A very tall man in a black uniform with a red armband stood with looking out over a the factory floor from the glassed in office. His long black hair cascaded down his back to end near his hips framed his jet black eyes were coolly assessing the scene below in the factory. A slender cigarillo held lightly to his lips while his coldly beautiful face showed a neutral expression. The undead methuselah soldiers - autojägers were being outfitted and sorted into groups. Soon they would be sent out on patrols as this base was slowly being retrofitted to their needs. Behind him, a slight sloshing sound could be heard from the large glass tank filled with an opaque black liquid.

"Issak, I'm bored of being in here. How much longer must I stay?"

Issak sighed softly, smoke tendrils spiralled lazily around him.

"Another six hours and you will be back to full strength. Your latest altercation with 02 took a lot out of your system Mein Herr."

"That feels like it will be forever!"

"With your lifespan that seems a bit dramatic."

"Oh, well.. yeah perhaps... but still time moves so slow in here… Have we heard anything about what 02 is doing?"

"He seems to have boarded a ship and left Albion. I have men stationed around to shoot down any ships on route to the Empire as it is likely he is trying to get to 03." He paused to take another drag on his smoke. "My hope is that with him being fully fused to the crusnik, 02 will take over the host body and thus we will only have to look for the destruction."

"Won't that make it harder to capture him?"

"Once you starve a beast it is always hungry. 02 will be easy to coax in and to our side with the right bait." He flicked a few ashes from his smoke before turning around to walk over to the tank.

"I don't think Esther would be happy if we used her. We only just gave her that lovely crown and kingdom to figure out."

"No, the young queen is not quite the right person… I was thinking perhaps the cardinal would be good, or the professor might be entertaining."

"Have I met them yet?"

"No, Mein Herr but you will."

"Soon?"

"That depends on 02. We want that alliance between Cardinal Caterina and the Empire to have enough time to ripen so that the inevitable betrayal is that much sweeter, but if 02 proves troublesome it will still be a simple thing to fan the flames needed to have the Vatican attack the Empire."

"Right. I'm so glad I have you around Issak, keeping things in order."A slight smile touches the cool features. "I live to serve."

Astha ran back to where Abel was sleeping. She reached out to grab his shoulder as she had done on the ship, but stopped just before she touched him, remembering how he woke up swinging. He had been an agent for the cardinal and even though he was quiet man, he knew what danger was and had the reflexes for it. Bracing herself she carefully shook his shoulder.

"Abel! We have trouble coming!" She urged him.

Abel's blue eyes opened in unfocused confusion at the jostling of her shaking him awake. Slowly they zeroed in on her golden eyes and blinked a few more times as he got his bearings.

"Trouble?" His groggy voice was low and thick as he seemed to be dragging himself out of slumber.

"Yes, it looks like they found the shack and torched it."

He sat up and looked around at the moonlit clearing."Torched it? How soon till Se… err the ship gets here?"

"Not long, maybe another hour if that. I'll contact them shortly. But if those terrans are here they might have the cannon that brought us down. We need to stop them before our ticket out of here is shot."

He sighed and got up, packing up his extra coat and getting out his gun and bullets."There isn't much choice is there? We will have Ion stay up top here, you and I can deal with these guys easy enough."

She nodded, looking back at where Ion was waiting for further instruction, she waved him over.

"I could help, I'm not an child." Ion groused when they told him to wait with the equipment.

"I've worked with Astha before and you, from my experience like to charge ahead without thinking, a failing of all youth I'm afraid." Abel quietly said to unruffled the young methuselah's feathers.

"I… well.. you're right I guess. I'll stay here and wait for the sign from either you or the ship."

Abel nodded affirmation and a quick glance at Astha to see how communication with the ship was going.

"There's interference I can't get through to the ship… we need to be quick Nightroad." She said as she set the communicator down and grabbed her spear. He nodded, rolled his shoulders a little and walked off towards the path, Astha following close behind.

The glow of the burning shack was dying down some, and while it lit up the area, not much could be seen of the men.

"We will go down to near that small brook, its less than halfway to the shack and if I remember right would be a good place to stage an ambush. Are you strong enough to still have haste?" He looked towards her, eyebrow raised.

"Of course I do...Are we racing down there?"

"Heh, no not racing, I have a different idea, as I want to question one of them. If you haste and knock all but one out then we can ask him a few quick questions before taking him out too."

She nodded in understanding, "I will likely do more than knock them over… these are just terrans." she replied while adjusting her over coat and slinging her spear across her back.

"It is what it may be, alive they might give us away, dead it's bodies that leave a trail…" he took a deep breathe and then started down the path in a jog being mindful of the rough terrain.

It didn't take long to reach the brook, moonlight was just enough to allow decent navigation of the rocky forest floor before the canopy blocked most of the light. Abel set his hand back and low to alert Astha to slow down, she dutifully stopped and unhooked her spear, as Abel drew his old style colt revolver.

Further down the path was the occasional bluish beam of a flashlight and they could hear the thrashing of several people walking through the underbrush.

Abel nodded at Astha to go over behind a larger spruce tree just up from the brook, he moved forward and hopped over the brook going slightly downhill from where she was hidden. He knelt down and grabbed a small fist sized rock, hefted it a few times to gauge its weight before standing up again. It wasn't long before a flash of light could be seen down the path. Soon the beams of the flashlights was getting more consistent, and snippets of speech could be heard now, four male voices were discernible.

Abel waited till he could see them clearly before he waved at Astha to alert her. Seeing her nod, he stepped out and threw the rock at the men. It landed just past them to their left. Flashlights swirled as they looked at where the noise came from.

Astha took advantage of the distraction and darted towards them with the blinding speed of haste. Using the butt of her spear she rammed it into the first ones sternum, knocking him over and down. She landed and sidestepped to jump at the second man, aiming for his head, and with the momentum the impact was likely lethal. She remembered Abel wanting one left standing so she dodged the third and went for the fourth. He had seen the others drop and braced his arms in front of him with a yell of surprise. Astha slammed into him, twisting her body between his hands and using her shoulder to drive his body into the ground hard. She pressed her boot into his throat as she stood up, then using the butt of the spear, smashed it against his temple to either knock him unconscious or dead, both outcomes were good enough for her.

As Astha was taking the men down, Abel hurried out and stopped just before the group, gun cocked and pointed at the last man standing. The beam of his flashlight illuminated Abel's body, the slim dark figure, pale skin and silver hair. Momentarily a flash of red eyes reflected back at the man as he stared down the barrel of the gun. Astha stood behind the man and pressed the tip of her spear between his shoulder blades.

"Go ahead and shoot, filthy vampire bitch!"Astha's eyes widened slightly and she pushed the spear harder into his back.

"That's not the smartest thing I've ever heard." Abel commented, walking closer. The man was thick, burly build and swarthy complexion. His clothes were of a common labourer and no distinctive marking was seen, all Abel could find of any note was a simple gold wedding band.

"Who are you, why are you following us?" Abel asked keeping his voice low and even.

"I'm not telling you anything! You killed the other guys and you're just going to kill me anyway. All you damned vampires want to do is kill."

"Were you hired to track newcomers?" Abel continued ignoring the man's refusal to answer.

"Fuck you! Like I said I'm not telling you anything!"

Abel lowered his gun and looked at Astha. She shrugged her shoulders.

"Well… Given your over abundance of help, do you wish for death? Your wife will become a widow, your children fatherless. Is whoever hired you worth more than your family?" Abel hoped appealing to the man's family needs would help.

The man shifted his feet a little, some of the fight leaving him."We were to shoot and bring back any that survived the crash. They told us they would be fucking vampires and he was bloody right." He moved to shrug off the spear between his shoulder but Astha kept the point jabbed in the meaty area beside his spine.

"Who wants to shoot down the ships?"

"He never said his name. Some skinny kid with a funny accent that gives you the heebie jeebies. They paid us well in advance and told us we can take whatever we can from the ships. My wife is sick, I need the money to get her more help… I have a number to contact him with but I won't grab it with her pushing that thing in my back."

Abel looked again at Astha and nodded his head, she stepped back a half step to take the pressure off the man.

The man bowed his back to reach inside his coat, his hand rifling around inner pockets. In the relief of tension on Abel and Astha's part, he pulled out his gun instead.

Abel's eyes widened moments before the bullet went into his chest.

Astha activated her spear instantly and the energy bolt killed the man mere seconds later.

"Abel!" She raced over to him as he doubled over.

He coughed a few times, a bit of blood dripping on the ground. Dropping his gun he gathered his sleeve to press on the wound.

"What can I do?!" Astha asked, panic strong in her voice.

"Just… give… me a moment… stay back please Astha." He panted.

She knelt down watching him worriedly. She heard him taking in a few deep shuddering breaths before he straightened up.

"Ok. I'm alright now… did you uh… kill the other men? Or will they wake up?" He moved slowly to pick up his gun and holster it.

"Wake up?... Oh! I'll check." She moved over the other three prone forms, checking for signs of life.

They had all died either from impact or internal bleeding."Terrans are so fragile, I forget how it was for us before our change happens…" she paused and studied him for a moment. "Where did you get hit? How badly are you injured? Did the bullet go through?"

Abel shrugged his shoulder a little, a bit like a testing motion to see how he was. "It missed vitals and feels like it went through. I'll be ok, it's not the first time I've been shot."

"Can I wrap it for you? It's still a good hike up to the clearing and no need to bleed out on the way up."

"No, Astha don't touch me right now… I heal pretty quickly and it's just best for both of us if you aren't too close to me."

She furrowed her brows in frustration."Why can't I be near you? That makes no sense!"

Abel acted like he didn't hear her, looking around at the brush and then at the bodies. "We will have to move these off the trail… two could go behind that tree there, the others... there's a bit of a dip beside this tree." He pointed at the spots.

Astha huffed but went over to drag bodies, as Abel did the same. "You were just shot, what are you doing?!"

"Helping."

"Blood loss is a problem for most people."

"I know. I'm using the good arm, honest."

"Nightroad!" She growled and hefted the last body to the backside of the tree.

"This won't keep the animals from the bodies… but it should disrupt anyone looking for us a day or two."

"Let's get back to Ion. The ship should be here any time now." Astha pressed.

He nodded and turned to go back up the path, feeling Astha's glare as strongly as the bullet hole his body had already closed and cleaned up, absorbing all the spilled blood.

They had walked a good portion of the path in silence before Astha couldn't contain herself.

"That was pretty dumb to lower your gun like that, what do they teach you at the Vatican?"

Abel winced at her comment. "I guess I'm a bit out of practice, Tres would have given some calculations on how fast he could shoot if the guy tried to draw a weapon. I'm always let down on how dedicated people are to money."

"Well, don't do that again, you're lucky he didn't hit any vital, if a bit unused like your head." She scolded, "as soon as we get on the ship you need medical attention, no one just heals up from a bullet." She grumbled as she walked behind his tall form, eyeing his movements for pain.

"I will be fine Astha, stop worrying about me. I'm flattered that you are so concerned… perhaps I've grown on you?" He teased.

"Grown on me?!" She growled and reached out, grabbing his coat by the collar and twisting him around, pushing his back to a tree. His surprised blue eyes met her angry gold ones.

"A- Astha?!" He stuttered."Shut your mouth a moment Nightroad. I'm tired of you dodging my questions, and cold shoulder-ing me. You did it at Albion, when we got out of the ship and now again after being shot, I can't ignore it any longer. What is going on with you? Why won't you tell me anything? I remember you were hurt at Venice, but as soon as we talked you got up and acted like nothing had happened. Now you're doing it again after a close range bullet. You said the wings were an augmentation…" As she spoke she slammed him against the tree with each question. Her brows furrowed a bit as she looked at his coat where he was shot. "Where's the blood? I saw you get shot and blood splattered… even your sleeve is clean all that's left are the burn marks…" her grip lessened as her eyes snapped up to his. "and you can't tell me this is another augmentation from the Vatican."

The surprise faded from his eyes, replaced with sad apology."I was hoping this conversation would hold off till we were in the Empire… it's the mark of my sins...You and I have more in common than we have with terrans… please Astha let me tell you this when we are back in the Empire." She noticed as he spoke the feeling of static charge in the air, his skin was getting more pale, loose hairs were floating slightly about his head and his voice was deeper, raspy even.

"More in common with me than with terrans? But you're a Terran... right?"

Abel brought his arm up to push her away from him, things were getting too intense both within and without his body. 02 was struggling against Lilith, pushing to activate without commands. The nanomachines were buzzing in his veins at the proximity of Astha's sweet blood.

"Not as much as I used to be." He said softly, sadly.

She noticed his want for space but felt she was close to finally getting an answer out of him, that she braced against him. Looking at his face she noticed he was clenching his teeth, but it looked odd and as her eyes travelled up to his, she was met with blue that fading into a predatory red. Her stomach suddenly went to lead as the red became more dominant.

"Astha, before I harm you… move away…" he whispered, pleading.

Her eyes ripped away from his and when he spoke she glimpsed behind his lips, pointed teeth that should have been the blunt rectangular of a human. A shocked gasp escaped her as she quickly stepped back. She winced as an arc of electricity jumped from his arm to her shoulder, the spidery blast visible momentarily.

"Wha...what are you?"

She watched him close his eyes and take several deep breaths, visibly calming himself down.When he looked back up all signs of the predatory version were missing, replaced with his wintery blue eyes that carried that deep sadness she had only glimpsed before.

"I will explain later, please Astha, the ship is coming if not already landed… I promise we will talk about this again just… not here, not like this."

She looked up at the sky, seeing that some time had passed and he was likely right, this was not the place nor the time.

"Am I safe with you?"

"Yes, just don't get so close… it makes things rough for me."

"You will tell me everything? I need to know."

"You will know soon enough… for better or worse. We are tovarish right?" He stepped past her and started running up the path, to escape her or reach the clearing she couldn't tell.

Astha took a few deep breaths as she watched him leave, feeling confused and wondering if her hot headedness had opened up something best left alone. But there was no going back now, the image of red eyes and black wings flashed in her mind, giving her a cold shiver, soon she would have answers. A quick mental shake and she hurried after him.