The Kitezan side of the ‘Connington Fragment’ was as dilapidated as one could expect for a ship that had been abandoned – open – to the elements for 350 years.  Large rocks had tumbled in front of the entrance, and grassy patches of dirt covered the top, while venturing off into the distance, one couldn’t even tell it used to be a ship, save for one particular tower-like projection that had managed to escape the creeping moss of the mountains.  Still, Regulus hopped out of his war-machine to inspect a little closer first.


    There was enough of a gap for a body to fit through, but not nearly enough for his mecha.  From a waist-bound satchel he carried behind himself, he withdrew an item that resembled brass-knuckles, but with a switch on top for his thumb, the entire front of it glowed brightly in a wide, flat beam.  He barely fit himself through, but he looked around more easily then, and ventured a short ways inside.


    He approached the end of the initial, slanted, broken segment, and looked out into a proverbial metallic abyss, “…At least it hasn’t collapsed since I was here last.”


    Water dripped far off somewhere in that black expanse, creating an eerie echo.  What little Regulus could see with just his flashlight appeared to be the mangled section of an engine and whatever part of the ship it had been attached to.  The immediate drop was a collapsed section of multiple floors, where a massive rock had crashed its way through the hull and taken out every hollow deck below it, until finally coming to rest 10ft below the ledge the Magistrate stood on.  From that angle, the hole in the hull didn’t let any light in, but it was big enough for his war-machine to get through.


    There wasn’t much point scouting further though; the only way he was getting through there without climbing gear was in the mecha.


    On the Sargonian side, the pair of Knights weren’t quite there yet.  Ren flew steadily just above and beside Maeve, still wearing a look of conflicted worry on her face.  She shook her head and sighed, but then waved her hand slightly ahead of herself to open a communications link to the skiff, “Are you sure you want to come along for this, Gabe?”


    He glanced up at the top of the screen – not quite able to see Ren there, but knowing she was just out of sight – and shrugged, “Xanarken told me what you were being sent to do, and he didn’t want you to go alone.  You’ll still get to do everything you wanted…I’ll just be there as a second set of eyes to make sure you come back.”


    “…I mean no offense, but if that was the case, it probably would’ve been better for Furion to come with me instead.” She answered, “Lord Rylen was ready to send him in my place if I didn’t feel up to it, and I don’t think anyone would’ve tipped you off in that case.”


    “Probably not.”


    The curtness with which he answered that reminded Ren of how the man used to behave, and she grumbled slightly, “What exactly do you want to say to this guy that my fist in his colon won’t say loud and clear already?”


    “…That’s some imagery I didn’t need today,” He said quietly, mostly to himself, “…He made some assumptions about me as he was tearing the implants out of the back of my head.  I want to counter them, so he dies knowing the truth.”


    “Is there no way I can convince you to just tell me what those truths are and I can forward them care-of my aforementioned fist?”


    “It wouldn’t mean the same coming from someone else.” He explained, slouching a bit where he sat with one hand on the steer-stick, “I get the distinct feeling you’d rather I stay behind.”


    Ren abruptly landed on the roof of the skiff, and leaned over the roof to look upside-down into the view-field of the screen she knew was below that covered hull, “Yes!  That is a fact!”


    “I won’t get in the way though.”


    “Gabe…  There are two kinds of people in the Council.  Lovers, and fighters.  You are, by your own admission, not the latter.” She argued, “We have no idea what we’re walking into.  This place is a 350-year-old ruin.  It could be a number of things, including a death-trap.  You don’t even have armor on.  At least I can still get out if the place collapses.”


    “I’m afraid there’s more to it than just your chance at revenge.” Gabriel retorted, looking up at that inverted image of the red Fafnir on his roof, “I can’t just stay back where it’s safe.”


    Ren groaned and let go again, kicking-off to go back to her side-by-side flying, “I’m not even going to get revenge if I have to cover for you.” She muttered quietly to her muted mic.  She unmuted herself again, “…Fine, if this is what you really want to do, I won’t lock you into your own skiff.  But I can’t let the Magistrate go once we intercept.  My reputation is on the line.  If I don’t get him, it could cost me my shot at being Captain one day.”


    Gabriel could only scoff lightly at that, “What, is Furion just going to resign if you succeed?”


    “Huh?  No.  But he won’t be Captain forever either.” She replied, “Why are you so testy all of a sudden?  I’m just watching out for you.”


    He bit his lips together for a moment, feeling a sting go straight through him, but he shook his head, “What’s the relationship between you and the Captain, exactly?  Seth told me some stuff but I think he doesn’t see the whole picture.”


    Ren’s brow pinched, “Don’t change the subject.”


    “It is the subject.  You want to know why I’m testy.”


    “Are you jealous or something?”


    “I’m just a guy piecing together a puzzle that’s gradually shown its pieces over the last week or so.” He answered stiffly, “And what I’m putting together is a bit sus.”


    She glowered at the skiff through her visor, “So says the guy who refers to the Eidolon by their first names like he owes them no respect at all.  I told you I didn’t want to be called a hypocrite for having a more-casual relationship with my Captain, the same way you do with your superiors.  You’re holding it against me now, even after saying you didn’t.”


    “That would be an argument if the Eidolon hadn’t literally raised me; they’re the closest thing to family I have these days.  As for thinking you’re a hypocrite; I still don’t.  I just want some honesty.”


    “You’re being a real drag right now…”


    “So?”


    Ren snarled quietly, “…We have an intimate relationship.  Is that what you want me to say?”


    “It would make a lot of sense if it was true.  Is it?”


    “I suddenly find myself missing the guy who didn’t care about his trainees.” She muttered, arms crossed, wings flapping a few times to get her some altitude.  Gabriel didn’t respond to that comment though, and she took a moment to think.  She drew in a long breath, and exhaled slowly, “…Look, the way you see the Eidolon as your family, I view the Fafnir as mine.  I’ve been around all of them for – essentially - the entire time I’ve been a Fafnir Knight, with the only exceptions being Xandra, who’s only been there half that time, and Bianca, who’s barely out of her first year probationary period.  …It’s hard not to get close to them.”


    Gabriel listened carefully.  Every word spoken was a crucial detail…and so was every word avoided.


    “Furion is…very important to me.” She continued quietly; the mountains were starting to loom, “If you’re going to hold it against me that we’ve slept together, then…fine, that’s your prerogative.  But nine years sharing the same SkyFortress tends to cause the lines of authority to blur now and then.  We all seek comfort and kindness where we can.  Maybe you should do the same once in a while.”


    Maeve climbed a little bit as the rugged foothills on the eastern side of the mountain-range started to push the trees higher into the air, putting it nearer to Ren again.  Gabriel waited a little while before finally uttering a single word, “Thanks.”


    Another 30 minutes passed before they arrived on-site, at the buried eastern end of that ruined ship.  On the Sargonian side, more of it was visibly the remnant of a man-made structure, with the enormous circular exhaust-system towering over the skiff.  Maeve touched-down around 30ft away, on a flat-ish outcrop of rocks.


    Ren hovered several feet above the forest floor, staring into that black behemoth of metal and ruined technology, wings extended horizontally like a roof over where Gabriel finally arrived, “Hard to believe something this huge was actually airborne once.”Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Gabriel quietly held his hand up; ambient nanotech of the World Cloud coalesced over his palm, creating a spinning orb that echoed light in short beams.  After a moment, he gestured it forward, and the orb floated into that gaping maw, not exactly illuminating the area, but rather, mapping it.  Anywhere the light touched, a solid structure was coded, and to Gabriel’s eyes, he was starting to see what their path looked like.  He raised his hand up again after that, creating a data-nodule, “Take it.  You’ll be able to see inside.”


    “When did you get a cartography algorithm?” She asked, floating down far enough to accept the link.


    “Around two hours ago.” He answered, and started walking in, “From my dad.”


    “…Oh.”


    Gabriel’s eyes were covered over with a green haze as he stepped further into that lightless space, and to his sights, his overlay started to show the fruits of that cartography algorithm’s findings…as well as the beginnings of a recommended path through, “There’s gonna be choke-points.  I hope you’re not claustrophobic.”


    “I hope that was projection.” She puffed unseriously, and descended to walk behind him.  She cut-away the wing visuals and watched as her own overlay showed the same thing her mentor saw.  Before he could get too far ahead of her though, she lifted-off with one final boost-assisted hovering jump, and landed in front of their first narrow passageway.  It was a rough and ragged tear through the metal at the back of the ‘cup’ that formed the exhaust-system, and the entire section had been crushed inward.  She stuck her head through the hole, and looked around, seeing the long drop to where the ground had come up under the hull, “Hope you brought a rope.” She mused, and dipped through, hovering in an open space between the throat of the exhaust, and the exterior of the ship.


    Gabriel stuck his head through next to behold the space, “Mmh…sadly, no.”


    “Good thing you have a flier with you then.” She answered, and offered her leg and a hand-hold, “Come along.  I’ll float you down.”


    There was a brief gawp of skepticism as he looked at the offered appendage, “…Your left arm?”


    “My armor is an exoskeleton.  My real arm may be, as I’ve recently heard described, cream filling, but the shell is quite sturdy.  I could hold ten of you before worrying I might drop one.” She explained, and nudged her arm forward again.


    In a leap of faith, Gabriel stepped on that offered foot, and grasped the arm; just as Ren said she would, she slowly glided down to a smooth stop.  Once steady on his own feet again, Gabriel looked up and around at the carnage of the engine; the ravaged fuel lines, the ruptured tanks, and further in, the annihilated reactor that powered the whole thing.


    “Amazing that this all predated the Council’s anti-gravity drives,” Ren commented, “Now-a-days we just ignore the laws of physics.  Back then, they had to fight against them.  How would something like this have ever gotten off the ground?”


    “It was built in orbit.” Gabriel answered simply.


    “…Oh.  Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”


    “This space will take us halfway to the target.  Let’s get on with it.”


    Ren hesitated where she stood, “…It’s him.”


    “Huh?”


    “The mapper.  It just…mapped the Magistrate’s mech.” She explained, seeing the very image of that four-armed monster being plotted as though it was a part of the architecture.  She felt a rush of adrenaline go through her, and immediately took off.


    “Wha?  Ren!  Wait!”


    “You’ll be safer back here!” She called back, voice fading into the hollow space of the ruined engine bloc.


    “Ahhhh shit!” He grumbled, and started running.  He could see the glow of the Fafnir’s blades coming to life, only to vanish again as Ren ducked through to the next compartment; the engineering decks.


    Centuries of debris, trash, dust, and - to Ren’s surprise – bones, littered the first room she went through.  She didn’t wait long to look around though, and quickly passed by, following the path that most-quickly linked where she was to where she was going.  Her heart pounded – raced – and she felt her grip tighten around the blade-holds.  She took a stance; left blade forward, and right high, pointed straight ahead.


    He’s right ahead…  He’s right there!  I’ll strike hard and finish this in the first blow!


    But there was nothing.  The widened hall was empty.  The map showed her directly inside the charted image of that sinister weapon…and it just wasn’t there.  She looked back the way she’d come; all she saw to prove anyone had been there was the long streak of her own foot-drags on the ground as she’d come sliding in for the kill.


    She grit her teeth, Not good…  Where the Hell did he go?  She stayed quiet, weapons ready, but she felt a tingle down her spine, like someone was watching her.  The map could no longer be counted on; she needed to see in real time, “Wing optics on.” She whispered, not having a hand free to use a gesture for the same function.  Those volcanic red wings flashed on – long, finger-like feathers spread out wide - and with their glow, the surrounding 20ft of the corridor were suddenly bathed in a dull warm haze, as if a flare had been dropped at her feet.  Still nothing, though.  Wherever the mecha had gone, it had done so as quietly as a ghost.


    With careful steps, she moved forward; every shadow that moved with her threatened to offer cover.  She could hear her own blood rushing in her head, and her careful breaths.  She knew that no one outside could hear it themselves, but that didn’t stop the anxiety of it anyway.


    A loud bang made her jump, and she darted, kicking off the wall and ceiling to get back the way she’d come from…and towards the sound of the noise.  When she realized it was just Gabriel failing to climb the walls unaided, she growled, This was such a stupid idea!  Why would Lord Xanarken risk us both just so Gabriel can get the last word in!?


    The distraction meant she didn’t see the looming image of that flat, elongated head where it followed her, itself sitting in a perpendicular corridor.  She was right in front of it, with the unfortunate fact of her back to it, and didn’t see the grasping claws of the small-arms ready for her.


    Gabriel heard it though.  He could feel it in the metal underfoot, shuddering even as far away as he still was.  With considerable effort, he struggled his way up a mangled ladder, which – so far as he could tell – was originally supposed to face a different direction, and perhaps would’ve only been safe to use in the first place if one had done so in zero-gravity.  More cashing and rumbling; it felt like the whole ship-fragment could be dislodged.


    Regulus might’ve had claws on Ren, but she bucked in that grip like a wild animal, dragging the entire war-machine through those halls and banging it against every hard surface.  Unable to get her blades to cut through those smaller arms, she knew the clock was ticking on when the big ones would come into play, and keeping them out of the way was her primary goal.  And so far, her thrashing was doing just as intended; disorienting the mech’s pilot too much to get habituated and launch a counter-attack.  Still, the moment she stopped, and he had a second to figure out what direction he was facing, both larger top-mounted arms swung around.


    Ren wouldn’t fall for it though.  As soon as she saw that growing glow in those ‘palms,’ she fortified her stance and pushed forward – hard.  Like a battering-ram, she pummeled the front of the mech’s chest, and with the second thrust, drove both blades up into its ‘neck.’  Huge red wings flailed, then flapped down with purpose, and she leveraged the entire thing until it went ass-down and head-up…and up, and over itself, falling onto its back.  The corridor shook and rang-out, and Ren finally twisted free.  She had seconds; once she had a grip on the floor, she flipped her blades to face forward like a spear, and launched forward again.


    Regulus had only been able to flip halfway back to right-side-up when those plasma-swords impaled through the front of his ship.  They hadn’t been able to get all the way to him though, and he grunted as Ren kept him still, “…What’s a Fafnir Knight doing all the way out here?” He asked, voice booming through that hall.


    With a grunt, Ren pushed forward again, shoving the whole machine back several feet in the process, “Getting even.”


    “Oho!  I recognize that grit…could it truly be?” The Magistrate answered, and with newfound vigor, flung the big arms forward, and forced Ren to jump back to avoid getting hit.  With the inertia, he was able to right the machine, and loomed over her in a defensive stance, “But how in the world could we have possibly encountered one another under these circumstances?  Could it be that we’re both here for the same reason?”


    “I seriously doubt that.” She barreled forward again, blades at the ready to swing in a wide arc.


    Regulus was ready though; the smaller arms deflected every blow, redirecting them without ever letting a single strike find their mark.  Soon enough, the larger limbs joined the fray, swinging down like hammer-blows to block her way and push her back.  Those plasma-blades left score-marks in that thick metal, but couldn’t cut through.


    And Ren knew exactly why; she’d left her mentor behind, and now she had no idea where he was.  The corridor was taking more damage than the war-machine was, and neither were making any headway.  Ren backed off a bit and had both swords up, the white edges glowing in contrast to the eerie red hue from her wings, How do I finish this?  I can’t get through his armor when I’m only fighting at 50%…  Anything that’s blue is solid metal, and the neck is too far away from the cockpit to reach him inside…  If I push too hard, this place will crumble…


    “Back down, Judge.” Gabriel’s voice suddenly echoed, and that flat elongated head perked up a little to look beyond its Fafnir opponent.


    “What’s this?”


    Ren leapt backward, never letting her guard down, until she was sure she was close enough to the source of the voice that she could look.  What she saw made her eyes go wide.


    Not only did Gabriel have Aamin in his custody…but was holding him in thrall with the threat of his Limitless ability.  Eyes glowed eerily bright in that dark hall, and hair lifted, held down only by the tie behind his shoulders.  One hand held tightly to the back of Aamin’s neck as he yanked the Prince out from a dilapidated utility-room, near to where Regulus’ mecha had ambushed Ren earlier on.  The other was flat to the man’s shoulder-blades, “Back off.” He warned again, “I know why you’re here.  You won’t be leaving with him.”


    “And you will be?”


    “That or I kill him.”


    Regulus hummed an amused breath to himself, “You won’t do it.  Your slavish need to absorb Sargon into the Hadiran Accord will stop you dead to rights.”


    “Gabriel what the Hell are you doing?  How did you even find that guy?” Ren whispered, keeping her sights on the mecha barely-seen in that dark hall.


    “He’s the ultimate reason I’m here.  Do whatever you want to the Magistrate…but whether Aamin lives or dies is up to me today.”


    “You know I can’t do that when you’re here.  You’re too close.” She retorted, “This place is too fragile to fight the way I want.”


    “What do you need to win?”


    “Space.  Solitude.”


    “I can only give you one of those.  Stall him for two minutes and I’ll get clear.”


    Aamin wouldn’t leave that unchallenged, “He’s going to try to leave!  Don’t let him take me!”


    Gabriel bashed the burned Prince up against a wall, “He may be right about me not actually killing you, but no one ever said anything about bringing you back with all your parts.”