Sorry it's been so long since I last updated! But here you go, after a loooooong hiatus.

"Spread out and keep a very sharp eye out for anything. If we can get in-"

"We know, captain," Dahlia cut in, rolling her eyes. "Get in and get out with as little trouble as possible. Checked that box twelve times already." She pulled her bow off its holster above her back pocket and ignited it, holding it by her side.

"Okay, then, you know what to do, so do it. I'll get the St. Nazaire ready for the water transfer." The irate tone returned, and Lena wondered if it really was only because of their mother that he was so annoyed all the time now.

A quick glare at each of them from the captain cut her thoughts short and spurred her into motion. Dahlia and Mahad began walking to the other side of the room, not paying particular attention to the surroundings – she was sure she heard Mahad say something about a kiss – and Cortes had already begun the process of getting the St. Nazaire ready for the transfer. None of them paid any attention to her, which might have annoyed her if she didn't have other things to think about. Like, what exactly it was that was giving off such a powerful aura, and where she could find it. Once again she closed her eyes, focusing all her energy on finding it. "There," she whispered, smiling. Of course being closer to it would help her find it easier. Without a second thought, she set off towards the door that would lead to the heart of the ship, not saying anything to her brother, the captain, or Dahlia. This fight was for her, not them.

The door slid open with the barest of whispers and she stepped as quietly as she could into the adjoining hall, not hesitating even a second before running down the hallway where she knew she would find stairs. Lights flickered on as she ran past, feeble yet more than enough to show the way, to show that, up ahead, there were the stairs she'd been expecting. With a satisfied smile, she took them two at a time, not slowing until she reached the top where another door greeted her. The aura she'd been sensing was on the other side of this door. She could feel it pulsing against her skin as though it were tangible, as though she could touch it, wrap her hand around it, hold the undulating power between her fingers. A small step forward, and the door opened for her, allowing her into the main chamber of the ship.

"I know you're in here," she said quietly, more to herself than to whoever was in there with her She took another tentative step into the room, hardly flinching when the door shut behind her, cutting out the faint light from the hallway and leaving her in darkness. She almost wondered why the lights didn't come on, didn't follow her in the room, but realized, when she felt another small surge of energy, that whoever was in the room with her was using their power to keep the lights off. Trying to take her by surprise? Probably. She wouldn't fall for it. As subtly as possible, exerting no more energy than necessary, she lifted herself a mere inch off the floor, moving completely silently into the room.

But where are they? As confident as she was she could find them without using her eyes, something about engaging someone in a fight without being able to see anything at all. Someone could get seriously hurt. But a thought from the back of her mind caused her lips to turn up in a smile. A challenge.

If that's what they want, then that's what they'll get. She set her feet back on the floor and used her senses to reach out, probing every corner, looking, searching, hunting. But there was nothing. No, not nothing. Everything. Try as she might, she couldn't pinpoint the source at all. It was as though they were everywhere at once, their aura of power spread evenly throughout the room like a blanket, covering every surface. No, it has to be here. Look harder. Surely just a little bit more and she could find it, the point where all the energy radiated from. Surely-

"Looking for me?"

Lena gasped sharply as soft breath flowed over her ear, warm despite the cold tone the words held. She spun on her heel, hair whipping into her face, hands already glowing softly with angry energy, trying to grab whoever it was behind her. Fingers clutched at thin air. "Where are you?" She felt herself growing angry that she'd been found. Again she used her power to search the room, but still couldn't pinpoint one location.

"Silly little girl."

Again she whirled around, but just as she did, the lights in the room flashed into life, bright – excruciatingly bright. She cried out and covered her face with her hands, blocking out the sudden assault on her eyes. Light seeped between her fingers, penetrating her eyelids. Too bright. What was this light that was so horrifically bright?

"What do you think you're doing here?"

She scrunched her eyelids tighter, not allowing the tears welling in her eyes to fall.

"Oh, come on, little girl, stop being dramatic." The voice sighed irritably, vaguely reminding Lena of Cortes. "Fine, if that's how you want it."

The lights lowered considerably until it was comfortably dim. She opened her eyes and blinked several times behind her hands before taking them from her face. "Was that really necessary?" she asked angrily, glaring at the other. It was a man, much taller than she was, with blonde hair cropped close to his head, and piercing blue eyes, and judging by the clothes he was wearing, he belonged to the Sphere.

"I asked you a question first: what are you doing here?"

"Why should I tell you?"

The man smiled patiently at her, the same way someone would smile if they were dealing with a child, and held his hand in front of him. He was still for several moments, then he slowly started lifting his hand towards the ceiling. As he did, the lights steadily got brighter. "Because I know how to make a poor, unprotected Seijin's eyes burn out of her skull if she doesn't answer me."

She squinted in preparation to shut them completely, but the room remained tolerable. "What do you mean, unprotected?"

"Poor little Seijin girl doesn't know when to just cooperate, does she? I said, I asked you a question. Now, answer me. What are you doing here?" His tone was cold, tense, sharp, unforgiving. She knew she had to say something to keep him stalled. She wondered if Cortes had gotten the St. Nazaire connected yet. Or when they'd come looking for her.

"I…" She grabbed the first excuse she could think of from her mind. "Any ship of the Sphere is an enemy of mine. I'm here to destroy the ship, and you!"

The blonde man stared at her for a long moment, the corners of his mouth twitching as though amused, then started laughing. Whatever she had been expecting, this wasn't it. "Silly little Seijin girl thinks she can destroy my ship?" He stepped close to her, leaning over until his face was mere inches from hers. The smile was still on his face, but when he spoke, it was like a snarl. "You should think your lies through a little better before using them."

"Wh-what do you mean?" She tried not to flinch from how near he was and how discomforting his intense gaze was.

"I mean that you are a terrible liar. If you were going to destroy my ship, why board it? Why not destroy it from your ship?" He lifted his eyebrows in question, smirking when Lena didn't answer. He stood back to his full height, staring down his nose at her. "And if you destroy my ship while you're on it – why, you'll die, too. And aren't you a little young to have a death wish?" He put one finger to his lips, eyes widening as though he'd just thought of something. "And speaking of your age, where's you mommy? Did she drop you off here while you tried to destroy me and she'll pick you up after her hair appointment?"

"Shut up!" A strong burst of energy Lena didn't even know she caused hit the man in the chest, throwing him across the room and against the opposite wall. "I'm not a child!"

Laughter echoed throughout the room again as the man stood up and brushed the wrinkles out of his tunic. "Little Seijin girl-"

"I'm not a little girl!" She hit him again, consciously this time.

"How old are you? Ten? Eleven?"

"Stop it!" Again and again she threw energy at him, not even knowing why she was letting him get to her like this. "I'm not a little girl!"

"Then why the tantrum?"

His voice was once again behind her, speaking right into her ear, and she screamed as she turned to face him. How had he gotten behind her? How had he avoided her? He should be smashed against the wall, not smirking down at her like this. She tried to push him away, but he grabbed her outstretched arms easily and threw her to the side. A loud thud echoed off the walls as her head smacked against the floor. Blackness once again clouded her vision, but this time it wasn't because the lights were off. They were still very much on.

She tried to sit up, to focus her anger into energy, to focus all of it on this man, but her head screamed in pain, and she fell back to the ground, groaning in pain.

"Now tell me, little Seijin girl, what are you doing here?"

She couldn't answer amidst the throbbing pain. All that came out was a small whimper.

"I'm waiting."

His foot tapped the floor repeatedly by her head, beating in opposition to the pounding in her brain. On the plus side, her vision was beginning to clear. If she could just stall a moment longer, she might be able to form a plan to at least get away, if not attempt to injure him. She opened her mouth to answer, taking a deep breath, but was never given the chance to say anything. A heavy booted foot pressed itself on her chest, constricting her breathing even more.

"You truly are a very uncooperative little girl."

"I'm not…" She coughed when he pressed down harder.

"A little girl, I know. Thank God, or I might feel bad about killing you."

The lights started getting brighter, brighter, penetrating through the thinning darkness in her eyes, and she squeezed her eyelids shut. No, not again! She could hear a faint crackling sound, the familiar crackling that accompanied the gathering of large amounts of energy. She cracked her eyes open, thankful the lights weren't bright enough to hurt, and saw his hand glowing. At this range, a hit like that would kill her. Obliterate her. There were the tears again, coursing down her cheeks with the realization that, in her need to be in a real fight again, to risk her life again, to feel useful again, she was going to die.

I should have stayed with Mahad, she thought bleakly, coughing, gasping for air. I should have stayed on Puerto Angel with mom. She gave up fighting, waiting for the end. She wished she could have said goodbye to Mahad, or at least tell him that she loved him. And her mother, too. There were those tears, harder now.

She tried to whisper a goodbye that she knew no one would hear, but couldn't.

"Hey!" a voice that sounded incredibly like Mahad's called throughout the room, and for a moment Lena thought she was hearing things, but then she heard the soft whistle that could only mean an infamous boomerang was flying through the air. "How about you leave my sister alone, huh? Haven't you ever heard not to pick on little girls?"

She couldn't have been happier to hear her brother's voice – she was so happy, in fact, she decided to overlook that he called her a 'little girl.'

"Ah, some friends! Did you hear that, little Seijin girl, your friends are here. Unfortunately, they won't be able to do anything to save you."

Lena blinked rapidly, doing her best to clear her vision. She couldn't lift her head enough to see anything but the man standing over her, but she'd watched Dahlia fight enough to know that she could do something. Not much, but at least something to get away.

Gathering as much strength as she could muster, she grabbed the man's ankle and twisted it while pulling it out from under him. The sudden rush of air as his foot left her chest came as a huge wave of relief, and she gasped, choking and coughing, rolling onto her side and clutching her stomach as she tried to steady her breathing back to normal. Behind her, she heard an angry growl of frustration and a hand clawing at her shoe. On instinct, she kicked the hand and crawled towards the wall, not looking back until she was a safe distance away, still breathing heavily.

"Get over here, Lena!" Mahad's voice called, and Lena turned her head quickly, ignoring the pounding in her temples, to see her brother motioning for her to hurry. Dahlia knelt on one knee, bow drawn with an arrow ready to fly at a moments notice, and Lena knew she was waiting for her to be out of the way before firing. She scrambled out of the way, feet nearly slipping out from under her as she ran to her brother's side. "Are you alright?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her waist to help steady her.

"I'm fine," she replied, watching as Dahlia fired an arrow towards the Guardian. "Come on, we gotta go. Quick!" She pulled her body in the direction of the door, trying to get Mahad and Dahlia to go with her, but neither of them moved. "Come on!" She turned to look at what was catching their attention, and saw the man stand up, Dahlia's arrow being absorbed into his hand.

"He caught it," Dahlia whispered, though whether in awe or horror, Lena wasn't sure.

The man started to laugh again, that horrible laugh that sent shivers down her spine, and she knew they needed to get out of there, and quickly. "Run," she said quietly, pushing Mahad away. "I'll follow in a moment. You and Dahlia run."

"We're not leaving you."

"Go, Mahad. I'll do what I can, then follow.

"Lena-"

"Go, Mahad!" She pushed completely away from her brother's grasp and stood as best as she could on her own. Her chest hurt, breathing was difficult, her pulse throbbed maddeningly against her brain, and she thought her vision was starting to get blurry again, but she knew she had to do something to stop this man from killing them all. She waited until they ran past her but didn't look to see if they'd gone before lifting her hands, gathering power in her hands. No time to mess around. Gotta play dirty. She fired at him, over and over, keeping a focused eye on him in case he tried to get behind her again.

"Little girl doesn't seem to be learning," his voice called from somewhere in front of her. "You can't beat me." She stopped attacking and saw him walking towards her, hand outstretched, absorbing everything she threw at him. He waved his hand in the air in a mocking gesture – bring it on. A flash of metal caught her attention, and she realized he was wearing a ring on his forefinger. "Would you like to try running? I can go ahead and give you and your friends a head start."

"My – what?" She looked behind her and saw Mahad and Dahlia behind her, poised with their weapons. "What're you-"

"You honestly thought we'd leave you?" Dahlia scoffed, pulling another arrow from her bow and firing.

"Get real, little sister." Her brother grinned and readied his boomerang, pulling it back and swinging it hard.

"Better get started, little girl!" the blond man said as he ducked the boomerang and laughed again. "Three." His hand started glowing again, casting strange shadows across his face. "Two."

"Lena, let's go!"

She felt a strong hand grab her arm from behind. Mahad was still in front of her, though, still waiting for his boomerang to come back. He'd never leave it behind. But there was the man, getting ready to attack, and they hadn't even moved.

"One."

The room filled with the sizzle of power, and she knew her brother was going to get hurt. With a loud cry, she pulled free of Dahlia's grip and pulled the back of her brother's jacket, forcing him behind her and focusing her power on creating some kind of barrier between them and the Guardian. It wasn't much, she didn't have time to get her energy focused, and when he released his attack, she could feel herself falling forward, could feel her chest constricting and her eyes going black.

Just before she lost consciousness, she felt a pair of strong arms catch her.

"Bada," Tian said, interrupting whatever she'd been saying to the younger boy she was talking to, "take a look at this." He held out a small holochip, dropping it into his partner's hand. "It's from Alice."

She turned dark eyes on the older man, questioning his dark look. His lips were pressed together in a firm line, eyebrows contracted, causing a small crease between them, and he wouldn't quite look her in the eyes. "Is everything alright?"

He shook his head slightly, prompting her to look at the contents of the holochip.

"Kyle, could you excuse us?"

"No, Kyle, stay. I think you should see this, too." He nodded at the chip.

With just a hint of hesitancy, Bada activated it, pressing her thumb lightly over the touch pad. With a small flash, an image of Alice's face appeared in front of them, slightly static and cutting out every now and then, but as she listened to the message, Bada couldn't help the way her heart sank.

"I received a message today telling me that Oslo sent a Guardian to find me on Puerto Angel. They were wondering why they'd send someone there when the Sphere knows I'm here, and I'm wondering the same thing. Can you explain this?"

The picture flickered out, leaving the image of Alice's concerned, angry face imprinted in their minds. Bada looked at Kyle then back to Tian. "I suppose we'd better go explain, then."