"Two ships destroyed, you and your friend being passengers on the first and stealing the second. Know that that tells me, boy?" Shultzwald asked, pacing in the small room.

Nemo, sitting across from him at a small table, shrugged. "I think Oriana had it right, I'm dangerous cargo. Cursed or something."

"Oh, you're dangerous, I'll give you that. I never expected to find members so young, but I'll be damned if you and that other Inferian don't set off some warning bells." The Commander growled, still pacing.

"Members...? What are you on about?" He wondered. "I'm just a student."

Shultzwald rounded on him. "Don't give me that! That other Inferian isn't even a student, yet you're working with him! You're both agents, aren't you?"

Nemo just stared blankly at the man. They'd found out about Schimmel, he'd expected that, but this sort of reaction... what in the world was happening on Celestia? "Agents of what, exactly?"

"Balista."

He waited, but no more explanation seemed to be coming. " You're going to have to give me more than that to know what you're prattling on about."

"Stop feigning ignorance!"

"Stop being vague."

The Commander slammed his fist on the table. "Maybe you can answer this... when you left Celestia, we'd heard five of you had been seen in the area. Where is the fifth member of your team?"

Nemo glared at him. "You've examined the wreckage of the Gambit by now, right?"

"Yes. It's halfway to a pile of scrap, thanks to you. Not as bad as the Van Eltia, thankfully, but still more than I expected of a handful of agents."

"Fae, our fifth as you put it, was in the engine room. What do you think happened to her?"

Shultzwald frowned. "I see. Saves us some trouble, if you're telling the truth."

"Okay, I told you something, now you tell me. What's Balista?"

"If you're going to continue to deny it, maybe your allies will be more willing to cooperate." He replied, walking out of the room and slamming the door behind him.

"I really don't like that guy." Nemo grumbled, glancing around the room. Aside from the door, table, chair and a small air vent on the ceiling, it was pretty much a steel box. They'd taken his Craymel Cage, so breaking out with a well-placed photon on the lock wasn't an option either. He'd just have to wait and see what happened.

xxx

Schimmel leaned against the bars of his cell, peering at Aya, who was sitting in the corner of the one across from him. "Did you understand anything that guy was talking about?"

Aya shook her head. "Not really. He kept mentioning something called Balista, calling me an agent and traitor. I've never even heard of them."

"Yeah, I got that too... except for the traitor bit."

"Some kind of Inferian group against Celestia?" She guessed.

"Could be." He glanced over his shoulder at Nemo, who was leaning against the back wall and obviously lost in thought about something. "What do you think?"

"Possible." He muttered absent-mindedly.

The door to the brig opened and Shultzwald strode inside, Shizel following behind him. "Well then, it looks like Shadowgate Prison is getting some newcomers." He announced with a grin.

"W-What?" Aya exclaimed. "You can't... you can't just..."

Schimmel cut in. "Hey, I don't know much about Celestia, but don't you people have fair trials before saying you're going to pitch people in jail?"

"There is no need for such formalities when dealing with scum." The Commander growled, glaring at him. "Your actions are evidence enough to put you away. You three had best accept it now."

"Three?" Aya mumbled. "What... Zee, what does he mean?"

Shizel faced the floor, her face obscured by her long purple hair. "Did you honestly know James was not James?"

"Well... yeah, I kind of found out by accident, but-"

"Yet you failed to mention such a thing to the school. There is no telling what sort of person he truely is. You put everyone at risk withholding such information."

"Zee, I didn't-"

Nemo approached the front of his cell. "Shizel, are you really buying what this overzealous lunatic says?"

In a blur Shizel had reached through the bars, grabbed Nemo by the collar of his robe and jerked him forward. "I believed you. I trusted you. Then you betrayed me. No, you were never my friend to begin with, were you? Such an act is difficult to believe, is it not?" With a shove, Nemo fell back, landing on his rear as Shizel turned away.

"Don't worry, you're safe now. We'll have you home right after we get these criminals properly locked away." Shultzwald told her.

"Yes. Thank you, Commander." Shizel mumbled.

"Show Miss Zeibel to her quarters for the trip." He ordered. One of the guards nodded and led Shizel out of the brig. He smirked at his prisoners again. "Relax while you can. Shadowgate is a rough place, you'll need all the energy you can muster if you even want to survive a week there." He said, before following Shizel and the guard out.

Schimmel and Aya stared after them in silence. The remaining guard in the room sat at a solitary desk by the entrance and began shuffling through some paperwork. Nemo stayed on the floor a few seconds before starting to chuckle quietly, earning him an odd look from his fellow prisoners.

"What in the world can you find funny about this situation?" Schimmel wondered.

"The name... never thought about it before. Shizel Zeibel." He said, still giggling like a fool. They both gave him an annoyed look before taking a seat in the back of their respective cells.

"So what now?" Aya asked.

"We wait to get thrown in jail, apparently." Schimmel muttered. "Unless you've got some sort of escape plan."

"No. There are too many to punch through even if I could get out of this cell." She replied.

They sat quietly for a few minutes longer before Nemo grabbed onto the bars and pulled himself off the floor. "That's enough." He said, looking out at the guard. "Hey you, if I told your boss something I know, would he be willing to deal?"

The guard shrugged. "Depends on what you know."

"I could run a couple things by you and you could give me an outside opinion on how useful they'd be."

"You can try." He said with disinterest.

"Well, I'm not going to just yell secrets across the room."

With an irritated sigh, the guard got up and walked in front of the cell, keeping just out of arm's reach. "This better be good."

"Well, there is one important thing you should know."

"What's that?"

"This is going to hurt." A streak of purple flashed from Nemo, straight through the guard's chest. He slammed back into the bars of the opposite cell, slumped onto the ground and convulsed a few times before going limp. "A lot, by the look of it. Aya, get his key and open the cells."

Aya, who had been watching in shock, snapped out of it at the mention of her name. "How the hell did you do that?"

Nemo smirked, holding up a Craymel Cage. "Shizel said it herself. 'Such an act is difficult to believe, is it not?' She dropped this into my robe when she grabbed me. Now if that's all the questions we have to find her and a way out of here while we have the chance."

"Where are we supposed to go?" Schimmel asked. "In case you've forgotten, we're in space."

"This thing has escape pods like the Gambit, I'm sure. We can use one of them again."

"Oh yeah, that's brilliant." Aya grumbled sarcastically, pulling the brig keys off the guard's belt. "They'll just catch us again, no pod can outfly a ship."

"You're forgetting I'm a ship hazard. I've played a part in scrapping the Van Eltia and the Gambit without even trying." A grin crossed his face as Aya unlocked her cell and moved to let them out as well. "Let's see how much damage I can do when I actually put some effort into it."