Renton groaned as he let himself fall back onto the bed with an audible flop. Despite him putting up his hands to rub at his temples the pain in his head continued.

From the end of the small bunk that was the sole piece of furniture in the small cabin they were sharing, Eureka looked over, wondering why Renton had suddenly slumped over. "Renton, are you Ok?"

Renton continued to rub the corners of his head as he answered, "Ah… my head hurts a bit… been awhile since we've been in the air I guess."

Eureka smiled, "Well I'm fine… of course you did have a hard time with flying when you first joined Gekkostate..." Not knowing she had just jabbed at Renton's pride, Eureka then looked out the nearby port window.

Renton stopped rubbing his head and leaned up on his shoulder to look out the window as well. For a moment he grumbled to himself about his weakness when it came to motion sickness, but as the pleasant view of endless sky and clouds rolled by through the window he remembered all the things he loved about flying as well. "It's too bad the kids couldn't come along… they would have enjoyed this." Renton responded after a moment of cloud viewing.

Eureka put her hand on Renton's foot; the only part of him that was within reach. "I know… I feel bad for leaving them with your grandfather like that… but everyone was so…nice. I didn't want to say no when they invited us to come along."

Renton sat up and shifted himself closer to Eureka. He then put his arm around her and said, "Well they got school and we don't want to give Grandpa anymore more work than we need to." Renton then turned his head and kissed Eureka's forehead.

Eureka smiled and leaned her head on top of Renton's shoulder. "I'm glad at least you and me got to go." Eureka then took her head away and looked into Renton's face. "And of course Emrick too."

Renton laughed, "Hahaha… Yea I was a little worried about him. After a week of doing practically nothing I was starting to think he wasn't going to open up any."

Eureka suddenly looked solemn, "I don't know what motivates him, but I'm hoping you could learn what it is."

Renton rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and confusion, "Um… Eureka? Why is it that you want me to figure him out? I mean he's cool and all... (if not a bit rude at times)… but I think he can come out of his shell when he wants."

Eureka quickly turned away, trying to hide her own embarrassment. "Well… you see… you were able to help me learn to be myself and be my own person… seeing as he's a coralian too… I wish that you could do that for Emrick as well."

Renton smiled and sighed to himself at the same time. He understood now why Eureka had always been pressing him to spend time with Emrick, which had been difficult considering Emrick's reluctance to be around anyone.

He remembered earlier that week, while he was spending time with the guys, trying to get Emrick into lifting. All he was able to do was to lose sight of him in the first five minutes and later finding him asleep, lying under a bunch of ref-boards that he had made into a makeshift hut, which looked more like a funeral pyre.

He pulled in his arm that was still around Eureka and held her close, "I'll try my best, Eureka." Eureka turned her head back and looked into Renton's eyes. As always she could depend on him; she blushed in gratitude and started to lean closer to Renton's mouth.

"…hey ya'll…" Emrick said calmly as he opened the door at was the worst moment. Emrick watched with a flicker of interest as Renton flinched at the sudden intrusion. But when Renton and Eureka stared back at him, waiting for him to finish his sentence, his face returned to its normal self and he continued. "They're getting ready to launch… told me to tell you guys…"

Renton gently let go of Eureka and stood up before grabbing onto Emrick's shoulder and turning him back to the hallway. "That's right! This is going to be you're first time up close to a lifting LFO, right? I gotta tell you it's nothing compared to actually flying one!"

Renton looked back and gave Eureka a quick wink before leading Emrick away. As the door quickly slid closed behind the boys Eureka smiled to herself. Even if they were different in some ways, she saw how Emrick and Renton shared certain spirit between them. She could see they would get along fine and with that thought in mind she stood up from the bunk and started making her own way to the command deck of the ship.

"COME ON DOMINIC! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" Anemone yelled from the passenger seat of the rented truck.

Dominic came out of the house with two large bags hanging from his shoulders, one hung over his chest while the other tugged down on his back. He turned around to close the door behind him, but the weight from the bags made it difficult to reach up to the door knob.

Fed up with waiting Anemone got out of the vehicle and hurried over to Dominic. Nabbing the keys from Dominic's hand she quickly proceeded to close and lock the door. Under the pressure of the bags Dominic thanked her, "…ugh…thanks…ugh…Anemone… "

Dominic then turned around and preceded unaided as he placed the last of the baggage into the truck, all the while Anemone continued to complain behind him, "Well this is a great way to start a vacation. We already missed our flight, and we might miss the next one if we don't hurry."

" "We?" " Dominic thought to himself, as he alone grunted as the last of the bags was lifted into the back of the truck. In one final move of exhaustion he closed the door, spun around and leaned back against the truck.

Anemone frowned as she watched Dominic catch his breath and without warning she gave him a playful punch to his shoulder, before leaning back against the truck herself, "Well we're finally taking that vacation you promised me…" She shifted herself and was now leaning on the shoulder she had earlier hit.

They stood there for awhile as Dominic continued to recuperate. Then as Anemone noticed his breathing had leveled she stood back from him and punched him in the shoulder again. "And it only took direct orders from your boss to use up your work holidays to get you to!" She then turned away and stuck her nose up in the air, waiting for an apology.

Dominic sighed; it was true, it had taken two officers venturing to his house in the middle of the night, with special orders to take a vacation of all things. He didn't get it; ever since the incident at the scub mines the city had been abuzz with reports of stolen and destroyed LFOs. He had even been leading the investigation for the mysterious thefts. "Well whatever…" he thought; it was high time he spent some real quality time, without any distractions, with his wife.

As he was thinking all this over, Dominic had had his eyes closed. When he opened them up again to give Anemone the apology she desired, he nearly jumped back in surprise as he found her face right in front of his. "What were you thinking about, sweetie?" Anemone asked, with a playful expression.

Dominic stammered for a second before responding, "Well I… um… Hey are you sure we got everything?"

Anemone's brow twitched as she became enraged, "Why would I forget anything? Are you saying it's MY fault we're late!"

Dominic realized the mistake of his question. "I'm sorry! I just want to be sure we don't have any problems down the road." Anemone's muscles relaxed a bit, Dominic saw a chance to redeem himself, "I want our time together to be the best that it can be. I don't want any distractions."

This softened Anemone up; her glare turned to a smile and she hugged Dominic with all her might, "You're the most dependable person in the world Dominic. I didn't have anyone before I had you."

Dominic put his arms around Anemone; this is all he has ever wanted, to be with this person who had been as lonely as him, to love her and to be loved back. They stood there for awhile, embracing each other.

But then suddenly Anemone jerked her head up into Dominic's chin. "Oh my gosh! What are we doing! We need to get moving!"

Dominic pulled up one hand to look at his watch as the other hand worked on his jaw to see if it was alright. "12:45… Damn we got thirty minutes, let's go, Anemone!"

They both opened their doors and jumped into their seats. Luckily Anemone got into hers first and removed Gulliver from Dominic's seat as he rounded around the truck. When they were both secured in with their seatbelts Dominic put the vehicle into reverse and took off from their home as fast as he could.

As Eureka went through the door she found herself in the control room of the ship. As she walked through the room she felt a sense of vertigo as the first LFO took off; its departure caused the ship to rock up and down slightly. Everyone else was on the bridge with her, save for the pilots of the departing crafts; Mathieu, Hilda and Ruri.

As she joined with Renton and Emrick, who were standing just at the railing with the others, she felt the other craft, the 606, with Hilda and Ruri at the controls, take off. The launch gave the ship another lurch, and caused her to bump into Renton from the side. He caught her and helped her regain her balance.

As she looked up at Renton in appreciation she heard Emrick talk to himself, "…ha… interesting…" Everyone looked out the window with him and watched as the 808 broke ahead of the main ship and cut in large arcs through the waves ahead of them. Soon the 606 joined in as well, breaking through a cloud to their side and then twisting around before flying just ahead of the main ship.

"Hey Mathieu, I know you don't usually pilot the 808, but stop screwing around, we're about to hit the Rift." Moondoggy said over the comm.

Renton turned from the window and asked, "What's he suppose to be doing?"

Moondoggy was listening to Mathieu's response for a moment but after it was finished he switched his attention to Renton. "We gotta lose weight if we want to get to a higher altitude. Since we got more people on board, and Emrick's KLF strapped down up top, we're too heavy for the engines to bring us up."

"OK… So why are you telling them to get above the ship? They won't be able to stay aloft up there with the ship taking most of the trapars out from under them." Renton continued.

Sumner, who had been intently watching the small part of the 606 that was still in view, answered flatly, with barely contained frustration, "That's the idea…"

Renton was still confused, "Huh, why?"

Moondoggy finally explained, "When we hit the Rift Flow this ship, with its lesser weight is going to get thrown up into the higher lay-lines. The guys are above us so they can ride the current the ship will make. If they weren't above us the Flow would probably throw them into next week."

"So they're using the ship like a huge ref-board! That's awesome… But isn't that a bit dangerous?" Renton asked despite it already being obvious to everyone else in the room.

Sumner took his gaze from the LFO that was carrying his wife and looked up at Moondoggy. "Yea isn't it?"

Moondoggy lifted his hands up to wave off Sumner's obvious anger, "Don't get mad at me man, she kept nagging me to fly, so I let her go with Hilda. I didn't know you were going to be mad."

Sumner shook his head and turned back to the window. He looked to see where the 606 was, but it was now over the ship, and no longer visible. "What's with her…?" Sumner thought to himself.

For another minute they watched as the 808 eventually made its way over the ship. As it left the view of the group Emrick spoke again, "…that was fun…"

Renton turned from the window and asked, "So Emrick, you think you would want to fly one of those?" Renton was smiling, trying what he could to keep Emrick excited about the LFOs.

But as Emrick turned from the window himself his enthusiasm had already diminished, "Na…looks annoying to do. Rather watch… anyway is there any food?" The last part of his comment was directed up at Moondoggy.

As Moondoggy explained where the mess was on the ship Renton slumped his shoulders in defeat. "There is no way to keep his attention for more than two seconds unless it involves food with this guy…" Renton thought to himself.

But from behind him Eureka put her hand on Renton's shoulder. He looked around to find her smiling for him. She then put the same hand from his shoulder to his hand and pulled him along as she led them to catch up with Emrick. As they left through the door Eureka called out, "Hey Emrick! Me and Renton want to help you make lunch!"

Everyone else left the bridge, save for Moondoggy and Sumner both of whom didn't speak for a few quiet moments. Finally Moondoggy asked his brooding friend, "Hey man, what's been bothering you? Ruri always goes off and does her own thing… ever since I've known her that's what she does."

Sumner shifted himself around to look at his friend and leaned against the railing. "Yea same here. She always has done whatever she wants… but the thing is… whenever we're together I would always think she was telling the truth… or at least the true in her own way." Sumner smiled at his own remark and Moondoggy smiled in turn, understanding the truth in it.

"So what's up? You two not getting along? Havin' a fight?" Moondoggy asked, his face becoming serious again.

Sumner's expression waned into a half grin, "No… it's just like… well it's like she's avoiding me. She's been hanging out with the girls all week, and now that we're on this tiny ship together she finds another way to lose me… I haven't really asked her but if feels like she's hiding something from me…"

Moondoggy thought for a moment with his eyes closed then spoke up, "I know what's up!" Sumner gave Moondoggy an uncertain look. "You've been driving around with her for a month… barely talking to anyone else as you guys went?"

"Well yea, but don't see how…" Sumner tried to explain.

Before Sumner could go on Moondoggy continued, "She's just had a little too much of ya. She's just trying to spend some time with other people for bit; it's nothing to worry about, Sumner."

Sumner started thinking it over in his head. "Umm… yeah I guess that makes since… But I still don't get why she has to avoid me like the plague." Sumner painfully agreed. He pushed his back from the rails and walked by the pilot's chair, running his hand on it as he passed to the door. "Guess since we've been living together I've been babying her a bit too much."

"You should never try to cage a bird, much less a Ruri." Replied Moondoggy as his friend passed through the door. A reply in the form of agreeing laughter from the hallway greeted him.

"…reports at the New Dakota base today conclude that the incident has finally been absolved. While the fighting had been sparse and far between, the battle in subduing the terrorist stronghold had taken nearly a week. Only yesterday did Captain Garma announce that the remaining combatants and suspect civilians are now being moved to the Koda Mountains Colony. There they will help to build the largest colony on Earth, while under military supervision. While labor is required Logistics Officer Tima Kie assures us that the prisoners will be living within the same comforts available to the rest of the colonists. As for the Dakota base itself; the facility was heavily damaged but repairs are running smoothly. While this incident was singular and not of great consequence, the military has once again launched a larger campaign to raise a large enough force to patrol the new Earth territories."

As the radio continued to play Kylee walked through the back door of her shop. A large box was in her arms, one of the blue shirts the box contained hung out from the side. On it were the words 'I watched the Best in Bester!'

The sound of snoring over the radio buzz made Karen turn her head to the other side of the counter. There she saw Wes with his head in his arms, drooling as he slept on the counter with the radio sitting next to his head.

"Geez…" Kylee said to herself as she put down the box onto the counter. She walked over to Wes' sleeping body. "Wes… HEY WES!"

Wes continued to snore, if only louder. Kylee frowned at her useless friend then looked up from him at the nearby radio. She slowly reached over Wes' shoulder and turned the volume knob a full turn with a flick of her wrist.

The blast of noise woke Wes with terrible force. He snapped up and pushed himself from the counter. The reaction was so quick the chair under him slipped, and with a crash Wes was on the floor.

After a moment of recovery Wes finally looked up to see Kylee leaning over the counter with a glare on her face. "Well… now that you're up…" Karen said as Wes started standing up.

"Ugh… What the hell, Kylee?" Wes interrupted as he finished standing.

Kylee continued to frown, "You know I don't pay you for overtime…" Wes gave her a confused look. She then pointed her finger up and behind Wes.

He turned his head around and saw the time on the overhead clock, "Aw crap I'm going to be late!... Sumner is gonna be pissed…"

"Get moving before traffic picks up…" Kaylee said while still leaning on the counter. Wes immediately ran for the door. "Don't forget your keys…" Kylee continued as she now started to smile at her friend's distress.

Wes heard her just as he was going out the door. He stopped and turned on his heel, raced around to the back room. Seconds later he was running out the front door again, with the clanging of keys swiftly following behind him.

Moondoggy sighed and shifted his sitting position on the hard concrete bench. He and the others from the crew were sitting just outside the tower's exit, and next to the large street that ringed around the entire tower itself. For the most part they were all hanging around the bench, waiting for Wes to pick them up. The rest were a few yards back in the shade, sitting up against the tower.

"It's hot…" Emrick said as he leaned against the backside of the bench, along with Renton and Sumner.

Renton wiped some sweat from his brow, "You can say that again…"

As Emrick turned his head and asked why he would want to bother repeating himself and Renton explaining the meaning of the phrase Sumner thought to himself, "Where the heck is Wes?… Better not have gotten pulled over drinking again…"

Meanwhile, as the guys passed the time their own way, Hilda and Ruri sat together. "Thanks a lot Hilda, I barely held myself together during the last trip." Ruri said as she wiped her mouth again. She had cleaned her face earlier but the slight scent of vomit was still present under her nose.

Hilda leaned back against wall behind them and stretched out her legs, "Well, it's not the first time I've had someone hurl in Mathieu's ship…" She gave a quick glance over to Renton before returning her gaze to Ruri. "You know… you can't keep doing this to yourself…it's not good for you or the child."

Ruri smiled and put her hand over her belly, "I know." She glanced up at Sumner, who was staring blankly up into the sky. "Just one more run…" Ruri said to herself before turning and smiling at Hilda. "I just want one more moment with just Sumner and me."

"Are you not happy about it?" Hilda asked while looking down at Ruri's stomach.

"Of course I'm happy about it…" Ruri replied then saw Hilda looking at her lower half. She waved her hand to get Hilda to look up again. "…and don't look, I don't want him to know yet…"

Hilda turned herself around and sat Indian style with her arms crossed, "I don't get it, why?"

Ruri looked up into the sky just like Sumner was, "I don't get it ether… but the Bester cup is special… for the both of us… I guess… it's just THAT kind of place for the two of us…" Ruri closed her eyes and relaxed, leaving the conversation. Hilda slouched over, still confused, but satisfied that at least Ruri understood what she was saying.

Back over at the roadside bench Mathieu stood up suddenly, causing Hilda to turn her head back to the main group. He called out as he looked up the road, "Hey I think I can see Wes coming up with your van Sumner."

Moondoggy stood up to see he could recognize the vehicle as well. When he did he commented to correct Mathieu, "Actually it's mine."

The rest of the group soon stood up as well. Sumner among them retorted Moondoggy's claim. "Doggy, that thing is mine… I've paid for the fuel and license fees since you dropped it on me when you joined Gekkostate."

As the two began to argue Hilda turned and saw that Ruri had already stood up. Ruri looked down and winked at Hilda before walking off to join the rest of the group.

She called out to the arguing pair, "Not this again; you know this thing is mine! If you remember Moondoggy, I gave you my ship and you got it blown up! And Sumner, you're just as responsible for that mess!"

Much of the group laughed at the two young men, as they stood there open mouthed, without a counter to Ruri's claim. The truck soon rolled up to the curve and after they were all aboard they made their way to the ref-board shop.

The truck bumped up and down on the very under maintained road as it continued onward into the distance. Dominic noticed he was still not going as fast as he had planned for the first day of the trip, but being in a convoy like he was, this was the safest way to travel through the scub wastes.

As the column of vehicles continued down the road, Dominic stuck his head out his window and looked ahead of the slow moving bus in front of him. He could see the convoy, a collection of transport vehicles and personal cars like his own, going on up the dirt road for a good mile in a long arc.

After that he then turned his head to the rear of the truck to gauge how far they were from the tower. Luckily for his morale the tower looked to be just a small hill in the distance, so he at least knew they were making some progress.

He then took notice that there had been no more additions to the convoy since they had joined up. Only a small car behind him, followed by a protection truck for the convoy, preceded his own vehicle. He could see a few rifle mussels sticking out of the protection truck's covered back, all belonging to mercenaries hired to protect the convoy if it came under attack from raiders, which was an unlikely event but was still a very real possibility.

A groan from behind him turned his attention back to the interior of his vehicle. He pulled his head in and looked at the occupant of the passenger's seat. Anemone was sleeping there soundly; the medication she had just taken earlier caused her to become very tired.

Unlike before when she had piloted theEnd she was slowly working off the addiction to the combat performance enhancers that she had been forced to take. The new medication kept her cravings at ease but also exhausted her for several hours. Besides the obvious reasons for wanting to rid her addiction there was also another reason why they had been working so hard since they had been living together to get rid of them. For until she was completely free from the drug's control; she wouldn't be able to bear children safely.

Just then, because he was watching Anemone instead of the road, the truck hit a hole and sent the whole front end of the vehicle into the air. Dominic held onto the wheel and kept control of the vehicle as Gulliver, who was on the floor between Dominic and Anemone, was rolled over by the force. As the car leveled out he started to jiggle around as he tried to right himself.

Anemone meanwhile flew up into the air and fell back with her head slamming against the passenger window. After the impact she woke and yelled out, "DOMINIC! WHAT THE HELL! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US KILLED!"

Dominic was now looking straight at the road again, as he should have been. He replied, "I'm sorry!"

"SORRY! SORRY! I'LL "SORRY" YOU!" Anemone replied, as she pulled back her right fist to clobber the defenseless driver. But halfway into pulling the punch she suddenly stopped. Silently she then leaned back into her chair with her eyes quickly closing again; her fist fell back next to her head to pillow it.

Dominic gave a sigh of relief; she was still tired from the medicine. He looked around again and made sure he was still in line with the rest of the cars around them. When he was sure the danger had passed he looked back at Anemone. She looked asleep again; he thought of how cute she was lying there with that half tucked fist next to her head.

Dominic noticed one imperfection in this image; he reached over and pushed back a lock of hair from her face. As he began to pull his hand back Anemone suddenly became alive again and grabbed his wrist. Her eyes were still half closed but she turned her head slightly and looked at him. "Dominic… what were you doing?"

He thought she meant why they had hit the bump in the road, "Ahh… well I was just looking around at the convoy… and then I was looking at you…" he would have continued stammering but suddenly a slight pressure of pain went over his finger.

Anemone had taken his hand and had put the end of Dominic's pointer finger into her mouth and was rubbing her front teeth against it. Dominic continued to watch the road but would let his eyes flash over to her when he could. When Anemone let his finger free from her mouth he was sweating profusely, and his finger had a red ring around its first joint.

Then Anemone asked, with a coy smile on her face, "Were you thinking of doing something to me while I was asleep from the medicine?" She gave Dominic an almost innocent smile as he looked back again in response to this.

He quickly jerked his hand back and planted it on the steering wheel. His head felt like it was going to explode, he was blushing so red. "Anemone I'm driving! I can't … think like that." It was true he wasn't going anywhere near something like that in his mind, but now because of her comment his head started to swim. "Why is it that she can always say the most inappropriate thing at the most inappropriate time?" he thought to himself.

Anemone giggled at Dominic's stern but reddened expression, she knew he was far too much of a gentleman to let his mind run to such places when he was busy, but she still loved to make him sweat by putting such things on his mind.

But now she could feel the medicine working on her again; the pain from hitting her head against the window was subsiding. She reached down and pulled a leaver on the seat, letting the chair fall back.

As Dominic continued with his thoughts he turned again to Anemone, but found she had let the seat down and was sleeping again with her back towards him. As he reasoned that she was now asleep for real this time he was able to cool off.

The vehicles in front of them finally started to pick up speed. He gave himself one more look at Anemone's sleeping form. "Anemone, you always laugh when something is bothering you." Dominic thought to himself. He looked on into the orange sunset, "Soon you'll be home…"

Emrick opened his eyes again and let them track around the room, without moving his head. Though everyone from the ship had left them alone to mind the shop, the noise in the room had not subsided.

The ref-shop was full of strange merchandise; all along the walls, the small isle in the middle and in the glass show cases in the counter that ran a few feet from the back wall. As Emrick continued to survey the room he started to notice how cramped it had become with all the humans frequenting the store. He was starting to feel nervous so he stood up.

Just as he did Renton spoke up from behind the counter, "Hey, Emrick, you mind helping a bit?" Emrick looked over to the other side of the counter and saw most of the top of Renton's head looming over a small crowd of people that separated them.

Emrick leaned his side over the counter so he could see Renton fully. When he made eye contact with Renton he answered plainly, "Ok…"

"Great, just grab me the Saleda Series with the 44mm wheal…" replied Renton. He was about to turn back to the customers but noticed Emrick had a confused expression on his face from the request. "Umm, the green one on the rack behind you and to the right." he further explained.

Emrick turned around and looked at the wall before him. Several rows of boards lined it going from the counter to the front door. As Emrick eyed each one, looking for the one Renton wanted, he thought to himself, "Like I can tell the difference…"

Emrick's face curled up as he feverishly searched for the green board Renton desired. Finally after a few bothersome moments he noticed a green board with yellow trim that was close by. He picked it up and placed it down on the counter and leaned over it again. Renton looked over as Emrick did this and exclaimed, "Awesome, sorry but can you get it over here?"

Emrick looked at the crowd; the only path around the counter was on the other side of the packed group. He was still nervous with the idea of so many humans being nearby, all of which were making far too much noise for his taste. Thought he had had some good, if not confusing, experiences with Eureka, Renton and the others he still couldn't shake off the memories from his earlier misadventures that had taught him that humans weren't always as hospitable as them.

Emrick looked at the counter, which was only tall enough to pass over his hips. The corner of his mouth turned up as he came up with an alternative solution. Giving himself a step back to build momentum he planted his hands down on the counter then swung his legs up and over and landed them on the other side. Emrick continued to smirk to himself as he walked over to Renton, with board in hand.

As Renton realized Emrick was standing next to him he looked around to the entrance to the back of the counter and back to where Emrick was, confused for a moment as to how Emrick was on the wrong side he had expected him to come from. "Great man, thanks… Umm…" Renton turned the board over and looked at the wheel.

The expression of self pride on Emrick's face subsided; he could guess what was wrong, "…What?"

"Umm… yea this is a 52mm wheel…" Renton was trying to put Emrick's mistake lightly but already the high in mood Emrick had had from his little trick had fallen back to pessimism. Renton noticed this and continued, "Don't worry I got a spare on under the counter here."

The people in line for the counter called out at Renton; the noise further decreased Emrick's mood. As Renton turned to work with the customers Emrick turned away and started for the door to the back room. Right before he could leave Renton turned his head from the crowd and asked, "Hey, are you OK?"

Emrick didn't look at him, but continued to walk through the door, "I'm tired… just leave me be for a bit." And with that he left Renton to the customers. Renton shrugged to himself and went back to work.

As the door closed behind him Emrick finally let out a grown of pain; he had been holding it back since he had stood up from the chair in the other room. Ever since they had gotten to this city a headache had slowly been growing worse and worse in the top of his head. He started to rub the top of his scalp and look around the room, and was glad to find a couch just a few steps away.

The back room was silent compared to the previous room and Emrick found himself quickly falling into the first real sleep he has had all day. As the world around him slowly drifted away, so too did the pain in his mind.

The dream he then found himself in was so calming that it felt as if he was drifting through the air, then through cool water; he felt like he could drift in that ephemeral world forever. But the tranquility of that world was disturbed as a deep, almost hollow sounding voice, called out to him like a thick wave, "…rick… Emrick…"

Emrick opened his eyes, but he was still asleep. All around him were unfamiliar things, high ceilings held up by thick columns loomed high above and ordinate paintings covered all the walls. There was blinding sunlight filtering through a massive window that went from the floor to the high ceiling.

He continued to look around the phantom palace until a bitter smell came up from the ground at his feet. He looked down and saw a red goop that was slowly covering the floor behind him and working its way onto his feet.

He was about to jump and escape the foul smelling substance when a heavy hand fell on his left shoulder and held him in place. The voice called to him again, this time much closer and human, "…found you…"