Author's Note: The tone of this chapter jumps around a lot since I wrote it over several weeks, so that's why parts of it won't make complete sense or seem very confusing. And with that out of the way, enjoy.

Chapter 6 : Fight

Zara's POV

As I looked at Ari and Ceres, I heard a trio of muted roars behind me and caught a glimpse of 3 lines before they were gone. "What are those?"

"I have no clue. I thought you had control of the ship?"

"Not entirely."

"Um… what? You don't?"

"Not everything, some things are still locked down. I prioritized propulsion and controls, not weapons and life systems. That way I could get here faster." Though I probably should've tried to unlock a few of them on the way here though.

"Shouldn't we be getting to Salem?"

"Yes, but why are you here rather than with him?"

"…. He told me to stay here and find anything we could use." Well she's very unhappy with that job.

"Then you should probably stay here and do that." I phased out of existence and flew off towards the rubble of the collapsed buildings before she could respond. You better have a good reason to have left her there Salem. If not, then we're gonna have a long talk.

I could faintly see contrails from whatever those things were, but they were will above me and quickly disappearing. They were a lot faster than me. I hope those things are friendly.

Salem's POV

One moment I was leaning on a wall, and the next, I was on the ground and the wall was gone. "Well, that confirms that I need to get down from here." All I could think of was getting down, I actually dived down the old elevator shaft before grabbing the cable and swinging onto a floor, 8 levels down.

I could feel the building shake slightly each time the Fallen hit it and heard parts of floors above me collapse. "No, I need to get out of here period." There was a building across the street. I have a horrible idea.

Ari's POV

All I could do was sigh as I walked up the ramp into the ship. "Looks like they don't want me around Ceres."

"And how do you know that?"

"Well look at how they both acted. Its kind of hard to ignore that part."

"And what about it? There's multiple ways to think about that."

"Like?"

"You remember what he said on the way here? That he feels like he has to work alone?"

"Somewhat."

"I think this is a manifestation of that. It's part of who he is to work alone, then he doesn't have to watch out for anyone else."

"But why couldn't he at least have taken me with him."

"Same reasoning, but there was also a time limit. If there was more time, then he probably would've."

I kept walking through the ship past closed and locked doors. "Maybe he would've, but we'll never know."

"Why not?"

"Because that's not what happened. That's never going to be what happened."

"…Correct."

Maybe I'm being too rough with her. I'll have to apologize later, but for now, where the hell am I. I am completely lost in this thing. HOW IS IT THIS BIG. IT DIDN'T LOOK ANYWHERE NEAR THIS LARGE FROM THE OUTSIDE.

Zara's POV

As I finally neared the city, I could feel our link return in time to hear Salem say something about a horrible idea. "What horrible idea."

"Hey Zara. You'll see soon enough."

"Tell me now."

"No, because I don't want to think about this stupidity any longer. If I do, I'm going change my mind and that's not going to be good." Oh, this has to be a horrible idea.

Salem's POV

I started sprinting towards the shattered windows and jumped when I reached the edge. I could feel time seem to slow down as I was flying through the air. I could see the masses of Fallen boiling up around the building, slowly climbing it. But I could also see an area near the middle of the mass that was more open with a massive Fallen in it looking up at me. Bingo, Kell spotted.

Then, as soon as I saw him, he was gone, replaced by the floor of a building. "Oh shit." I slammed into the ground, hard. As I rolled to a stop, I could feel something stab into my left arm. Well that's going to be bad. I could feel the blood flowing down, pooling beneath me. "How far out are you Zara?"

"5-10 minutes. Why?"

"I'm going to need a bit of help."

"What did you do?"

"Jumped from building to building…. Over the equivalent of a small army."

"You're crazy, you know that right?"

"Hey, at least it worked."

As I started to push myself up, I could feel whatever pierced me grate against the bone. Before I could push myself up any further there was an explosion outside and a wave of heat. Then, I passed out from blood loss.

Then I was awake again, but at the same time I wasn't. There was snow everywhere. How did I get here? No, figure that out later. As I stood up, I realized that I was quite a bit shorter and I wasn't bleeding. "Come on kid, we can't stay out here for much longer." The voice was gruff, but vaguely familiar. As I looked around, I saw a figure walking away from me. Then I was back in the building, but I wasn't alone anymore.

There were a pair of Vandals and a Captain in the room looking down at me. Then I realized I couldn't move. My hands were bound behind me. I could hear fires raging outside and the Fallen speaking to each other. Can't let them know I'm awake. Better time that ever to use that link. "You here Z?"

"Yeah, healed what I could. You landed on a very large shard of glass and its still in there. Fallen got here before I could get it out."

"Well at least I'm not bleeding out anymore, thanks."

"Welcome, now how are we going to get out of this predicament."

I laughed through the link. "Who said we were leaving right now."

"It'd be common sense, but knowing you, that'd be too easy. What do you have planned?" Oh yeah, she's not too happy, but this is gonna be fun.

"I was thinking that since their Kell is here, they'll take me to him. Why not take him out, then vanish?"

"And if they don't take you to him and just kill you?"

"They wouldn't risk it. A captive guardian is too big a prize if what you've said is right."

"Damnit, I was hoping you wouldn't remember that."

"Well I did, so buckle up. This is gonna be fun." There was no small amount of glee in my voice with that statement.

After a while the fallen started dragging me down to the ground floor of the building. Each time they swung me slightly I could feel the shard of glass grate against the bone, I had to bite my lip to keep from making a sound.

Eventually, they made it down to the ground floor. During that time the smell of seared flesh and burning oil had wafted into the building. Well that's a familiar smell, but where do I know it from?

I could hear Zara whisper something through our link. "What?"

"Napalm, and lots of it."

I had to stifle a laugh at that before I responded. "Smells like victory."

I could hear her laugh for a moment. "I suppose it does."

"Know what dropped it? I doubt the Fallen would napalm themselves."

"I think I have an idea, tell you when we're out of here."

"Better question, can you send a message through the fallen network?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because I need Ari to be ready to go."

"Got it, I'll time it with your plan so that it doesn't raise too much attention."

"Good girl, and could you have her bring the jeep aboard?"

"Yeah"

I could feel the heat growing stronger as they carried me outside and to another building farther down the street. I only moved once I was dumped unceremoniously to the ground in front of the Kell.

This was the moment I'd been waiting for. As I looked up at him, I could see a name pop up above him that said Valkis, Kell of Meran. As I tensed my muscles for a moment, I could feel the bindings around my wrists stretch and start to break. Perfect, those'll break when I need them too.

The Kell started talking and I, of course, didn't understand a single word.

After a little while he stopped and looked at me like I was supposed to respond. "Am I supposed to know what he's saying Z?"

"Hey, don't ask me, I've got no idea either."

"Huh, alright then."

"So how long are we going to wait to kill them all?"

The Kell took my silence as an answer and picked me up by the neck. "About that long."

I tensed just enough that the bindings shattered and immediately pulled the shard of glass from my arm and drove it through the Kell's arm. And I return, I got thrown across the room. "You will not survive Guardian. You will burn for what you did, and we will continue to expand." His English was very broken and barely understandable.

All I could do was laugh "Burn? Burn? That's what you want to do to me?" While I couldn't stop laughing, I also felt a growing rage at this guy's pompous attitude, and especially his tone.

Burn.

That gives me an idea. This rage was like a, for lack of a better description, raging fire. So, what if I harnessed that? Well, time to find out.

I could feel the rage burning. And it felt amazing, but I also thought I could hear a hum of approval in the back of my mind.

I could feel something appear in my hands, but I was too busy counting the enemies in the room to look. 27, should be a fair fight. The moment I concentrated on a Dreg I appeared a foot from it and swung, burning it to cinders. In the split second I was paying attention to what I was holding during that swing, it looked like I was using a pair of short swords made completely of fire before I was on the other side of the room, killing a Captain.

The thought running through my mind was simple. Select, Hunt, Kill, Repeat. Like clockwork until there was only a pair of Vandals and the Kell. Throughout the entire fight I could faintly hear Zara talking in the background, but I couldn't make out any of the words.

I could feel my body urging me to hunt, urging me to continue dismembering this army, but I managed to get a handle on it before I lost myself again. There were exactly two dozen piles of ash and an assortment of dismembered body parts. Well… that was… fun. "Who's next?" The Vandals immediately tried to run but were cut down by the Kell. "You know that's a horrible way to inspire confidence, don't you?"

"I don't support cowards."

"Fair enough."

I let one of the blades go and it vanished, the other sword grew another foot and a half into a full sword. Perfect. "So how are we going to do this."

The reply was more growl than speech, but the meaning was clear enough. Over the internal helmet speakers, I could hear "This is war" by Thirty Seconds to Mars start to play. Thank you Zara. We ran at each other, and soon the constant clashing of blades drowned out any other noise. He was a lot stronger than me, so I let my instincts take over, because what better counter is there to a stronger opponent than your base instincts. So I attacked.

I could feel my perception of time slow down as we fought, each second taking longer and longer to pass. Neither of us gave ground until our blades locked together. No way I can keep this up for much longer, he's a lot stronger than me and weighs quite a bit more. Ding ding ding, that should work Salem. The moment he actually overpowered me, I made myself fall backwards faster and used the momentum that came with it to launch him over me and send myself rolling back onto my feet.

Only thing left to do was escape. Doesn't seem like something I'd usually do, but I was way outmatched, and I could feel exhaustion creeping on. So I ran, as fast as I could. Outside and above me there was a quartet of Skiff's, but they weren't alone, flying down the road straight towards me were a trio of wedge-shaped aircraft. As I ran, a bay door opened on each of them and a pair of missiles dropped out and ignited, launching it straight towards the group of Skiff's.

I had to stop and watch as the missiles screeched over me, shattering the Skiff's and killing anything inside them. Well, this is a fun day.

Ari's POV

There was a banner hanging from the ceiling of the store room I was in that said "Ut Infernum Et Retro"

"What does that mean Ceres?"

"I'm… not sure. All I can tell you is that its Latin."

"Well shit."

"One moment, I'm getting a message from Zara, text only evidently."

"Anything important?"

"We're being told to bring the truck in and strap in."

I couldn't help but let out a derisive snort. "Of course we are."

"Hey could be worse. Don't take this the wrong way, but you need more training than he does."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence little light."

"Don't call me that."

"I'll stop when you inspire more confidence."

There was a sudden hiss of compressed air being released behind me. As I turned around, I nearly fell down a pit that wasn't there before. "Did you do that?"

"No, I haven't even tried to connect to the system yet. Give me a mo while I do."

I couldn't help but look down it. Then I realized it wasn't a pit, it was an elevator that went all the way to the ground. If Ceres didn't do that, then who did? It was silent for another 5 minutes as she floated around, scanning computer terminals before I had to ask, "You in?"

"I-I can't get in. The encryption is changing faster that I can crack it. The only area I can access is navigation, and all I can do there is input coordinates. No control over propulsion or anything else." She was jetting around even faster, almost in a panic.

"Then I think we're either not alone here or Zara did this." This is the first time she hasn't been able to crack something isn't it?

"It's a possibility, but I doubt that she did it. This is golden age encryption, not one that we use. Its much more sophisticated and random."

"Until we have proof, let's just assume Zara did it."

"Fair enough. We've got bigger thing to worry about for now, so let's stop standing around and get the car in. Then we can go do a comprehensive sweep of the ship."

I had to laugh "Yes, those 4 rounds are definitely going to be enough." Well she's more calm now. I think?

"Then let's hope we don't find anything."

"How likely is that given our luck?"

"Good point, but on the other hand we have had more good luck than bad."

Salem's POV

I will admit, I'm a little annoyed at how long it took me to realize that I'd left my weapons behind. Not that I actually knew where they were anyway, but still. I was over halfway back to the ship before I noticed that the only weapon I had on me was my knife.

Well shit, I really liked those. looks like I'll have to find more somewhere. "How far did you park from the base?"

"Right in the middle of it."

"You know what, I'm not gonna question why."

"What? I wanted to pick you up and get out of here fast. I didn't expect you to go and FIGHT THEM!"

I had to laugh. "Probably something to get used too then."

Zara immediately flew up to eye level. "I really don't want too. Is there any way I can convince you to not do that?"

"As far as I know? Not currently, but maybe one day."

Then, a shot rang out from behind me and flashed over my shoulder, nearly hitting both Zara and I. "Yeah, no. Not taking that risk."

"Whaa?" Zara was frozen in front of me. There was a voice in the back of my mind that said "Snipers, don't think Salem, just act."

I did the first thing that came to mind and grabbed her then started running as fast as I could, making little hops to either side to throw off other shots. Several more shots landed just too either side before there was an explosion behind me. I could feel the heat and see the smoke billow out behind me out of the corners of my eyes.

There was a momentary roar above me and then it was silent.

"You okay Z?"

"I would be better if you'd let go of me."

"For now? No, I'm not going to run the risk of you almost getting hit again."

There was a lot of grumbling at that, but no complaints. Then faintly, I heard "Thank you."

"No, don't thank me. I'm the reason you nearly got hit."

"Regardless, thank you."

It was silent until we reached the base and I saw the ship, whereupon I let Zara go. "Well, I guess my gamble paid off." Near the front, printed in large block letters was the name, Alaska.

"Oh definitely, shall we go aboard? Dust off is in 3."

I couldn't help but feel slightly giddy as I walked up the ramp. "Anything I should know about this?"

"A few things, but I'll let her explain them."

My head snapped in Zara's direction. "Her?"

"The ships AI. We had a long chat on the way here and she's agreed to help us specifically, on the condition that she's allowed to do a blood and other tests."

"Um… why?"

"I have absolutely no idea. Maybe it's to find out who you are?"

"That would make sense, but what could she realistically learn from that?"

"Quite a bit actually, but it's a mute-point, she does the blood tests and you get help from her."

I was silent for a moment before replying. "It's watching and listening to us right now isn't it."

There was a laugh and a flicker of movement in my peripheral vision. "Of course, I am part of the ship after all." There was a vague human figure walking around us in circles.

Now that I think of it where is Ari? "if you don't mind, I'd like to lift off before the Fallen get here."

There was a laugh at that. "We did the moment the door closed."

Well, I definitely didn't know that. "Engines must be pretty quiet."

"Not especially, you've just been too busy to notice."

Damnit, it's right. I couldn't hear much over the slowing pounding of my heart. The only other thing I really noticed, was that exhaustion was quickly creeping up on me. Two days of fighting and running was quickly catching up to me.

"Sleep first, tests later. Can you direct me to wherever the officer's cabins are?"

"Of course, follow me."

That was the last thing I remembered that night.

Author's Note: While this isn't a great chapter, and I'm not too happy with it, it is done now. Only one more chapter until I start working on Part 2.