Aggrandizement

The sun was shining hot and bright when the trio landed on the coast of the Dark Island. The suit's feet sunk several inches into the soft sand before the mechanics finally whirred to a halt.

"Finally," Lloyd said as he jumped down from the suite. "What do you think, Jay? Warm enough out here for you?"

Jay leapt down from the where he had been sitting the past twelve or so hours and stretched his legs. He fiddles with the buttons of his garment, wondering if it would be inappropriate to take off his shirt and try to cool off a bit. "Yes," he replied. "It's plenty warm."

He held out an arm for Nya, who carefully slid down the side of her mechanical masterpiece and took his hand to help keep her balance as she jumped the last few feet to the ground, grimacing slightly.

"You okay, Nya?" Jay asked, holding back a grimace of his own as her hand squeezed his hard enough to stop circulation. "You look a little pale."

Nya nodded and shifted her weight, holding her stomach with her free hand as she doubled over for a moment. "I'm fine," she said. "Just give me a moment, please. I landed wrong and hurt myself again."

Jay stood patiently beside Nya and waited for her wound to stop hurting her. She had been walking without a cane for a few days now, although both Jay and Lloyd agreed that she still needed it at times. But Nya's pride got in the way of common sense, and she insisted that she could handle it.

Nya finally righted herself and let go of his hand. "Thank you," she said. She held up a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. "This blasted sun," she grumbled. "I'm surprised that anything can grow out here. We're going to need some shade."

Lloyd pointed behind him at the suit, which was casting a long shadow over where he stood. "And this needs to get hidden," he said. "I don't know what our plan was once we reached the island, but we can't stay here. The Overlord might see us."

Nya walked around to the other side of the suit, her limp barely noticeable, and peered out at the tall trees that bordered the sandy beach. "I can hide the suit," she said. "But you're right. We need a plan before we rush into the thick of things to rescue my brother."

"And Zane and Pixal," Lloyd interjected. "They're probably being held in the same place, wherever that is."

And Cole, Jay added to himself. Cole seemed to be the one that everyone in the group was thinking about, but no one dared speak up about the problems recruiting him might bring.

"Okay," Lloyd said. "So you've got a way to hide the suite. Can you show us how to do it?"

Nya stopped walking and opened a hatch in the suit's left leg. "It's a feature I've haven't shown you guys yet," she said. "Watch what I do; it's a little complicated." She reached into the panel and pressed a button.

Jay took a step in Nya's direction, watching intently as she walked around the suit, pulling at catches he had not noticed before in the steel plates of the mech's hard outer armor. "What will that do?" He asked. "Are you disassembling it?"

Nya shook her head. "Goodness, no." She said. Looking over her work, she seemed satisfied and went to the back of the left leg again. "Take a step back and watch." She reached for the button again and hesitated. "Actually, come over here and empty the compartments. It won't transform if it's got anything in it."

Jay came forward immediately and helped her pull out the three large packs. One carried food, another carried clothing and other basic essentials, and the third was the two tents and outdoor equipment. "Lloyd," he addressed the blond boy standing at the tree line. "Come and take this pack." He weighed each one carefully and set aside the one with the clothing in it for Nya. It was the lightest, and he knew that she could not handle the burden of a heavier pack without the risk of hemorrhaging from her wound.

"Thanks," Nya said. She pressed the button in the leg and stepped back.

"No problem," Jay said. He weighed the last two in each arm and selected the tent pack because it was the next lightest of the three. "So what are those buttons supposed to do?"

Nya looked at it and frowned. "Well, it's supposed to transform the mech, but..." She trailed off and fiddled with a few wires in the panel. "There. Something just got knocked out of place during the flight." She shut the panel and stepped back again, running into Jay's body.

The thief took a surprised step backward and dropped the packs to support Nya as she tripped. "Whoa, careful." He said as he grabbed her shoulders. "You can't expect me to catch you every time you fall... I-I mean..." He chuckled nervously as Nya righted herself and took a step away from him. They were both blushing. "Well, I-I don't mind catching you, but I can't always be right there." He grimaced. That sounded terrible.

Nya smiled sheepishly and looked back at the suit, which was making a strange beeping sound. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't know you were right there."

"No, I'm sorry." Jay said. He was not sure why he was suddenly so flustered. Perhaps the lack of sleep was finally getting to him. "I should have watched-" He cut himself short when a strange noise suddenly replaced the beeping. He looked up at the suit, and his mouth opened into a wide, shocked smile as he watched the mech begin to fold in on itself, lifting portions of the metal carapace that Nya had loosened so that the entire body could compact and transform into a smooth cube about three by four feet long.

Once the mechanics stilled, Jay looked at Nya in amazement. "You..." He trailed off and stared at the box-shaped metal contraption again. "How is it even possible? That suit was..."

"Huge?" Nya supplied. "Yeah, I know. It's pretty cool, although I can't claim to have come up with that part myself. Zane and Pixal actually did most of that work. I'm a mechanic, not a puzzle master."

"Speaking of Pixal," Lloyd called out in their direction. "Come here and look at this, you two."

Nya gestured to the suit. "Can you help Jay lift this?" She asked. "We can bring it over there, then look at what you've got."

Lloyd ran over to them and stared at the large red block. "Impressive," he said. "It looks like you've been keeping yourself busy with your boyfriend of the Northern realm."

Nya's face flushed. "Stop that!" She exclaimed. "Zane's my friend, nothing more."

Lloyd smiled teasingly. "Whatever you say," he said with a dismissive wave. "I was just thinking of how funny it would be if we both married robots. That would technically make us siblings."

If Jay didn't know any better, he would have thought Nya had a bad sunburn on her face. She was red with both embarrassment and rage as she took a step in Lloyd's direction, scowling. "You go rescue your damsel in distress," she spat. "I will go rescue my brother and best friend, Zane." She seemed genuinely angry, which surprised Jay even more. He had never seen her so worked up over a tease. He rested a hand on her shoulder, silently requesting a ceasefire.

"I wouldn't dream of starting a relationship with that nobleman," she continued angrily, ignoring Jay's hand. "Zane and I are good friends, nothing more. Drop it before I skewer you with my sword."

Lloyd took a step backward, green eyes wide. "Sorry," he said quickly. "I didn't think that you would take it seriously. I'll stop teasing you about it."

Nya brushed Jay's hand away and walked up to her transformed mech. "Thank you." She spat. "Now let's get this thing into the trees before we're spotted by the Overlord's men."

Lloyd and Jay scurried over to the large red box and lifted the sun-heated metal out of the sand.

Jay grunted as he struggled to find a good place to place his hands. There were no good handles on the smooth surface of the box.

Nya came up on one side and helped them lift. "Let me help," she said. "Sorry, I know it's heavy. If we-"

"No," Lloyd and Jay said in unison.

Nya let go of the mech, flustered. "Why can't I help?" She demanded. Her hands went back underneath the suit. "You men can be so stubborn. I'm helping, no matter what you say."

Jay and Lloyd exchanged concerned glances. The two of them did not see eye to eye on many different subjects, but they could both see that Nya was not strong enough to help without hurting herself. Through some unspoken agreement, they both lowered the box back into the sand, forcing Nya to let go so her fingers wouldn't be flattened.

"Hey!" Nya stamped her foot impatiently in the sand, kicking up particles that the warm wind carried away without a moment's hesitation. "Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean you two can push me around. It's just a box, there's no reason to-"

"Nya," Jay cut her off with a gentle voice. "It has nothing to do with your gender." He put a hand on her small, feminine shoulder again and gave it a squeeze. "Your wound is still hurting you. Lloyd and I are simply making sure that it will heal as quickly as possible."

Nya looked at his hand on her shoulder and frowned deeper for a second before softening her expression. "All right," she said reluctantly. "I'm sorry, I spoke without thinking. Thanks." She brushed his hand away again and began walking with her short, pained steps toward the tall tropical trees.

Jay breathed a sigh of relief and gave Lloyd a smile while Nya's back was turned.

Lloyd nodded gratefully and bent down to lift the suit again. After a minute of grunting and puffing under the weight of the thing, they finally got it into the trees.

"Set it down over here," Nya said. She pointed at a clump of large-leafed brush that Jay could not identify. "Thanks, you two. Sorry for making you do this."

Jay lowered the transformed mech and wiped his brow. Something about the air reminded him of a steam cooker, and he wondered if his face was as red from the heat as it felt. "Stop apologizing," he said. He worked with his companions to conceal the suit with the huge, broad leaves of the bush. "I don't mind, honest. Don't beat yourself up over it." He looked at Lloyd and pointed over his shoulder. "Let's go get those packs."

Lloyd held up a hand. "Wait," he said. "I want to show you what I found first." He scurried around the bush, beckoning for Nya and Jay to follow.

Jay skirted the bush and stopped short at the sight before him. "Is that..." He stared at the objects on the ground. "Is that a cog?"

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah," he said. He knelt beside a pile of parts and lifted a frayed black wire. "And look all around us." He swept his hand over the ground and made marks in the sand with his fingers. "You see all of these bird tracks?"

Nya leaned against a tall, strange looking tree with leaves that seemed to blossom out of the top of the trunk, nearly forty feet into the sky. "Yes," she said thoughtfully. "Look, Jay. The tracks are pretty big, and there are long talons at the end of each toe. It's some sort of predator bird."

"That's what I thought," Lloyd said as he fingered the splaying fragments of rusted metal at one end of the black wire. "But what bird of prey would be collecting junk like this?"

"I don't know," Nya replied thoughtfully. "But I don't see much of a reason to dwell on it; we've got a couple Nindroids, my brother, and a Dark Knight to find and reclaim from the Overlord. We've no time for little mysteries like this."

Anyone could agree that Kaytake's week had been an exceptionally terrible one. Indeed, anyone who said his week had been anything but terrible would be either flat-out lying, or insane.

The cart he sat in jerked as the wheel presumably ran over a deep pothole in the road. Because of the blindfold and bonds on his wrists and legs, he could not stop his forward momentum and fell flat on his face. His groan of pain was stifled by the gag in his mouth.

He had not been bound and gagged the whole journey. His captors had let him get up and stretch for a few short minutes many times, but had kept him within the confines of the dark cell underneath the ship for the duration of its passage. And he had always been retied afterward. He did not get why that last part was necessary; it was not as if he could have escaped a locked room.

The voyage over water had not lasted more than a few days, though Kaytake could not be sure of the date when he was in complete darkness for most of every day. Even the little light he had gotten on the ship had been radiated by electric lanterns held by guards.

After they had left the ship, Kaytake had been transported straight to a cart that had apparently been waiting on the docks for them. The air had been- and still was- brisk, suggesting that they might have been in the Northern realm, although some areas of the Middle realm had a similar climate.

His thought about being held in a cart had been a mere guess. Since he was blindfolded, it was hard to distinguish anything in his surrounding environment. After an hour on a bumpy dirt road, he had given up on trying to figure out his surroundings and focused solely on trying to keep warm. The temperature was much too cold for the thin cotton tunic and pants he had been wearing when he first rode down to the docks in the rain many days earlier.

The cart stopped suddenly, and Kaytake breathed a sigh of relief through his nose. And I used to think that sailing a fishing boat during a storm was uncomfortable... He thought bitterly.Being tied up in a cart tops even that by a mile.

"We're here, prisoner." He heard Captain Garth snap.

Excellent, Kaytake thought. He glared into his dark blindfold. I am going to assume that you are taking me to Borg. This is good, because I have a few choice words for that pig about the way he transports imbecilic noblemen. Imbecilic indeed... Who else but an idiot would go off to the port without his guards, who were basically just there to ensure that boring adventures like this never happened?

Kaytake's self-reprimanding session was interrupted by harsh hands that lifted him into the air without warning and dropped him over another man's shoulder. Wouldn't it be significantly easier to untie my legs and let me walk? He thought with annoyance as the man began to walk forward... Or backwards... Kaytake did not know or care which action the man was doing. He just wanted to get the trip over with.

He could hear branches cracking beneath the feet of the men who presumably walked next to the one carrying him. A chilly breeze ran through his hair, which gravity was forcing upward... Or downward, depending on how one looked at it. His upper body was hanging upside-down, draped over this man's back, so his hair was pointing toward the ground. Which would technically be down, but since his head was-

Kaytake stopped thinking about it. Trying to figure out such insignificant details such as the definition of up and down in different circumstances was the last thing on his mind.

The sound of cracking branches was replaced by the faint squeaking of a door and the pounding of footsteps down- or up- a flight of stairs. With the blood rushing into his head, he felt about ready to faint, and his sense of direction was skewed. Whatever control he still had over his mind slipped away as his world began to go fuzzy.

Right as he was at the threshold of unconsciousness, he was dropped to the ground like a heavy sack of potatoes. The sound of his body hitting the floor echoed through the room with Captain Garth's voice. "We've got him," he said. "Go and get Borg. I need my pay, then I'm out of here."

"Yes sir." An unfamiliar voice answered. A guard, no doubt. Footsteps from across the room echoed as the man presumably ran to get his master.

A sharp kick in the side made Kaytake grunt in protest. Yes, I am alive. He wished he could snap at the man who had kicked him. No need to kick me, I am very much alive.

"What is this?" A shocked voice asked from a distance. "Garth, don't tell me that you kept him like this the whole trip here."

"Yes sir," Garth answered reluctantly. Kaytake could sense the nervousness in his captor's tone. Whoever was reprimanding this rugged sailor was obviously a feared and highly respected man. "Well, I didn't blindfold him 'till we left the ship. As instructed, he has no idea where 'ee are."

"Untie him, for heaven's sake!" The man sounded even more upset. "There's no need for all of this cruelty. If this ends up not working because of your carelessness, it's coming out of your pay!" He did not sound angry, just annoyed. His aging, somewhat frail voice sounded anything but authoritative, but the other men in the room obviously regarded him with high esteem, because several sets of hands immediately went to work on untying him.

"I cannot believe how inhumane you are, Garth." The man in authority said. "I'll be lucky if I can get a word through his thick skull past all the hate he must be harboring now."

These words puzzled Kaytake greatly. Whoever was speaking on his behalf did not sound like a bad man. Quite the contrary, the man berating Garth sounded like a true man, using gentle and cunning language to get his way. And his subjects obeyed without hesitation, cowering at his displeasure... That was a trick even Kaytake had not mastered.

Kaytake had not even seen the man's face yet, yet somehow found a part of his mind to hold the mysterious voice bearer in the highest respect. A true man was indeed standing before him.

The bonds securing his ankles fell away, as well as the ones tied to his knees.

"Stand him up," the man said. "When was the last time you let him move around?"

"It's been..." Garth hesitated, voice nervous and shamed. "About twelve hours."

"Twelve hours?" The man exclaimed as Kaytake was lifted gently to his feet by trembling hands. "Goodness! Even Sir Cole doesn't do that to his prisoners, you fools. Perhaps I should call him in next time I want a man brought in. He always does a better job than you, and demands less than half the coins." He sighed again. "He's so much faster, too. It's a pity he was busy with the other job."

The blindfold came off next, and Kaytake shut his eyes against the sudden invasion of bright white light in his sensitive eyes that had grown accustomed to complete darkness.

"Get him over to the couch," the man said. Kaytake still could not see the man's face. He was too focused on trying to keep his unstable legs and burning eyes from bringing him to his knees to even think about using his vision. He allowed himself to be guided over to a couch. He settled down on the cushions slowly and attempted to open his eyes again.

"My apologies, my lord." The kind man said. "Don't just stand there, Garth. Get that gag off of his face and untie his hands."

"Yes...sir." Garth hissed through his teeth. Kaytake could tell that this was the type of henchman who would stick his master full of pins without a moment's hesitation.

The gag was untied, and Kaytake spit the rag out of his mouth without bothering to check where it landed. He swallowed hard, trying to get the dryness out off of his tongue and gums. There were few feelings quite as terrible as a dry mouth. His arms were freed next, and he accepted the glass of water offered to him.

"Are you all right, Kaytake?" The man asked from where he observed behind the couch, where the Southern nobleman could not see him. "Get out of here, all of you." He gave the order to his hired henchmen, and the group left.

Kaytake lowered his head into his shaky hands and rubbed his temples. "What..." His throat was still dry, and speaking took considerable effort. "What am I doing here?"

"Slow down," the man said. "Take a few minutes to recover."

Kaytake lifted his eyes as he watched the man come into his field of vision. His brows lifted in surprise at the sight of the slight man before him. Black hair with streaks of grey, smiling brown eyes hidden behind large spectacles, and simple commoner clothing; white shirt, tied around the middle with a leather belt, and grey pants.

The man adjusted his spectacles and smiled, crinkling the crows feet around his warm eyes. His other hand guided his wheelchair as he moved carefully around the other couch and settled his wheels in front of Kaytake. He looked to be just a few years older than his nobleman prisoner, perhaps in his late forties. "Pleased to make your acquaintance," the man said. "Although I'm sure those feelings aren't mutual. The look in your eyes tells me that you miss your sword."

A smart man, Kaytake observed as he scowled at his handicapped captor. He's able to control men like Garth while weaponless and in a wheelchair. I've never seen anything like it.

The black haired man held out a hand. "My name is Cyrus," he said. "You might have heard of me. I worked for Lord Julien until recently."

Kaytake was even more shocked. This was Cyrus? This was the most powerful criminal in the North, and Julien's most trusted advisor until just over a week ago?

That last part was actually believable. This man seemed to have great tact and cunning. It was no wonder that he had fooled Julien for so many years.

"Kaytake." The Southern nobleman hesitantly took the outstretched hand and shook it. He tried to find something else to say, but found nothing. Everything he had been cooking up in his mind since he'd woken up in that ship several days prior died on his tongue as he stared into Cyrus' friendly hazel eyes.

Cyrus looked down at their hands and frowned. "Your grip is weak," he remarked. "Of course, this is because of your long journey. I can see in your eyes that Captain Darren hasn't exactly been feeding you caviar." He let go of Kaytake's hand and grabbed the large wheels of his chair with his wrinkled palms. "Just give me a moment, I'll get something for the both of us. It's lunchtime, anyways." He wheeled out of the room, leaving Kaytake alone.

The Southern nobleman was astounded. Cyrus seemed to be anything but a bad man.

A few hours earlier, he had been cursing Julien's stupidity for having trusted this Cyrus Borg. Now he was sitting in Cyrus' hideout, wondering if it were even possible to be any more confused, exhausted, or even as full of curiosity as he was now.

This 'Borg' was a wise man, and Kaytake found himself looking forward to a long conversation between the two of them.