After a refreshing bath, Trellis dressed and then decided to meet up with the others in the command room. Luger hadn't been in his room, but when Trellis walked by the kitchen, he heard him encouraging Enzo to put some more pepper on the scrambled eggs that they were making together. That was a good sign. Trellis liked pepper on his eggs. He was also happy that Luger was okay. He had been worried about his brother, since they had both relied on Emily as their fearless leader ever since they joined the Luna Moth. When he had told Luger, his brother had listened intently, and then gazed out the window, thinking. After a few minutes, he responded. "Do you think that Emily is truly lost?" Trellis shook his head. He was a bit amazed at his brother. Even now, he still had words of advice for him. "Then we aren't hopeless," he said, gentle but firm. "Cutting off a head of a hydra won't kill the beast. We just have to do our best to get that head back." Trellis had no idea what a hydra was, but Luger sounded so inspirational that he decided not to ask. When he arrived in the command room, Vigo was still peering over a map of Alledia. He glanced up when he saw Trellis. "We have decided on Frontera," he said in his way of greeting. Trellis' eyebrows furrowed. "What?" "Riva wanted to meet up in Frontera, correct? Then that's where we will go. We need the soldiers on our side." "But Emily is going to Valcor! You know this, Vigo. Shouldn't we go get her first?" Vigo sighed. "I want to bring her back, Trellis. But she said it herself. She needs her family and her body back, and her family is with the resistance team in Frontera and with the numbers we have a better chance of capturing her. Valcor seems like a good idea, but by the time we get there she will already be gone. And we aren't ready to face off with the Stone just yet." Trellis tried not to roll his eyes. "But Vigo, Frontera was leveled a long time ago! There is nothing left for us there!" "Except Riva," Vigo said gruffly. "And you said it yourself." "Yeah, I did say it, but we're talking about someone who has been the mayor of an underground city. An underground city, Vigo. It wouldn't surprise me if she wasn't out of her mind." Vigo shot him a sharp look. "We're going to Frontera, Trellis. Emily would agree with me if she were here." Trellis tried not to wince as he remembered for the billionth time today that he hadn't been able to save Emily. That was below the belt (only slightly though, because Emily had said more savage things than that before) and Vigo knew it. "Fine," he grumbled, "so we go to Frontera. What then?" "Then, we find soldiers and we capture Emily." Trellis' mouth opened. A billion things came to his mind. Who would want to go up against a firebird? Not them. Wasn't this not their problem? Probably. And, oh yeah, what could foot soldiers do against a freaking firebird with wings who could fly above them and incinerate them? He kept these things on the tip of his tongue and held them there. Then he shut his mouth. It was useless to argue against Vigo. Because not only would Emily agree with Vigo, but Vigo was also right. But of course he didn't tell Vigo that. Trellis still had some pride left. So he did the first thing that came to mind, which was to scowl and walk away. Which was what he did, although he made sure that he wasn't too aggressive with his scowl. He definitely didn't want to anger Vigo. So he walked to the kitchen. So much for getting to Valcor. A small portion of him felt a little sad that they wouldn't be traveling to his old home, although he wasn't really sure if it was his home anymore. It didn't feel like it. His childhood memories told him so. Speaking of childhood memories, he still had no idea what that memory cube thingy Gabilan gave him did, or what he was supposed to do with it. As far as he knew, there wasn't a nexus or a cortex or anything along those lines anywhere else in Alledia besides underneath Algos Island. And who had those memories been for? Trellis had already seen his own terrible haircut and childhood, but he didn't think Luger wanted to know what horrible things their father had been up to when they were still children. Someone else? Emily? No. Emily remembered her childhood. If not Emily, then who? He sighed, then glanced to his right. One of the nice things about living on an airship was that he almost always got fresh air and a good view. Today was no different. He stared at the slowly approaching shore, the wind whipping through his hair, his eyes squinting against the sunlight. He figured that in a matter of hours they would be above land again. Trellis closed his eyes. He thought about Emily. Again. His mind automatically flashed to the breathtaking firebird. She had been beautiful and terrifying at the same time, and it had made him want to stare at her forever or run away screaming. Just thinking about her made his skin tingle and his heartbeat became prominent. He let out a soft sigh, and opened his eyes. Maybe, if he was lucky, Emily hadn't already gone off on a rampage and destroyed about half of Alledia already. Maybe, if he was lucky, she was in Valcor, listening to the Stone as it droned on and on about how it wanted to see Alledia ravaged and scorched. Maybe she was somewhere inside the firebird, trying to gain control. He hoped that by the time he figured out how to cure Emily there was still something left of her. Maybe by the time he found out how to help her, she had already been burned out, and had become an empty, lifeless husk of her former self- Whoa Trellis, said the internal voice inside of his head, Think happy thoughts. Think about...something happy, I guess. Trellis didn't know what made him happy anymore, but he tried anyway. He decided to think about taking care of Luger when this was all over. It wasn't exactly happy, but it made him feel a lot better than he did before. After about thirty seconds of thought, he cleared his head. Got to keep your cool, Trellis. Emily is going to be fine. She always is. And we'll worry about her when the time comes, okay? He decided to agree with the voice, and then turned away from the rising sun. His stomach growled, and he remembered that the last time he had eaten had been a super small, quick meal before he got onto the submarine, and that had been several hours ago. He smiled one of his small smiles that only lasted for about a millisecond, and then decided to go find Luger and eat breakfast with him. Probably should have mentioned this before, but this does contain some Tremily in it because I ship it like FedEx. Not much, but definitely some fluff. And thank you for the reviews so far, since I totally thought up of this on the fly. -Lilith