A/N: Wow, hard to believe I'm on my 8th chapter now. And to think, I used to hate writing, heh…

Concerning my plans for a saga of sorts, I think I'm gonna go with it. That being said, "Under the Sky So Blue" shall be Book 1 of the "Blue and Silver" saga. I'm planning on three more "books", but we'll see what happens. Anyway, thanks, as always, for all the kind reviews! I look forward to seeing more!

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Chapter 8: The Jericho

Vyse yelled out in pain as he was struck. One bullet pierced his right knee. The other went straight through the inside of his left elbow. The following reaction caused Vyse to fall to his knees and drop his left-handed Lunarian Cutlass, his blood spilling to the cold, steel floor as he did so.

"Vyse!" Fina screamed as she knelt down beside him.

Another gunshot was heard and the whole world seemed to go in slow motion. At that sound, Fina had turned her head in the direction of the noise. While she turned, her life began to flash before her eyes. She thought she was going to die when something truly amazing happened: through some hidden and unknown feat of speed, Vyse put his remaining cutlass in front of her face, deflecting the bullet harmlessly.

He gritted his teeth as he tried to deal with his own pain. "No…" he said quietly. "I swore to protect her, and I intend to do so!" He began to lean to the side Fina was at, unable to support himself. "I'll… I'll never let you hurt her!"

Fina caught him, still amazed at what had just happened. The speed in which he moved was simply unnatural. "Vyse… how did you do that?" she thought to herself." It was certainly a good question. It's as if he was truly driven by his vow to protect her.

"Vyse," she started, "you saved my life. I…"

Vyse did his best to hobble in front of Fina to defend her from any future attacks from their unknown assailant. He put his blade in front of them.

"Fina, I swore to protect you. You're too precious to me to let something happen to you," he said with pain in his voice.

Fina crouched behind him. "Vyse…"

A heartless laugh could be heard somewhere in the darkness ahead of them. A figure wearing very ornate Valuan battle armor walked form the shadows, holding a smoking gun-blade in his left hand. He shot an evil, discomforting smirk in the direction of Vyse and Fina.

"How touching," he said blandly. "I don't know how you managed to block that last bullet, but I must say that I am quite impressed, Vyse the Legend." He looked just behind Vyse at Fina. "And this must be Fina, heh. She's a lovely young girl. No wonder you're obsessed with protecting her."

Vyse gritted his teeth in pure anger. He wanted so badly to get up and rush this guy. However, given the condition of his knee, he knew he would be cut down before he even got a chance to attack once. He had to play it cool, and did so fairly well.

"Shut up!" he yelled. "Who are you?"

If the evil man's smirk could've grown any larger, it just did. He swung his gun-blade to the side in an obvious attempt to look intimidating or perhaps just cool. "Hmph. Seeing as you're about to die, I see no real problem with sharing my identity with you. I am Vicente, commander of the Neo-Valuan Armada. I was Lord Galcian's Vice Captain until I was made the captain of my own ship and Ramirez came to Valua."

The young heroes looked at him with wide-eyes. "Neo-Valuan Armada? You mean you're not just pirates?" asked Fina. "Are you seeking to revive the pre-destruction Valua?"

Vicente folded his arms and nodded. "That's the gist of it. Enrique is too weak to lead a nation as mighty as Valua. Once he began rebuilding Valua, most of the soldiers didn't come to his aid, longing for the days when they were in charge of the skies. Now, they have come to me, ready to fight for what Valua once was: the greatest nation in the world As for the pirate colors we've been flying, heh… that's only a ruse. Once we take over and "clear the skies of all pirates", we'll be looked upon as liberators!"

Vyse swung his sword in the man's direction in frustration. He couldn't believe this guy! Why would anyone want to revive Valua to what it once was? "That's madness!" he exclaimed with great anger. "And that's not all! You killed Aika, didn't you?! Didn't you?!?!"

Vicente shrugged heartlessly. "Is that the girl with the bad hair and that stupid looking ship? If so, then yes. We didn't intend to kill her. We only wanted to disable it, take all the riches, and take everyone hostage. As it turns out, she was killed and her ship was destroyed." He shrugged again. "Oh well."

A horrified look came across Vyse's face. The utter heartlessness that this man displayed was enough to make one wonder "Just how low can someone stoop?" Memories of Aika began to flash through Vyse's mind.

"Vyse, you'll make a great captain someday!"

Tears came to the Blue Rogue's face as he looked downward.

"Hey Vyse! If something ever happens to me, you'll come save me, right?"

Vyse reached for his dropped cutlass with his injured arm, ignoring any and all pain that shot through it.

"We'll sail the skies together, looking for adventure and all kinds of treasure! It'll be fun!"

Through some unknown feat of determination, Vyse used his cutlasses to help him stand up.

"Vyse, thank you for always being such a nice guy. You really know how to make a girl happy."

"Vyse?" said Fina as she watched Vyse's amazing feat of strength. He didn't turn back. As much as he cared for Fina now, he couldn't hear her. The thought of avenging Aika's death took precedence over everything else he might have or should have been thinking.

"I'll always be your best friend, Vyse…"

Just as it did before, the entire world seemed to move in slow motion as he began to dash at Vicente, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.

"Always…"

"YOU BASTARD!!" screamed Vyse as he dashed toward Vicente who only now was beginning to show signs of panic. He drew his gunblade and aimed it at Vyse. He pulled the trigger as Vyse swung his blades. Both attacks connected. Vicente suffered a large gash across his chest, just short of being a critical wound. The bullet he fired connected with and went straight through Vyse's right upper chest, spraying blood as it did so. Vicente stumbled back into a crate and Vyse fell to the ground.

Fina couldn't believe what she just saw. She covered her mouth with her hands. "No… Vyse… Vyse… please, get up." She ran over to him and knelt down. "Hang on Vyse!"

He couldn't hear her. He was in too much pain to know what was going on around him. She placed both of her hands on his chest wound and closed her eyes. "Moons… please… help me," she whispered. Her hands began to glow with a green light. "Sacres…"

The wound began to glow with the same green light and slowly began to mend itself. Vyse coughed twice and opened his eyes. "Fina…" he whispered.

"Vyse, don't talk! Save your strength!" she said in a panic.

Vicente was recovering from his attack. He shook his head a few times and began to walk back towards them.

"You insolent brats! It's over for you now!" he cried as he pointed his gunblade at Fina's head.

Before he could kill Fina, from seemingly nowhere, someone rammed into him: Juan!

"Hurry!" he yelled. "It's too late to stop Jericho! Get Vyse out of here!"

Fina panicked. This was their chance to escape but she couldn't simply leave Juan behind. "No!" she cried. "We're not going to le-"

The two men continued to wrestle each other, rolling this way and that. "There's no time for arguing! Reinforcements are on their way to the hangar and the Jericho is about to take off! Please, go!"

Sure enough, from another door on the far side of the dark hangar came nearly a dozen men with swords, ready to do battle. They ran towards the Blue Rogues and Vicente.

"Ha!" Vicente exclaimed as he kicked Juan off of him, sending him about ten feet away.

Juan looked over at the heroes as the soldiers closed in. "Please… for everyone's sake…go."

Fina helped the injured Vyse up, who was still in too much pain to fully comprehend what all was going on. She looked over at Juan. He would surely die here, but as much as she wanted to help him, she knew that it was impossible. Without Vyse, she couldn't take on so many fighters. Juan was willing to die for them… she couldn't let it be in vain.

"Juan… thank you," she said as she began to hobble away with Vyse. "We'll never forget you!" They made their way through the door they came through earlier and closed it behind them.

Juan stood back up, determined to help the Blue Rogues until his own demise came to him. With the soldiers being less than fifteen feet away from him now, he drew his finely decorated gunblade and took aim.

"For the Blue Rogues! For the world!" he cried as he fired.

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Gilder and Clara watched the docks of Dangrel Island from the safety of the Delphinus' bridge. They hovered a mere one hundred yards away, awaiting the arrival of Vyse, Fina, and Juan as they did so. They saw the island begin to shake and immediately took it as a bad sign.

"Whoa, what's going on? Did they actually take out the Jericho?" asked Gilder.

Clara shook her head, obviously worried. "I'm more worried about Vyse, Fina, and Juan. I hope they're okay."

Gilder closed his eyes for a moment. Previously, Vyse had told Gilder that if anything should happen to him, Gilder must assume the role of captain of the Delphinus. This thought frightened him. He would carry out his duty of sorts, but not if he didn't have to. He knew Vyse was in danger. He could just feel it.

He turned to Lawrence. "Lawrence, take us back down. I'm going back in there for them!"

Clara looked at him and began protesting. "But Gilder, what if something happens to you too?"

Gilder shook his head. He didn't want to make Clara worry, but if he had to, he would. "Clara, this is taking too long. They should've been here by now. Something must've happened. I'm going back in."

It was no good arguing with Gilder. She had learned this about him as their friendship grew over the years. Oftentimes, when he wanted to do something dangerous, she would usually just sigh and go along with him. This time was no different.

"Alright Gilder, you're right. I'll just have to go wi-" Clara started to say.

Lawrence cut her off. "Vice Captain Gilder, there they are! However… I only see two of them." Lawrence picked up the scope that Vyse had used earlier and zoomed in on the two figures on the docks. He put it back down slowly after confirming who it was. "It's Captain Vyse and Miss Fina, but the captain looks to be badly injured."

Gilder pointed to the docks. "Lawrence! Move in immediately and pick them up! We have to move fast. I have a feeling that the rumbling from the island is being caused by Jericho."

Lawrence sharply turned the wheel. "Aye aye, sir!"

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"Come on Vyse! We're almost there!" Fina said, trying to keep Vyse's spirits up. "See? There's the Delphinus now!"

Vyse didn't even bother looking up. He was too weak… too frustrated. Not only did he fail to bring down the man responsible for Aika's death, but he also did what he swore not to do: lose himself. When he learned who Aika's murderer was, he had lost all control of himself, wanting only to kill the one responsible.

"Vyse, please…" Fina pleaded. "We need you. Please don't give up."

Vyse was too ashamed to look up. He felt that he didn't deserve to be in her presence after what he had done. True, he had saved her life, but in no way did he believe that it made up for breaking a promise. "Fina… I'm so sorry. I've lost myself and I broke my promise. Not only that, but my foolishness got Juan killed."

Fina said nothing for a moment as she observed the Delphinus close in on them. She thought for a moment and came up with what she thought were the right words. She put her right hand on his cheek and spoke softly to him. "Vyse, nobody's perfect. What you did was perfectly natural. Your apologies go to show that you haven't lost yourself. As for Juan… Juan died not just for us, but for what he believed in. It isn't your fault Vyse. Let us honor him by taking down this madman and his sky fortress!"

Vyse looked up in surprise at Fina. Just as she had thought, they were the right words. "Fina… thank you. I wish I was strong as you. I'm sorry about before."

Fina smiled and pointed at the now arrived Delphinus. The island began to shake more violently. "Come on Vyse! Let's get on board and stop this guy!"

Vyse smiled back at her as she helped him hobble on board. "Yes… let's."

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Fina joined Gilder and Clara at the observation window as Vyse was seated in a nearby chair while Ilchymis tended to his wounds. He would be too weak to walk or do anything strenuous on his own for at least a day or two, even with the help of magic. However, he was still ok enough to act as captain and issue orders.

Every looked out of the window when a loud crash was heard. From the far side of Dangrel Island arose an extremely massive Sky Fortress, looking to be roughly twice the size of Galcian's "Hydra". Clara and Fina put their hands to their mouths almost simultaneously.

"By the moons!" gasped Fina.

"Is that… the Jericho?" asked Clara.

Gilder nodded to both of them. He was extremely worried now. Even by just taking Jericho's size into account, he didn't think that the Delphinus had much of a chance to stop this thing. "What have we gotten ourselves into?" he wondered to himself. He watched as Jericho began to rise above the first level of clouds, putting it fairly close to Pirate Isle. "If that thing makes it to any large place like Sailor's Island…" He turned to Vyse. "Vyse, it's risen above the lower-cloud layers. What do you want us to do?"

Once Gilder said this, everyone turned to their injured captain. His eyes were closed as he pondered his options. After thinking a moment, he opened his eyes once more.

"Take us to normal altitude, Lawrence," he said. "We're going after Jericho."

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Whew, that was a fairly long chapter! Well, Juan is dead, Vyse thought he "lost himself" and is badly injured, and the Jericho has risen to normal altitudes, ready to start its conquest of the world. Does the Delphinus have any real hope of taking Jericho down? Tune in next time to find out! Thanks in advance for any and all reviews! Next chapter coming (relatively) soon!