To see Ren coming towards him – now as a known (even if former) Fafnir Knight Wing-Commander, rather than just a wee mediator trainee – was quite the shift.  Gabriel felt compelled to rise up from his seat in the grass, and dusted himself off, as she got within speaking-distance.


    “Are you done?” She asked pointedly.


    “Done what?” Judge Mallerd wondered, “We weren’t doing anything important.”


    “She means me.” The mediator corrected, “And the answer is no.”


    “Well then you can mope while you’re helping.  You said that’s what you were here to do, if needed.” She explained, and turned again to go the other way, though this time towards the rift.


    Gabriel drew in a sharp breath, “That thing makes me uneasy.”


    “It makes everyone uneasy,” Gavin replied with a skeptical smile, “It’s like it’s watching us.  …Well, go on then…the sooner you help, the sooner Seth can pack things in.”


    “Silver linings.” Gabriel agreed, and squished his hat down a little firmer on his head as he started walking forward.


    The closer he got, the more unnerved the man became.  He bent his path around the thing so he could keep as much distance as he could without looking too-obviously bothered; the others were at least willing to meet him half-way, even if their eventual meeting was far less than what he expected.


    Seth was practically bouncing where he stood, itching to speak but worried he wasn’t allowed.  When Ren saw it, she half-rolled her eyes, and gestured from her mentor to the cadet, “Gabriel, this is Seth.  Seth, Gabriel.”


    “It’s such an honor to meet you.” The teen spoke so fast, the words nearly blended together into a single thing.  He hopped forward another step closer, and thrust his hand out, “Mr. Sir Gabriel Lugios, sir!”


    Gabe could only look for a moment in stunned confusion, No one’s ever been this excited to meet me.  What’s with this kid?  His sights glanced up slightly to get a better look at Ianori behind the cadet, but he looked away before it became too awkward that he hadn’t reached back, and took Seth’s hand to give it one shake, “Pleasure.  …So, what am I supposed to help with, exactly?”


    Seth’s eyes practically sparkled, and he stepped around to get a bit closer to the rift, “Oh!  I was telling Miss Ren about my theories about these void gates…and I’m certain there’s a connection between them and the Limitless affliction, like what you have.  I was hoping an afflicted person could help me run some tests…  If you’re willing, I mean!  You don’t have to if you don’t want to!  I know you probably have a timetable to follow!”


    Gabriel watched the teen with interest, but then turned his sights towards the gate, and shrugged, “…I mean, what could it hurt to take a few more minutes.”


    The teen couldn’t contain his excitement, and quickly hustled to put his glasses back on.  With a few gestures, he summoned his data-panels closer to himself, and loaded up a few new windows on them.  One window was recording video of the scene, and Seth locked the sights of it onto Gabriel, so it would follow anywhere he went and capture everything he did or said.


    Ren stepped off to join Ianori at the peripheries, and was content to just watch for a little while.  With arms crossed, she shifted her weight to one foot, “So, what do you think?  What a specimen, right?” She asked, somewhat dryly.


    Ianori puffed, “You sound so impressed.  Did the reality not match the dream?”


    She sighed, “In the beginning, I just thought he was kind of cocky…  No big deal; he’s a high-ranking guy with a somewhat-infamous history, so he’s probably got a big head about it.  Nothing I can’t deal with.”


    “But?”


    “…But he never quit.” She answered, and lifted one hand towards the ‘High Mediator’ ahead of them, “The times where he acted kind of normal were so few and far between, I wondered if he even knew he was capable.  He talks to the Eidolon on a first-name basis, for crying out loud!  My ears are still ringing from the first time I heard it.”


    “Yeah, that does sound a little sus.  Everyone always gives them the respect of their titles; it’s almost like their names don’t make sense without them.”


    “That’s exactly it!” Ren twisted and pointed at the man, “You get it!”


    Ianori gave her a skeptical look, and hesitated to speak again for a moment.  But, he shook his head, and turned to face her directly, “How are you really doing, Commander?” He asked suddenly, catching her off-guard, “The circumstances of your sudden withdrawal from the Fafnir are still making our heads spin.  One day you were there – the life of the party, so to speak – and the next, you were just gone.  There’s a gaping hole in the team that nothing will fill.  Every day goes by and we all still feel like you’re just going to show up again, like you were just on extended leave…but then you never do, and we have to remember that you’re really gone all over again.”


    Ren lowered her head, “…I’m…sorry.”


    Memories of that day flowed through her like a blazing wind, scorching and unrelenting, but only in scattered fragments.  She remembered the bodies – too many of them – but the thing that really stuck out was the debriefing between her Eidolon – who she remembered clearly – and her Captain – who seemed like a stranger - after the fact.  The sound of the recording of what she said played overhead in that lonely room, as the footage of her last mission played before them.


    “I can’t do this!” She’s cried out, “They’re just kids!  Stupid, stupid kids!  They don’t know what they’re doing!”


    “It’s not our place to be judge and jury, Dame Ren.” The Captain’s voice answered through their comm.-system, “We are merely the executioners.”


    “I’m coming back to the Aegis…  Lord Rylen can take another look at this; it’s not right, what he’s asking us to do out here…  What-…wait, no, what are you doing!?”  She struggled against movements that weren’t her own, “FURION, STOP IT!  LET ME…GO!!”


    Ren shook her head to get the images and sounds out of her mind, but the memory of her pleading screams continued – ignored – until the deed was done, and she pinched the bridge of her nose, “I don’t want to think about it…”


    Ianori didn’t need to be told twice, “Sorry…” He supposed he could ask about other things instead then, “So what about him, then?” He nudged his head out towards the senior mediator, “His first experience with the Fafnir wasn’t the greatest.  Finding out you were one must’ve made him do a bit of a double-take.”


    “…He actually doesn’t know.” Ren explained, with a disbelieving tone in her voice, “I’m not sure if it was Lord Rylen’s idea or Lord Xanarken’s, but Gabriel wasn’t even allowed access my file for the first month after I was partnered with him.  Maybe it was their idea of smoothing things over…to let him get to know me as a person first, before he found out what I was, but…in the end, he just never read it at all.”


    “Poor form.”


    “On that, we are of the same mind.”


    “You could tell him.”


    “And risk screwing up this otherwise beautiful relationship?” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, “Perish the thought.”


    “Oh no, did he pick a fight with you?”


    “No, he just…doesn’t do anything at all.”


    Ianori could feel the unhappiness in her voice, and dared to broach the possibility, “You could always ask to come back.”Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    “What?  No way.”


    “No, I’m serious.” He pressed, and put a hand on her nearest shoulder for emphasis, “Everyone’s been treating this transfer like it was some joke.  That you’d blow off whatever steam you had about that last mission and then come back.  Even the Captain believes it…that’s why he won’t let anyone touch your post…”


    She looked away again, this time at the ground, and the weird patterns of dead grass that ran across it, “…He needs to let me go.”


    “Then you’re going to have to do something to get what you need from that guy,” Ianori gestured out at Gabriel, “Because it sounds to me like you put all your hopes in him, and he’s profoundly let you down.”


    Ren had nothing to say to that; that truth hurt more when it was spoken out loud by someone outside her own head.


    “…The Fafnir Knights are more than just a combat unit.  We’re a family.  We all want to be there for you, to support you, and offer the soft landing when you come crashing back.  But we can’t…if you choose to stay away.”


    With a sigh, Ren put her own hand to the back of the one still gently clasping her shoulder, and softly nudged it off, “…I’ll be fine.  I…just need to figure out how to get on a level with him.” She said, and turned to take a step away.  With nothing more to say on the matter, Ren went to check on Seth instead, and looked over his shoulder to the data panels he was watching, “Any new insights?”


    “For the moment, I’m just confirming a baseline.  Seems like his perception of the rift is the same as ours.” He answered, but then switched his data-sets over and labeled it ‘Limitless active.’  He looked over and around the panel, “Mr. Gabriel, if you would, activate your affliction and tell me if anything changes.”


    Gabriel hesitated for a moment, “…Hold on.” He started, and both figures watched him quizzically, “…Don’t you hear it?”


    “Hear what?” They both asked.


    “You don’t hear it whispering?” He turned to look back at them over his shoulder…his eyes already alite with that Limitless golden glow, “It’s getting louder.”


    Seth looked to Ren, then back again, “It sounds the same as it always has, sir.  What’s it whispering?  Did it start before or after you switched it on?”


    “Switched it on?” He echoed, “I didn’t-  …Oh, I feel it now.” Gabriel shook his head and hard-blinked a few times, then grabbed the end of his braid as he felt it starting to rise up behind him, “For the record, I didn’t do that myself…”  When he looked back at the rift though, there was something new that he saw; beyond it, high in the sky…a gargantuan vortex of shimmering light.  Gold coalesced with blue and purple, sparkling against the sky, directly above the north-western horizon, and the Exclusion Zone beneath it, “Seth…?”


    “Yessir?”


    “What the Hell is that?” Gabriel pointed at the proverbial slow-moving cyclone.


    “…A cloud?”


    “You can’t see it…  You can’t hear it…” He grumbled in nervous frustration, and felt his eyes drawn back towards the scar.  The whispers were getting louder – pleading, insistent…begging – and he could feel it calling him closer.  It was like a crowd of people all murmuring to one another, voices indiscernible, distilled to the sound of hisses and gasps.


    Then it all went quiet.


    Gabriel felt himself on the edge of oblivion; everything felt black, and all he could see were the tendrils of light that floated out of his own eyes like auroras.  Before he knew it, he was in a world of hurt, and he went from being on his feet to being thrown onto the hard, rocky ground.  An indescribably-loud roar filled the area – burring down into his very core – ripping, tearing, and gnashing at him like it was trying to eat him alive.


    Ren had yanked Seth all the way back to the tree, but Ianori had rushed forward instead, leaping to the mediator’s aid before the worst could happen.  The rift seemed to be overflowing – vomiting its own essence out like tongues of molten steel.  It splashed to the ground with a grotesque belch, and to discerning eyes, those vines of solid-fog started to reach out.  Smaller off-shoots sprung forward like fingers – probing and seeking, then turning, sensing the preternatural power that lingered behind those unwillingly-glowing eyes.  The whispers became like urgent screams – insistent, demanding – and the mass made clear what it wanted.  Gabriel tried to reorient himself, but his proximity to the rift disoriented him…and having been shoved out of the way by a line-backer’s tackle didn’t help either.


    Ianori grounded himself and took one good look at the heaping, oozing pile of ichor, and turned to grab Gabriel and make a break for it…but suddenly found himself unable to do so.  Somehow, the mass had snapped forward and latched to his left ankle; those fingers groped relentlessly, and pulled itself further up his leg with unnatural speed.  It was like it knew it had something in its grasp, and lost control of its previously-patient ‘seeking’ behavior.


    The screams were now loud enough to be heard even by the non-gifted.  Seth’s eyes drifted from the horror of the entire scene, to the way his data-panels were warping and shifting chaotically in the presence of the ‘creature.’  The nanotech dissolved in places and reformed in others, rippling like sand on a Chladni plate.  Not wanting to lose everything he’d gained, Seth pried himself out of Ren’s grip and ran for the containment-spheres under one of the nearby tables.  Ren quickly chased after him; she didn’t have to guess why he’d taken off, and put herself between him and the twisting gateway.  The panels dissolved entirely, and the disintegrated dust-cloud quickly coalesced and went into the pod.  When the light on top turned green, Seth looked to his friend, “We have to get out of here!”


    “Run for the car!  I’m gonna get the others!”


    Seth knew better than to argue, and he grabbed the sphere and made a break for it.  Judge Mallerd had taken cover behind the vehicle, and lifted his head as soon as he heard Seth come around to pull him out of his fear, “Mr. Gavin, we have to go!  Start the car!”


    “R-right…!”


    Ren weaved and dodged as she made her way across that scorched ground; her first priority was getting her mentor further away, since he couldn’t get away on his own.  Tendrils of that freakish miasma flapped around aimlessly as they sought-for and stuck to the trapped Fafnir’s frame, “Hold on, Ianori!”


    “It’s…fine…” He struggled; he snapped his arm to the right and freed it, only for that sentient liquid to snatch it back again with ferocity.


    Ren made it to where Gabriel had landed, and grabbed his shoulder with both hands to shake him to lucidity, “You have to get up and run!  Get to the car!”


    “It’s…calling… I have…to…”


    It was no use; Ren quickly pulled the man’s arm over her shoulder and hoisted him up like he was no heavier than a child.  Two quick leaps and she had put enough distance between them and the rift to make a run for it.  The car was on and turning ahead of her, and Seth pushed the side-door open just as she arrived.  He ducked just in time for Ren to shove Gabriel into the middle row of seats, then took off again.


    Ianori was struggling with his last gasp; the mass had smothered every part of him except his forearms and right leg.  It pulled on him, hard, and just as Ren was within arm’s reach…he was gone.  The gate had completely swallowed him.  There was nothing left but a small, basketball-sized swarm of wispy fog where the rift had spawned.


    Ren could feel the air get colder around it, and with a grunt she jumped back again to put some space, “Ianori!!” She yelled out, “IANORI!!”


    “He’s…gone…?” Seth gasped, looking out through that still-open door.  He looked back to Gabriel as the man groaned with awareness; eyes were still glowing with that eerie light, and Seth noticed the way the end of that braided hair was trying to float up from behind where Gabriel had pinned the rest of it down.


    Gabriel shook his head though, and the glow faded away; he sat forward and pulled a hand over his face, “My head is killing me…”  The hovering length of braid collapsed to the car-seat.


    “Ianorriiiii!!” Ren’s voice called out again.  She could feel a frantic tingle go down her spine, “Shit…shit, shit…!  What the Hell was that?  What did it do to him!?”


    The orb grumbled and croaked, flashing slightly in its core like bottled lightning.  Then…it cracked.  The rift tore open all over again, shooting a bolt into the sky with a whistling scream, and spewed-forth a massive glob of unrecognizable flesh.  It oozed out of that gaping maw, leaving it to fall to the rocks and dead grass with a squishy, wet thud.


    Ren looked at it with horror and trepidation; the void gate closed-in on itself immediately after, and vanished with the most pitiful fizzling gasp.  What it left behind was anything-but.  She approached cautiously and crouched down beside it, starting to recognize the dimension and direction of limbs, “…Ianori…!”


    Seth turned to the Magistrate, “Sir, we have to get over there!”


    Reckless fingers ripped at the mess before her, but Ren had no time to think.  The ‘skin’ of it peeled away like thick spiderwebs, and soon-enough, she found what looked like the clothes of her former comrade.  That all changed when she got to where she knew the bare skin of his hands should’ve been, and in its place was a discolored, bruise-like oily residue.  Uncovering further, Ren found that same oily detritus creeping up Ianori’s neck, until it spread like veins under the surface of that now-pale-white skin.  Hair that had once been dark was now a shock of white, and sticky tendrils of that greasy-looking liquid combed through it, rising up from the back of the catatonic man’s neck and head as it made its way further up.


    Gavin crept forward with their vehicle, but was wary of getting too much closer than he already was.  Seth craned his neck to see what was going on past Ren’s back.  Gabriel fell forward against the side of the seat, and grabbed at the open door-panel so he wouldn’t fall out, “Ren…I think we gotta go…!”


    With a start, Ianori started coughing and gasping, and when he finally had enough air in his lungs to speak, only one word – one sound – came out of him.


    “…Scyr…exian…”


    Ren echoed it in a hushed voice as she brushed the wet hair from her friend’s darkened, closed eyes, “Sai-re-shi-an…?  What does that mean…?”


    “…Scyrexian…?” Gabriel said as well, and his tone changed, “That’s what the gate was whispering before it blew…”


    Gavin looked around through the various windows of the vehicle, “We can’t stay here.  That thing sent a signal visible to everyone within a hundred miles of this place…  I have no doubt someone is going to come inquiring about it, sooner rather than later.”


    “We have to get him in the car and take him back with us!” Ren barked, “I’m not leaving him here like this!”


    “We’re not leaving anyone behind…” Gabriel retorted, and slid a foot out to press it firmly to the ground.  Ren was already up though, and had Ianori in her arms.  With wide eyes, Gabriel simply shimmied back inside the car to make room, “…Ah…yeah, let’s get him in and get going.”