Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

Searching For Home

"Strength comes from admitting weakness."

Hyper-space, Araphen Territory, Lycian Space

A man stood over her. She couldn't see him clearly, only his silhouette and the fiery orbs of his eyes. Behind him lay the smoldering ruins of a once great city, creatures of some kind running amok over the rubble. The man didn't move. Instead he stared at her with those eyes of fire, like he was focusing a laser on her soul. No matter how hard she tried, she could not look away. A pain grew in her head until she cried out. This only made the man grin, revealing dazzling white teeth.

"You'll be handing that over to me now, I think," the man said, his voice sickeningly sweet. She knew that she didn't want to, that if this man got what she had, the universe would end. She'd die. But she couldn't stop herself from walking forward. "That's right. Soon, it'll be all over. Just hand it over to me."

She stretched her hand out, palm up, holding out a medallion of some sort that was covered in blue flames. This fire emblem didn't burn her. Rather, it felt cool, like water running down a stream. Her arm and body trembled as she held the flaming emblem out toward the man. She couldn't stop shaking, not matter how much she tried because no matter what she did, she couldn't stop staring into the man's flaming eyes.

Just as the man reached out to grab the flaming medallion, a low hum penetrated the fear that had fogged her mind. The man grinned at her again, seemingly leering at her despite how he was currently dissolving into blackness. And then all that was left in her mind was the humming.

When Lyn opened her eyes the first time, she grimaced and forced her eyes shut again. The movement was noticed by someone because she started hearing muffled voices and felt something moving against her. She tried to open her eyes again, slowly this time so that she was squinting.

The light that she saw made her head swoon and soon the lights began to dance across her vision. She felt like she was about to retch even as the voices around her got louder. Then, like a wave on a warm sunny beach, something cool and refreshing washed over her body from the soles of her feet to the tip of her head.

The effect of the cool wave was blessedly immediate. The heady rush in her head subsided and the lights in her eyes began to focus. Sounds became more distinct from the fuzzy blurry sounds from before. After several short moments, Lyn was able to see and hear correctly once more. She was in her room.

"Thank goodness," said an effeminate, blond framed face that appeared over her. It took her a moment to recognize Lucius. "You're lucky to be alive. It is to my great shame that I couldn't protect you in time."

"Wh-" Lyn choked and began coughing. A woman with pink hair tied up into twin pigtails, wearing a white nurse's robe with tacky pink highlights sewn on, pushed Lucius out of the way and began speaking to her with a half smile, half frown on her face in Lycian. Lyn frowned and shook her head but the woman continued speaking and poking Lyn a few times with a staff.

Lucius finally pushed the woman back, with the help of a man with long purple hair who grabbed the pink-haired nurse from under both her arms and lifted her, kicking and screaming. Lucius was frowning as he said something to the fighting nurse that made her suddenly calm down. The purple haired man said something that sounded similar to what Lucius said. And then all three of them looked back at Lyn.

"Please don't talk, Lyn" Lucius said. "And please forgive Cleric Serra's manner of behavior. She saved your life when you were exposed to the raw vacuum of space. Though she's healed and repaired what she could, the rest of your body must heal naturally." Lyn nodded. She opened her mouth to speak again, but then closed it. A furious look passed over her face before she breathed in and let it out slowly.

"I am sorry, Lyn," Lucius said. He bowed his head. "I should have been faster. If I were only a bit faster, then none of this would have happened."

Lyn shook her head and carefully laid a hand on top of Lucius'. The pain from that contact was intense. It felt like her skin was suddenly lit on fire. But she endured the pain to give Lucius a comforting smile.

"My… ugh… friend, here, wishes to inform you that she needs her rest," the purple haired man said. Lyn recognized his clipped Sacean accent as the one whom she'd talked to during the battle. She frowned when she realized they were the two mech pilots who'd been caught up in her fight with bug. Why were they still here?

The purple-haired man noticed her confused expression. "My apologies," the man said. "I am the Mage Pilot you contacted earlier. My name is Erk Flogherty. I've been hired to escort my… err… companion, Serra Caradhras. Our original destination was Ostian territory, but we ended up going in the completely wrong direction." Erk squeezed his lips together out of irritation and said, "It is my understanding that you're going back the other way, so if it wouldn't be much trouble, we'd like to accompany you to Caelin. We will hold up our end and fight when fighting is called for."

Lyn furrowed her brow as she thought, but eventually nodded. Taking that as a signal to leave, the three left Lyn's room. They stopped just outside of the door, where Mark, Bob, and the Detectives waited.

Glancing back at Lyn's closed door, Bob said, "She's lucky you got to her in time, Serra. It's a miracle we found a Cleric all the way out here."

Serra gasped, affronted. "I'll have you know that I am not just any Cleric, but the highest rated Cleric pilot in all Lycia! There isn't anything that my most beauteous self cannot accomplish, and with style to boot. I'm the best Cleric and the best healer. The whole package." Serra grinned and beamed at Bob, who promptly ignored her.

"My sweet Serra," Sain cooed. Serra turned to Sain and batted her eyes at him. "You are most gratefully welcomed."

"Yes, thank you," Kent said. "But now that we seem to have barely escaped with our skins, I think we should consider a few things. First, the goings will be much tougher from here on out because Ludgren can send the Caelin Militia against us now that we're in Lycia. Second, I've discussed this with Mark and we've both concluded that while Lyn is capable of defending herself, she's far from the greatest fighter out there. In fact, I believe she's barely an amateur, at best."

"Come now," Sain reproached. "She's not that bad. Or have you forgotten the missile maneuver?"

"No," Mark said. "Kent is right. Lyn's abilities leave a lot wanting. It would be impossible to convince her to leave the fighting to professionals such as Lucius, Erk, and Serra."

"That would affront her Sacean honor," Bob said. "While she puts down her own abilities as a Sacean, she is very much steeped in their traditions. Perhaps the only reason she's survived since turning ten years old is because of those nomadic traditions. If push came to shove, there is no doubt in my mind she'd fight to the bitter end to hold fast to her freedom and self-reliance, no matter what anyone says or even if it's in her best interest."

"That leaves no choice but for one of us to train her," Erk said, speaking for the first time.

"Our skills," Lucius said, indicating himself, Erk, and Serra, "center around the unique abilities of our mech designs. However, there are certain standards that we can teach her that should improve her basic fighting skills."

"Of course," Serra spoke up. "I can teach our most wonderful host better evasion skills. And Erk will teach her as well." Erk grunted when she spoke for him. "But what of the rest of you? Does anyone else have any piloting skills?"

"Sain and I have our army basics that were drilled into us before we entered the Police Force," Kent said. "We were assigned to a Cavalier Unit. I got the piloting half, and Sain the arms half."

"I can already imagine showing the young lady how to ride that swo-" Bob calmly reached up and whapped Bob upside the head. "-ouch!"

"Thank you Bob," Kent said.

"No problem."

"I have no skill in mech piloting," Mark said. "My forte is tactics and strategy. I suppose that since we have a week and a half before we reach the other side of Araphen territory that I could impart a few of my tactics to her in between you bunch. Nothing too advanced or crazy. Basic stuff."

"I…" Bob stopped. His mouth twisted and he said, "I can't remember if I know anything about piloting a mech."

"Don't worry about it," Lucius said. "You can go through the training with Lyn. Maybe it will jog your memory and it will give Lyn a companion with which to train with."

"Ooooh, that's a great idea!" Serra said. A wide, happy smile appeared on her face as she made goo-goo eyes at Bob. "And whenever you get hurt, I'll be there to patch you up."

"There is one more thing," Kent said. "I was looking over the inventory that Bee generated for the ship and we don't have much fuel left for the mechs. If we come out of Hyperspace at the Araphen border, and Ludgren is waiting for us, we'll be sitting ducks in less than a couple minutes."

"I know of a refueling platform in Araphen," Erk said. "It will add about half a day's journey to our trip, but I doubt anyone's going to stake out all the small refueling platforms just to find one ship. If we changed directions now, we'd make it there in maybe five days."

Lower Nevassa City Slums, Planet Nevassa, Daein Space

A young man, reaching for the upper edge of his teenage years, ducked into an alley as a patrolling Soldier mech flew by overhead. Its searchlight swerved about in the night, but picked up nothing of the young man or anyone else for that matter. Avoiding the Occupational Force's patrols is old hand to the people who live in this part of the city.

The young man's green hair, a lighter shade of forest in the sun, appeared almost midnight green at this time, as he swept it back under the hood of his cloak that was whipped up by the mech's passing. Even if he weren't as fast or as well versed in agile movement, he still could have avoided all the patrols, as most of the drunks, downtrodden, and weary souls in Nevassa did now that the war was over and Daein was under occupation by the multinational force that had defeated their king, Ashnard.

Pulling his cloak tighter close around him, the young man exited the alley and continued on his way. He had places to go, people to find, and there wasn't anyone that was going to stop him now. He'd picked up the trail again, after so many years of separation. He'd finally found her.

Stopping at an intersection, the young man looked up and down the crossing street, wary of the patrols or any vagrant stupid enough to try robbing him. He found it rather pathetic that the once proud people of Daein had been reduced to this, but it wasn't like he had any right to criticize them since he had been in the very force that had fought Mad King Ashnard.

Seeing no one, the young man dashed across the intersection and ducked into another alley. This one had several bins full of trash built up in front of it and several passed out men and women, drunk or otherwise inebriated out of their minds. However, there was one person, a woman, sitting with her back against the wall further back in the alley, hidden by the piles of trash and a heavily weathered cloak.

"I once knew a girl," the young man started. "The people called her the Silver-haired Maiden, among many other names…"

The young man came to stand in front of this person with both hands on his waist. The person whom the young man stood in front of lifted a hand to the hood over her head and pulled it back, revealing long silver locks of hair and golden brown eyes. She smiled up at the young man.

"…but I prefer to call her friend," the young man finished. "It's been a long time, Micaiah."

Standing, Micaiah nodded and said, "Yes it has, Sothe."

The two continued to stare at each other for over a minute before they both started laughing and hugged. When they pulled apart, Sothe said, "Why did you go away, all that time ago? Was it because of something I did?"

"No," Micaiah said. She grinned and shook her head. "No it was nothing you did. But let's not talk of that now."

Sothe nodded and looked out of the alley when a patrol passed by. "We should probably get somewhere safe before we start catching up. Do you have any place to go?"

"Yes," Micaiah said. "It's not far from here. Oh Sothe, I thought I'd never see you again. It makes me so happy that you're back."

"Me too," Sothe said as they exited the alley, Micaiah leading. He eyed the dark corners of the street, the heavily shadowed buildings standing guard over the road. "Me too."

As the two hurried down the dark street, a bell began ringing in the distance. It rang three times to indicate the hour of the night, though none but the nocturnal and night creatures heard it. Out of the shadows that Sothe had glanced at walked Glass, wearing a large black cloak. He watched the two star-crossed friends for several more moments before he vanished back into the shadows.

Hyper-space, Araphen Territory, Lycian Space

Lyn tapped the controls for her washer off and stepped out of the stall. Her whole body ached from the day's workout. Whey the others had approached her and told her their plan, part of her had rejoiced. She was going to get some proper instruction on piloting. The rest of her groaned in dismay. She still remembered her Uncle's 'lessons' on swordplay and basic strategy. It was the worst thing her six year old self had endured.

Time hadn't made much of a difference. Mark's lessons on tactics and strategies blew right over her head. He'd had to dumb it down four times, re-explaining it over and over, with Bee translating. That made her feel like an idiot for not understanding what he called a 'simple' and 'basic' strategy that all pilots understood. His lesson took place in the morning, and then Kent and Sain picked up on them shortly after.

She had to give him credit, Kent was a strict, but fair, instructor. Sain was a lazy bum with more talent than he knew what to do with. Together, Sain showed off the formations she was supposed to take, both in the cockpit and out, while Kent corrected her. They seemed to coordinate with Mark, because they started using the same tactics and scenarios he taught her earlier that day.

Then came Lucius, Erk, and Serra's lesson. They were helping her learn and memorize how to operate her mech as efficiently as possible. Before, she'd hop in and just hope she didn't have to use those buttons on the side, or flip that switch she had a hazy memory of her father saying never to touch. Now, she knew what that switch was actually for (the emergency ejection switch) and what most of the buttons were for.

Serra was, beyond her expectations, actually helpful when it came time to memorize operation instructions. It seemed that the strategy she used to rise to the top was to associate a word in her mind that reminded her of the operation she wanted to execute. The fact that almost all of Serra's memory words were the names of the different men she's dated, taken advantage of, and dumped, disturbed Lyn far more than she'd ever willingly admit.

Then came the simulator runs, where they would all hop in and have little death matches with each other. The goal of these little games, of course, was to improve Lyn's skills. That meant everyone ganged up on her and ground her into space dust. She got some lucky hits in between different people telling her where she was making mistakes, but she was handed her own butt by the end, usually by Lucius, Erk, and surprisingly Sain. Sain was surprisingly good at piloting a soldier mech, even if it was in a simulation.

Simulators done, Lyn broke for lunch, which was always short because she would need to head off to physical combat training with Lucius and Bob. Bob was going through all this training with her, which she hadn't expected to be as much of a lifeline to her sanity as it turned out to be. But when it came time to do some physical combat training, he was the one helping her.

She attributed Bob's unnatural agility and strength to the fact that he was a Laguz. No human could bend and twist that quickly and punch at the same time. During one interesting pause in the training session, Sain attempted to perform one of the back flipping kicks that Bob had done moments before to send her flying across the practice mat. Serra ended up treating his injury moments later while Kent stood over him with that disgruntled look on his face.

It was a rather cute disgruntled look, though she'd never tell him that. She didn't want to invoke Sain's wrath on the poor man. And she didn't want to insult Bob, who seemed to be kind of protective of her as well, not that he wasn't also rather cute.

Serra had attempted to ferret out her views on the subject of cuteness on the third day. That day Bob and Lucius were sparring. Of course, they got so hot that they pulled their shirts off. Everyone was watching, but as Serra's heated whispers of admiration for their well bulging muscles and broad shoulders implied, their reasons for watching were vastly different. She never broke under Serra's scrutiny though, easier still because she was reading everything the woman said through the translator. All she had to do to throw off suspicion was act confused.

After the training was dinner, prepared mostly by Kent because everyone else didn't know how or anything they produced was tantamount to poison. Sain, being the perfect example of the latter, much to everyone's surprise. She'd had suspicions that Serra's would be the worst, but she was proven wrong. Sain's first, and last, attempt at cooking an egg resulted in a small fire breaking out on the ship as well as uninvited trips to the bathrooms once the food had been 'sampled'.

After that, Sain was banned from cooking. Forever.

Kent's was the only passable food that everyone agreed they could eat on a daily basis, much to the man's chagrin. Apparently he despised his natural ability to cook, which was surprising to her because of how good he was at it. She thought that it was perhaps from her living on her own for so long that she could appreciate a good cook while he probably ate out at famous Caelin Restaurants where they had professional chefs.

Her own abilities at cooking were minimal because she was too afraid of messing the food up or making it taste bad. It had happened before when she was younger. Ever since ruining her food four times in a row, when she was eleven years old, she'd stopped trying to make it taste better and settled for the bland basics.

After dinner, aching and dirty, she'd take a shower and fall asleep into her bed. Now, as she stood, reflecting over the last five days of this routine, she was beginning to feel something that she'd thought to never feel again. With the way everyone was pitching in and working together, getting along, joking about small stuff, it was almost like they'd formed a bond of some kind. Like a family.

That thought scared her stiff whenever she thought about it so she suppressed any of those emotions when they bubbled to the surface. Yet every time she giggled at one of Sain's inane jokes, or watched Serra's flirtatiousness battle with Kent's honorable politeness, it became harder and harder to not think of these people as friends. Friends, who were growing closer by the hour.

While she lay in her bed, dozing from the day's work, she shuddered as her mind ran through the reasons why she was terrified. Every time she found herself warming up to these people a part of her core froze up like a block of deep space ice. For each of their faces, she saw a face that belonged to her family. She really, really didn't want to see the same thing happen to her new friends and the possibility that the same thing could happen meant…

Without finishing that thought, Lyn resolved to work even harder the next day to become strong enough to defend her friends when the time came. No one in her new family would die. She'd make sure they survived, even if it was the last thing she did.

Uncle Buck's Fuel and Refreshments, Araphen territory, Lycian Space

As the retro-thrusters fell quiet, Florina let out a long held breath and hung her head low. Outside of her canopy was the hangar of this refueling platform where many men and women who owned private space shuttles or mechs walked about. Their crafts, Florina's Huey, were parked in long rows next to the refueling pumps.

"I'm sorry Huey," Florina bemoaned. "It's all my fault that we were fired. Now we have to find a new job. Oh what am I going to do?"

A sharp tap on her canopy brought her back to the present. "Eep!" she squeeled as she jumped and jerked her body to look at the man outside of her ship. The man wore a mechanic's uniform with the number fifty-five printed on it.

"Look lady," the man said, his voice muffled by the thick canopy, "I don't got all day. You gonna order some fuel or what?"

"I… uh… I… W-w-w-want f-f-f-fuel p-p-p-p-pleassssse," she said, forcing the last word out. Without waiting for a reply she put her head down and didn't lift it to look at the man again.

Unsure what to do, fifty-five moved away to start the refueling process and said, "Uh… yeah, sure. Okay."

Once the man had walked away, Florina shuddered and tapped a button on the side of her console. The canopy immediately rose up with a mechanical whirring and a soft pop as the internal air pressure met the lower external one. Taking deep breaths to calm he nerves, she unstrapped herself from her seat, typed in the lockdown code for Huey's computer, and grabbed her Class I Vibro-lance.

Across from the refueling stations was a convenience market where several of Uncle Buck's patrons milled about as they waited for their crafts to finish refueling. With short, furtive movements, Florina shoved the inactive Vibro-lance into the holster on her leg and made a dash for the store front. Her heart raced as she bolted inside and ran down one of the many aisles of food and other travel comforts until she found a secluded spot near the back of the store.

There are so many men, she realized. Why did I even come in here? And now that I am, how am I going to get out?

"Attention Buck Shoppers," a pleasant and happy voice announced over the speaker system. It was clearly pre-recorded. "Our sensors indicate that a large pirate force is inbound. If all of our customers could please evacuate in an orderly fashion, casualties and needless death, can be avoided. If you should suffer bodily harm in the ensuing encounter, please contact our corporate headquarters to claim your very own cake mixing bowl. Have a good day."

Some people in the store screamed and others bolted out the door. One young man, with brown hair, grimaced as his eyes grew dark. He marched out the doors slowly, but with purpose in his step.

Pirates! Florina began shaking. I have to get out of here. But that means I'll have to run back the way I came! I barely made it in here without fainting. Florina, still shaking, squared her shoulders and nodded to herself. "I'll just have to make a run for it," she said.

Taking a deep breath, Florina steeled her nerves and made a dash for it. Most of the store was empty now, clearing a path for her to escape without the need to dodge anyone, much to Florina's relief. In the hangar outside the store, many of the ships parked at the refueling stations were lifting off and blasting out through the force-field barrier holding the air in. They would all be hooking up to external Hyper-drive assemblies floating just outside the refueling platform to escape.

Florina raced across the open space and jumped into the open cockpit of Huey. She leaned out the other side to check and make sure that he (she'd determined that Huey was a male ship) had finished being refueled and found that Fifty-five had run off without detaching the fuel hose.

With a desperate cry, Florina hopped out of the cockpit and scrambled to the hose. By the time she'd turned off the pump, detached the locking clamps holding the hose to Huey's fuel port, and clamped the cover onto the tank, only one or two others had yet to the platform. Leaping back into Huey, Florina began an expedited activation sequence. By the time the canopy had come back down and formed an airtight seal, she'd already buckled in and had activated half of the systems.

Minutes later, she was rising from the hangar deck and angling Huey to escape. Then she saw and her heart dropped into her gut. A cold pall came over her as she could now count the number of pirate mechs now outside the station, all of them enganged in destroying the escaping ships.

I'll never make it out of here alive she thought. Breathing in sharp gasps, Florina let her hand rest on the throttle, but let Huey maintain floating just above the floor while she watched with growing terror the massacre taking place outside.

A communication window popped open on her canopy. She screamed and jerked back in her seat. The man, the brown haired one who she'd watched march out of the store, jerked back as well. Then he said something in Lycian that she, having only learned the very basics, barely made out.

I think he wants me to do something, she reasoned. Using her very broken and bad Lycian, she told him that she was weaponless and didn't understand Lycian very well. Nodding the man looked down and then she received a text message from him.

Huey translated, 'I'm in the Archer behind you. If you work with me, we can save this platform and maybe the rest of the people trying to escape. You distract them, and I'll blow them away. Yes?"

He wants me to be the decoy… Florina looked back at the carnage taking place outside of the station. As afraid as she was, what those pirates were doing was even worse. Nodding, she looked at the brown haired man and, in heavy Illian accented Lycian, said, "Yes."

High Orbit over Planet Anri, Altean territory, Akaneian Space

Est sighed happily as she and her sisters approached the entry vector for landing on the planet. The Whitewings of Medon, as she and her sisters were known, had been loaned to Altea by the newly elected queen of Medon, Minerva. At this moment though, Est's mind was on one thing, and one thing only. A handsome young officer of the Altean space navy named Abel.

A communication window popped up on the canopy of her Pegasus unit, revealing her older sister Catria. "Siiiissssss." Est sighed again. Catria rolled her eyes and pushed a strand f her blue hair out of her face. "Oh come now, Est, it's only been a couple months now. You're worse than a love struck puppy."

"I cannot help it, Catria," Est said. "I just can't."

"Pay attention, you two," their eldest sister, Palla, said, her face appearing in another communication window on their canopies. "We're about to enter the atmosphere. I wouldn't want to explain to any prospective boyfriends, who I might say I don't approve of, that their prospective girlfriend has burned to ashes upon re-entry."

Est frowned, wrinkling her nose. "Yes mom. You're such a worry wart."

Catria giggled at the face Est was making and the scowl sported by their eldest sister. As the three of them guided their Pegasus units past the outer atmosphere and toward the landing pad by the Altean Palace, the three sisters continued to banter back and forth. Once they touched down on the landing pad and were walking into the palace, they were met by the prince himself, Marth of Altea.

"Good morning ladies."

"Good morning your Majesty," Palla said. She and her sisters bowed. "Her Majesty, Queen Minerva of Medon, sends her best regards and hopes for a quick resolution."

Marth nodded back and pointed back the way they'd come. He started walking and explaining what the mission is. "I appreciate her lending you three for my mission. I didn't want to take any of my retainers because that would tip off the people we're investigating. You three, on the other hand, are unknown quantities since Minerva likes to send you out on random missions, where you'll be away for weeks at a time."

"Her Majesty has explained most of everything to us already," Palla said. "But I am curious, won't your absence tip the group off just as well as if you'd taken retainers?"

"I've already taken care of that," Marth said as he hopped into a modified Mercenary mech. The three sisters climbed into their own respective mechs and soon they were all under way. Marth opened a three way secure channel to Whitewings as they lifted off and made for space. "I apologize for not giving you a moments rest after your trip here, but this mission is of utmost importance. The group we're going to be going after could very well tip the scales of power in this region with their acts of sedition and terrorism. The only information we have on them is their name. Black Fang."

Est tuned out the prince as he continued to fill them in. She was rather depressed now, having not had a chance to see Abel. Heaving a long sigh, she looked out of her canopy as they left the atmosphere and made for the external Hyper-space assemblies.

When will I get to see him next? she wondered.

A/N: This chapter is more filler than not. Nevertheless, I managed to fit in some plot movement. Yay.

I'm beginning to introduce, here, characters and places that are going to become more important as the story goes on. I'm also trying my hand at characters who are actually attracted to each other. Shipping is not my forte, so please, if you got tips or suggestions to make these things go smoother, I'm all ears.

Next Chapter: The Legion grows as sinister forces rally against them.

Please review. Thanks for reading.