------
Nanami bolted upright, the pain and weakness were gone now; and was surprised 
to find her shirt had been removed and she was sitting in what could only be 
described as a pool of slime. Beneath the surface things that she would 
rather not name moved around her. She touched her side, where there had been 
a gaping wound hours before there was only a tender spot.

"How?"

"The Bugrom lost much in the war that ended the Age of Marvels, this tank is 
one of the few that remain from that time." Nanami turned at the woman's 
voice. She was a tall woman, slender and sensuous. From what she knew of the 
bugrom this could be only one person.

"Queen Deva?" She continued at the bugrom ruler's nod, "Why did you save me?" 
Deva looked up from a console that she stood beside.

"It was the right thing to do, of course. You have the right of Blood, even 
if you don't know it." She smiled at Nanami's confused look, "your brother is 
my General remember?"

"Somehow, I don't think that he would heal me, kill me yes. Heal? No."

"Be that as it may be, he serves me and will follow my laws. You have some 
time before you will have to see him anyway." At this point a portion of the 
console lit up with a beep, "sleep now, and we will see what happens later." 

The machines hold over her system was far stronger than her own, and despite 
all that she tried Nanami felt sleep claim her again.

----
Deva pulled the door shut and walked down the hall. Despite her warrior's 
claims she had been surprised at the similarities and differences in the two 
siblings. -Nanami has the same pointed angular features of her brother, but 
they 
make her look almost regal while on him they show the world that he is a 
predator...- her thoughts were broken by a voice from the hall behind her.

"Harpo told me that my sister is in the healing tank. Why waste the time on 
her Deva?" Deva turned, surprised at his cold statement. "I mean, she is the 
enemy and not even one wholly in the confidence of the planners. My spies 
tell me 
that she is thought to be my pawn by most of the council and that she keeps 
to herself mostly these days."

"You are broodkin and you would act like this to her?" Deva asked 
incredulously.

"Of course! She betrayed me for that rat Makoto! If you are too weak to do 
the deed, I will!" Any other words were cut off by the iron grip of Deva's 
hand around his throat as she lifted him off his feet and slammed him into 
the wall with appalling ease.

"Kill her and your spine will decorate my bedroom wall. That I promise." 
Deva's grip had the strength of steel in it, and Jinnai found that he 
couldn't get loose despite all his efforts. "The Kin-bond is the first law of 
the Bugrom, you will respect it." She dropped him to the floor and walked 
away, "or else." Jinnai looked on with surprise as she walked away without 
another word. -That wasn't the way she deals with me, what have I done?- He 
pulled out the message that he had received from a messenger just minutes 
before his confrontation with Deva. -Maybe I should reconsider this after 
all, I don't want to leave such an option out when I am evidently falling out 
of favor-
----

Nanami stirred restlessly in the vats, her dreams must have been troubled. 
Jinnai watched her thrash about for a time, remembering how close they were 
once upon a time. -Before she betrayed me.- He reminded himself. He looked 
down 
at the keypad in front of him, it would only take a couple strokes and the 
slug like symbiotes would kill her in seconds. 

Total systemic disruption.

-Then Deva would kill me.- He had no doubts as to his queen's veracity on 
that count, Deva was a very direct and honest being. It was something that he 
knew for a fact, she never hid the truth. 

He tapped in a combination of keystrokes, and read the display on her 
recovery. It was very lucky that she had survived long enough to be brought 
here. Another sequence brought up her current status and he punched in a code 
that would 
tell the symbiotes in the tank to revive her. Within seconds, Nanami stirred 
and looked up from the pool of slime.

"Katshuhiko?" She asked sleepily. Jinnai smiled, a gentle smile to set her at 
ease and not the normal feral one that he used.

"Nanami, how are you doing?" he asked gently as she sat up, using one arm to 
cover her chest.

"Like you really care. What do you want?"

"Is that anyway to talk to your brother? To the person to whom you owe your 
life?" He shook his head as her face set in a determined glare. "So be it. 
When you are well, I have a message for you to send to Makoto and the others. 
I have the Great Key, and I am sure that it will be only a matter of time 
before I figure out to use it." -Right after I learn how to touch it without 
getting zapped that is..- "Tell them that I will send them home, in exchange 
I want Makoto, Fujisawa and the priestesses to leave El Hazard forever never 
to return. This will be my world."

"They will never relent, I know it. You have a better chance of mastering the 
Eye with a light dimmer than the Great Key. I saw what it did to Makoto when 
he tried to use it. Do you think that I would believe for a second that some 
half 
rate would-be tyrant like you could do what he can't." Jinnai punched in a 
combination angrily, and Nanami's tirade died as she slid back into sleep.

"How dare she! " He fumed as he walked out of the room. -I show her! I will 
show them all! They will all pay!- Behind him, the monitor signaled a request 
for confirmation on his orders. With no one to give it, the pod's directives 
indicated that the subject was finished. Nanami stirred again in the slime.
----

Awareness returned as Nanami pulled herself at the tank. The soreness was 
gone, and she checked her side as she stood. There wasn't even a bruise to 
show that she had a hole in her side. -Now, where is my clothes?- she said as 
she looked around the tank room. The whole room glowed faintly and she 
quickly pulled on her shirt and pants and started to think of her next move 
as slid out of the room and into the shadows of the hallway. -Where would he 
have the Key?- she asked herself as she retreated deeper into the hive.

Deva stepped out of the shadows and watched Nanami head down the hall. Ahead 
of the girl, Bugrom sentries and messengers moved aside as Deva's commands 
ordered them aside. Soon, Nanami would find what she sought; Deva was sure of 
that. 

"Maybe I chose the wrong Jinnai as my champion." Deva told herself as she saw 
Nanami enter the vault through the eyes of one bugrom messenger. She walked 
away, to the throne room, watching Nanami find the Key in her mind's eye. 
"Only time will tell, but I think..that Nanami and I will meet again." she 
told herself as she settled on the throne and returned to the business of 
ruling. Of guiding her children into the future.

------
It seemed more like an afternoon walk than a search party, Fujisawa thought 
to, at least till he remembered the wreakage of the pods and shattered 
hillside behind him. Miz wrapped an arm around his and giggled.

"Maybe we ought to have a picnic," she suggested with a hint of mischief in 
her eyes. "Just the two of us, right Masamichi?" His throat was suddenly 
parched, and he could feel the heat rising up from his neckline. -Just like 
being at 
the prom all over again but without pimples- He cleared his throat nervously.

"Um, I think that Rune would have something to say about that, at least 
before we find the others." He gently reminded her, they had come looking for 
Makato and the others. They both refrained from commenting that they would 
have 
come along with the others, if they had been there. Instead of going to Miz's 
family estate with her parents.

He started to say something, when he spotted something out of the corner of 
his eye. Miz was still looking at him with stars in her eyes.-Don't have 
time,- he thought to himself as he grabbed her up and leapt clear. 

He was just a hair ahead of the bugrom warrior that landed where they were 
seconds before. -Damn that was too close.- He leapfrogged across a dozen 
yards of distance, each time only barely keeping ahead of the horde of 
warriors that 
were suddenly appearing.

"Masamichi, let me down! I can't fight if I am all tangled up in your arms 
like this!" Miz yelled over the wind. Behind them the sounds of battle were 
already beginning.

"I was just trying to get us clear." Fujisawa said as he landed and gently 
placed her on the ground. Miz smiled and powered up quickly, there were 
things that had done before they could finish this conversation. They leapt 
down into 
the growing conflict together.

---

Afura looked up as the flare shot into the sky. Makoto and Tenchi were 
sharing the watch with them and joined her at the cave's entrance. 

"I wonder what that means?" Tenchi asked aloud as they woke the others.

"I would imagine that it is the rescue party that was sent out for you." They 
all spun around that the sound of Fauric's dry voice. The Phantom stood at 
the entrance of the cave, leaning on a makeshift staff. "I spotted 
indications of a large group of humans to the north, I thought it was you 
till I found this cave. Maybe we should join them?"

"Fauric! Where is Nanami?" Makoto asked, still worried that his folly might 
have cost his oldest friend her life. Fauric looked at him a second before 
replying.

"Safe. She is in the bugrom hive..." Makoto's fist cut off the rest of his 
reply, sending him spinning to the floor. He spat up blood as he stood.

"You monster! They will kill her! You might have just as well let her die out 
in this god forsaken wilderness." Tenchi and Afura had to hold him back, he 
had a look of murderous rage on his face that made them wonder if he was 
going to 
kill the elder Phantom.

"No. You don't understand how deep the Brood bond permeates Bugrom society. 
They've never killed their own. She is kin to Deva's general, that kinship 
will keep her safe. I didn't have a choice boy! Do you honestly think that I 
wanted to leave her behind? She was dying, and it was the only way I knew of 
to keep her alive. Deva has artifacts that could heal any wound, and Nanami 
needed them. Not the futile bandages and powders that your field kits could 
provide." Fauric looked at him, anger shadowing his face. "Now, I know she 
will find a way back to us. What is important now is to return with the 
others and plan our next step."

"He's right Makoto." Afura said quietly. Makoto turned away with a growl, it 
was frustrating when he couldn't fault the other's logic. -I'm sorry Nanami, 
but I have to go back.- He grabbed a pack and started to get ready telling 
himself that he wasn't responsible for another death. Now they had to save 
the others before they were overwelmed.
-----

Nanami emerged from the hive, her jacket wrapped around the Key. She wasn't 
sure that it would hurt her, but after seeing the zap it had given Makoto 
made her cautious around it. It was nice to feel the sun on her face, and 
after taking 
a second to get her bearings, she started jogging down the slope towards the 
area where the team was supposed to meet up in case they were seperated.
-----

Miz and Fujisawa led off the forces, tearing through the intial charge of 
Burgrom. -If we only knew where the others were, we could grab them and run.- 
Fujisawa though angrily as he smashed one enemy after another. Miz used her 
powers to knock back entire waves of Bugrom, and still they came on. -I won't 
fail.-, he told himself grimly as he pulled up a massive boulder.

Just then the back end of the assault exploded into a chain of fire and the 
wind in the valley rushed into the horde from the side. He threw the the 
boulder aside and started smashing through the now confused ranks to meet the 
column that was fighting through the other side of the massed enemies. Ryoko 
and Sheyla were the first to come into sight, with Makoto, Alliele, Ayeka and 
the Princess in the middle, then Afura and Fauric bringing up the rear. There 
were very few 
members of the royal guard with them and ... He grabbed up Makoto and looked 
him in the eye.

"Where is Nanami?" He yelled as the whole group started to pull back, trying 
to get back to the transports. Makoto looked away, and Fujisawa's heart 
skipped a beat in fear.

"She was captured in the ambush." Makoto replied with a glare at Fauric. the 
team came over the ridge and stopped dead, there was a horde of bugrom massed 
between them and the transports.

"Damn!" Royoko and Sheyla said at the same time, the two automatically moving 
into a pincer before any of the others could react. Miz, Ayeka, and Afura 
caught up quickly and tore into the center. The unspoken plan was to break 
this 
force's resolve before the others caught up.

"Look out!" Fujisawa turned to look behind. Several hundred feet up the slope 
was Nanami, coming towards them at a full run. She pointed to one side as she 
ran to join the group. Fujisawa turned to look in that direction. It might 
have 
saved his life, because the next second a bullet whistled by his head. Over 
the hill, a company of phantoms fired off the rest of the volley before 
moving in.

"Damn!" Fujisawa swore as he moved in close to Miz. "Just what we needed to 
ruin the whole party."

The battle turned against them again, as reality itself changed and ran like 
water under the combined willpower of dozens of approaching phantom warriors.
----

Afura reached for the wind but was knocked down by a Phantom that just 
appeared suddenly , and she dropped her activator pack. -No! I won't fail 
again!- She slammed a fist into his face and dropped into a guard position, 
though she 
didn't like her chances as the bloody faced man vanished in a flash.
---

Tenchi closed his eyes, and reached deep within. -Must protect the others!- 
He had never actually done what he was attempting. Summoning the Wings of the 
Light Hawk under his own. Before it was always be as a reaction. -Please!- He 
pleaded as the enemy closed. 

With the suddeness of a tripped switch he felt the power surge forward at his 
call. The Wings grew out, and with them a barrier to protect the princess and 
the wounded. Tenchi could feel his Marks appear and the clothing shift into 
the 
Jurian battledress, but kept his eyes closed. He had only one thought on his 
mind. -Protect the others.- All the while he watched his two lovers fight for 
their lives outside the barrier and the bodies pile up around him.
---

"Miz! What is that damned phantom doing!" Sheyla yelled as she closed in on 
the group that had formed around the senior priestess and her love. Fauric 
was holding still, yet sweating like a man that had just ran a marathon. She 
ducked 
under the knife of a phantom who suddenly appeared in front of her, and 
lashed out with flame before turning to face two bugrom warriors that were 
approaching from her side.

"He's holding the illusions at bay!" Miz replied as she lashed out with a 
wave of water that swept an entire facing of their attackers away. Sheyla 
smiled grimly as she discovered that it was true, retreat to within in a 
certain distance of the Phantom and no illusions would work.

"Alright! Keep it up Fauric!"
---
Namami slipped under a bugrom warrior, and dodged around another as she 
dashed to the circle of humans at the center of the valley. Fujisawa smiled 
as he saw her close in to the group and renewed his efforts, almost 
singlehandely 
opening up the entire side that he was fighting on.

Fauric looked up at her, his features twisted at the level of effort that he 
had to keep up his counters. Still, she could see that he was happy to see 
her. She rushed to his side, determined to protect him as he countered his 
kin's illusions.

"K'chara.." Fauric licked his lips and Nanami could tell that the level of 
effort he was keeping  was consuming him. "I need your help, .."

"How? I can see through the illusions, but how can that help anyone else?" 
Fauric shook his head   as he cut her off.

"You're a Seer, Nanami." He looked up and met her eyes, there was an 
intensity there that was terrifying. "You're.."

Nanami turned, seeing a flicker of the ridge top. The heart wrenching sounds 
of tearing flesh and smashed bone met her ears. Fauric fell foward in a 
shower of blood, and all the illusions that he hald at bay returned.

"Fauric!"
---

Nahto handed the scoped rifle to an associate as he smiled. Things were going 
quite well, the enemy were about to fall and it was easy to see that with the 
fall of their pet Phantom that the forces of Roshtaria would soon fall.

"It was so nice to see you again Fauric." he said as he returned to the task 
of directing his troops. 

---
There was blood everywhere, or so it seemed to Namami, as she held both hands 
over the wound. Fauric looked up at her and tried to say something. She shook 
her head, trying to look a lot more hopeful than she felt.

"Hold still, and don't say anything Fauric. You'll be okay, just please hold 
still." She pleaded as she tore a piece of her shirt and pressed it to the 
wound. "You HAVE to be okay." She looked up as his hand wrapped around hers.

"K'chara.. Nanami.. I need you to do something for me, promise me.."

"Anything! Just hold still, someone will be here to help me with you. Please 
Fauric, just hold on" Nanami was crying now, terrified at the though of 
losing him. "I still have a lot to learn from you. Hell, I don't even know 
what your name for me means." -Got to keep him talking. Please someone help 
me!- Nanami thought as she watched the strength drain out of the man in her 
lap.

"K'chara ... Child of my Heart." Fauric coughed and his face saddened. "I 
fear that I leave you a terrible burden, K'chara. Nanami," the intensity 
returned as he continued, "promise that you won't stand in the shadows. Lead 
them into 
the light once more," another racking cough," swear it to me." Nanami gasped. 
-He knows and still cares for me!-

"I will, we will. You can't give up. Don't you dare die on me, who will 
finish my picture if you do?"  She said desperately.

He lived a few moments longer, the last few seconds filled with regret and 
pain between the two of them. Then he was gone, a long sigh escaping from him 
as his body suddenly went limp in her arms. Fauric, the most noble warrior of 
the 
Phantom tribe, was dead. 

Nanami looked around her at the melee. Even without Fauric, the warriors were 
doing well enough to hold their own. 

A pair of explosions signaled where Ryoko and Sheyla were fighting and the 
others were holding a strong position around her.

Then it hit her hard, the pain of her fit making her to reflectively curl 
into a ball. -Not now!- she begged as she felt the 'fit' tear her apart. 
Alliele and Fatora, safe on the other side of Tenchi's barrier gasped in 
shock as Nanami changed. She could hear Makoto yell her name from close by, 
but the pain was too much for her to speak through.

It was everywhere, tearing through her like an irresistible wind. Tearing her 
down, crashing the barriers that she had built. Awareness bloomed as she 
remembered. Helpless in the grip of her change, Nanami could only ride the 
pain as it washed over her. And remember.

[A year before, in the Desert of Bleached White Bones]

Nanami landed hard, the impact of her arrival driving 
the wind out of her, and rolled down the hill. She 
failed about in an attempt to control her fall, finally
catching a loose root and halting her fall.

She rolled up into a sitting position and shook her head,
confused by the sudden arrival in an alien place. 

-The last thing I remember is giving Fujisawa-sensai his
tea and then...- She remembered some sort of light and 
a flood of images as she 'fell' away. The face of an
older man, lined with years of carrying a burden. The 
elfin features of a small girl. A small boy, delicate in
features and build.-It's all so confusing...

She reached up to brush her hair out of her face with 
a hand, only to freeze at the sight of it. She looked at it
and then the rest of her body with horrified facination. Her
skin was a pale blue and covered with almost invisible 
silver-blonde hairs that matched the color of her hair. 

"No!" She screamed, and collapsed. She screamed and thrashed
about in shock. Desperately her mind threw up barriers and walls
to shield her from the painful truth.Her form wavered and 
changed to the fair skinned girl that she saw herself as.
All memory of the arrival was banished from her mind.

She gasped as she awake a few minutes later. A dull headache
greeted her. "Where am I ?!" she said as she looked around the
desolate desert landscape around her.

[Transition back...]

"No!" Nanami screamed, trying to deny the truth and the pain that coursed 
through her.  -I've been living a lie, ever since my arrival.- Nanami thought 
as she looked down at the still form of Fauric. -I'm sorry, Fauric.-  She 
brought a 
shaky hand across Fauric's face and ease the still eyes shut. -Goodbye 
Fauric.- She hugged her arms around herself as she took the memories in and 
accepted them.
---
"Nanami!!" Makoto pounded on the shield as he tried to get her attention. 
"Tenchi! You have to drop the shield. Please! Just for a second!" He looked 
back to Nanami as he pleaded with his old friend.

---
Nanami raised her head, the tears coursing down her face as she threw aside 
all the illusions that she had wrapped around her body and mind.

---
Makoto gasped as Nanami changed before his eyes. -Nanami?! A Phantom?!-

---

A primal howl of pain and loss thundered across the battlefield, causing all 
to pause for a second. In that second a wave of light erupted from the center 
of the battlefield and washed outwards. Taking every illusion and obscurement 
that the phantoms had erected. The tide turned once again in Roshtaria's 
favor. The battle was won.
---

Nahto gasped as the illusions collapsed all of them across the field. -It 
can't be! Where would they have found a Seer? Much less one of this power?- 
He turned to his second and gave a signal as he gathered the items that he 
would need.

"We're leaving. Now! If they have a Seer down there, it is only a matter of 
time before he or she reacts in a more active role. This battle is Jinnai's 
now, we can do nothing more here."
---

Fuji snarled as another pair of bugrom leapt up to replace the one that he 
had just smashed, his blood singing with adrenaline. They went down just as 
fast as the last one had. He glanced to one side, checking on Miz. She was 
holding 
her own, literally washing away wave after wave of bugrom. She looked his 
way, seemingly to say something to him.

That was the moment his heart froze. Behind Miz in that second of distract 
came one of Jinnai's new warriors. A lancer bearing a crystal lance. Time 
slowed to a standstill for Fuji, his warning frozen on his lips as the lance 
plunged through 
her shoulder and appeared as a bloody spike from her chest. 

With a heart rending roar of pain and loss, Fuji lifted the bugrom that had 
appeared between him and Miz and slammed it down into the ground. It 
shattered with a crunch and he moved to the next one as a red haze settled on 
his vision. 

"Gods," Alliele whispered as Tenchi broke his trance and the shield vanished.

"What is it Alliele?" Makoto asked as he turned and saw what she was looking 
at. "Kami, he's gone insane."

Fuji lashed out at the enemy around him, crushing a warrior's skull before 
twisting around with another to smash three warriors. Then he grabbed an 
enormous chunk of rock and lifted it up high to smash a group of retreating 
bugrom. 

There wasn't any real thought in his mind as he lashed out in his pain. 
Smash, Crush, Kill were the impulses going through his mind. 

A hand grasped him and he turned, ready to strike instinctively. His fist 
struck out with the intent to hammer his foe into the ground.

Only to stop short of Ayeka's concerned face.

"Sensai! Snap out of it!" She yelled as she pulled him back to the crowd. His 
energy drained away and he followed her meekly, in a state of shock through 
the carnage he had created. He looked up in the direction he was being led in 
and his heart nearly burst as two soldiers rigged a litter for Miz.

-Not again, please not again.- he pleaded as he reached for her hand and held 
it while he weapt. -I can't go through this again.-
-----

Fatora wept as the battle unfolded before her eyes.  Never had she ever 
witnessed anything so horrible, so terrifying.   And she was helpless to stop 
it, the thought rang in her mind. Scenes of the battle flashed before her 
eyes melding with those of the past.

The screams of orders and gunfire changed to her pleading screams to her 
phantom captors as they attached her to the gene doubling device.  The 
indescribable pain that ran through her mind as arcs of energy lashed out 
again and again, trying to increase her connection to the Eye of God. Even if 
it killed her.  The terror filled her once more as she couldn't move, 
couldn't talk, couldn't beg for the pain to stop.  

"Fatora,"  a soothing voice pulled her out of the abyss of memory, one with 
the soft loving tones of mother, she held onto it as she blindly relive her 
past..  "Shhh, its all right."  Alliele craddled her head in her lap, as she 
came out of her fit.  "Its over."  Fatora sat up slowly taking in the view of 
the carnage.  

Before her the soldiers surveyed the battlefield searching for bodies and 
treating the wounded.  Makoto and the Jurians stood in a circle over an area 
of the battlefield blocking her vision.  She heard sobbing. She shifted her 
gaze towards the sounds.  "No..no...no..not again.  NO!!!" Fatora screamed.  
"Get away from me!!!"  Alliele was pushed aside as Fatora lashed out wildly.  
"You..how could you..you betrayed us you bitch!!!"

Suddenly, she found her self restrained by Fujisawa's firm grip, "What are 
you screaming about Princess?"

" Are you blind!!  She's a Phantom, can't you see!!!  Nanami's a phantom!!"  
All eyes turned to the girl kneeling before Fauric's corpse.
-----

Nanami looked up. Their gaze locked on her, their looks saying so many 
things; the fear, her apparent betrayal, the accusations.  She could feel it 
burning thru her skin and tearing into her soul. She rose quickly, stumbling 
backwards in her haste.  She paused as if to explain, to tell them, 
anything... but the words died unspoken on her lips. Swallowed by a sudden 
sense of guilt and loss.

"Nanami?"  Makoto whispered.  -No..I was seeing things, an illusion during 
the battle.-  "Is it..?"  The blue skinned and white haired women shook her 
head as tears streaked down her face.

"Nanami's dead,"  She turned fading for their vision as she went. "only 
K'chara ip Fauric, the phantom, remains." came her voice through the silence. 
 Makoto ran toward her only to be held back by the blood stained hands of his 
sensei.

"We can't let her...she can't just leave us?"  Makoto moaned painfully. 
-She's gone.-  They had shared something, it wasn't love, but they were 
friends all that remained of the world that they had left behind.  

"She can't go to them. Let her go.  She'll come back, she has to. We're all 
the family that she has" Fuji said grimly. Makoto wasn't sure that who he was 
trying to convince more, him or Makoto. He glanced over the battlefield and 
silently prayed to his friend. -Please come back Nanami.-
----
Rune marked the last of the changes into the document, pausing to make 
additional notes on another scroll; then tied them together and placed them 
aside for a page to collect and give to the scribes. She looked around, 
hoping for another task to set her hands to. Anything to keep from 
considering the situation at hand. There weren't any left, she had finished 
the best part of a weeks work in a two day span, keeping at them continuously 
without sleeping or eating. 

Driven by her need to forget, or rather not contemplate what had happened. 

Now, she had nothing left to avoid thinking. -Fatora my sister, what were you 
thinking?- she thought miserably, worried that she had lost the last of her 
kin. The one thing that had kept her focused and open in the last 10 years, 
and 
made the burdens of leadership worth it. Just for the hope that the loving 
sister she had once had would return again.

"Princess," she looked up at the sound of Londs by the door. "She is alive, 
and the force is returning, according to the outposts they will be back in an 
hour or so." An enormous weight was lifted from her shoulders at those words.

"That is good, Londs. Is there anything else that I should know." He looked 
down for a moment before replying.

"Yes my princess, the detachment you sent with them took heavy losses. Only 
one of the original skimmers and three of the second team are returning and 
the outposts report that they are not heavily manned." Instantly Rune felt a 
rush of 
same and the return of that weight on her shoulders. -What have I done? 
Father, was it always this hard?-

"I see. Londs, see that I have a list of both detachments' personnel, and 
that I have a list of the wounded as soon as the teams return. I will be 
resting till they arrive." She stood and walked away, heading to her rooms, 
hoping for a small rest. Praying that it would be a dreamless one, because 
she feared that she would again dream the faces of the dead if she did dream.

"I'll send word when they arrive." Londs said as Rune made her escape. -I 
wish I could take the weight off your shoulders princess, you don't deserve 
to take this type of pain on yourself.-
----

Alliele fumed, confused and at war with herself over the events of the last 
few hours. Fatora had gone from hysterical, to silent, to something closer to 
her normal state of mind. The last forty minutes had been a ceaseless cursing 
of all 
things phantom and bugrom, specifically Nanami. The quiet Nanami had been one 
of the few females in the palace that didn't get nervous or bolt at the first 
site of her. She had been willing to listen to her when the pain had been too 
much. 
Alliele had come to rely on her few talks with Nanami,  even though she 
hadn't told her all the secrets she carried. But she told Nanami enough of 
the things that she couldn't tell Fatora. And she hadn't turned Alliele away 
when the 
smaller girl needed a shoulder.

Getting out of the skimmer, Fatora had something about Nanami again. That was 
the last straw, Alliele spun around and slapped Fatora. The silence and shock 
in the hall was deafening.

"How dare you, .. you don't know what Nanami really was do you? You look at 
the color of her skin and only see the pain and hate that they gave you, it 
is all so easy for you to forget the fact that Nanami risked her life for us. 
She helped Makoto save everything. She fought her brother and the bugrom for 
us."

"You slept with her didn't you!" Fatora spat at her, closing the distance to 
next to nothing as she ranted at Alliele. "You don't really care for me, you 
always chased every woman you laid eyes on. Varic was right, you aren't 
worthy of me. Get out! I don't want to see you in my presence again." With 
that Fatora turned and walked away, her attendants rushing to keep up with 
her, and leaving a stunned Alliele behind. Alone.
----