OMRICON

It was midnight, or what would have been midnight if they had been in Crystalia. The ship
they were traveling in dimmed all the hall lights to indicate the night. Zelda stared out a
viewport at the starscape. The small specks of light looked so lonely amidst the cold
emptiness of space. She sighed and turned away from the port, her head hurt and she was
so tired. But she just couldn't sleep.   It felt like something was going to happen, whether
for good or ill she didn’t know.  ~Maybe walking will help me clear my mind.~ she
thought, but without much conviction. She stepped out into the corridor and began to
walk. She was so lost in thought that she ran into one of the CFs, "Oh..sorry I wasn't
paying attention." she mumbled after getting her balance back, "Wait...what are you doing
up as well?" “Bridge duty.” Ganthet said, heading towards the bridge with a wave
good-bye.  “Oh.” Zelda said softly.

ELSEWHERE

	Thousands of miles from Zelda and the rest of the Crystal Fighters, an alien being
was hurtling through space in an egg-sized green space spacecraft only about 30 feet
across. The alien, who looked for most appearances like a twenty-year-old male human,
was floating naked in zero gravity designing a pet. Ariah, as he was called, had recently
become bored and decided he wanted something cute and furry, which more or less
explain why he was hovering there in his spacecraft rapidly creating the genome for a
completely new species. As he was deciding whether his pet should be refrigeratable or
not, he was pleasantly surprised when his ship's computer alerted him to the presence of an
alien spacecraft only a few light years away. Happily saving his soon-to-be pet's partially
completed genetic code in an open sector of his brain's hard drive, he turned his attention
to his alien neighbor. He scanned it, and a smile brightened his face as the ship's stats
poured into his mind. The alien spacecraft was primitive, but it was quite large and
contained several beings similar to himself. The humans would be better than a pet, he
thought, changing his spacecraft's course to intercept the CF one. These non-Imani were
sure to be entertaining, and he had been bored for SUCH a long time.

OMRICON
 
"Captain, I think you should have a look at thi-" Was all the helmsman could say before the
being appeared in the bridge. Everyone instantly stopped, wondering immediately about the
weird, glowing nude guy floating in the center of the bridge. 
"Please tell me you're not some kind of Angammon. I have had it up to here with those
guys and-" he stops as the man's gaze quickly turns to him. "Eep." 
	Ariah was still rather proud of his wise decision to announce himself with a
hologram, but was most concerned about what to name his recently created pet. He
watched wide-eyed as it spun in zero-G, resembling nothing as much as a heavily furry and
very flexible baseball. Ariah was certain he had invented the perfect pet. The
protoplasm-based critter had no limbs, eyes, or orifices of any kind. It as also highly psionic
and had a sunny disposition. Ariah petted the creature's velvety tan fur and it cooed happily
in his mind. He smiled, thinking of names for the furball as his spacecraft attached to the
hull of the CF spaceship with a satisfying click. His symbsuit flowed around him, clothing
him in an half-inch-thick green something that's exactly room temperature. He grabbed the
furball, dubbed it 'Ferb', and prepared to teleport aboard. 
	Zelda frowned slightly and glanced around. Then she shook her head, she had
thought she'd heard something....plus she felt something..strange nearby... She shook her
head in aggravation, she really needed to learn to direct and use her psi powers a little
better sometime. She tapped her fingers distractedly against a bulkhead. 
	After teleporting psionically aboard, Ariah adapted quickly to the starship's artificial
gravity, and his Ferb barely noticed the difference. He was disappointed that no one else
was around yet, but he sensed many presences, several of them with a strong psi aura.
With his Ferb hovering behind him (the poor thing still wondering what it was), Ariah
began to explore the starship, certain he would find someone soon enough. Perhaps they
would like a piece of his new pet. He petted the Ferb, and it made a pleasant purring
sound. 
	As the hologram vanishes, Entropy stares at where it was for a moment. He then
looks to the sensor station, running over and shoving the operator aside. Hitting some
controls, he quickly contacted Zelda. 
"Zel, where are you?" 
"Deck 3, the bronze wing. Why?" 
"You're probably not going to believe me, but an alien spacecraft just attached to our hull
and teleported onboard. We'll be sealing off deck 3 soon, and it looks like you're the only
one left there. Get out now." 
~An alien?~ Zelda wondered as she headed for the nearest exist. She smiled as her
thoughts went to her Crystal, maybe it was another Crystal Fighter. It had been so long
since they had gotten another! Though, they could at least hail first. But then, some of the
others had dropped in just as unexpectedly. She shrugged and turned into the hallway that
Ariah was walking down.
	Entropy taps the screen nervously as he watches the life readings. 
"Zel, get out of there, head down a different way or something, just stay away from that
guy! Try and get to another exit, they'll be closing the hatches soon." 
A crewman suddenly speaks. "Finished, captain. Deck 3's successfully sealed." 
"Zel, change of plans. The deck's already sealed. I'll do what I can to get down there, but
until I do, keep away from that thing. Got it?" He turns to one of the crewmen, passing off
the headset to him. "Keep track of her, and keep her away from the intruder." He then
looks to the captain. "How do I get down there?" 
"The hatches are sealed, it would take at least a null bomb to get through. Not only that,
but the doors are laser-fielded. You'd have to go through the vents. It's out of the
question." 
"One of my friends is down there with an obviously powerful entity we know nothing
about, and can't get out. Therefore I'm going to go down there, distract the entity, and get
her out. You don't like it, try and stop me." He looks to another crewman. "Get me some
null mines and rope." Then to another. "Get me a taser rifle and 3 spare charge clips." And
yet another. "Get me the other CFs. They need to hear this." 
	Ariah didn't understand why the aliens shut huge laser-shielded metals doors in
front of him, but he was delighted when a slightly frightened-looking elven girl nearly
walked straight into him. The elven girl, who was attractive even for a non-Imani, was
clothed in some sort of woven plant fiber instead of a genetically engineered symbiotic
organism like any normal person. He had encountered this bizarre covering in several
clothes-wearing cultures, but had never quite gotten used to it. He skimmed the woman's
mind, and was pleasantly surprised that she thought in English, which the Imani had
recorded fairly recently. He downloaded the language from the Matrix and began to speak
in it. "Hello, fairest maiden, tis a lovely vessel thee hast, though thine door didst recently
close in my face." He smiled and asked, "would ye desire a part of my Ferb?" Apparently
assuming for some reason that Zelda knew what a Ferb was and wanted one, he snatched
the undulating furball from the air and pulled. It made a loud "ferrrrrb!" sound as it
snapped apart, and then the two creatures, unimaginably confused, seemed to converse
with each other. "FERB! fa-er-er-b. Furb, fe-erb?" one asked, and was answered "ahferb.
Za-ferb, Zssferba da-ferb. Ferb zsnuff erb snerb? Ferb." Ariah guessed that they were
developing a language while expressing their mutual confusion at their life story, which was
about three minutes long, or perhaps technically 20 seconds. 
Meanwhile, Zelda was struck speechless. A green egg-thing had attached to her spacecraft
an teleported aboard an alien, presumable hostile. That was manageable. But now she was
trapped with the alien, who was wearing some sort of greenish fleshy-thing, had just
spoken to her in what sounded like Shakespeare gone horribly wrong, and had given her
half, yes half, of his pet, which looked like a large globule of furred Silly Putty. 
With that thought, one of the Ferbs floated over to her, attached itself to her shoulder, and
began making cute cooing noises. Zelda stared at the..thing..on her shoulder and just shook
her head slowly, her eyes wide. ~Can't sleep, Crystal's cold, there's err..half a pet on my
shoulder and I'm trapped with an alien Entropy says is dangerous, just perfect.~ She started
to back away slowly, she didn't sense any danger..but then, she had been wrong before.
She looked back in surprise as she hit a wall, then glanced back and started backing away
towards a door, as she spoke, "Umm..well, this isn't my err..vessel and about the
door..well...I don't know...you're supposed to be dangerous..so I'll just umm..be going
now.." she said a bit nervously. "Entropy!" she called over the comm, "Hurry up!" then she
sprinted the rest of the way to the door and went inside. 
	Finished gathering his gear, Entropy slings the taser rifle over his shoulder, then
pries off one of the vents. checking his WristCom, which quickly displayed a map of the
ventilation ducts, he headed in, making for the small green dot on the radar. "All right,
folks, you hear me?" he says over the comm, hoping Zelda could hold out until he arrived. 
	Ariah was disappointed, but not hurt. The nice elven lady had taken the gift he had
given him, and hadn't tried to hurt him like primitives sometimes do. The word 'dangerous,'
however, made him a little more cautious. He remembered the last time that someone had
called him dangerous...

	It was about six years ago, during a rather pointless war between the Alliance of
Worlds and Yth'or, both species which needed further study. He liked both species, but
had joined the Alliance because they had the same number of limbs as him and a
backbone, thus making him less conspicuous in a crowd. During his first battle against the
Yth'or, however, he teleported from the mech he was in and went to talk with a Yth'or
friend of his he had not seen in a while. Upon returning to the Alliance mobile camp, men
had handcuffed him and brought him to the Commander, who looked displeased. "What
the hell do you think you were doing out there?!" the Commander had yelled, his face
slightly red. "I temporarily left my assigned vehicle," Ariah answered. "The military is no
place for cowardice! You're one of our best mech pilots, and you left your mech dead on
the 'field! What were you doing, having a party with the Yth'or?!" The man didn't wait for
him to answer "Son, if you're gonna fight you gotta be brave. I want to hear from you the
last words of Val McDougal, whose boots you aren't deserving to lick." The man expected
to hear 'I will continue to fight if I have to burn my soul in the plasma continue to do so,'
the quote inaccurately (unbeknownst to anyone still alive) attributed to the revered war
hero. 
"Get it off me," Ariah answered more accurately. 
"What?" the Colonel rasped. 
"His last words were 'get it off me,' Sir. A Jumper wrapped itself around his face and drank
his brain through it's proboscis." Ariah didn't understand the horrified and unbelieving look
on the Commander's face, but continued anyway. "And I didn't actually leave the battle, I
just took a break to talk with the enemy." 
After a long, stunned silence, the Commander finally said, with an uncommonly quiet
voice "I don't know whether you're a enemy spy or just damn crazy, but either way I'd like
to know right now." 
"Oh, don't worry, I'm a friendly spy," Ariah had said, and not long after was forced to
teleport. 
	Zelda looked around, she had locked herself into Steller Cartography A-49T,
someone had left the lights on as well. ~What a waste of energy.~ she thought, referring to
the lights, though she was glad she hadn't ended up walking into a pitch black room.
Suddenly she heard a soft cooing noise. "Ah Goddess!" she called in surprise remembering
the..whateveritwas on her shoulder. It continued to make cute noises. She stared at it
cautiously for a few moments, hoping it wasn't too dangerous, and if it was, wondering
what she could do about it. 
	Entropy gave a quick look around before finally kicking through the grate and
climbing out of the vents. He had apparently arrived in the silver wing, in one of the
laboratories. Unshouldering the taser rifle, he stealthily walked along the corridors,
continuing to track Zelda's position. He began charging the rifle just as quickly, if this thing
was hostile, he'd probably need a few shots ready. He smiled. 
	Somewhat frightened of being 'dangerous,' Ariah decided to stay where he was and
let the primitives come to him. He didn't want the nice lady's friends to be scared of him.
But after five minutes of waiting, his inquisitive nature began to overwhelm his common
sense. Surely it couldn't hurt to take a quick look in their computers, could it? He walked
over to the nearby laser-shielded door and scanned it. Not bad for non-telepaths, he
thought as he carefully disassembled the door's locking mechanisms, alarms and lasers,
sometimes using his telekinesis to pull out pieces of metal only a few molecules thick, but
mostly just using precision ultra-high frequency burst from his AUTAW, a device in his
wrist. With the electronic sensor exposed, he now had an input into the ship's computer.
He placed his wrist against the sensor, and within a matter of seconds he downloaded the
computer's complete contents into his brain's hard drive. He sorted the information, and
uploaded the useful or interesting parts to the Matrix. Then Ariah had an idea so great it
surprised him. He would make up for being 'dangerous' by rewriting the primitive
computer system in a greatly superior way. 
	Entropy, meanwhile, finally arrives in the bronze wing, taser rifle out and ready to
fire. He'd gotten enough charge built up to incapacitate a rhino, he'd probably need it.
Continuing to home in on Zelda's signal, he stayed deathly silent, mostly by activating the
noise canceller in his WristCom. ~Whatever this alien is,~ Entropy thought, I hope I find it
instead of vice versa.~ Finally arriving at the room Zelda was supposed to be in, he quickly
opened the door and headed in, locking it behind him. 
"Zelda? You in here?" He whispered. 
Zelda looked up in surprise, "Entropy?" she asked, stepping forward, she smiled when she
saw it was him, "Great! Who is that out there anyway? You said he was dangerous.." then
the Furb cooed a few times. 
Entropy suddenly points the rifle at the Ferb. 
"Don't...move." Zelda instantly freezes. 
"What?" 
"What is that?" He nudges the Ferb with the rifle. 
"The...guy gave it to me..." Entropy makes sure the Ferb is staring down the rifle's barrel
before continuing. 
"Are you nuts?" The Ferb edges nervously off Zelda's shoulder and onto a nearby table.
"How do we know if that thing isn't some kind of weapon?" 
"Weapon? That?" Zelda asks. "How?" 
"Contract I got once during my hunter's days. They sent me to deal with this monster pet
that got seriously out of control. Apparently, if it eats any food containing lysine, it gains 7
feet in height and very big teeth and claws. Of course, the planet it was on had soy as a
major staple, so I was basically screwed until I could get it off-planet. This could be some
sort of alternate species. You want me to take that chance or not?" 
"Ok, fine. Now, what do we have to do?" she answered, unconvinced.
"First off, I need you to take this," he hands her a small device. "and put it on the main
elevator door in the center of this place. Punch in 0914B, then get behind a wall or
something. After that, Pyro can send down a security detachment and we can deal with the
intruder." 
"And what are you going to do while I set up some techthing?" 
"Hunt." He said simply, and then headed out. 
	Oblivious to the panic he was causing, Ariah was enjoying a fuzzy snuggle with his
Ferb in both the physical and telepathic sense. The Ferb missed his recently created twin,
but Ariah assured him with confidence that his newfound brother was in excellent hands,
and that the nice elven lady was surely treating him with utmost kindness and love. 
	Zelda looked at the device, wondering what it was as well as wondering if she even
*wanted* to know what it was. She glanced back at the Furb before leaving, almost hoping
it *was* some kind of weapon if Entropy was planning on 'neutralizing' (which basically
meant killing, when it came to Entropy and some of the others’ definition) the cute little
thing. She sighed and turned away, trying not to feel like she was betraying it. Then she
walked out the door and headed, carefully, towards the main elevator. It took some time,
but she made it without any difficulty. She frowned at the door as she put the device on it,
~Now where was I supposed to put in that code?~ she thought. She looked around and
found a bunch of numbers and letters, ~Maybe this is it..~ she thought and put in 0914B.
She stared at it, waiting for some confirmation that it was the right thing as she forgot the
last instructions. 
	Ariah sensed several presences nearing him, one of which gave him an unpleasant
feeling, but which was separated from the rest and still fairly far away. He watched a
cluster of six humans as they rounded the corner. Funny looking things, with absurdly
overstated armor and an overdose of weapons. He hoped they were bringing food, as he
was beginning to become a bit hungry, and didn't feel like eating plastic again. So bland.
Within a few seconds he could see that all of them had their guns pointed at him, and none
of them had any food, which was disappointing. The human in front whispered something
into his headset's microphone and then fired his weapon at him. Not this again, thought
Ariah as he deflected the electric dart with a pathetic lack of telekinetic effort. Then the
others started firing their weapons, yelling as though it was some sort of battle. Ariah
sighed as the primitive weapon's projectiles impacted against the psionic shield he set up. It
was clear he was going to have to calm them down, he thought, gathering psionic strength. 
He struck the first man with a fairly weighty telekinetic hit, throwing him like a rock into
the wall ten feet behind him, where he slumped unconscious. This seemed to make the
annoying little humans all the more zealous, so he reached into two of their minds, felt
around a while, and then cut of all signals from their cerebellums. They fell to the ground
in a state akin to paralysis. The next man's body temperature he dropped uniformly and
instantly below freezing point, sending him into suspended animation. He waiting a while
to see if the other two men would run, but they didn't. In fact, one of them threw a hand
grenade, which he telekinetically disassembled in the air, marveling at its simple power as it
fell to the floor in dozens of pieces. He kineported the men's clothing from them, and was
surprised to see that it made them run when violence would not. He noted this oddity to
himself as the men ran down the hall, vainly trying to cover their nudity. 
He petted his Ferb sadly, who made a reassured "mmmferrrb" sound. "Why do humanoids
always have to be so mean?", he thought as he stroked the creature's velvety Ferb. Then his
head began to hurt. Something was wrong. He felt a vague presence above him, and when
he tried to concentrate on it, his head hurt so enormously he had to shut his eyes to handle
it. Then a man dropped from the air shaft above, landing only feet in front of him. His
brain felt like it was being consumed by a white fire in the direction of the strange man. He
tried to grab the man's mind, but he couldn't find it. It kept shifting around his body,
painfully confusing his telepathy. Ariah's vision blurred, and he felt as though he was going
insane. He had to get away. He stumbled and fell to the ground, holding his pain-racked
head, feeling as though the world was shifting around him. With a huge burst of telekinetic
energy he tried to push the man away from him, but he wasn't able to focus or see, and the
burst instead backfired on himself. Everything pulled towards him as though a very weak
black hole had formed in his chest, and the corridor's panels shot rivets like bullets as they
tore away from the wall, trailing electronics like tattered robes as they hit him from both
sides. After the train wreck/explosion noise finished echoing through the ship, there was
silence as Ariah lay there unconscious, buried beneath a pile of the spacecraft's metallic
flesh. 
"My God..." Entropy says, standing over Ariah with his rifle still pointed at him. "Didn't
even have to shoot the thing. He grabbed his WristCom. "Captain, send me another
security team, bring a capture node. I need it quickly, I don't know how long this thing's
gonna be out." 
	Suddenly the little device beeped, Zelda stepped back warily then she winced as she
remembered the last instructions. Quickly she ran down the hall and into a room. She
listened carefully, but it seemed like nothing was happening. Zelda shrugged and turned,
~Oh good, a comm panel!~ she thought. She pressed a few buttons but then a phrase
started flashing in red across the screen, subtitled in some language she'd never heard of,
"Huh?" She stared at the screen, this night was getting stranger and stranger. The computer
seemed to be denying her access. She hadn't thought she was doing something that needed
an access code. She didn't claim to be any good around technology, but she had used the
comm panels before without anything like this happening. Zelda sighed, wondering how
long she should wait. 
A while later, Zelda started to get impatient and bored. She sighed and punched a few
random keys on the console. ~Well, if it worked by now it's probably done..whatever it
was supposed to do.~ she thought to herself and walked out the door, wondering if
Entropy still had the deck sealed off. 
A moment later Entropy arrives, dragging Ariah behind him. "Zel, what happened? Didn't
you plant the bomb?" 
"Yes..but..nothing happened.." Entropy walks over to the device, leaving Ariah's
unconscious form on the floor. Taking one look at it, he presses the ENTER button.
"Now, we get to cover." Grabbing Zelda and Ariah, He quickly ushers them behind a wall,
or rather drags them in Araih's case, before there is a slight hum and a flash of black light. 
Immediately, at least 20 security personnel enter, rush in, ready for combat. Entropy steps
out, pointing to Ariah. "Get him to the brig, be sure to use the null fields just in case. And
bring a medical team, the other squad with me all unconscious in the Gold wing. They
should be ok, but get them out all the same." 
"Is he okay?" Zelda asked watching the security guards. "Injuring the first you meet is not
really a good thing to do if you're trying to avoid battles you know." 
	The helmsman sat at the front of the ship scanning the space around them, they
didn't want to hit an asteroid like the titanic and the iceberg. 
The engineer sat hunched under the council where had tapped into the main computer
trying to figure out what was wrong. 
Suddenly the helmsman monitor went blank. 
"What the hell! Are you trying to get us killed!?!?!" he screamed to the engineer. 
"It wasn't me, I didn't touch anything!!!!" 
"Then wha--?" the monitor suddenly comes back to life. 
"I can't find anything wrong with the computer it must be some kind of space anomaly
making it go all hay wire." 
"Could it be the asteroid belt were traveling through?" 
"That’s what I was thinking, but it’s never affected it before" 
"Let me scan for any odd frequency waves." the helmsman quickly pushes several buttons
on his keypad. 
The arrow moves on the monitor through the computerized picture of the asteroid belt.
The arrow comes upon some to a silver object and beeps. 
"What is it?" asks the Engineer. 
"Some kind of pod, its giving off some kind of frequency wave, I have never seen a pattern
like it before!" 
"Well hall it in, I want to take a look at it" 

A SHORT TIME LATER 
The metallic grappling hook reels the small pod into  the docking bay. 
The engineer touches it "AHHHH!!!!" 
"What!?!" 
"Cold, extremely cold!" he reaches back down and touches a button and the lid pops open
to reveal the humanoid lifeform. 

MEANWHILE 

Zelda watches as they load Ariah into the stasis container "Ah Goddess!!” she gasps as the
extremely familiar, extremely strong psi pattern enters her mind. 
"He....he is back!!!!" 
"He's back he's back he's back!!!!!!" Zelda exclaimed almost dancing around, not realizing
that her exclamation probably seemed pretty cryptic to the others nearby. Then she
frowned slightly through her bright smile, ~But how?~ she wondered. 
The pod opens with a loud hiss and steam rises into the warm air. 
DUNNNNN DUNNNN DUNDUN DUNN DUNN DUNN. 
Nity rises from the cryogenic pod and smiles "It’s good to be back." The two stare in
astonishment, this one fit the description of one of the lost Crystal Fighters.  One of the
ones they had thought dead.
Zelda ignored her own question for the moment and happily skipped toward the one she
was sensing, not realizing she had closed her eyes to concentrate on the sense.
*~$!CRASH$#~* she banged into a wall, "Oww.." she opened her eyes and noticed that
he was on the other side of the wall. . She thought a moment trying to figure out a way
around the wall, then she saw the door. ~Oy I need to get some sleep, walking around at
midnight is not good for my health.~ She stepped through the door and found Nity.
"You're BACK!" she yelled and tackled him with a big hug. Then she sat on his stomach
and glared at him, "You're not allowed to do that again! It's against the rules! We all
thought you were dead.." then the happiness started to fade out of her voice, "Like
Coda..and Maia..and Zealen..and Kisutsu.." she said, her voice trembling on each name,
"and Rupay.." 
"Nice to see you again Zellie." Nity smiles, “Don’t worry about Maia, Coda, or Rupay
there living it up great in the heavens. That’s where I've been all this time. You know, the
CFs have their own designated lot up there, it’s pretty cool. Coda and Maia are actually
married now.  It was a great ceremony, you should’ve been there. As for Rupay she is
going through the Ceremony of being reborn to the Dreamworld.  Kind of like how I’ve
been reincarnated here. Though I didn’t have to go through growing up and all, pretty
much resurrected.  As for Zealen and Kisutsu, they weren’t up there. They must not have
died like we assumed.   What’s been going on around here" Nity asks. 
Zelda stares at him in astonishment, then she stands up and helps him up so he can breathe
a little better. "Back from...the other side? Well..at least everyone's all right! Hmm..not
much has been happening around here, after Crystalia imploded we went to another
dimension though..some kind of whacko NYC from what UA says. And somehow we
ended up here, on Omricon.  Hey, why DID you come back anyway? Why leave
heaven..or whatever..if it was so great?" 
"Hmmm I'm not sure, I'm guessing I have one of those special missions like the ones I was
always getting from Sentinei, this could be something he foresaw and told the Immortals of
The Heavens to send me back here some reason before he...you know...was killed, I think
a part of that guy will always live on, or at least his influence will" 
"A mission? Neat..well, hopefully you figure out what it is..not much of a point in being on
a mission and not knowing what it is, right?" Zelda replied almost bouncing as she dragged
Nity towards Entropy and the security team (going through the door the first time this
time). Curiously she asked, "If Sentinei..died, well why would he have to tell the others in
Heaven about your mission? ..isn't he there too?" 
"I don’t know Zel I don't know where Demi-Gods go after they die. When I was kid
though, in my tribe there was story of our God. It said that he died to protect us, took his
own life. Then he was reborn to the body of the Dragon that protected are village from the
stars. The Dragon of Fire. If we ever would come to face great peril it was said that he
would come down to save us. I can only hope this is what has happened to Sentinei." said
Nity. 
"That would be nice." said Zelda with a smile, thinking of a big Dragon with the
personality of Sentinei. 
"As for my mission I can only hope the Goddess of Light will guide me." 
Zelda nodded, "Well, She'll do her job of course. Hopefully she'll explain your mission
through something more coherent than prophecy though." then she yawned, "Oy you just
*had* to come back in the middle of the night, didn't you? Hmm..or is it morning now?"
When they got back to where Zelda had come from Entropy and the security guards were
gone, ~Oh yeah..they said they were going to go do something or other.~ "Are we going to
go somewhere or just wander around the ship?" Nity asked. "Umm...well, let's go find
some of the others..or we could go check on that alien that arrived." 
	A strange and chaotic world surrounded him, like the insides of a bizarre living
machine. Technologies that don't reside in this reality, a perfection of psychology in art,
each component striking a chord in his soul, be it a dark vibration or bright chime. Ariah
recoiled, knowing he was trapped again in the world from which he was always running. 
"Don't like the scenery? Understandable. You've built a cage in your mind and now you
want to live in it." The voice came from nowhere in particular, then focused a few feet in
front of him. It was the voice of a young man, outwardly happy and nonchalant but
carrying a note of sadness. The scenery disappeared, become an endless plane the stretched
out eternally in all directions. A blue light coalesced in front of him, glowing, forming itself
into a vaguely humanoid shape. The light defined itself, became a man. The man wore
shimmering clothes that seemed to shift and reform, switching between blue and green and
other hues, with blue dominating. The man's hair was a golden blond, coursing with faint
glows of other colors, a glow of yellow or white or orange. Ariah could not determine his
age. He seemed to be in his twenties one moment, a teenager the next, then hardly
adolescent; the change was always smooth and subtle, never betraying the personality. 
Rijhu. 
Ariah stood with an angry fear, fists clenched, squinting slightly. "Why must you haunt me
like some sort of ghost?" he said firmly. "Can't you even leave me in the peace of my
dreams? What kind of coward are you that you would invade my only real refuge, my
dreams?" He said it with deep contempt. 
"The kind that weaves." Rijhu answered with a slightly saddened smile, glowing slightly
darker blue. "Twice created, once destroyed." 
Ariah continued his interrogation. "Why?" he said, holding out his hands a bit. "Why can't
you just leave me alone? Are you some sort of demon that wants my soul?" 
"Ironic." said Rijhu with the same strange smile. "Your soul is one of the things I am
certain I do not want. I already have your soul, little one, or a soul much like it." 
"I don't understand you." Ariah said with emphasis on the word 'understand.' "What do
you want of me, and why do you talk in riddles? How do you expect me to help you if I
can't even understand what you want? Just tell me what you want!" 
Rijhu answered unshaken. "I want what you do. To complete the puzzle, weave it together
so we both can understand. To fit the pieces together. You have some of those pieces, ...
little one, but they are broken and buried deep inside you. Give them to me, and I can help
you. I want to help you, Ariah, ... little one, little Child-Of-the-Light. Let me help you."
Rijhu said the final sentence with deep conviction, said it all in his sad smiling voice. 
Ariah stood there for a long time, looking down, thinking hard. "No." he said after a long
pause. "No!" He said, looking up, face hardening with an angry resolution. "No! I don't
need you!" He said angry, enunciating each word carefully. Ariah raised his outstretched
hand, felt a terrible power. He stretched out his hands in a fury, stretching out mana as
well, harvesting unknown new depths of mana. "Weave this, bastard!" Ariah yelled, and
released the mana in a torrent, focusing it on Rijhu in an incredible rage, sent a thick beam
of raw mana at Rijhu like a stream of pure energy, channeling power he had never before
touched. Massive energies flowed though him, made his body seem aflame. He threw his
psionics at the supernatural being as well, throwing everything at the man-child in a terrible
hateful concentration. The beam flickered with enormous power, making the entire
netherworld flash with energy. Ariah threw his emotions into the beam, narrowing his eyes,
no longer himself, keeping the beam burning with the raw power of his lifelong hate and
frustration and confusion at the being. He focused it, narrowed it, screamed as he funneled
the energy straight into Rijhu, feeling like he was pulling power from other dimensions. His
hatred and anger grew into a red fire in his mind, raw power flowing. Then the power was
to much. Ariah collapsed, letting the rest of the beam go in a final terrible rush, fell to his
knees. He breathed again, staring at the ground-that-wasn't-real, feeling himself, his normal
self, return. He looked up slowly, expecting to see himself a murderer. A freed murderer,
however, finally released from his unwilling tormentor. 
A white light, tinged with blue, shown upon Ariah, and Ariah looked up to see Rijhu,
clothed so simply, bare feet planted humbly upon the ground. He wore the saddest smile
Ariah had ever seen. "Little child," he said, looking down with shimmering eyes. "Little
one, you don't understand how I feel your pain. But I need you, and you need me, or this
little piece of world I have tried to tie together with tear itself apart. It is already unraveling,
barely touching the Light I intended for it." He paused. "Ariah, young one, do you know
that a dream IS reality until one awakens? And you awake only to another reality, one like
the dream. All realities are real. You think I speak in riddles, but I speak in truth. You have
a splinter of the Light in you, I see it shining. You must find it for me, for the sake of both
our eternities. Your Imani are only a weak shadow of the Ones I serve, that I know you
have tried to see as well. Help me, Ariah, and together we can weave a new Imani." 
With that Rijhu disappeared, and Ariah awakened. 
	Zelda blinked there had been a flicker of...something..but no, it was gone. She
yawned again and shrugged. 
	Ariah lay stunned as the nightmare drained from him. Ahhh... He was beginning to
dislike sleep. He got up from the cot, stretched, felt his joints pop, did a quick scan of his
body. 'Nothing the biosystems can't handle' he reflected as he cleared his head. He couldn't
remember his dream now, but that was normal. He didn't WANT to remember them.
Ariah sat down on the cot, looked around, and reflected. Funny humans. Awfully erratic
creatures, but he was beginning to like this batch, even if they had tried to hurt him.
Probably a misunderstanding, he thought amiably. Perhaps they'd even let him have a little
piece of their ship to live in for a while. However, he'd need to get a better understanding
of the funny creatures if he was going to prevent further problems. Ariah checked his tools
and marveled at the nearly infinite number of ways the humans had left him to escape,
despite the psi and energy dampers. He hadn't realized they were quite so stupid. He
wouldn't escape, though. If he did the humans would probably just shoot at him again. He
had a much better idea; he would become one of them. 
	"Well, why don't we go see what's up with that alien you were talking about." Nity
suggested, "Then we can go talk with the rest of the CFs...as you said it's the middle of the
night..a lot of them are probably just sleeping." Zelda nodded and they headed toward the
cell. 

THE CELL 

The had a little trouble getting the security guard to let them close enough to talk with
Ariah, but eventually they made it. "Are you all right?" Zelda asked hoping for a slightly
more coherent response than before, "Entropy and the others can be a bit...overcautious at
times, but sometimes it's very useful." 
Ariah was busy collecting DNA with which to transform himself but discarded this idea
immediately when he saw the nice elven lady. "Hi!" he said, eyes changing to a purple
color. "You're the nice elven lady to whom I gave a portion of my pet, aren't you?" 
Zelda tried not to a laugh, but a small giggle escaped her lips nonetheless. "Yes, I am. You
can call me Zelda, though. Thanks for the compliment!" Zelda wondered how this could be
the same alien intruder she had seen just a few hours ago. He seemed almost normal. 
The alien looked puzzled for a moment, then said "I am Ariah Mune Ateris, designation
Vita, Variant Delta, but you may refer to me in any way which you find psychologically
and phonetically appealing, so long as such does not have a negative impact on my
interpersonal human or humanoid communication. It would seem highly likely that a
misunderstanding related to verbal interpersonal symbol-based sound wave communication
occurred between us at a time which would be approximately two hours according to this
spacecraft's computer's clock, assuming that a reasonably negligible quantity of local
chromatic variations occurred during such time. This miscommunication is most likely the
result of changes in the English language since the Imani last uploaded said language,
resulting in incompatibility between the form which I attempted to communicate in and the
one which you used. From the information contained within this spacecraft's computer I
have been able to update the Imani record of English, so I hope you will excuse my
previous anachronism. However, the way in which you used 'entropy' does not match with
any of the dictionary definitions which the dictionaries I uploaded contained. Webster's
Standard College Dictionary defines entropy as, 'A, the irreversible tendency of a system,
including the universe, toward increasing disorder and inertness; also the final state
predictable from this tendency. B,..." 
Zelda cut him off. "Uh, Ariah? I can call you Ariah, right?" 
Ariah started to answer, but she didn't let him, afraid he would talk until he ran out of
breath. "It think you still have a lot to learn about English. Entropy is ... whatever you said,
but he's also a friend of mine. Did you say something about the computers? And please
don't use quite so many big words." 
Ariah took notice of the vocal patterns in Zelda's mind, altering his own to be more like
hers. "Yes," he said proudly, "I improved your computer system. Are you pleased?" 
Zelda hesitated. "Uh... that was nice of you, but you should ask people's permission before
you change their things, Okay?" 
"Ok." Ariah replied, visibly hurt. "I'm sorry." 
"It's okay. I'm sure you didn't hurt anything. Just ask next time, okay?" said Zelda, realizing
fully that this creature wasn't as dangerous as Entropy had though. "Also, you really gave
us a scare, suddenly appearing in our ship like that. How would you feel if one of us
humans appeared suddenly in your green thing?" 
"Pleasantly surprised." replied Ariah. 
"Well...we normally would be too..but like I said..some of the CFs are a bit overcautious.
But...are you dangerous? The others seemed to think so.." Zelda said, then shrugged. 
"Not towards you or your friends," said Ariah happily as his eyes shifted to a blue-green,
"But I'm very dangerous towards those who deserve it." 
"Uh..." Zelda said, thinking Ariah's last comment could be a bad thing, "like who?" 
"Angammon." When Ariah said it there was no friendliness in his voice at all; he almost
spat the word. 
"You know about the Angammon?" Zelda asked, surprised. 
"Yes," Ariah said, voice grim. "I kill them." His eyes changed from green to gray to red,
slowly, like a fire starting. 
"Oh, umm..we err..we don't like them either," Zelda said haltingly, slightly perplexed and
frightened by Ariah's sudden mood swing. "It's okay if you don't like THEM. But you don't
hurt humanoids, right?" 
"Not if I can avoid it," Ariah said, sounding a little more positive. "I like humans and elves
and such. They're funny and interesting. I like you, and I don't really mind those humans
that shot at me. But I kill Angammon. They kill us, and we kill them. That's the way it
always has been, and I will kill as many of those..." Ariah searched the 14 English
dictionaries in his head for an adequate profanity, and found none. "Angammon..." he said
the word though a veil of pure hatred. "...as I can." 
"Ouch" says Nity " Looks like they bit your &(* even more then ours." 
"It's scary to think there are more out there" said Zelda, barely suppressing a shudder. 
"Yeah we lost a dear friend to those bastards." 
"What was her name?" asks Ariah. 
"Maia" 
"Remember her name, every one of the Angammon deserve...repayment..for that life..and
all others..Maia..is one of the uncountable number of lives that they have destroyed.”
Zelda shuddered, she hated killing, Angammon or not. 
	Goddess, shifting lights, sounds.. waitaminute.. Tala cracked open one eye, then sat
up. Something was going on. Arrgh. 
~Why didn't you let me sleep?~ 
*Because your little friends have a prisoner.* 
Groan. It was too early, late? She had no idea what time it was. Shaking her head to clear
it, she got out of bed, and nearly tripped over her chair. ~Remind to do something to you.~
*Oh shut up and get dressed, I'll take us down there in no time at all.* 
She threw on a shirt, pants, and her boots, and before she could check if her hair was
sticking up in all directions, she was standing beside Zelda. "Erk?" 
Tala looked at the.. guy, and frowned thoughtfully. This? Seemed normal, and looked
rather harmless. Then he glanced at her. Tala didn't bother throwing up a mental block.
However, Nokomis cringed.. She had made a deal with the Angammon, and he would
know. However, Tala just studied him thoughtfully. Two totally different personalities in
one mind. Then her gaze moved to Zelda. "Uh, what's going on? There was bunch of light,
and then I just had a feeling I should come here.. so.. here I am..." 
everything, I hope. 
Zelda smiled a welcome at Tala, "Good morning..or night..or..whatever it is.." Then she
spoke again, "Not sure exactly what's going on..but Tala this is Ariah...Ariah, Tala.
Tala..you might want to speak with Entropy about this..he seems to think Ariah is
dangerous. I don't sense anything amiss..but then," she yawned, "It is the middle of the
night.”
As soon as the CFs discovered Ariah wasn't hostile, things went far more smoothly within
the CF spacecraft. The CFs gave Ariah an empty cargo bay to call his own, and he
promptly hauled his pod into it and began filling it with strange technologies. Within a
week, cargo bay 12 was commonly known as "Ariah's lab." Though Pyro and Entropy
continued to be somewhat suspicious of Ariah, their discomfort was significantly allayed
when Ariah introduced them to some interesting new weapons. Some trouble occurred
when one of Ariah's experiments escaped, started a nest in the Engine Room #3, and
loudly demanded citizen's rights across the ship's intercoms, but all in all things went fairly
well, and seeing a furball following either Ariah or Zelda soon didn't even warrant a second
glance. 

More CF Specials to come! (:  Not only are we warming up a bit for Prodigy’s
self-destruct ::watches the countdown mournfully:: but we writers need a break--stressless
(well, they’re *supposed* to be, but no one is listening to me!!) stories like these work
pretty well for that.