Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Not mine.

A.N: Okay, so I have been absent from this story for WAY too long! Very sorry about that! To make it up to you I have a nice long chapter here for you guys. :)
There's a bit of an imaginative stretch in here that was alluded to earlier in the story which was inspired from the episode "Great Wall", specifically Ha-Long Zalo calling Lena 'Little Phoenix'. Read and you'll see.

The Future

The Prisoner was stubborn. That much anyone could figure out. After a while it became difficult to keep her under sedation; she would fight them and struggle whenever they came around whenever she roused and it required increasing amounts of the tranquilizer to quiet her. In fact, the dosage was starting to concern the physician attending to her. This concern was sincere enough that he had stopped keeping her completely under 24-7 and allowed the woman to remain awake for small periods of time. At the moment it was one of those hours.

The Captive was surprisingly quiet at times, her physician noted as he watched her through the two-way glass panel. She was currently leaning back against the pillows on her bed, her jaw in what seemed to be a permanent stubborn setting as she stared at the ceiling—clearly deep in thought. Rhythmically she tugged at the restraints that had returned to her wrists. High Commander Oslo had been back as well to speak with her. He clearly didn't get the information he wanted —although judging by his visit of the previous day he had gotten it from somewhere else. He had definitely been gloating and afterward had informed the Doctors that it was no longer necessary to keep the prisoner completely sedated at all times if it was detrimental to her recovery and overall health.

Just at that moment a droning sound echoed through the little office he was in and the lights suddenly went out, leaving the physician in total darkness.

8888888

"Miss? Can you hear me?" a voice whispered in the captive's ear as she felt fingers fiddling with the straps on her wrists

"Of course I can hear you! I'm fully conscious this time Spencer," She hissed in reply. Feeling the leather buckle loosen, she jerked her wrist sharply. The corner of her mouth twitched slightly in satisfaction to hear a snapping sound accompany the motion. With one hand free she pulled at the buckle on her other side whilst her friend helped get the restraints on her feet off. Once her limbs were free she yanked the IV tube out of her arms and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She was surprised at how good her night-vision had become after spending all that time in the dark. Either that or her other senses were just good at compensating. She received an unwelcome shock when her legs gave out the moment she put her weight on them.

"Whoa, careful!" her 'rescuer' exclaimed as he caught her before she sagged to the floor, his hands on her arms.

"I have never been this weak before!" she muttered in disgust as Spencer pulled her up to her feet. Just to be sure he put his arm around her waist and her arm over his shoulder to support her, half carrying her as they headed for the door.

"How are you seeing?" she asked him after they turned into what she supposed was a hallway.

"Oh, right! Here." The young man replied as he pushed a pair of glasses onto her face. Suddenly the hallway appeared to be illuminated in a strangely eerie pinkish light

"Are these…are these Cheung's?" she asked him

"Yup." He replied "We managed to swipe a few see-in-the-dark lenses."

"We? But the resistance…it's almost all gone! Trust me I should know, I was one of the ones in charge for years…"

"Not everyone is out for the count. There have been one or two breakouts since your capture. There isn't enough time to explain, we must hurry." He told her as they hobbled along. Slowly the feeling began to return to the prisoner's legs and she began to make more steps of her own, allowing them to go faster. Suddenly the lights began to flicker until with a static-like sound they flared back on, causing the two to slow momentarily in apprehension. The alarm that blared hurried them on however and they ducked into a doorway to avoid the masked soldiers that stormed by. They both let out a controlled sigh of relief once they were gone and Spencer jerked his head in the direction of a panel in a little alcove-like square-shaped depression across the hall.

By this time adrenaline had kicked in and the captive was able to sprint across the short distance unaided, though she did stumble on the last step and had to grab at the metal wall in the square groove for momentary support. She clenched her teeth with frustration at her sudden physical weakness and determinedly pushed herself off it to stand on her own two feet. Spencer had crossed the hall as well by then and was punching in a code at the panel. A hatch opened up right above the top of the metal ladder, allowing a ray of orange light to stream in. The prisoner placed her hands on the rail again before looking back to her newfound friend in question. He nodded hastily in confirmation and motioned for her to start climbing before quickly giving her a boost. She looked back down in confusion

"You aren't coming with me?" she asked him. He shook his head

"But you know what they'll do to you when they find out you helped me!" she exclaimed

"There's only room for two in the get-away vehicle" he told her

"One, two." She retorted pointing to herself and then to Spencer as she spoke "Where is my math going wrong?"

"Someone else is waiting for you at the top. Besides, my job isn't finished here." The intern said gravely "I can't leave now."

The woman sighed. She knew that look on his face. It was one that she got sometimes—okay a lot of the time. This was a person with a mission; one that she wouldn't be able to talk him out of. She nodded and smiled sadly

"Fine. But take care of yourself. You've really grown up from that little boy we met all those years ago, Spencer. Good luck."

Spencer nodded. Just as she was about to haul herself up the ladder he suddenly seemed to remember something.

"Wait!" He hissed, making her turn to see him fumbling in his pockets. He retrieved something and held out his fist to her, slowly opening it to reveal a ring. The prisoner recognized it immediately.

"I believe this is yours." He said. The woman looked at him with a wealth of emotion in her eyes before throwing her arms around him and whispering her thanks in his ear. She wiped her nose on her sleeve (the only thing available) and took the jewelry, slipping it onto the ring finger of her left hand with a small, thin smile.

"Now go!" Spencer insisted.

The former-Sphere captive nodded and dragged herself over the top of the hatch, a pair of hands helping pull her onto the roof. Getting to her hands and knees she looked up to see who else had helped her and recoiled, eyes wide.

In front of her was a woman wearing a silver-and-black mask with a pattern like a circuit board along the sides. She also wore the grey, black and red uniform of the other drones for this particular base.

"It's okay! It's okay!" The second woman exclaimed in a hushed tone, putting her hands up palm-out in a gesture to convey a lack of hostility before peeling the thing off, something one of the masked soldiers would never have been able to do. She tossed it to the side before reinforcing, "It's fake! It was the only way to get past the guards."

Beneath the mask was a familiar face that had been weathered and hardened over the years through stress and hardship. Her hair, like the Captive's, had gotten longer and shaggier since they'd last met. The mop of bright red was now grimy with dirt and streaked prematurely with silver, although the dark blue eyes were still, well at least similar.

"Alice?" she breathed with a wince-like frown, her heart still thudding in her ears. The other woman nodded solemnly. "I thought you were dead! I'm certainly glad I was wrong!"

"Yeah, me too." The seijin replied gruffly, humorously "Come on, we don't have much time. We have to get you out of here before they think to close off the Docking Bays."

With that Alice grabbed the other woman's elbow to help her up. They ran for the air-lock, the red-headed seijin half dragging the escapee (though that was a step up from being half-carried) until they reached a gap between buildings and the red-haired woman put an arm in front of her companion to stop her. The former prisoner looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow

"I can make it. I might be out of shape right now, but in our day and up until a little while ago..."

"I'm not taking that chance." Alice replied as she looked around at the setting sun before raising a hand that glowed faintly. With a lurch her companion was about a foot off the ground and then zipped across the distance to land rather lightly. The former guardian followed quickly and they continued on their rush until they reached a small ship shaped like a pod with tinted windows. Quickly, Alice shoved her hand into the imprint for it beneath the hatch which made it open.

"Get in." she barked.

"Don't need to tell me twice, let's get out of here!" The other woman muttered as she swung into the passenger's seat.

"I could drive it if you want." She said as an afterthought when Alice seemed to be having trouble with starting the engine "I did fly a much bigger ship for years."

"It's okay, I got it." The former Guardian replied "Let's go."

Year 2252

"…So what do you think?" Cheung asked, jerking Lena out of her thoughts.

"Sorry, what?" she asked vaguely.

"What do you think about those rumors that the Sphere has some "new invention" to track down sejinns?"

"Oh. I don't know." She replied with a shrug, "The Sphere's no biggie. I already beat them."

Cheung stopped and looked at her with wide eyes before looking around to see if anyone else had heard the comment. If they had, they were rather pointedly ignoring it.

"But Lena, you defeated Oslo, not the Sphere. They're still a really big threat!"

"Okay, okay. Sorry." The young girl muttered grumpily with a roll of her eyes.

"We're nearing the coordinates. Everyone, get ready." Cortez growled, pulling the wheel around, "Dahlia, release the Mosquitoes! Wyan, Mahad, you know the plan."

"Yes sir." They both replied via comm. Link.

"Alright, everybody, Cheung, get the new force-shield system up! Dahlia, man the cannons, Lena, you go help her. If it's not too menial a task for a sejinn as powerful as yourself, that is." His last remark dripped with reproachful sarcasm. To Lena's credit she turned beet red and jogged a little faster. So he had heard her arrogant comment. Dahlia apparently had as well as she gave Lena a raised eyebrow on their way out that challenged her to say something else. She settled herself at one of the seats behind a large energy cannon.

"Here Lena, you take that one." She said, jerking her head in the direction of the smaller cannon beside her.

"But I don't know how to use it!" Lena exclaimed

"I showed you before, remember? It's easy. You aim it and then you press the red buttons on the handle. Just remember that it'll move back a little after it's been fired." The blonde said, looking through the circular piece of glass with a thin red cross on it that was used for aiming. Lena frowned but sat where she was asked to. The ship was passing through a thick cloud, making the deck very damp and chilly for a few moments. However, to the pirates, it was after they cleared it that they felt their blood run cold.

"Whoa! Where did that blockade come from? I thought it was a lightly guarded water carrier!" Mahad cried over the comm system.

"It seems we've been had." Cortez growled, "Either that, or they intercepted some of our transmissions. Either way, we'll have to get out of here."

"Too late!" Cheung exclaimed, "Our radar show that they're surrounding us! Three patrollers have already formed a line behind us and more are joining them! What are we going to do?" The Captain thought a moment and then replied,

"We'd have a fire-fight getting out anyway at this point. Might as well show them we mean business! Attack the water carrier!"

"AYE SIR!" Was the reply in complete unison from the crew. The battle that ensued was fierce.

Meanwhile, aboard a ship just outside their radar telemetry, a guardian sat in his own private quarters, watching the fight on his own personal screen. There was no sign of sejinn powers being used. That was odd. Either Lena wasn't with them, or they were too stupid to put her abilities to use. Well, Oslo thought as he leaned back in his chair, either way I get closer to my goal. If they win, I learn more about these rebel's battle tactics. If they lose I get Lena.

He wondered if she had told them that he was still alive. Certainly the Sphere had simply assumed him to be dead following the disaster at Karzemm. That had made it very easy for him to set the ball rolling for a coup d'état later on. He already had the loyalty of the guardians, and all one needed to do with the brigs was re-program them. As it currently stood a takeover was going to be fairly easy. The Brigs were pretty much the largest fighting force, and they were very easily disabled. That being said, he wasn't about to repeat his mistakes; his enemies were not to be underestimated. He had gained the advantage of surprise but had lost several other key assets.

Never mind. He could wait. He had time and, more importantly, he had not one but several plans. He ran through a few of them in his mind as he watched the fight between the rebels and the Sphere.

Seijinn energy was one such thought, or more specifically how to garner more of it. His last draining of Darius' powers had left him feeling rejuvenated: Quite literally as a matter of fact. Unfortunately his brother was no longer available for the light chamber, and he wouldn't use Lena even if he did catch her. He was not that foolish and besides, she was his Lady of Light. That didn't mean lesser, less valuable seijinns were out of the question, though. The academy was full of second class wonders. Then there was the matter of an army. He needed one, that was for sure. And he would eventually need one that wasn't robotic, at least until he got a hold of Tibbald's grandson (which was now on his list of priorities. Not high up, precisely, it could wait a while as a matter of fact, but he wanted that pint-sized genius eventually). At the same time though, there was something to be said for an army that didn't think for itself. Once he reached the very top he would address that; it would be too difficult to do so beforehand.

The "show" became very boring, very quickly. It was more than a little frustrating to know that either the one he was most interested in wasn't there or that she was being idle. Eventually those doubts were assuaged but even then the seijinn energy that came into play were mere energy blasts, there was no creativity, no finesse to them. They were almost lazy. The only indication that they were Lena's was the sheer force of the blasts. Pity. It was so disappointing. Everyone knew she had power. He had been curious to see a repeat of her stunt off the Babylonia block when she had created a much larger than life image of her mother out of seijin energy to attack patrol ships. Alas.

Oslo was just starting to consider turning off the monitor and have the computer alert him if anything potentially hazardous to him were to occur when something caught his eye, something big. His eyes widened and then narrowed and he sat forward in his chair, gripping the arms of it as he concentrated on the incredible spectacle before him.

He wasn't the only one who was captivated by it, far from it. The rebels too, slowed their fighting until they were staring in a mixture of awe, utter bewilderment and confusion at the jaw dropping, impossible sight.

It began with an unnoticed object falling through the sky, apparently dropping out of the cloud-cover overhead. No one took any heed of it until seemingly out of nowhere an immense beacon of light formed and expanded around it, plummeting down the same trajectory for a moment before swooping up out of its dive spectacularly and unfurling a pair of great wings to their full and impressive span, emitting a resounding shriek reminiscent of a bird-of-prey's. There was a near-blinding flash when the creature unfurled its impressive wings which made the human members of the fight cry out and shield their eyes with their arms or hands momentarily and even catching the Brigs off guard.

When this flash faded the machines began running scans automatically whilst the more organic people involved in the fight gawked; it was unlike anything they had ever seen before. The enormous bird hovering between the St. Nazair and the Sphere ships appeared to be made entirely of blue flame. The only thing that came to mind in terms of its resemblance to something, anything, previously described was…well, a firebird. Or a phoenix. With a power and grace that no one could contest, the creature angled its wings and flew across the sky with incredible speed. It headed straight towards the nearest block, an abandoned square with a large dome-like thing that had once been used as a base-ball stadium, leaving a visible ripple of some kind in its wake.

"Everyone, brace yourselves!" Cortez yelled just before the shock-wave reached them. It made the ship lurch slightly, but nothing more. Everyone, Sphere and Pirates alike, were momentarily too stunned to continue.

"What was that?" Lena asked Dahlia. The blonde shrugged without taking her wide-eyed stare off the baseball stadium block, jaw still hanging open like everyone else's.

The moment ended. Cortez recovered first.

"Mahad, Wayan, Dahlia, go check it out. Everyone else, we have to finish this off!"

"Yes sir." They replied, more or less in unison.

8**8**8**8**8**8**8**8**8**8

The girl groaned as she came to. Everything ached and yet at the same time her entire body felt like it had been liquefied. Dimly she was aware that something was on top of her…no—no she had been in this position before to know what the weight across her back was: debris. With an effort, she forced her eyes open and dragged her head up a fraction. She was within some sort of concrete…ditch? No, not a ditch. Too shallow. She didn't know the correct word for it. Across her back were the remains of some kind of wooden sun-shade and some chain link fencing. Wincing, she pushed her self up, the pieces sliding off her back so that she was leaning on her hands, her long braid draped over her shoulder and the loose strands dangling in front of her face, framing it.

Well, everything hurt but she seemed to be in one piece. With a grunt of exertion the young woman hauled herself out from the depression, concluding it to be a player's pit or whatever they had called the spot where pre-skyland people had played baseball in. She'd barely managed to get herself into the open and collapse onto her back trying to catch her breath when the shimmering avian specter hovered across her vision.

"I hate you," She snarled at it venomously

I saved your life. It replied with an irritating smugness. Lena scoffed and sat up

"What life?" she demanded as she dusted her coat sleeves off sharply before getting to her feet with a grimace. She slowly turned around to take in her surroundings, squinting slightly in the noon sun over the old baseball diamond.

"Where are we?" Lena asked as she put one hand on her hip and shaded her eyes with the other.

Can't you think of a better question oh great 'mastermind'? The specter sneered. Lena gave it a withering look to which it shrugged its shoulder in a preen

Oh, don't give me that. You really don't know how to take a joke, It remarked in a sort of aloof innocence as it started to glide around her again eerily. Grinding her teeth in irritation the teenager swatted at the pale blue wisps around her, dissipating them as she stepped through them.

A whirring sound automatically made her stiffen and look around sharply for the source. She saw the approaching shadow of a ship which was enough to send her rushing to search for a hiding place. The place was completely exposed except for the sheltered pits and the remnants of the audiences' seats: a rickety, rather dangerous-looking set of bleachers. She opted for the latter, using just about the last of her seijinn energy to elevate her leap to the top. Her landing was uncertain and she stumbled across one of the bleachers to the end and grabbed the tall lamp post to stop her from falling off the other side. She knelt down between the elevated rows of benches to take advantage of the shadows to conceal her location as best she could.

Lena was glad for the loud wind, because she couldn't quiet her breathing as she struggled to satisfy her exhausted body's demands for oxygen. Her sides ached with cramps and she felt drained. Nevertheless, hard training courtesy of life on the run from the Sphere and every bounty hunter in Skyland had taught her how to compartmentalize trivial things like hunger, thirst, pain, and exhaustion. Anything to avoid a cage. So she watched and waited. A patroller circled but had not spotted her thankfully.

Just as some people were walking into the stadium something caught the corner of the teenager's eye and she turned her head slowly to see what it was.

There was someone standing in one of the craters in the crumbly wall who was hunched like a great red spider and staring at her like she was the fly caught in the trap: A figure in red with pale skin, spiky black hair and a crazed look in her eye. The madwoman was not around in Lena's time, but the teenager recognized her from old pictures and some of her own strange flash-backs.

Shinsiki.

The insane seijinn had seen the Phoenix's descent, crash and disappearance…and therefore Lena's pitiful struggle out from beneath the mess that the investigators were examining now.

She knew.

Something that the seijinn had thought was surely tapped to the max surged within her along with yet another shot of adrenaline. Shinsiki's smug, crazed, predatory look faltered as the dark-haired young woman's eyes suddenly seemed to suddenly ignite with whisp-like seijinn energy as her face contorted into a terrifying mask of fury and power. In the next second she was in the air, her arms outspread and a faint outline of wings trailing around her for a fleeting second as those eyes of blue fire bored into her target.

The two women toppled through the hole onto the other side of the dome, only just managing to stay on the block. The teenager had landed on top and very effectively pinned Shinsiki down, allowing the other seijinn to use her powers to slow their fall. They still landed with a significant thud and bring down part of the crumbling infrasturcture to create further noise though, enough to make one of the three rebels investigating the wreckage pause within the stadium and enquire to his companions if they had "heard that".

Outside, the time traveler stood hunched over the red-clad former guardian with one foot pressing down on Shinsiki's chest painfully. A pair of flaming eyes bored into the other seijin's, Lena's arms out almost like wings. Her movements were predatory, graceful and once again uncannily bird-like. She let out an avian shriek in the face of her "prey" that caught the attention of the rebels inside the domed baseball diamond. However, after making said noise she seemed to deflate. The flames faded to reveal normal human irises and the glow disappeared. Shinsiki seized the opportunity and struck. Soon enough they were rolling on the ground in a tackle, but the madwoman had a decided advantage over the completely drained traveler. Their positions were soon switched with the former guardian's hand at Lena's neck. The teenager clawed at the hand pressing on her larynx with her gloved hands even though the pressure seemed to be incapacitating rather than lethal.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you. Not until I've had a taste of tha—argh!" the crazed seijinn's leer was cut off with a very human scream as a boomerang cut deeply into her shoulder. She had been so distracted by her tasty new morsel of power that she hadn't heard or sensed a non-seijinn exit the stadium.

Mahad had been the one closest to the exit when he, Wayan and Dahlia heard the strange shriek and yelled over his shoulder to the others that he would check it out. He was glad he had. When he had run out of the stadium he had seen the unmistakable form of Shinsiki choking a young woman. He caught the boomerang as it came whizzing back to him. The madwoman who had once abducted his sister rounded on him, her hand releasing the girl's throat as it reflexively went to the injury.

"YOU!" She hissed. Her would-be victim seized the opportunity and brought her leg up, kicking the red-clad woman off her in a martial-arts move that seemed vaguely familiar to Mahad. Panting shakily, the stranger rolled away from her attacker into a crouched position with one leg extended outwards to balance herself. Shinsiki wasn't out for the count, however, and hauled herself back up. Again Mahad threw his boomerang but this time she was ready and deflected it quickly.

"Well, look who it is," The madwoman laughed maniacally

"Uh oh, not good!" the young pilot exclaimed. The young woman looked from him to their now-mutual attacker. With a burst of effort she flung herself at the mad seijin again, this time with her elbow coming down hardest in a wrestling move that Mahad could have sworn he'd seen before. He didn't question it though. Instead he seized the opportunity to ram the madwoman as she threw the stranger bodily into the air. The girl landed with a thud and a cloud of dust just as the pilot managed to hit the insane seijinn over the head and knock her out cold. Satisfied that Shinsiki was unconscious, Mahad hurried over to check on the madwoman's intended victim.

The dark-haired teenager was slowly getting her bearings back, her ears ringing and her body aching from this latest blow to her already protesting body. She blinked and rubbed her eyes to try and get some of the dirt out when she noticed a shadow approaching her on the ground. She looked up to see a familiar hair cut and a pair of blue eyes almost gleaming in an otherwise shadowed face.

"Are you alright?" Mahad asked her as he knelt down. The girl looked as though she'd seen a ghost or something. Her eyes were wide and her face set in a rigid expression of utter shock. Her gloved hands were shaking as they came up slowly. She breathed something that he couldn't quite make out as she gingerly touched his shoulders to check that he wasn't an hallucination.

"You're alive…" she whispered, her bottom lip quivering a little. "I knew it! I knew it!" she threw her arms around him suddenly, catching him off guard. She pulled back with tears shining in her eyes and an ecstatic smile on her face. A cloud moved in the sky, allowing for a slightly different lighting to fall on the young man's face. The girl's eyes widened and she gasped, scuttling back from Mahad.

"You…you're…great skyland y-you're my age! That's impossible! You-you…" she stuttered

"Uh…I-I guess so, maybe….." the pilot stammered in wary, uncomfortable confusion. His gaze softened when he saw the way her eyes bulged and the way her breath was shallow and quick as she looked around, squinting and frowning. She was clearly disoriented and had just had a rather traumatic experience with the red-clad madwoman; at least Mahad would certainly have found it unsettling.

"I think you might have me mistaken for someone else." He said just as he heard his name being yelled out. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the girl's blue-grey eyes bulged even further and her jaw drop while he whipped his head around to see Dahlia and Wayan sprinting towards him.

"Mahad!" Dahlia shouted again as she pulled back the yellow light-string of her energy bow. The angle of her aim made the pilot look over to where Shinsiki was now rising to her feet again. Her lunge towards Mahad and the stranger was cut off abruptly by a yellow energy bolt which made her crumple to the ground. This time she stayed down. The two rebels hurried over to their friend.

"Are you okay?" Dahlia asked as she jogged over, Wayan at her heels.

"Who's that?" The dark-skinned rebel asked, looking at the slack-jawed, wide-eyed teenager with her long coat half-hanging off one thin shoulder. Like Mahad, she struck Wayan primarily as being disoriented.

"I don't know," Mahad replied. "Came out here to see that crackpot over there trying to strangle her,"

"Are you alright?" Wayan asked the girl as he approached her slowly, his hands out in a carefully non-threatening manner. The girl looked at him with disbelieving awe, flicking between the three of them whilst the green-eyed rebel knelt down next to her.

"It's okay; we're not going to hurt you." Mahad told her. She stared at him for a particularly long time. Dahlia was still keeping a careful eye on their new prisoner but occasionally glanced over at the teenager. Wayan took out his radio and called into Cortez.

"Wayan, did ye find anything?" The Captain's voice fizzled over the radio. The rebel second-in-command picked it up and clicked the button

"No sign of the bird. But we have run into an old acquaintance." Wayan said, glancing over at Shinsiki and then looking straight at the young woman in front of him "We found Shinksiki attacking a girl here."

There was a weary sigh on the other end at the mention of Shinsiki's name. Wayan could just see the Captain messaging his temple. Finally he asked,

"Anyone we know?"

"I've never seen her before…at least, I don't think so." The green-eyed man said with a slight frown. Something about her seemed very familiar…he just couldn't put his finger on it. He clicked the talk button on his radio again as scanned what he could see of her to make a quick assessment. He stood, turned around and walked a few paces away, lowering his voice so that she would have a more difficult time hearing him. However, she wasn't paying attention to him anymore. Dahlia had knelt next to her and was pointing to a scrape on her forehead. The young woman looked at her in that same disbelieving, dazed manner.

"Sir, I think she could use some help." Wayan said quietly into his radio "I'd be willing to bet she hasn't had a drink in more than a day at least and she looks exhausted. Besides, she might know a little more about how Shinsiki ended up here."

There was a pause on the other end before the Captain's gruff voice sounded over the link.

"Alright. Bring 'er aboard."

So there we go. Nice, long chapter for you guys with some drama and action sequences! So, please please pretty please drop me a review and tell me what you think so far!