The waters off the coast of Oceanside were choppy and rough as the Duchy’s flagship traveled above.  A large storm had come through from further west, and it was all rather nerve-wracking for the mild-hearted Duke Mardu.


    “Don’t worry, dearest,” Far’nah tried to reassure, looking out the windows by her own seat, “Where we’re going isn’t floating on the water.”


    “Where are we going?  And why in such dismal conditions?”


    “I’ve wanted to show you something for some time, but was never really sure when or how to do it.” She explained vaguely, “But I feel that the time has come to show you why I’m so confident about our prospects against the Council.  To allay your worries that things are getting tense.”


    “And that something is out in the middle of the open ocean?”


    “Only 23 miles out.” She corrected, “We should be able to see it soon.”


    What came into view shortly after, even through the whipping winds and rain, was a standing platform the size of a city block, and had buildings atop as well.  It stood like a small castle, with a wide courtyard for the flagship to land on.  An entourage went out to meet them, bringing with them a mobile shelter, and sallied it up directly against the ship’s rear doors.


    “Welcome, your Grace.” A woman at the head of the procession said, and gave a bow with an arm across her chest, “If you like, we can go right away.”


    “Yes, let’s.” She nodded, and she – as well as Mardu, and a meager number of Magistrates who’d come with them – stepped out onto the platform.  FlexiGlas walls prevented the gales from coming at them, but the open front let in a thin mist.  With everyone accounted for, they each took a hand-hold into their grips, and held on as the lightly-hovering gondola-like stage began to move forward.  Its three segments slithered forward like a toy-snake, and stopped only when it was centered over an area marked-off by yellow warning-paint.  All around that circular perimeter, warning lights flashed, and it began to descend.  Concrete and steel surrounds changed as the massive elevator-shaft lowered, switching to thick, transparent paneling.  Writhing waters hammered against it as they descended past the surface, and the rush quieted to a low, droning purr, vanishing altogether as the chute entered the black abyss.


    “…I can’t even begin to wonder what you’re keeping down here.” Mardu said warily, nervously watching fish come up from below, and vanish above them, as they continued that long trek down.


    “You’ll see shortly.” Far’nah beamed.  She glanced back at the gathered, “You’ll want to be facing this way, though.”  Eyes looked to her skeptically, and the FlexiGlas walls receded.  She turned her gaze upward, “Cut the lights.  It’ll be easier to see that way.”


    The chute’s illumination shut off as well, and submerged them into near-total darkness.  What they could see – coming up from the depths, some ways out – initially looked like a cliff-side.  A fault-line, perhaps, that had risen to prominence on the sandy ocean floor.  But as it came closer, it started to look…smoother than rock.  Spotlights shone on it, and the behemoth sight came better into view as the elevator lowered down past the rim.


    Mardu was the first to realize what it was, “…That’s…a colony ship.”


    “That is the SSCF Tuonela.” Far’nah clarified, and turned around to present it to the group; besides Mardu, there were four Magistrates, all diehard supporters and eager to see the project – Tallus was not among them, “And we have been painstakingly refurbishing it for the last 17 years.”


    “…If it’s been here this whole time, that must have been a massive undertaking.”


    “It wasn’t quite as bad as you think, dear.” She lifted her arms up proudly, “This ship was designed to traverse the endless vacuum of space.  Crashing into the water was the worst it endured.  After all those years…it’s perfectly serviceable.”


    “But all the way down here?  At the bottom of the ocean?  How did you even…?” Mardu was mystified, staring up at the face of the ship; even with the spotlights, it was all they could see at that depth, “What about the passengers and cargo?  The crew?”


    “…They’re all still here.” She answered, almost too easily, “Unmoved, untouched.”


    Mardu looked on skeptically, “…Why?  How?”


    “Just come aboard.  You’ll find out everything.” She held her hand out towards him, “You won’t be disappointed.  Come…and see for yourself why you have nothing to fear.”


    The elevator finally came to a stop, and a new tunnel opened before them, heading forward across the sandy bottom, and straight up to the ship.


    .


    With a few hours having passed, and one particular teenager being left dejected by the realization that literally everyone he knew was busy, Ren glanced over at the sleeping figure of her mentor.  Arms were wrapped around one of the couch-cushions, face buried into the underside of it, blanket overtop; it was the first real sleep he’d had in several weeks.  Not wanting to bother him, but also desperately needing a drink, she carefully lifted herself up from the couch, wary not to make too much of a jostle in so doing.


    There wasn’t too much of a difference between her own room and a lower officer’s quarters – at least in the kitchen area – but since it was a borrowed space, there wasn’t much in it beyond the barebones staples.  She tapped her chin with a finger as she beheld a fridge that only had water-bottles in it, “…I could request service…  Not much point stocking-up if we’re going to land back in Trazad soon.”


    “…What are you looking for?” Gabriel’s voice abruptly asked.


    Ren lifted her head, and shut the fridge, “Oh, you’re awake.  Was I that loud just now?”


    “No…” He answered, head popped-up from where he’d wedged it under the pillow, looking around blearily before he finally pushed himself up onto an elbow and rubbed his eyes, “I think I was ready anyway…”


    “You’re probably famished.  There’s nothing in this place.” She commented, and came back around to the main room, “I was just about to order something in when you spoke-up.”


    Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose, and shook his head, “I think I’d rather take a walk…”


    With nowhere in particular to go, but a massive headache to manage, Ren dragged her hapless mentor towards the mess hall; coffee was on order.  She offered the second cup to him, since he kept his distance from the public concourse, and looked on at him skeptically, “…You sure you slept?  The bags under your eyes could carry water.”


    “I feel like I’m in limbo.” He answered, and blew through the small hole in the lid before taking a sip, “How do you describe getting the wind knocked out of you, but it’s…not just physically disorienting.”


    “You’re no the only one who took a hit back there, Gabe.  Maybe you should talk to the Myrmidon who were with you?” Ren suggested, “They went down and woke up at the same time as you.”


    “Pass…” He grumbled, and turned to start walking without aim.


    Ren made a face at him, but moved to catch up, holding her own cup with both hands, “Why though?  You shared the same experience.  Maybe you can make sense of it if you get another perspective.”


    “I’m not looking for perspective.” Gabriel answered, “I don’t think they have it anyway.”


    “…That’s grim.” She shook her head, “Well, if you have no particular destination in mind at the moment, then maybe we can go keep Seth company.  He’s been camped outside the briefing room for hours.”


    “Why there?”


    “Members of the team who fought and fell to the Magi are in a forward-briefing to review what went wrong, and figure out what could have been done better.” She answered, and stepped up beside the man with a few fingers gently on one arm, “Which basically means that everyone except Annashi and I is in there.”


    “I know why Annashi wouldn’t be, but…why not you?  And what do you mean, fell to the Magi?”


    “I’m the one who finished the fight.” She answered, and nudged her head towards the elevators as she started to step forward, “After you dropped, the warp core opened, and we found the three Warp Magi that we expected to find.  One was long-dead, practically mummified…the other two were fused together, with the same kind of screwy biological carapace-like armor that Ianori was developing on our way out of Kitez.  We have every reason to believe it’s for the same reason; a rift opened in that engine, and it corrupted two of the bodies inside.  We just…have no idea how long ago it happened.”


    The elevator opened, and the pair stepped in, with Ren clicking the button for a higher deck.


    “The difference between what it did to Ianori in the span of time between getting spat out of the rift, and the Magistrate catching-up to us…and what I later saw of what he did inside the Magistrate’s ship…” She continued, “Ianori couldn’t do what those Magi did.  The extent of the transformation…the abilities it had…the things I saw squirming beneath the surface of its skin…” She shuddered slightly, “Maybe that’s just the difference between two hours and two weeks.  Or the better part of four centuries.”The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    “I see…  Xanarken was a bit more sparing with those details.”


    “What’d he tell you?”


    “When I was out, I felt a presence.  Xanarken said that presence came out of the core…said my name…spoke aloud as if talking to someone who wasn’t there.” He explained, and the elevator opened again on a new floor, “That’s why I don’t think there’s any sense talking to the Myrmidon.  It didn’t want them.  Whoever it was talking to…they wanted me.”


    “Do you have any idea why?”


    “Not in the least.” He said, and spotted their wayward third not much further ahead.


    “And there’s no chance that the presence you felt said anything to you, like it did to us?”


    Seth perked up when he spotted the red out the corner of his eye, and quickly came running their way, “Miss Ren!  Mr. Gabriel!”


    “They’re still not out?” Ren was surprised, and let the teen use her as a stopping-block as he collided with her in a hug, “It’s been half a day already.”


    “I’m not sure what the hold-up is…  I guess it was serious…”


    “I mean, it was, but…” She answered, then pet the teen’s arm and pulled back, “Hang on, I’ll sneak in and figure out what’s going on.” She suggested, and tip-toed up to the door.  After a moment of consideration, she looked back at the mediator and pointed to her right, “You should be over here, and just wait.”


    “Eh?”


    She was already through the door before an answer could come, and Gabriel shook his head, and stepped over to where she’d pointed.


    Seth inched closer with every minute that nothing happened, until he was practically up against the door all over again.  Just as he was about to put his ear to the panel, it abruptly slid aside, and the Fafnir who’d been trapped within came flying out with a rather particular haste.  The lights hadn’t even come on yet when half of them had already scattered to the wind, fleeing lest they be called back on second thought.


    Gabriel stepped closer to help lift the teen back upright, “Stand your ground, kid.  When you’re a full Knight, cowering won’t be an option.”


    “…I wasn’t cowering…” The teen puffed, “…Okay maybe a little bit.”


    Within, Ren looked rather proud of herself, and Furion – exhausted as he was – was slouched over a podium at the front of the room.  She tilted her head at Seth’s entrance, “Seems they needed saving a second time.” She mused, carefully noting that Gabriel was nowhere in sight.


    “I thought it would never end…” Furion mumbled into his crossed arms, savoring the feeling of the woman’s hands petting through his hair.  He looked up after a moment, spying her there ahead of him, “After all that, we still couldn’t figure out what anyone could’ve done…differently…?”


    “What?” Ren smiled innocently, and crossed her own arms across the front of the podium, putting her nearly nose-to-nose with the Captain, “You got quiet all of a sudden.”


    Those teal eyes looked aside to the colors going over her shoulders, then back again, “I couldn’t tell you were in red in the dark.”


    “I am dual-committed.” She reminded, “For a little while longer, anyway.  Now, I believe your brother has been rather patiently waiting for you.”


    Seth’s eyes lit up with desperation, and he clasped his hands together in front of his chin, “Please, I’m begging.”


    Furion sighed and pushed himself up, stretching his arms forward to shake the stiffness out, “Alright, alright…  That meeting with Lord Rylen must’ve really unsettled you if you’re willing to wait that whole time.” He stepped out from behind that lonely lectern and reached his right hand behind his partner’s waist to pull her close, and leaned in to set a kiss to the side of her neck, “You coming?”


    “Not yet.  I’m working on something.  I just came to save the two of you from yourselves.” She answered as she slid her half-empty coffee cup into the Captain’s hands, and gestured towards the door as she started to walk towards it.  Once she was out though, she made a wide turn to the right, and shooed the two Rydells towards the elevators after the rest of the Fafnir, “I’ll catch up later tonight.  You two have fun.  It’s been a long day.”


    Furion barely had time to watch her go as she stalled in one spot to wave them off, and Seth demanded his attention right away.  It was only when they were finally at the elevator bay that he was able to look back down the hall and spotted Ren walking the opposite direction with a different man.  Furion sucked in a breath and shook his head, “…Sneaky.  What are you up to, Ren?”


    She glanced back over her shoulder just as Seth shoved his older brother through the doors.


    “So, all that was just to give Seth someone to talk to?” Gabriel wondered, “Had me worried there for a minute.”


    Ren nodded, “They’re very close.  Seth was brought into the world in an awkward time where both Furion and their father were Fafnir together, before Furion became Captain himself.  As a result, Seth spent a lot of time on the Aegis between deployments.  To say that he’s like the little brother to everyone on the team would be an understatement…”


    “Is that how you met him?”


    “Yeah.” She looked over and smiled, hands loosely held behind her back, “I think he was like…10 at the time.  I was still pretty new here at the time, and I actually thought he was Furion’s kid at first, but…not so.”


    “Is that relief I hear in your voice?”


    Ren scoffed teasingly, and put a hand against her chest, “I’m clutching my pearls.”


    “Nice dodge.”


    “I’ve picked up a thing or two in my time.” She mused, “So when are you going to tell me about yourself?”


    “You basically already know the highlights.” Gabriel shrugged, “What more is there to say?”


    “You think so poorly of yourself.” Ren sighed, and nudged the man with an elbow, “It’s no wonder you think everyone else does, too.”


    “Am I wrong about that?”


    “There’s a saying about how you should put out into the universe the energy you want to receive from it.  Somewhere along the path you’ve led, someone made you think you were less than, and it seems to me like Lord Xanarken has tried to prop you up, either to prove you wrong or to give you the chance to prove them wrong.”  She paused and glanced at him, and rounded a corner towards a different elevator bay.  She clicked the down button and waited, shoulder against the wall, “What happened?”


    Gabriel wasn’t sure how to respond, and his brow crinkled in confusion, “…You really think that?”


    “I’ve only been around you for a little while, but I’ve seen the mask you put on when you face the world, and I’ve seen what you look like when you take it off.  I won’t lie; the masked version of you is a bit of a stiff.  But the real you?  The one that joked about buying the warp core a drink if you had to get any closer?  The one that helped me get out of the bottom of my shower?  That guy’s decent.  I want to see more of him.”


    The elevator doors opened, and Ren tilted her head towards it as she stepped inside.  Gabriel followed after her, the words echoing in his head, “It was Captain Gallifey.”


    That got her eyes to widen, “…How so?”


    Seems like half a lifetime ago now; I hardly remember what things were like before that.” He started, looking up as he thought on it, “I had just been out of boot for a few months.  Xanarken had set me up with a mediator mentor to get me started, like how you are with me now.  After nearly a decade with the Council, I was starting to feel like I’d found my way, and then he – Captain Gallifey, I mean – tore me down.  There was this big incident with an afflicted girl; she’d probably been…a year or two out from the onset, and had a rally poor grasp of how to control it.”


    The chamber opened again, and Ren led the way out, listening carefully.


    “Everything she touched would crack and shatter, as if she was the very definition of cold.” He continued, not even sure where they were going, “The Inquisitors had gotten her, and had brought her aboard the Bulwark.  They were having a hard time getting the SD Helmet on her, because every time she flailed and smacked it, the thing would just disintegrate.  It happened that my mentor and I were aboard for something else, and we caught wind of what was going on…  I saw the fear on that girl like a jacket.  No one was listening to her.  She was terrified and people were trying to submerge her into soundless darkness.  …So I tried to help.  I lit all my shit up and tried to show her how to calm it down.  It was chaos…  People were yelling, she could hardly focus, I was yelling, trying to get her attention…and then Gallifey came in, firing on all cylinders.  He was such a flighty fucking tool…” Gabriel clenched his fists at the anger for it all, “He accused us all of screwing around, pulled a gun, and just…shot her.”


    “…How’s he still Captain in that case?” Ren wondered, looking back at him with both skepticism and worry.


    “Because he only shot her in the shoulder.  I was the one who killed her.”


    Ren had her hand out towards a door-panel, but paused, “…What?”


    “He scared the Hell out of me when he pulled the gun.  I lost focus on what I was trying to do and…she was right there.  I didn’t even realize what I’d done until the Inquisitors stuck the SD Helmet on me instead, and in those few seconds that it takes for it to form the seal, I heard Gallifey railing against me for what I’d done.  He said it was proof of what I really was, and that Xanarken was an idiot for ever thinking I could be trusted.”


    “I bet that went over well.”


    Gabriel lifted his head, about to answer, but found the words catch in his throat.  He hadn’t even noticed the Aegis disappearing, nor the appearance of whatever this was; a huge, blank room, paneled in square tiles from floor to ceiling, and Ren there in the middle in with her Sixth Wing uniform on, “…What is this…?  And why are you…?”


    “In my blues again?” She finished, and held up her right hand to present the space, “This is a specialized training room.  I needed my Sixth credentials to get into it.  In any case…your story just made it all the more clear that what I brought you here for was necessary.”


    “I don’t follow.”


    Ren bobbed her head, “You’ve got a bit of a complex surrounding your affliction.  You won’t let it out unless pressured to do so, and it still has the capacity to come out when you don’t want it to.  You’ve got enough control over it to turn it on, cut something up, and shut it off again…but that seems to be the extent of it.  Do you even know what you’re fully capable of?”


    Gabriel stared at her incredulously, “…Weren’t you listening?  The moral of the story is that I shouldn’t use my affliction.  At all.”


    “I think that’s where you’re wrong.  And where Captain Gallifey made his biggest mistake.” She shook her head, “You’ve had 32 years of opportunity to master your Limitless technique and yet you’ve squandered it.”


    “I didn’t squander anything.  I was enthusiastically encouraged to not do anything with it.  Not just by Gallifey’s assessment of me…but because Rylen doesn’t want me using it, either.” He corrected, and crossed his arms defensively, “I’m the only person other than Caeros to have been born with this curse.  He’s…probably right about not wanting me to get used to using it, lest I create a calamity like Caeros did.”


    “I’m not asking you to transport a fleet of mile-long colony ships across the unknown emptiness of space and time.” She pointed out, “I’m asking you to show me what you’ve got.  Just here, in this room.”


    He stared awkwardly, eyes darting one way, then the other, then back at Ren, and Gabriel held his coffee-cup a bit higher, “…I…don’t know what I’ve got.”


    “So, we’re on the same page then.  We both know you can cut through stuff.  In my experience fighting Limitless users, that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.” She explained, and turned around to gesture at the back wall.  Three of the massive 6’x6’ tiles hovered out of place, and came to a stop around her, floating a few feet off the ground.  She turned back to her mentor, “Tell me how it works.  How do you see what it does, and how do you decide when to activate it?”


    “…Right now?”


    “Yup.” She smiled innocently, “Light all your shit up.”


    Those eyes stared in confusion and wonder, and he blinked hard like he wasn’t sure he was interpreting the situation right.  With a reticent pause, he shook his head, and reached back for the tie around his ponytail.  He pulled the length of it over his right shoulder, but then hesitated, “Why are you suddenly so interested in this?”


    “Cuz you said it got away from you while in a playing at fisticuffs with my Captain.” She answered simply, “Not sure if you’ve gleaned it yet, but I’m rather fond of the man.  And since I’m fond of you too, I’d really prefer that neither of you ever end up in a situation where you end up using your gifts against each other in a potentially fatal way.  So…let’s go, Gabriel Lugios.”


    Another palpitation, and he had to suck in a reassuring breath just to set his mind right.  He finally pulled the hair-tie away though, and stuffed it into the cuff of his long fingerless glove.  With a hard swallow, he closed his eyes…and lit it all up.