Desolate Gail: Redux

by Zeronova

The walls of Troy have been blasted open by Kiske, and Troy is as vulnerable as the Seikishidan, but personal conflicts still exist. End of Arc II. Updates periodically.

17. Arc 1: Aftermath

-X- Introduction -X-
- Desolate Gail Redux
- Started on: 5-17-2004 / Posted on: 9-6-2004 / Checked on: 3-15-2005
- By: Zeronova
- Chapter 17: Aftermath

- Text: Third person, Narration
- Text: First person, Thoughts
- Text: Interjection, the Narrator

X- End Introduction -X-

It was dark, darker than he could see or feel, darker than the deepest confines of midnight and darker than the absence of God, it was simply invariably pitch black, the darkness covering and engulfing, letting no light, no thought, nothing pervade into its enclosed campus of enslaved blackness. Small bits roused Ky from his darkness, slowly pulling him back to reality, from where no man should go, he was brought back, from his own self, letting his own self control flush into himself, the inability to control himself. Inside of himself, where his real self would get buried, he would be confined, letting out another part of himself out, one he tried to confine with all his might, though his other self broke free every now and then, his own mind rushing to pout new bolts and latches across that door in his mind.

Something was pulling him out of that darkness, that absence that covered over him like a smothering blanket of death.

"Sir!" He woke up, breathing in quickly, surprised, his body jerking to life. "Come on and get into the harness, sir!" the soldier said, standing above him. His uniform was white, pure and clean, his voice equally unstained by the evils of war or death, his green trimmed uniform the first thing Ky could focus in on with his bloodshot eyes. Kiske slowly stood up, his back aching, feeling the dried blood rub against itself, little crystals scratching each other into a fine dust by the mere movement of them, slowly starting to scab around the edges of the now exposed gash. Kiske looked around, dazed and confused, looking over the bodies of many Gears, no white uniforms amongst them. Where's...I can't...what?

A frill of a uniform protruded from behind a carcass of a Gear, it directing Ky's attention to it, the confused soldier idly repeating his sentiment, Ky ignoring him. Stepping over the body, he saw where the cloth was attached, where it linked up to, was woven through and around, part of the trench-coat attachment of the Seikishidan uniform, currently adorning Jaygus, sitting on the ground, his head unmoving, eyes closed, the withering black from his own hair, turning gray covering the closed gray orbs; when his eyes were closed, he didn't even seem the same man, with that smile and friendliness unable to show from his eyes whilst his lids covered them.

A few gashes had cut through his uniform; light cuts with equally crystallized blood on top of them, the body unmoving. Ky sat in front of Jaygus, unblinking, looking at the body. If he's dead, that means...

"Am I the only one?" he spat at the soldier, standing and turning in one fluid motion.

"Excuse me, sir?" he said, taken aback, his attitude of happiness that he found Ky suddenly shattered.

"Am I the only survivor? The only person to be alive? Am I? Am I!" he repeated, violence creeping its way into his tone. The soldier only blinked, tilting his head, opening his mouth, but words coming from them.

"But sir...you're alive. That's what matters," he said with a genuine smile. Ignorant boy...

"No, it is not what matters, they're dead. The other two with me, two privates, where are they?"

"Sir, I only saw one, and he fell off the edge"

"Where!" Ky jumped forward, the soldier taking a step back slightly, afraid.

"Sir, you tried to save him, and he killed himself. Don't you remember...?" Ky's violent demeanor on the young soldier died, his balled fist suddenly unfurling, thinking back. Darton...killed himself? No...I tried to save him, he said I did, why would he? How?

"...And him?" Ky said, nodding his head over to Jaygus leaning on the wall as he sat, unmoving.

"I do not remember...he was thrown there, didn't move." the soldier said, trying to recollect. "Sir" he added on the end, afraid Kiske might have noticed he forgot it. Kiske kneeled back down to Jaygus, putting his hand on his shoulder. His head stopped down, a prayer being muttered, a slight remembrance, when he jumped backward, a gasp of air jumping out of Jaygus' body, surging in another, his eyes pulsating open, the gray shooting back and forth in their larger-than-normal state of sudden alertedness. He looked side to side, breathing heavily, his one good eye compensating for his waning one, and speedily scanning and wondering. He seemed to be losing his eye-sight on his left slightly, but it wasn't as if he was blind yet, it was just slower and more blurred.

"Calm, Jaygus" Ky said, his own nerves rattled. "It's over, it's over." he said, his hand still on Jaygus' shoulder. His breathing slowly calmed itself, his entire demeanor calming from its high-pitched intensity left over from when he was knocked out. "I thought you were dead..." Ky said, a slight smirk crossing his lips.

"I'm not..." Jaygus said, breathing in heavily, trying to calm himself "ready to die yet." he said, an equally nice quip to counter Kiske's. "I'm ready to die." Where have I heard that...I've heard that, yet Jaygus said he wasn't ready, so where did I hear it! Kiske stood up slowly, extending his right hand to Jaygus, his left unable to clasp anything, due to the deep cut through the center of the palm. Jaygus pushed off of the wall, standing up slowly, dusting himself off, the brown blood stained into his uniform.

"Get another harness, quick." Ky said to the soldier, who saluted, looking above Kiske's head, never making eye contact, then yelled up the orders.

"Where's your sword?" Jaygus said, checking himself, noticing Ky didn't have it on him. A panic spread over Ky slightly, realizing he was missing it too, then looking over his shoulder, saw it lying on the ground.

"...Over there." he said with a bit of undue hesitation. Jaygus knew what Ky had meant by his emotions, the change and feeling, and nodded in genuine convalescence.

"You're ride is here, sir." Jaygus said, his eyebrows nodding to the soldier, holding the harness with the wire flowing out and over the top of the skylight. Ky nodded affirmatively, scooping up the Fuuraiken before securing the harness. Walking over to the broken railing, he looked down, placing his feet between the harness' loops. I've seen this before, looking down over this edge, the one broken bar from inside the cement, the pebbles...

Before he had any more time to think, he was jerked off of the side of Floor F, the harness yanking him. It was a standard issue one that went between his legs, hooking to a center fulcrum for four others that went over and under each shoulder. Not ready for the jerk, he had a moment of adrenaline, the remaining bits in his blood wanting to be used, not an un-wanted and un-needed parasite. Realizing he was being dragged up now, the alertedness was replaced with sardonic anger, one that he couldn't exactly justify or place, but just that he felt angry.

The broken metal beams of the sky light warped around him as he rose through them, the one wire pulling him up secured to the harness roped over a small metal pole that was set up over the top of the broken skylight, like a pulley. As soon as his head broke the surface of the Seikishidan Headquarters, blades of grass with dew gone by the sun, now approaching past noon, a natural green that no gardener could achieve, blew silently with an unseen wind, a desolate gale. But, there was something wrong, some bit that seemed to not fit, a little bit of iconic error. Maybe it was a gail, a differential in what it should be on the Parisian fields, a different wind among the grass for something that was slightly different, deserving a different spelling. How, he knew not, but it felt, it seemed different, that its mere presence and spirituality emanated a difference between every wind on those fields that had graced his skin. Three soldiers held the wire, pulling in consecutively timed fashion. As he was lifted from the sky dome, the sheathed Fuuraiken clanged a bit on the broken metal shards among the sky light, sending an instant alarm to Ky and the soldiers, but that subsided, finding out it was only a clang of metal.

The three soldiers, after raising him about six feet above the hole tied off their rope. The metal pole, about three inches in diameter, pure steel, nine feet off the ground, the wire slung over it, was being used as a fulcrum above the top of the hole, an apex to be lifted from. They tied it off to a metal stake in the ground, then ran over to Ky, slowly guiding the wire over so it angled towards the ground. Once he was over, they unsnapped the harness, letting him drop to the hidden moisture of the ground. He lie there for a second, feeling it, indulging in it, Mother Nature and her glories he had been deprived of for only a day, but it seemed like he could write a story of eighty thousand words about it.

"Sir?" they asked, each extending out their hand to help him up. He breathed in deeply, then stood up by himself, his legs first, then his back, the aching spreading through him.

"Get the others," he said sternly, them nodding, and going to work, lowering the harness and cable back down. Looking around, he recognized the scenery, but not the littered U.N. convoys and Seikishidan units. The Parisian countryside, a beautiful mix of prickly grass, softer patches amongst them like the nectar in a thorny rose, an occasional tree sprouting its unique roots through the more ungrowable dirt, but relatively a low vegetation country side. The hills rolled slightly, a definitive curve to them, but nothing that would give a grade that couldn't be walked up without much trouble. The Seikishidan H.Q. was built into one of the more steep hills, the flat plateau top home to the sky dome, and the sloping side perfect for the six floors that slept inside of it. The flat top extended for a few miles before the hills started loping around and amongst each other, underground real estate perfection. Too bad it's now nearly useless. Served the Seikishidan well though, for the sixty or so years it was in service, I think.

"Commander Ky Kiske?" a voice broke through his admiration of nature. He looked to the direction of the voice, a graying old man's extended hand toward him. He was left handed, and Ky was hesitant to shake his hand with his left hand, as well as knowing he was U.N., so he moderately ignored the friendly gesture. The man retracted his hand after a short while, continuing his little speech. "I am Adam Gestahl, a part of the U.N. I am here on orders to take you back to the Geneva U.N. Consulate for a recording of these events."

"Yes..." Ky said sarcastically, starting to walk forwards, his body hanging over his legs slightly in his exhausted state, to where the militia trucks and soldiers were standing around. "You mean tribunal, right?"

"A recording" Gestahl re-affirmed, following alongside Kiske.

"What do you want, Gestahl?" Ky said, stopping suddenly, turning to face the old man.

"I work for the U.N., the Seikishidan is my business, monsieur."

"Well, you have enough business in there to keep you busy" Ky said, his hand extending to the direction of the sky dome, implying the H.Q. "Good day, sir." he said, turning away, continuing to walk towards the soldiers, about half a mile away. The ground wasn't strong enough near the skylight to hold massive weight, since the dirt was only a few feet thick with an eight-inch thick concrete ceiling of the headquarters below that. The MTs had to have been parked further out as to not crumble that ground due to their massive weight.

"Wait, Mr. Kiske" Gestahl said, grabbing Ky's shoulder, turning him around back to face him. Kiske's expression told everything, he was irritated, angry, and not wanting to deal with a U.N. dog. "I...have a question for you." he said, his official stature and tone of voice gone to a more sincere under lying current. "You were close with Kliff Undersn, right?" Ky solemnly nodded, his eyes blinking a few times in recognition of the name and fatigue. "Ah, okay, he mentioned you. He was fond of you."

"...Thank you, Gestahl." Ky said, a feigned smile, then turned back to his walk, hearing Gestahl walk back to the skylight. He knew Kliff...when I was young. Eh, who cares, U.N. soldiers are arrogant fools. He walked slowly, each foot finding salvation in the soft forgiving ground, as compared to the concrete inside of the Seikishidan. His foot sank into it, a soft liquidly squish emitting from the dirt, a pleasant sound to his ears. Three militia trucks were lined in the distance, their back ends facing him, lined about ten feet apart each, a perfect spectacle that probably took them hours to line them all up right to impress him. Soldiers scurried around, all ranks, mostly privates, a fair amount of lieutenants, and probably six or seven sergeants leading all of them. Adjacent from the trucks were the U.N. set-ups. The A.A. tents were already there, their square-based tent leading to one point, emblazoned with the A.A. letters on it in a bright orange already visible to him.

Soldiers bustled back and forth, doing tasks, cleaning, expecting Ky Kiske any moment. They were all so busy they didn't see him come over the small ridge, walking down to meet them.

"Quick! Clean up that crap!" a sergeant screamed at two lieutenants and two privates, all sitting around a small box they turned upside down and were using for a card table top. They looked at the sergeant with curious eyes, apathetic and uncaring, then returned to their game. A few A.A.'s ran through the ranks of Seikishidan, standing around and between the three long trucks, their small sword, practically useless, jumping about their lithe hips as they ran, syringes poking out from pockets on their covering blouses, medications in small purses hanging on their hips, all sorts of other medical adornments over their body in forms of pockets, strap on garments, hanging purses, and what not.

Ky walked up to the base of the encampment, still unrealized, though he preferred it. There was an A.A. standing next to one soldier, wounded with a bandage over his upper head. She could sense a soldier approached, and was examining a small clipboard.

"Whatcha need, toots?" she asked without looking up, her eyes skimming along the words on the clipboard. He put his hand on top of the clipboard, the weight of his own arm more than he anticipated, the girl holding it almost dropping it. She looked up, ready to scorn him, then realized who it was she was talking to. "Oh, Ky Kiske, sir! What do ya need? I'd be glad to help you with anything, that is, if you're not mad, please do not be, I respect you highly, I uh...I..." she said, the words spewing from her mouth. He opened his own mouth slightly, whispering out a shh, at once she responded, nodding. She lifted her clipboard back up, seeing the line of blood across it from his hand, then looked up at him. "Oh dear, you're hurt!" her heavy American accent somewhat annoying to hear, but he'd live with it. "Sit down, sit down! Hey Meg, we need some anesthetic and alcohol over here, we got big man himself!" she said, turning her head over to a small A.A. tent, a head popping out, eyes widening, and scurrying back in for the items. Upon the blast of her loud, obnoxious voice, coupled with the so-called New Yorkish accent, something Ky had learned to associate the accent with, not quite knowing what New York was. The other soldiers in the area perked to life, all of them instantly stopping, hearing the words "Ky Kiske". Then, they seemed to work double time, cleaning and scrubbing, picking up trash and making everything look right for the commander.

Ky sat down where she told him, her holding up his hand, examining it. She unsnapped the belts around the poly-carbon two-piece armor, and then slipped off the leather gauntlet slowly, Ky wincing as pain as it went over the cut, exposing his reddened skin where the clothes had been squished to his skin. The other girl approached with a tray of the items, slightly dirtied glasses and canisters filled with the serums and things he needed. That was normal though, nothing was perfect and sanitized nowadays, and it was better than nothing. She took a small case of a see-through liquid, then poured it liberally over his hand, him jumping backward from the pain and the foaming around it.

"No no, it's good, don't worry, hun'." She looked up at him, into his blue eyes, sincere and admiring.

"You're not supposed to look a commanding officer in the eyes" he said, annoyed with her enamor with him. She instantly snapped up, emitting a "Sorry, sir". He winced again as she swabbed the inside of the bruised outline of the cut, the flesh white mixed with red, the sinew and fat, inter weaving around and amongst the muscles and fibers, the inch deep cut all the way across his palm able to be opened a little and spread. "Check my back, it's worse. My hand's fine" he said, wincing a little. She nodded, standing, then walking behind, gasping when she saw that. Not a very good A.A., she is...ouch... A soldier walked up during his treatment, a sergeant, looking ahead of Ky with an over-militarized aura floating from him.

"Sir, we are from the Bordeaux Seikishidan, we brought three platoons to aid in the rescue of you and whoever else had survived." he said, lying it all out in a very professional voice.

"And were there others?" Ky asked slowly and slurredly, between twinges of pain.

"...A few, sir. They were holed up in sewage pipes, and couldn't break off the caps, so were stuck sitting there until we found them. There were four there, three privates and a lieutenant."

"Thank you, at ease and to your duties." Ky said, the soldier saluting, his feet turning about face, and him walking away in perfect military fashion. He didn't care much for the real etiquette of the military, especially not now, though he knew he had to be, he had to be a leader to admire and know, to be like Kliff. Kliff was friendly though, he was a father to all of his soldiers, a nice and understanding compassionate friend that every soldier could talk to, but yet he still knew how to and when to be professional, an immaculate sense of timing that Ky couldn't imitate.

He leaned back, closing his eyes while the A.A. worked, trying to void out the pain, and think, pray, anything. How much time passed before the A.A. was done, he didn't know, but after a while, he heard the oncoming steps of familiar boots. Opening his eyes, he saw Jaygus approaching over the hill, the soldier who repelled down to them, the three who brought them up, and Adam Gestahl. Gestahl dismissed the four privates, while him and Jaygus walked over to the small tent where Ky sat, the girl fervently working on Kiske's back, her hands stained with bits of stagnant and new blood.

"You're a mess, sir." Jaygus said with a smirk. Ky only smiled back slightly, erased a second later by the prick of a needle in his skin. She had to stitch higher into his back, since the skin had been ripped through previously, the needle wire ripping right through the skin it was supposed to be enclosing previously due to jaygus' quick-fix job.

"After we're done here, we're going back to Bordeaux. From Bordeaux, we head to Geneva." Gestahl said in a point-by-point narration, very simple and straightforward. Ky nodded in affirmation, before the U.N. official turned and walked away. He was wearing a standard issue U.N. official suit. A pair of slacks that went down to the ankle, then covered the top of the boots, covered by an un-tucked in top, collared on the top, buttoned down the middle and out to the wrists, where it was cuffed, a heavier material with pockets on each side, near the edges. It would look like an old fashioned suit, except that it didn't have the top piece that matched the bottom, but the shirt underneath the top piece was the top piece in this amalgamation, made out of the material a top would, also negating the necessity of a three-piece suit, cutting it down to two. Things like that were rare nowadays, so of course the U.N. had them and gave them to their officials. They came in white and black. Black for any U.N. official, white for any Seikishidan or military officer. But, more about that later. Gestahl was old, in his late fifties, long stringy gray hair greased back on his head to give a sharp, dashing image to his aging persona. Drooping brows and face looked comforting, like a grandfather, though under the soft face lied the true character Ky saw glint as he walked away. As he turned to walk away, a small flash of light beamed off of something on the inside of his top piece of his suit, quickly vanishing. What was that...I knew I saw something.

"He's a character, huh?" Jaygus said, polite as always.

"Indeed, though I do not think he is as bad as the normal U.N. fare." He only realized the A.A. behind him was U.N. sanctioned after she intentionally pricked him a little harder than was needed for needling, realizing his mistake, her being silent still.

"Oh, and you forgot something before you left, sir. I do not think God would have it to be left." Jaygus said, reaching into his belt. Ky looked intently, then saw what it was. Jaygus dropped it softly on his lap, Ky looking back up at him slowly.

"It's...the knife."

"Seems like Mr. Darton wasn't able to take it with him. I assume he is deceased?" Jaygus said mellow and polite, but a genuine conveyance of inquisitiveness behind his tone.

"...I think so, but I am not sure. I can't really remember. I remember the end of the battle, I was tired, I hurt all over, I was bleeding, and he was cornered, so I came and helped, and we fought side by side, killing the last of the Gears...then, something happened, he was thrown off the edge. I killed the last Gears, and looked over to the edge..." Ky squinted downward, trying to remember, only a fogginess taking over his memory. "He was there, hanging...I think...he said...he said something, it was important. I don't know if he's dead, I can't remember, but he's not here, he must be. I...don't know what else to say, I don't know." Jaygus nodded, affirming Kiske, his demeanor never wavering, but the still and calm niceness that he always had.

"Rest up, Mr. Kiske. We have the U.N. tribunals after we got to Bordeaux."

"Recordings" Kiske joked. They both exchanged smirks, then Jaygus went off, walking along the camp. "Send an A.A. out after him once you finish with me" Ky said, his voice directed at the woman behind him, tending to his wound. She responded with a "Yes sir", low in tone. Despite her jabbering before, she was dedicated to her work when she got down to it, Ky knowing that now when she was working on him. About an hour later, his back had been sewed up, his hand cleansed and sewed as well, minor cuts and abrasions over his body and face tended to, a sprained hip numbed with anesthetic, and an ample dosage of pills to alleviate any other woes for the time being. He stood up, putting back on his trench coat of the Seikishidan uniform, turning to look at the A.A., who avoided eye contact.

"Thank you..." he was searching for a name to put after his thanks.

"Monica" she said firmly "Monica Bartholomew."

"Thank you, Monica Bartholomew." He turned, and started walking. Monica Bartholomew...Bartholomew...why does the name seem important to me, like it will mean something? Oh well, doesn't matter. He walked slowly over to the three militia trucks lined up, the soldiers inside and out, scurrying around like rats to do objectives and continue. He came across the previous group of two lieutenants and two privates playing cards on top of the box, standing over them. They played another hand, not noticing his presence.

"Ha, I got you now, Jack. Full house." one of the soldiers said, a long reed of grass hanging out of his mouth.

"You're cheatin', Mitch! You had a full house last time too, and it was threes also!"

"Oh really!" Mitch responded, standing up. Suddenly, something dropped, Ky kneeling down to pick it up, him now garnering attention from his wraith like standing above them.

"Three of Hearts." he said, showing the card, a three of hearts in his shown full house on the table also.

"You are a dirty cheater!" Jack said, standing up, grabbing for his sword. He then remembered whose presence he was in, removing his hand, and standing erect. "Sorry, sir, I did not mean to be disrespectful to you." he said in a completely different tone than previously, his complete apathy of the commander of the Seikishidan having been standing next to him for the past minute, thinking it was only another annoying sergeant. His eyes slowly wandered downward to Ky, Kiske's azure, sudden moving his head to look straight back up. The alluring sense of danger in looking at Ky Kiske was something all soldiers wanted to do if they ever met him, though if Ky knew that they looked at him, they thought it'd be the end of the Seikishidan for them. Circulating rumors about Ky were that he was a hard-ass, always being as stuck up as he could about everything in the entire military, from code of conduct to words, and no soldier wanted to get on his bad side. In reality, he only did that as a farce for his own leadership qualities he lacked, though no one saw or knew that, maybe except for Jaygus and Kliff.

"We're heading to Bordeaux. Leave two trucks here for clean up and rescue, we're going in the next hour." he said, looking at all of the soldiers who shot their glance up as soon as they felt his eyes emblazon them. They all saluted, saying the obligatory "sir" and scurried off, leaving their cards lying on top of the crate lifeless. He was still holding the extra three of hearts in his hand, the soldiers not coming back for their deck. Ky shrugged, and slipped the card into his boot, feeling Darton's knife poke into him slightly from its sheath, where he had slipped it into his belt.

I think all of this new stuff is going to confuse you. Militia trucks? U.N.? A.A.'s? I'll take some time to explain, dear reader, as I am sure that this point in the story, all of these new things come to an unwelcome shock to you, but since now we are out of the Seikishidan H.Q., we have more of a world than those small confines to deal with, so please deal with me as I try to guide you along the world.

Militia trucks are giant transport convoys the Seikishidan manufactured in 2132 as a test project, a total of twelve of them in the world, six in the Western European region, and the other spread over the world to the more active Seikishidan outposts. They were long, very long, and had two rows of seats on each side, that held two hundred soldiers total, a hundred a side. In between each row of seats was a small walkway for them to file out of. They could transport a platoon, which was two hundred men, fast and affordably this way, as well as the militia trucks being armored, but only to an extent (if a Gear jumps on top of it and starts hacking away, it'll definitely give way). They were powered by a magical engine (prototype engine, remember?), one that needed nothing to run, and was always on. The militia trucks were converted from wrecks of old that managed to be in decent shape left, and the rest was built by hand, such as the extendedly huge cabin. The engine harnessed magic inside of itself, condensed magic flowing through the pressurized, magnetically sealed tubes and networks inside. It could tow the massive weight of two hundred soldiers and their weapons at speeds excess of forty-five miles per hour, but it also took a very long time to slow down. It beat the hell out of walking, but it also was somewhat of a relic, that if it was destroyed, there wasn't ever going to be another to replace it. Of the six in Western Europe, two had already been destroyed. The other six in whatever parts of the world were all missing in action, whether they were in the hands of Seikishidan officers or in pieces, unknown, since communication was another big problem between the bases.

Next up, the A.A.'s. Action Agency, a stupid alliteration. They were glorified medics, carrying a useless twenty-eight inch sword that they were never taught to use, but had for posterity, considering they worked on battlefields. The A.A.'s were also what women could be, since the U.N. said women couldn't be in the Seikishidan, and the Seikishidan, being heavily religiously influenced, saw women as something to be protected, not to be fighting. So, if women wanted to do their part, they became an A.A. and helped during and after the battles of the Crusades. They were U.N. sanctioned, and thus only in control of the U.N., so if the Seikishidan went on an operation not sanctioned, there would be no A.A.'s. But, A.A.'s were more attracted to the Seikishidan anyway, some following around certain units always, a designated medic, not by truth, but just that it happened that way. And that for some, it was their closest brush with a Gear they'd ever come to (unless they were beseiged and killed by one, but assuming they didn't), or meeting someone famous (like Ky Kiske). They were fairly skilled in their job of being a medic, but all of their skills were taught by the U.N., which heavily restricted a lot of the things from the old world, before the Crusades, so they taught what they wanted to. But, in Ky's recent case, they do their job, and they do it well enough, better than nothing.

The U.N. is up next, except that the U.N. is ominous, very...secretive and distinct. I'll keep my secret for now, since very shortly, you'll be able to decipher for yourself what you think of the U.N. and its employees, despite Gestahl, whom you know, and Ky's distaste for most U.N. personnel. But, we now enter the real world, the world that I live in, the world that Ky Kiske does, and being such, there are many things that have not been shown and done that will be laid out in due time, just like I laid out what pieces of the world I could while inside of the head quarters. Much more is coming, so stay on your feet, my adept reader, it's a big world.

-X- Author's Notes –X-
- Zeronova's Notes:
- Well, he finally escapes, and meets up with some of people, and more background showing and information on the world. Also, I don't know if anyone is catching this, but I think I should say by now, Ky is NOT acting OOC by cussing or being more angry than his subtle nice nature is, just think about it (it's kind of a deeper meaning sort of thing, but you'll understand if you're a GG fan). Also, as most people know, Ky also has a...darker side to himself, so don't forget that. As for the rest of the story, next Monday, as per usual. Oh yeah, as I said above, if you're a die-hard GG fan, you'll catch a ton of small jokes and hints in here. This is the beginning of Arc II. Whew.
-X- End Author's Notes –X-