The last time I wrote a chapter, it was in late March

The last time I wrote a chapter, it was in late March…

Kendal: Which means technically that we didn't suffer too much pain as he played us around in our heads…

Lloyd: While he was beating up level nine's on Super Smash Bros Brawl.

Yuan: And yes, he imagined us getting beaten up by various people- Thank god we could beat others up as well.

Me: YOU THERE! YOU'RE GONNA GET THRASHED TO HELL, NOW GET TO WHERE YOU BELONG!

Yuan: (sulks)

Kendal: Well, what can I say. Screamingedge owns nothing even related to Namco.

Me: AND I JUST BEAT YOU UP MEANTALLY WITH TOON LINK!!11!!1!!11!!11!

Kendal: (emotional breakdown)

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There was something strange going on.

First of all, there was a strange throbbing in my forehead, a sort of burning.

Second, I was thinking in a weird sort of way. As I wondered why my forehead seemed so hot, so it must be a fever of sorts-

And then a voice suddenly said snidely "Burn, shmurn, more likely because a certain someone sank a great big sword in your head that happened to be charged with fire magic."

I blinked, suddenly wondering just how in the world I'd known that. But no, I didn't blink. At the point in time, I didn't even know just what and where I was.

"Who said that?" And even more disturbingly, why had it sounded so much like me?

No answer, as my voice echoed through the lonely halls that seemed-

Everywhere?

Then I remembered- I was dead.

Because that voice was right- In other words, I'd been killed or at least knocked by that flash of red as it arced above my line sight…

There was no doubt about just what it was. The Flamberge, on the finest swords in the world, had just been jammed in my head.

I shook myself, noting that even though as I looked down, and saw how I looked before I'd been stuck here, I was feeling… disembodied. Unconnected.

Then I figured it out. This wasn't any mystical place I'd been teleported to. More likely, well, far more likely, it was the inner recesses of my mind.

I looked around. Technically, there was nothing I could feel, and nothing to see- Only blackness, with faint bursts of bluish and red light here and there-

Is this what it feels like to be inside your own mind, totally split from the world you're so adapted to?

As I pondered over that thought I took a step, wondering, for a second, whether I'd stepped into a bottomless abyss.

Nope. nothing, just a pseudo-solid ground that simply did no justice to the hard dirt on which I often walked on.

But, given the present situation, would I ever walk on it again? From the present, it looked to be a perfectly split chance. And from what that meant, it meant very bad things. I'd drift off into the void where only the dead resided-

Then I found the source of the voice. A shimmering in from of me, which then began to take shape- I stepped back, but in the process I looked down at my knuckles- And that's where I realized that my hands were wrapped in worn bandages, hard yet flexible.

What they were there for, I had no clue. But what I wasn't to know at that moment the mirage in front of me was now solidifying into something I actually had no intention of seeing at all. Well, rather, I had no intention of seeing myself.

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The mist cleared.

And, well, definitely not what I'd expected.

Because, unless my eyes were deceiving me, (Which had a one in twenty million) Botta and Yuan were standing, bruised, alright, wet (Sopping wet, which made it better a bit,) but otherwise unharmed.

And all made evident by the final traces of a shimmering green barrier around them, that only a person with my eyes or an angel's could make out through the rainbow-making mist.

Of course. These guys weren't the leaders of the Renegades for nothing- These guys were veterans. And when you're a veteran and you're about to be pummeled to pieces, there's one thing on your to-do list.

What else but give yourself a shield, but not just any shield a green, shimmering shield of energy that took everything for you? Now, that's a shield, only marred by the fact it took one hell of a chunk out of your reserves. It took a large chunk from even mine, so obviously it should take one hell of a chunk from Yuan and Botta's- Should, that is. But that's the catch. They had each done their own part, splitting the cost of energy between the two of them, in order to continue fighting effectively.

So that explained why they weren't huffing and puffing, nor shaking like I often did. And what I did were minor symptoms. Oh no, perhaps four thousand years of experience outclassed one thousand years. Um, no duh. What am I talking about? How about the fact that quite simply, they'd limited their output to exactly what was needed in order to take the brunt of the crushing wall of water that was an Aquatic Implosion.

So there you have it, one way to survive in the world. With another person, that is.

Though you might have noticed, the last thing I needed for that certain pair (Well, one of them more than the other, and I'm sure whoever reading this is smart enough to know just who that guy happens to be) to survive. More likely, a better choice (In my opinion) was to them/him be dead. Very, very much dead, six feet under. If he wasn't going six feet under the ground, then he was going six feet under underneath the brunt of all my attacks.

So without a sound, although roars were splitting my mind inside me, I jumped on the wall, allowing the air to ring with chakchakchaks of daggers going into metal walls as I scaled the stainless, now thoroughly wet steel.

The mist, beginning to settle, was still screwing around with everyone's sight. So, Yuan didn't see me scrabbling along the walls as I held my cleaver precariously in my mouth by the hilt- I knew for sure that I'd need it on short notice.

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Now, Yuan had good sight, being an angel and all (Amazing that after four thousand years that he hadn't lost his sight, but whatev) but the thing is, a rainbow was screwing with his vision quite heavily, in addition to the mist at the moment when he would have seen Kendal along the wall. Easy picking from thereon if he had seen, but a shift of the mist and the art of optics took effect with a rainbow.

So he turned to others, and found, to his immense luck, that the mist in front of him was now completely eliminated. So he could see everyone in their full, sopping wet detail.

Hey, isn't that what happens when you get a huge explosion of water with a blast radius of thirty meters?

So as Yuan shook the water out of his hair, he heard something. A constant chakchakchak coming from his right side… and moving behind him.

Normally, he wouldn't have given that sound a damn- This was his base, and therefore he knew pretty much all aspects of it, including what sounds came from walls. In this case, he'd heard that same sound over and over again as trash transporters wound their cargo through the walls, slamming into the walls whenever their solid cargo hit with too much inertia. Man, the conveyor were freakin' fast.

Or, it could be the sound of solid, little things being dropped from the trash drops as they smacked against the walls. While the architects wouldn't have dared to try building one past his office, in fear that they'd tick him off and so have dug their own graves.

But why in the world were the sounds coming in a horizontal way…?

So, he slowly turned around.

And at that moment…

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I blasted off the wall.

As the wind screamed in my ears, a startled Yuan turned around, only to observe that a very, very nasty looking guy in brown was flying at him, a dagger in both hands and a muffled yell coming from him- Muffled because of a huge blade in his mouth he had unceremoniously clamped down with his teeth.

I raised my left hand and hurled the dagger clenched in it. Fire one.

An easy block by Yuan, who'd recovered from his surprise easily. But it should be noted I threw the dagger in my right hand a half-second after fire one. The thing was, I'd faked throwing them both- And I'd actually made it as if I had thrown the one in my right, my metal-clad fingers barely managing to catch it before I threw it for real.

While Yuan was bringing his Swallow Blade up to block the supposed combined trajectories of my daggers, I opened my mouth. This had more dire implications than you'd think, since there was a certain something clenched between my teeth. A long, shiny five-foot and 10 inch something, that is.

So while Yuan had his vision blocked for a moment by his weapon, I was priming my own. The obvious? How about he was going to die unless he looked up.

He did. Somehow.

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That somehow was a fluke. A sheen of water, that had accumulated on a crate- One of the endless stacked in the base- It acted like a mirror that constantly shimmered with every twitch of Yuan's neck, marring an otherwise good quality life-saving image.

And even better, it reflected just at the angle Kendal was coming in.

When Yuan had raised his bulky, certainly sight obscuring weapon to block a thrown knife coming straight at him, a glint of water to his far right caught his attention. A brown glint of water.

Water usually was never dirty in Yuan's base, and certainly shades of brown caused by dirt in water simply weren't that solid. So, therefore, yet another weird thing worth examining. If he hadn't examined it, then he would have blocked a second dagger that he saw coming at him with a small change in the way he held his weapon- But in the process, he'd get a broadsword jammed into his stomach immediately afterwards that he never even saw coming, so well chosen was Kendal's launch position.

And what a weird thing it was. Yuan was so shocked he hardly noticed it when a dagger went plink against his blade, nor did he notice the fact that another dagger penetrated his stomach.

It showed a young boy, dressed in brown with a metal, decorated gauntlet on his right forearm. But the shocker wasn't the fact he had startlingly familiar gold eyes, nor was the fact that his teeth were twisted into a snarl that could have scared the wits out of a chimera. A familiar one.

It was the fact that even looking at him you could feel sheer hatred coming from him, if only looking at an image. A real time image. Therefore, as a movement in the image caught his eye…

Well, it was certainly a big movement. A blade was lifted above his head. And what was next, anyone, certainly Yuan of all people, could guess.

A split head, that's what.

So he sidestepped to his left, as sharpened diamond met steel. On the ground.

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I couldn't believe my luck. How'd he sidestep it at the last moment with a dagger in his stomach?

Not that it mattered. With a growl, I skipped back, but threw up my legs and twisted to my right- and then slashed my left foot outwards.

The tip of my toe hit the embedded dagger squarely on the hilt driving it half the way through- At least it was better than a quarter of the blade through. As my intended target bent over in obvious pain and distress, Botta took a swipe at me- But no, he missed as my twisting backflip carried me out his reach.

A heavy landing, and then I checked where I was.

I almost choked as I saw Lloyd rush to Yuan in an attempt to chop him to pieces.

I exploded.

"THAT BASTARD IS MINE!" I roared, shoulder ramming him about ten feet across the floor.

A silence.

YOU IDIOT!

So I stood there and punched myself in the right side of my head. And in case no one knows what's on my right hand, and here's the answer- A great big piece of hardened metal that seriously hurt if you were on the receiving end of a right hook.

The metal rang slightly, but that was more than enough sound to echo through the empty, wet walls of the hangar bay. And it hurt.

"CAN I HEAR A LITTLE LIFE IN HERE??"

Not a sound. Maybe what I did made it worse.

So I turned, fled, whatever, you called it to a Rheaird that was, as it happened to be, just floating there.

But not before I picked up one dagger on the ground running by Yuan and smashing the bastard across the face with my left fist- That, catching him square on the temple, knocked him out cold. I had no time to extract the second one out of his stomach, though.

As old pilot instincts came to life, three second later and before I'd even put my hands properly to steer, I'd blasted off.

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Botta was stunned, just like anyone else in the hangar.

Why in the world had that guy smashed into his own comrade, punched himself in the side of the head in an earthshaking blow and still be standing, and then run off?

There was no end in today's strangeness, but Yuan was now out cold, and unfortunately, it appeared that everybody else he faced was fresh. One against somewhere about eight was not a happy fight.

Thankfully, a burst of pounding from the door interrupted whatever depressing thoughts that came to mind.

"Lord Yuan! Lord Botta!" Renegades yelled. "Are you alright!? We were stopped by some guy in brown who blew the elevators-"

"Kendal did his work well," the one with shackles commented.

Kendal? Is that his name? Botta wondered.

"Damn!" The voices behind the door yelled. "What's up with the door…!?"

"They must have programmed it closed!"

"To hell with the programming! Smash it down!"

Bodies started beating the door, which most likely wouldn't hold another fifteen seconds. Botta breathed a sigh of relief- Only fifteen seconds-

"C'mon!" Genis yelled. "Let's grab the Rheairds before we get killed!" Running towards another one, which had rising up in the absence of the one Kendal had nicked, he hopped in, wobbled slightly, and then blasted off- It should be worth noting that he was now remembering the rudimentary lessons of flying that Sheena had hastily taught back in the Sylvarant Base.

The others all followed suit, though flying was rather… difficult for Regal- The shackles, no duh.

As Botta watched each of them leave, blazing colored trails of exhaust from their ends…

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"Crap," I grumbled.

The Rheaird's fuel tank, which had been full since I'd left the base, was now half empty, a mere twenty seconds after I'd left base. That sucked- My first flights lasted far longer than this would- About twenty minutes.

Then again, back then there was no Tethe'Alla in its current state, in mana loss but not completely in a state of decline, as in stagnant.

I was halfway to Flanior at this point, but I wasn't going to try braving the rest of the way on foot. Mentally, I started channeling mana into the Rheaird engine as I angled it low for a landing a mile away from the city-

It worked. The fuel meter went ping as the arrow smacked the edge of the gauge, as in the end for full.

Though I blinked from a burst of fatigue, I managed a quick smile as I went for a dive…

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It wasn't long before Sheena saw the empty fuel meter- Well, half-empty.

"Let's land, or we'll crash!" She yelled, the words barely making any sound over the rushing wind.

"What?!" Lloyd yelled back. "Just like in the mountains…!?"

"But where do we land!?" Zelos shouted, over the wind.

"Let's double back! Go to Flanior!"

"What's Flanior-!?"

"Don't ask! Follow me and Zelos!"

And with that, the group went over the base yet again. Although they were certain that some Renegades would attempt to pursue, nothing came out of the base- Land or ground.