Chapter 11: My God, It's Full Of Stars! --------------------------------------- Xyo gritted her teeth as Merine, Daryl and Setzer took a fighting stance against the oncoming Doman guard. Valron's body twitched involuntarily in death and Xyo new she had little time to revive him. "Keep him busy!" She rasped,"Valron's not gone from us yet!" Setzer glanced back momentarily with an uncomfortable look on his face. "Fine," he grunted as he fumbled for his cards. "Do what you have to do!" Xyo turned towards Valron and raised her arm over the cooling form. *Renew!* She mentally drew on the power of the talisman, feeling her own energy drain as she put all of her essence into the spell. This was not to mend a broken bone, that was for sure. She felt herself tune out to the fight just a few feet away from her as she began to bathe herself and Valron in a soft, white aura. * * * * * Merine hefted her sword. This would be her first REAL battle against the enemy; nervous sweat ran down her spine as she looked to Setzer and Daryl for any sort of signal. Seeing all eyes were turned towards the soldier, she turned her gaze slowly to the target attacker. She gasped as the soldier made a lunge for her! Shutting her eyes tightly, she swung her sword. A searing pain shot through her muscles as the blade sank into the solider's neck. The blow was a critical one and the soldier sank wordlessly to the floor. Merine breathed sharply as she opened her eyes. "Are there any more?" Setzer opened his mouth to answer but was answered for him by the battle cry of ten more soldiers. Daryl stood her ground. "I'll handle this one!" She grinned as she started to perform a graceful dance. Setzer knew it was the Gogo in her but was still entranced by his beloved twirling gracefully about like a deadly swan. Energies coalesced about her as she continued to dance; first water, then fire, then earth. Setzer suddenly realized she was doing all the dances at once! The Earth erupted underneath the soldiers and fire began to rain from the heavens at the designated targets. Then, water ripped at the soldiers with terrorizing force, lightning seared and tornadoes tore. It was an awesome sight to behold, and in the midst of it all danced Daryl. When it was all over, there was not even a trace existence of any attackers, save for a few equipment they left behind. Merine hurriedly gathered up the tonics and turned towards the still dancing Daryl. Setzer noticed this too. "Daryl, you can stop now... they are gone." Daryl's face had turned to panic as she kept on dancing. "I... I... can't stop! Oh, Gods, Setzer, help me... I... I..." Her eyes grew wider. Setzer took a step forward and was blinded in a bright flash of light and thrown to the ground by the force of an explosion. As his vision cleared, Setzer began to howl. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO! DARYL! OH, GODS, WHY?!" Merine looked up and choked. All that was left of Daryl was a blast mark on the floor where she was last dancing. Daryl appeared to have disintegrated. Merine pulled herself up from the floor and walked numbly over to Setzer and offered him a hand. He looked up, his eyes quavered as he attempted to force back his grief. He pulled himself up via Merine's hand and brushed himself off. He glanced around, puzzled. "Where's Xyo?" Merine glanced behind her to see Xyo out cold, slumped to the floor and Valron sitting up dazed and disoriented. His eyes landed on a familiar face, "Merine? Is that really you?" Merine stopped short before she reached Xyo's inert form. "You... know me?" she stammered, confused. Valron nodded. "We went to the same school." Merine nodded absently and turned towards Xyo and shook her. "Xyo? Wake up." She listened to Xyo's chest and heard a faint heartbeat. Xyo's eyes flashed open and she gasped. She sat up and looked at Valron with slight revulsion. "I NEVER want to do anything so revolting again," she hissed to the air. Merine took a step back. "What do you mean?" "I robbed him of his death." Xyo shuddered. "It makes me nauseous just thinking about it." Merine, giving Xyo a strange look of curiosity, decided to let the comment pass. Turning to the once again 'living' Valron, she stated the much desired question, "Did you find out what Akfek is using to control the masses?" Valron nodded and sighed, letting his dark bangs of hair hang in his face ,"Something called Shade, a dark creature..." "Bah!" Xyo spat. "I should have known... I should have realized it!" Xyo struggled to pull herself up but collapsed back to the ground. Darkly she looked at Merine. "Help me up, we have to get to the Airship, to Jidoor." Merine helped Xyo up and supported her frail body quite easily. Xyo looked around. "Where is Daryl?" she asked sharply. Setzer turned an even grayer shade of pale and Merine solemnly pointed to the scorched earth. Xyo nodded, a trace of grief in her eyes. She looked at Setzer and said softly, "Do not let it grieve you, gambler. No one leaves for good. She's proven that once already." Setzer looked away, "Lets get back to the ship." * * * * * The group headed down the hallways back to the awaiting airship. As they neared the courtyard Xyo lifted her head. "Do you hear something?" she asked Merine. Merine halted her movement and listened. Setzer stopped and turned around. "What -" At that point the foundation rocked and the deafening roar of a rock slide was heard. Setzer shouted, "From ahead! The airship!" He dashed down the corridor, leaving Merine, Xyo and Valron to hurry after. * * * * * When they emerged into the courtyard, they were immediately relieved that the airship was all right. The odd sight was Garland and the fiends sprawled about exhausted, Kraken was helping Kary pull herself out of a gigantic pile of rubble. Merine stared at the wreckage in bewilderment, "What happened?" Kraken gave Kary's torso a final yank and Kary sprung out of the debris and landed gracefully a few feet away. He then turned toward Merine. "A huge metallic creature, horribly strong, immune to magic. It nearly destroyed us. Kary and I, we combined our strength and rammed it into that wall. The structure collapsed on top of it, burying it alive." Garland groaned as he picked himself off the ground. He looked around in satisfaction. "Well, we took care of the nasty. Did you get the spy? What did he find out?" Setzer turned from his assessment of the airship. "Jidoor is under attack, Akfek knows the returner base location. He also found out that they are using an elemental's powers to control the populous. Called Shade." "So, what do we use against it?" Tiamat piped up, edging closer to Kraken. "Illumina." Xyo breathed, "We need the talisman of Illumina, Banon will know where..." She slumped back into dormancy, leaning heavily on Merine. Merine looked slightly irritated. "Either way Jidoor is our next destination. I suggest we get on that ship and go." She turned and shuffled Xyo and herself towards the airship, the others following in moments. Lich grabbed Valron by the arm as he walked by. "Why is Xyo in such a condition?" he demanded as ominously as he could. Valron blinked for a moment, this was his first encounter with a being which had a skull for a facial endowment. He began to stammer, "Er... um.... well.. actually." He gulped as Lich pulled him closer; there was a faint flicker of fire dancing in Lich's eyes. Valron sighed, collecting himself. "She used all her energies to bring me back from the tunnel." "Tunnel?" Lich questioned, not quite placing the term. "The tunnel that you traverse to the threshold of death. Please let go, you're hurting." He shook his head slightly as if snapping awake and let go of Valron and watched him hurry to the ship. Lich stood there for a second and cocked his head to one side, "Why did I just do THAT?" he asked the air around him. The air must have been more fearful of Lich than Valron, for it decided not to respond. * * * * * The airship rose effortlessly into the air and plotted a direct course to Jidoor. Merine had propped Xyo up against the railing where she appeared to be asleep. Kraken and Tiamat were aft, gazing down at the slowly disappearing Doman ruins. Tucker had come to the deck to introduce his new little friend to Setzer. Lich made his way over to where Xyo was 'sleeping' and stared at her for a moment. "I thought you hated the thought of life." he said quietly. "I still do," Xyo replied, her eyes still closed, a grimace appeared on her lips, "but I have a job to do. I mean to complete it even if I have to commit the unspeakable. As long as in the end, I will enter the tunnel, I will stoop so low to rob someone of their own gift of death." Lich turned away and wandered off to a dark corner to brood. Xyo turned her face into the wind, her eyes still closed. She felt horrible. The spell drained her of practically all her vital essence. It would probably take her the entire trip back to Jidoor to regain her strength. Her mind began to drift off when the cry of alarm sounded. Kraken and Tiamat were pointing off the aft at large metallic creature that was gaining speed on the airship. "What is it?" Setzer hollered over the wind and the wail of the beast's engines. "It's that creature we fought!" Kraken shouted back. "Setzer, try to outrun it!" Kary called to him. Setzer leaped for the wheel and opened the throttle. The ship lurched in response and careened forward at an accelerated speed. Everyone watched the creature with intense anticipation. "I don't want to fight it again." Kary muttered. The others' sentiment seemed the same. Lich already had brandished his scythe and was waiting ominously for the word to attack. "He's still gaining on us!" Merine called out, "I think he's gonna ram us!" Indeed the creature was still heading strait for the aft of the ship. Everyone scrambled to grab a brace. When the creature struck, the ship groaned. Xyo snapped fully awake and tried to grasp the railing for support. She felt very sick; a wave of nausea hit her and she tried to pull herself up. Everyone was scrambling on the ship as the creature pulled up to the side of the ship. Xyo finally got a good look at it as she clutched weakly to one of the side mastings. It was a grotesque mesh of metal and monster. Xyo mused that the origins of the design might have been a behemoth. The creature turned its course and rose to attack the crew directly. The battle ensued, and Xyo stood there, unable to move and feeling quite helpless to aid her companions. After a few bouts of weapons clashing harmlessly against the beast and the fiends being beaten back by a magical restraint type energy. The creature sailed out to the side of the ship and reared around to ram the vessel again. Xyo scrutinized the creature and saw that one of its eyes was still flesh and uncovered. She looked around faintly and found what she was looking for. She grabbed the thick rope and tied it around her waist, then tied it to the mast. Struggling, she hoisted herself up onto the railing and waited for the creature to hit the ship. The creature reared around and screamed towards the hull of the airship. As is slammed into the side Xyo let herself fall onto the creature's head. She pulled her long dagger from her sleeve and plunged it into the creature's eye. The thing pulled back away from the ship screaming. Xyo felt herself get yanked back and the wind left her as she slammed into the hull herself. Groggily she watched as the creature flew over her and began to attack the crew again, this time it was more in pain. She looked down, she could barely see the waters through the clouds. She looked up at the rope and grabbed hold of it. She made an attempt to pull herself up but it was to no avail. She hung there for a second, listening to the battle above. She then gasped as she felt an icy grip around her ankle. She looked down and to her shock, a wraith was clawing at her. "No!" she screamed and kicked at it weakly. The wraith grinned evilly at her and floated up to see her eye to eye. Xyo had never felt so helpless. "What do you want from me, thing?" she said shakily. "The massster wishesss your company indefinitely." It crooned at her, laughing hollowly. Xyo's eye widened in fear. *No! How did he find me?!* "The Masssster knowssss..." It crooned as she swung at it with her now bloody dagger. It passed harmlessly through the spirit. It yanked the dagger away from her and floated up a few feet above her and began to saw at the thick rope. Xyo scrambled to grab the rope and try to pull herself up to grab the knife away. Failing and beginning to panic she mustered what strength she had and cast her final magic at the wraith. She chanted. The wraith reeled as fire pockets erupted around. The wraith vanished, screaming. Sighing, she looked up at the rope, it was heavily frayed. She doubted that it would hold her for much longer. "Merine!" she shouted. The fighting was deafening... she doubted anyone would hear her. She realized she would have to do something drastic. Something she didn't want to do. She closed her eyes and spoke a name that evoked floods of memories back into her conscience. "Rekoansenin," she said quietly, "help me, old friend." * * * * * Up on the deck in midst of the battle, Lich stiffened. He heard a voice calling him by a name he has refused to use since... since... His skeletal eyes widened in realization as memories began to coalesce. As if that name was the key to unlock his own history. He turned away from the battle, dropping his scythe. Garland saw this. "What the hell are you doing?!" he shouted. Lich ignored him and headed towards the starboard bow. * * * * * Xyo tried desperately to not look down as she felt the rope jerk sightly as the rope frayed more. It was now holding itself by one small cord. She tried to feel along the hull for a possible hand hold when she heard a non-ominous voice above her. "I remember!" Lich called to her. Xyo smiled bitterly. "Good to see you in your full mental state again." "I must look strange to you. How did you know?" Lich asked and began to pull the rope up. "I just did. I called you to me in the first place, didn't I?" "What do you think of my new look?" Lich inquired ominously. Xyo laughed and shrugged, "If you really must know, my preferences always leaned towards my colleagues having SKIN." Lich looked back suddenly and was then slammed in the back by the creature. He slumped forward momentarily letting go of the rope. Xyo grunted as she fell back heavily against the hull. The rope, not being able to take the strain, snapped, and Xyo began to scrabble wildly, looking for a hand hold. She found a slight dent and she put what strength she had into her hand as she clung. She slowly looked up as Lich regained his senses and looked down. "No! I can't fail you again!" he cried out and looked around frantically for more rope. He could find none and looked over the edge again helplessly. Xyo could only look up at him and felt her fingers begin to give. "Don't you hate short reunions?" She asked him sarcastically, cracking a weak smile. Lich watched wordlessly as she slid down the rest of hull into the cloud bank, vanishing from sight. He turned away, shocked at the events. Garland shouted to him, "Hey, you bag of bones! We have a creature to defeat!" Lich regained his composure and scooped up the scythe and resumed battle stance. "Xyo is dead," he said emotionlessly. Garland looked up. "What? How?" "She leapt off the side tied to the ship and stabbed the creature in the eye. The rope snapped before I had time to pull it up." "That could be why we are having better luck with this thing. It's not giving. We've got to lead it away, so Setzer can get this ship back to Jidoor and help the returners." "We could split up and take Doom Gaze." "I think that might be a wise decision..." * * * * * Falling was not a new sensation for Xyo. Over the past years she fallen from numerous cliffs, roofs, and so on, but never in her life had she sky dived. She saw the ground in a new light as it was rushing up to meet her. She felt herself begin to slip into unconsciousness, when she felt an icy chill grip her arms and her momentum slow. "The Massssster will have you.. yessssss?" a whispery voice hissed in her ear. She felt a deep depression as she slipped into darkness.