...the tears that ran down her face had still been a new and alien thing to her back then. She had run several diagnostic programs and found nothing to explain the pain - though it seemed as real as any physical injury.

"Now I know," she breathed, closing her eyes and letting the rest of the tears spill over, "what it means to be human - what it means to feel. Although... now I know I have a heart, I wish... I wish - I had never found it at all."

He looked at her with a mixture of sympathy, shame and guilt.

"Scarlet..." he reached out and touched her tears with his fingertips, "Scarlet... don't say that. Don't ever say that... Scarlet..."

"Scarlet?"

"Hmm?" Scarlet snapped out of her reverie abruptly.

"Scarlet, I've been talking to you," Louise said, frowning and studying her face. "Everything okay?"

Scarlet looked about her briefly. They were sitting in the popular Club Commune on the third floor of Clyez's main shopping mall - the only place left open at this time of night. It was a popular retreat for guardians, given that it was just a stone's throw away from the HQ on the fifth floor. The place had a distinctly cheesy feel to it, with gaudy disco balls and lights, retro-looking seating booths and awful music - something everyone had assumed was done on purpose. Apart from them, the only other people in there was a group of three male Guardians in a corner booth, a couple who were at the bar, one solitary man reading something at the very end of the bar, and a bored looking barman.

"Oh fine - I was just... ticking some things over in my brain..." she swirled the remains of her drink around the glass distractedly.

"Some things are best left forgotten about, you know," Louise replied knowingly.

Scarlet threw her a glare and drained the glass. "I should never have told you," she responded moodily. "Just with tonight and all... well - what the Holy Light happened tonight? I can't help but feel everything is about to go haywire."

Louise took the hint and went with the subject change. "Last I heard the Research Division were looking into it. From what I could gather, they're so far unidentified as a species and there's no indication where they're from."

Scarlet glanced around her furtively before continuing. "You know, one of them tore through the Colony wall. I saw it with my own eyes," she hissed softly. "If any of those things attack the residential blocks..."

"I know, I know..." Louise said, shaking her head. "Another?"

"Why not?" Scarlet replied, collecting Louise's glass and heading over to the bar. "Same again," she told the barman flatly as she slid the empties across to him. Compliantly and silently he mixed their drinks and handed them over, taking Scarlet's meseta card. She paid and returned to their table.

"I think I'll have to make this my last," Louise said as she took the offered glass. "You might not need sleep but I do."

"Actually, I might sleep tonight myself - clear my head a little. Tonight's... made me remember things," Scarlet murmured.

They finished their drinks and headed off. After going their separate ways, Scarlet went to her room at the Guardian's barracks. She issued her Partner Machine, StrawberryShortcake, with some brief instructions and retired for the night.

Scarlet couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen. It was a distinctly humanoid trait, she knew, and often wondered if it was simply her own mind conjuring up these 'feelings' as a matter of learned behaviour. All she knew is they tended to be fairly hit-and-miss with regard to accuracy, which meant she could be worrying over nothing. Still, it took her more than an hour to finally allow her mind to shut down and sleep.

She heard the cries of distress in amid the burning wreckage and knew something was terribly wrong. Every turn she made ran her into a dead end - the passageways and rooms began to merge into one another in splintering, flaming crashes, and the air became difficult to breathe - even for her.

This was a familiar scene. She had played this over and over in her mind, both consciously and subconsciously - not a single detail had faded since the day it happened. Her arms and hands, missing a lot of the CASEAL casings, burned and damaged in front of her eyes - and the fact that she felt none of it - she had managed to sever her own nerve receptors in the back of her neck. She watched them tear away seething hot metal sheets and smouldering wood. The bodies, blackened and often unidentifiable, and wondering weather each one might have been the one she dreaded finding. And she had found her - all too late as she had feared. She scent of burned hair and flesh had been sickening to her - only on a much deeper level than physical. It had made her heartsick. She had carried that body out of the fire - the fact that it was too late was irrelevant to her. This was her fault - she might just as well have killed her with her own two hands.

The images would slowly fade - they always did - and then she would recall him. His eyes... such an admission of guilt in themselves. She'd always remember that look on his face. She wished back then that she could say she didn't love him, but that wasn't the case. And that made it all far worse.

"Scarlet, I swear I always loved you - I didn't mean for any of this to happen, but it did..."

"You're a liar," she had said. His arms had found her waist but she pushed him away again. "You've lied about everything. Leaving now is too late, so go back. Go back to her. You've got children to think of."

"And what about you, Scarlet? Is this really what you want?"

She hated the way he could look at her and know exactly how she felt. With hindsight she realised it was probably because she was easy to read back then - she hadn't been as well versed in dealing with humanoids. She hated the way he knew how to talk her into and out of just about everything. She turned away from him.

"Yes it is," she didn't look around. "Please leave now."

A hand on her shoulder, brushing her neck, pushing her hair back. A breath on her cheek. Another arm about her waist, the familiar warmth of him standing just behind her, and a whisper in her ear.

"I do love you, Scarlet."

She awoke with words spoken ten years ago still echoing in her mind. Her cheeks were wet. Pointless. Pointless emotion over things long past. So why did it still come back again and again to haunt her? She checked the time - it was almost six AM anyway. She threw her legs off the bed and stood up, gazing out of the window. The stars gave her no answer to her questions, just stared back at her like they always did. She caught her reflection in the window as the light flickered on. If she were human she'd look like hell right now.

She decided the best thing for her to do was get up, and report in to HQ. When she arrived she was surprised to find a lot of other Guardians on day shift had decided the same thing.

"Morning Mina," Scarlet said to the tired looking red headed receptionist.

"Oh - morning, Scarlet. I've just called your room actually, I was going to ask you to come in. Headmaster Nav and President Dallgun would like a word about what you saw yesterday. Apparently the President has a press conference at nine this morning and wants to know as much as possible from everyone concerned."

"I see," Scarlet replied. "Have they found out anything more?"

Mina shook her head. "You'd have to ask them yourselves - nothing's been said to any of us out here."

"Right, so when does he want to see me?"

"I'll tell him you're here," Mina responded automatically.

Scarlet thanked her and wandered off around the lobby to see if she could glean anything from the Guardians standing around there. Stories pretty much the same as her own were being thrown around - the air in here this morning was buzzing. Everyone was on edge. Presently Mina called her and she made her way to Dallgun's office. Nav was outside the door when she arrived, and he let her in and followed, closing the door after him.

"Guardian Scarlet - good to see you here again," Dallgun nodded. Utterly distracted, he wasn't even looking at her. She felt her nerve endings tingle - something big was afoot here today.

"You called for me, Sir?" she quietly reminded him. Nav said nothing, but sat in the background.

"Ah yes, yes," he said finally, looking at her for the first time. "I'm guessing you had a similar experience to a lot of the other Guardians I spoke to last night - but please - tell me what you saw in your own words." He sat back in the chair and gave her an intense gaze.

Scarlet relayed everything that had happened to her - from the shaking of the colony to the last moment she went off duty. She knew Dallgun was especially interested in the part about Ethan Waber - she could tell by the way he listened. He had stopped and asked her some questions there, but she sensed he had wanted to ask many more than he did. After all - Olson Waber and Dallgun went way back. Scarlet had known them back then herself, though it was the unspoken rule that it was never talked of any more. Until today, the name Waber hadn't been spoken in that office for a long, long time. Better best forgotten, they thought, and now it was the general assumption that he really was dead. At least that was what was heavily implied, and never said outright.

After she had finished, he steepled his fingertips together and mulled it over for a moment, then he spoke.

"Well, the samples that were collected from the clean-up - still going on by the way, the Linear Line services are in complete chaos - are telling us it is a new form of life - we don't know where from. The data gathered from the remaining ships in orbit of the colony tells us they came from out of the Gurhal system. As to why and where from though, we don't know.

"The 'seed pod' you said you saw come through the wall - that's what they travelled in. We have digital images off the ships here..." he flicked his screen around and allowed Scarlet to view the pictures on it. They were blurred - but one could quite easily make out the shapes of several seed-like pods hurtling along, propelled by something unknown and motivated by something even less obvious, and coming from out of the great starry nowhere that the colony looked out on.

"I see..." Scarlet murmured, not knowing what else to say.

"The Research and Development Division are still on the case. Scarlet - I'd like you to help out with the investigations in any way you can. Mina should have more details about what you need to do today. Also... I'd like for you to report to Maya Shidow as often as you can - directly."

"Is that really necessary?" Scarlet bristled.

"I know she annoys you, but consider it a personal favour," Dallgun looked at her with an unreadable expression.

"Forgive me, Obel, but last I checked, I was the one owed favours, not you. I'll report to her as and when I feel it's needed though." She nodded curtly and turned on her heel to leave, then had a second thought and turned back. "Was that all, Sir?"

"Yes, for now. Thank you," he dismissed her reluctantly. She nodded and left.

She hadn't gotten more than a few steps away from the office door, however, before Nav was outside calling her back in. When she returned, she found Dallgun in conference on the video communicator with an old human man in a white coat, and Maya Shidow herself.

"They're just everywhere - all of a sudden. It's a complete mess!" she heard Maya say.

"And what's worse," said the old man, "there's rumours of some kind of spores or bacteria coming from them and affecting the local wildlife - they're spreading some kind of infection at an alarming rate!"

"What's going on?" Scarlet demanded the moment she had a window.

"Oh, Scarlet - sorry to call you back so quickly. This is Professor Tomrain, and I believe you know Maya Shidow already," Dallgun introduced them. "And this is one of our veteran Guardians, Scarlet."

"Pleasure to meet you," said Professor Tomrain.

"It seems that Parum has been hit by another wave of attacks, similar to the ones on the colony last night," Nav chipped in.

"When did this happen?" she asked, aghast.

"In the early hours of the morning," Maya replied. "There's a whole area that's completely infected. The animals have become extremely aggressive and show signs of madness and illness. They also had some ... physical changes beginning to manifest."

"Changes?" Dallgun asked.

"Yes - they were becoming bigger - stronger," Professor Tomrain continued. "Some were even changing skin colour. They were attacking people - which under normal circumstances never happens. This virus or infection is changing their behaviour. So far three people have been killed there, more injured, and several hundreds of square miles of countryside in Raffon has been cordoned off by the AMF. They say they're going to deal with it and require no help from us at present."

"I'm going to get in touch with them as soon as I'm done talking to you - we need to be there so we can try to find out exactly what is going on here," Dallgun leaned back in the chair again.

"We'll try to find out more about what's going on here, too. I won't keep you any longer - good luck!" Tomrain closed, ending the communication.

"Scarlet - get down there to Raffon as soon as you can - see if you can speak to any of the AMF officers on the scene," Dallgun said. "Contact us when you're there."

"Right away," she replied, leaving once again.

"Oh, and..." she turned as he added. "Thanks again."

Scarlet said nothing in response, just turned and left the office for the second time that morning. Wasting no time, she made straight for the space port and the Parum gate. Once on board a PPT shuttle she sat back and turned on one of the viewing screens, to the news channels. On one of them, a broadcast from Neudaiz, on a channel called Ohtoku News Network caught her attention. It was being reported live from Mizuraki by a smartly dressed young Newman male - behind him were several G-Flyers and what looked to be Communion aircraft, all landed near one another.

"Today, it would seem, is a day that will surely go down in the history of the Gurhal system," he began dramatically. "The 'Seed' - as they are being referred to because of the behaviour they exhibit and how they appear - are raining havoc and chaos on all. Last night there was an attack on the Guardian's Colony, and this morning there are confirmed reports of Seed attacks in Parum's popular visitor's spot Raffon, and also now in the Mizuraki Conservation District of Neudaiz. The attacks appear to be indiscriminate, as yet no motive or strategy has been derived from them..."

Scarlet heard several people's dismayed gasps and mutterings as they too digested the news. She fished her communicator out of her nano transformer and flicked it on, calling Dallgun's office immediately.

"Hello?"

"They're on Neudaiz," she said, without greeting him in return.

"I know," he replied. "I got word just five minutes ago. This is looking bad. I'm going to be eaten alive by those reporters out there."

She checked the time. "Well you've got ten minutes to live - might as well get a Communion priest in to confess all your sins," she said acidly.

"That doesn't help," he said, hiding the irritation poorly. "Just find out what's going on down there."

And with that, he ended the call. Scarlet 'tskd' in annoyance and put her communicator back, grumbled, and began flicking the channels on the screen again. Presently the shuttle arrived at its destination - Scarlet noted with some annoyance how low her tolerance threshold was for boredom these days. She considered practising the art of waiting - a sort of 're-conditiong' program about the virtue of patience, as she made her way over to the Holtes City G-flyer base.

By time she'd got there however, she'd dismissed the idea as ridiculous - if Louise knew about the ideas she'd had on the way over here, she'd have split her sides laughing, Scarlet was certain. She had always insisted that Scarlet was a complete basket case and to hell with anyone who thought CASTs couldn't be otherwise. She, more than anyone else knew that although CASTs were a combination of circuitry and flesh - they could still feel. She'd been married to a CAST - Horus. He was emotional enough for one of their kind - and a worrier too, though out of learned habit or actual worry she could never define. Scarlet had always remembered how he would fret over things such as the difference in life expectancy between he and Louise. Scarlet herself had once loved a human, she understood Horus' plight perfectly. But nobody had ever expected him to be the one to go first. She shook herself out of her nostalgia sternly - she was here for a purpose.

Once in the G-flyer base she presented her Guardian's licence and pilot's licence at the central operations desk, and was assigned a G-Flyer in the nearest hangar by a young beast man. She made the trip to Raffon alone - being able to pilot the G-Flyer herself. When she arrived, it seemed calm, as though nothing at all was amiss. But she knew it was - she could hear no sounds made by animals or livestock, not even birds. Most of them had either fled or succumbed to infection, she assumed. She made her way across the abandoned hiking trails and beauty spots swiftly, not stopping or slowing to admire anything. Presently she came upon makeshift steel fencing - the AMF's favourite tool. They had made a base here in the middle of Raffon.

Without hesitation she entered the base. A few of the soldiers turned to look at her, but nobody apprehended her until she was right inside.

"Halt! Identify yourself."

"You know who it is," Scarlet sighed, as she recognised the gruff male voice from underneath the helmet. He was a tall male CAST, with a hugely intimidating casing that made him look even bigger than he was, in military greens and greys.

He shifted slightly. "Scarlet?"

"Hello, Fulyen."

He took off the helmet to reveal his human-like face. She was met with the familiar sight of his blue eyes and blue hair. "What are you doing here? Scarlet - you look good these days - I barely recognised you."

"And I didn't before?" she bristled. He didn't even flinch, just continued to look at her and wait for her explanation. Scarlet placed her hands on her hips.

"Offended? How human of you," he remarked, sneering softly.

"Dallgun sent me to find out what's happening here," she finally said, choosing to ignore his last statement. If he wanted to stomp around acting like a machine that was up to him.

"We're about to purify the area of all infection," he said flatly. "We don't need help from the Guardians."

"I'm not here to offer help," Scarlet said, shifting her weight on one foot and fixing her gaze on him. "I'm here to find out more about the creatures and how they're affecting the place. We'd appreciate it if you would let our Research and Development teams have a look, for at least a little while before you take any action. I'm sure a high and mighty commander like you could make that happen for us."

Curtz held her gaze, and she glared back defiantly. "You really do have a problem with authoritarian figures, don't you Scarlet?" he shrugged.

"Only anal-retentive AMF commanding officers," she shot back.

"Grr... fine - have your teams here for a scout around. Mind you though, we WILL purify this area on schedule, so they only have a maximum of three hours!"

"What - pray tell - exactly - does this 'purifying' entail?" Scarlet crossed her arms. "I can hazard a guess already - but what is it?"

"We just kill everything in the area - all infected flora and fauna obliterated to stop it spreading. We've already purified half of the infected Raffon area."

"Right - I see..." she murmured. "I thought as much."

"Well I've got duties to carry out," he said stiffly. "I must go. Like I said; you have three hours - you'll only be warned once." And with that, Fulyen Curtz marched brusquely off to go about his duties.

"What a fucking tool..." Scarlet muttered under her breath. She remembered now why she'd left the AMF - it had been CASTs like Fulyen Curtz. She had never been comfortable with the idea of CAST supremacy. It was very much advocated still, within the ranks of the AMF.

She sighed and called in to Maya to relay the message from the AMF. It was going to be one of those weeks.