Dilandau stood looking up at the shiny maroon guymelef looming in front of him. A shiver of glee ran up his spine terminating in a wide grin that spread across his face. The sorcerers had cleared him to return to his old duties. They even granted him a new team of "dragonslayers", though the team's mission was somewhat altered from its original purpose.

The new leaders of Zaibach were not like Dornkirk. He had wanted to change the world. In his own way, he wanted to bring peace to Gaea. Dornkirk's sorcerers ruled Zaibach now. They did not want peace. They cared only for the acquisition of knowledge and power. Dilandau had plenty of experience with their nature. He would have resented them for their torture had it not made him the fighter he now was. He appreciated their unsentimental thirst for more. He shared it himself; only their goals were different. His only goal was to destroy. They couldn't complain. After all, they made him that way. He would be their bloodhound.

The other dragonslayers, his dragonslayers, slowly filtered into the large hangar bay to interface with their own guymelefs. Zaibach technology had changed since Dilandau was last in a melef. The caveat for returning to duty was that he would undergo yet another experimental procedure. If it made him more powerful then how could he refuse?

He climbed up into the cockpit of his melef, the new Galdiola model. The internal netting conformed perfectly to his body as soon as he was seated. He placed his hands into the control gloves and heard a whirring of motion in the machine. Dark, plant-like tendrils snaked from the inner wall of the melef and just barely grazed the skin along his arm.

The sorcerers told him this generation of melef was more advanced. They told him he would have greater speed, greater response time, but they had not been specific. Dilandau had been unconscious during the required procedure and hadn't felt much different upon waking besides some soreness on his arms and neck.

Now, sharp hot pain shot up his arm as what appeared to be a port opened up on the underside of his wrist. The tendril dug its way deep into his flesh on each wrist. He felt the same white-hot pain on either side of his neck, which forced a sharp cry from his throat. The pain burned in his vision, but as it cleared a new sensation took its place.

He could feel the guymelef.

His old alseides model had had an interface. The liquid metal, for which it was famous, conformed to the skin and sensed every muscle's motion, allowing for complete control and incredible responsiveness. This was something entirely different. Dilandau lifted his arm. Not HIS arm. He lifted the melef's arm, but it was his arm. There was no longer any difference. The melef wasn't responding to the movements of his muscles or reacting to his arm, he was moving the melef's arm as if it was his own. He turned his head and looked over at one of his slayers, and he could see them clearly. He wasn't looking through the mask of the melef, he was looking at the other slayers through the view of his melef. He was simultaneously aware of the inside of the cockpit and realized that there was no scope for aiming. He focused again on his teammates and found he could pinpoint any piece of them with perfect accuracy.

"Forza," he called out. The slayer closest to the bay door turned toward him. Dilandau lifted his arm and let out a burst of flame directly at the slayer known as Forza.

Forza barely had time to respond and was blown off the edge of the hangar, narrowly missing the lick of the flames. He hung in the air, hovering just outside the bay door. An ecstatic cackle exploded from Dilandau's chest.

"I like this," he said through a clenched grin. "Move out!"

Dilandau advanced on the ledge and jumped into the air, automatically engaging the levi-stones as he did. The team of slayers, including Forza, followed. They all cloaked before descending to the forest beyond the walls of Zaibach.

It wasn't long before Dilandau spotted a long trench between the trees below.

The leviship must have gone down near here, he thought with a thrill. He and the team followed the trench to its end, where they discovered the wreckage of the ship, but to Dilandau's dismay, no bodies. They would not make this mission so easy, but at least it wouldn't be boring.

Dilandau searched the distant trees for any kind of movement, however small. Only breezes seemed to disturb the leaves.

"Sir, enemy sighted," called Batu from behind Dilandau.

"Which way? How?" Dilandau flared with frustration at not having seen them first.

"There's a heat signature to the west, but only one."

Dilandau looked in the direction Batu indicated. Where there had only been trees a moment before, Dilandau could clearly see a single spot of white light moving through the overgrowth. How had he not seen that before?

"Sorry sir, you have to know to look for a heat signature. The guymelef only responds to intentional thoughts."

A roar of rage ripped itself from Dilandau's throat. He turned on Batu, arm raised and unleashed a blast of flames from his arm. At such close proximity, Batu was unable to dodge and was caught by the full force of the blast. He screamed as the flames scorched his guymelef. His agonized wales echoed in the suits of the other guymelefs.

The rest of the Dragonslayer's hovered around Dilandau, unmoving.

"Anyone else have any helpful suggestions?!" Dilandau screamed.

Silence.

"Watch yourselves. It appears we feel our melefs damage. The next idiot who tries to help me will find out first hand," he sneered. " Someone notify the fortress they need to pick up the trash."

Dilandau turned his attention back to the forest to the west. The small white figure of light moved steadily through the trees, but not quickly. They were on foot. Dilandau zoomed his vision. It took a moment for him to find the spot again, but when he did he felt his chest swell, and a cackle exploded from his chest. Van Fanel was alone in the woods.

"It's my lucky day!" he crooned.

"Sir, to the north." Forza, who hovered beside Dilandau, pointed.

Sure enough, there were several small white dots in the distance to the north.

"Is it the girl?" asked Raiza from across the group.

Dilandau zoomed his vision once again. It was her. The thorn in his side. The annoying bug he'd never been able to squash. She took the fun out of his fight, and here she was, doing it again. She was the mission. If he didn't bring her back, it would be his failure. He couldn't trust his band of idiots to do it. She robbed him of his chance to catch Van alone.

"It's her," he glowered. He looked back in the direction of his prized target, Van. He was moving in the direction of the other group, but was still some distance off. He wouldn't reach the group before the melefs did. There would be no way Dilandau would get to engage with him and complete his mission. He growled in frustration. "Forza and Bash, with me. The rest of you, I want you to bring me that lone traveler. It won't be easy, but capture him alive. He's mine."

Dilandau, Forza, and Bash accelerated through the trees towards the small group in the north. Dilandau had to let the bait to the west go. Van would not be the cause of his failure, but a piece of him was still pulling in that direction.

The melefs descended around the small group while still cloaked. Leaves rustled on the ground, but there was no discernable source. The Girl from the Mystic Moon stared directly at Dilandau anyway. There was no way she could see him, right? She glared in his direction, practically making eye contact. She was slightly crouched in a defensive position; ready to sprint at any moment.

Dilandau was caught off guard by her direct attention, and it took him a moment to analyze the rest of the group. There were only three others, and only one was unwounded. Daniel Evelyn and a dark, tall man Dilandau only slightly recognized stood beside a floating slab of levi-stone on which Allen Schezar lay, unconscious. He was pale and sweating. The dark man held a sword at ready, and Daniel positioned himself to defend the levi-stone.

"Hitomi! What do you see?" yelled Daniel. Both he and the other man searched the darkness around them, unable to see what Hitomi was so clearly focused on.

Does she know it's me? Dilandau wondered to himself. He was disconcerted, but this small girl was still no match for him or his Dragonslayers. Even the man with the raised sword would be no obstacle. Dilandau was disappointed with how easy the mission turned out to be.

"De-cloak," Dilandau said for the ears of the other melefs only.

At once all three melefs removed their protective invisibility.

Daniel and the other man pulled in closer to the levi-stone.

"Hitomi, get behind me!" shouted the dark-haired man.

But that would do no good. "You're surrounded," said Dilandau, with a sickeningly sweet tone.

He thought the look on the men's faces were like small animals caught before a predator. They were wide-eyed and frantic.

Hitomi was not. Hitomi had held her steady gaze on him from the moment they cleared the nearest trees. Her gaze did not flinch when they revealed themselves. She was not wide-eyed, and she did not look afraid. She looked angry.

Dilandau felt the first edge of apprehension he could remember facing a foe besides Van. Was this girl more intimidating than Allen? Surely not. At the moment, though, Allen would be no match at all.

"I'll get the girl. Take care of the rest," Dilandau said to his team.

Dilandau shot out tendrils from his arm, the same liquid metal he was accustomed to, and wrapped it around Hitomi.

"Van!" she cried as it twined around her.

Dilandau laughed. "Van won't make it! How sad for you. He's already being picked up as we speak, just like you," he snarled.

Hitomi continued to glare at him but screamed as he swung around to face the others. The dark man was deflecting the attacks of Bash while Forza had his tendrils around Daniel. Forza threw Daniel to the side and sent his tendrils out to impale the unconscious Allen Schezar.

An agonized yell escaped Dilandau's throat, and before he knew it he had sent out a tendril of his own to intercept Forza.

Why had he done that? He looked at Allen, almost dead already on the levi-stone. His heightened vision through the eyes of the melef could see the slight rise and fall of Allen's chest. Something squeezed inside Dilandau's chest. It was almost like physical pain. Why would looking at Allen like that cause him pain?

"Sir, should we not dispose of the others? Our orders..."

"He's mine," Dilandau barked.

Both Dragonslayers faltered.

"Our mission is the girl. He's mine. I'll take care of him later, but not like this. This is too easy," said Dilandau, his anger at his own actions bleeding through his words.

Dilandau glanced at Hitomi. The look on her face had changed. It wasn't the same steady intensity that had been there before. There was a curiosity in her eyes.

"Celena," she mouthed.

With a yell, Dilandau tapped the side of her head and she was knocked unconscious. He couldn't risk anything more than a tap. If she wasn't captured alive his failure would be worse than if she wasn't captured at all. The sorcerers had made that abundantly clear.

"Fall back!" he ordered. He and the other Dragonslayers donned their invisibility and sailed up through the trees towards Zaibach.

Dilandau ventured a glance back at the small group. Daniel and the other man were both checking over Allen. Why did that send a wave of comfort through his chest? Why did it still hurt? He wanted to be the one to kill Allen. That was it. That was all it was. With all his hate, he still respected Allen as a swordsman. It would be a shame for his end to be met in that state.

Hitomi slowly came to with a pounding headache. Her hands pressed into the cold surface on which she lay. The concrete made rough patterns on her cheek. She must have been unconscious for a while. The cell she inhabited was dark.

She groped around to get some bearings on her surroundings, but she found nothing but more concrete floor.

Finally, she reached a wall. She sat up against it, exhausted. She put her hand to her head and felt a lump forming where the large melef had hit her. She didn't know how she knew it, but she was sure that had been Celena. Well, not Celena exactly... but Hitomi was sure she was there, in there, somehow. Dilandau wouldn't have let Allen live, would he? There was more to it than that, though. Hitomi had felt something at that moment. Dilandau wasn't his usual self.

All of her limbs felt heavy. It was all she could do to sit up against the wall. Her eyes were open, but the cell was completely dark, so her eyes had nothing to settle their focus on. Her head began to spin now that she was upright. She rubbed her head and closed her eyes, trying to center herself.

She couldn't feel any motion, so this probably wasn't a levi-ship. If it wasn't a levi-ship, then she had most likely been taken back behind the walls of Zaibach. That was where they had always intended to go anyway, wasn't it? Getting captured wasn't exactly how she had hoped to infiltrate Zaibach, though.

Hitomi tried to stretch her vision beyond the cell she occupied. If she couldn't use her eyes, she still had her other senses. She was overwhelmed immediately with the strength of the wrongness around her. It was the same wrongness she had felt from the levi-ship, but a thousand times worse. She was overcome with nausea and vomited on the floor beside her. She pulled herself away from it, but couldn't maintain consciousness for long. The blackness overtook her again.

Hitomi was awoken by someone pulling her up by the arm. She could see the light of a door and she could hear voices, but she couldn't make sense of what they were saying. They lifted her by her arms and dragged her through the door into the blinding light. The overwhelming feeling of the wrongness was around her again. She couldn't get away from it anymore. It didn't matter whether she was using her sight or not, she could feel it. It enveloped her like a fog, obscuring everything else. She felt herself placed on a cold surface. She was sitting half upright, the cold surface contoured to her body. They strapped her arms down to the surface and jabbed her arm with a sharp needle. She let out a small noise, but even the pain of the needle was dull in comparison to the wrongness that engulfed her senses.

That feeling was nothing compared to her next experience. Whatever it was that they injected her with began to surge through her veins. Her skin was on fire. She felt it flow through her arm, then to her chest, and from there it quickly spread through her whole body. The burning was more than she could take. She screamed, and something soft was shoved between her teeth and tethered her head down to the table. Her eyes still hadn't adjusted to the bright light. Whatever burned through her veins made everything brighter, and she squeezed her eyes shut against it. As the burning began to subside another sensation replaced it. Her skin hummed, buzzed like it was electrified. It was a relief from the burning sensation of a moment ago. She began to drift at the edge of consciousness. She could hear voices, but she couldn't hear what they were saying. They were almost the small voices of children. That couldn't be the people who dragged her here, right? Children couldn't have lifted her like that. The wrongness was still around her. It wasn't pervasive though. It definitely had locations. She was able to follow it like one would follow a trail of breadcrumbs. In her dreamlike state, she followed the dark wispy breadcrumbs through halls she had never seen. The grey stone walls were like nothing else she had witnessed on Gaia. They were clearly concrete, not stone. The floor was tiled, much like a hospital on Earth. The lighting was not candlelight or sunlight, but Hitomi couldn't see a source. The halls were bright except for the tendrils of wrong darkness that she followed. The wrongness was like a shadow, but not cast on a surface, it hung in the air, translucent, but absent the luminescence of the hall.

Hitomi could hear crying in the distance. The shadow tendrils lead to a door at the end of the hall. Hitomi tried to open the handle, but it was locked. She tried to listen at the door and heard the crying. She tried to stretch her vision into the room but was repelled by the same wrongness that had lead her there. She pulled on the handle and tried to shout, but no sound would come out. She had no strength and pulling on the handle felt like trying to lift a thousand pounds. The air was thick as molasses. She felt something tug in her stomach, and suddenly she was being pulled through the halls, backward.

The shock of opening her eyes and feeling the slab of table beneath her was almost too much.

"She's back," someone said above her.

"Sedate her," said another.

Once again a needle was shoved into Hitomi's arm and she slipped into peaceful darkness.