Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own blue dragon, if I did I would be busy animating season three rather than rewriting season one…

Zola ducked behind the corner when she heard them. The sound of heavy boots hitting the ground echoed off the walls and judging by the noise, there were more than one, possibly four or five soldiers marching through the corridor she had been in just moments ago. The former general scanned the hall she had just fled into and much to her horror, found herself stuck in a dead end. Realizing the danger she was in, Zola risked a glance around the corner; there was another corridor opposite of the one she was currently in and as opposed to hers, it actually led to more corridors and would have offered her multiple escape routes. Zola had a choice; she could either stay in the dead end and hope against all odds that the soldiers would not look for her there or run into the other corridor but risk being seen. It was an easy choice, but the moment she got ready to run, she registered movement in her peripheral vision. Zola quickly retreated back into the dead end, as the first soldiers rounded the corner and she cursed at herself for not having acted quicker.

As she took a closer look at the corridor she was in, Zola realized that there was nothing to hide behind; no large plants or furniture and the only two doors were undoubtedly locked. The sound of footsteps was steadily getting louder as the soldiers approached and it would only be a matter of moments, before they found her. With nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, Zola pressed her back flat against the wall and prayed they wouldn't look her way. It was then, that she noticed something hard pressing into her back. She turned slightly and found a cord running up the wall and as her gaze followed it, she realized it was connected to the ceiling lights. Without hesitating, she reached to the back of her belt and pulled out her knife with her functioning hand, before she took a few steps back and threw it with absolute precision. The knife severed the cord, sending off a shower of sparks, before the lights went out. Zola headed deeper into the dead end, until she was shrouded in darkness and again stood flat against the wall. Right at that moment, the soldiers reached the entrance to her corridor and stopped. "Alright we'll have to split up again. You two, search that corridor and catch up with us when you're done. If you find her, you know what to do." A male voice, undoubtedly that of the leader of the little squad ordered.

"But sir, the motion sensors would have turned on the lights if anyone was in there" A slightly younger voice chimed in and for a moment Zola was hopeful that they would move on.

"It doesn't matter, we have strict orders to search every inch of this ship and we will do exactly that. Now go!" The older voice ordered, sounding agitated this time.

Zola turned her head the fraction of an inch, as she heard the two soldiers approach. They were relatively tall and armed with assault rifles. Even with the element of surprise on her side, she did not like her chances against those weapons, especially since she knew how trigger happy most of Nene's younger soldiers were. As the two men grew closer, Zola held her breath; they might not have been able to see her in the dark, but the slightest sound would immediately give away her position. The men were getting closer. She could no longer see them in the dark, however the sound of their footsteps told her exactly where they were. When they were only a few feet away from her, the soldiers stopped. "How are we even supposed to find anyone in here? I can't see anything!" The sound of the soldiers' voice seemed unnaturally loud in the dark and it took all the self-control Zola had to resist the urge to attack and run. "We don't." A different voice answered. "It's a dead end, there's no reason for her to be in here if she's trying to get off the ship"

"I guess that makes sense" The other voice replied and she could clearly hear the sound of metal scraping against metal as the soldier adjusted his hold on his weapon. "Let's head back then, this is pointless"

"No, we need to wait a while, make the captain think we actually searched in here"

"Fine then" the owner of that voice grunted.

Zola was getting anxious; the longer they stayed, the better their eyes would adjust to the dark and they would finally realize that she was standing right in front of them. Minutes that felt like hours passed and the only sounds Zola could hear, were the sound of her hammering heartbeat and the soldiers' footsteps as they lazily paced around the corridor. She needed to do something; standing there, waiting to be found and killed went against all of her training and instincts, but both attacking and running away would end in almost certain death. And so she waited, growing increasingly restless until the sudden sound of the soldiers voice nearly made her jump. "C'mon, lets catch up with the others, we've been gone long enough" Without another word, the soldiers left and the sound of their steps grew steadily quieter, until she was sure they had finally gone.

Zola drew in a sharp breath, in desperate need of oxygen. It took her a few minutes to get her erratic breathing and heartbeat under control, and by that time the adrenaline had faded enough for fatigue to set in. She was still severely injured and now she was starting to feel the painful throbbing in her left Hand again. She had instinctively been cradling it with her functioning arm and so far, and had only noticed an uncomfortable stiffness and sharp pain at the slightest attempts at moving her fingers. But now, even though she was keeping the arm still, she felt an increasing amount of pain in her limb. It was time to finally get off the ship and to someplace where she could get medical attention, before things got worse. After a quick glance around the corner to make sure she was alone, Zola rushed across the hall and into the corridor the soldiers had disappeared into.

~oOo~

Szabo roared in anger, slamming his fist down onto the control panel. The young messenger yelped and bolted for the door in a panic; he'd had the unfortunate task of informing Szabo that the search for Zola had so far been unsuccessful and really didn't want the robot to accidentally kill him in his fury. Szabo didn't even notice the messengers' departure, as his anger slowly gave way to fear. His brilliant plan was falling apart and rather than a promotion, he was going to get an execution if he didn't catch Zola soon. It had taken Szabo far too long to convince the soldiers that Zola was the enemy and needed to be captured, but now all soldiers were on high alert and were patrolling the warship in search of the traitor. The past fifteen minutes Szabo had spent desperately trying to get the gates that were sealing in Logi to open, but there really was no way to do it without Nene's codes. In Szabos opinion, this was all Logis fault; the general should not have let that woman trick him! If he had not been stupid enough to get himself locked up in that hall, everything would have worked out perfectly! Yes; he would pin this mess on Logi and let Nene take his anger out on him instead.

~oOo~

Since Zola had left the dead end there had been several narrow misses, where nothing but pure luck had stopped the soldiers from spotting her. Her concentration and energy were both fading and Zola knew she was running out of time. However, since she suspected that Szabo would have the direct route to the landing bay heavily patrolled, she was forced to take an alternative route that led through labyrinths of corridors even she hadn't been in yet. She was getting closer though, the entrance to the landing-bay she was looking for was not well known and used mostly by the mechanics, so the chances of running into heavily armed forces there were slim. Or at least slimmer than they would be at the main entrance. After countless twists, turns and sheer endless corridors, she finally found what she was looking for and glanced around the corner into the next hall. There it was; the heavy metal door, leading into the landing bay. Unfortunately, it was guarded by two Gran Kingdome soldiers. They appeared to be unarmed but nevertheless, taking on both of them at once would be too risky. Fighting was out of the question, so she needed to come up with a plan. Preferably one that left her with less injuries than the last one had.

An idea struck her and Zola headed back the way she'd came until she found what she was looking for; a little potted plant sitting on a windowsill. Zola unceremoniously uprooted the plant and threw it to the side, before she grabbed the pot and headed to the far end of the hall, where her corridor crossed the one with the metal door in it. In a swift movement, she threw the pot straight ahead into the next corridor. The pot shattered the moment it hit the ground and Zola pressed herself against the wall, hoping she wouldn't be seen right away. She could hear the soldiers running to find out what had happened and once they had passed her, Zola ran to the door. Unfortunately, there was another soldier she hadn't seen before, and without a second thought, she attacked. The soldier was taller than her, stronger too but he hadn't been expecting her attack and one swift kick to the backs of his knees was all it took to for Zola to unbalance him. The man went down with a surprised yell that alarmed his comrades, but Zola didn't look back as she ran up to the door as fast as she could and quickly began typing in the security code into the screen mounted next to it. The machine informed her that it was processing, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the three guards speeding towards her. Finally, the screen turned green and read "access granted", as the lock clicked open. Zola rushed inside and slammed the door shut, seconds before the men caught up to her. She could hear them banging their fists against the door from the other side and Zola knew it would be a matter of seconds before they too entered the code. Without hesitating another moment, Zola pulled the red emergency lever next to the door and stood back as the iron walls came crashing down in front of all doors leading into the landing bay. It had worked on Logi and hopefully this trick would buy her enough time to find a mechat and finally escape.

~oOo~

Szabo was both furious and terrified at the same time. He'd just finished talking to Lord Nene and if robots could shake with fear, he'd be trembling right now. His master had been livid to say the very least and had promised him a horrid death if he didn't find and secure Zola within the hour. Time was of the essence and after much discussion and tirades of apologies from Szabo, Nene had given him the codes necessary to free Logi. The malice in Nenes' voice had surprised evenhim, and Szabo felt like he was being treated unjustly since Zola was the one who had betrayed them and he had done all he could in order to stop her. In fact, he felt he should have been praised for coming up with the idea for the shadow repressor but Nene hadn't wanted to hear any of it. Results were what counted with Nene and Szabo would do anything it took to get them. Just as he made to leave the room, another messenger stepped in and bowed before the robot.

"Szabo sir, Zola has been sighted by the landing bay, but the emergency system has been activated and we can't get in"

A feeling of great relief washed over Szabo; they finally knew where she was and with the codes he'd just received from Nene, they would catch that traitor in no time. The only question was whether or not to let Logi out before they captured Zola, after all she was unarmed and unable to summon her shadow. Szabo laughed. It would be no problem at all.

~oOo~

Zola ran through the endless rows of mechats, trying to find one that was small enough to maneuver through the canyons. Every step she took on the metal floor sent echoes across the hall, but it didn't matter because as far as she could tell, she was alone. Unfortunately, flying mechats (or any form of aircraft for that matter) was one of the few things she hadn't been trained to do and quite frankly, she had never expected the need for her to fly one ever to arise. So far, her personal pilot had flown her whenever she needed to travel far distances and in any case, Killerbat should have been able to get her anywhere a pilot could not. But unfortunately, she had ordered her pilot to remain in the capital while she was away and now that she was unable to summon Killerbat, she had no choice but to try and fly the mechat herself.

Finally, she reached a row of newer and smaller models, used for scouting out terrain inaccessible by foot, such as steep mountain slopes or underwater caves. It would work perfectly in the canyons. A quick pull of the lever by the door of the nearest mechat was all it took for the door to open and a short ladder to descended to the ground. Zola swiftly climbed inside and shut the door behind her. She sat down in the pilots' seat and scanned the controls, trying to make sense of all the buttons, levers and gears. Zola remembered the basics, from when she had observed her pilot and pushed a red button to her right which caused the mechat to come to life with a whirr. Lights switched on, the screens lit up and an array of buttons on the control panel suddenly started blinking. She pressed the box labeled 'start' on the touchscreen.

"Please insert keys." A mechanical voice coming from the speakers ordered.

Damn.

Zola pressed the button again, but got the same response. She began typing away on the screen, hoping that one of her many access-codes would work, but the machine continued to demand a key to be inserted. Zola suppressed an angry growl and searched the dashboard until she found the slot where the key was supposed to be inserted. The key couldn't be too big, maybe one of the pilots had lost one inside the mechat or the great hall, but she didn't honestly believe she'd end up lucky enough to find one. Zola suddenly remembered the key Carlisle had given her and pulled it out of her pocket. Yes, the old man had betrayed her, but she was running out of time and she was desperate, so she decided to give it a try. The key fit perfectly into the slot and for a moment, relief washed over her. However after a moment of absolute silence, the mechanical voice blared:

"The key is not compatible with this system, please insert the correct key."

Zola did not let this discourage her; the key may not have fit this mechat, but it would hopefully work in another. She retracted the key and glanced at the inscription again. She held the key up against the light and saw the number 35 etched into one side, but when she inspected the other side, she only found "L" etched into the metal. Zola finally realized what it meant and mentally scolded herself for taking so long to figure it out. She ran out of the ship and hurried past rows and rows of mechats of all shapes and sizes. Finally, she reached the section where the landsharks were parked and slowed down, to read the numbers written on their side beneath Gran Kingdome's insignia. She found the inscription L-35 on a smaller, gray model and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. She walked up to the control panel and inserted the key into the slot: the engine roared to life and the lights and display in front of her switched on. A feeling of relief flowed through her; maybe she would make it out of the Galleon after all. She scanned the buttons and switches in front of her and pushed the button with the picture of a bent rectangle on it. The metal hood that covered the windshield lifted with a mechanical whirring noise. Now that she could see through the glass, she realized she needed to open the landing bay's gates before she even attempted to fly the landshark. Zola bolted from the mechat and finally reached the lever next to the doors she'd locked when she'd entered the landing bay. She pulled it down and the gates started opening with an earsplitting shriek. Unfortunately, the gates weren't the only things that started opening; right at that moment, the iron walls that had been keeping Szabos forces out began retracting. Realizing what was going on, Zola cursed loudly as she ran back to the landshark. She rushed through the rows of mechats, not daring to look back. Once she reached the ship, she got in, closed the doors and buckled herself into the pilots' seat.

It wouldn't take them long to find her, so she wasted no time to reactivate the landshark and typed 'vertical takeoff' into the touchscreen. Without further warning, the ship lifted off the ground and hovered in midair, until Zola gripped the joystick and gently pushed it forward. The ship lurched forward with surprising speed and Zola pulled the joystick back, to stop the mechat from crashing into the nearest wall. There was another lever that read 'altitude' and Zola gently pushed it upwards. The ship ascended smoothly until Zola let go of the lever and bent the joystick to the right. The ship turned on the spot in midair and the landsharks' tail slammed into the wall, where it left a giant dent in the metal. The impact shook the entire ship and Zola needed a moment to recover, as the concussion Logi had given her still had her feeling rather dizzy. She blinked as the double vision went away and pushed the joystick forwards. The ship slowly flew across the giant hall, as Zola directed it towards the open gates. When she thought she saw movement, Zola narrowed her eyes and realized they were closing. A quick glance out the window revealed Szabo and a small army of soldiers running about the hall. Many of them were getting into mechats, undoubtedly to pursue her, should she make it out in time. It was impossible to tell from Zolas position, but she could have sworn that damn robot looked smug. However, Zola wouldn't let Szabo stop her from escaping and pushed the joystick forwards, causing the ship to shoot towards the closing gates at a greater speed. When to her horror, the gates closed with a shuddering bang, she didn't stop the mechat; she accelerated. This was her only chance at escape and she was not going to waste it. Reaching forward, she typed the word 'drill' into the screen. The blades in the front of the ship whirred to life and Zola prayed that if they could cut and dig through stone they would be able to deal with the Galleons solid iron gates as well.

"Brace for impact" A mechanical voice from the speakers blared, as the Landshark sped towards the closed gates.

~oOo~

Szabo watched in horror, as the landshark sped towards the gates. Had Zola gone completely insane or was she just trying to get herself killed? When the drills on the front of the hijacked ship suddenly began to spin, he had his answer: the woman was insane. There was no way the little landshark could drill a hole through the gates. Or at least Szabo really; really hoped there was no way. The soldiers gathered around him covered their ears when they realized what was about to happen. The pirated aircraft collided with the wall in an earsplitting shriek of metal scraping against metal. The soldiers flinched at the noise, but Szabo could not tear his eyes away: a shower of sparks flew from the front of the ship, and before his failure could even sink in properly, the landshark had gone.

Author's notes:

I am so sorry it took so long to update this story. I've been busier with schoolwork than ever before and it's only going to get worse in the coming months. However, as a little thank you to Zolaalathaia I pulled myself together and finally finished this chapter.

As always, reviews are very much appreciated and serve as the best kind of motivation!