"A Pair of Angels"

Note (and please post this one): Some of the info about the meeting between Fei, Bart and Balthazar may not be right, but then again, I don't have a perfect memory.

At the same time, in a large cavern, Fei ejected from Weltall while the man from the other Gear shouted to him, "Hey, you in there...come on out. I'm not going to fight you, I just want you to leave this Gear..."

The young man from the red Gear blinked in surprise as he saw the pilot and added, "What...? You're not an Aveh soldier!"

"That's what I told you over my intercom transmission earlier, but you wouldn't listen," was the reply.

"Yeah...I vaguely remember you saying something like that. I went off half-cocked and thought that you were the enemy. I'm Bart, the pirate that runs this territory."

"I'm Fei. I was arrested for no apparent reason, was shoved into an Aveh transport and was going to be sent to a concentration camp when you came and blew that thing to blazes."

Bart raised an eyebrow and said, "Well...at least I was able to help you a bit," and then looked up, seeing the light directly above them disappear.

"Oh no, we've got a problem...the hole we fell in has closed up."

Fei nodded and looked about him.

"I never thought there'd be a cave underneath the sand," he commented.

"Where have you been? The desert only covers around 1,000 sharls of the surface. The stratum underneath is a stalactite cavern," the pirate sneered, wondering just where this boy was from.

"Great...from a sea of trees to a sea of sand and now an underground cave. What's next?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Nevermind," Fei muttered, then said in a louder voice, "How about we call a truce until we can get out of here?"

"I agree. Well, let's see if we can find a way out," he replied and got back into his Gear.

"By the way, the Gear's name is Brigandier."

"This one is Weltall."

"By the way...who's that beautiful woman that was with you?"

"She's an old friend of doc's...and speaking of which," Fei replied as he got into Weltall, "I wonder if she's okay..."

"Why shouldn't she be?"

"When we were trying to escape, she got some sand and dirt stuck in her lungs."

"Ouch."

An hour after Citan spoke with Sigurd, he found himself unable to rest so he walked about the cruiser.

Something is wrong with me...has been wrong with me ever since those dreams started, he thought, I have not been able to keep anywhere near the level of composure that I am normally supposed to. In the desert, I should have been concentrating on my duty...and instead, Aireel and I get into an argument. Because I was not more careful, we were captured in the first place. And on the transport, when she was injured...she is a tough fighter while Fei is more vulnerable...but all I could think about was not letting her die...

"I can only hope that Fei is all right," he said out loud, "And that he does not lose control again..."

"Worried about both of them?"

He turned and saw Sigurd standing behind him as well as found himself near what had been called the "Gun Room".

"Well...Aireel is resting in the infirmary and Fei will be all right," he replied slowly.

"That doesn't mean you aren't worried.. Hyu, I know you better than that."

The doctor closed his eyes and sighed.

"Sigurd, how do you know about Aireel? I know I never told you about her because by the time you and I met, they had long since re-arranged me."

"Well, as a highly trusted Element, I was told some secrets that most people, even from Gebler, would not know about. One of his assistants told me about you and her when you were children."

He nodded and asked, "Did that assistant tell you why, when I was re-arranged, they made certain I did not even remember one thing about her?"

The silver haired man shook his head. "All he said was that you were childhood friends and that she died at age 5. Although I got the feeling he was hiding a lot more than he was letting on...Hyu, I've never seen you like this about anyone before. Are you sure you're not--"

"Not what?" he asked, then saw the strange grin on his old friend's face. "No. Aireel is an old friend."

"If you say so," Sigurd replied and shrugged when he saw one of the nurses that had been on the Aveh transport approach them.

"Excuse me...where could I find someone named Citan?" she asked.

"I am Citan," the doctor replied, "Why?"

"The young woman in the infirmary is awake...and she keeps asking about you and someone named Fei."

Both men nodded and the first mate said, "Well...let's go see what kind of a lady she is."

When Citan and Sigurd entered the infirmary, they saw Aireel sitting up in the cot near the back, rubbing her throat a little.

"So, you're the lady that's gotten him into a worried state," the latter of the two men said, "And quite a lovely one at that."

"Flattery gets you nowhere with me," she replied in a strange, matter-of-fact voice, "Who might you be?"

"Oh, sorry. I am Sigurd, first mate. You're on board the Yggdrasil," he replied and nodded to Citan, "Hyuga carried you here when you passed out."

Almost instantly, she looked confused and asked, "Hyuga who? This is Citan."

The doctor shook his head and said, "It is all right, Aireel. He can be trusted."

She nodded and the way she did so suddenly made Sigurd look at her oddly.

"That nod...it seems very familiar," he muttered.

"How are you feeling?" Citan asked her, taking a seat beside the cot.

"Pretty hoarse and my lungs are burning a bit...and my throat still hurts like crazy."

"How so?"

She gave both men withering looks and retorted, "Try breathing with vacuum tubes shoved down your throat."

The first mate chuckled while the doctor said with a little smile, "You will be all right...but the next time something like that happens, do not even think of trying to stay behind to die, do you hear me?"

She nodded but said, "Think about it...I was slowing both of you down. I could have gotten all of us killed."

"But we all survived."

"You probably think like a soldier," Sigurd cut in, "But he thinks like a doctor. Believe it or not, you really scared him, passing out on your feet and barely breathing like that."

"Anyway, how long am I going to be stuck in here?"

"The nurse says that you have an amazing constitution...and you should be out tomorrow afternoon," Citan replied.

"By the way, we found an abandoned Gear 20 sharls west of Dazil," the first mate added, "A Kislev model in excellent condition."

Aireel's eyes widened and she asked, "Tall Gear, blueish-black in color, looks as graceful as a ninja and has three blackboxes?"

Both men looked at each other with puzzled looks.

"Y-yes, that's the one. Why?"

"Oh, that's my Gear, Striker. I gave it that name because it looks almost like a silent ninja."

Sigurd looked at her and asked, "If you had a Gear, how come you hid it?"

"As you said, it's a Kislev model. If I had gone in on my Gear, I would have been fired on, no questions asked."

"She has a point," Citan admitted.

"Then it's a lucky thing we found it before Aveh did. Hyu, I have to check something and I'm sure you want to talk to her alone--" the first mate said and quickly walked out of the infirmary before either of them could say, or do, anything.

"Sheesh," Aireel said, "What does he think he is, a matchmaker?"

"Yes, he does...and he is not that good at it, either."

Sigurd shook his head as he started walking back to the bridge, puzzled and alarmed at the same time.

That young woman...she looks familiar, and I don't mean from what the assistant told me...and the way she nodded reminded me of the young woman that spared our lives a few years ago, the same person the young master got his policy of sparing the enemies' lives from, he thought.

"Excuse me, first mate," one of the crew members standing near the Gun Room suddenly asked, "The woman in the infirmary...the people in the Gear Dock are asking if she's the same one we met three years ago. Is she?"

"I don't know, crewman...she looks like her and acts like her..."

"I'll be sure to tell them that, sir."

He absently nodded and asked himself, "Where has she been these past twenty years?"

Inside the large cavern, all was quiet...until suddenly a large rock started moving...and the place roared with the echo of stone being pushed.

"What do you think you're doing? Help me push this thing!" Fei's voice could be heard shouting.

"All right, already," Bart grumbled and the stone started to move faster, falling to the cavern floor below shortly afterwards.

Two Gears, Weltall and Brigandier, hopped out of the now-open archway and Fei said, "If we keep helping each other, we can make it all the way."

"The hydromechanic pipe in the knee join is in the verge of breaking down. First from falling down here and it's gotten worse when we pushed that mega-collosal boulder. It won't be funny if my Gear breaks down in a place like this!" Bart growled.

The black Gear paused for a moment and its pilot added, "I hope doc and Aireel are okay..."

"Don't worry about the man and lady you were with. I'm sure my guys have saved them by now."

"Will they come searching for us?"

"Nah, they'll believe we can get out ourselves."

"But aren't they your friends?"

"We believe in a liberal upbringing. They'll look for a little while then wait at the rendezvous point," Bart replied, then looked at Fei, who was motionless, "What?"

"...We wouldn't be here if you hadn't fought over that area."

"You're the one that wouldn't turn loose of the Gear!"

"And who was it that said I was an Aveh soldier?"

"Hmph...You didn't have to fight so hard. I was going easy on you, you know."

"That's a lie, I know you were serious."

Brigandier suddenly spun towards the other Gear and growled, "Hey, take that back! Let's settle this right here, right now!"

Weltall walked away, moving onward.

"Hey, come back here! Settling this is top priority!"

"I thought we had a truce? Getting out of here should be the top priority. Look, let's concentrate on that and after we get back you can fight me all you want," Fei retorted.

"Fine," Bart grumbled.

"Okay, now let's go."

Both Gears were silent as they passed through a second archway that was close by.

Citan sighed as he sat in the chair in the infirmary. Aireel and he had been talking after Sigurd had left about many things...including what had happened to Fei.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," she had said with a reassuring grin, "After all, you taught him how to defend himself."

He still couldn't believe that she had told Fei about when he got stuck in the chute door...when that time had come back to him, it embarrassed him just as it did when it first happened...and she had insisted that she was answering a question.

Now, she was fast asleep again and he was waiting for the nurse to get back from taking care of the other survivors of the transport.

I should go, he thought, And yet...I do not want to. She unnerves me, yet I cannot bear it if something happened to her. Why would Sigurd insinuate that I have feelings for her? I am married and have a child...that cannot be happening to me. I told Yui it would never happen.

"Never say never" he remembered his wife say, "I hate to say it, but...it's fate."

Sigurd was right...she did scare me when she passed out like that...

When she turned, he caught a glimpse of something around her neck...an angel made out of bright amber.

"She is still wearing it, even after all these years..."

"It's beautiful, Hyu, really," she had said with a smile as they sat in a small part of the 3rd level hives, one that they had found some time ago...and no one could find them as the passage was abandoned.

"I am happy that you like it," he replied with a soft smile.

"Where did you find it, though? There are no actual stores on the 3rd level."

"Sometimes I'm allowed to go to the 2nd level when the Emperor calls for me. Someone I had never seen before gave it to me...and I think it suits you best, my dear angel."

She turned red and said in a low voice, "Flatterer. What did the Emperor want this time?"

"More tests...again," he replied with a touch of disgust, "I'm always being put under tests since the time that part of this level caught fire."

"You too? He had me called in for more chat and testing...I'm sick of tests! Plus...I don't think he likes you. When I mentioned you, he turned mean."

"What was that strange song you were humming yesterday?" he asked her, trying to change the subject.

She smiled and looked at something unseen and said, "It's a song I've always known...I don't know how, but I do."

"What's it about?"

"I'm not sure, but I know it involves someone that comes from a city in the sky, like we do...and someone from the ground."

"Can I hear it? You do have a good voice that even the guards like to hear."

She gaped and said, "Hyu, you've got to be exaggerating!"

"I'm not! A few of them told me so, including the one you call Old Jessie."

"Oh, all right, I'll teach it to you. I have the feeling that it'll be very important someday."

Citan sighed softly as he remembered that day, having seen it in the mind's eye, just like the other times he was slowly remembering.

"And you were right," he whispered, "The Ground and the Sky has become very important for a lot of reasons...it brought me back to you...and was the first thing I remembered about you."

Suddenly he heard the door open and turned to see one of the crewman from the Gear Dock come in and look at her for a minute.

"Ah, the nurse is not here right now," he said.

"No, no...I was wondering about something," the crewman replied quickly, "The first mate was right...it's got to be her."

"What are you talking about?" Citan asked, suddenly wary.

"Nobody's told you yet?"

"I'm afraid not."

The crewman took a seat beside Citan and said, "About three years ago, this ship had been under heavy fire by the Aveh troops and was so badly damaged we crossed the border into Kislev territory. We were boarded shortly afterwards by one of the nearby battalions."

"What happened?"

"Well, professor, there we were, badly damaged, boarded and ready to be arrested or killed...after all, most enemies in the war were executed on sight, regardless of what happened. The commander of the Battalion, a rather young woman, really surprised us. Not only did she spare our lives, she ordered her crew to repair Yggdrasil and let us go. We never really learned her reasons for doing it, but we're grateful she did...and it's influenced the young master greatly."

"How so?"

"Well before that day, the young master usually would kill the prisoners if they didn't join him...or would just let them die. When that day happened, and he met her, she taught him the value of mercy. Now, if anything has to be destroyed, he makes sure to save everyone, even if they don't join us."

"That is quite an influence."

"We've been hoping we meet up with her and show her how far we've come since that day...maybe even ask her to join us," the crewman continued.

"I see."

"One bad thing is that nobody got the name of the young woman that day...but the only one that can tell us if the young lady in the cot is her or not is the young master...and he's missing right now."

Citan nodded, being reminded that Fei was out there below the sands...somewhere.

"So that is why there was a commotion when I brought Aireel here," he said quietly then thought, Fei, you had better come back alive...

The two Gears, Weltall and Brigandier, came out of a long, straight passageway and found themselves on narrow bridges, with pits and other bridgeways below and around them. Also, the loud sound of what seemed to be waterfalls could be heard throughout.

"Are those waterfalls?" Fei asked.

"Yeah..never seen one down here before?"

"I wouldn't know...I don't remember much of anything outside of Lahan."

"Hmm...memory loss, eh? Figures."

As they continued to walk onwards, the narrow pathways soon became wider, so they didn't have to worry about falling off as much.

"It's a good thing that the Gears can sharge the fuel," Bart remarked, "Or we'd be sitting ducks a while back, what with all the Gears and monsters down here."

"No kidding...but if we have too many more attack us, we're toast anyway," Fei agreed, "We better find the way out soon."

They passed by a fork in the path, where a single Gear stood and continued straight onwards and through a small tunnel.

"Hey! It looks like someone actually lives here," Bart called out after he and Fei exited the tunnel.

In front of them were many "leaves" made out of stone...and just the right height on each of them for jumping on.

To the far right, they could see a giant metal wall...or door, Fei couldn't tell which, and just to the left of the metal item was an opening in the cave wall with light coming out of it...and a small chimney.

"Let's go see if anyone's home," he agreed and started working the controls for making Weltall jump the strange "steps".

Bart sighed and jumped across as well until they reached the small house-like area...and saw a large, strangely-shaped yellow object beside it.

Both men disembarked from their Gears and went inside.

Inside they found what appeared to be someone's living quarters...as well as a larger workspace.

Also inside was a strange old man that turned when he saw them.

"Ah, visitors! Now this is rare..." he said to them, smiling a little although it looked more like a frown, "Come in, make yourselves at home."

Fei and Bart walked in the rest of the way as the strange man said, "My, it's been years since my last visitor. How did you get down here?"

"We fell in and are trying to find a way out," the latter replied.

"Ah, I see. That's too bad, as you both sound like you ride good Gears...but the legs are acting up a bit, aren't they?"

"You could tell that just from the sounds? Amazing," Fei remarked.

"I can tell everything about a Gear from the sounds they make. It seems that one of them needs a new hydromechanic pipe in the knee joint, am I right?"

"Yeah," Bart said, "But who are you?"

"I'm Balthasar, but call me Ol' Man Bal."

Fei nodded and asked as he and Bart looked around.

"Hey, old man...what's all this old stuff you have here?" the pirate asked.

"I am what's known as a 'fossicker', I live here in order to collect things. That 'old stuff', as you put it, are fossils and they're part of the many things that I have," the old man replied with a frown.

Fei looked at a nearby shelf that was filled with skulls while Bal continued, "Most of these are quite old...over 5,000 years old to be exact. Young man, take a look at those skulls and tell me what you see."

"Well...I would say that on the left are the oldest and on the right are the newest ones...on the second shelf, there are only human skulls from the halfway point to the right," the young man replied.

"Precisely. It would mean that up until 10,000 years ago, there were no humans on our planet."

Bart asked, shocked, "But what about the theory of evolution?"

"You mean the theory as taught by the Ethos? No, I prefer to believe the old legends and myths," the old man said as the three walked further back into a almost-round part of his "house".

"What legends were those?" Fei asked.

"Long ago, humans and God lived together in a paradise in the sky. They never had to fear death. Then, one day, they ate the Fruit of Wisdom, gaining incredible knowledge. Angered by the act, God banished from Paradise, casting them down to the earth. In retaliation, the people used their new knowledge to create giants and fought him."

The other two nodded as they listened.

"Not even God escaped harm. Wounded, he sank to the bottom of the sea, taking Paradise with him. Before he did, he made sure that righteous humans remained on the planet," Bal continued, "But that's all just folklore. Are you two young'uns looking for a way out?"

Both nodded.

"Well, there is one way out...next to my house is a large gate that is usually open as it's next door to an old Aveh excavation site."

"You mean that metal wall? I bet I could destroy it in no time!" Bart exclaimed, excited.

"Now hold on a minute, young'un! Nobody can destroy that wall. Let's make a deal. Because of you two fighting, the sand sensors picked it up and closed the gate so I'm stuck here too. You two need to find and deactivate the two sensors. Once you do, then I'll open up the gate."

Fei nodded and said, "It's a deal. Come on, Bart, let's shut down those sensors."

"Before you go, I can share some parts and fuel with you," Bal quickly said to them.

"Sounds like a good idea," Bart replied, "The Gears are low on fuel as it is."

"Hmm...they also look like they need an upgrade...changing the engine is a good start..."