast, always find a way for forgiveness."

Dominia smirked. "You must have been there when they wrote that Etone crap the way you sound."

"Maybe nightmares are what I deserve."

"We both do."

They stayed silent for a minute, then Dominia stood up again. "Back to the idea about seeing the girls again. I haven't seen them in months, I think it's time I saw them again. They'd like to see you again, I believe."

Ramsus shook his head. "You go."

Dominia looked taken back. "Why? Don't you want to see the team again?"

"No. The second I left the ruins seven months ago, I had no intention of returning there, or any other city of this planet. I want no part of it, it wants no part of me."

"But Ramsus..."

Ramsus held up his hand sharply. "I'm not discussing it anymore. You go see them. I'm not going anywhere near a large group of people. I value my privacy now."

When Ramsus said he wasn't going to discuss a subject anymore, she knew that was the end of it. He wasn't going to see the former Elements with her, and that was that.

"When my visit is over though, how will I find you?" Dominia asked.

"I'll find you if it's really good for me." Ramsus said seriously. "Like I just said, I value my privacy now. Leave for a week or two to visit the only family you've got, Dominia. Hopefully you'll find it better to stay with them. If not...there's still a place with me."

Dominia nodded, and went into her tent to start packing her things together. An hour later she was done packing up her tent, her clothes, and her gear. Ramsus acted casually, like her leaving was nothing. She wrapped everything up in one travel bag, and started to leave for the beach where they had left their small boat. She stopped, and sat down before leaving.

"Ramsus...I wish you would reconsider." Dominia said. He just shook his head again.

"My decision stands, Dominia." Ramsus responded quickly.

"Ramsus," Dominia started, "Please, take care of yourself."

Dominia slowly leaned over, and even though he didn't share the same affection at first, kissed him softly on the lips, then he returned the affection by kissing her back. She stood up, waved quickly, and walked away from the camp.

Kelvena had tried to get in touch with Dominia via the Yggdrasil's excellent communications system, but she never got a reading on Dominia's ship to do communications. She gave up after two days, and had to turn her attentions to preparations for their trip. For the next week Billy, Kelvena, Tolone, and Seraphita actually found this as a good opportunity to get back in shape. Billy practiced on his marksmanship, Tolone and Seraphita refined their martial arts moves until Seraphita started complaining about headaches.

Seraphita made excuses about a lot of things, but when it came down to work, she didn't mess around, so Tolone took her sister's complaints of headaches seriously. Seraphita suddenly complained she had pounding headaches for minutes at at time, then they vanished like nothing happened. The medical personnel found no trace of head injury or a tumor, so they said maybe it was extreme stress. That was the final verdict, but Tolone and Seraphita both started thinking it was more.

Kelvena was never the best at hand to hand combat, so she didn't train too hard. Her lack of vision was always her weakness in a fight. Although Billy tried to make her feel better about herself, her lack of vision and ether powers made her 10 times weaker than her times as an Element. She could just help prepare the supplies.

Two days before the team was set to leave, someone showed up right at Kelvena's room in the landed Yggdrasil. The metal door slid open, and Kelvena stopped her enhancements on Billy's rifle and Kelvena instantly knew who it was and rose her head. Kelvena couldn't see her elven-like features, her pointed ears, her white hair, or the brown jumpsuit she was wearing, but didn't need to. She felt her energy everytime she entered the room.

Dominia Yizkor walked over to Kelvena wordlessly, and Kelvena rose, and gave Dominia a great hug that old friends, or sisters give each other.

"We were just looking for you!" Kelvena exclaimed.

"Well, you found me." Dominia said.

"Where have you been all this time?" Kelvena asked.

"Ramsus and I have been trying to make sense of our useless existance." Dominia said.

"Well, any luck with you and him?"

Dominia shook her head in disappointment. "It was like trying to push a boulder up a mountain. I'm going to keep trying though, but I thought I should see you."

"You have got to see Tolone and Seraphita. They'd love to see you again."

Dominia's attention was quickly diverted from Kelvena to the rifle laying on the table, a sniper scope was almost attached to it.

"What are you using this for?" Dominia started. "Using guns now? I've got some disturbing news for you Kelvena, but...you're blind." Dominia said sarcastically.

"Um...that's what I have to explain to you. It's what I wanted to call you here for. First off, the rifle isn't for me, it's for Billy."

Dominia arched an eyebrow. "You and him still? You manage to hooked up with the only straight priest on the planet."

Kelvena didn't seem to find the remark funny, and the look on her face reflected this.

"Dominia, I wanted you to come here because we're going to leave on a little expedition in 3 days time."

This got Dominia's interest quickly. "Expedition? What kind?"

"I'll explain at dinner, with everyone there."

"Will your priest boyfriend be there, too?"

Kelvena finally got annoyed, and it took alot to anger her. "I know you don't like him, and there's a 5 letter word he uses when referring to you, but until you get someone worthwhile, don't criticize me." Kelvena said sternly. Dominia instantly backed off, seeing this side of Kelvena she never saw before.

"Fine, fine. We'll meet at dinner and discuss exactly what we're going to do."

Kelvena returned to normal, innocent demeanor quickly. "Thanks. It's good to see you again, Dominia."

That night, the other two former Elements were happy to see Dominia again, though Billy was clearly disturbed a little. They wanted to know where Ramsus was, and Dominia told them the truth. They were disappointed, they really wanted to see Kahr again. After Dominia's minutes of sharing what she and Ramsus had been doing the whole time, Seraphita spent hours sharing what the old team had been doing. After the nice dinner, Dominia finally agreed to join her former team for their trip to the ancient Zeboim city, and get some time to reevaluate her relationship with Ramsus. Late into the night, they all finally went to sleep, until Seraphita's was terribly disturbed.

Seraphita was suddenly in a strange land, it looked like something she'd never seen. She looked at herself, and was in great shock, as she was wearing the stylish red bunny ears she used to wear during her time as a happy-go-lucky Element, her old red suit, and when she glanced behind her, she saw her Seraphita could just gasp in shock at everything, the huge buildings, they looked like centuries old, still had lights in them. There was a street with white lines going up, and there was even a strange, black, destroyed car that said something like "Honda" on the side.

"What is going on here?" Seraphita asked herself. This dream was so strange because she actually felt herself having full control over her actions. She turned around from the Honda, and suddenly there were several men in front of her, wearing black and holding guns. She screamed, but noone could really hear her. There was a man in front, with black hair and his own handgun.

"Element bitch, stay away from here." the man in black told her, the look of hell in his eyes.

Seraphita's shock quickly turned to anger.

"I have no idea who you are or where this is, but you never talk to me like that!" Seraphita yelled. Then a feeling returned to her body that was missing for almost a year. She felt her power return back to her veins, the power of an Element. Out of instinct, Seraphita grew a fiery aura over her body, gathering power. After charging her power for a few seconds, she fired a great fireball from her hands at the men before her, making them dive for cover as the ground exploded.

The leader scrambled to his feet, gritting his teeth in anger. "So you want to play it that way? I'll show you power." he said spitefully. He nodded to the men on the ground, and they got to their feet.

The men pointed their guns back at Seraphita, and quickly started firing all at once like a firing squad at the young woman. She was already prepared though, the second the bullets came flying, she held up her hand and a large circular shield of fire spread from her hand, burning any bullet aimed at her before it could get to her. She may not have been good at common sense, but she definitely had fighting down.

The men stopped shooting, shocked by the defense. The leader didn't seem shocked at all, though.

"My turn!" Seraphita shouted, her fist blazing with fire. Seraphita threw her fist down on the ground, sending a visible, fiery shockwave at the grouping of men, then exploded, blasting them everywhere into the air. The explosion enveloped the leader, but suddenly he leaped out of it 20 feet into the air and back onto the ground like it was nothing.

"Just like old times, hm?" the leader said.

"Who are you?" Seraphita asked.

The leader grinned. "An old friend."

"I have lots of friends, don't seem to remember you."

"Such a shame. Such a pretty girl, but can't take good advice when it's given. I'll just repeat myself. Stay away from the city, Element."

Before Seraphita could respond, she was awakened by a headache so strong, she thought her head would explode. She screamed, and the lights flew on and Tolone, on the top bunk, jumped down and comforted her as best she could. The pain in Seraphita's head was so much, she couldn't even bring herself to speak to Tolone.

The next day, in the medical bay, Seraphita's headaches had cleared, but she wasn't any clearer on her strange dream.

"What was so strange about this dream you had, Seraphita?" Tolone asked while Seraphita was sitting on the bed.

Seraphita sighed, and took a drink of her water. "There...was this crazy guy and some other crazy guys, and they had guns! That wasn't the weirdest part though." Seraphita said.

"What was it?"

"I, I had my powers back."

Tolone looked taken back as if she'd seen a ghost. "You had your powers back? How?"

"I have no idea! This crazy guy tries to kill me, then he calls me cute, and tells me to stay away from his city."

Tolone sighed. "I'm sure it was just a bad dream, Sera. All these headaches can't be an accident though."

"We don't have the medical stuff here that we did in Solaris to check my head out though." Seraphita said. "Guess I'm just gonna have to take everything as it comes. I'll be alright for the trip, you'll see."

Tolone nodded. "Fine. If you get another headache though, call me."

Tolone got up and walked away, but then she turned around.

"Sera, what was it like to have your powers back, even for a short time in a dream?" Tolone asked.

"It was incredible. It was like finding a part of myself all over again." Seraphita responded.

Tolone turned around feeling a little sad now, and walked out of the infirmary.

End of part 1

Finally, the day came for departure. Everyone got dressed up in Yggdrasil crew uniforms except for Billy, he just wore his blue jeans, cowboy boots, and leather vest with a black short sleeved shirt.

They all met up in the lounge, and got the food and supplies organized.

However, Billy found his rifle was missing when he looked for it. Kelvena took it from her bag, with a new addition to it.

"This should be a aiming scope if I structured it right." Kelvena said, presenting the rifle to Billy.

"I wouldn't know how it looks, I hope it's right."

Billy took the rifle, and examined the new aiming scope. It was perfectly crafted, and looking inside of the scope, it was clear and magnified.

"They used to have these all the time in Solaris. I don't know if this world had that kind of technology, though." Kelvena said.

"It's great!" Billy exclaimed. "I can pick off far off targets with this now."

"You and your damn guns." Seraphita added in. "You shot me once, you know!"

"If I remember, you were trying to kill me at the time."

"Well...you could at least apologize!"

"No. You and Tolone were trying to kill me and my friends, so I shot you with a pistol. Lucky you didn't die."

Tolone jumped in, and snorted. "Lucky? We could heal, and still can! The healing is genetic, ether power doesn't have a thing to do with it. You can shoot us now and we'll be fine in 3 hours!"

Billy whipped a pistol from his holster, and pointed it at Tolone. "If you insist."

Then Dominia kicked the pistol from his hand, standing to the side of him.

"I know you weren't going to shoot, but never, ever point a weapon at someone from MY team." Dominia said sternly. She was making it very clear that although Billy was appointed to go on this mission, she would always be the leader of her team. Before Billy could respond, Dominia turned to Kelvena. "Get the first aid kits ready. They set a course for this...lighthouse that leads to the city earlier this morning. We should be there in a few hours." Dominia said.

Kelvena nodded, and went on her way. Dominia followed after her to do her own work, while Billy stood there, wondering what just happened. No question who the leader was anymore.

They landed at a huge lighthouse on the coast. Billy and Kelvena stayed behind a few minutes while the other got off the ship, they had to say their good-byes to little Primera.

"We'll be alright." Billy told his little sister as the three stood in his room. "I promise we'll be back here, ok, Prim?"

Primera looked down at the ground, sad. Kelvena now had on sunglasses with blue lenses, and kneeled down to Primera. "It's not that dangerous down there, and I promise we'll be back here in a week or two." Kelvena told her young friend.

"Maybe we'll bring you something back, like a 2,000 year old rock, or maybe we'll name something we've discovered after you."

Primera looked up, and actually started to smile. "You'll be alright here, or we can go up and ask the crew to take you to New Aveh to be with your father for awhile."

"Dad would love to have you around. I bet he's bored with nothing to shoot." Billy joked. Primera nodded slightly, and smiled at the two.

"Great! Be sure to tell them after we leave." Billy said. He kneeled down and hugged her, so did Kelvena, and then said their good-byes.

The group of 5 met outside of the Yggdrasil, and was it ever cold in front of this enormus lighthouse. Seraphita cradled herself, trying to keep warm.

"So this is it? A whole city is in this lighthouse?" Seraphita asked. "What a crappy city."

Billy rolled his eyes. "The city is underground. Then again, you think really one-dimensional."

Seraphita scoffed at him, and looked at the lighthouse up and down. It looked ruined, with deep cracks all over it, it stood two times taller than any other lighthouse, and had one big opening where she didn't see a ladder or stairs going up into the lighthouse. The place looked so ruined, if you threw a rock at it, it could crumble.

"How old is this thing?" Dominia asked.

"Citan told me it could be anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 years old. Enough of looking at the lighthouse though. It's time to start our...'mission'." Billy said.

Everyone picked up their backpacks and slung them over their shoulders as the Yggdrasil pushed away gusts of wind as it took off and flew away just as quickly as it landed. The group walked into the lighthouse, and it was just as destroyed looking as the outside, however, there wasn't anything to walk upstairs on, or downstairs. It was just one large, empty room.

"Well this was a short trip." Seraphita said sarcastically. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

Just then, the floor started to move, and it slowly started to descend. The floor was obviously and elevator. They all went down, it seemed like minutes the elevator slowly descended. Finally, the elevator came down to the bottom level, and the group examined what was before them. It was nothing like they'd ever seen.

It was a very, very old-fashioned city. There were buildings made with bricks, not what the Solarian Element girls were used to, these buildings still had lights, the streets looked ruined but there were certainly walkable, there were even operating streetlights. It was so strange, they all thought, that the ancient city could be so close to the cities of their time. After all these years, everything was still operating. Then Seraphita freaked.

"This...this is the city from my dream, Tolone!" Seraphita exclaimed. "We can't stay here!"

"We're not gonna leave because you had a dream about this place, Sera! We can't go by on our dreams like that! It may have been a fluke!" Tolone said, trying to comfort Seraphita.

Dominia turned to Seraphita. "We're not abandoning. Don't care if you dreamt about this place or not. No go, Seraphita. Clear?" Dominia ordered.

Seraphita lost the look of panic from her face, and nodded. "But I'm keeping this handy!" Seraphita shouted, pulling a pistol from her brown uniform. Everyone turned around, and they began their quest, to gather all the information on this place that they possibly could.

Billy failed to see any of the monsters Citan had spoke about, like a dragon or a griffon. There wasn't much of anything down there. They walked around the place slowly, searching for anything strange. They didn't find much of anything awhile, until walking into their first building down the first block. There wasn't anything in there, just a bunch of cobwebs and a broke down elevator. Broke down in the sense it crashed all the way to the bottom of the shaft and there were skeletons. The girls declined trying to get up any farther in the building after seeing this. They walked for awhile longer before they decided to set up camp. They took their bags from their shoulders, set up tents, and decided this be their spot to meet, share info, and sleep when needed. It was midday, and it seemed like they accomplished nothing so far. However, like Seraphita's dream suggested, there was more to this place than meets the eye.

Seraphita sat at the camp, eating soup, when again, something struck her. Not panic, but the same "voice" that attacked her mind while she slept.

I see you couldn't heed the warning. the cruel voice said to her. Only she could hear it. It was in her head. She knew she wasn't going insane, but why was this unseen force talking to her and only her?

Don't even bother to scream. Don't even bother to speak. They'll think you're crazy, Seraphita. Crazier than you already are.

Seraphita's expression looked like she just saw a ghost. For some reason, she knew the voice in her head was right, the voice was clear as her own thoughts. What was this? Why did it know her name?

You're smarter than you look for not telling anyone about this, Seraphita. They won't believe you. Noone believes anything you say. Of course, I don't need to believe what you say. I can see your mind.

Seraphita was quickly starting to realize this game. This "voice" was into her mind, seeing into her. She had to talk back to it.

What...what are you? Seraphita thought, wanting to be heard.

Like I told you once, Element. An old friend. Solaris?

All my old friends from Solaris are gone! What do you want?

Revenge would be nice. You see, you and your friends ruined my life a little while ago. It's time to ruin yours, I figure.

You'll never get the chance, whoever you are.

I beg to differ, beautiful one. I already know more about you and your friends than you do yourselves. I already saw into their minds, what they think, what they desire, what they hate. You...but you, I saw something in you I didn't in them. You have a gift they don't have, Seraphita.

Get out of my head, whoever you are!

My name isn't "whoever you are", dear. Richter, if you will. I will be seeing you soon, in all your glory.

Just as quickly as it came, the voice in her head stopped looming over her, and was gone. The feeling of fear was still there, however. Richter. She knew that name. It tapped a chord in any former Solarian. Seraphita quickly got up, and got into the circle where the others sat, and started on excitedly.

"Everyone! Everyone! Listen!" Seraphita shouted.

"What is it now?" Dominia said, annoyed.

"I had a voice, in my head! It was talking to me!"

Dominia glanced at Tolone. "She's losing it, Tolone. Better get her in check before I do."

Seraphita pulled at her short red hair in frustration. "I'm not crazy, damnit! I really did!"

"Sera, I think you should calm down!" Tolone exclaimed.

"It was Richter!"

Suddenly, all 4 of the Elements froze where they sat.

"Ri...Richter?" Kelvena stammered.

"Yeah!"

"He's dead. Impossible." Dominia said. "You're hallucinating. If you don't get it straight, and I mean right now, I'm calling the Yggdrasil and picking you up."

"Shut up, Dominia! Did you see the body?" Seraphita yelled.

"He would've died in the world's crash." Dominia said, keeping cool.

"Oh, really? Did we die? He was one guy, stronger than almost all of us! How do we know he's not just hiding out down here?"

Billy sat where he was, looking really confused. "Did I miss something?" Billy asked.

Kelvena stood up, and told Billy to go to his tent. He went, and she followed him in. While Seraphita and Dominia continued their loud discussion, Kelvena knew it was necessary to tell Billy just who was this man called "Richter", from Solaris.

"What's going on, who is Richter?" Billy asked.

"A mission when we were the Solaris Elements. One of our biggest missions, definitely the hardest. We barely came back alive. Operation Darkest Before Dawn." Kelvena said.

"What did it have to do with this Richter guy?" Billy asked.

Billy handed Kelvena some juice and she blindly grasped it as she began her long story.

"Take those stupid things off." Tolone told Seraphita. Tolone pointed to the red bunny ears on Seraphita's head, the ones that matched her tight red suit, her hair, even her shoes.

"They make me look cute." Seraphita said.

"They make you look like a ditz." Tolone replied.

"Enough with the fashion, ladies." Dominia said, sitting at the table in the lounge of the Solaris base.

Kelvena sat next her, her eyes closed like they were then.

"This is important, I think we should pay attention." Kelvena said.

Tolone and Seraphita quickly sat down, and paid attention.

"The Commander is on his way to a permanent position in Gebler, on the land of the Lambs. He's going to lead the army there, and hopefully someday our great Solaris will have control of this land as well as the inferior one. " Dominia said.

"Really? Great!" Seraphita exclaimed, clapping her hands.

"However, as Ramsus's personal guard, we have our duties, and our orders to protect the Commander wherever he is, so we're going to have follow him a bit on this move. This includes taking initiative." Dominia added. She nodded at Kelvena, and Kelvena put a large file folder on the table, then opened it.

"This is Atticus Richter. I know you guys have seen him on the news, I used the computer's news networks to hear of his exploits, then pulled the text version and audio version on my audio NewsNet."

Kelvena said.

Seraphita and Tolone looked at the file, and saw a young man in his 20's with short, spiked, black hair, a black suit with a high turtleneck, steel bracers, black boots, and green contacts in his eyes.

"Kinda cute." Seraphita said.

"Kinda cute?" Tolone asked. "Try kinda psycho!"

"Atticus Richter is psyche-evaluated psychopath." Kelvena started. "He was the son of one of Solaris's generals until the general turned traitor to Solaris, and tried to help some of Krelian's test subjects escape."

Tolone nodded. "Morian Richter. Krelian caught him and made him the first test subject for his newest bioweapon. They didn't tell the public that, of course. They told them it was exile."

"Attitcus's family was blacklisted from every honor they once had." Kelvena continued. "His son and wife winded up homeless, his wife becoming a prostitute before her arrest, then Richter winded up on the street, just at age 16, no family, no friends. Just the 3rd class slums of Solaris. From information, he vanished for a little while, then was arrested for double murder. He got away on the count of a technicality, also known as the Furai."

The Furai. The Solarian organized crime (mafia). They ran Drive before it became legal, and even after it was made legal only for military, the Furai made it able for the public to get hold of it. Rumor had it Krelian himself controlled the Furai to better finance his experiments, stretching his control of Solaris even more.

"After his release, intellegence reports that he became the Furai's number 1 assassin, until Krelian himself gave Richter a spot as a chief intellegence agent. This stems from Richter's mastery of telepathy. He's a level 5 telepath, a one-in-a-10 million. He was Krelian golden boy, only 22 years old. He was responsible for infiltrating the main defenses of Elru, learning their defenses without even having to leave Solaris. That's how powerful his telepathy skills were. After the war with Elru, however, he started believing his own hype. Intelligence agents started following Richter instead of Krelian, and Richter broke from Krelian and started his own branch of Intellegence, calling themselves the Stalkers. Information was a distant second priority. Government assassination was their prime motive, taking money for it, and for their own purposes. Krelian didn't mean, he still had all the power. Until they made Krelian their next target. They didn't kill him though, it was their one failure. One too many. Krelian sent his best men after the Stalkers, and took them down to a very scarce number. None of them could beat Richter, he used his powers to find out about the attempt before it happened. Finally, as you know by now, the remaining Stalkers have started terrorism and bombing populated targets. Normally, noone would care, until they attacked a 1st class location.

Intellegence now believes the Commander may be the Stalkers next target. They're small in number, but extremely smart and lethal. The initiative of this, of course, is to subdue all of the Stalkers, and Richter." Kelvena finished.

"Kill." Dominia added. "Kill all of them. They are a threat to the Commander. Kill them all, is there any moral dilemma in anyone for this?" Dominia asked. Noone spoke up, Tolone and Seraphita just shrugged.

"This operation has been deemed top secret, and we do not discuss it outside of this room. It's codenamed 'Darkest before Dawn', because after this problem has been eliminated, Commander Ramsus can continue on to Gebler without any trouble at all." Kelvena said.

"It begins immediately, we will depart tonight to the Stalkers Base of Operations in our Gears, and bring the base down. We'll send in a few troops to soften the place up for us, the Stalkers have their own very powerful Gears."

"No sense in us getting all the scratches!" Seraphita jumped in. It didn't matter to anyone that the troops they were sending in first were definitely going to die. They only cared about themselves.

Dominia stood up. "If that's all, Kelvena, I expect you and them to be ready in 5 hours, Gears fully armed, yourselves fully armed. Dismissed."

"This guy sounds like a real nutcase." Billy said. "You four were really that bad? Was killing really that easy?"

Kelvena nodded in disappointment.

"I'm not proud, Billy, but it's true. I was never proud to take a life. I was always proud to be an Element, but never to take a life. It's just something we did...the job called for it. It was hard the first time, but after we did it alot, it became easy."

"Men like Richter, though, they like to kill. They get the rush, the feel of power. You've killed, Billy. Are you like that?" Kelvena asked.

Billy sighed. "I have blood on my hands, true. Only when I needed to, I never got pleasure from killing another man."

Kelvena smiled, then leaned over and gently kissed him on the lips.

"What was that for?" Billy asked.

"Being human." she responded.

"Continue the story." Billy told her.

Nights in the air, flying over to a target, were the most tense times of the young women's lives. They would just talk while flying in their Gears to a target, the Bladegash, the Marinebasher, the Skyghene and the Grandgrowl all had flying capabilities better than any standard issue Gear.

"Hey Dominia, why are you so quiet over there?" Tolone asked over the intercom system.

Dominia's head was obviously elsewhere.

"Nothing, just thinking, Tolone." Dominia said.

"Did you talk to the Commander today?" Seraphita asked over her comm.

"Yes." Dominia said reluctantly.

"What's bad about that?" Seraphita asked.

"Nothing, nothing at all."

"You're either happy or depressed when it comes to Ramsus, what is it now?"

Dominia sighed. "It's Miang. When Ramsus goes to the Lambs world, she's...going with him."

"Oh no." Seraphita said. "Now come on, you had to know there was something going on with those two."

"I know that..I just didn't want to believe him with that...whore."

"Don't let your personal feelings get in the way of duty, Dominia." Kelvena put in. "She would've followed Ramsus to Gebler anyway, it's her job. Jealously will get you nowhere."

"Do you like Miang, Kelly?" Seraphita asked.

"Not at all. We under pretty much under her command, and she did appoint us, so let's not spend too much energy hating her." Kelvena said.

"Well...she's still a whore, and she doesn't deserve any of Ramsus's affections like she gets." Dominia said.

"And who does? You?" Tolone asked. There was no answer.

"We're coming up on the base." Dominia reported. "Get armed."

There was already heavy firing at the base from the original troops that were sent in, but they were already decimated. The first lines of defense, however, had been beaten back, and that's what the Elements wanted.

"Alright, Kelvena, you're with me, Tolone and Sera, stay close." Dominia ordered.

As they approached the base to land, the 4 split into two groups. They landed, and there was gunfire on all of the Gears the second they did.

"Stop bothering me!" Seraphita shouted, using her Grandgrowl's roar to blow back the men on the ground shooting at her Gear. The groundmen fired at the Bladegash and the hovering Marinebasher, but with one swift swipe of her sword, Bladegash split all the close up firing men in half.

"Let me handle this really quick, everyone." Tolone said, getting her guns ready. The Skyghene flew up 30 feet into the air, and machine guns rose from it's back, firing at all the gunmen on the ground, killing wave after wave of them. The gun rotated and fired until no more of them came out.

"Well done." Dominia said to Tolone's channel. "Stay in formation, proceed with caution. I know they've got some Gears in here."

They moved the Gears forward past the wreckage of the other Gears and the corpses, into the vast double doors that the original troops were able to blast open before they got destroyed.

The inside was actually quite clean, it looked like a basic Gear hangar. 4 standard issue Gears were inside their ports. The team walked in front of them, looking for the next danger, but it attacked psychologically first, not physically.

"Welcome to my playground." a voice said over the PA .

Kelvena noticed the voice from voice samples on his file. "Atticus Richter, correct?" she broadcasted over her PA.

"Oh yes, miss Korian. And I know all about you, and your Elements. The joys of highest access into Krelian's highest and most secure files."

All the girls froze in their machines. They looked all around for who was talking, but didn't see him.

"I've been ready for you, you see. I've known about your attack since you planned it this afternoon. A man can only be so prepared against Solaris's most elite attack force, eh? We'll answer that question very shortly."

Before the team could respond, the 4 Swordknights inside the ports broke free with punches, and charged at the Elements. Hearing the attack, Marinebasher swept it's tail at the Swordknight heading for her, and cut the leg off at the ankle, making the Gear fall to the ground. The Swordknight heading for Bladegash charged it and pinned it to the wall, but Dominia made the Bladegash raise it's knee into the Swordknight's sternum, then extended it's blade into the Swordknight's chest while it was bent over. The Bladegash ripped the sword back out, then with a backhand split the Gear in two with a swift cut.

The Swordknight charging for the Grandgrowl, grabbed the machine by both sides, lifted it up, and threw it across the room, but the Grandgrowl flipped around in a amazing move and landed on it's feet. The second the Grandgrowl did, it leaped like the speed of light back at the Swordknight, mauling it . The scratches the Grandgrowl made cut so deep into the Swordknight, oil started to spurt from it's chest.

"Take that!" Serphita yelled.

The Swordknight charging the Skyghene never even touched it. The Skyghene flew itself up, and out of the Gear's range, making it stumble as it came to a halt. While it's back was turned, the Skyghene charged the Swordknight, it's sharp wings aimed at the Gear's head. The wings pierced the Swordknight's head, making it just crumble to the ground.

"That's gotta hurt the pilot." Tolone said.

"Pilot?" the voice came over the PA again. "Oh no...like they say, it's all in your mind. There's no pilots in these Gears. Just a little bit of very high developed telekinesis. Level 5 telepaths can do that, you know. Then again, I killed the others like me. Sure beats facing competition head on."

"Great Solaris..." Dominia said, shocked. "I've never heard of such power!"

"Like I said, I knew you were coming, and you've made a real mistake in coming here. As you stand here looking like a bunch of adolescent idiots, what's left of my men are going to bomb your precious Commander's cruiser at my order. Then...you'll fail in duties to protect him. That would be awful, so awful, no Solarian commander would ever give you a post again. Being a 3rd class citizen. Believe me, that's the worst thing for 4 such pretty...alone, young ladies who'd be living on the streets."

Dominia gasped, and started for the large doors they came in at. "We have to get going. Commander Ramsus is in trouble." Dominia shouted over the PA. Before they could get out, a large, black Gear sprang from a sliding trap door in the floor. It had a round head, it's eyes bright green.

"Meet the Tyrant." the voice in the Gear said, the same as the one over the PA. With that, the Tyrant spin kicked the Bladegash back with the group, stunned.

"Except this one has a pilot. Yours truly."

Dominia got back in line in the group, and stood tall. They were going to do something that made them proud, hyped them up before a fight, and intimidated the enemy. The Element's Creed.

"Using our powers to fight each day, winning those fights in any way, to humiliate and destroy on the battlefield, to act as Solaris's great shield..." they all said.

"Earth." Dominia said.

"Water." Kelvena said.

"Air." Tolone said.

"Fire!" Seraphita shouted.

"With strength exceeding that of any man..." they all said.

Dominia stepped forward. "Run now while you still can."

Richter laughed inside of the Tyrant. "Entertaining! Very entertaining! I'll tell you what, girls. If YOU leave now, I promise I won't shoot you in the back while you leave."

Dominia rose the Kishin Blade in the air, and charged it up with fire, and launched a fire blast from the blade right at the Tyrant, knocking him to the floor. The Tyrant got up to it's feet with a Chinese handspring, in fighting position. "I take that as a no." Richter said.

The Tyrant leaped into the group with a jump kick, knocking the Marinebasher back 50 feet into a wall.

"Damn!" Kelvena shouted, her Gear immobilized. "That Gear has enhanced strength, more than ours! It must have been customized by Krelian himself!"

"Thanks for the update!" Tolone yelled back sarcastically. The Bladegash dashed in with a slice, but the Tyrant dodged, and in the same motion roundhouse kicked the Bladegash in the head, making it 180 flip to the ground. Tyrant backicked the Skyghene as it came around for an attack on Tyrant's head, and it punched the Grandgrowl out of the air as it leapt in for a strike.

"Having fun, ladies? You do know, if you kill me here, I won't be able to make the order to kill your Commander. Then again, you won't kill me."

The Marinebasher started charging up it's water attack.

"Do you ever shutup? I'm tired of your speeches." Tolone said, trying to get her machine to recover.

The Bladegash rushed at the Tyrant, trying to cut at it, but the Richter blocked every attacked with it's arms, then shoulder flipped the Bladegash to the floor in it's vulnerable moment. Tyrant snatched the blade from the fallen Bladegash, and knocked the Skyghene down from the air as it was about to attack again, but was left vulnerable itself for the Marinebasher's Tidal Wave attack.

The Marinebasher charged a giant, explosive bubble, and with the Marinebasher's targeting capabilities, acknowledged a lock to it's blind pilot with a beep. The Marinebasher hovered 20 feet above the ground, and launched the bubble at it's target like a bullet, then caught the Tyrant head on, knocking it back to the entrance of the base.

"Bullseye!" Seraphita yelled. The Grandgrowl was the first to try jumping on Richter as the Tyrant was on the ground, but as it leapt in midair for another assault, the Tyrant threw the Kishin blade right at the Grandgrowl's stomach, impaling it straight through. The Grandgrowl fell to the ground out of the air, smoking and electric sparks shooting from the stomach.

"Damn you!" Seraphita yelled at Richter from her damaged cockpit.

"Kelly, gotta help me out over here!" Seraphita shouted.

As Bladegash jumped in for another attack on the downed Tyrant, it quickly flipped the Bladegash over, then got back to it's feet. The Skyghene was waiting. It fired it's machine guns at Richter's Gear, making him raise his arm to block, giving Kelvena time to rush over to the Grandgrowl. The Marinebasher wrapped it's tail around the sword, and pulled it from the Grandgrowl's belly as it laid belly up. Bladegash moved over, and grabbed it from the ground.

"I'll take that." Dominia said. "Tolone! Form up!"

Tolone stopped firing, it wasn't doing much damage anyway, and got in line with the others.

"Does the Grandgrowl have enough to go on?" Dominia asked Kelvena over the PA.

"It's taken heavy damage, it'll go on, but the battery and fuel are draining at an extreme rate. We've got about 5 minutes." Kelvena reported.

"In which time, you'll be dead!" Richter shouted over his PA, pointing.

"While the Grandgrowl still has power, we have to do what we've never done!" Dominia said.

"We have to form the G-Element!"

"What? That's too risky!" Seraphita shouted.

"You don't have much of a choice, your machine is going to go out in a few minutes, then we can't form at all."

"And in case you haven't noticed, we're getting our butts kicked!" Tolone added.

"Fine. We don't have a choice." Seraphita admitted.

They all took the keys they'd never used from the side of their seats, and put them into a hole on the control console. The Elements Gears...they started to form into one, great Gear.

After the formation, there was only one Gear. In good condition, twice the Tyrant's size, and twice the Tyrant's armor.

"I'm not even scared, girls. Watch this!" Richter yelled. The Tyrant closed it's hand into a fist, and blue fire emanated around it, and fired it straight at the G-Element, knocking it back, but not down. The Shockball could destroy a normal Gear, but not this one. The G-Element sliced at the Tyrant again, it's swipes much powerful now. The Tyrant blocked twice, but on the third one, it lost it's right arm.

"Crap..." Richter said from the inside of the Tyrant. "You haven't got me yet, girls." Richter said. Richter jumped in with a jump kick, three quick punches, and a roundhouse to the face, but only succeeded in knocking the G-E back, but not down.

"Our turn!" Seraphita yelled from inside the G-E. Her cockpit was damaged and sparks were flying everywhere inside it, but she was happy just to be winning. The G-E uppercutted the Tyrant onto the ground, then picked it up by the shoulder, hurling it back into the hangar. The Tyrant slowly got to it's feet, and limped back towards the G-E, functioning less and less.

"Let's finish this creep." Dominia said. She rose the Kishin blade, and charged it with a little power from all of the Elements, making the sword glow and shine. Finally, the G-E rushed the Kishin Blade into the Tyrant, nearly splitting it from shoulder to hip. It couldn't even move. It couldn't issue it's order to attack Ramsus's cruiser, it could only do one thing.

"If...If I go down, I'm taking you whores with me!" Richter yelled.

He pressed the 30 minute self destruct on his console, and his extra-powered reactor would destroy anything close, the whole hangar included.

"We've got to get out of here!" Dominia yelled. The G-E turned around, and the pilots made it run out of the entrance, then it activated the boosters and started flying off just as the base exploded.

"Everyone alright?" Dominia asked.

"1 minute and it's lights out in here." Seraphita broadcasted.

"2 of my 4 turbines are broken. I won't be going on the sea for awhile." Kelvena said.

"My right wing is falling off. My Gear is out of commission for a week or so. You?" Tolone asked.

"My sword is almost bent and I wasted all my power in charging the sword up and combining the Gears. I'm not going to work for awhile. You did good tonight, girls. We almost lost this one, ladies. Very close to a loss. But we killed Solaris's most wanted and came out alright. Now after we take care of the rest of Richter's gang, the Commander's conquest of the land dwellers can go on as scheduled."

"Oh. I'm looking forward to that one." Seraphita said sarcastically.

"I want to get back as quick as possible...I think I broke my wrist."

"Get yourself fixed and quick, we've got to take care of Richter's gang, and quick." Kelvena said.

"Did you get all of Richter's gang?" Billy asked.

"They didn't get a response from Richter after we killed them, so they just vanished without a trace. And like Seraphita said, noone ever found Richter's body. We just assumed he and the Tyrant went up in that explosion. Here's the strange thing, though. We never found the Tyrant either. Krelian wanted to take Richter's body, take the cellular level of his brain, and hopefully use it to produce his own level 5 telepaths. Since we couldn't find the body, this was a problem." Kelvena finished.

She turned her head, starting to think. "The real question is wheter or not Seraphita is crazy." Billy said.

Kelvena kept thinking, then came to a conclusion.

"Well, personally, I don't think she's crazy. I think she's perfectly sane, always has." Kelvena said, standing up. She followed the sound of Dominia and Seraphita still arguing, Seraphita in tears now, and held up her hand to call a stop to the whole argument.

"I think there's evidence supporting Seraphita's argument." Kelvena said.

"This I've got to hear." Dominia said.

"Well, we never did find Richter's body, we never did find Richter's gang, we never did find the Tyrant. And Atticus was a Level 5 telepath. That's a strength we can't even comprehend, not even we were that powerful. Atticus was extremely resourceful, 2 times higher trained than anyone in Jugend, and could kill on command or even for fun, and is only 27 years old, so age hasn't caught up with him. A man this resourceful and we didn't find the body or the Gear can only mean, logically, that he's not dead." Kelvena told the group.

"Maybe you're cracking up just like Seraphita." Dominia said.

"Quiet, Dominia." Tolone said.

Kelvena continued. "How do we know, from Seraphita's dream, that it wasn't Atticus Richter trying to scare us from here? Or maybe he knew we'd show up, and is trying to extract revenge?"

"Say what you mean, Korian." Dominia said sternly.

"Atticus Richter is alive, and he's down here hiding out. Since we're the ones who put him down, he's been obsessed with us in his twisted mind for over two years. He knows everything about us, has been peering into our minds every second. What's left of his gang is here with him, and the Tyrant is still here." Kelvena stated.

The girls, except for Kelvena, all looked at each other. Billy still stood behind Kelvena, in awe of the deduction his girlfriend had drawn to. She wasn't just smart, she was smarter than himself. Much smarter, Billy thought.

"Why is he in my head?" Seraphita asked.

Kelvena sighed. "I only jump to conclusions I'm sure about, Seraphita...but there's only one real reason I can pick that he's in your head."

"When he's in our heads, we can't detect him, we can't hear him in our minds like you can, we wouldn't be able to have a dream like you can. I may or may not be right by what I'm about to tell you, Seraphita..."

"You sound right so far, Kelly, so please go on."

Kelvena nodded. "You can hear him, and he only talks to you because by the evidence of your headaches in the past few weeks, the dream you had where he spoke to you, and now where he speaks to in the clear draws me to only one conclusion. You're a level 5 telepath yourself. "

End of prt 2

Seraphita covered her face with her hands, trying to comprehend what Kelvena just told her. Kelvena was right 100% of the time, why should this be any different? Kelvena Korian was a tested genius, why wasn't she the level 5 telepath?

"How...they never found out about it back home!" Seraphita said excited.

"I'm not certain, like I said. Latency in telepaths often starts around your age, though. You've had these headaches for weeks, then your dream. These headaches you kept getting were Richter trying to probe into my mind, but then your mind became aware even though you didn't. The tapping Richter did inside your mind opened up the blocked path, and your mind was ready for it yet. The headaches you kept getting were a side effect. He awoke your latent telepathic powers." Kelvena said.

It was all a great shock to everyone, but for some reason it seemed true.

"Don't say you're not certain, Kelvena. You're always right." Dominia said.

"It's just hard to believe that out of the handful of people who are level 5 telepaths, Seraphita could be a one. Let's face it, she's not the smartest one of the bunch."

"Some people who are telepaths genius, yes, but not all. As far as we know, Seraphita and Richter are the only level 5's on the planet. We were all taken from the same gene pool as Seraphita, but maybe the gene skipped us. Miang did have telepathic capabilities, after all." Kelvena said.

Seraphita sighed. "Why does he have to bother me, though?" Seraphita asked, desperate.

Tolone sat next to Seraphita and put her arm around her.

"You're the only other telepath on this planet." Tolone said.

"And I think he has a little crush on you."

"Actually," Kelvena started, "Richter killed all of the other level 5's in Solaris for fear they'd someday be sent to kill him, or they'd take power before him. He may be scared of the competition now."

Seraphita turned to look at everyone in the circle.

"Which now makes her a target." Dominia concluded. Everyone stayed silent, but knew it was true.

Dominia stood up.

"Alright, everyone, on guard. We are not evacuating, because this bastard is up to something. Our original mission parameters stand, we are going to gather as much information as we can, but if Atticus Richter is down here, and if Atticus Richter is trying to kill one of ours, we're going to get him first. Besides, I want to find out how exactly he found out about this place." Dominia finished.

"Any questions?" Dominia asked. When there were none, she nodded, then took the pistol from the back of her belt and started loading it.

"Looks like the Elements are back in buisness for a bit." Tolone said.

"Do I ever miss it."

It was always dark in the underground, so they had no idea of telling day from night, so the group traveled by night and split up. Dominia set off on her own, while Tolone and Seraphita went one way, and Billy and Kelvena went another.

On Dominia's path, she searched one building near her, and found stacks of old newspapers.

"The cookie jar." Dominia said to herself. The room of the 3 story building was dusty, had cobwebs, but was strangely well kept for a room it's age. She took a newspaper from the lowest shelf, and started reading it.

The headline on the first newspaper had 4 women on it in black and white, all with shocked looks on their face. It said "Spice Girls Revealed to be Men!" on the headline in big black letters. Dominia couldn't help but notice the strange likeness with these 4 women with her sisters.

"Look like women to me." Dominia said. She reached up and read the next newspaper, it looked even older than the one before it.

It said "President Morrison Assassinated!" on the headline in great black letters, and a picture of a president with a bullet wound in his head. Dominia took the next newspaper from the same shelf, and it looked the same as the one before it, except it said "Nation in Grief" in black letters on the headline. That's not what caught Dominia's eye though. It was the person in the picture, next to the president's coffin. She had purple hair.

"Miang?" Dominia stammered. Dominia took the newspaper, and put it in her bag. Just as she was doing so, she heard a sneaking noise to the side of her, behind one of the empty bookshelves.

"Girls?" Dominia asked blindly.

Dominia started looking around for someone, anyone, but there was nothing. Just as she turned her head, a bullet whizzed right past it, a shot from a silencer. Domina's head snapped forward, seeing her attacker.

A man dressed in black with a black, plastic mask that had green eyes. He held the silencer at her, cold, ready to fire again, but Dominia rolled towards him and grabbed his arm as he fired it. The second she

got his arm, she twisted it all the way around until she heard and snap, and the killer howled in pain. She jumped to her feet and grabbed him by the neck with one hand, choking him.

"Who the hell are you?" Dominia commanded he say.

The killer choked and coughed, but it mattered to Dominia none.

"Who sent you to kill me, badly, might I add." Dominia added.

"The one who will soon take this world back." the man said, groaning.

"Well that man sure isn't going to be you." Dominia said, spinning the killer around into a headlock, then breaking his neck with a snap. Killing was nothing for her, almost simple.

"For your information, murdering wench, it was me." a foreign accent said to her from behind. Dominia turned around again, and saw a man with a leather black vest and black shirt, with black and green military fatigues and boots, standing with two other men dressed the same way, their weapons brandished. It wasn't Atticus Richter, though.

"The fun keeps coming." Dominia said. "Who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm Mr. Richter's best friend. I oversee many of his projects, miss."

"You don't seem like much to me."

"Well, after killing a group of Krelian's own assassins and losing my right arm in the process, I think I've earned a little more respect than what you're giving me."

"You must not have been very important, they would've sent me. Then you'd be dead."

The man laughed hard at her, rubbed his cybernetic right arm. It looked like a real arm, but was simply a replacement. Exposure to alot of heat would melt it into nothing.

"The name is Korsan Tore, formerly of the Solarian Crime Syndicate, or Furai. 49 kills." the man said proudly.

"I'm impressed." Dominia said sarcastically. Korsan grinned.

"Kill her." Korsan ordered.

Dominia dove out of the way as they fired their pistols, two rounds from both guns. Dominia quickly snapped her sword from it's sheathe, and waited for their next move. She'd been in a situation like this so many times, it was like second nature. She was having no problems, and was perfectly calm. In fact, she always felt at home when she was in a fight.

She heard one of the killer's footsteps coming up to her side, and whipped her sword back, cutting deep into the killer's ankle. In a split second, she whipped her sword back out, and shoved it deep into the killer's stomach, to the hilt. The second she did, the second killer fired a shot, but Dominia spun the lifeless body of the man she just killed toward the shooter, using the corpse as a shield. She kicked the corpse to the shooter, then impaled the shooter and the corpse's body while he was stunned.

Dominia yanked the blade out, and looked for Korsan. He wasn't there, however. He vanished.

Billy and Kelvena walked the streets, looking for any sign of life, like they opted to do. As they walked the outside streets, Kelvena stopped suddenly. Her 20 times enhanced hearing picked something up.

"Billy, stop." Kelvena said.

"What is it?" Billy asked.

Kelvena stopped for another second, then put her arm on Billy's shoulder pulling him down.

"Get down!" Kelvena yelled as a bullet struck the wall where Billy's head would've been. Billy pulled his guns from his holster in a second, waiting for the target to show itself while staying low.

"It came from 6 o'clock!" Kelvena shouted. Billy pointed the pistols to his right, but didn't see anyone. Billy got to his feet, and looked all around, but didn't see anything.

"So the blind one really can hear a bullet coming." Korsan's voice boomed nearby.

"If only she could see me behind her, she'd be a good as gold."

Just then, an arm wrapped itself around Kelvena's neck out of the shadows. The stealth was so good, not even Kelvena could pick him up. He walked out of the streets, while holding Kelvena in his grip, hostage while Billy pointed the gun right at his head, standing 6 feet away from Korsan.

"Are you really that good an aim? I could throw her in the direction of the bullet if you fired, then you'd have one dead girlfriend." Korsan teased.

"Who the hell are you? Richter?" Billy asked, trying to hold back his anger.

"No, but I know him real good. He's paid me a whole lot of money in the past to take care of little problems like yourselves, and you don't seem too hard to kill." Korsan said.

Billy didn't talk anymore, just kept the gun on Korsan.

"You better connect with that shot, otherwise you die...and I will do worse than kill her." Korsan warned. That was enough.

"I don't miss." Billy said, right before firing a shot aimed for Korsan's head, but Korsan knew Billy was going to fire, and threw Kelvena to the ground and got out of the way, the bullet whizzing by his ear.

Korsan rolled back up to his feet, but Billy kept the gun on him. Kelvena laid on the ground, panting and rubbing her neck, while Korsan was at Billy's mercy.

"Shoot, kid." Korsan dared.

Billy shrugged, and fired three shots into Korsan's chest, except the strange thing was sparks flew when the shots connected. Korsan didn't fall, didn't even reel from the blow. He just looked up and Billy, with an impressed look on his face.

"Always, always aim for the head, boy. Anything else, it's your ass." Korsan said, grabbing the nose of the pistol lightning-quick and backslapping Billy to the ground with his cybernetic right arm.

"You Etones always were easy to beat down." Korsan said, standing over Billy. Korsan then turned around, and vanished into the shadows again.

As he left, Dominia, Tolone, and Seraphita seemed to rush to the pair at the same time. They got them to their feet, and they caught their breath.

"Who...was that?" Billy asked, rubbing his face.

"Korsan Tore, Solaris assassin I think." Dominia said. "Richter's errand boy."

Kelvena caught her breath, and put her blue shades back on. "They're going through a whole lot of trouble to make sure we don't find something. Korsan didn't kill Billy and I when he had the chance."

"Do you think he's testing us?" Tolone asked Dominia.

"That, or Richter doesn't want to waste his troops too much. After Krelian decimated them first and then us, he must have somewhere from 5-10 men left, which after I got some of them in the library over there, about 7 or 6. I still want to know how they found out about this place." Dominia said.

Dominia turned to Seraphita. "The best way to deal with a psychopath is to patronize him. When he gets in your head again, do just that. Talk to him, soften him up. Maybe we can learn where he's hiding and finish the job we started."

Seraphita nodded.

"If everything's ok, stay sharp and watch your backs above all else. We're not going to confine ourselves to the camp just because of some psycho who wants us out of his place. The Elements do not take orders from terrorists, especially Atticus Richter." Dominia said.

After the talk, they split into groups once more, and continued their searches. Seraphita found exactly what she was looking for within the hour, as Richter tried to talk to her again, as she and Tolone tried to open a trapdoor to a basement in one of the buildings.

"Leave the strong work to the tomboy, Seraphita." Richter told her.

"Tolone's my sister, not a tomboy." Seraphita shot back.

"I stand corrected. Aren't you supposed to be patronizing me, though?"

"Whatever. I just want to know how you survived that explosion back when we beat you."

"It's a magic trick, my dear Seraphita."

"Stop calling me that, you psycho bastard."

"Psycho? You dare call me crazy? I'm not even going to go into your great Dominia's problems. She could bring a psychologist to tears. And what about the blind Kelvena, who just kills to follow orders, not because she wants to? I haven't heard such lies since Krelian told me he only had Solaris's best interests in mind after releasing a bio-weapon on a 3rd class place.

I won't forget Tolone, or the tomboy, of course. She forces you to hold her hand through every situation, through every day of your life, stop me when I'm wrong."

Seraphita wanted to, but even she had to admit he was right.

"All 4 of you are crazy, and so is the blonde guy. I followed the belief of the Etones, and nowhere in the book did it say grab your rifle and blow away the nearest Reaper. And I know something else about his little 'book'. It's not the real one."

Seraphita was drawn back to Tolone's attention as they finally lifted the trapdoor from the floor.

They looked down into the lower chamer, it was a long way down into the chamer with no ladder. However, there were still lights in there, and the room seemed to have been cleaned out recently.

"How are we gonna get down there?" Tolone asked.

"There's a cushion at the bottom, drop down." Richter told Seraphita with his mind.

"I think there's a cushion at the bottom, let's just drop." Seraphita said, climbing into the trapdoor. She dropped into it, and like Richter said, landed right on a cushion, which looked like an old bed mattress. She nodded up to Tolone, and Tolone dropped down on the cushion, bouncing off and standing on her feet. The room was definitely furnished recently. There was a clean desk, a red carpeting all around the room, red carpeted walls, and a large TV screen built into the front of the room.

Seraphita whistled. "Someone had fun in here." she said.

"Me, actually." Richter said.

"You see Seraphita, this is one of the many spots I use to relax myself. This whole city is my kingdom."

"You have to answer me one question, Richter."

"Anything."

"How did you find this place? The city, I mean."

"Excellent question." Richter told her.

"You see, Krelian has known about this place much longer than anyone else. This place was going to be used for Krelian getaway in case Solaris suffered an untimely demise, or Krelian failed in his original plans. Obviously, Krelian won't be needing this place, so he sent me to get it cleaned up, get batteries to get the place with lights on and everything. After my loss to you and your team, I went here to lick my wounds and regroup with my men so we could make one final strike at Krelian. Unfortunately, someone must have beat us to it." Richter finished.

"Seraphita? Seraphita?" Tolone asked, seeing her sister looking distant.

"He's talking to you, isn't he?" Tolone said.

"He...doesn't seem so bad." Seraphita said.

Tolone rolled her eyes. "We do not have time for you to play puppy love with an assassin. Do you have any idea how we get out of this room, now?"

"There's a tunnel behind one of the walls. That's not all there is to this room, though." Richter told her.

"Richter, why did you have Korsan try to kill my team earlier?"

"Korsan tried to kill you? I have nothing to do with that."

"Don't play dumb, you bastard. You tried to kill us!"

"No, Korsan tried to kill you. I don't know anything about it."

"You're a liar!"

"Why don't you find out for yourself, Seraphita? Why don't your probe into my mind like I've probed into yours? I know more about you and friends than you do yourselves with that method. So why don't you try the same thing, Seraphita?"

"I don't know the first thing about being a telepath, I was just handed this power and I don't know what to do with it."

"It's simple, Seraphita...you just see what your target looks like. That's all you need. Being you've seen me before, concentrate all your mind's power on the one figure. Then go for a walk in my brain."

"What are you doing?" Tolone asked.

"I'm finding a way out of here, and finding out where Richter is." Seraphita said.

"Just concentrate, Seraphita. It's so much easier for a level 5 to do it. I can do it in my sleep, in fact, that's the most fun way."

Seraphita flashbacked to when she saw the first picture of Atticus Richter, then concentrated her mind on that one figure she remembered, along with the link she was maintaining with Richter now.

"Come on...concentrate a little harder...I can already sense you in my mind."

"Sera? Sera?" Tolone said, shaking Seraphita from her trance, but she wouldn't come out of it. Seraphita's eyes were closed, and she was concentrating. She slowly lost all consciousness of everything around her in the solid world, now she was in a different one.

The second her concentration reached it's peak, she felt like her mind was leaving her body. She entered a whole new existance, like she was flying.

Her mind ventured, she just stayed floating in the air of her mind, not going anywhere.

"This way." a black shadow said to her from afar, then floated away. Then she floated herself away with the figure, in the void, until she was surrounded by a large, black room. It was a destroyed room, a black, with cracks and cobwebs, like it was about to fall.

"I...I can't move around." Seraphita told the void.

"Think of something. Think of anything, and you will have that body, that form, even the clothes on your back." the void told her.

That was just what she did. She thought of the attire that always made her most comfortable, the old Elements outfit with the bunny ears on top of her red hair. They made her look cute, she thought.

Her body stood in the empty, dreary room, wearing the Elements suit, looking for what was next.

"Ever hear you're stuck in the prison of your mind?" the void asked.

Then void took shape, into the shape of a very attractive, well-built man in his mid 20's with black hair and black clothes. Atticus Richter, in person.

"Well, my mind really is a prison."

"Wha..what's happening to my body in the real world?" Seraphita asked as Richter approached her.

"You're in a deep, deep sleep until you return your mind to your body. They can't wake you up, you only need to when you feel like it. This place, the escape in the mind, is the only true escape from the chaotic world we're forced to live in." Richter said, now face to face.

"You're a mind-player, Richter. You're trying to make me think you have feelings for me. People like you don't feel, just like Dominia." Tolone said.

Richter reached in, and touched her face. She wanted to push him away, but didn't. No hostilities in this world.

"You know, a long time ago, I was. Except I did feel. In fact, I took pleasure in taking someone's life much the way you and your friends did. For patriotism, for superiority. I knew about everything your friends did even without scanning anyone. I did have top access to all of Krelian's files, even the non-important ones. "

"Why are you a killer, then, Richter? You don't seem evil!"

"You didn't let me finished. I killed 100. I killed 1,000. Not because I had to, but many times, because I enjoyed it. I loved the rush, and every man I killed was my father who gave up his life and ours for the damn Lambs."

"Why are you telling me this, Richter?"

Richter took Seraphita's hand, and just held it. This man either had genuine feelings for her, or was a charming genius.

"Because like you, I don't want to do that anymore. The war is over. The world is over. I want to stay in this place until I die, but I don't want to die alone. I have to pass on my power through a child, and that child will go above ground and help rebuild the world."

"How do I know if you're telling me the truth?"

"Because I need a mate with the same kind of power as me. The result of two parents with level 5 telepathy could form the most advanced human ever."

"I hope you don't mean mate by me. I'm 17 years old. I'm not even legal yet." Seraphita said with a smirk.

"That's another reason I chose you over the others. You have life, which I wanted you to bring to me. Is it so hard to believe that maybe I want to start over? That maybe I didn't send Korsan to kill you?"

"You're just a little too convincing, Atticus. I don't believe you for a second."

"Really? You still don't believe I didn't send Korsan to kill you? Watch this."

Saying that, Atticus produced a screen-like vision of himself chained to the wall, badly beaten, his clothes tattered and torn, with soldiers standing near him ready to fire in case he tried to escape. Seraphita's jaw almost dropped to the ground.

"I'd be lying if this sudden change of heart was brought on naturally. I've been like this since about a month after we got down here. Korsan got a little too used to leading my soliders during my absence, and they got used to him. So after a week of putting up with my leadership, they overthrew me and forced me at gunpoint to get the Tyrant repaired and running so they could kill all the monsters here, except they didn't have the tools down here. So they hid from the monsters Krelian created and put here to guard, then the other Gears came here 6 months ago and killed all the monsters. Korsan's group now wants to go above ground and take everything back in the name of Solaris."

Seraphita scoffed. "More like in the name of himself."

"Yes, I have been spying on you all since my defeat, but what else can I do? I tried to scare you away because I knew you'd come if I tried to scare you. You have kill Korsan, or he'll kill you soon enough. He hasn't already because he doesn't have the firepower. He has 6 men left vs. you Elements."

Richter grinned. "It's not very fair for them."

Seraphita frowned, then Richter raised her chin with his hand. He leaned down and kissed her firm on the lips, like a dream to her. After what seemed like an hour, he broke the kiss and she just stared up at him.

This psychopath...could he really love, or was he playing me? Seraphita thought.

"There's just no way to know." Richter said.

Damn, forgot he knows what I think. Seraphita thought.

"You can know what people think, also."

"How?" Seraphita asked.

"To put a long procedure short, I must tell you to listen while noone talks. I have helped awaken this power inside you...all you have to do is aim your mind at another's. Before long, it will be second nature. You were destined to have this power, Seraphita. Maybe it's because you were always the black sheep in your group, maybe it's because God thought you deserved something."

Seraphita looked at Richter oddly. "God? That was all some great, millennium long hoax. Even Billy the church-boy knows that."

Richter rose his eyebrow. "Not quite." Richter said. "As it turns out, your trek here is not without fruits. In the world before this, there was another book speaking of God. It was the first one, and the real one. In my first exploration down here, I found that book. The last known. It was tattered, and some pages were ripped, but it spoke of deeds done by a great Messiah, and revelations of an anti-Christ."

Richter looked down, frowning. "Krelian and I were the only two to know about it's existance. The foundations of this..bible were taken and twisted around, hence the Etones and their scandals. By reading this book, I found that any man can be forgiven for his sins, even me. At the time I found it, though, I paid the forgiveness part no mind. I only paid attention to the revelation of the son of the devil, who would destroy mankind. I thought that was me, I thought that was my mission. Obviously, I was mistaken. Now I want to be forgiven by God, and atone. "

Richter sighed, and continued. "God is real, Seraphita. Not some machine. Our creation may have been originated by one, but God is the one who destined that to happen. We've angered him, that's why he's done this to the world twice. Everyone had a part in it, but now we have a chance to start this over. I want to give this book that I've kept safe to your partner Billy, so please hurry and set me free."

Seraphita was about to say yes, but then she remembered who she was talking to. This was manipulating, psychotic, cold blooder killer. She may have been ditzy, but she still had the instincts of an Element.

"No. You tell me where it is, and I'll get it." Seraphita said sternly. She tried to read into Richter's mind, but something stopped her. It was like a wall. Was he blocking her?

"Don't you trust me?" Richter asked.

"Famous last words!" Seraphita exclaimed. "Now I know I have to get it for you instead of setting you free!"

Richter smiled at her. "That's my girl." he said. "I'll guide you to it's hiding place. Don't let anyone know what you're doing, they don't trust me. They won't trust you."

"I don't trust you myself, Richter." Seraphita said.

She looked down, and looked back up. "And...and don't you think for a second that I'd ever return your affections for me! I'm a girl for everyone to enjoy."

Richter laughed hard at her. "You forget, I've seen into your mind for the longest time. You're still a virgin, but not only that, you're afraid to get close. You're just someone who enjoys the company of people, not just men. Men are the only people who talk to you because women think you're a...slut. So you're just used to talking to men."

Seraphita's jaw dropped, and she slapped him. "Don't you look into my private life ever again!" Seraphita yelled.

Richter rubbed his jaw. "Hm. The fierceness of an Element. I like it." Richter said.

"You must leave now. Time moves differently in the mind than the real world. You've been asleep inside of that room for the past 3 hours, Tolone's probably left, and you must get up before Korsan's boys find you."

Seraphita gasped. "Something I forgot to ask you...how do you know what I'm doing, every second of the day?" she asked.

"Level 5's can actually see things through another person's eyes. But that's not something that'll be easy, you still need work." Richter said.

Seraphita sighed. "I...I better go." Seraphita said. "How do I leave?"

Richter chuckled. "Simple. Walk out the door."

Seraphita nodded, and turned around walking out the door of the destroyed, dark room. She turned around and looked at Richter one last time, then walked out of the door. It was like lightning, like traveling through a long pipe at the speed of light. Then suddenly, she felt whole again, like she was back in her body, and her eyes fluttered open.

"That was insane. This whole idea is insane." Seraphita told herself, staring up at the trapdoor in the ceiling.

Seraphita was dressed back in her normal clothes, without the little bunny ears, and life was once again miserable.

There's no rush like coming back from the world of the mind. Richter reached out to her with his mind.

Seraphita sat up, and looked around the room. The TV had been ripped from the wall and stacked on top of the table below the trapdoor, like someone had climbed out. More like jumped out, thanks to Tolone's enhanced athletics. She climbed on the stack, and just leaped out. Seraphita had indeed been left alone, although she was sure Tolone went for help.

There's a switch under the desk. It opens up the passage to the city under the city as I call it. Richter thought to her.

A switch under the desk? Not one for originality, are ya? Seraphita replied.

Seraphita felt around for the switch under the desk, and sure enough there was a switch, almost like a light switch. She flipped it, and the side passage slid open, showing the way out of the office.

After you. Richter thought to her.

Seraphita walked into the passage, and it was like a basement corridor. It had pipe-shaped, dimmed lights all along, and it looked like it went on for quite a bit. Seraphita followed it down, pushing past the cobwebs and the lights that blinked on and off, but followed the corridor straight down.

When I could come down here, I got blisters walking this thing. Richter thought to her.

Is this gonna take awhile? Seraphita thought back.

Not too long. Your sister Tolone will be back any minute now, though. Let's not forget Korsan's boys aren't exactly friends, so I'd get a move on. When Tolone gets here, Korsan's boys will be here the second they do because they've got your friends tailed.

Seraphita cursed herself for not remembering the passage of time. 3 hours? It was taking Tolone and the girls 3 hours to get down and check on her? What was going on with them?

3 hours ago, after Tolone's leaving the room

After spending an hour waiting for Seraphita awaken, Tolone knew it was time to get help. She ran the street looking for the rest of the team, but couldn't find anyone.

Finally, panting and sweating, she pulled at her white hair in frustration. "Damnit! Where are you guys?" Tolone shouted in the street, hoping someone would hear her. Apparently someone did.

"We're right here." a voice from behind her said. Tolone turned around, the man was standing about 20 feet away. He was tall, wearing black, had metallic armor.

This must be Korsan.

"You're Korsan?" Tolone shouted. Korsan walked closer to her, calmly.

"No need to shout, gorgeous." Korsan said.

"Don't call me anything except my name, idiot. I don't take flattery from scum." Tolone said bravely.

Korsan, close to her, grinned. "You also don't look good in red, sweetness." Korsan said.

"What are you talking about? I'm not..." as Tolone said these words, she looked down at her top, and saw three red laser dots pointed at her heart, lower neck, and stomach. Tolone cursed herself for being so stupid to walk into a trap like that, and let the enemy know where she was.

Korsan's grin stayed the same. "Now, if I whistle to those three men, you die. So you can either listen to what I have to say, or your little family will have one less member. Are we straight?" Korsan asked, knowing the answer.

Tolone nodded, and rolled her eyes. "What do you want, slimeball?" Tolone asked with contempt.

"You naked would be nice, but right now I'll settle for something more satisfying." Korsan started.

"Now dear, Atticus Richter, my employer, has a book that I'm looking for. It has the power to inspire millions, and it tells some...truths to it. He's sent his sister to both fetch the book and set him free."

"What's the problem for you then?" Tolone asked.

"I've decided to betray Mr. Richter, actually. His call for an attack on you was entirely unprovoked, and I certainly didn't agree with it. I want the whereabouts to the book so I can stop him, and kill Richter."

"Shouldn't you know where he is?"

"He locked himself up with that damn book and many of the other artifacts you seek. He's in some kind of personal museum, the fruit ball. And he's using your sister as bait to set him free and defend against us. He may have killed multiple people at once before, but we're stronger and smarter than them. With her, however, he may pull it off and kill us."

"Can't he stretch out with his mind and stop your heartbeats?"

"No. We're all telepaths ourselves, we can block off his attacks when we band together. In fact, I'm poking into your mind right now."

"Get out of my head, bastard. Just tell me what you want."

"Anyway, when he wanted to kill the only visitors we've had in a long time, I got a little angry, and me and my men tried to kill him. He got away and locked himself up in that room. He thinks he's the anti-Christ, a figure found in his book. He's a power-monging fool, and I'd like you and your friends to help me take him down before he twists your sister's mind anymore, and forces her to possibly even turn against you."

"Seraphita would never turn against us!"

"He's twisted her mind, anything is possible. He could've told her that oh-famous-line of 'I'm becoming a changed man', or 'this book will save mankind'. He's said it before to people, women like yourselves so he could get into power. He got rid of them after thier services were done, and never gave a second thought about it. Seraphita's his newest toy. Maybe he's told her 'my men have chained me up'. That's a great one. Richter is the best liar known to man."

Tolone started giving this serious thought. Seraphita, in Tolone's mind, was definitely susceptible to Richter's charms. She was young, headstrong, and still much to learn in the ways of living. It had always been Tolone's job to be her sister's keeper, she felt.

"What about after you find this book, Korsan? Will you try and kill us?"

"No, we won't. We'll give you the artifacts that were in Richter's chamber, and hopefully you'll take us above ground with the ship you came here on. There's nothing left to do here."

"How can we trust you? You took great pleasure in trying to kill my friends earlier."

"I was under orders. And let's face it, I take a certain...exuberance to my work. So here's the million dollar question. Will you rally your friends to destroy the world's next big threat, gather more information than you ever could before, or will you be faced with the terror of possibly having to kill your own sister when she turns on you? Take a moment to decide, please."

Tolone couldn't ignore it. Her sister could indeed turn on her. Then again, Korsan could be lying. He really could have turned on Richter and chained him up, or they could have already killed Richter, and Seraphita, and they were making a strategic ploy to destroy the whole team. She made a decision.

"I will take you to my team, but I won't endorse your plan in any way. Personally, I think you're lying. I think you and Richter are both compulsive, murdering liars, and if I'm right...I will...will see you dead." Tolone said with gritted teeth.

Korsan shrugged. "You'll see you're wrong, though. I'll show you where your friends are. We have had them tailed for quite some time."

After an hour, Dominia, Billy, and Kelvena met back at the camp, where Tolone and the Stalkers were waiting. Dominia looked shocked, but Tolone was ready to explain her case.

"Dominia, before you call me a traitor, I think you should seriously listen to their plan." Tolone told her leader.

Dominia, already in a rage, reached back and slapped Tolone hard across the face, sending her to the ground.

"The Elements do not negoiate with terrorists!" Dominia yelled.

Tolone jumped to her feet, ready to retaliate, but Billy got in between them, breaking them apart.

"Elements? I don't see any Elements here, just two arguing little..." Billy started.

Kelvena held up her hand to Billy. "That's enough, really." Kelvena said softly.

Billy looked at her, although she couldn't return the gaze, he got the message. He stepped from between the two ladies, and prepared to listen to Tolone.

"I think Tolone has her reasons in bringing the Stalkers here. I'd like to know, that's certain." Kelvena said.

Dominia nodded weakly, and Tolone gently rubbed her face, glaring at Dominia.

"Alright, but it better be a good plan." Dominia said.

"The best." Korsan said.

Korsan told the group exactly what he told Tolone. It was met with mixed reactions.

"Do I have 'stupid' written on my forehead?" Dominia said to Korsan.

"You tried to kill us earlier, and appeared to have fun doing it."

"I was under orders." Korsan said simply.

"That's nothing! You looked like you were enjoying your work to me, how can we have any idea you're full of sorrow, so much sorrow you'd bite the hand that feeds you?" Dominia asked.

"You're going to tell me you didn't enjoy yourself a bit too much when you were 'following orders', Dominia?" Korsan asked.

Tolone looked down at the ground. "He's got a point there, Dom." Tolone said.

"It's a small possibility, but he could be telling the truth. Richter could also be telling the truth." Kelvena said.

"What did this book consist of?" Billy asked.

"Religious things. Supposedly the foundation for which the Etones were thought up. If the Etonian tales were just tall tales, then this book is the real, original story." Korsan said.

Billy's interest was instantly peaked. "That...that's impossible. The things in the Etonian bible were the only religion, and it was false. There can't be another book."

"Oh there is, and Atticus Richter has it. When Richter was first sent here by Krelian, he found many artifacts that should stay right where they are, here, and never be seen by the world, not even Solaris. Krelian believed it was in the world's best interest, but I think it was his own. Krelian, from the rumors I heard, was not too big on religion, so he scoffed at the book and kept it here so noone could ever spread anything about it. Of course, Richter knew where it always was because he found it, so he has the last copy of this 'holy bible' known. Given to the wrong hands, it will be used a weapon, a gospel that people will follow in hope of rebuilding this world. Then the religion will be twisted again, to serve Richter's dark purposes. I want to take the book from him, stop him, and kill him. But if we alone go in, one of two things will happen. We'll overwhelm Richter and Seraphita so badly, we kill Seraphita also, or they use their level 5 powers to kill us. 6 level 3's can't stand up to 2 level 5 telepaths." Korsan finished.

"There...there's no such book. There's no more religion. Leave it be." Billy said, looking disturbed.

"What's his problem?" Korsan asked.

"Billy was an Etone. They killed everyone in his monastery and he found out the horrible truths of the twisted religion." Kelvena told Korsan.

"So forgive me if I don't rush to embrace religion again." Billy said sarcastically.

Korsan nodded, and turned to Dominia. I think we should endure each other long enough until both our needs can be met.

Dominia then stared coldly at Korsan. "How do we know you're not lying yourself?" Dominia asked.

Korsan grinned. "You're just gonna have to trust me, aren't you?" Korsan said.

"On a cold day in hell." Dominia said. Korsan looked at all of their team, and ordered them to get up and start getting ready. Dominia shook her head in disgust.

"Everyone, get up, we're leaving." Dominia said. Almost instantly, they got to their feet and were ready.

"You control these punks, but you don't control me." Dominia said to Korsan.

"Lead on."

Korsan got in front of his group of 6, and started leading the way as the Element girls and Billy followed close behind.

Present Time

Seraphita kept walking through the corridor, she'd been doing so for about 3 minutes and didn't reach the end yet.

Atticus, why exactly are you so bitter? Seraphita thought to herself. She could think to herself, she didn't have to reach out for Richter. Richter was reaching out for her and would know her thoughts, so it was just like talking.

A few things, actually. My father, mostly. He decided a bunch of...Lambs were more important than us, my mother and me. After my father's disgrace, we became third class citizens, with nothing. My mother knew no skills and had never worked a day in her life...so she became a common whore until she contracted one of the sexually transmitted diseases that bastard Krelian wanted to test, and died.

I was left on my own, young. Atticus thought to her.

Seraphita started feeling pity for him. With a childhood like that, how could Richter be a good person?

So then you became an assassin with the Furai, then went into intellegence. Seraphita thought.

It wasn't intellegence. We gathered information and were assassins who had badges, that's the only difference between the Furai and Solarian Intellegence. You should know that. Richter thought to her.

It's pretty obvious why you tried to kill Krelian then, right? Because the STD that was being tested on 3rd class citizens was put out by him?

No, that wasn't it. I didn't know that when I first joined up with Krelian, and I wouldn't have cared. I had convinced myself to hate both my parents for leaving me on my own. I wanted Krelian when I did because I wanted to be him. Have the power over Solaris he did, the connections he had. What can I say, I was insane at the time.

Seraphita continued on through the tunnel,and finally saw a steel door ahead. She reached the door and was ready to open it, but saw a keypad lock that would open the door.

Wait...this just occurred to me. Richter thought to her.

What is it?

You may have been followed by Korsan's men. You have a weapon, right?

Yeah. I have a pistol.

That won't do anything against 6 men with metallic armor, like Korsan. I'm going to break telepathic link with you for a short time. I have to find out exactly what the men are up to.

What about me? How do I get in here?

You'll have to wait at the door. I don't have enough power to communicate to you and get through Korsan and my men's head at the same time, even at the state of concentration I'm in right now, sleep.

Fine, but hurry!

Just like that, the looming presence in Seraphita's head was gone. It was like a cloud that went away.

She sat at the door, and waited the best she could.

.....................

"Richter's a damn dreamer." Korsan said, walking next to Tolone. She was repulsed by him, but he seemed to like her for some reason. It made her want to puke.

"I've been his partner ever since our days in the crime syndicate. We got indicted together, went into Intellegence together, always been his second in command. Always second to Atticus Richter, a nobody, a dreamer."

Korsan turned to Tolone. "Now it's my time. No more being second in command. Now I am in command. What about you, ms. Redblade?"

Tolone looked up at him, and shrugged. "I don't really care. I'm not the leader of the Elements, I never was, never will be." she said.

"Haven't you ever thought you could do things better than Dominia?"

"No. Noone can do things better than Dominia. We may not have always agreed with her decisions at the time, but in the end they work out for the best."

"But it often seems like Kelvena is the one who lays the foundation for decision making."

"No, Kelvena provides an option and we take it. She'd be the leader if anything happened to Dominia."

"That can't be right. She has too major a shortcoming, too much of a hand-cap despite her overcoming it. She isn't as good a fighter as you, why is she an Element, anyway? They could've found any blue-haired girl blind girl in Solaris."

"She's a genius, and don't forget it. And if you ever talk ill of any of my sisters again, I will kill you where you stand."

"Sisters? They're just your teammates."

"No. We found out recently that we were a Solarian project from birth, and Solaris influenced the courses of our lives, even up to our meeting each other. The birth body was the same person."

"Ah! A Solarian project. Richter and myself could be called that. So, you could also consider you and myself already having one big thing in common. Perhaps after this is done we could find out the other things we have in common." Korsan asked Tolone with a smile.

Tolone responded by telling him to perform an act on himself which is physically impossible.

End of prt 3

Richter wasn't able to reach into Korsan's mind, Korsan had learned how to effectively block Richter out over the years. Richter reached into one of the soldier's minds however, and learned the plan. He reached out to Seraphita, who was sitting and waiting for Richter's call.

The looming force in Seraphita's mind returned. Except it was more welcome this time. Not much, but it was a start.

I'm back. Richter thought to her.

I could tell. Seraphita thought.

Maybe I'll teach you how to block when you see me coming. Richter thought to her.

They've got quite a plan, Seraphita. Korsan's already made a mistake in commanding my troops. Always keep secrets from them so other telepaths can't find stuff. I couldn't do anything about it before because they chained me to the wall and gave me sedatives to keep my power at bay.

Turns out your team and my team are coming down here right now because they both want something. The Stalkers want the book, the Elements want the artifacts in this room...and of course, they want to save you. From me.

Save me from you? Why?

They think I'm inside this room with the book and I've locked myself in. They think you're going to turn on them for my sake because I'm so manipulating and smart. Well, it's kind of true.

You're so modest, Richter.

Anyway, that's not their plan. They're going to take the book, kill them, kill me, and kill you right after your ship arrives here for you. Now we must change our own plans.

What plan is that?

First, don't go into the room. We're going to wait for them to arrive here.

...............

The last of the soldiers lowered himself into the lower room, Richter's office, and restrapped his weapon. Everyone was now down into the room, and everyone could see the passageway. Korsan looked shocked by it.

"I never thought there was a secret passage. He never even let me down here." Korsan said.

"Guess you weren't as integral as you thought." Tolone said to him.

Dominia looked down the corridor, and led the way on.

"I'm becoming just a bit tired of your attitude, Redblade." Korsan said to Tolone as they walked down the corridor.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm tired of you altogether. I don't know what kind of fake charm you think you have, but I think you have a better chance with Dominia than me."

"Ah! If my mind doesn't fail me, you have just a little bit of attraction to me, even if it's very small. Come now, admit it."

"Um...no. You disgust me..."

Tolone reached back, and backhanded Korsan across the face. "And I told you stay out of my mind." Tolone said to Korsan, who was holding onto his face. Everyone turned around and looked, but then Tolone snapped at them to continue on. Everyone did just that.

As they walked on, Billy and Kelvena carried on their own conversation. Except noone got slapped in this one. He lead her by the arm, but he was still feeling distant.

"What's wrong, Billy?" Kelvena asked.

"Hm? Nothing. It's just...this book they're talking about."

"Oh. I can understand if you're a little taken by it."

"That's not what I'm thinking, though. I'm thinking about the whole religion thing again. I tied myself down to the religion I had thinking I was serving God, when actually I was serving the devil. They said there was no God, and from the past events it seems like it. Where was God when Reapers killed my mother, and where's God now when my sister can't speak? Where's God when..."

"I want to see? Is that what you were about to say? I can understand your feelings, but promise me one thing about this...bible, Billy."

"What?"

"That you'll read it, see if it's any different from what you had before. Everyone has to believe in something."

"I do, I told you. I believe in myself, and that's enough."

Kelvena sighed. "If you say so."

That was the end of the conversation, but it wasn't clear from Billy's mind. Not at all, even though he tried.

Finally, they reached the door...and Seraphita looking like she was trying to figure out the passcode to the electric keypad. Dominia was the first to come up to her.

"What are you doing, Seraphita? Do you know if we were in Solaris I could've court marshaled you?" Dominia asked.

"We aren't in Solaris, are we?" Seraphita said with a wide smile.

"I wouldn't disturb me, either! I'm going to help out my new boyfriend, with or without you!"

Korsan and Tolone jumped forward.

"No! I'm telling you, Seraphita, Atticus Richter is waiting behind that door with a rocket launcher so he can kill both you and us at the same time! He's locked himself in there! He's trying to earn your trust, and you can't even think of turning on us, please!" Tolone pleaded.

Korsan instantly went for his gun. "Clear the path, young lady, or I will shoot you."

Seraphita snapped her own gun from the back of her belt, and pointed it at the group. Everyone, especially Tolone, was shocked. Seraphita was turning on them before their very eyes.

"Everyone, back up. I'm going in this room, and you aren't going to stop me!" Seraphita shouted.

Everyone, in more shock than fear, backed up. Korsan had been right. Seraphita had turned on them.

"Sera...please! Listen! Put down the gun! Richter's using you!" Tolone pleaded more.

"You have to stop this now!"

"You know, ever since we've been young, you've tried to tell me this and tell me that. Anytime I do something right, you said it was wrong. Anytime I liked a guy you liked, you said he was gross but you tried to take him away. You were always stronger and smarter, but I accepted it. Until now! Now I'm going to take control, and this is one man you can't steal from me!" Seraphita yelled.

Tolone was blown back by her sister's words. Was this really how she felt all this time? Her sister was turning on her before her very eyes. She knew she had to kill Atticus Richter the second she saw him.

Everyone wanted to bring her back from the edge, but couldn't. Everyone just backed up more, they didn't want to be the one shot in case she got trigger happy. Seraphita turned around slightly while holding the gun, still keeping her eye on the group and the keypad, and started typing in the code. The steel door slid open, and before them was a large room.

Seraphita walked into the room first, and looked around. The room looked more like a vault. It must have been a bank vault of some kind. It had thick steel walls, was empty from shelf to shelf, and was very big.

She walked in more, everyone else was looking around themselves and didn't care much to get the gun from her. They actually could've killed her awhile ago. She turned around and pointed her pistol at them still, thinking they would make a move.

"Wh...where's the book? Where's the artifacts?" Seraphita asked herself. She looked around, and saw nothing except the thick steel walls and shelves. Then the unimaginable happened for just about everyone.

From behind one of the walls strolled the black-wearing Atticus Richter in prime condition. He didn't look injured at all, in fact he looked like he just cleaned himself.

Seraphita's jaw dropped, so did all of the Element girls and Billy's. This was definitely a turn for the worst.

But there was more.

"Ah, Seraphita. You're even more beautiful in person." Richter said. The Stalkers rose their guns instantly. Except not at Richter. At the Elements and Billy.

Korsan brushed past Seraphita and walked over to Richter. He gave him a big, friendly hug, and patted him on the back.

"Little brother!" Richter said to Korsan. Even amongst the shock of the girls, Seraphita had to make reason of this.

"Ri..richter! What's going on?" Seraphita pleaded.

"Oh. We had to get you and your sisters here so we could effectively get you." Richter said.

"This...this wasn't part of the plan!" Seraphita yelled. It seemed like everything was hitting her like a ton of bricks.

"Oh yes it was. Just not our plan. All of you argued who was lying more, when were both lying. Brothers can't betray each other like that." Richter told Seraphita.

"Brother? You said he was your partner!" Seraphita yelled.

"I can never tell anyone Korsan is my brother, never could. They'd kill any family of mine just to piss me off."

"Then again, they'd never kill me." Korsan said arrogantly.

Billy glared at the pair. "Was there ever a book, really?" he asked.

Richter nodded. "Yeah, and we've got it. And after that ship arrives for you and we take it, we're going to spread the truths! Of course, when the ship arrives, we'll have to kill you."

Billy, unable to control his anger, went straight for his gun. He snapped it out quick, but one of the soldiers knocked him to floor with his rifle butt.

"Billy!" Kelvena shouted, kneeling down to him.

Richter and Korsan snickered. "Take all of them back to their camp an keep watch on them until they cooperate and communicate with the outside for their ship to pick them up."

"Not on our worst day." Dominia said, her teeth clenched.

"I knew you'd come up with something like that." Korsan said.

"So we're taking some insurance." Richter grabbed Seraphita by the arm, and pulled her close.

"She's just betrayed you, but we know you won't let her die." Richter said to them. Seraphita was crying, like the world just fell on her shoulders.

"In fact, separate all of them. Take them all to a different place and keep them under watch, men." Korsan ordered. The men poked the team with their guns, and marched them back out of the vault, much to their protest.

"We could've had something real, Tolone! Too bad you treated me so bad!" Korsan yelled to Tolone as she was ushered out.

"Korsan, better follow them so we can continue on with our plans." Richter asked Korsan. Korsan nodded, and went out of the vault, leaving Seraphita alone with Richter as a hostage.

..............

Dominia was kept at the camp under watch of two guards, Billy kept under watch in the middle of one of the city streets under the watch of one guard with a gun, Kelvena kept in the former subway under one guard's watch, and Tolone kept in Richter's office under 1 guard's watch and Korsan.

Korsan sat on the desk, and kept the pistol pointed at Tolone, just taunting her.

"So tell me about this world above, Tolone." Korsan asked Tolone.

"Go to hell." she replied.

"If there was one, I'm sure they'd have a reserved spot for myself and Richter next to Krelian." Korsan replied.

"But weren't you a war criminal yourself, Tolone? And you should be glad I'm taking any interest in you at all, you tomboy."

"Yes, I was a war criminal, but I'm trying to recover from it. As for me being a tomboy, alot of men have taken interest to me in the past. None as scummy as you, though. You know I'm going to kill you, right?" Tolone asked.

"Not if I kill you first." Korsan said, pointing the gun at her close now. He pulled the hammer on the gun back, making sure it was loaded, then smiled at her.

"I'm sure your sister is being treated very nice by Atticus right now. Very well indeed. First she betrays you, now you fail to protect her. You're just...sorry." Korsan added.

Tolone couldn't control her anger, but there was nothing she could do.

"Yes, very nice indeed. Maybe I could treat you nice, Tolone." Korsan said with a smirk.

And in a split second, Korsan had spun himself and the pistol around, and fired a point black bullet into the guard's heart, making him go to the ground, dead instantly. Tolone just sat there, in awe from what was going on. Korsan holstered the gun, and looked at Tolone.

"Treat you very nice indeed." Korsan said.

"What's going on?!" Tolone asked, as suprised as anyone.

"Looks like it's your turn to be the last to know everything." a voice from inside the tunnel said. Just then, Atticus Richter walked out of the wall-tunnel with Seraphita following right behind him.

"Seraphita! You're ok!" Tolone shouted.

"Shhh!! Keep it down!" Seraphita said. "Voices echo in this place."

"What's going on?"

"A triple-cross you could call it. Richter and myself made a plan before you got to the vault, and went with it. Korsan's the only one who knew about it."

"What? You're in on this?" Tolone asked Korsan.

"Like I told Seraphita, always keep secrets from your subordinates. We've set this plan in motion quite some time ago. Korsan isn't the one imprisoned by his men, neither am I. We've actually started something with these soldiers we can't finish, no matter how small their numbers are." Richter said.

"These troops aren't exactly the type to just up and quit, Tolone. If we say we want to start life over and bring religion to people for the sake of helping out, heh, they'd kill us." Korsan said.

"So we have to kill them first, then we can get out of here."

Tolone narrowed her eyes at everyone. "You're all still lying, aren't you? None of you can be trusted, be all 3 of you have betrayed us today." Tolone said.

"That's fine with me, I did lie to Seraphita a little, I admit. I told her I was chained up. I told her they've kept me prisoner. I had to explain to her just now that it was part of the plan. So you can either join us, or rot in here for all we care." Richter said.

"You didn't mean to lie to me, didya, Atticus?" Seraphita asked.

"Um...I kind of had to. Of course, she's right. We can't be trusted. But as of right now, we're your best bet. I've had it with this world domination deal. It gets depressing after you fail trying all this time."

Everyone looked at Tolone. Tolone sighed, and took the gun from Korsan's belt, putting it behind her own. "I'm not trusting this jerk right here though." Tolone said, looking at Korsan.

"It's real treacherous to kill your own men, might I add. You can just capture them."

Richter shrugged. "You're right, but any excuse will do..."

Richter took the rifle from the guard, and gave it to Korsan. "I can't help it. It's nature. I like to kill."

"You're both still crazy. But I want to get out of here." Tolone said, standing up.

"Are there really artifacts back in that room?"

"There's a storeroom within the vault. The former owner of this room was extremely secure about his things. It has everything you were looking for, but then again you might want to look for some of the other stuff in this city before you get out of it." Richter said.

"There's an elevator in the vault to the upper level let's take it before our boys decide to check on us."

Richter left back down the tunnel with Seraphita following him, while Korsan, still trying to impress Tolone somehow, let her walk before him into the door. She rolled her eyes, still not impressed by him.

"That's alright...just playing hard to get." Korsan told himself.

"Are Billy's wounds being tended to?" Kelvena asked the terrorist. The terrorist shrugged. "I actually couldn't care less, blue eyes." the guard said.

"Hey!" a voice from behind yelled. The soldier looked around. It was Richter and Korsan.

"Yes sir! What do you...hey!" the terrorist yelled seeing them with the girls.

"Someone's heart's stopped beating! Get help!" Richter yelled.

"Who?" the guard yelled, unstrapping his assault rifle.

"YOU!" Richter yelled back, putting his fingers to his head and using his psi-powers in an instant try and stop the soldier's heartbeat. The soldier looked like he was having a heart attack suddenly, clutched his chest, and slumped to the ground.

Richter removed his fingers from his head, and walked on more into the dark subway. It was a subway once, anyway, before it collapsed. Kelvena got to her feet, confused. She had no idea what just happened.

Richter reached into the dead terrorist's pocket, and pulled out Kelvena's blue shades.

"I believe he confiscated this from you." he said, handing her the shades. Richter followed close behind him, but Tolone and Seraphita had their own work to do, so they weren't there.

...................

They peeked around the corner of the city street, and saw one guard and Billy Lee Black, who was holding his head to stop the small bleeding. The hit was strong enough to knock him out for a few minutes. He cursed himself for not having a hidden gun. Tolone and Seraphita were about 40 feet from him.

Tolone and Seraphita stayed out of sight behind one of the buildings, and pulled out their guns.

"Damn...Billy could pick that guy off from here, but I'm not that good a shot." Tolone admitted.

"He has an assault rifle and we have a pistol. If we miss one shot, he'll fire back with like ten!" Seraphita exclaimed. They were both stumped.

"I've got an idea then. If Billy's smart, he'll come through." Tolone said.

"Or he'll got shot."

Tolone walked from the hiding place, her gun pointed at the soldier, took her best aim, and fired. The bullet whizzed by the terrorist's ear,and turned toward's Tolone, his assault rifle pointed in her direction.

Tolone dived out of the way, behind the building as the bullets flew by. He walked forward more to see where she was, but the second he did, Billy dived and yanked his pistol from the soldier's holster.

The soldier looked down too late, only to have the gun put directly under chin by Billy.

"Don't even breathe funny." Billy warned. "Drop the gun."

The soldier unstrapped the assault rifle and dropped it.

"You don't understand Korsan's real plan! You're all dead, and so are we!" the soldier shouted.

Billy didn't want to kill this soldier, but he had to remember something quite a few people, including his father had taught him You can't let your enemies live, so they can come back to kill you, when you draw that gun you make a choice to kill a man.

"Rest well." Billy said. With that, Billy put the gun into the the soldier's chest, and fired off a round.

"Damn, my head hurts." Billy said to himself. His conscience hurt even more. He had got used to doing this deed, but never liked it.

"It shouldn't hurt too bad, you don't have a brain to get brain damage." Tolone said, walking up to him.

"How'd you get free?" Billy asked.

"It's was an act. They're on our side for right now, anyway." Tolone said.

"Dominia is back at camp. Looks like we could use your fancy shooting right about now."

Tolone turned around, looking for Seraphita, but didn't find her.

"Where is that crazy little..." Tolone asked herself.

......................

Richter ran through the corridor as fast as he could, and reached the vault where he kept all the artifacts. At the vault's back wall, he reached for yet another safe, and started turning for the combination. After opening it, he reached into the safe, and pulled out a torn book and a strange hypodermic needle with clear fluid inside.

"That false idol Deus may have failed to wipe out the human race, but I will not...God sent the great flood to wipe out the Earth except for the animals once...now not even they will survive." Richter told himself.

That same second, Seraphita ran in, panting, looking for Richter. She saw him on the floor with the needle.

"Richter...what...what are you doing?" Seraphita asked.

"What I told you about the book was no lie. The things in the book are no lie, and the what's left of this planet must realize it." Richter said, standing up.

"I wasn't sent by the devil, Seraphita, I was sent by God! I was spared by him during this great cataclysm to finish the job the false idol started! Look! The first commandments in this book says, 'You shall not worship false idols!" Richter exclaimed.

"This world was punished for worshipping false idols, and the time for Armageddon from the revelations has come!"

Seraphita looked at Richter in shock, this wasn't the facade he was putting on the whole time. This was his true intentions. This was the man she was falling in love with?

You sure know how to pick 'em. Seraphita thought to herself.

"I believe it...I believe I am God's son, he has sent me to sent the rest of the human race to him, for those who have survived are the ones who have been chosen to join him in paradise...and you were one of the ones chosen, Seraphita. We will be together, forever, in the great kingdom!"

Seraphita started to back away from Richter slowly.

"Atticus...you're losing it!" Seraphita exclaimed.

"This, in this needle, is humanity's salvation, the Blight that will bring man to God at last! Then we will all be free, my love." Richter said.

"I...give this thought, Atticus!" Seraphita demanded. "Don't kill anyone! Please!"

"It's not murder, it's freedom, Seraphita. And I won't even use this until we're out of this damned hole, then I will send this place to hell."

Richter brushed past Seraphita, to a keypad locked door on the side of the large vault. He dialed in a number, and it slid open. Inside, it looked like a control room, except there was a large tank in the center of the room.

"This tank supplies all the power for this whole place. By messing with it some, I can send this whole place sky-high, and I will. This bones of the people who lived here has turned into ashes, the ashes to dust, the dust now twists in the wind. Now, even the dust of the people who once lived here will be blown straight to hell, along with their spirits. Miang was the major part in tearing our world asunder, and tearing this one asunder. And from all the information I've gathered from your mind, she was your biological mother. Strange that the one with the most recessive gene was the one who inherited the most of Miang's traits."

Richter got closer to Seraphita, and she started looking scared. "You should burn in hell just for the sins of your mother. Your sisters will, I'll personally see to that. But you, Seraphita, as the chosen one, will start a new human race with me. One ten times more advanced than the one now, with no flaws, no evil, everyone will be equal. You, Eve...and myself, Adam."

Seraphita looked like she was in total horror. This idea was, to say the least, insane. This psycho was going to kill her sisters, everyone on the planet, with the plan of starting it over. This was all insane, he had to be stopped somehow.

The offer was extremely tempting to Seraphita, though. Maybe too much.

"I...I don't know what to say! I don't know what to do! You can't kill people like this, Atticus!" Seraphita shouted.

"I didn't hear you say you wouldn't be apart of this. Will you, or will you not be my mate, and my partner in creating a new world?" Richter asked forcefully.

Seraphita turned around from him, tears building in her eyes and wouldn't answer him.

Korsan, Tolone, Billy, and Kelvena all met up at one point, in front of the camp, concealed behind a building.

"There's 3 guards left, all of them are guarding Dominia. Not even she can take three guys with assault rifles, especially without her powers." Tolone said. They were concealed 40 feet away.

"Looks like we've got to even the odds a bit." Billy said. Billy took the sight rifle from his shoulders, and walked out to where he could get a clean shot at one of the soldiers. He looked in the sight for the soldier's head, and remembered what Korsan told him.

If you draw a gun, shoot to kill.

Billy aimed with the scope, and fired for the soldier's head. A second later, the soldier fell to the ground, then the other two started shooting blindly in Billy's direction, and he dived for cover.

At the camp, Dominia jumped to her feet, and started her attack on the distracted guards by spinning the on on her right around, and knocking him back with a front kick, then to his knees with a roundhouse kick to the face. The second guard turned around ready to fire, but Dominia grabbed the front of the assault rifle, pulled the guard in close, and hit him with a knee to the stomach. As he was stunned, Dominia unstrapped the rifle from the guard's shoulder, put it in close to his already damage stomach, and fired off a quick round at point blank. The second guard lunge punched Dominia right in the face and swung his rifle around, knocking Dominia to the ground. The guard pointed the rifle back at Dominia's head, ready to fire, when suddenly Kelvena came running, leaped in the air, and side kicked the guard right in the face. The guard turned recovered quickly and prepared to fire in Kelvena's direction, but she was ready. She kicked the guard in the groin, stunning him, then flipped herself above the guard's head while holding on to the base of his neck. She hung there for a split second, looking like she was in a handstand, but then twisted around sharply, snapping the guard's neck and flipping herself back down to the ground.

Dominia got back up slowly, and looked at Kelvena. Dominia expected to see remorse, but didn't. Kelvena may have been more practical than the others, but she was a trained killer just like them.

"Everything ok?" Kelvena asked. The rest of the group ran up to the pair, and looked at the two corpses. Billy glanced at Kelvena too, and was suprised to see she did indeed kill the man.

"We weren't trained to subdue, Billy." Kelvena told him, like she knew what he was thinking. She didn't really, but the air he gave off said everything.

Billy nodded in disappointment, and they all looked around. Dominia stared at Korsan.

"You! What are you doing here? Betraying your own brother now?" Dominia asked forcefully.

"No, it's Richter's plan. We were killing our own men so we could continue on life without them. So now, we're done. Can we leave this box now?" Korsan asked.

Dominia glared at him still. "I wouldn't be caught dead on the same ship out of here as you. You should stay down here for the rest of your life, rat."

Korsan shrugged. "We didn't have to save your lives, you know. We deserve a trip out of here. The maid is off duty, if you get my drift."

Tolone looked around, ignoring both of them. "Where's Seraphita?" Tolone asked everyone.

"Where's Richter?" Korsan asked. Tolone grabbed Korsan by the collar hard, and pulled him close.

"If your brother hurts my little sister at all, or takes her as a hostage in one of his psycho schemes, I swear I'll return the damage to both of you, tenfold!" Tolone shouted.

Korsan grinned, then headbutted her lightly, making her back up in pain. Then she tried to jump at him, but Billy cut her off.

"We've done enough damage for one day, don't you think?" Billy said.

"We better head to the vault." Kelvena said.

................

The group reached the vault after walking for awhile, and didn't see anyone as they entered. The door was wide open, which proved someone had been there, but it didn't look like anyone was there now.

"Seraphita?" Tolone shouted.

Tolone walked to the back wall of the vault, and saw Atticus Richter, standing with his back to Tolone, and not moving, just standing there.

"Turn around, Richter. Where's my sister?" Tolone demanded.

Richter didn't turn around, but just stood where he was, in the same solemn mood.

"Where is Seraphita?" Tolone said, drawing her gun.

"You know, you carry some of Miang's traits, just like Seraphita. Cleverness, strength, the ability to manipulate, even beauty." Richter started.

"But you're flawed. Terribly flawed. You don't possess the same beauty Seraphita has, nor the ability to toy with someone's mind, like she has. You missed out on the best part, dear. The things that made Miang great. I knew her, you know. She was one of the reasons I hated Kahran Ramsus. Such beauty, such style, even her charisma, I couldn't resist in her. But she resisted me. She only wanted that uptight bastard Ramsus, while I'm twice the man he is. And you know what, Tolone?"

Tolone kept the gun on Richter, still not flinching.

"What?" Tolone asked. Richter slowly turned around, the needle in his hand now revealed.

"Seraphita is twice the woman you are." he said solemnly.

Suddenly, the door to the side wall swung open, and Seraphita stood at the door, her gun pointed in Tolone and Richter's direction. Dominia and the others, to the side of her, knew they couldn't interfere. They had no idea who Seraphita was going to shoot, and although Richter believed he had Seraphita, he didn't know himself. She hadn't fired yet.

"Seraphita...shoot him!" Tolone pleaded.

"No, don't listen to her. Kill her and get it over with." Richter ordered.

Seraphita just stood there, like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. Now even she didn't know who she was going to fire at.

"Seraphita, you can't! We're...sisters!" Tolone shouted.

"What the hell are you waiting for, Seraphita? Kill her! She has to be the start of our mission!" Richter shouted to her.

"Seraphita! Whose side are you on? Kill Richter, now!" Dominia ordered.

"Dominia, quiet!" Kelvena ordered Dominia, a shock to all.

"This is the crossroads of her life, here. Everything has been chosen for Seraphita up until this point, she's never had to decide anything for herself, someone else always was the influence. Now it's up to her. We can't, we shouldn't influence anything or we could disrupt the balance, and make things worse! Do not interfere now!" Kelvena told Dominia.

Seraphita kept the gun in the same direction, while the minute she did felt an eternity.

"Seraphita...please." Tolone pleaded.

"Love, do you want to be a human, or do you want to be a queen?" Richter asked.

"He doesn't love you, Seraphita! He's using you! He's crazy!" Tolone shouted.

"I do love you, Seraphita, and I know you have to feel the same way. Fire, now, and we will have started the fire that will turn into a blaze! We will be the world!" Richter yelled.

"Listen, anyone can tell you've always been a little...different from us, but that's what makes you better! I've tried to protect you our whole lives, I've tried to help you any way I can and keep you on the straight path, and the two things that have stopped me from losing my sanity is the fact I've done that successfully, and having your company. You don't have to show thanks, I've never asked you to. I can only hope that everything that you said about me a few hours ago wasn't true. If it was, though, you might as well shoot me now." Tolone said.

Tears started to build up in Seraphita's eyes again, and she closed them. She couldn't believe what she was about to do.

"It...wasn't...true." Seraphita said, her eyes closed and a tear going down her cheek.

More full of emotion than any human could sustain, she pulled the trigger on the pistol, and the most decisive moment of her moment was finally done.

And Atticus Richter clutched his neck, and slumped to the floor.

End of Prt 4

Seraphita rushed over to Richter, as he lay bleeding, and kneeled to his side. He was bleeding to death, and the bullet went straight through his neck. He gasped for air, and could only look up to Seraphita. It took all of his strength simply to talk.

"Sera...use...the...book." Richter stammered coarsely.

"Des...troy...this...place...get it's information...spread so people...can...learn..." Richter's voice started trailing off, and he was losing the ability to speak.

"Atticus...I'm sorry, I had no choice! Humanity needs another chance, not extermination." Seraphita told him.

Richter started coughing blood, and his eyes started rolling back into his head.

"I...really...did...love...you..." Richter stammered. With the last of his strength, he used his mind, and sent every last memory, experience, and knowledge he had in his brain, and put telepathically gave it all to Seraphita. She fell back to the floor, holding her head like something hit her.

Then Atticus Richter, the planet's most powerful telepath and Solarian terrorist, died. The room was filled with mixed emotions, sorrow, relief, satisfaction, but the greatest one came from Korsan Trore/Richter. Anger.

Korsan rushed over to Atticus's body, and kneeled down, looking at his body, and the blood. He couldn't believe this at all. They had just killed the most powerful man in the world, beaten by the one woman he could ever trust. This wasn't happening. He slowly turned to Seraphita.

"You...you little tart. You killed this world's greatest hope for new life, and you killed my last bit of family." Korsan said coarsely.

"No, he wanted to destroy this world, Korsan. He was on some crazy, religious mission and he thought he was something he wasn't. He wanted to take this needle..."

Seraphita spoke, then snatched the needle from the floor. "He wanted to use whatever was in here to spread his great 'blight' across what's left of this world, and take us all to 'God's Kingdom'. He had such a great ambition, but Atticus..." Seraphita's voice trailed off, and Tolone put words in her mouth.

"He was delusional. I know you had feelings for him, strong feelings, but you've got to accept what he was." Tolone told Seraphita.

Korsan's head turned slowly to Tolone, and glared at her.

"I repeat, this world's savior and my brother, is now dead. I would kill you twice if I could...but as your sister took the life of my brother, I shall return the favor."

In a split second, Korsan snapped his pistol from the holster, pointed it at Seraphita's stomach, and fired at her up close.

The only emotion anyone felt at that second, was terror. Seraphita had just been shot at point blank range in the stomach. It took moments to realize the gravity of this, but they suddenly realized Seraphita could die.

Korsan was thinking quite clear, however, as he pointed the gun at Tolone, and held it at her face. He stood up, and had no fear, no care for himself, no emotion except anger as he kept the gun on her. Korsan glanced towards the rest of the group.

"Any of you bastards move, and you have two dead friends." Korsan warned. Billy gritted his teeth, and kept his hand on his pistol, though.

Korsan moved into the corner wall, and admitted to himself he was cornered. There wasn't much else to do. Dominia glared at Korsan, like she knew this moment was coming.

"Why don't you put down the gun, Korsan? Can't do it hand to hand?" Dominia challenged.

Korsan smiled, and unloaded the semi-automatic quickly. "I'll make you whores a deal. If you can last 1 minute with me hand to hand, I will simply snap your neck and kill you instead of all the other nasty things I could do to you. "

Dominia proceeded forward, but Tolone stopped her. Kelvena and Billy were already trying to administer care to Seraphita the best they could, but her condition was very unstable, they simply weren't sure if she'd live or die.

"Dominia, you have to go back and get on the horn for them to get us the hell out of here. I have to settle this, Dominia." Tolone told Dominia.

"You know my feelings on handling personal vendettas, Tolone." Dominia said.

"You're telling me that all the time you were after Elly Van Houten it was for the good of Solaris?" Tolone said. Dominia was quiet.

Korsan stood, arms folded, grinning at the show.

"Dominia, if you could've taken out Miang when you had the chance, wouldn't you do it, rather than let her get away with destroying the one you love? Well Seraphita is my...our sister, and we wheter she dies or she doesn't, I think it's time we really did something for this planet, and stop bastards like this before they rise again, and take our world again." Tolone said.

Dominia looked at Tolone for a minute, and nodded. Dominia ran off toward the tunnel, and Tolone walked into the side room, followed by Korsan. After Korsan went in, the door slid shut, and they just stood, and stared at each other for a moment.

"It could've been beautiful, Element. Soft music, dinner by moonlight, everything. Then you had to go and ruin it." Korsan said.

"If it makes you feel any better before I kill you, I was actually starting to like you." Tolone said.

Korsan grinned one more time, then threw a fast punch to Tolone's face, but she dodged out of the way.

The most dangerous fight of Tolone's life had just begun.

"Go in my bag and get my medical gear." Kelvena said, trying to remain calm as best she could. Billy ran to Kelvena's blue bag, and took out the first aid kit. He ran over and gave it to her, the opened up it up. It didn't look anything like a first aid kit on the inside. It looked more like surgery equipment.

"Do you know how to do this, Kelvena?" Billy asked.

"Yes, I was very well trained in all forms of medicine...there's one problem with surgery on an unconscious subject, though. They can't tell me where they hurt, or where the injury is." Kelvena said.

"You'll have to be my eyes, Billy. Tell me where she's hurt, quick!" Kelvena exclaimed.

"Low-midsection." Billy said, wasting no time.

Kelvena took the tools from her kit, and began the operation.

The fight between Korsan and Tolone intensified to the next level as it became a full knockdown-dragout fight.

Tolone was recovering from a kick to the stomach, and Korsan started choking her while she was doubled over. She kneed him Korsan in the stomach, and he released her, but she followed up with a quick punch to the face, then got low and elbowed him hard in the knee, trying to cripple him, but only succeeded in stunning him. Korsan let out a yelp of pain she hit him in the knee, and Tolone growled, and threw Korsan head first into the vault room wall. Korsan didn't stay down, but scrambled to his feet and charged at Tolone, knocking her back toward the large power battery in the middle of the room, and flipping her over it, to the floor. Tolone got back to her feet slowly, but Korsan grabbed her chin, and backslapped her over to the control panel.

Tolone reeled back, but picked up a chair from the control panel, and hurled it at Korsan, knocking him back now, trying to block it. She punched him in the stomach three times, then struck him in the face. His own blood was on his armor, and Tolone seemed to be winning the fight.

Korsan leaned on the battery, holding his stomach, then slowly stood up, not making an attack yet.

Then, he put both of his hands to his head, and started concentrating his telepathic energy.

Tolone wanted to move to stop him, but didn't, as something strange started happening. Suddenly, Korsan's form and face started to transform into Seraphita. Tolone held her own head, trying not to believe it, but it was so real. So real it was scary.

"Tolone, why couldn't you help me when Korsan was going to shoot me?" the illusion said.

"You've done nothing but try to protect me all your life, but you've failed, Tolone. How could you? I've done nothing but trust you." the illusion said.

"You...you're not real! Leave me!" Tolone yelled in terror.

"Look at me, Tolone! I'm dead now, Korsan killed me and you let him! You don't even care about me, you killed me more than Korsan did!"

"You're not real!"

"I'm more real than you'd like to admit, and you've killed me! I hate you! I really hate you!"

Tolone knew it was an illusion, but it finally started to get to her. She didn't want to believe it, but it was all so real. She fell to her knees and started crying, then the illusion Seraphita walked over, and pulled a pistol from her shin, underneath her sock.

"I can still forgive you, Tolone. We can still be together, away from this damned planet. Take this, and use it on yourself! Then we can be freed." the illusion said, handing Tolone the small gun. Tolone, still crying, looked at it, considering her options. It was freedom at last, with her sister. Away from this world.

She looked at the gun still for 10 seconds, then spoke up, still crying.

"You know...my sister would never ask me to kill myself. She'd tell me to live my life better, for her, get more a life for her, she wouldn't want me to die over her. She'd want me to be happy, and anyone that says she would do different..."

Tolone said, standing up along with the illusion.

"Is...a...fake." Tolone said sternly. The illusion quickly faded away, and all she saw was Korsan, standing in front of her, bloody and looking defeated.

"Die, Element!" Korsan yelled, grabbing the pistol to fire it, but Tolone anticipated the attack and snapped Korsan's wrist like a twig. Korsan howled in pain, but Tolone couldn't care less.

Tolone took Korsan by the neck, and rammed him into the battery, but didn't let go. She brought the defeated Korsan up to her face level.

"You would've got me, Korsan, but you forgot...Elements never drag their own down with them." Tolone said bravely.

Tolone gripped him by the neck again, and threw him headfirst into one of the control screens, and the room's lights started blinking on and off as Korsan was being electrocuted through the control screen. After 10 seconds of making the electricity go on and off, Korsan stop shaking with shock and slumped over the panel, his life drained from him.

Tolone wiped the blood from her mouth. Her eye was swollen, and her torso hurt from all the hits she'd taken, but the job was done.

"How is she?" Tolone asked frantically as Kelvena was wrapping a bandage around Tolone's wrist. They were still in the vault, Dominia was still getting the ship back, and Seraphita was still unconscious.

"How will she be? Will she be ok?" Tolone asked Kelvena again.

"We just don't know right now. It went straight through her stomach and I managed to stop the bleeding, but if she'll survive the wound is another thing. We have to get Seraphita to better medical facilities, like the ones on the Yggdrasil." Kelvena responded.

"I'm going to go check on Dominia now." Kelvena said. "You have to stay with Seraphita in case she wakes up."

Tolone nodded, then rubbed her neck. Even that hurt now. "I'll treat whatever other wounds you have when I get back." Kelvena said.

Billy got up, and started leading Kelvena by the hand through the tunnel.

Dominia's mind couldn't stop drifting from Seraphita and Atticus. She was seriously considering giving up everything, for what? Love? Of course not, Seraphita was too young, too inexperienced to know what love is.

Or was she? Seraphita had a more successful relationship with a man she knew for a combined two days than she did Dominia did with a man she knew for almost 10 years.

What am I doing wrong with this life?

That's the only answer that occurred to Dominia. She was doing something wrong. She let a subordinate get shot right in front of her, she failed to earn any sort of affection from the man she loved, and almost got killed by someone today, if Kelvena hadn't saved her. Was Dominia losing her edge?

I'm becoming soft...that's it.

Dominia knew it was that. She was becoming soft from starting to give in to her emotions, she was becoming soft because she wasn't training as hard as she used to. It then occurred to her that like Seraphita was at a crossroads, Dominia herself was at her own. Her skills, her attitude, her edge, they were all deteriorating. That's where she was going wrong, she realized. She was trying to stay a warrior and be someone's lover at the same time. That could work for someone else, but it just wasn't working for her.

Which am I? A warrior, or a woman?

Just as she was thinking, the walkie-talkie that was a long ranger communicator buzzed in. "Yes, this is the Yggdrasil. Are you prepped for pickup?" a voice asked.

"Yes, pickup immediately, we've got one team member injured and one enemy still alive from what I'm told." Dominia said.

"One..enemy?" the voice said.

"I'll explain the details upon your arrival, just get here ASAP. Our team member has critical wounds." Dominia ordered, then cut off communications abruptly.

"Scratch the one enemy still alive." came Billy's voice from a few yards away.

"Tolone's eliminated Korsan." Kelvena said, walking up. They sat on opposite sides of Dominia, and laid down their walkie-talkies.

"We're getting pickup?" Billy asked. Dominia nodded.

"This sure was a waste of time." Dominia said.

"We never found what we were looking for, just trouble as usual. I wanted to find out more about where Miang came from, what's she done, and I thought I would use the time to think things through. The only thing that's came out of this is another psychotic is dead and Seraphita could die, too."

"Seraphita shouldn't die." Kelvena said.

"If she was...normal, perhaps. But like the rest of us, she has the infused ability to heal two times faster than a normal human, and it's not an ether power. As long as we get her to a better medical facility, she won't die."

Dominia nodded. "They won't be around for quite a bit, we better go back to the vault." Dominia said, getting up.

They all started walking, a grave mood around everyone.

"This whole trip was a waste of time." Dominia said.

"We never found any information we were looking for, all we found was trouble. I never got to do what I came here for, and that was start thinking about things and find information on Miang."

"I wouldn't say it was a waste." Kelvena said. "You told me earlier there's still some archives in one of the buildings, and we have that book Richter held on to."

"Yeah...we do." Billy said, his attention focused on that now. "Now that I think about it, I'd like to get a look at that book. I haven't got much to lose by it, and it's the exact kind of thing Citan was looking for."

"I'm going to take one last sweep and see if anyone is still here, and I'll gather all of those...papers inside of that building I was in. We'll need all of it." Dominia said.

"We meet back here in 5 hours, hopefully the Yggdrasil will be here by then if they are traveling at any kind of speed."

Everyone nodded, and split up.

................

Dominia entered the building with the newspapers, and started searching again. She ruffled with every paper there, trying to fit it into one of her empty travel bags, then she heard a booming noise from the file cabinet on the west wall.

They don't quit, do they?

Dominia snapped her sword out, and walked toward the file cabinet. The booming sound got louder again. She prepared to attack, it looked strange as it seemed the whole block of file cabinets would fall and something would come out.

On the third bump, the cabinet fell down to the floor, and on the other side of it were two things were peculiar. The file cabinet's back had a mattress on it, firmly secured to the back, and on the mattress, dusty and looking confused, was a man. He had on black shades, was dressed in white, and was slightly fat. He looked up at Dominia, in surprise.

"That damn thing always folds up when you're sleep and won't fall back down even if ya take a hammer to it."

"Who...who are you?" the fat man asked in a strange voice.

"Who am I? Who are you supposed to be?" Dominia asked.

"Me? Don't you know who I am? If you don't, you must be ignorant to the world's greatest entertainer!" the man said, standing up.

He took a comb out of his pants, and started coming back his weird, large, black hair. "I'm the king, Big Joe! Master performer and salesman extrodinaire!" Joe said excitedly.

"I'm fascinated." Dominia said, sarcastically. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you're lookin' for the best thing in Gear parts? Big Joe's got 'em! The best thing in weaponry? Big Joe's got it! Or even the best thing in entertainment? Hey, Joe'll sing for a cent, so what do you need, baby?" Joe asked.

Dominia glared at Joe. "Do you have any idea what's been going on down here?" Dominia asked.

"I've been sleep for a few hours, yeah. Sales have been a little slow, too. That idiot Richter stopped payin' me to get his boys rations, that cheap bastard."

"You knew Richter?"

"Yeah, I came down here to get away from the crazy stuff up in the world above, brought all my stuff around, next thing I know Richter and his cronies want a piece of it. Thus began Big Joe's Sales Department. Do you want some Gear parts or not?"

"They won't do anyone any good, Gears have been non-functional for quite some time. You obviously aren't with Richter, so I guess there's no need for the blade."

"Really, lady, you could lighten up."

Dominia put her sword back in the sheathe, and folded her arms.

"What do you mean Gears don't work anymore?"

"Long story. You might want to get out of here, Richter and his friends are history. Would you happen to sell medical supplies, though? Where do you keep your supplies, anyway?"

"In the other building. I've got anything you could want from life, baby, so follow me."

"You can stop calling me baby now."

............

As they returned to the vault, Seraphita still hadn't awaken, but she wasn't dead, so it could only be taken she that Seraphita was in stable condition. Tolone sat in a chair, looking extremely distressed, and wouldn't even talk. Her hands were over her face, and seemed almost catatonic. Billy and Kelvena knew there was no use talking to her in this state.

Billy went to the floor, and took the brown, torn bible. He looked at it a bit, it had some of Richter's blood on it. Billy sighed.

Are you gonna get caught in this religious stuff again, Billy? Remember the last time...

Despite the feelings that this could just be another fraud, and still not expecting to believe a word of it, he put on the inside of his coat, thinking to take a look at it later.

"I don't know, Kelly. Maybe I'm just a sucker." Billy told Kelvena.

Kelvena kneeled down with Billy, and touched his cheek. "Noone said believe it. Just read it." Kelvena said. "Is there anything else inside of the safe?" Kelvena asked.

Billy searched inside, and actually found a few things inside. Maybe Richter wasn't lying about everything. Billy took Richter's needle from the safe, Tolone put it back there, and looked at the clear fluid.

"I have no idea what this is. I'm guessing Citan could analyze it or something, though." Billy said, putting it inside of a steel canister from his bag.

Next in the safe, was a small, framed photo of a middle aged man in a lab coat with his lab partners, all of them holding toasting to something. Billy put it in the bag.

Next in the safe was maybe the most valuable thing of all. A squared computer disk. It wasn't a disk that could be used for their computers, but maybe one of the computers in the control room, Billy thought.

"Hey Kelly...this could be useful." Billy said.

"What is it?" Kelly asked, staring straight forward as usual.

"It's a disk, not the smaller size of the ones we have now, but I think it could fit in the computer in the control room. We better use this." Billy said, standing up.

..................

"We didn't bring money because we didn't expect a shop to be down here." Dominia said to Joe.

"My...sister is in danger, and she needs help!"

Joe folded his arms, and shook his head. "Joe needs help, too! I need to make an honest buck these days, and Richter's cronies already ripped me off like a bunch of times, I don't need you folks doin' the same! Joe's the swindler, not the swindled!"

"As one of the last intact CD's from down here says, 'It's all about the Benjamins, baby!'" Joe exclaimed.

"Stop calling me baby. Listen, when we get you out of here, the crew of the Yggdrasil will gladly reimburse you."

"Yggdrasil? Oh, I know them! They're good customers o'mine, so I guess I can help you out just this once. They just better gimme my money, though."

Joe took a box from under the table, and put it on the table. It was full of medicine bottles.

"Partake of Joe's sweet nectar, sweet nectar."

Dominia rolled her eyes, and started looking in the box. She just grabbed the whole thing instead, and started down the stairs for the door, followed by Big Joe.

"Hey, lady! Cut me a break! Solarian Express doesn't exactly come around with new supplies everyday, like you're used to! Hey! Wait up, broad!"

......................

4 hours later, everything had begun to change for the better. Dominia was able to get Seraphita pain-killers and a drink called "Elixir", which could heal her much better, but Seraphita still was unconscious.

Billy and Kelvena gathered a great bit of information, everything they wanted and more. Dominia was able to put as much of those newspapers inside bags as she could, Big Joe was able to get the rest into his bags. He wanted money for that, too. Kelvena and Billy were even able to get in some exploration of some of the remote parts of the runined city, such as the train tunnels, even one large building that must have been very important in it's time. Maybe their mission was accomplished, after all.

How were they going to move Seraphita, though?

"We'd have to put her on a board and pull her up with a rope, but we have neither at the moment." Kelvena said.

"We have to wait until the Yggdrasil arrives above ground. I was just in contact with them, they'll be here within the hour." Dominia said.

"Right now, we have to be above ground to get our pickup, so I suggest we leave now. We have to move our stuff and get it ready."

Tolone lifted her head up, and started paying attention for the first time in hours. "Move our stuff? What about moving my damn sister? She gets out of here first, Dominia." Tolone warned.

Kelvena rose her hand, trying to ward off Tolone. "We should get our things ready first, so we can get out of here as quickly as possible. Something still isn't right." Kelvena said.

"What is it?" Billy asked.

"I don't know, something still doesn't feel right. We should get out of here as quickly as possible."

Kelvena motioned to Billy's direction, and he lead her by the hand through the tunnel again. Dominia nodded to Tolone, and although Tolone hesitated at first, she followed. When even Kelvena sensed something wasn't right, it usually wasn't.

.............

Do it, Seraphita...take this place away. Remove it from the planet.

Richter's last wishes rang it Seraphita's head over and over as she rested.

Do this...please.

Seraphita's eyes snapped open where she laid in the vault, then she stared at the ceiling for a minute. It felt like a whole new lifetime was in her head, every experience, thought, memory of Atticus Richter felt like apart of her. The new information in her head told her that's something telepaths did, but Richter chose to give her his life's memories over his brother.

If only I knew what love really was...maybe I could tell wheter I had the same feelings for him he had for me.

Seraphita sat up, and crawled over to the corner. She felt sick for a moment, and threw up all over the steel floor. Bullets in your stomach tend to make you do that. Seraphita got back to her feet, and started limping toward the control room door, which was now wide open. She looked all around inside, and saw Richter's body, sprawled out in the corner, where Tolone had dragged it in.

Korsan's body was nowhere to be found, however. Seraphita didn't know he was dead, but still Korsan was nowhere to be found.

"This place has to go. The dead have to rest." Seraphita said to herself.

"Oh, the dead will rest." a voice from behind her said. She instantly felt the barrel of a gun at her back.

"Korsan?" Seraphita asked. Seraphita turned around a bit, and there was Korsan, his face burned and bloody, but he didn't seem to be caring a whole lot.

"Your sister did quite a number on me. Broke my wrist, shoved my face in that screen over there. But like you, I can heal. One of the company perps of working with Krelian. Hell of a medical insurance plan, eh?" Korsan said.

Korsan moved Seraphita slowly to the control panel, where one of the monitors was still working.

"Atomic self-destruct sequence...activate. Time for escape, 30 minutes." Korsan said to the voice command.

"Command acknowledged. Under whose order is the self destruct initiated?" the voice command responded.

"...Dr. Daniel Merrick, Head Scientist. Passcode: 359427" Korsan said.

"Authorization acknowledged. Atomic destruct sequence set for 30 minutes. You now have 30 minutes to evacuate and leave the blast radius."

"How much is the blast radius?" Seraphita asked.

"Ten miles. This place is so well compressed underground, though, it won't take anything from your precious upper land. Just this light house and all sealife for about 10 miles are going to get nuked, but we won't be here, will we? You're my ticket onto that big ship in the sky, and once I'm there...I'll use my psi-skills and control the pigs."

He ushered her out with the gun pointed to her back, but he was holding the infamous syringe in his hand, and by taking a quick peek inside of Korsan's mind, Seraphita knew this. She also knew something Billy and the others didn't...there were TWO syringes. One was filled with saline solution, the other had the real strain of whatever "virus".

"What exactly do you hope to do with the needle, Korsan?" Seraphita asked.

"Carrying on Richter's plan. What's in this is the last of what wiped out this world, the last sample. It's the ultimate bio-weapon, once injected into a subject, it can give out a virus...a super-badass flu that can transmitted through touch or even air. It wiped out the Zeboim all those years ago, now it'll take out this world, too. Or just who I want to survive. I want to create a whole, new Solaris, one where I am the emperor, and I make the rules." Korsan said.

Seraphita, however, had full knowledge of what was that needle, for she had all of it's keeper's knowledge in her mind now. She knew what was in there, and for the sake of her and her friends, it was better not to say anything. Korsan pushed her through the tunnel, with the gun in one hand and the needle in the other.

................

The Elements knew how to get in and out of a scene quickly, and they proved so. In thirty minutes, they had packed all of their exploration gear, rations, and weapons and were ready to move out.

"Now we have to think about Seraphita!" Tolone declared.

"I'm going down there and moving here, and I'm not leaving until I do! Remember Dominia? We never leave anyone behind."

"Hey, I'm tryin' to get out of this hole, lady!" Big Joe said. Tolone glared at him though, and he got the message.

Dominia nodded. She knew there was no talking Tolone out of this one. Tolone, not waiting for a response, started on her way, but was stopped at a few yards when from behind the same building Billy sniped a man, the same building they had hid behind for safety, came Korsan, bloody and burned, with Seraphita, bandaged stomach and all walking in toward them.

Tolone silently cursed, and wondered how on earth could Korsan Trore/Richter still be alive.

"Don't be conceited, you think you were the only one who got Solarian Healing Infusements?" Korsan said, reading her mind.

"You should've cut my head off, or put something through my brain. You know that's the only way to stop me right away."

Dominia rushed over, drawing her blade in anger. "A mistake that will soon be rectified!" Dominia yelled.

Korsan shoved Seraphita to the ground, and extended the needle from his sleeve. To Dominia's surprise, he started talking in Solarian language.

[I played around last time...now it's no joke, ladies.] Korsan said.

[You can try all you want, you'll still never win.] Dominia said. With that, Dominia went in for a slash, but suddenly she was pricked in the shoulder with the unseen syringe.

"What'd they say?" Joe asked Billy. Billy shrugged himself.

She looked at her shoulder, and scoffed. "That's the best you've got?" Dominia chided.

"Oh yeah." Korsan said.

Tolone jumped in the fight now, with rabbit punch out of nowhere, but Korsan dodged, and followed in with a quick elbow to Tolone's stomach, then knocked her to the ground when he kneed her in the nose. Dominia went in with another slash, but Korsan spun out of the way, grabbed Dominia's arm, and back kicked her in the face.

Billy instantly went for his guns as Kelvena rushed for Korsan. Billy fired two shots for Korsan's head, but knowing them coming, he rolled out of the way, and as Kelvena rushed him with a spinning side kick, he took advantage of her poor aim and clotheslined her from mid-air, then spun her around into a headlock using her as a shield from any more bullets.

Big Joe stood by himself the whole time, cheering himself on silently. "You can do this Joe...you're the boss...you're the boss..."

Big Joe then leaped in front of Korsan, and started going into different martial arts stances quickly. It looked akward and clumsy.

"You wanna fight someone? Pick on someone your own size! I'm Big Joe, master of kung fu, ninjitsu, cockfighting, boxing, wrestling, every martial arts! You better get ready for the fight of your life, Mr. "I-like-to-dress-in black!" Big Joe egged on.

Korsan looked at Joe like something was wrong with him. While Joe was going through his stances, Korsan simply backslapped him to the ground.

Korsan kicked her back to Billy's direction, and in his own amazing feat, leapfrogged over her head, landing near Billy, and spin kicked him to the ground. All the Elements were fighting one strong man, but appeared to be losing.

Dominia got back to her feet, and cartwheeled in for another attack, followed by a slash, which Korsan dodged, then flipped himself over Dominia's shoulder, and went down quick for a shot to the back of her knees, sending Dominia to the ground. Tolone, back on her feet, tried to kick Korsan in the face while he was still fighting Dominia is the position he was in, but Korsan caught the kick, and in a show of strength, flipped her over to the ground.

"We have 20 more minutes to get out of here, rather not spend it trying to kill him!" Seraphita yelled, unable to get up.

"What do you mean we have 20 more minutes?" Tolone yelled as Kelvena and Korsan fought.

"The vault had a self destruct sequence. I think it was a security precaution they had when the original scientists lived here. We have to get out of here, now!" Seraphita yelled.

"You're leaving here...straight to hell." Korsan said, as he knocked Kelvena silly with a backhand, then spun her around into a headlock one more time...but it wasn't as a shield.

"No...stop!" Seraphita pleaded. "You can't do this!"

Kelvena choked and gasped as Korsan held her tightly.

"My dear child...God made you blind. He deemed you a mistake. And alas, you were a mistake. A murderer, a blind murderer. I shall fix that mistake, right now!"

Billy wasn't in panic at all. He had one gun snapped from his holster and pointed at Korsan's head.

"Let...her...go." Billy warned.

"You have feelings for this girl? She's a blind killer, what would you ever want?"

"You wouldn't understand, you've never had feelings for anyone besides yourself. Let her go, or I will kill you."

Korsan grinned, none of the other Elements could make a move.

"Hey church boy...go to hell." Korsan said, and prepared to snap Kelvena's neck, but then a gunshot not from Billy's gun fired. Not from anyone's gun, and it ripped into Korsan's head, on the side. It didn't kill him, unfortunately, but that's not was the shooter was trying to do. Everyone turned around to see who it was. It wasn't Big Joe. Not Seraphita.

When everyone turned around, they saw Atticus Richter, standing there with a pistol, panting like a dog, covered in pints of his own blood, and shaking as he fired the gun.

"Kor...Korsan. Stay here." was all Richter said. Seraphita's jaw dropped, so did everyone else's Seraphita crawled back to her feet, and limped slowly towards Richter, and looked at him for a moment. He was alive.

She embraced him, and he held her with one arm, embracing her back.

"But...you're..." Seraphita started, but Richter cut her off.

"I...got the same infusements Korsan did. He thought I didn't, but...always keep people guess...ing." Richter said, looking dazed. Something was still wrong.

"I'm not much...better. If I don't get a hospital or something, I will die. Healing factor can only operate for so long."

"We have to get out of here!" Tolone yelled. "We've got about 15 minutes left! Everyone book, now!"

Noone was waiting for the order to be said twice. Everyone started picking up their gear as fast as they could and headed for the elevator out, but as Tolone turned around, Seraphita wasn't behind her.

"I'll catch up with you!" Tolone yelled to the group, quickly running out.

"Tolone! No!" Dominia yelled. Tolone was already on her way, though.

"She's a nice girl and all, but I'd rather not have my atoms fried, so can we get outta here?" Big Joe brought up. Dominia and the rest moved quickly around the blocks for the elevator, running with their bags on.

Seraphita tried helping Richter out, but Richter was at his brother's sprawled out body, trying to get him up.

"Richter, come on!" Seraphita ordered.

Richter looked up wearily, and sighed. "We're not leaving, Seraphita." Richter said. "Korsan and I. That's what I meant by 'Stay here'." Korsan was out cold.

"We were meant to die 2 years ago. I was supposed to die 2 years ago. I...I've seen death, Seraphita. It scares me, and I can't believe now I sent so many souls to it. I...I don't want to live. Go, now."

Seraphita's eyes started welling up with tears. Tolone came from behind, panting.

"We've got to get out! Now! Tolone looked at Korsan's watch, which was secronzied with the timer.

"We've got 10 minutes! Come on! We can still make it!"

Richter looked back up to Seraphita. "Get out of here. Now, damnit! You aren't dying like me, you're so much better. You killed out of order. I killed out of sport. I don't belong in this world! Get the hell out of here!" Richter yelled.

She was fully crying now, and leaned down. She held Atticus close, and he held her close, his strength fading.

"Please, Atticus! Come on!" Seraphita pleaded.

"I love you. Really. Forget my plans, forget it all. Just leave!" Richter ordered.

Seraphita stood up, wiping away her tears, and Tolone pulled her by the arm. They ran as fast they could, which was very fast, and didn't look back. She couldn't bear to look back.

.............

They all met up in the elevator with 7 minutes left, but noone knew how to make the giant thing move. It occurred to Seraphita that Richter was the one who made it move before. Seraphita used her newfound telekinesis to move the switch that was out of their reach up, and the elevator rose up now.

Dominia got on the communicator she had, and answered the beeping sound.

"Yggdrasil here, ready for pickup." the voice said.

"Just in the nick of time." Dominia said.

The elevator finally reached the top, and the whole party quickly rushed out at top speed, where the Yggdrasil was waiting.

.................

Now Atticus Richter was out cold. Knocked out. Korsan.

He was sleeping, it was something strange that happened when Korsan came to after Seraphita left them.

"Atticus, why aren't you gone?" Korsan asked.

"We're...gonna die together, little brother." Richter said.

"That redhead was cute. Why don't you have kids with her or something?" Korsan asked.

"We're...gonna..."

"No, you're gonna have kids or something. It's not a request, Att."

"What are you..."

"Damn I love you, Att. Just make sure that cute white haired chick doesn't think I was a real jerk. Take care."

Before Richter knew what was going on, Korsan took Richter's gun, and rapped him across the back of the head. Everything else was just darkness.

Korsan stood up, ignored his bloody head, and slung his brother's limp body over his shoulder.

"I just wanted to be a terrorist when I grew up...I wasn't for all this brotherly crap."

Korsan headed for the elevator, and looked at his watch.

6 minutes left.

...........

As the whole party got on the ship and Dominia headed for the bridge to tell them to take off instantly, they knew it was serious.

Sigurd came forward.

"We have to get clear of this place right now! At least 7 miles! NOW!" Dominia ordered.

"What's the meaning of this?" Sigurd asked.

"Get clear of this lighthouse and you'll see. As far as we can as fast as we can."

.............

The Yggdrasil readied to close it's door, but just then, another figure came from the lighthouse opening.

A man with another man on his shoulder. Tolone was standing at the opening, ready to close it up, but then she saw Korsan. She let him come up with the unconscious Richter on his shoulder.

Once again, he simply smiled up at her.

"With any luck, this'll be your brother in law in a few years." Korsan said.

"He's taken care of me all my life, now it's my turn."

Korsan dropped Richter down on the back deck of the Yggdrasil, and saluted Tolone as he was about to jump back off.

"What...you're leaving?" Tolone asked.

"Yeah, I'm still a psycho bastard. Enjoy life, angelface."

Tolone rolled her eyes, and cursed herself for what she was about to do. She grabbed Korsan by the collar of his coat, turned him around, and kissed him on the lips, which lasted for 2 seconds.

"For making my sister cease to weep, nothing more. Take that to hell with you."

"If what the stuff in Richter's bible is true, I won't be goin' there. I think this good deed gets me through the pearly gates. I'll take that kiss as a taste of heaven just in case I'm not headed there, though.

With that, Korsan turned around, and ran back for the lighthouse. The backdoor of the Yggdrasil closed up, slowly, and the ship quickly took off.

They had a little under 2 minutes left.

Why the hell did I kiss that bastard? Tolone thought as the ship took to air, speeding from the scene as quick as possible.

I...didn't actually like him, did I? He was a killer, a psychopath, and a con-man!

He sure was cute, though.

Tolone may have been a fighter like Dominia, but she was still a girl. Maybe if Korsan hadn't done all of those crazy things, she could've overlooked it all.

What am I saying? I can't like a bad guy! Then again...

The answer hit her like a ton of bricks as she stood up, and got Richter to his feet.

I did.

............

"We may not be able to make 7 miles in 2 minutes, Dominia! Stop giving orders to my crew like this!" Sigurd commanded.

"If we don't, we're dust. It's a ten mile blast, the underground city can compress most of it, but we have to get two miles clear!" Kelvena put in. She did the math herself.

On the bridge, one of the navigators reported in. "Sir, I don't think we'll get clear in time..."

Before Sigurd could aid, Dominia was a step ahead. "Push it! NOW! OR WE ARE ALL DEAD!" Dominia yelled.

With that, the ship speeded up more. "We can tear the ships hull if we push too much speed for too much time!" Sigurd warned.

"Torn apart or blown to bits, take your pick, boss." Big Joe added.

"By the way, who's gonna cover the cost of my shop and gear?"

2 miles covered, 1:30 left

"Sir, we can't make this! 5 yes! 7, no!" the navigator said.

Sigurd nodded. "Ignite the turbo-boosters now."

The turbo boosters were used when the Yggdrasil was a sand cruiser, but the weight the Yggdrasil put on since then, they hadn't been trying the turbo boosters and everything at full speed, like now.

"Now Sig, you know if Bart was here he'd put on the boosters minutes ago." Billy said.

"He would've torn the ship apart. Brace yourselves!" Sigurd ordered.

Everyone held onto something, except for Big Joe, and when the speed really came and people started screaming, Big Joe was thrown back to the wall, the speed keeping her there.

"5 miles cleared!" navigator yelled.

"30 seconds left!" Kelvena yelled. She had been doing the math in her head the whole time.

............

Korsan sat back in the entrance of the lighthouse, reflecting. He looked at his watch.

00:24

00:23

Korsan grinned again. He'd been grinning alot in this whole ordeal, this whole day, all his life. What better than to go out on a smile? He started meditating, and prepared to send one final thought to his brother, Atticus Richter.

No matter where you go, no matter how bad life treats you or who tries to waste you, wheter the girls dump you or life is just plain crap...

Never lose your sense of humor.

00:03

00:02

00:01

Damn straight.

Wheter or not that was the right thing to say, Korsan didn't have time to ponder. The atomic wave that split through what was once the Ancient City, the ancient laboratories, and any relic of that time gone...split through Korsan, and his sense of humor. He retained it till the end, which was always his mission in life.

..............

The atomic blast blew far and wide, everything for 10 miles below ground, 7 miles above ground. The shockwave could shut down the Yggdrasil's electric systems if it was caught, and it would still be blown up.

After they heard the blast, they all closed their eyes. They waited.

To explode, to come out cruising, or to be in the afterlife.

Lucky for them, they came out cruising.

End of Prt 5 (last one is next!)