I'm back once more guys! I hope everyone has had a good Christmas/Hanukkah, or is currently having a good Kwanzaa!

RECAP:
- There is a spy in the resistance, which is beginning to worry Yao. Lukas has started training, and Tino got promoted-
- Matthew, Bella, Kari, Carlotta and Abel, along with their prisoners, got ambushed on Galee by some Garvich intent on murdering poor old Gil. With the bounty hunters' help, they fended them off and fled. Feliks, Gilbert, Roderich and Tori have also now seen Matthew unmasked.
- The remaining bounty hunters and pirates have sworn to collect some members of Arthur's crew so they can track down their friends and rescue them.
- Lovino and Feliciano are still on Rela. Lovino has forgiven Sadik, after he attacked him, and was saved by a mysterious blonde who lives across the hall.

Yael = Israel

WARNINGS:
Medical bullshit, mentions of soap operas

Open Space,
Outside Cyypraa,
22nd Fybwari

Elizabeta was getting sick of space.

Believe her, she enjoyed flying, and sometimes, there was nothing more thrilling than spiralling through the air in a fighter. No, she would always enjoy flying. What was getting on her nerves was space itself. Looking out the windows and seeing endless darkness, an expanse of ink coloured sky interrupted only by the array of stars which spread across everything. Asteroids bumping gently into their ship when they went through belts, and the emptiness that surrounded their ship, almost always present except for when a planet appeared from the darkness, continuing to expand in size as they grew closer. She had spent months on an outpost before her capture, which was in space, then weeks on the pirate's ship, in space, and now even more time on this ship, returning to Nyma. Which, of course, was in fucking space. She swore, if she had to tolerate this much longer, she'd expel herself out the airlock.

The only thing which retracted from the boredom of space travel like this was their prisoners, who had become vastly more confident since the encounter with the Garvich two days ago. Granted, they weren't being as securely restrained as they had been before, so the root of their newfound joviality was fairly evident. She had more respect for them after their scuffle with the Garvich; particularly for Gentleman, whose fierce defence of his cousin had resulted in quite a severe concussion, a split lip and a few broken fingers. She had also learned that his real name was Roderich, which suited him almost to a fault. Speaking to their interesting guests helped spruce up the journey a lot more.

But, she supposed, she wouldn't need the distraction for that much longer. They should be back on Nyma in a few days, where she could finally walk on actual, solid earth. She had missed it far more than she should have.

The question of what to do with their prisoners still hung in the air among them. Matthew was the unspoken leader of this mission, so the others deferred to him, but he seemed to defer to Elizabeta, who had absolutely no idea what to do with them. She hadn't had much of a role in capturing them, really. She sincerely wished that Matthew wouldn't do that. He was a Captain in the rebel fighting force for a reason. True, she was above him in rank, as a Lieutenant Colonel, but this was his mission, and she had no desire to intervene in any of his decisions. She wished that he would see that he was just as capable a decision-maker as he was a warrior. His promotions hadn't been from skill on the battlefield alone. She sighed. Despite her own lack of ideas, they really did need to decide what to do with their prisoners soon, and if they were even going to bring them all the way to Nyma with them. If they decided not to – where would they go? What would they do with them? They hadn't committed any crime, other than having been unfortunate companions of Arthur Kirkland. They couldn't just kill them.

But if they did bring them all the way to Nyma, what would they even do then? Try and ransom them off to their friends? That could end up being vastly more convoluted than it needed to be. She groaned. This was going to be a long day.

Matthew was adjusting the wiring near the control panel when Elizabeta approached. He sat up a little, surprised that she had come to seek him out. He knew that his habit of deferring to her was starting to annoy her, but he couldn't help it. Back on Nyma, the vast majority of decisions and planning were run by her before anything was made concrete. And, to be honest, he was only asking her what to do with their prisoners because he didn't know what to do with them. He sighed, preparing for a lecture.

"I'll stop asking you about the prisoners, I promise–"

"That's not what I'm here for." She interrupted. Elizabeta glanced around the space before looking up at him again. "Mind if I sit?"

Matthew gestured to the free space, "Go for it." She sat, about a metre away from him, drawing her knees up to her chest and folding her arms over them. She looked over the jumble of wires he was mending.

"Having any luck?" she asked mildly, gesturing to the panel. Matthew raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, it's coming along," he said, wiping his hands on the ragged jeans he'd pulled on, "but that isn't why you came to talk to me, I know it isn't."

Elizabeta was silent for a moment, before she sighed, letting her head fall onto her arms.

"It's about when I was held captive by the pirates."

Matthew frowned. "You didn't really tell us anything about that, actually. Did something bad happen?"

Elizabeta's brow furrowed, and she rubbed her temples. "No, well, I mean, yes, bad things happened, but that's not what I'm talking about."

Matthew felt alarm flood his system. "Bad things happened to you?" he narrowed his eyes. "What happened? What did they do to you?" he honestly feared the answer. She just shook her head.

"Calm down, it wasn't anything like that. I just got deprived of water for a bit. And I couldn't shower. They were a little inhumane, sure, but not overly cruel." Matthew relaxed by a fraction.

"So, what is it then?" he inquired. Elizabeta sighed.

"Well, for the first few days of my imprisonment, it was just me and the pirates. But they stopped at the Garsinon Anchorage." She looked up, eyes shining, "And I know now that we were stranded there thanks to you, so my kudos for that. But," her expression grew hesitant. "Well, while we were there, obviously, they met up with their bounty hunter friends. Though," she paused for a moment, "I don't know if you could really call them 'friends'. I mean, one of them ripped Kirkland's finger off." Matthew felt his eyebrows skyrocket at that statement. Interesting, but not surprising, considering the sorts of things which Kirkland had reportedly done.

"While they were breaking up the fight between Kirkland and this other blonde guy, I saw one of the other bounty hunters." Elizabeta swallowed. "He had blondish hair, blue eyes, fair skin. And," She trailed off for a moment, before seemingly bracing herself, closing her eyes. "Matt, he looked so similar to you it was fucking scary."

Matthew could have sworn he felt his heart stop for a moment. Someone who looked scarily similar to him? He only knew of one person who had ever fit that description. But, he hadn't seen him in nearly 12 years. There was no way…

Then his mind was filled with images, of Ghoul staring at him in shock when he'd first seen him unmasked, and how Phantom had followed suit. How Elizabeta had studied his face when she'd first returned to them, almost like she was trying to confirm something…

He abruptly felt very sick, and stood suddenly. Elizabeta started, looking alarmed.

"Wait, Matt, don't go." She said, scrambling to her feet and trying to grab at his arm. He dodged her and tossed the screwdriver still in his hand down to the floor.

"I," he started, "I need to go." Elizabeta's expression crumpled with regret and worry.

"No, Matt, please."

"I'll talk to you later." He managed to force out in response, almost running down the hallway. He dismissed her continued calls for him to stop and calm down. His thoughts were racing, and his nausea was only increasing. His brother, his younger brother. People had always mistaken them for twins instead of normal brothers because of how similar they looked. Despite being a year older, Matthew had always been slightly shorter, which had only added to the misconception. He stopped abruptly, carding his hands through his hair as the reality sunk in. He groaned, leaning against the wall.

His brother…his brother was alive.

And he was a bounty hunter.

Szwicza District,
Bibesti, Rela,
25th Fybwari

The rain was unrelenting on the windows, a constant drone of sound as it continued to thrash against the side of their apartment. Their balcony was hardly even visible through the heavy rain, fog and wind that raged outside. All exterior doors in their apartment had been securely locked, and old, oiled rags had been stuffed in the cracks underneath to stop water from flooding in. Even all of this couldn't keep out the sharp chill that accompanied the weather.

They'd known this storm was coming for weeks and weeks. It had formed way over in the city of Draszuk, and gradually made its way to Bibesti. The status of the storm had been plastered on every news channel and site for weeks, though now that it had actually arrived, everyone had hunkered down in their own homes. Some channels on TV, as Lovino understood it, had just queued old, shitty movies and soap operas to play for several days. He'd attempted to distract himself with them for a while, but the dialogue alone had made him physically nauseous, so he'd firmly decided that boredom was a safer path to take.

But the real problem was the cold. Their apartment's heating system had broken several months. But since the weather on Rela never got severely cold, it hadn't been too much of a bother. But all rules of temperature got thrown out the window when storms like this one came around. It was below freezing, and the two Vargas brothers were trying to stay warm by bundling themselves in every blanket and jacket they owned (which wasn't that many), and gulping down absurd amounts of the tea which Sadik had gifted to them. It wasn't working very well, however, and they continued to shudder almost uncontrollably.

Really, Lovino reasoned, all they needed was some sort of distraction. The only place they could really get warm would be to have a hot shower or bath, but that would be boring as hell, and Feliciano had a notoriously short attention span. The only thing which could actually hold his attention for a long time was anything about Syhvva.

The idea struck him, and he felt excitement race inside him. Perfect. It would keep Feliciano's attention, and they could stay warm by (technically) having a hot bath.

"Feli, I have an idea." He said, standing and shucking off the blankets he had draped across his shoulders. Feliciano looked up curiously, watching as his brother began fumbling through cupboards, before reaching in and pulling out two bottles. One was full of a thick, dark liquid, and the other, much smaller, which appeared to have some sort of white paste. Grinning happily, Lovino held up the bottles.

"You wanna see what your real hair looks like?"

"No, no, no, don't use that much. Jeez, this stuff is expensive, you know."

"Sorry fratello." Feliciano mumbled in return, continuing to massage the white paste through his short hair. Lovino couldn't help but grin. His little brother looked a little absurd, with the paste all through his hair, like someone had rubbed shaving cream through it.

"You need to rub it harder than that," he said, reaching over and thoroughly scrubbing his brother's head. Feliciano shrieked, trying to dodge Lovino's scrabbling hands as he started to giggle madly. He eventually gave in, letting Lovino do the work to rid his hair of the thick black dye which had clung to it for years now.

That was the best thing about halkar. It didn't wash off unless the white paste, known as surem, was applied viciously to the person's head. The only reason Lovino had used such a strong substance was that Feliciano had been unaware of their heritage, or that they were even Syhvvanian. Now that he knew everything, they could use a much weaker dye to disguise themselves. But they had to remove the halkar first. Lovino gave his brother's head a once-over before he deemed it finished, and started to scrub at his own scalp. He watched as Feliciano leaned forward, and dunked his head into their bathtub, which they had filled with hot, soapy water. Feliciano began washing the paste from his hair, and as he did, Lovino watched as black spiralled away from his head in a flood, darkening the rest of the water in the bathtub. His gaze turned back to his brother's head, now free of the substance. There would be strands which hadn't received enough surem, yes, but they weren't even visible through the rich, garnet shade which now decorated his hair. Lovino knew his own was a darker shade, but it was in a sense liberating to see.

Feliciano was blinking water out of his eyes, looking at Lovino. "Did it work?" Lovino wordlessly gestured to the age-spotted, cracked mirror which hung above their basin. He turned his attention back to his own task, smiling when he heard the gasp of shock and delight from his brother. "It's so pretty!" Feliciano exclaimed, a blinding smile stretching across his face. Lovino nodded, before dunking his own head into the bath and rinsing it. The entire bath was black now, and he stood, observing his own reflection and nodding in satisfaction. Feliciano immediately flew to his side, grabbing at his hair to get a better look. Where Feli's hair was a deep, garnet red shade, Lovino's was closer to burgundy – noticeably darker, but undeniably Syhvvanian nonetheless. He finally looked…normal. At least, what normal was for him. The red, combined with the olive tone of his skin and his amber eyes, looked natural. He had managed to adjust to seeing himself with black hair, yes, but it would never feel as comfortable as it did now. It was a shame that they couldn't stay looking like this.

He sent his excited brother, examining his hair once more, an apologetic look.

"Feli…we can't keep our hair like this, you know that." Feliciano turned, and almost visibly deflated.

"Yeah, I know," he said sadly, "I wish we could though." Lovino nodded.

"Yeah, me too." He said heavily, "But right now, we need to redye it. This one is a lot weaker than halkar, so it should wash out gradually. Basically, that means that we'll have to do it more often." Feliciano nodded in understanding, still looking despondent, but fetched the other bottle from the sink without complaint.

Lovino smiled sadly, understanding his brother's hesitancy, but accepted the bottle, and got to work.

If someone were to ask why Feliciano had invited the mysterious blonde man from across the hall in for tea, he wouldn't have been able to answer them. He knew little about him, except that he had saved Lovino when Sadik had been drunk and handsy, he seemed to enjoy wearing army camouflage pants, and had a fondness for military-grade weaponry. He was fairly certain that the man, in return, knew little about him save for the fact that he was 'Jhobrasian', a teenager, and normally very happy.

So, from one person who barely knew the other, it was a shock when he accepted. Lovino himself even raised an eyebrow when the blonde entered, but didn't comment on it. Feliciano happily invited him to sit, and Lovino wordlessly began looking through their (now vast) tea selection. Feliciano drummed his fingers across his leg, just now realising how awkward this was going to be.

"It's kind of funny, isn't it?" Feliciano gave a start when the man spoke.

"Oh, uh, what is?" he responded, feeling a little caught off guard.

"Well, I know I've lived across the hall from you for about 5 or so years by now, but I've never really spoken to you two." Feliciano blinked, but let a smile slowly stretch across his face, and he laughed softly.

"Yeah, I guess that's true." He said, smiling at the man. "In that case, maybe now's a good time to start." He held out his hand. "I'm Feliciano." The man accepted his hand and gave it a brief, firm shake.

"I'm Vash, though I do beg you don't call me that when I'm in unpleasant company." Feliciano could almost hear his brother raising his eyebrow. Not a moment later, he emerged from the kitchen, with a pot of the Misori sencha they had gotten from Sadik.

"I'm Lovino," he said simply, "and I suppose I could say the same of my brother and I."

Vash looked over him, gaze lingering on his dark hair and amber eyes before he dropped his eyes to the cup being handed to him by Lovino.

"Thank you." He murmured, taking a sip and nodding in approval before placing it on their small table. He angled his body back a little, and surveyed them both. "So, as we have shared names and tea, I suppose that is an invitation for me to know more." He ran a hand back through his blond hair. "Tell me about yourselves." Lovino and Feliciano exchanged a brief look, before Lovino shrugged, and sat down on the couch next to their guest.

"Well, the two of us are from Jhobras, originally, though we moved here about 6 years ago. What about you?" he inquired. Vash shrugged.

"Well," he began, "I'm originally from Pyndaph myself, though I lived most of my childhood elsewhere. I've lived in Bibesti…4 years? Maybe five by now." He tilted his head back, looking thoughtful. "There's really not much to it." Lovino nodded, observing Vash carefully.

"So, what do you do for a living?" Vash's mouth curved into a slight smile at that.

"I think I'll pass on that question, thanks." He responded. When Lovino looked like he was about to argue, Vash interrupted him. "Unless you'd like to tell me what you two do for a living?". There was a sly note to his voice, like he knew that he had caught them out. Lovino was silent for a moment, before he smirked.

"Well, it's not all legal, I'll admit that much. Mostly pickpocketing and street-fighting." Vash looked at him with interest.

"And here I was thinking that street-fighting was banned."

"That depends on who knows about it." Vash's slight smirk turned into a brief, but genuine smile. He tossed his long blonde hair back again.

"I work as a military contractor, but not for any company." Lovino laughed a little at that.

"Sounds to me like that's a pretty professional way of saying that you're a criminal." Vash shrugged again.

"I'm an information broker and arms dealer." He gave Lovino a sidelong look. "That sort of thing. I trust that you won't spread that information around, though." Lovino smirked.

"Like I could be bothered." He scoffed. Some of the undefined tension in the room dissipated, and Lovino leaned back into the couch, looking more relaxed. Feliciano raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. He would leave the mind games to his brother. Their chatter continued, and though it varied from the weather to politics to showbusiness, Feliciano noted how Lovino gently kept the conversation from delving too deeply into their own affairs. Just one of many skills he could only hope to eventually master with his brother's tutelage. He sat back and let the words roll over him. Strange a meeting as it may be, it certainly beat watching soap operas.

Block 41, Room 9,
Krios District, Reycass,
27th Fybwari

"Yup, that appears to be it. Kyrs System, Galee, and a few days of travel nearby Cyypraa. After that, they fell out of range. I've told you, that's it. There's no mistakes." Eduard sat back a little, observing the map he'd generated. He, Yael and Natalya had been retrieved from Jhobras several days ago by Captain Kirkland, accompanied by a band of bounty hunters, apparently needing to track down a Cell, because Roderich had somehow been kidnapped by rebel fighters?

Yeah, they hadn't explained the whole situation very well, and the results which Eduard had come up with didn't seem to alleviate any of their fears. One of the bounty hunters, a girl with short blond hair, honestly looked like she was about to be sick when Eduard mentioned Galee. It had taken some questioning on their Captain's part before she admitted that one of her colleagues who had been captured – her half-brother – was a taint, and therefore verifiably fucked, if the rebels that had taken them had in fact stopped by Galee.

Natalya huffed. "Poor fucker, though to be fair, he shouldn't have been stupid enough to get himself captured." The apparent leader of the bounty hunters, a tall Rywanese man named Matthias, glared at her, seemingly unafraid of the many knives visible on her person.

"Oh, right, because they asked to be attacked and seriously wounded." He said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Natalya glared at him, and the tall man simply glared back.

"Ugh, listen, is there any way for us to track down their current location?" another one of the hunters, Antonio, asked. Eduard frowned, facing his screen again.

"Perhaps if you travel to the Golmi System where Cyypraa is. But there's no guarantee that they haven't travelled out of range of Golmi as well. Really, the only way to track someone over such a far distance is to plant a tracker on their ship, or on their body." He sat back. "Sorry to say it, but I wouldn't have much confidence that you're going to find them."

The girl leapt to her feet. "But we have to find them! Gil is my brother, I can't just abandon him!" Eduard had to fight hard to not remind her that he was technically only her half-brother, and before he could say something else, he was interrupted by Natalya.

"Well he's a taint who apparently was on Galee for over 5 days. I wouldn't have too much hope if I were you." The girl reeled back like she had been slapped, then threw her a look of loathing.

"Shut up, you don't know my brother." Natalya ignored her words, leaning back against the kitchen counter.

"It is a shame, really, especially considering what we found out on Jhobras, right Yael?" the Iramese girl raised her head when she heard her name, but sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Don't bring me into this, Natalya." She warned, going back to the piece of wood she was carving. Natalya faced the other girl again.

"Well, I don't know if you know this, bounty hunter-"

"My name's Louise." The girl interrupted. Natalya rolled her eyes.

"Well, I don't know if you know this, Louise, but there is a way for taints to hide their scent from even Garvich." Louise stared at her, seemingly not believing her. Yael, however, looked up.

"Oh don't start on that, Natalya. You remember what the merchant guy said. Effective, but extraordinarily dangerous?" Yael leant forward, this time addressing Louise. "There is an actual way to hide it, but it's honestly more harmful than helpful. I wouldn't listen to her."

Louise looked between the two of them, seeming both wary and curious. "What method?"

Natalya settled back, looking satisfied now that she had managed to peak her interest. "Simple, you just need something which obscures everything else about a person's scent. Something which can invade their whole bloodstream." Natalya paused for a moment, tilting her head slightly, before continuing. "And by that, I mean Chalydrantis." A look of disgust crossed Louise's face, and she turned away.

"I should have known you were full of shit." Natalya raised an eyebrow at her response.

"What? It actually works, they had a demonstration and everything."

"Yeah, but I'm not an idiot. You'd seriously risk giving someone Chalydrantis?" Louise shot back. Natalya rolled her eyes again (she seemed to be doing that a lot lately).

"Please. Chalydrantis isn't contagious. They just inject some of the toxins into the bloodstream, wait ten minutes, and boom, a taint will be Garvich-proof for 48 hours." Before Louise could respond, another bounty hunter, Alfred, cut in.

"Wait, how is that possible?" he asked, brow furrowing in confusion. Natalya looked him over before apparently deeming him worthy of a response.

"Well, you know how Chalydrantis pretty much creates deadlier versions of tumours? Well those tumours actually constantly release toxins which are highly detrimental to the person suffering from it. That's why death from Chalydrantis is so quick. It's also why Malthecs is only really a temporary cure, because the toxins, instead of being released into the bloodstream, are being contained inside the tumour. It takes several years for Malthecs to stop working, though, so people still pay out thousands for that shit." She paused for a minute. "Anyway, the point is, those toxins, when they're in your bloodstream, they're so potent that literally all other aspects of your blood become hard to distinguish." Yael was nodding.

"Yeah," she said, directing her words to both Natalya and Alfred, "I actually heard that doctors can find it hard to determine what blood type you are if you have Chalydrantis. Apparently they give everyone one shot of Malthecs after they're diagnosed, just so they can find out." Natalya nodded.

"That's also why Chalydrantis is so deadly, with poison that strong rushing through your veins." Natalya shrugged. "You get diagnosed, you're kinda fucked." She turned her head to look at the rest of her crewmates. "What's the life expectancy, actually? Does anyone know? Captain, you're kind of sciency, right?"

Arthur rolled his eyes at that. "I don't really know what it is that makes you think that Natalya, but," he sighed, "I think it's…3 months? 4? It isn't much, I know that."

Alfred let out a low whistle. "Damn, that is bad." Arthur shrugged at his statement.

"It's a disease, it's incurable, and science has known about it for over 400 years. I really don't understand why everyone still thinks it's so tragic."

"Maybe because it is incurable, at least right now. If you get diagnosed, you know that you're not going to live a very long life." Eduard added. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Yes, yes, it's a very romantic concept and all, but shouldn't we be focussing on the issue at hand?"

Francis raised an eyebrow. "Chalydrantis is a current issue, though. Don't 99% of it's patients die within 6 months? Are you saying that that isn't worth attention?"

Arthur glared at him. "I mean to say that the issue of Chalydrantis will still be here long after we all are." He jerked his head towards the map. "Our friends will not be. Unless you're fine with letting them go and be murdered by the rebels?"

Francis scowled at him. "You know that's not what I meant. I was just trying to get you to understand that–"

"Oh quit it." Matthias sighed. "I'm not going to sit here and listen to more of your pointless arguments." The two looked like they wanted to argue the point, but conceded to Matthias, and fell silent. The tall blonde seemed to almost sigh in relief, before he leaned down to re-examine the map which Eduard had created. He jabbed at a small, barely visible speck on the far-left side of the map. "Here."

Ivan leaned towards the table, frowning when he saw where Matthias was pointing.

"The Hyfta System? We were just there. How will that help?" Matthias grinned in response.

"The Hyfta System is part of the Far Reaches, right? The only really urbanised planet in there, and also the only one to draw any of the Union's attention, is Jhobras. The others, however, are not. As we know, Aralos is full of criminals, Dryx has such a volatile surface that everyone lives underground, Qyyyt is a prison planet, and Raevis has a toxic atmosphere. What does that leave us?" the others leant forward more, squinting at the small piece of text. Eduard, who knew his galactic geography, answered.

"Nyma." He said simply. Matthias drew away from the map, grinning.

"Rumours about the Resistance being in the Hyfta System have existed for years. It's the only real sensible choice, considering how distant it is. There's nothing out there which could really catch their interest, and most of that system's inhabitants are indifferent at best to the Union, and filled with loathing at worst, so they wouldn't even really be opposed." He rubbed his hands together.
"I've been reading a little bit," he continued, "and Nyma was just recently removed from the Union's list of safe planets because of suspected terrorist cells. Anyone with a brain can guess that by that they mean the rebels. Not to mention, the ongoing war over Katye's Plain has, within the last few years, swung in the favour of the Coysash people. This began to change about 4504CC, which is also a little after the Union drove the rebellion out of their last known base." Matthias looked up, ignoring the stunned expressions on everyone else's faces as they absorbed this information.

"So," Louise said slowly, "All we have to do is go to Nyma and investigate the…what was it again?"

"Coysash people." Yael helpfully filled in for her. Louise nodded.

"Yes, them. If that's all, that doesn't seem so hard." Though Matthias looked excited, Arthur was frowning.

"I hate to discourage you, but there's several reasons why that is not easy." As everyone turned to face him, he continued. "First of all, the territory of the Coysash is some of the largest on all of Nyma. It covers about 8 million square kilometres." He tapped at a few menus on his Cell, before placing it on the table so everyone could see the map of Nyma he had pulled up. "The territory of the Mugarobe people, the ones they are at war with, borders them on two sides, and the other two sides are bordered by the Sulig Mountains." He zoomed in on the map to show them this. Ivan shrugged.

"So what? We can just land in Coysash territory." Arthur was shaking his head before Ivan had even finished his sentence.

"No, we can't. The only way to enter Coysash territory is through Mugarobe territory. There's a small strip right on the edge of Katye's Plain which is neutral territory for travellers to move across. We would be able to enter through there, it's true, but we would have to undergo countless identity checks. The Coysash viciously defend their airspace. They shoot down everything, including their own vessels, and they have radars which can detect even cloaked ships. Approaching from the air would be impossible. Not to mention, I'm fairly sure that if we wanted to get to the resistance, if they are there in the first place, there would be some sort of password or protocol to get through. We'd need nothing short of a technology and weaponry expert to get inside. I do agree with your assessment that the rebels are most likely on Nyma, Matthias, it is probably one of the safest places possible for them. But that doesn't matter. We can't bluff our way through. They have too many failsafes."

A silence descended upon the table at Arthur's final words. It was broken only by Natalya.

"An expert you say?" they all turned to look at her. She straightened up a little. "I may know someone who is able to get us to Coysash territory. They're one of Roderich's old contacts. Apparently he's a real hard-ass, but he might soften up a little if he knows Roderich is missing." Arthur just frowned again.

"Well, if you know someone who can help, then I guess we should give it a shot."

Francis raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised that you're so invested in saving them." He said. Arthur glared at him.

"Of course I am. Roderich is our book-keeper. How else am I supposed to record all of my profits?" Francis folded his arms with a huff and a muttered 'of course'. Arthur turned back to Natalya. "Where are they? Do you know?"

She nodded. "The Falloweil system."

"Oh." Arthur winced. Francis threw his hands up in the air.

"What is it now?" he demanded.

Arthur groaned. "Well, I don't know if any of you knew this, but I'm pretty much Outlaw #1 in the Falloweil System. There's no way I'd be able to get past any of their security gates. Not unless I knew someone on the inside."

Natalya was frowning, looking at her Cell. "Well," she began, "The security gateways at Loszok are notoriously less guarded than those in Kramis, Fordanask or Gaulhig." She looked up. "Is there any way you can establish a connection in Loszok in a few weeks?" Arthur looked caught off guard for a moment.

"Loszok?" he hesitated, "I…I may already know somebody there, actually, who may be willing to help me." He jabbed a finger in her direction. "That isn't a promise, though, know that. If I can't get through, you'll all have to go by yourselves." Natalya nodded. Eduard looked around at everyone, confidence showing on their faces now as they stared down at the map of Rela.

They had a plan, or a rough outline of one anyway. They could get their friends back.

Eduard just hoped that they didn't end up dying before that could happen.