Chapter 11: Link

Endless flames and smoke filled the hallways of the replication facility which Luke ran along, a hand held in front of his mouth and nose, the other hand eliminating the flames blocking his way with Seventh Fonon.

`Somewhere inside the facility must be something. Somewhere... Something that will make it easier for us to stop Dist´s plans, whatever they may be...´, Luke thought while passing replication machines, giant tanks filled with fluid nutrient salts and loudly buzzing generators of which some of them were exploding now because of the flames. But no matter how far he went, no matter how many laboratories he searched, he couldn´t find anything that Dist wouldn´t be able to rebuild in a few seconds with fomicry. "Damnit!", he cursed and kicked against one of the generators in anger which exploded in answer and knocked him down.

"Luke! Are you okay?!", Florian shouted in horror and knelt down before him.

"Florian?! What are you doing here?! Where´s Anise?!", Luke asked and stood up.

"She´s--", Florian started.

"WATCH OUT!!!", Luke yelled when one of the floor beams broke and was about to crash down on them. He grabbed Florian and jumped with him to the side. But a certain long part of his body was hit by the floor beam and trapped underneath it. "Ow! Ouch!", he whined pathetically and pulled on his long hair that was now trapped beneath the debris.

"Oh,no! Wait, I´ll help you!", Florian said worriedly and was already about to try pushing the debris to the side.

"There´s no time!", Luke disagreed, drew his sword and just cut off his long hair so that he now had short hair. "It´ll only get in the way during a fight.", he said, grabbed Florian´s hand and dragged him further through the smoke-filled hallways while keeping said smoke with Seventh Fonons at bay. "Damnit, Florian, what are you doing here!?"

"I couldn´t just let you go alone!", Florian explained.

"But...", Luke started, but stopped when he saw a room full of strange machines that were totally destroyed, as if a fight had happened inside that room. [Annotations: The fight happened in chapter 2 ;)] He stared at the room for a while, then resumed pulling Florian along, and said: "Florian, I can use the Seventh Fonon by mere will! Do you really think I´d need help!? The only one needing help now is you!"

"I´m sorry...", Florian murmured in apology when they passed stairs that led to a deeper part of the facility. Luke thought for a short while, then went down those stairs. "Why are we going down there?"

"Because those fon machines can be rebuild in an instant. I wanna see what´s down there."

They reached the end of the stairs, and Luke kicked open the door that had become too hot because of the flames. More thick smoke greeted them... and a muted wheeze was to be bearly heard.

"There´s someone inside here!", Florian said, shocked.

"C´mon!", Luke said, dragged him further along through the room - some kind of dungeon - and passed cell after cell until they saw a small figure lying in one of them which lay on the ground, not moving at all. Luke destroyed the cell´s lock, threw the little body over his shoulders and ran back up together with Florian. "We´ve found what we were looking for."

"What?!"

"This person is the only thing in this facility that Dist can´t replicate that easy if he doesn´t have the replication data.", Luke explained. "Let´s get outta here right now!"

Having stormed up the stairs, he aimed at a wall and let it explode. They hurried through the ruins of the facility and finally managed to get outside it. The cave was also already full with smoke. "Where´s Anise?", Luke asked while running.

"I... I don´t know. I just ran inside the facility, and she...", Florian started but stopped with a loud scream when he saw Anise who lay near the fire, unconscious.

"Argh! Damnit!", Luke cursed, threw the little person over Florian´s shoulders instead, and ran towards Anise who he now threw over his now free shoulders.

"But...! But...!", Florian stammered and looked at the small person with huge eyes, only now having really looked at them.

"C´mon!", Luke called and started running through the cave, Florian following after a few seconds.

About half an hour later - running had made the trip through the cave much shorter - they reached the dock where the cutter was still floating on the water. They jumped inside, lay down their weights, and Luke punched the new course inside the fon navigator so that the cutter would navigate through the illusion wall and further to Engeve.

"Whew! Finally safe!", Luke sighed while Florian was healing Anise.

"Ooooh...", Anise moaned, holding her head, and sat up. "Where...?" But she stopped when she saw Florian. "YOU!!!", she yelled and started to shake him like crazy. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?!" She threw him down to the ground, ripped away his clothes and began to examine every last inch of his body.

"Anise...! Wha-What...?!", Florian stammered, his face now beet-red.

"Turn around!", Anise commanded.

"What?!"

"DO AS I SAY!!!", Anise screached, turned him around and started examining his back. "Good...", she eventually said and dressed him. "No wounds." She looked at the small person and jumped up, screaming. "What the hell...?!"

"What?", Luke who had looked back at the cave this whole time said and now looked at the small person as well. "Holy Yulia...!", he shouted with huge eyes when he saw who ley there on their cutter unconscious: Clothes that resembled a potato sack, long red hair and small, half-opened green eyes were the most obvious trades of the small boy laying on the ground and now slowly regaining consciousness. The name `Link´ was written on a little name plate that was attached to his pitiful clothes.

"That´s what I meant! He looks just like you, Luke!", Florian said, now standing again, fully dressed.

"But how...?!", Luke started, confused.

"Is there something you haven´t told us, Luke?", Anise asked, eyebrows raised.

"What?!"

"C´mon, tell us! Who was the lucky lady, huh?", Anise continued questioning.

"Wait a minute! That isn´t my child!", Luke snarled, now finally having realized was Anise was hinting at.

"Noooooo, of course not!", Anise said and rolled her eyes, not believing him.

"That´s not...!"

SPLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A giant water snake shot out of the ocean´s depths in front of the cutter and looked down at the three friends and the child that looked so very much like Luke with avarice, its mouth already watering in hunger.

"Oh my...!", Florian scramed.

"I found you, murderers!", the enraged, shrill voice of a girl could be heard. "You killed mommy! Now you die!!!"