I hid out inside the massive airship hanger until night drew her curtains over Archadia a few hours later. The guards around the prototype airship were minimal, as the ship was only to be discarded. With the Judges power divided away from her, the ship rested alone and dormant. I made my move towards her in the cover of the shadows she cast in the dim lighting. As I turned the corner, I saw that the staircase had remained lowered. Daring, I leaned out a bit more to peer inside. My eyes met the gray interior before the rest faded to black. Had they just left the stairwell down because of its compromised value? The steady footsteps of the nightly guard rung across the concrete, reminding me of the little time that I had to pull of such a foolhardy escape. Before he could turn the corner, I dashed up the metal steps with soft, urgent steps of three. I barley had my back to the inner walls of the ship when the Judge paused at the base of the airship.

"What's this?" I held my breath as he took to the first step, his metal boots echoing up the stairs with loud clinks. "Those good for nothing guards didn't bring the stairwell back up again?" The Judge said. He stepped back onto the plain tiles with mutters of discontentment, and threw the staircase back into place with a sickening bang.

I stood in the darkness of the airship, my eyes wide as I let out a sigh of relief. I should still hurry, though. It was only a matter of time before the Judges would thoroughly search the hanger for me. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I noticed that it wasn't dark at all. Far enough away from the doors so that light wouldn't reach, the navigation room was dimly lit by the small screens before the steering wheel. The ship was in standby mode, as if preparing for departure. I dropped my bag by the doorway and examined the navigation room. It was defiantly the latest model, as all of the direction systems were just developed. With further inspection, I determined that, though I would be able to fly her, my navigation abilities were rather limited. I put my hands on my hips with a sigh. Where to start? Wherever I did, I would need almost twenty minutes to get her off the ground since I had to start her up by myself. This is a major reason as to why sky pirates, were sky pirates. When being pursed with a newly stolen keepsake, it was convenient to be able to take off with little delay. I bent over the intricate pattern of buttons and keys, my mind quick at work as I analyzed their meanings. I decided on the first left switches as the power startup, and, before I could lose my nerve, I pulled them flat against the panel. I had tensed nervously, prepared for the loud hum of the spinning glocair rings, yet no such vibration filled the rooms. Did I need to start the main thruster in the engine room as well? I turned on my heel, took the one step needed to catch my balance, and froze again.

This seemed to be the similar reaction of the viera down the hall.

"Fran?" She came to an abrupt halt, her ears noticeably straight. I caught a flicker of surprise across her dark face before it hardened into that unblinking gaze.

"I will not ask you why you are here." She said- her voice quiet and dangerous. "Nor will I voice my reasoning. But you will leave this ship to me. Leave at once." I blinked in shock at her demands. My chest burned with subtle offense.

"Now that's now way for a lady to ask. What gives you so much right to this ship anyways?"

"I gained this craft after I constructed it. You simply grew fond of it whilst observing." True, true. "I grow tiered of repeating myself." She subtly adjusted her footing to better leap. "Disembark."

Now, even if I knew how to drop the stairwell, I was not about to give up such a prize, and face certain imprisonment. I continued my cool act, opening one hand her way.

"How daring. Is this I threat I hear?"

"Interpret as you please, but you will regret my company for any longer." Then, the overhead lights snapped on, nearly blinding and defining me as the entire hanger roared with sound. Both our composures faltered. The airship was coming to full power, and the switches I'd thrown sent the glocair rings into a frenzy. Apparently, Fran had been in the engine room, igniting the main thrusters, as I calmly boarded. It had taken quite some time for the ship to reach full power after the main thrusters had been ignited. This was a sign of a…juvenile engine. My mouth felt dry, and I forgot to take heed of Fran's previous threat.

"This is the ship's first flight!" I snapped, following the viera as she shouldered past me, her heels tapping the metal floor loudly. She seemed to forget her threat as well.

"That is no longer a relevant fact! Get off this craft now!" Her voice was well audible over the ship's strained hum. I rushed beside her, quickening the pace of her rapid button-pressing.

"I kindly decline, in fact-!" I pointed a finger her way. "You should be the one leaving! I'm claiming this craft now, so you might as well hop off here instead of the next stop."

"I will do no such thing!" I felt the same annoyance from her reply, as she had felt with my demand.

"Well-!" I felt of surge of childish anger flash inside me. Though I disliked my father, it was rare for me to have been denied the luxuries I wanted on a whim. I planned on severing all ties with him, but it would certainly take a while before I was accustomed to rejection. "Well neither will i!"

We understood the situation well enough to put aside our quarreling to a point where we could mutually progress on the ship's takeoff. With our combined efforts, the airship was ready to lift off within minutes of the loud startup, and not a second too soon. The combined force of the foot soldiers and Judges were banging away at our doors with their swords and gauntlets.

"A loud bunch aren't they?" I muttered, momentarily forgetting how sensitive a viera's ears were.

"Nearly as annoying as you." She replied, leaning over the navigation half of the dashboard. "I've input a course out of the main city. Can you fly?" I dropped into the pilot seat beside her, glancing back and forth between the spacious window and button-covered dashboard. "She should fly manually once you've cleared the hanger. If all goes well."

"If all goes well? Such as, if the ship will take to the air or not."

"She can fly." Fran retorted, defending her ship. "But only at the hands of a skilled pilot." So she was not one? She could fly a ship, I was sure, but it would most likely be difficult for her to guide it out of the hanger. Now if it was evasive maneuvers we needed to escape with the ship, then she had certainly gotten stuck with the right person. A sheepish grin filled my cheeks, one that set the uneasy viera on alert. I flexed my fingers over the wheel.

"I suggest that you hold on to something." I struck the remaining thruster into place against the panel, and pulled up on the wheel.

The iron beams that supported the airship above the ground began to shake, simultaneously with the powerful hum of the dual-glocair ring engine. The Judges and guards, previously occupied with their attempts to pry open the impenetrable hull, paused in union to look up. As they did, the five support beams broke away from the ship's wings by the sheer energy of the gloacair rings. The airship hung in the air, precociously at first as I accustomed myself to her size. This was, after all, the largest, and most advanced airship I'd ever flown.

"All right, now…forward."

"Lower the craft at once!" A rough, familiar voice commanded from the observation deck beside us. Ghis had run out onto the hallway, along with a large group of foot soldiers.

"And what?" I called, unaware that he could not hear me through the strong glass. "Face a fairer sentence? Of course, just give me a second!" I quickly found the wing thrusters on the dash, and the ship suddenly lurched, then shot forward. I was thrown against my seat unexpectedly, and the open hanger seemed t become more condensed. The ship moved through the open space, and was closing in on the thick walls in a matter of seconds. I gasped, and closed my thumbs over what I referred to as the "panic" button. The blasters at the front of the ship gathered a green light, drawing it to the tip like fireflies, and shot a pair of beams from the weapon. The energy blasted into the walls, and the stone gave away as if it were Styrofoam. The airship broke through the remaining stone with hardly a jarring shake, and the rest was open sky.

Ghis was yelling orders, stabbing a finger at the gaping hole, still crumbling on the edges, and the chaos was so fresh that no one noticed the elderly man watching the scene from the deck. He lowered his head into a palm, rubbing his temples wearily.

'I said too much…all too fast. And now, my son…' The man lifted his gaze to the wreckage in the hanger. 'Oh, Ffamran…What have you done?'