Beyond Sight.

Chapter Nineteen:

Nosedive pulled the hood of his cloak further over his face. It hadn't been hard to find the gladiators' quarters and he was now in a servants cloak he'd taken from a laundry basket he'd come across near the entrance. He'd been surprised no one had tried to stop him and at the lack of guards. He was currently walking towards where the 'seasoned' gladiators were supposed to live.

"You there!" someone from behind shouted at him and he stopped rigid, "what are you doing up here slave!"

"I was asked to attend to the gladiator Angel." Nosedive said closing his eyes and hoping that he called her by the right title and that the guy would believe him.

"Are you new here?" he demanded.

"Yes."

"Get up to the third floor and it's the last door on the right, you do not speak to her unless spoken to or suffer the consequences!"

"Um, thank you sir." Nosedive said quickly then, counting his blessings he hurried off following the directions he'd been given.

The room was large and while not elaborate it looked comfortable. A small bed sat in the middle with plain sheets and dresser to the right of the room with a hairbrush on the top and familiar purple strands of hair were weaved into the bristles. He stared at it for a few moments then looked around to see if there were any easy escape routes, something Duke had once taught him. The room was too high up to jump from the window and there was nothing to climb down. To the left of the room was a large hole which when he studied it more carefully he found it was some sort chimney or laundry shoot, above he could see slats of light and below was pitch black.

"What are you doing here!" Nosedive jumped at the voice but didn't look around just in case his mind was playing tricks, "they know I don't like having slaves, listen I can do everything myself so you really don't have to be here and . . ." Nosedive turned around and faced her and she stopped. He looked her over and took in the warrior's outfit she was wearing, the sheath for her sword at her hip, her hair was down save for the small amount pinned back to keep the majority of it from falling in her face and she was covered in blood.

"Angel are you okay!" Nosedive asked worry etched all over his features.

"I'm fine," she replied closing her door and pulling him away from it into what looked like a bath room, "it's not mine, well not all of it anyway. It's a Selcore beast's. They're kinda large and really nasty, difficult to beat too." Nosedive noticed she was avoiding eye contact and stepped over to make her look at him. "Nosedive you shouldn't be here if they find you they'll kill you."

"I'm not going anywhere without you!" He replied defiantly.

"But you're friends!" She protested finally looking at him, but glancing away a moment later. "Your brother."

"Are gonna be rescued by some rebel guys," he said holding her shoulders, "so I came to get you."

"Wait someone really did try to rescue your brother and Canard?" Angel said looking at him again.

"Yeah why?"

"Two rebels were captured and put in the arena that were trying to break into Helena's private quarters and three more were killed trying to infiltrate the novice camps yesterday." Angel picked up a cloth and started to wipe away the blood.

"So they're not safe."

"I'm sorry Nosedive." Angel said then winced as she brushed over one of her own cuts. Nosedive picked up another cloth and rinsed it in the water left in the basin and began to gently wipe at the the remaining blood himself, he vaguely noticed that she had stopped and was sitting quietly as he worked. It took a while but soon the worst of it was off.

"I'm not leaving you here." Nosedive said quietly as he lent on the basin.

"He's as stubborn as you." Angel looked up, panic written all over her face, "If we're going to save your friends we're going to have to plan it carefully."

"Blade," Angel sighed in relief, "how in all Thriasis do you propose we rescue every one and get back to earth? We have no weapons for a start!"

"But I know how to get our weapons," Blade said closing Angel's door, "It'll be risky but it just might work."

"But we can't just fight our way out!" Angel protested.

"And how do we find the others?" Nosedive asked, "I mean I know where Tanya is but Wildwing, Canard, Mallory . . . I don't know where they are."

"Mallory, Duke and Candy are being trained as Gladiators and are being held in a separate part of this building," Angel said getting up and wincing, "Wildwing and Canard have been taken as Helena's own personal guard. They will be the difficult ones to rescue as they wear a control collar and only a special key can get them off without killing them." She slowly made her way over to her bed and sat heavily on the edge rubbing her temples, "they would also have to be the last ones we rescue due to the simple fact that Helena is the only person in this solar system who keeps a working sub space gateway," Angel blinked at Nosedive's blank face and rolled her eyes, "you know um, dimensional gateway generator, like Draganus'." She waited to see if Dive would say anything but he didn't so carried on, "We somehow need to get Tanya here, then get Mallory, Duke and Candy, and finally go for Wing and Canard."

"Perhaps if we time it for when Helena is visiting her estate outside the city we could take the three here and then get this Tanya. She keeps her gateway generator there so we would only have to get in then teleport out."

It could work but we'd have to do it quickly." Angel said.

"Yeah as soon as we break Duke and the others out I bet that witch'll guess where we're going next real easy," Dive said then noticed Angel trying to hide a yawn, "Look maybe you should get some rest you look exhausted."

"I'm fine I . . ."

"He's right Angel you'll not be any use to us if you cannot fight." Blade told her.

"Hey no fair you two are ganging up on me!" Angel pouted but inwardly gave in, "Listen Dive there's some extra bed linen in the closet over there. You can stay with me until we figure out exactly how we're going to do this."

"Won't the guards be suspicious?" Dive asked glancing at the door whilst trying to hide a blush.

"I doubt it," she shrugged, "most will probably think that I've finally excepted my fate and started acting like many of the other gladiators. Just keep that hood up whenever anyone but us are around."

"Will you have to fight again soon" Nosedive looked her over and tried not to grimace.

"No not for another week," Angel assured him, "that was a particularly difficult monster to kill and even the best of the best rarely survive so they expect a few injuries and always give us time to recover and them time to reschedule another gladiator if need be."

"Nice." Nosedive commented sarcastically.

"I'll leave you to it," Blade got up to leave, "We'll have time to talk more over breakfast."

"Blade," Angel looked straight into his eyes, "I am not leaving you behind this time okay."

"Very well." He replied then left. Nosedive found the bed linen quite easily and made a reasonable bed out of it all on the floor next to Angel who slipped easily off to sleep Nosedive watched her still form for a while before allowing himself to drift off to nightmares of what he'd seen in his life and of what might be.

Well another chappy. I hope you guys like it thanks so much for the great reviews. I'm sorry it's taken me so long I was going to do another one a few weeks ago but I haven't been very well so I wasn't in the creative mood. Any who, toodles Angel xxx.