The Prime Revenant (Story)

Story written on the Erfworld Literature Forums, found here. http://www.erfworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1050

Summary
The Tale that ends in the destruction of the Prime Revenant

Non-immortals

 * Lysha Vale: The girl with the power to suck the very souls from a living being's body. She's carted around by everyone, and doesn't mind because her dad did the same thing. She's accepted the fact that she kills everyone she loves (except Surry, her brother), and considers Pause another eventual casualty.


 * Surry Vale: Lysha's brother. He's not sane, and is having a sordid affair with his motorcycle. He, after falling asleep and losing his father and sister, goes out with his motorcycle to find Lysha, running afoul of Pause, Uritch and Rena.


 * Layna Qede: The leader of the Blood Meridian in Looze. She hates all non-humans, and actively works to kill them off when she gets the chance.


 * Innkeeper and Wife: The innkeeper of Looze. He doesn't like these Blood Meridian punks, but is usually too scared to do anything about it. His wife convinces him otherwise after they meet Lysha.

Xewleer

 * Pause: The first and most powerful of Xewleer's Moderators. She is chosen to discover the cause of a gathering of Dark Creatures in the The Dragon's Fangs. She meets Lysha, and is her caretaker for most of their relationship. Her personality is best described as depressed.


 * Lyle: Another of Xewleer's moderators. He's spend his immortality well, and is considered incompetent by everyone outside of Xewleer's group. His job is to observe the Prime Revenant.


 * Nanael: Another of Xewleer's Moderators, acts as his secretary. She cares a great deal for the other Moderators, especially Pause, as she feels bad for all the pain she goes through.


 * Uritch and Rena: Xewleer's combat specialists, they devolve into insanity despite Xewleer's best efforts. They are sent to assist Pause, and often run into Surry Vale.


 * Art Louver: His job is the preservation of the culture of mortal races. His purpose in this story is to ferry the girl and participate in the final battle.


 * Lon Lon: Mentioned but doesn't show up. She is sent to delay the Moderators of Quatre and Minerva. Her personality is best described as angry.

Tanith

 * Gazelle: Tanith's first moderator, her personality is practically the opposite of Pause's, being hotblooded and relatively friendly. She's the Prime Revenant's chief guard, and manages the other moderators guarding the area. She does not believe in the existence of doorknobs.


 * False: Tanith's moderator, she's a very even person on Lockheed, choosing to keep whatever thoughts she has to herself. Lyle is her favorite chew toy, and she takes opportunities to abuse him, but generally lets Momose do the dirty work.
 * Momose: False's enslaved Faceless One. She(?) follows at False's heels, doing her bidding. She tries to find the little pleasures in life though, like abusing Lyle.

Quatre

 * Zelmie: One of Quatre's, she was warned that Xewleer may try something in order to destroy the Revenant, and is on the lookout. She often goes on missions for Quatre in between shifts.

Administrators

 * Xewleer: An Administrator, much of what happens is his indirect machinations. His goal is the preservation of the world's foundation, the Lifestream. He feels no remorse about sacrifices he forces others to make.


 * Tanith: Another Administrator, he is charged with ensuring that the Prime Revenant does not leave Lockheed. She does not care about 'gender' or emotions that Xewleer or the others adopt. He is all for keeping the Prime Revenant trapped, which is against Xewleer's Philosophy.


 * Quatre and Minerva: The other two major Administrators. They do not show up personally, but Quatre's moderator, Zelmie shows up. They are both with Tanith in keeping the Prime Revenant in Lockheed. Despite this, Quatre and Xewleer are still on friendly terms.

Dark Creatures

 * Shade: He's a strange and ancient creature. He accompanies Lysha and Pause on their journeys. He keeps quiet, but reveals often that he has his own agenda.


 * Prime Revenant:The goal of this story is to kill it. Xewleer has spent a lot of time figuring out how to fight it. But, it doesn't really care. It's got it's own plans, and it's own strengths. Namely, it can communicate directly to minions across the plains, especially to one in particular.

Story
Chapter 1. In which Pause is introduced, as well as the villain mentioned and the Macguffin discussed for a brief while.

Pause walked the Midworld. She liked doing this, she could remember all sorts of things about people she once knew. She also thought about her own immortality. Some she hated being unable to die, but her master, Xewleer, constantly refuses her pessimism. She was the first Moderator he, as an Administrator, ever chose. This meant she got the most important jobs. Once, she had guarded the Fallen One, Kaede E. Mellow. Then Xewleer had arranged for Kaede to be freed... and that whole mess that was the Blade Master era...

She sighed a bit to herself. Then she perked up a bit. There were the Dragon Fangs of Cameo. She opened up the Explorer's League Travel Almanac. Even though she could just Rift Walk into her destination, she still liked the mortal way of travel. The map was mostly accurate, and last century, but was still useful. The description:

"There are no Herbivorous goats, only a rare species of carnivorous goats. They are not fun... But back on subject: to travel the mountains, you must make sure you have a map. If one does not, you will get lost, and if you are lucky, you will come out somewhere where you began. If you are unlucky, you will die, slowly and painfully, and ALONE. ALONE YOU HEAR ME! What are you doing? Get your hands off me! I've got more to talk to them about! Wait! You die allllooooonnnneeeee...."

She liked the Explorer's League's sense of humor, which showed on her face as a grim smile. The mountains stretched up like knives, like swords, like dragon's teeth! She continued walking towards them, perfectly relaxed. This type of mission was a vacation, walk somewhere, kill any guardians that may be about, then walk home with the prize. Easy, she was Xewleer's first moderator, and that means power. There weren't any immortals to kill (somehow), no pesky politics.

"Hey, Utan! You know there's no real towns that way!" Another traveler, by his trappings, certainly a member of the Explorer's League. "You should really turn back, I'll escort you if you want." He was a touch handsome she supposed. But he was mortal and didn't even have a touch of 'destiny' on him, maybe a hint of it, no that was a smell. Man needed a bath after a year or two in the wilderness.

"No. I know where I'm going." She didn't look at him and kept walking. Utan, please, she didn't remember her species name, but she wasn't one of those weird human/animal genetic experiments, bushy tail and human appearance besides. The Utan were friendly, but she felt them weak, only their leaders, the Badger Lords, had any real warrior spirit. The man's moving on, didn't even bother to ask if she was really okay. She sensed a little bit of hostility, the man obviously didn't like uppity 'Utan', maybe even a member of that new human supremacy group, Blood Meridian.

The target was about half way through the fangs, a cave. There is something there that is starting to attract Revenants. Those were Dark Creatures from the plane of Abaddon, dangerous and mysterious. They were even a threat to lesser immortals, and their most powerful member, who even had nominal control over Eidolons, the most powerful of all Dark Creatures. He had eaten the life force of the immortal Llerwen, and so was unkillable at the moment. Maybe this slow gathering of Revenants held the key.

She walked the lands and came to the entrance of a pass. She smelt Dark Creature. Weakling Shades and Wraiths. They want to go further on, but are afraid, the Revenants often kill their weaker brothers, and there aren't enough of them yet to try to swarm them. Shade leaps out and disappears in a puff. He was too weak to even handle the sunlight. She didn't really care about it's destruction, but something was making a weakling like that almost suicidal in its need to feed on soul.

She walked further in. The Wraiths could smell her and shied away. Shades whispered from the shadows, attempting to tempt her away from the light. She ignored them all, they were nothing compared with what lay ahead of her. She did not worry, she never worried.

Chapter 2: In which Pause finds a new friend, Tanith the Administrator is introduced and The Villain is discussed further.

A Shade was waiting for her at what was she considered the half-way mark. It was stronger than the others, but also in control of itself. "Hello, Immortal One! I praise your life and your skills!" A traditional greeting, not used for thousands of years, it was an ancient Shade. "This humble Shade makes a request." Oh? Maybe Pause shouldn't kill it immediately. "Allow me to accompany you. I wish to see what is drawing me. There are many powerful beings ahead, and a guardian. Though I cannot fight them for you, I can help you mask your presence, surely you wish to get by as soon as possible!"

"Alright, but betray me and I will destroy you." She held out a hand into the shadows. The shade wasted no time, and slid into her sleeve.

"Betray you? I cannot even HARM you! But do not worry, I have my own agenda, and it only coincides with seeing her."

"Her?" Shade would prove useful then. Pause walked on. She could feel the Shade underneath her clothes but he was being careful to keep between the shirt and the armor. The Shade could not keep himself still, but There were no more Shades or Wraiths bothering her, so she didn't mind. Their whispers annoyed her.

Tanith was androgynous. Unlike Pause who was almost certainly female, and Xewleer, who was certainly male, Tanith had no gender. He was not a freak; she was naturally made that way. Again, unlike the other Administrators, he also disliked pretending about things that the Administrators did not have like the mortals, gender. So she was bland, without many things that the other Administrator's embraced whole-heartedly, like personality. Tanith was then the perfect person for an important, but boring job.

Guarding the Prime Revenant. The Prime Revenant was a danger to the very thing the Administrators were created to protect. The Prime Revenant could suck the very life from the World, had it the chance. But this plane, Lockheed, had no life in it. The rocks were stone, no life to be found, outside of Tanith's compound. There, the Prime Revenant was forced to stay by, looking for a chance to escape. But Lockheed was special for more than the lack of life, it only had three places plane travelers could enter, all in one area; those were guarded day and night.

Gazelle entered into the top observation deck. She was his first Moderator, much like Pause. She enjoyed her immortality, and that's what made her different. Tanith didn't really care as long as she did her job. She did it well and the Prime Revenant stayed imprisoned on this plane. "Brooding again, Tan?" She also had the added benefit of actually liking her Administrator, which Pause did not share at all.

"Yes. I'm wondering how long until he gets out." Tanith made no assumptions. He was aware of the way of the world. Xewleer had warned him. He was the most worrisome of Administrators,

"These are stories, Tanith. They are forced by what is fate to ruin all of our best laid plans. I foresee that the story of our immortal lives, our plot, will take a horrid twist before the end." Riddles that Tanith never had patience for. Xewleer and the rest of the Administrators were incapable of destroying the world. Tanith had his/her doubts, always.

"Prime's not moved since last check. Four communications, 3 interrupted, 1 spied on. All under the category 'innocuous', requests for news about the World and the situation of his pawns."

"Status of those pawns?"

"Gathering around Cameo's stretch of the Dragon Fangs. Pause, Xewleer's if you recall, in site. Seems to have picked up one of those Shades we've been watching. She's steadily heading to the center of that disturbance in Dark Creature movement too."

"Threat assessment?"

"Little. Though some of the strongest Eidolons may pose some sort of threat, Pause is a match for anything they field. There is also an unknown creature that resides at Pause's destination. Eidolon signatures disappear around this area. This is likely a protective system."

"Alright. Bring Lyle to me." Tanith would have words with Xewleer's representative, he needed answers. Lyle was lazy, however, and her hopes were low.

Chapter 3: In which Lyle tries to dance rings around Tanith, Gets kicked between the legs and takes a nap to heal.

Lyle pretended to be asleep. He had a reputation to maintain after all, and goodness knows the entire thing would fall apart if they thought he ever worked. He got shivers if they actually thought of him as competent. He was one of Xewleer's inner circle, after all. His job here was to examine the Prime Revenant before it was destroyed, especially the method of communication it used across the planes. Lyle was fettered in that Xewleer specifically instructed him to not let Tanith know. So, he was stuck looking at it from afar and thinking about it. Which was what he was doing right now, and it was getting him no where.

Gazelle kicked his door open, interrupting his fruitless reverie. "Tanith wants to talk to you. Apparently Xewleer sent Pause out to investigate some Dark Creatures gathering in the mountains."

"Ugh, can't this wait until after my nap? I was doing the night shift and I'm tired!"

Gazelle started to kick him out of his bed. "YOU LAZY LUMMOX! I caught you sleeping during my rounds! What would have happened if our prisoner escaped during that time? YOU HOPELESS IDIOT!" She finally succeeded in dislodging him from his perch and started to forcibly kick him out of the door.

He rolled out of the way and got to his feet. "Bah! You're just jealous that you can't relax as much as I can!"

She tossed him out of the door, screaming curses at his hastily retreating figure. Gazelle didn't like him, and never needed an excuse to beat him up. And it wasn't the 'I love you so I hurt you type of thing either', she'd broken his arms more than once before, nearly broke his skull open when she caught him sleeping that one time. Immortality had its advantages, but you still felt pain.

"Tanith! How are you, bored as usual? Perhaps I wasted too much food or maybe I just ticked you off because my handwriting is so messy..."

"Gazelle beat you again." Tanith could play his game. Lyle could not be this stupid!

"HEY! SHUT UP!" Lyle knew there wasn't any reason to get flustered, really, he'd heal. "What do you want?" He sounded petulant, the very image of a childish brat.

"What is Xewleer's plans?" Tanith's patience ran out. "Why was Pause sent for something that better suits Uritch or Rena?"

"Pause is his first moderator, if he wants a guaranteed success, he'll send her. Not much else to it, you know?" He made it sound like it wasn't all that important. "I wouldn't read into it."

"He sent Pause." Lyle would not talk his way around this!

"Yes... and I guess he really wants to know what's happening over there. It's not everyday that Dark Creatures gather in one of the most desolate places in the World? I mean, I'm surprised you haven't sent people." Lyle was able to turn the question towards Tanith.

"Xewleer will and I will know when he tells you." Tanith waved, dismissing him. Soon, Xewleer would communicate with his lackey.

Geez man, just cause you guys were made, not born, it doesn't mean that you can't have a heart, it's just a little harder." Lyle planned to have the final word.

"Better than being idiotic." Tanith closed the door on him.

Gazelle and False were arguing outside his room, Gazelle was being forced to repair his door. False, despite being outranked by the first Moderator, was not allowing her vandalism to go unpunished. Lyle decided to be a jerk. "Hey thanks, I finally get the door my station deserves!" Drat! He'd never really thought about a jerk saying for a situation like this!

He had forgotten about Momose, False's Faceless One servant. He was lifted up by the neck by her head tentacles. It wasn't a fun experience. "How dare you speak of my hated mistress like that! Though I desire her painful destruction, I am forced defend her honor! You should be lucky my will is under her control or I would flay you until you despised your own immortality! You should be thanking her for forcing the disgusting and ugly Gazelle (Gazelle:HEY!) to fix the door to your putrid and rotting apartments that she broke in a fit of justified rage!"

False kept her eyes on Gazelle. The last screws were in place. and the job was done. Lyle was carefully put down at a motion from False, then promptly kicked between the legs! "Don't be a jerk, and if you want to be one, get better lines." Lyle grunted in pain and started to drag himself into the room with his finger tips. Gazelle took the opportunity kick him, and Momose joined in as well. "Heh, I just checked my schedule and it's abuse the Lyle day!" The three walked off laughing.

He rolled onto his bed. The only way to heal up after this would be to sleep a great deal. He figured the report he'd be sending to Xewleer would have to wait. The pain was quite excruciating, but it would be gone after a nap. He wasn't required for anything for days, the benefit of having no responsibility due to rabid incompetence. "Ugh, if it wasn't for the abuse, I'd be having a pretty good time right about now..." And he rolled on his side to sleep.

Chapter 4: In which Xewleer indicates everything is according to plan, that he doesn't really have a plan, and discuss whether Pause may or may not be over her head.

Nanael had given up on Xewleer a long time ago. Then took him back once she realized that he was hopeless without her. Then realized, about five seconds after the second sentence, that he had emotionally manipulated her. This usually gives way to either anger, fatalism or general depression in normal people. Nanael, however, rolled with the punches, and came away with a general optimism. This made her quite special among Xewleer's moderators, who are, by necessity crazy (Lyle, Uritch and Rena) or depressed (Pause and Art Louver); the rest are some kind of angry, of course. Nanael was quite special in this regard, being quite sane (to a point) and actually on good terms with Xewleer.

Xewleer himself valued her. She was organized and intelligent. She could get him to do actual work too, something Pause never really felt worried about. And, what's more, she hasn't tried to kill him yet! Which quite confused Xewleer, as he was unkillable and his moderators depended on him each day to send them 'life forces', or they would truly die. It was a mystery, really.

"Xewleer... are you in here?" She opened the door to his study. He was writing, which didn't surprise her at all. All Administrators had some control over reality. This power manifested itself differently in each, for example: Xewleer wrote, Quatre dreamed and Minerva painted. No one knew what Tanith did to warp reality.

"Yes'm? Minerva on my case again for messing around with the mortals? Or perhaps Tanith is mad at me for sending him Lyle? Well, I don't really care right now... I"M IN TOO GOOD A MOOD! Everything is going according to plan!"

Nanael took it in stride. Xewleer got enthusiastic easily and became bored easily. "Really now, and what plan would that be."

Apparently, he had been excited for some time before she came in, and his energy had now ran out. "Why, the one to destroy the Prime Revenant, of course."

"I always get confused as to which plan, you seem to have so many." Nanael shuffled her papers. "Anyway, I've got some reports here. Art finally found that wall hanging you sent him to find in that abandoned, and also haunted, museum. He wasn't very happy about it and is spending time visiting the Camean Art scene."

"Anything else? Anything from Lyle?"

"No, I think he got beat up again." Nanael giggled a little Lyle was always getting beat by girls. "I'll send him a fruit basket. Anyway, here's the latest data from Lon Lon. She's got a list of possibilities on what the disturbance can be, if unnatural, who made it... I'm sure you can figure it out. Are you sure that this can destroy the Prime Revenant?" She was being serious here. Pause was a friend, one of a very few, and she didn't want something that could kill something that ate souls, like the Prime Revenant, killing her friend.

"No."

"THEN BASING YOUR PLANS ON IT IS QUITE WORTHLESS NOW ISN'T IT?" She got quite uncharacteristically exasperated with him. "You can't just send Pause out for a dry milk run like that without some sort of reason! You should have sent Uritch or Rena, even I would be a better choice than her!"

"Okay, I admit that I don't really have a plan. It's just that I've written several things that are safeguards against things like the Prime Revenant. Something that repulses, and attracts the Dark Creatures... members of the Prime's own species, as you know. So study of it will be worthwhile, if not to kill the Prime Revenant, then to understand it!"

Nanael sighed, he was right, of course. "Well, Uritch and Rena are back from searching for that Faceless General... Tloke? They were not successful. Mind if I send them to back up Pause?"

"No, I was actually thinking about it. One of the reasons why I sent Pause is because, unlike those two, she has a measure of compassion. She hides it, but she won't just kill everything she meets, that makes her special. What if the reason the Dark Creatures are acting like that is a hideous being? Rena'd make it a pet for all of the five seconds she took a liking to it, then kill it. Uritch wouldn't even take five seconds. No, Pause is the best choice."

-Dragon's Fangs- Pause took a brief rest outside of the center of the disturbance. She wasn't really tired, sitting down and eating some fruit rejuvenates her. To walk, slightly tired, into a nest of the most powerful Eidolons and Revenants was akin to suicide. Especially since the Shade had talked about hearing of some sort of guardian that could slay Eidolons, something that would even give even her trouble.

"Lady Pause, do you think it wise to let your guard down?" The Shade wanted to see what that guardian protected as quickly as possible.

"If that happens you'll die first. It would go well with you to be my early warning system." She was nearly done anyway, a few more bites. "Xewleer'll likely send some more people to 'assist' me soon. They'll kill you if they see you."

The Shade quit looking around for a moment. "Yes, yes, that is my own fault for being a Shade, I suppose. I'll stay hidden. I hope you don't mind me against your skin, or they'll sense me, more than likely."

Pause snorted, but nodded. Xewleer would want to talk to him, pump him for information. Pause hated secondary goals like this. High chance of failure, with a good chance of a poor reward.

She tossed away the remains of the fruit she was eating. The Shade, now used to her silent ways, retreated as deeply into her cloths as he dared. He personally didn't understand the mortal races' fascination and embarrassment with the bare body, but this Pause didn't seem to mind at all. Not that he even thought about pressing his luck.

Pause jumped across a canyon, now within sight of twenty Dark Creatures fighting some kind of mechanical giant!

Chapter 5: In which Pause slays a monstrosity, makes friends with a young girl, and discovers a painful truth.

The mechanical monstrosity was at least a hundred feet tall. It was one of the deadliest things she had ever seen, until Pause realized how hopelessly vulnerable it was. What made it funny is that the Dark Creatures weren't even bothering to attack the weak spots. They were going for the head, and she could tell that it was just a decoy. The real weak spot was the left leg, you could tell by the heavier plating along the legs and the sensor arrays.

The Monstrosity itself was a Mad scientists fondest dream. It was also a sane person's heroin nightmare. It was like three madmen, each on a different drug and all of them drunk, had joined together to bend the laws of reality. "Cords!" One said. "We don't need no freaking chains or pistons! A gigantic Pulley system!" "SPIKES! AND LASER GUNS AND..." Another cried. "Shall we be satisfied with that?" Said the last. "Lets give it a smiley face!" And so it was. It was a wonder that physics could still apply to it.

And another Eidolon bit the dust. She sat down to watch the show. All things must end, as well as Eidolon reinforcements. The mechanism sat down to repair itself. Pause made her move then, jumping onto its left foot. She climbed up the colossus' leg, slashing at things that looked important. She dodged to the right leg as a hand swatted down, attempting to destroy this pest.

Using her sword, she held on to the abdomen pondering her next move. She jumped on the swatting arm and rode it, running down its length as it sought to shake it off. She knew that she must make her way down to the left leg, but the mechanical monstrosity was decently intelligent, it knew what Pause was trying to do and was doing its darndest to keep her from doing it. She jumped down, sliding past the swatting hand and stabbing her sword into the pelvic area. As the hand flew down once more, she leaped upon it and allowed it to carry her down as it tried to compensate for her new perch.

She then dived head first into a joint opening, slashing through the cords that were in her way. The machine tripped heavily, falling on some sharp rocks which pierced the armor on it's chest, previously damaged by the Eidolons. Pause slid down the leg, until she reached what had once been a command center in the leg. "I'm disappointed." Was her only words as she flipped the switch that shut off the machine.

She crawled out of the now tangled mess of metal and cords to find the entrance of a cave directly across a trench made by the monster's fall. The Shade made itself known by flowing out of her clothes enough to form a head. "Too easy, Pause, I fear that there are further traps ahead."

"I don't like people who state the obvious." The shade took the hint and remained silent. It had become eager and a little restless, this close to his goal. Pause felt a pull from underneath her clothes, this grew stronger as she got closer.

The cave was an organized mess. While there was tubing, tables and so much more junk everywhere, very little of it was in the way. In one corner was circuit boards and microchips. In another area were patches of synthetic skin and other body parts. In a third corner were metal parts, a thousand of them in a huge, messy pile that covered a third of the room. In the last corner was a corpse and a girl, who had a great deal of cybernetics implanted into her. Pause knew that she was still mostly human, and thus could be rationalized as one of them.

She remembered what Nanael had told her about children. Be nice, smile, and don't forget, they're more afraid of you than you are of them. So Pause smiled and stooped so she could meet the girl at eye level. "Hello, my name is Pause, I'm here to help you." Of course the smile came out as a grimace and her nice speaking came out quite strained and probably sounded menacing to her.

"You don't smile very often do you." This girl was brazen, Pause hoped she could be gotten along with. "I can tell. Dad was like that all the time. No smiles. I don't remember really." The girl stood up. She smiled too, but it was disturbed, she understood the concepts better than Pause did, but it showed far too much teeth. "I want to leave here, and take off these..." she gestured to the cybernetic parts on her body. "Please?"

"I will take you somewhere else, and I can promise I will protect you. I cannot promise much else. You have been attracting Dark Creatures, monsters. I need to get you moving so they will have a harder time finding you. Do you understand?" That last part was courtesy, Pause fully intended to take her whether she wanted to go or not.

"Yeah. Do you have food?" She left the corpse and walked towards Pause.

"Don't worry about. When we leave this area, I should be able to Rift Walk." Pause walked in front of her. She would have to carry her in some places, but mostly she should be able to walk. "Why did your - father? - put cybernetics in your body?" She carried the girl and jumped a gap.

"He never told me, but I think it's to do with my mother. She could talk to the monsters and they'd listen. They'd stay away from me when mother told them to. So I think dad was trying to copy what my mother could do." So it was a bloodline? Pause jumped another canyon. This was very informative, this meant that they could replicate it through a cloning system.

This continued on for about an hour. The girl had not been allowed to talk often, so she had a lot to say. But Pause started to become worried, her powers, especially the ones concerning transportation, were not returning to her as she got further away from the lab. Pause felt stupid for a second, of course the thing that was dampening her powers was on her back, the girl! She slapped her head. "What was that for?"

Pause didn't answer for a second. "I can't rift walk. So this will be a long trip." The girl looked down trodden; she had expected this powerful woman to shorten the trip via some super power. Pause tried a bit of humor. "I hope you are not sucking my soul out." The girl looked at her worriedly. Then Pause realized that the corpse of her 'father' had no mark on it. This was a painful revelation. Pause tried a 'reassuring' smile. This was perhaps her most painful grimace yet.

Chapter six: In which Uritch and Rena make a proper appearance, Uritch and Rena make a new 'friend' on site and Pause is surprised by a minor antagonist.

Uritch and Rena were the 'go-to' Moderators for any combat heavy operation. They were alternatively violent sociopaths and frightful pragmatists, depending on whether Xewleer gave them 'an acceptable amount of casualties' or 'just kill everything' commands. Just kill everything commands hadn't come in for a while, so the two were getting bored. Indeed, one may say that their non-killing had lead them to be in doldrums of a most DREADFUL sort. This slowly eroded their twisted minds and left them barely sane, or insane, which ever worked for them.

"Indeed, Rena, darling, if the army discriminated, perhaps there would be more unemployed females in government." Said Uritch, the male.

"Nonsense, for my gender is a spliferous gender and sly. Quite, we'll be fine once a generation or thrice has past and culture has changed greatly." Said Rena, the Female.

"Perfect reduction there! I sense Xewleer-tonsil." Said Uritch, the sensitive one.

Xewleer and Nanael walked into their room in the pocket plane. Any longer and they could have been drooling and licking at the walls. Xewleer touched each of their foreheads, repairing the damage done by insanity. He did not have high hopes that this would permanently fix them, and they would slowly return to their madness.

"Wow, the world's clear. I understand. What do you want us to kill?" Uritch was generally the spokesperson for the pair of them.

"I need you to back up Pause. I fear that she is over her head and will need help before her mission is over. You will be fighting Dark Creatures and maybe some humans." Nanael looked at him, surprised, humans rarely entered equations for jobs like this. "You may have to kill a lot of people. I need you to make sure that whatever Pause has found gets back to me, unharmed and entirely unhurt. Pause is to be brought back to us as well. DO not deviate from my objectives or I will destroy you, do you understand?" Xewleer's face, which usually held something akin to a smile, held a thunder cloud that loomed over the two of them, and they felt fear. Xewleer hated to use fear to motivate his tools, but those tools were the only ones he had now, and they were barely trustworthy at the best of times. "You will do this thing or I will strip your molecules from you for as long as I have fun doing it. Do you understand me? There is no room for failure."

Rena and Uritch were cowed, not an easy thing to do. They swore that they would do as he said, no deviations. Nanael followed him out, scared, Xewleer was no liar, for all his faults. She had also seen him this serious on only three other occasions. It was scary, when she remembered what had happened those other times. Pause probably had even more stories about such events, not that she wanted to hear them.

Uritch and Rena rift walked to a cliff far away, but within site of, the cave. They were being blocked from entering, which confused them. They weren't here to ask questions, though, just follow orders. The cave was deserted, but they decided to look through it for clues as to what had been going on here. They could sense that whatever was blocking their powers was weakening, so they didn't feeling like hurrying things.

They had barely finished the documents pertaining to the creation of gigantic robots, when the metal parts pile began to move. Out of it came a teenage boy, augmented with various cybernetics and where what could have been biking leathers. He dug out a motorcycle and a helmet from an alcove previously hidden by the huge pule of parts. Only when he had put on the helmet did he address them. "You can have whatever's here, but have you seen any girls around here?"

"I'm one." Said Rena, hoping to provoke him. He did not rise to the occasion.

"Then no. My senses are damaged." He flicked a switch underneath his helmet, then checked a few more gauges on his motorcycle. "You ever seen one of these?"

"Yes, we're not stupid." Uritch took offense at insinuations that he was stupid. He was crazy, and there was a big difference between the two.

"A truly elegant device. You don't have to worry about it getting tired. No need for it to eat massive amounts of oats. The newest generations are cleaner, cheaper and can be run on any liquid that burns."

"I think he's a little obsessed." Uritch observed to his compatriot. "You know, never known a woman and then assumes that every girl is like a mechanical transportation device?"

The teenage paused. "Names Surry. Are you going to get out of the way, or am I going to have to run you down." He got on the bike and revved the engines meaningfully. Before they could answer, he jumped forward, riding between them and entering into the mountain areas below. "See you guys around. 'Pologies for never asking your names!" The two quickly got up and looked out as he ramped a rock formation to cross a gorge.

"Well, I'm sure he'll be showing up again. Uh, I think it best if we contact Xewleer. It seems that Pause has picked up the girl and is now moving to the Camean Pocket Plane entrance. She should arrive in a week. Certainly, he was an amicable fellow, but odd!"

"Are you alright?" Rena said, worried that her friend was degrading before she did. He did that the last time and it wasn't fair that he went mad before she did!

-Outside of the Dragon's Fangs-

Pause stopped to rest for a spell. She was being drained by the girl's presence, and her energy, though more than enough to last before Xewleer came for her morning refill (darn his persistence in keeping her alive!). She didn't talk about it though; Xewleer gave careful orders that as few people as possible know about Immortals. "You know, to be tiring out like that so soon, are you sure you'll be able to take me all the way to...?"

"Opal. Art Louver's home." Pause didn't even bother with full sentences. She stood up and started walking, expecting the girl to follow. There was no need to worry about that, where would the girl go?

-Outside Looze, decent sized but rather ordinary town in Cameo-

Pause walked into the town of Looze a little after dark. This worried her, as far as it was emotional possible for Pause to worry, as to their safety. Cameo was a hot spot for the xenophobic Blood Meridian, which was headed up by Cameo's Emperor, Zeto. Towns like these were great supporters of this faction, and often had suffered under the hands of the Estellion Sky Empire. The resentment bred by propaganda describing the Estellions as inhuman only inflamed the cultural (usually quite mild) xenophobia, causing some riots and violence in the streets, climaxing in a 5-6 (some historians now say 7) way war referred to as the Utan Migration Wars. Looze had a ninety-nine percent human population anyway, so they weren't effected.

Pause, as mentioned before, was often mistaken for an Utan because of her tail. Utan's were servile to the other species and thus considered very weak, which led them to being universally abused. Pause, while not the most attractive female that ever lived, would look desirable to any drunks returning home. Pause only ever responded to flirting from one person, and Plue wasn't the type have an exclusive relationship with any girl met. She stopped for a second. The girl stopped also.

"What's the problem, have I killed you yet?" The girl had become depressed that Pause was very visibly becoming tired, even a little older in certain lights. Pause only looked at her, then walked towards an inn. Flash enough money and even the most phobic of people will face their fears. There was whisperings, though, and whatever trickle of passer-byes had disappeared entirely. Those were replaced by increasingly thuggish punks who apparently had nothing better to do than stand in front of door ways. There was one such group in front of the inn.

"Stand aside, please, we wish to stay in the inn." Their leader leered at her. "I'm escorting this human child to Opal, we need to stay at the inn to rest."

"She looks as human as you do. Utan." The thugs made no move to leave.

Pause's eye ticked for a second. "I'm not Utan. Please let us by."

"No." The thug crossed his arms and leaned against the door.

Whatever Pause would say next was interrupted by the blade through her throat. The thug jumped in surprise, then calmed down. "Layna! You shouldn't have done that! We could have had fun with her first!"

Layna removed her weapon du jour, a sickle, from Pause's neck. "Meh, I'll pay the local girls, and besides she's still warm." The owner of the inn had finally heard something and came out.

"I don't know what's more disturbing. These punks talking about rape in front of a young girl, or their leader, herself a female, talking about prostitution necrophilia. This Blood Meridian business-" He was interrupted by Layna pointing her weapon at him. He was not overly worried by it, Layna hadn't killed a human in years.

"Shut up, old man." She smiled, then sheathed her weapon. "I... or my men... will deal with the body, don't worry about it. You know my father won't fine you for my indiscretions. She's stopped bleeding." She poked the body with her foot. She took out her weapon again. Raising it up, she slashed at her chest, finally stabbing at a major vein running out of her heart. Everyone around her was sprayed with blood, for a time. "No injury heals this quickly in any species." She cleaned off her blade on the inside of her shirt and sheathed it yet again.

She motioned to her followers. "Pick up the body and chain it. Toss it into these guy's quarters, they'll watch her." She motioned to the men who had been standing in front of the inn. "If she escapes I'll have my father kill you." She smiled at them. Her father was terrified of his own daughter, and would do anything she commanded. "Return her to me in the morning. Inn keeper, take the girl, make sure she does not escape. I will question her in the morning." She took some chains from one of her minions and bound Pause personally.

"Alright everyone, I hope you have an excellent night, sweet dreams." She put the key in a pocket and walked off. She thought it a good touch to pat the girl on the head as she passed. Poor girl'll need therapy for years, if that would even help.

Chapter 7: In which the Inn is visited by Uritch and Rena, Surry rams a train, and Uritch and Rena rescue Pause, who then takes her revenge on Layna and her men in the morning.

The Innkeeper took the girl in before the thugs had dragged Pause's body away. He hated the way those thugs ran town, but only when they do something inconsiderate like that. Killing travelers... how was He going to earn a living when any people are too scared to come to the town? He sat the girl down and got his wife, putting her to work trying to comfort the girl, whose eyes were devoid of life after her experience.

"We're getting her out of here on the next Linear Train. We can't let those punks have their way all the time." She had never been a fan of the Blood Meridian. "Come on, there should be a train in half an hour." She rummaged around before finding some tickets, they discovered that travelers would pay extra for the convenience of easily available tickets. They paid off a ticket seller to give them tickets that could be used at any time. "Oh hey there deary, just sit there and we'll get you some relaxing warm milk. Werren!"

"Uza! Wait! You are just angry, they won't hurt a fellow human..." He didn't want to fight them, though he never really agreed with them. "Please honey, wait!" He took the milk out of the fridge and stuck some on a heating pan. "Listen, they'll let her go!" The door was banged upon and he rushed over, adopting a look of imperturbable calmness. "Hello?"

He was knocked down by a long-haired male who was leaning on the door, knocking on it with his head. "DO YOU KNOW THE MUFFIN MAN?!"

The calmness left the innkeeper, it was a crazy spouting children's poetry! "Drury lane! He lives on Drury lane!"

Rena calmly walked in, lifting Uritch by the collar and setting him on his feet. "Sorry for that, I think he's talking about Pause. Have you seen a tailed, bulky female around here recently?" She said it with a smile, though the innkeeper could tell she was on the knife's edge of sanity herself.

"She just died! I think the punks down at the Public Pub! Eris lane! Just don't tell them I sent you!" Rena's barely calm smile widened into a Cheshire Cat grin.

"Well then, we'd better go save them then! Oh, here's an address a common friend gave us to send the girl, mk?" She dragged a giggling Uritch out with her. The innkeeper grabbed the falling note and ran over to his wife, who had heard what had gone on and was changing the girl's jacket to one less bloodstained. As they hurried to get things ready, they could hear the man's giggling.

"HOMICIDAL MANIACS COME IN THE NIIIIGGHHHTTT!"

-on the train next morning-

The Linear Train System is a world-wide transportation system that was created thousands of years ago and maintained by all nations under treaty. It was constantly expanded, if for no reason than to give the kids of politicians something to do that wasn't easy to screw up. Cameo's system was praised for its relative simplicity, it had straight lines (unlike Arcadia's which had loop the loops in some places and was compared to a roller coaster in 9/10 travel logs). Opal wasn't very close to Looze, but still within a day's journey. The train was comfortable, if a little run down. The prefecture that Opal was the bureaucratic center of didn't have enough money to repair the trains, while several of their bases and roads had yet to be rebuilt.

It was well staffed, and the innkeeper had bribed several of the female workers to keep an eye on the girl, who was finally showing signs of life in her eyes. It was going well, the train wasn't being stopped by bandits or pirates of any sort. The sky was clear and there were no Estellion Military airships about, ruining the scenery. People weren't feeling too good though, the pilot blamed the fish.

"You know what I said? Fish would cause people to be discomforted and gaseous! And there is nothing more uncomfortable than a gaseous fellow passenger this one time..."

"He farted so badly that the guy who was smoking next to him was lit on fire."

"Did I tell you this story before?"

"Last trip. Though that time it was beef."

His second in command twisted a dial, managing the friction heat on the track. They were surprised by Pause materializing in the cabin, then running through the door towards the passenger cabins.

"You know, that still isn't the weirdest thing that's happened. One time..."

Pause was worried about the girl's disruptive field that her body sent out. It was getting stronger, and, despite her being on a moving train keeping ahead of the girl's power, she could barely Rift Walk into it. Pause needed to get near her to find a way to protect the other passengers. She was also a little worried about that guy on the motorcycle Nanael's letter mentioned, he could be sent to kill her if she left the lab, or take her back, both were pretty bad.

And there he was, riding parallel to the tracks. Pause could feel the girl in the other cabin, whatever that girl did, it was growing stronger. She was crossing to another train car, when she saw the motorcycle guy turn sharply, going out a fair distance, he turned towards the train at a very acute angle. He was going to ram the train. Pause ran forward, kicking down doors in her path, ignoring the conductors and others who complained of the interruption.

She barely made it to the girl's train car booth, when he somehow ramped up, towards the train. Wasting no time, Pause shielded the girl with her body. "MAN AND MOTORCYCLE IS SPIRIT!" Cried the guy on the motorcycle, bursting through the window and wall. "Hey sister, how's it going?"

Pause kicked him out the train and ran with the girl.

-Flashback! Early that morning-

Pause woke up amid blood, some hers, some others. She coughed as her lungs properly began working. She saw white, and wondered if Xewleer finally let her die. No such luck, he'd stapled a note against her forehead, jerk. She got up, she was dressed in what she recognized as part of Rena's and Nanael's styles of clothing. She stretched, her muscles were a little restrained, but she wouldn't be weakened by it.

She pulled the note off of her forehead and read it.

"Hey Pause! It's Nanael, Rena, Uritch and Xewleer! We're sorry we couldn't come sooner, but Xewleer couldn't come close while that girl was here (don't worry, she's on a linear train to Opal). Uritch and Rena killed all those guys, but you'd taken a lot of damage... Anyway! Layna Raggik, (Xewleer says she's the local punkd leader) lives up the street above a bar. Xewleer's really pumped you up after he healed you! Go get'm tigress. :D"

Nanael was far to cheerful for her own good. Pause picked up her sword and strapped it on. She didn't intend to use it, though. She looked over the bodies, and noticed the computer. They had already taken pictures of her and were planning to post them on an image board. She punched the monitor and kicked the computer through a wall. This had quite upset her; there would be no mercy for Layna Raggik.

Layna was bragging when her door was kicked down, squishing several of her goons. "Wow, I thought you'd be alive, but I didn't expect you to escape." Today, she was wielding an exotic weapon that was a blade attached to the quarterstaff. It was heavier blade than naginatas or glaves, and was not long enough to qualify as a spear or halberd. The entire thing looked like it was made of one giant piece of metal with leather wrapped around it. "You're about to know the displeasure of Layna Raggik."

Pause laughed, it was entirely sane, but without humor. "You think you're a big shot? I'm over fifteen thousand years old, going on twenty thousand. I was born a warrior queen! I waged war after war foolishly seeking expansion while Immortal beings walked the earth and they slowly went MAD! My species died out in those wars and I am the last living member! You think you're special? I have fought beings of power, I have traveled to the core of this earth and the seven swells above and beyond! I am PAUSE first and chief moderator of Xewleer and you are nothing but a weak human who I am about to kill without any feelings of remorse!"

Pause charged Layna, who, to her credit, did not back down.

Chapter 8: In which Pause arrives at her destination, Surry is distracted by a crazy duo, and the Shade is used as a tool.

-Opal- Art Louver was a dandy. A fop. A coxcomb. A peacock. He was concerned about his appearance, to put it in the commoner tongue. Art took what is essential to all those who seek dates, and then ran with it across the finish line and took several laps just to show just how better dressed he is than you. He fit right in to the art scene of Opal, as everyone there had their Monday best, their Tuesday best, their Wednesday best... Sunday Best was a strange subject to them as they dressed down then and wore button down shirts on that day.

So Art made quite a first impression on the girl. "He's a pansy too, isn't he?" She tugged on Pause, who was tired from fighting Surry up and down the train, and was now stuck carrying the girl. "I bet he is, can't even properly dress right"

Art got mad, he didn't spend five hours making himself look good for Pause to be bad mouthed by a kid who has no knowledge of art theory or skill. "You! You're the cause of all this! You've barely stopped wetting bed I bet! Why should I have to worry about what you think."

"Just take us to your Lockheed Plane entrance, Art. I'm tired." Pause foisted the girl onto Art, then walked to the station call a ride. "Your treat." Art put the girl on her feet and dragged her towards the aching Pause sitting in a taxi.

Xewleer was waiting at the portal to Lockheed, one of three that exists. It was an archway, perpetually under construction to hide its true nature. There, the story with its sundry characters would end.

-Outside Opal- Surry was hurting all over. That Pause was a tough cookie for a female. "I mean, my sister didn't even help me!" He huffed and puffed. "I mean beaten with my own motorcycle! The embarrassment!" He spat something he discovered sticking under the soft flesh of his tongue, an incisor. He counted his teeth with his tongue, where the heck did that tooth come from? All his teeth were accounted for! "I mean! I was kicked out of a train three times! And then clubbed unconscious with my own motorcycle! MY OWN MOTORCYCLE!" This went on while he followed the Linear train tracks closer to Opal.

Suddenly, two motorcycles sped up to his right and left, and those riders looked very familiar! "I AM THE MUFFIN MAN!" Uritch swung at him, causing him to swerve towards the second bike.

"THAT"S RIGHT DEAR! AND I'M THE GINGERBREAD WOMAN!" Rena swung her own weapon.

"SHE'S RENA!"

"AND HE'S URITCH!"

"WE'RE THE CRAZY DUO! AND WE'RE HERE AS A DISTRACTION." Xewleer's orders were explicit. Keep the interloper (Surry) from interfering with Pause's mission, permanently, if Surry refused to be distracted. Uritch and Rena were the perfect choices for this mission.

-Lockheed-

Lyle was assigned to a night duty. He hated night duty. There was nothing to do... Just kidding, there was plenty to do, especially now that he had his orders. Xewleer had topped up his power, as he did every morning for all his moderators. Tanith did the same, but it was a more solemn occasion. Tanith put a lot of weight into his duties as an Administrator, despite her lack of emotions. Xewleer was more of a "Hey lets get this over as quickly as possible" type.

And with Xewleer came a visitor who could have only entered with Xewleer. A Shade! "What are you waiting for? We should be on the move!" He said (Lyle decided that it was a he, for his own convenience). Lyle pretended to look busy.

"Stay in my clothes, Shade! Gazelle might see you! And if you are seen the entire plan is worthless!" The Shade slid into his clothes.

"I hate staying like this in male clothes. I like females a lot more!"

"You're weird for a Shade. Now shush, I've got to put on a show..." And he promptly picked up a book and started reading, ignoring monitor banks before him. Gazelle kicked down the door and rushed in.

"HA! Caught you sleeping...? Reading! That's just as bad!" She grabbed the book from his hands and beat him around the back of his head with it.

Lyle whined and wheedled. "Aww, but it's not like ol' Primey's going anywhere tonight!" Gazelle calmed down and tossed the book outside of the room. "I mean, it hasn't even moved in three days! It could be dead for all we know!"

She interrupted further words with a punch to the shoulder. "Just keep your eyes on that sucker! Who knows? Tonight may be the night he kills us all! He's not moved because he's biding his time! But, if you're not watching the monitor banks, then we have no forewarning of his attack! Got it?" She punched him on the shoulder one more time, then left.

"I hope we see each other, wide awake, in the morning." She reset the door (which was designed to be kicked down and put right back up, due to Gazelle not believing in the existence of door knobs. Prototype) and walked to her room.

"I sense that her feelings for you are not entirely antagonistic." The Shade slid from Lyle's clothes and formed to make a pseudo-face on a monitor screen. "A pity she's been deceived, just like everyone else here! Hah! What you Moderators and Administrators will do to protect your precious lifestream! A slave to your duty, even if it means hurting those around you! HA!"

"Shut up. Gazelle goes to be immediately, but False reads for a while. I don't think that Faceless one sleeps, Momose. Tanith sleeps standing up, but is awakened by anyone who even walks down his room's hallway. The rest are all on missions right now. In roughly three hours I'll make my move. Are you sure that the Prime Revenant will act as you say?"

The Face took on a shape of mock displeasure, the other two monitors next to it displayed outrageous hand gestures. "Of course! Don't you trust me? You're going to say no... But! I have no reason to deceive you. The portals to the world only work under the control of a willing operator, killing you would be detrimental to our goals, in the end!"

Lyle groaned. The Shade knew what he was talking about. He reached under his chair and got another book. "I don't really care. I do what Xewleer tells me to. I know that you have your own agenda, just a little FYI."

"But you don't know what it is, I'll bet you anything!"

Lyle buried his nose into his book. The conversation was over. The Shade made sounds like giggling and slid into Lyle's clothes. Eventually the Shade became bored and peaked out to read the book as well. After all, one can only be self satisfied for so long.

Chapter 9: In which Lyle fights off his fellow guards, The Shade outlives his usefulness, and the girl meets an unfortunate end, maybe.

Lyle opened the last gate. If the Shade had done his work well, the Prime Revenant would just move right through. No one would be disturbed, and no one would get hurt. Everyone here was some sort of combat expert, except for Zelmie, Quatre's representative. She did something, but he couldn't figure out what. He hoped not to find out, Quatre's moderators creeped him out. He also counted his lucky stars that only two of Tanith's Moderators were here... What was he thinking? He'll be fine, as long as that darned Shade does his work properly. He slid back, making sure that the lights made a very clear path for the Prime Revenant to take.

"A pity I never learned how you communicated across planes..." He said to the mass that passed by. It could only described as a vague, gelatinous mass that slithered like a slug, yet it had legs- better term would be 'appendages'- and had actually displayed great agility when they had tried to capture it. A gigantic, singular eye appeared suddenly, blinked at him, then disappeared. "No answers from you, huh." The Prime Revenant ignored him.

The Shade slid out from a wall next to him. "Well, only one thing left to do." He paused unnecessarily. Lyle suddenly became paranoid.

"You betrayed me didn't you. Ten says that you woke someone up. Another twenty says it's Gazelle. You know why? Because her reaction time from sleeping to awake is long enough for you to escape."

"Hey, do you know how long I've been stuck doing night duty? Remember, the Prime Revenant has been imprisoned for thousands of years! I got BORED! So, I figured out a long time ago how long it takes for people to wake up. I also have kept up with the major literature directions, martial art styles..." He looked down the corridor, Gazelle and False were coming down the corridor at a hundred miles an hour. "Including a nifty little one that allows you to fight against multiple opponents at once. You. Suck."

"I feel the love from here, Sir Lyle. Have a nice day." The Shade waved, then followed the Prime Revenant towards the portal.

Turning towards the pair running towards him, he held up his hands in an apologetic gesture. "This is all a misunderstanding!"

Gazelle unsheathed her sword, known to the Cameans as a Jian. It is thin and considered a more elegant weapon. First time she'd told him about it, he laughed and laughed until she started trying to kill him. "The HELL it is!"

False's Faceless One charged out of a nearby door. "I WILL STRIP THE NERVES FROM YOUR PATHETIC, IMMORTAL MEAT SACK BODY!" Lyle drew his mace and brought his full strength down on the back of the Faceless One's head area. There was a darn good reason why Xewleer sent him to Lockheed. Lyle could do whatever it took, even if it meant killing his companions.

He threw Momose the Faceless One through a door, effectively taking her out of the picture. Two more. He blocked Gazelle's strike with his own weapon, then jumped to avoid a low kick by False. He kicked his feet into False's face, then landed on her knee. By this time Gazelle was making her second move, a back handed swipe at him. It would be straight, but without her full power. He ducked under it and twisted his body so that he put a substantial amount of momentum into his blow to her face.

Zelmie walked out, snapping her fingers. Light Subjugators, the servants of Moderators and Administrators, formed around her. Lyle blanched, if it was anything that the Moderators of Xewleer and Xewleer himself agreed to dislike, it was freakin' Light Subjugators. "What's going on here? I mean, I was getting such a nice sleep!" She smiled and winked at Lyle.

"Has Quatre ordered you to back me up?" Lyle was worried. While Xewleer and Quatre generally got along, but every now and then, they did wildly different things.

"Nope, this time we're not working together. Quatre thinks that Xewleer's plan is a failure that should never had been started. Sorry we have to fight like this. SUBJUGATORS!"

Lyle dodged the Subjugator attacks. This wasn't good, all that was needed was explosion and Tanith would come here with fire and a whole lot of death, mainly for Lyle, if it was possible to kill an Immortal. He looked down the hallway to the portal entrance. The Prime Revenant was just getting into the portal room. How'd that thing move so quickly? It didn't matter. He dodged another attack and brought his mace down on the defender's arm, snapping it.

"Lyle! Just give up! You know you can't win!" Zelmie gave him a sympathetic smile. "Come on! the Prime Revenant was secured here! We didn't need you to rile things up!" Gazelle and False jumped in and joined the Light Subjugators in their assault. "It's a pity we can't Rift Walk in Lockheed. We'd be able to stop this fight in an instant." Zelmie sighed.

Gazelle yelled over her shoulder. "Stop trying to taunt him and help us take him down! Otherwise we won't get to the Revenant in time!" Lyle landed a hard hit on her shoulder, forcing her to pop it back into the socket. "Screw you! I'm going around!" Lyle threw a grenade at her back.

"Anti-rioting Foam Grenade! Ha!" Xewleer had thought of everything. The foam rapidly expanded, even encompassing Lyle, Zelmie and several Light Subjugators. "Well, now we wait."

"You suck." This comment came from somewhere within the center of the foam.

"I told that Shade that after he betrayed me." He paused a second. "I did see it coming, just a little by-the-way."

"Changes nothing, nothing at all, and I hate you for it." Gazelle was struggling against the foam, and it was constricting her.

Tanith walked in. The non-gender looked at Lyle's head poking out of the foam. "Xewleer."

"Yeah, he got you good didn't he?" Lyle smiled at him.

Tanith snapped his fingers and whistled. Lyle locked that information away. Music was her reality warping tool. Soon, he was the only one stuck in the foam. "We'll come back in a thousand years."

"That's not cool." Lyle was disappointed, that was all?

"No, it wasn't." Tanith moved out with his Moderators, they would gather their things and leave. Zelmie walked the route to the second Portal that led to Carnelia.

-Opal-

The Shade was certainly pleased with himself. His plan had finally succeeded. Xewleer was saying something. "And to our friend, his just rewards." Aw nuts, when humans say 'just rewards', they mean someone is going to die, especially a traitor. And guess who was the only real traitor in the area? Natch.

"A fitting death for a traitor!" The Shade was bathed in light. He screamed and melted down into a puddle.

Nanael punched Xeweleer in the shoulder. "You made those lines cheesy on purpose!"

"Indeed I did." Xewleer had a firm hand on the girl's shoulder. "I just wanted to do something like that. I mean, I read so much, but I never have a real chance to USE those cheesy lines." He looked down and smiled at the girl, trying to reassure her, for his benefit. If she spooked and tried to run, then everyone'd waste time trying to find her again, and the Prime Revenant would leave their area of control.

"Do you feel anything about what you are about to do?" Art looked to his Administrator.

"Nope. You have to remember, the Prime Revenant is a great threat to the Lifestream. According to my purpose, anything goes if I have to protect it. Remember, anything and everyone is expendable... even you and Nanael and even Pause." He said this without hesitation. Art didn't like to be told he was expendable, he already felt like he was.

"Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, that's all." Art brought out a Cartridge Cannon from an inside pocket. He had used it many times. There was one story told in the art circles that he once fought off a hundred mind-controlled antiques dealers with that weapon, but that, like so many other things, was another tale that will likely never be told. He aimed it at the emerging Prime Revenant.

The Prime Revenant was in a particular situation. It was forced to exit the portal at a slow pace. There was another benefit to the Portals at Lockheed. Nothing with a soul could leave at a faster pace than a walk, giving anyone guarding anything ample time to react to a jail break. Now it worked in their favor, giving them time to prepare for the Prime Revenant's emergence.

Xewleer kept a tight hand on the now struggling girl. He felt fortunate, apparently his presence as an Administrator weakened her soul stealing aura. Pause was already recovering a little, and was ready to fight. The Prime Revenant was nearly out after all, and he signaled his Moderators to take their positions.

"Is Lyle assisting?"

"No Pause, he's been immobilized, unfortunately, both Quatre and Tanith are against the plan. Fortunately, Lon Lon, our dear Utan friend, has been able to distract him and his. But, we don't have much time, they expected their agent, Zelmie to be able to control Lyle and the Revenant, she failed, of course."

Nanael drew her own weapon, a short spear. Like many things that are connected in some degree to Xewleer, it had a story attached, Nanael's ascension into immortality. When she left her home to travel to Arcadia, she found that she made the best friends with non-organic life forms, like the ancient City Builders. They asked her to do something for them, discover the strange space anomaly in an old office building. The dropped her off and waited for her to come back. She entered the building and discovered that Xewleer had made his home there, creating what he called a pocket plane. This was the reason for the City Builder's confusion, their sensors couldn't comprehend the fact that it was another dimension without being outside of this one. Xewleer explained this to her, impressed that she would deal with the machines that were older than he was. She returned to the City Builders and told them about it. In gratitude, they used their strongest building materials to make her a spear, as she used one to defend herself. Later, Xewleer would decide to make her an immortal after several later adventures.

The Prime Revenant was out all the way. It produced one giant, glowing eye and looked around. "Remember everyone, it's a lot faster than it lets on. It will go for me. Because I am the source of your lives and immortality, you cannot be absorbed by it like it did Llerwen. But don't take stupid risks. Ready? Go!"

Pause charged forward, her actions taunting it into action. It met her charge and sent her flying towards Nanael. Nanael planted her spear and used it as an anchor, and reached up, grabbing the in flight Pause and swinging her around back into the path of the Prime Revenant. Pause tackled it, stunning it for a second. The Revenant produced a tentacle and slammed it down on Pause, removing her from the fight for two seconds. Nanael had, by this time, leaped into the air and came down like a meteor on what she assumed was the Prime Revenant's head. This pinned the creature. Art took advantage of the situation and fired at its bottom, fusing much of the lower half of the creature.

It ignored its injuries and its matter flowed around the anchors holding it down. It charged towards Xewleer, but Pause caught at it, and attempted to throw the creature. She failed, but it gave Xewleer enough time to dodge. It turned around, it's tail end knocking away a small playground. Art ran in front of Xewleer and fired at it, causing the front of the mass to congeal, and forcing it to find another route. Pause met its advance, this time from the front. It started to absorb her, attempting to suck the life out of her. "Art! Fire on me!" Art did what he was told, guessing what she was planning to do.

Now, much of the front end of the Prime Revenant was a solid scab, firmly attached to Pause's arms. "Nanael!" She put her full strength into her legs and arms, and began to toss the creature.

"PAUSE!" Nanael ran in as the Prime Revenant was gaining momentum. It was fortunately still distracted by trying to suck Pause dry. At the right time, Nanael arrived and cut Pause's arms off. This released the Revenant from its anchor, and it flew towards Xewleer, and the girl. "I've got you!" Nanael caught Pause as she collapsed, Pause had passed out already.

Xewleer threw the girl into the enemy at the last possible second. The girl and the Revenant screamed, until finally the girl stopped screaming, and the Prime Revenant began to writhe. It changed into a great black sphere after a few seconds, and slowly floated down. When the mass touched the ground, it became a waterfall, finally becoming a small pond of black goo. The girl was at the center, but she wasn't moving.

Art had picked up Pause and brought her before Xewleer. "She's took a beating, hasn't she?"

"Xewleer, I don't think this is something to joke about." Art wasn't amused by Xewleer's nonchalance, Pause still felt pain.

"Under a certain point of view. She'll heal up, and so on and so forth. And I've got a special gift for her. Some very valuable information." Xewleer pressed his hands on her head and concentrated.

"What, she's not the last of her kind after all?"

"Naw, she'll always be the last of her species. Sad fact, but she never really liked her species anyway. No, an old friend, probably the closest thing to a lover she has. Dear ol' Plue."

Art was surprised, Plue was a mysterious traveler and book writer, no one really knew much about him, except that he's published his adventures since before anyone's grandfather's grandfather's time. "Really? Well, if it's her kind of thing. Wait a minute! Tales of a Young World! That was Pause!?"

Xewleer smiled, and stood up straight, Pause was now fully healed in body, but she'd need to sleep for a long time before she'd be able to properly travel.

"Come on. We're getting out of here before Camean Police show up. Nanael, pick up Lyle and meet us at the Pocket Plane. Leave everything else."

Nanael nodded. She almost felt like picking the girl up, but she looked dead. No point to it, her real worry was Pause.

---

The Shade had kept quite still for a long time. After Xewleer and his Moderators left, he investigated the black goo that had once been the Prime Revenant. He felt very frustrated. He was supposed to have picked up his former master's body and revive him, but that was impossible. He saw the goo move and the girl sat up. She was no longer emanating her strange, soul stealing power. Well, maybe he could figure out how to reactivate it later.

"Who? You're that Shade..." She was groggy and barely alive.

"Yeah, sorry hunny, looks like I'm going to have to take over your body for a while. Don't worry, I'm not a pervert." She had already lapsed back into unconsciousness, oh well. Body stealing is easier when the target is unconscious. He figured that his best bet would be to head to the realm of the Warlord with the One Eye. People didn't ask questions there, and he could, provided he reactivated her powers, experiment on all the myriad species that had come to call the cosmopolitan country home. Also, he knew that the Warlord was an immortal, there was potential there.

---

Pause woke up in her room. She instantly felt Xewleer's presence. "I hate you."

"I know."

"I want to die."

"But you'll miss out."

"On what."

"Well..." Xewleer made a pretense of trying to remember something. "There's Plue."

"What about Plue?"

"I know where that little writer/adventurer is currently."

Pause bolted right up. "Where!?" She had a great fondness for Plue. She was recovering from a fight against fellow Immortal Kaede E. Mellow when she met Plue. She told the writer about the early world, and Plue put them into writing. She really liked that.

"Well, you want to die, why should I tell you." He was teasing her.

"I don't want to die."

"There we go! Luida's Bar, in the Domain of the Warlord with the One Eye. Better hurry!" Pause rift walked straight out, then came back.

"I FORGOT MY CLOTHES!" She kicked Xewleer out, dressed and returned to her destination.

---

Surry drove about, heading south. Poor guy was crying, he couldn't sense his sister any more. He couldn't even find her body, though her last traces brought him to a part in Opal. It made him sad. BUT! He remembered what his father said.

"Son, do you remember what I said yesterday?"

"Don't drink the pickle juice without first removing all the pickles?"

"Uh, no, that other thing, after the pickle incident."

"If something should happen to my sister, despite my best efforts, I'm to head to the Warlord with the One Eye."

"Because he owes me a debt for that job in Gabzedon, and he will repay it. You'll get a job of some kind."

"Why would I want to work for him?"

"I dunno, I just felt compelled to tell you that."

"Oh, okay!"

Preface to the sequel to Tales of a Young World.

An Immortal Collection By Plue

"Pause, the one who related to me the Tales of a Young World, visited me again. She is a collector of tales, raw, untold stories, as I am Weaver of Tales.I met her a very long time ago, and she was unchanged, even as I, the Weaver of Tales, am.

"Pause was very hurt, as she was the first time we had met. They were wounds of the soul, of trials and tribulations that only come after a long, hard journey. She wanted to talk, and I wanted to listen. And she told me TALES! Such powerful stories of the immortal struggle to preserve the foundations of our World.

"Pause, like so many servants of powerful, inscrutable beings is a collector of tales, and I am the Weaver of Tales! I have wove her tales into a wonderful book for all allies and lovers of literature to cherish and enjoy."

"LISTEN NOW TO THE FIRST TALE!"