Astharoshe Asran had a strong noble bearing and touch of hot blood that caused her trouble more times than she cared to admit. If a certain silver haired priest not taken the time to show her the carnage her temper had caused in Venice, she probably wouldn't even be around. He was like a cold splash of water on her fiery rage and for all his awkward clumsy had been invaluable in the discovery of the hardliners a few years ago in the Empire. Truly a puzzle of a man… who had acted so oddly last night. Her golden eyes watched him as he said his goodbyes to William. Everything seemed back to normal, though she could see tension in his shoulders and a slight furrow at his brow. Very odd, she couldn't remember seeing him look that agitated before.

"Ion better hurry up or he has to walk back." She grumbled.

"Is the ship waiting for us?" Abel asked when he returned, she could see he was fidgeting with his cross distractedly.

"I arranged a car to come and take us to the dock, it should be here any time now."

"Um, how are you handling the daylight? I know it's not sunny out or anything. But the UV rays…"

"Is that's what has you worried? Keep picturing me going up like a torch?" She gave him a small grin, a teasing tone to her voice.

"Ah, well I hope you won't do that, it makes a terrible mess when vamp..er... methuselah do that."

She chuckled, "I am shielded from the UV rays by both a special bodysuit and a cream. Today I am not flammable."

A young slender man, looking maybe to be mid teens can running out the entry door. A mop of blond hair, large garnet red eyes and an almost too pretty face looked up at the pair.

"Sorry I am so late… the coronation and saying farewell to Esther and Lord Walsh took longer than I thought."

"About time Ion, I was getting ready to leave without you." Astha scolded.

"I wouldn't mind staying here. There is so much to learn…"

"Perhaps once things settle you can come back to work with Lord Walsh?" Abel suggested, as he has seen the boy earlier working with Virgil.

"I hope that can be a possibility. I can't wait to come back and we haven't even left yet." Ion gushed with youthful enthusiasm.

A blacked out car pulled up to them and a man climbed out stating he was taking them to the docks. The three grabbed their bags and got in the car. Abel sat himself where Ion was between him and Astha. She noticed he still looked a bit tense, his jaw was visibly clenched occasionally and he kept his eyes closed a fair bit, perhaps he gets carsick? She wondered. She couldn't remember him being bothered by travel before… but he had been in a coma so possibly he had equilibrium issues now?

Thankfully the cab ride wasn't very long with Ion chattering on about the ceremony, comparing it to when the Empress holds special events, Abel seemed to appreciate the distraction. Soon they were out of the car and taking their bags to the airship.

Their ship was more a courier than the normal passenger style with only a few rooms for passengers and the rest was for smaller cargo.

"Duchess of Kiev, please come this way," a young woman said from the entrance ramp while another young man came up to take their bags with a trolley. Astha looked at her companions and nodded towards the ramp.

"It will take till morning to reach the Empire, my Lady, please rest here in the common room or in the guest rooms until we land next. We were advised to make this trip non stop." The young attendant bowed and left them to their own devices.

The common room had several couches, a small bookcase that was about half full of books, and a sideboard that looked to hold various tabletop games. To the other wall was a small refreshment cart, Astha mused that Abel would likely have it empty in no time. Sighing she decided to head to her room as the UV cream was irritating to her skin and wanted to get out of the sun suit anyway.

Abel saw Astha leave and let out a breath of relief, finally he could relax a little since his nanomachines had been fighting him once William was gone. He flopped down on the couch and stretched out a bit, happy to have some space. Ion, having done the silver nitrate injections was not causing any problems for Abel and was truly more like a terran than a methuselah. It was such a relief, as it would likely take several days for Ion to have enough bacillus to temp the crusink. Abel wasn't sure if he could talk Astha into that, not without explaining why it would make his life better anyway. Tomorrow he would see Seth, and she had to have a way around this, being how long she has lived immersed with the methuselah.

"So, how did you get hurt anyway? No one really said much to me about it other than you were in a coma. Are you all back to normal now?" Ion asked from the other couch near the sideboard. He had found a deck of cards and was dealing out some kind of game.

"It was a bad … head injury I got when I surprised someone in a room underground, they were trying to steal some of the ancient technology. It's not common for me to get that caught off guard and well, things didn't go well for me, obviously."

"It did seem upsetting for everyone how hurt you were. Are you coming to the Empire for the Cardinal again?"

"Not this time, I'm doing this on a more personal level."

"Is that's why you're not wearing your robes?"

Abel sighed, it was a logical assumption that he was still with the Vatican.

"I'm on a bit of a...leave of absence right now because of my injuries and some other issues have come up for me to deal with."

Ion nodded as he looked over his game, seeming to take the information as the end of the conversation. Abel got up and investigated the refreshment cart, feeling that Astha would be back sooner than later and he wanted to quiet his hungry monster.

Astha had changed into her regular empire clothes, structured thigh length dresses of white, embellished with gold and accent swatches of navy blue. Her tall white empire boots went over her knee but were of a lower heel, since Astha was taller than most females. There was a simplicity to the Albion fashions but Astha enjoyed the overall elegance and commanding presence of the empire.

Reaching into her pack she got out her communicator to see if there was were more instructions from the palace. The light flashed indicting an awaiting transmission. Flipping open the palm sized device a hologram appeared of the Empress.

"Duchess of Kiev, I hope that you are on your way in haste to the Empire. I need Abel to come to the palace as soon as you land. I will have Baybars waiting for you at the docks."

"Wow, she is in a hurry." She said aloud after closing the communicator and putting it back in her pack.

She walked back to the common room, Ion was playing with cards but looked tired. Abel was sprawled on the larger couch, his glasses askew as he had fallen asleep reading apparently. An empty plate rested on the coffee table.

"Has he been asleep long?" She asked as she approached Ion, having grabbed some snacks from the cart and a glass of water.

"He ate a huge plate of food, grabbed a book and I think maybe read two pages and he was out. He said he had a bad head injury so I wasn't sure if sleep was good or bad, so wanted to wait till you got back to wake him."

"I'm not a physician but I'm sure sleep is good for anyone recovering from injuries."

"Ok, he does seem exhausted, and after my injections I can understand it."

"Injections?"

"Silver nitrate, Lord Walsh does them to allow him to be out and about during the day in Albion, I talked him into letting me use it while there to spend more time with Esther."

Astha shuddered at the thought of silver.

"Sounds awful to me. Perhaps you should up your water of life and get some rest. The Empress wants him at the palace immediately on our arrival."

"I wonder why the Empress is so concerned for him, he's just a terran and not really that exceptional."

"He saved you didn't he? More than once I believe."

Ion grimaced and nodded, looking down a bit ashamed. "Right he did. He perhaps is a bit more than just an average Terran I guess."

"There must be a reason for the Empress to be needing him, it's our duty to make sure he gets there. How about you go rest, I'll watch over him till he wakes."

Ion sighed and collected up the cards, Astha waved him to leave them on the table. He nodded and left the room.

Finally tired of seeming to lose every card game she could remember, Astha got up to peruse the books in the shelf near Abel's couch.

He had been asleep now for quite a while and no sign of waking. She half turned towards him, taking the opportunity to look at him without his notice.

He was easy to look at, handsome features with an aquiline nose, high cheekbones and a strong smooth jawline. He was still a bit haggard from his injury, a tad thin perhaps as his features were still hollowed but he was already improved from the other day. His pale skin and silver hair was so striking and unusual. His long eyelashes were something she hadn't noticed before, men always seemed to get the longest eyelashes. His glasses had slipped down his face and rested at a precarious angle on the bridge of his nose. Her fingers twitched to remove them before they fell on the floor but didn't want to wake him. Slack jawed in slumber, a slight snore startled Astha from her intent study of his features. She shook her head, embarrassed but thankful he didn't wake up. Ruefully rubbing the back of her head she grabbed a random book and walked over to the window that looked out the side of the ship.

Darkness enshrouded the land, few lights flickered from below. They were just over halfway to the Empire now, the small ship was making good time.

She flipped open the book to a random page and was glancing over the text when a moving light caught her attention.

A small red light moved again to the far side of the ship, it was hard to tell how far away it was. She set the book down and focused more on the light as it was moving forward, against the travel of the ship. Then it did an odd zig zag motion, still unable to pinpoint how far away it was in the cloaking black of night.

"How odd…" she said aloud.

Suddenly the light flashed a white halo of light before going dark and disappearing from her sight.

Something felt wrong, Astha decided it was time to wake Abel. Moving quickly across the room, she had just set her hand on his shoulder when the ship lurched from impact.

"Abel!" She barked his name as she slammed onto his body.

Emergency lights flashed on in the room and alarms sounded with piercing volume. Another violent shudder shook the ship again.

Abel came awake in a rush, not recognizing Astha he tossed her across the room, standing up in a fighting stance. Electrical currents snaked around his arms and body, his eyes were darkening to red as he assessed the situation. He gasped in shock when he identified the sprawled body on the floor as Astha.

"Oh no!" His voice was muffled by his sharpened teeth. He shook his head, to clear away the fog of the crusnik before he did anything more he would regret.

"We have been struck by an unknown object, please get to the cargo room as it has emergency equipment if needed." One of the pilots said over the intercom.

Abel hurried over to Astha to help her up, hoping he hadn't hurt her too badly when she went sailing across the room, knocking over the food cart.

He clenched his jaw to stop the electrical surge he felt again, the crusnik was getting unruly being denied food.

"Astha! Are you ok?"

She nodded and took his offered hand to stand up, she looked at him warily for a moment before scanning the room.

"I think we are under attack, I saw something with a red light that flashed moments before it struck!" She half yelled as the alarms were so loud.

Ion ran into the room then, he had been in the guest quarters near the back of the ship.

"What's happening?!"

Abel moved over to the window, smoke could be seen coming from the one side of the ship and it looked like possibly an engine was affected.

"I think we have been hit by something, an engine looks damaged." Abel's keen eyes caught movement ahead of them, a red speck in the darkness that was steadily getting bigger.

"We better get to the back of the ship! That looks like another missile!" He turned and grabbed both Astha and Ion's shoulders pushing them towards the hallway.

Abel reached over to grab his bag and glasses before running after them.

"We are beginning to lose altitude, the ship is not equipped for damage. Please get to the cargo bay everyone!" The panicked voice of the pilot came over the intercom.

Astha seeing Abel had grabbed his bag, quickly got hers as well as her spear. It looked like they might have to get off the ship fast if it was going down.

Booom! Another heavy hit to the ship, this one to the front and they could feel the ship lag under the impact and dip down. Abel looked around the small cargo bay for parachutes or whatever emergency equipment was supposed to be on this thing.

"That last hit was on the front… so you think the pilots are ok?" Astha asked as she looked back at the doorway.

"If you and Ion find the emergency gear then I'll run up front for the pilots… hopefully that blast wasn't in the cockpit. I think we are going to have to bail so be ready."

He quickly ran back up the hallway and to the cockpit. The door showed some damage as he reefed it open. Inside, the rush of air from the broken windows nearly knocked Abel back, the glass was shattered and he could see the pilots were slumped over in their chairs. He got up to the controls, splattered with blood, he had to rub his arm along the dash, to clear the screens enough to see. The crusnik leaped against Abel's mental restraints, eager for their methuselah blood. Abel's eyes flickered between blue and red as his beast thrashed for release, frenzied for the meal in front of it. He gritted his teeth and held his breath, chanting in his mind Liliths name, hoping she could give him strength to focus on the bigger issue of the ship going down.

"Abel! Let us feed! These souls are gone now and we need strength!" Lilith's voice yelled from within his mind.

He let go of his held breath and nodded, allowing the transformation. "Crusnik 02 activation 40% confirmed." Abel's eyes no longer flickered between his blue and the crusnik's red, his fangs now easily visible against his darkened lips. The crusnik's ability of telekinesis to absorb blood from its surroundings went quickly to work, taking in the spilled blood from the controls of the ship and pools of blood on the floor by the chairs.

Abel focused on the screens to see how damaged the ship was… his talons making the typing hard to manage.

The ship was only using one engine and losing altitude at an increasing rate, luckily it was still a fairly flat descent. He looked back at the dead pilots, cleaned of blood and sighed, reaching forward to close their lifeless eyes.

It was going to be a crash landing, and just how was he going to get Ion and Astha to ground safely? 02 growled within his mind wanting to go after the female and take the glorious blood within her, run to ground and continue the hunt for more, always hungry for more.

"No!" Abel shouted aloud, the wind in the cockpit buffeting against his form. He looked outside the ship and spotted a red light. Another rocket was coming at the front of the ship, speeding towards Abel.

"Activate 80%!" he called forth his blood scythe and his large black wings burst from his back in a flurry of blood, feathers and fabric.

Abel dashed forward out of the damaged glass and onto the destroyed nose of the ship, his scythe held in his right hand, the blade lowered. He took a quick breath and jumped forward again, his wings doing a hard downward stroke, electricity crackling along the obsidian coloured feathers. He had to get to the rocket before it got closer to the ship or it would plummet! Faster, I need to be there faster! He mentally chanted, pumping his wings and angling himself directly at the rocket. Bringing up the scythe he readied his blow.

Boom! His scythe knocked the armoured casing aside, changing the trajectory to the right and away from the ship. The rocket exploded mere moments later knocking Abel backwards and onto the wing of the ship. His blood scythe discinerated at impact, it's skeletal features absorbing into Abel's hand. His great wings flared out as he grappled to hang onto the wing. His talons pierced the metal as he pulled himself along to the body of the ship, folding his wings to stop pull of the wind.

He shook his head to get his bearings, it wouldn't be much longer before the treetops would be an issue, and rocky terrain was all around. He needed to get to Astha and Ion quickly! He grabbed fistfuls of metal as he pulled himself back up to the smashed windows of the cockpit.

Once back on his feet, he gritted his teeth and commanded the crusnik to stand down, return to 0 percent activation. 02 let go of Abel's body and returned to its dormant state, simmering at the possibility of more action to come. Liliths cool presence instantly rushed down his limbs and core to settle 02 down.

"God bless you Lilith." Abel whispered as he ran to the back of the ship where he had left the others.