A/N: YAY! Chapter 6! I must thank Maelik and Mel for their help at getting this one up so quickly. This chapter is mostly on the Zaibach floating fortress among Zaibach soldiers, and has a lot of comic relief.

Sakura Shinguji-Albatou: This one oughta answer questions and end confusion.

strangedream: Same thing. And we'll be seeing a bit of Mélanie's powers now.

Disclaimer: Don't own Escaflowne or adjacent characters except for a few new ones. I don't even have the DVD's! WHAAH!!!

Kileam sat on the window sill, cleaning her nails with her dagger. Her brown hair with blue streaks fell to her shoulders,
and her armour made her look as powerful as she felt. It was red with a breast plate, and conformed to her figure.
Her eyes were a glowing gold, matching the golden band around her head, with an upside-down cross made of red stone
as the centrepiece.

"It wasn't my fault sir." she heard Dilandau say to Lord Lagren.

"Sure, it wasn't your fault, Dilly. It must be very difficult to hang on to a girl with no combat experience."

"First of all, Kileam: Serena was there. She DOES have combat experience. Secondly: Christina, despite her
lack of combat experience, is the Tsubasa no Kami, and therefore has an advantage over us. Third!: Don't. Call. Me. Dilly!"

"Well, if you had agreed to let me help, it wouldn't have been a problem." Kileam responded, sounding utterly amused.
"Everyone knows that, unlike you, I don't let my ego get in the way of my work. I get to the heart of the matter. Dilly-poo."

"Grr..." Dilandau pulled his sword, but Kileam was faster.
She blasted him backwards off his feet.
He got up, tried to charge at her again, but both of them got pinned to opposite walls.

"That is enough, both of you." said Lord Lagren with a quiet, but deadly sounding voice.

Kileam could feel an invisible hand squeezing her throat.

"You are the best soldiers ever to serve with the mighty Zaibach empire, and I expect you to set an example for your fellows.
Is that understood?" he said the last words with angry venom in his voice.

"Yes, Lord Lagren." Kileam managed to choke out. From across the room, she heard Dilandau do the same.

The invisible hand let go, and she fell on the floor, already standing up.

Dilandau finished his report, explaining to Lord Lagren, as best he could, what had happened with the night's fiasco.

Later, walking down the hall, Kileam placed herself behind Dilandau, and returned to her favourite pass-time of driving him further
than he already was into insanity. Which, in this case, consisted of poking him.
'poke poke poke poke'

"What?" asked Dilandau, obviously angry.

'poke poke poke poke'

"What?" he said again, in a hissing manner

'poke poke poke poke'

"WHAT!?" he said turning around, facing Kileam.

"When are you going to ask the Madoushi to make you a brother?" she asked pleasantly, continuing to poke him in the shoulder.

"What?" he asked, utterly confused.

"Didn't you know you could get a brother?" 'poke poke poke poke'

"What the heck are you talking about?" he said, withholding his anger for curiosity's sake.

"Didn't you know? You came from a tube." 'poke poke poke poke'

"A tube?"

"Yep. So did I. But, in a way, I came first." 'poke poke poke poke'

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, Serena used to be you, up until Allen and company stole her back from Zaibach, and turned her back into the Blondie
who escaped you tonight." 'poke poke poke poke' "But when Lord Lagren came along, he instructed the Madoushi to use a blood
sample they took from her while she was you to make another you." 'poke poke poke poke' from Kileam, 'twitch twitch twitch twitch'
from Dilandau.

"But first they took some of it," continued Kileam "along with some blood they had from a Draconian dude named Folken, and
Lord Lagren used something called Quintessence on the mix. That's how they made me. That's why I'm not as wimpy as you."
'poke poke poke poke'

"QUIT POKING ME!!!" Dilandau finally snapped and drew his sword.

Kileam, once again being faster than him, threw him against the wall, this time knocking the sword from his hand.

"I'd love to stay and chat all night, but I don't think Lord Lagren would appreciate it." She gave him a half-hearted hand up.
"We'll finish this discussion some other time."

And she left him standing and fuming in the dark hallway.

The next day...

In the meeting room, Elijah and Lord Lagren are having a heated debate...
"Come now, Lord Elijah. Archaeological expeditions are harmless, and a small price to pay for peace between our people and
for us to give you energists for energy. We won't remove a single artefact we find. We simply wish to take a look around."

"Lord Lagren, as I stated before, it would be a problem, as you refuse to allow anyone from my excavation teams help you." Elijah combated
"It has to be done in such a way that no damage will be done to any of the underground pipes and such which keep our domed
cities intact and safe. Also, there are sites outside the domes in which we have already lost people and have therefore deemed dangerous.
If you have a few of my people with you, they can guide you and point out the dangerous areas for you to avoid."

"Ah, but then, my dear Elijah, where would the excitement be in our discoveries if we're shown everything?"

"Lord Lagren!" Elijah got up, severely pissed "I am trying to be courteous, but, in all honesty--"

"Let us continue this another time." interrupted Millerna.

Elijah and Lagren exited to room, and Elijah went to the parlour with Millerna and Dryden where the others were waiting anxiously
for Serena to explain the adventure of the night before.

"That impossible, stubborn, craven cur!" hissed Elijah loudly as they entered the parlour.

"Oh, Elijah." Mélanie got up and threw her arms around him. "It pains me to see you so disturbed."

Elijah's features softened as he hugged her back.

"I'm sorry, Mélanie."

"Why would you absolutely need someone to escort them anyway, Elijah?" inquired Dryden.

"Because we're in the process of recruiting the Phoenix Guardians from all around to revive Marth. If we have a time limit, we
may not be able to find them in time. We already found one in a statue which we brought into the palace, but there are five in all."

"I see." said Millerna

"This is very interesting," interrupted Van "But I'd like to hear about what happened last night." he turned to Serena "Serena? If you please?"

Serena explained everything. Every last detail, of what had happened the night before. when she was done, Van was the first to outburst,
followed by Allen.

"That bastard!" exclaimed Van, punching the wall, which resulted in little cracks.

"Wait a minute! How could Dilandau be there? Serena, you were Dilandau!"

"I don't know. But he was there."

"He was." said Christina, finally speaking from her chair in the corner, where she had been since the beginning of the meeting. Just sitting
and doing nothing in particular. Shut up in herself, it seemed.

A knock on the parlour door startled them, as Seekya walked in, carrying an envelope.

"My apologies about interrupting, milady. This is addressed to Elijah-san."

"Thank you, Seekya." replied Millerna as Elijah stepped forward to accept the letter.

"Athena! It must be important if she wrote this to me from home." He opened the envelope hastily.

"Athena?" asked Mélanie inquisitively

"My sister." he began to read aloud:

"Dearest Elijah,

How are you in Gaea? Good, I hope.
The expedition to find the Phoenix Guardians has been proving fruitful.
We found the first Guardian, the one of courage, deep in a cave at the mountain of the Ice Dragon.
According to the local Ilians, he would be from the land of Caelin, there Thalie is a stewardess.
If you're wondering, the fifth one, Lady Sheeda, expects her child (a boy) in about four months.
We've decided not to let her out of the statue until receiving permission from you. We hope you'll say so soon.
Mother still hasn't been over Father's death. We try our best to console her, but I guess his sudden odd
behaviour caused him to do what he has done.
Please don't feel guilty about it. It wasn't your fault.

I hope you bring us back some souvenirs!

Love,
thena.

p.s. Shun-Netto burned Father's old bed with an Elfire spell.

Elfire!? I told them to lock those books away! Sheesh!" said Elijah, both pissed and exasperated.

"Who's Shun-Netto?"

"The only stable clone using DNA from a Gaean and combining it with DNA from a Senikan."

"Do you have pictures?"

"Well, just imagine Van as a child."

Everyone looks at Elijah with a WTF? look.

Mélanie takes the letter, but the instant she touches it, her immediate surroundings melt, and she finds herself in a cave instead.
She saw young man in about his mid-twenties floating in a red bubble curled up in foetal position. His hair seemed to be orange,
and his figure glowed a soft red. From the way his back was arched, it would seem that he had wings.
She felt a sadness all of a sudden. She knew it was the man's sadness...

"Mélanie! Mélanie! Wake up!"

Mélanie opened her eyes. she was lying on the floor, with everyone standing around her, looking worried.

On the Zaibach fortress...

The new Ryuugekitai are in a locker room cleaning off.

"Man! Today's workout was hard!" whined Chomei as he stood still, enjoying the full blast of the hot shower.

"Tell me about it! With all the laps Dilandau-sama made us run and such." added Benkei

"Hey! Shut up you two! Dilandau-sama is in here, you know!" scolded Eichiro

Both swallowed hard and were about to apologise, but then the door of the locker room was kicked open. Kileam came in,
surpressing a mischievious grin. All of the Ryuugekitai looked at her with wide eyes.

"Where's Dilandau?" she asked, finally letting her grin loose.

"What the heck are you doing in here?" hissed Dilandau, dripping wet and only covered with a towel around his waist.

"Looking for you, or course. I thought I'd give you a reminder that Lord Lagren wants us to train together later this evening." she said
teasingly.

Dilandau glared daggers at her.

"As you indicated, it's this evening. Do you have no shame walking in here like this?"

Kileam looked around, watching all the Ryuugekitai trying to cover themselves up, then looked back at Dilandau.

"No. By the way: I love the attire."

Dilandau's eyes widened before narowing in anger. Kileam, aware of what was coming, started to run. Almost immediately,
Dilandau was hot on her heels.

"Get back here, woman!"

"Gotta catch me first, nuddy!"

They ran around the fortress for about ten more minutes before Kileam entered a room and stopped. Dilandau also stopped,
not sure what she was up to. Kileam turned around sharply and smiled, snapping her fingers. Dilandau frowned before the
smell of smoke reached his nostrils. His eyes widened as he looked down, seeing that part of his towel was completely ablaze!
He let it drop and, thankfully, Kileam put out the flames, once again showing off her powers.
Kileam started laughing as she pointed at his nether regions.

"Make it dance, Dilly!"

Dilandau yelled and jumped at her. They didn't fall; Kileam's back being pressed against a railing. She pushed him back,
but he took hold of her sleeve. They fought like this for a few minutes, when Lagren came in, eyes widening as he saw his
two top soldiers fighting like children, one completely naked. He cleared his throat loudly and both stopped to look over at him.

"Why are you two fighting on the main bridge?" asked Lagren, obvious annoyance in his voice.

Dilandau looked around and went fully red as he finally took a good look at his surroundings, and went beet-red at everyone
staring at them.
Kileam sighed and took off her cloak, giving it to Dilandau, who took it hastily.

"Both of you," Lagren added, a hidden threat implied with his tone of voice "Get off the bridge, and don't come back until
you are both completely calmed down."

Kileam dragged Dilandau off the bridge and down the hall.
"Moron," she said "you could have noticed where we were sooner!"

"You were the one who tricked me, tramp." Dilandau responded icily

"So? I guess you are dumber than I thought!" she spat back with a grin

Dilandau just growled.

"Oh, and please don't do anything to my cloak. I'm absolutely certain white stains are a bitch to get out of from the frabrique."

"Is that all you think about, woman? Sex?"

"What else is there to think about at the moment? By the way," she added, pointing at his crotch again "They have surgery to fix that, you know."

"You b--!"

And the chase began again.

A/N: LMAOGBWKG! (laughing my a off and glueing back with Krazy Glue.)