Initially Siren misjudged Wren's ability to repair himself while unconscious and that more than anything else gave himself and his friends a fighting chance to survive. Usually it would take five to six minutes for him to return to optimal condition and therefore consciousness, but Wren had seen the danger Zelan was in with Siren holding him and he at the last moment had altered his reboot specifications accordingly. Instead of six minutes Wren recovered in two, working at only thirty percent capacity. It was the palman equivalent of having an extremely heavy concussion but Wren had to endure it this way because he had no time to lose.

He grabbed at whatever he could to help him stand up, first the edge of the control panel and then the chair, sparing himself a valuable second to gather his bearings. His mind wasn't working as fast as it should, he felt so dazed and he had to consciously think about what had happened and what he needed to do next. Siren had gotten aboard Zelan somehow, had knocked him out and there had been absolutely nothing after that. Wren glanced around the room in case Siren was still about, but if that were so he probably would have never regained consciousness in the first place.

In any case, he was alone in the room. Wren put a hand to his head to steady his sensation of dizziness. If the enemy was not here then he was elsewhere in the space station, and that place might be where his friends slept peacefully and were absolutely defenseless. He couldn't have been knocked out for very long and the dormitories were a ten minute walk away. If Siren had been running he still wouldn't be there by now. Wren thought that if he could contact Demi as fast as he was able and she showed initiative they might stand a chance. She would be close to the others, wouldn't she? Wren wasn't sure, it was so hard to reason correctly while working at such a low capacity.

The most important thing was for him to remain calm. This at least was easy to do, even as he looked at the main screen of the control panel and saw that somebody had ordered Zelan to shut down its life-support system, attaching to the program a timer. Twenty seven minutes and dropping until the space station would become completely uninhabitable. Siren just left nasty surprises wherever he went, it seemed.

Anybody else at this stage would have panicked. Even a great many androids would have felt nervous by the pressure, but Wren was an expressly calm person even by android standards. His capacity had crept up to thirty seven percent so he might as well have a go at fixing this unfortunate error. When he tried to enable the life-support system again it asked for a simple four digit password. It figured, sirens specialized in sneaky tactics like that and he had locked the program up tight.

Wren ran several password-cracking applications through the computer to bust open the lock but none seemed to work, refusing to acknowledge the program entirely. The android felt a tiny spark of frustration after two minutes of trying to crack the password had elapsed. The only way he'd be able to get past this would be manually. If he couldn't fix this thing then his living breathing friends didn't have the time for him to sit there blindly guessing.

He contacted Demi. It was easy to do because she was always a part of his system network. Many centuries ago this had been comprised of plenty of other androids, intelligent computers and even the communicators of a few specific palman leaders. Demi was the only other frequently active user now. She was online and her location was pretty close by. // "Demi." // Wren said to her without moving his mouth, speaking the words in another language that only other androids could decipher and understand. // "Demi, can you hear me? I need to speak with you." //

He got a reply almost immediately, as if the girl was in the room with him and conversing right by his side. Network communications were just like telepathy but without the magic involved. Demi managed to sound chipper and cheerful even in the middle of pseudo-night. // "Yes Master, what is it? Are you going to stop being a worry-wart about that esper android and come away from the computer for a few hours? That might be nice." // Somewhere on Zelan she would be undoubtedly smiling.

Well, he did not enjoy or dislike it either way but he had to wipe that smile off her face. The countdown had already reached twenty-six minutes and falling, and Wren was still having no success with the password. // "Listen to me and listen very closely." // He intoned carefully. // "The siren-type from the Azura satellite has boarded Zelan undetected. I have lost his location but I am sure that he would be extremely hostile if encountered. Everybody is in grave danger." //

// "However that is regrettably the least of our problems. Siren seems to have tampered with the life support system. It is rigged to reach zero percent output in twenty five minutes and forty six seconds. There is a password but I am still in the process of deciphering it. Demi, what I want you to do is gather our friends and relocate them to an independent life support system while watching for Siren who will no doubt be searching for you. Do you understand me?" //

For two seconds there was silence over the connection, then Demi replied in such a way that made Wren grateful she was his servant. She knew exactly when displays of palman personality were appropriate and when cold hard android acquiescence and resolution were needed. // "Understood, sir. I will act on orders accordingly. The sole siren-type has been entered into my registry as target -01. Will engage target if required. Can you suggest a location where an independent life support may be procured?" //

Wren's capacity had hit forty-five percent. The number was rising just as Zelan's oxygen supply and temperature were dropping. He must have entered three hundred different passwords into the computer but still no luck. Wren lacked the imagination to guess creatively, so what if he couldn't do this? What if he couldn't get by this program? He would have to abandon it, he supposed. // "The Landale has a workable life support system. Get everybody aboard. If you see Siren and he antagonizes you then you have clearance to move the Landale out into open space." //

// "What about you?" //

Yes, that was exactly what he was considering right now. If things took a poor turn then he would have to choose between staying on Zelan by himself or evacuating the space station with the others. Wait, that wasn't right. If he stayed behind to work on the password he'd have Siren around to keep him company. It was a tough choice, he had deep loyalties in both places. // "…I will attempt to enable the life support for another seven minutes and if I am unsuccessful I will go and meet you at the Landale docking bay. I will not allow Siren to harm my friends." // He said finally.

He was not quite certain if he was making the right or wrong decision. Zelan meant everything to him, it was his life, his purpose. If he had to leave all that to an android who did not even know when or where he was, well, Wren just couldn't let that happen to something that was his responsibility. However, becoming responsible for the deaths of his five friends was not something he would relish either.

Demi processed the information quickly. // "Yes. I will see you at the Landale, Master Wren." //

If she wasn't up and moving by now then the little android girl had better get her butt into gear. This damned password! He had no idea what it could be. Siren had been part of a divergence of Algo's timeline, the worldship's history. Information from those times was not a part of his data banks. // "Take care." // The android added after a distracted second. The next time he saw her he didn't want it to be with Demi in pieces.

// "I shall. I'm disconnecting now." //

// "Roger. Please hurry! Go!" //

†††

When the communication ended Demi raised her head and got up from the table she had been sitting on. Fortunately the place where she had decided to rest for the night was not that far away from the dormitories. She could be there easily within two short shakes of a rappy's bottom. It was lucky she had only been thinking instead of switching off into standby mode, or else Wren would never have been able to reach her. So Siren was aboard Zelan now. That was exciting, but at the same time, terrifying.

She had never met him before. If she did would he be a clone of her master, only evil and nasty? Demi could hardly even conceive of a wren-type actively trying to harm her. Maybe she had just been living with her master for too long, it had been a lengthy but pleasant three hundred years. Demi let go of Mieus, the sleeping girl she had been hugging to her chest and hopped off the table. Rika's explorations earlier had left the mieu-type lying shut down in such a state that Demi just had to fix her up and make her look at peace again.

The illusion was beneficial to Demi more than anything else. She would be the very first to admit that she didn't know anything about being a good parent but she liked to know where Mieus was and if she was okay, that was all. "I'll be back soon, I promise." She said quickly to the girl and bolted out of the room, running as fast as her short little legs could carry her. The entranceway shut behind her fluidly but she did not notice one tiny insignificant thing, a shred of Rika's ripped dress stuck between the sliding doors.

Gods, twenty five minutes was a ridiculously small timeframe to work with. Demi wasn't even sure she could get all her friends awake and alert within that period. During the time she and the others had traveled about and fought Zio she remembered that Rune needed at least half an hour and a cup of tea even to function properly. They'd just have to listen to her, she reasoned, and if they didn't she'd jump on them until they did.

For a while the only audible sound in the corridors was the clanging of Demi's feet upon the ground. She was already planning how to do this, waking Chaz and Rika first, then Hahn and Raja with Rune last. If she couldn't awaken the esper by herself then her other four friends would be able to help her. She felt comforted by this but her thoughts still lingered on Mieus. Did Rika think she was a bad person for letting Wren put her into an eternal sleep? It had seemed like the only reasonable thing to do at the time, though it had hurt her figurative heart so. She missed hearing the girl laughing and wandering throughout the station, constantly asking questions.

But it was selfish to be thinking of the past when the present was in so much jeopardy. Demi flung open the doorway to the hallways and sent the pile of assorted odds-and-ends crashing to the floor for the second time that night. She didn't pause, didn't have time to pick anything up, yet she sort of hoped that the loud noise might have done something in the way of waking everybody up. That would be nice. A roll of batteries traveled across the floor but was interrupted for a second by Demi's ankle as she scurried further inside.

Raja was already waiting in the hallway. He was dressed and he had his staff by his side, looking as sober as a… well, as a priest. He hadn't been able to sleep well, somewhere deep inside of him, his own inner voice or perhaps the voice of his deity had whispered to him to stay sharp. Earlier it had felt like he was being watched as he knelt in the corner and spoke his evening prayers. Actually, it had felt more like something evil had been stalking the halls nearby. He did not yet know how right he was.

He narrowed his already particularly narrow eyes as Demi skidded to a halt in front of him. The girl had to look up at him as she barely even came up to his waist. "Raja, thank goodness," she said seriously, "we need to wake everybody up and get inside the Landale as soon as possible! You go wake up Hahn and I will awaken Chaz and Rika! Quick, quick!" She moved around him and ran toward the professor's dormitory on the far end of the corridor.

The dezorian was happy to do as she said but he was a little in the dark as to what was going on. He had picked up on the tension and the seriousness of it all but he needed words to tell him of the situation. Raja turned towards Demi and raised his hands slightly. "Whoa there, girl! Where's the fire? Why do we have to get out of here?" He asked kindly.

"Because if we don't Zelan will suffer a life support collapse and you along with the others will die." Demi said gravely. She was trying to seem as serious as she possibly could but on her cute and somewhat reassuring face it made it seem no more horrible, than, say, being late for church on a sabbath day.

"Oh. Fair enough then. Off I go!" Raja said while still appearing a little confused. Demi looked up to the professor's door and opened it with a touch, counting down each valuable second within her mind.

A thought came to her. She certainly hoped that she wasn't going to be interrupting anything, seeing as Chaz and Rika were a couple now and it was nighttime and all. Even if she was going to be interrupting something better that than having all her friends suffocate and freeze. Demi stepped into the eccentrically decorated room and all was quiet, save for a pair of slow, soft breathing. Ah, they were both still sleeping. That was good but it had to end now.

She stood beside the bed and touched what she identified as Chaz's shoulder, giving him a good firm shake. "Chaz," she said quickly, shaking harder, "Chaz, please wake up now. It's urgent."

The boy buried his head deeper into the pillow and groaned as a result. "Not now Rika, 'm tired…" He slurred.

Rika sat up in bed, the blanket pooling at her waist. She looked about a dozen times more alert than her fiance. Her sleep had been fraught with many bad dreams, ones so elusive that the moment she noticed they were there all detail of them was lost. One thing that she did notice though was her friend Demi standing beside their bed. From the corridor outside she could also hear Raja talking to Hahn. "What's going on?" She asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"We need to get to the Landale as quickly as we can. We have about," Demi checked her memory to see if she was correct, "eighteen minutes until Zelan's life support fails to a point in which your continuing existence is unsustainable. I have to wake everybody up and we need to run, you understand?"

The numan girl understood quite well what would happen when an organism bred for one type of atmosphere was forced to exist within another atmosphere, or in this case, a lack of one. The seriousness of the situation got through to her easily. Rika slipped out of bed, her bare feet touching the floor. As she began to put on her shoes she said; "You go and deal with Rune now and I'll wake up Chaz. I know how to get him up in less than a minute, so don't worry." She smiled reassuringly.

If they all worked together they could do this. As Demi rushed out of the room to get to Rune Rika leaned over a sleeping Chaz and gently patted his short blond hair. "Chaz honey…" She cooed softly. Ten seconds later everybody could hear the hunter laughing himself awake. Whatever she was doing to him seemed to have worked.

Rune was a problem, lying on the bed it looked like he was attempting to strangle his pillow. Demi tried waking him up but it was like he was in a coma, unresponsive to her words. Of course the Lutz would have been tired from exploring that satellite last night, but Demi would have thought that he might sleep lightly because of Siren nearby. Raja had sensed that threat though she would never quite know how, things like that were not a part of her world. Rune rolled over and sighed as Demi let go of him. It was time for the last resort.

"Wake up, Rune! Listen to me! Siren is coming! He is here on this station! We need to get out of here!" She cried. Hahn had been walking by the room as she said this and overheard Demi's declaration. He froze in mid-step. Was that really true? Nobody had told him about that yet. Hahn poked his head into the room, paused and then stepped inside. It looked like Demi needed some help.

"I learned a trick for waking slackers up many years ago." Hahn whispered as he moved to stand by Demi's side. "A professor from the academy used to implement it all the time when I was a student. It woke me up quite a few times during class, too. Watch." Leaning over, Hahn stuck his hand under the covers and searched for a patch of skin. When he found it the historian smiled just slightly and cast a very weak wat spell. He wasn't going to hurt Rune but the very sudden cold where there had once been heat should easily do the trick.

The result was instantaneous. Rune uttered a distinctly parrot-like squawk and sat bolt upright in bed, raising his hands as if to defend himself from an incoming attack. His long blue hair was loose and fell down his shoulders in two little waterfalls. "What?" Rune slurred in confusion. "Wha? Who?" He was beginning to sound more like an owl than a parrot. Blinking, he glanced to Hahn for answers, his expression of bewilderment already turning to annoyance. "What the hell do you want at this ungodly hour, Hahn?" He groaned.

Hahn pulled his hand away and awkwardly rubbed at the side of his neck. He had an idea of what was going on but from what Demi had shouted earlier there was probably more stuff happening that he didn't know about. "All I know is that if we don't get inside the Landale in about twenty minutes or so we're all going to run out of air. Demi said Siren is here on Zelan. I don't think that's a very good thing."

At first it didn't get through to him, but after a second of the concept hanging in the air it finally did. The esper did a double-take. "What?" He roared.

Demi's voice was subdued. "It's true."

After that it was easy to get everyone organised. Rune, after a few seconds of understandable cursing and rhetorical questions threw on his cloak, grabbed his staff tucked under the bed and was ready to go. Chaz and Rika were in the hallway with Raja. The blond-haired hunter looked like he was well on the way to freaking out, Rika being the only thing that was keeping him calm. Chaz had a habit of losing his nerve when disaster was nigh. With the six protectors all gathered Demi finally explained to them everything that Wren had imparted to her, including the mention of Siren and Zelan's current state.

They took the information rather well. Demi suspected that it was mostly because they did not have enough time to panic. She had been clear and very brief for there was also no time to go into detail. If they ran to the spaceship docks and did not tarry it should only take them ten minutes to get to the Landale. They would have to cross through the main area before the storage blocks and head east until they got there. If they were lucky they might even meet up with Wren along the way.

Demi and her hastily gathered company ran. The little android girl could literally run for hours without getting tired, but she didn't have to breathe the air constantly growing thinner and colder all around her. Her flesh-and-blood friends were exceptionally healthy people and were able to keep up with her, save for Raja who was just a little bit slower but doing fantastically for his age. The dezorian priest was only two or so meters behind, and when that distance began to grow larger and larger the rest of the group slowed down just slightly so he could catch up again. They would not leave anyone behind.

Seconds counted themselves down, then minutes. Demi kept a good lookout for Siren who might decide to ambush them at any time but she didn't really know what she was looking for. All she knew was that Siren was a wren-type and that he'd be out hunting for their blood. Most of all she was afraid that the might turn a corner in the corridor and run into Wren, only to run him through before they had a chance to identify who he really was. The team was lacking vital information about their foe, information that Wren had not known about himself.

They did not know that Siren was cloaked and practically undetectable. When Siren had snuck up on Wren from behind the control android had not had a chance to see the thermoptical system in action. Even if Demi and company did run into Siren they would not know about it until it was too late. Seven minutes after they had left the dormitories and were nearing their destination, with Raja panting and Hahn beginning to feel a little short of breath, disaster struck.

The group of confused and rushed protectors ran right into Siren. It was nearly a physical collision but the stealth android detected them first and had the wits to get out of the way in time. He had been on the way to the spaceship docks himself to give his heathen playthings an ambushing surprise, but it seemed like they were in such a damn hurry that they couldn't wait. That was fine then, dying here or dying at the docks, it really didn't matter to him as long as the job was done.

Siren flattened himself up against the wall and let them run by, getting up and following them soon after. He could see that the strange green-skinned man was lagging behind. Like a weak sick animal straying from the pack it would just be so easy to sneak out, grab the dezorian with both hands under the chin and then snap his neck. He could do it quickly and concisely and the straggler would not feel a thing. That would grab their attention all right and Siren could proceed with the conventional assault.

Between pants Raja gasped; "I feel like I'm being followed!"

"Why do you think that?" Rika answered near the head of the pack.

"Because the goose is walking over my grave!" The dezorian priest declared, about to laugh despite his nervousness and lack of breath, but all of a sudden he felt something cold and distinctly physical grasp at his shoulder from behind.

All his friends knew that Raja bore ungodly sharp reflexes. This had mostly come about from playing various games at Gyuna's bar in Ryuon, along with a horrendous karaoke voice that is not relevant here. Yesterday morning he had almost managed to give Rune a serious concussion using that skill. When Siren touched his shoulder lightly in order to get to his neck a high-pitched scream tore from his wheezing throat, a martial artist type "Kiyaaa!" which gave brunt to his attack when he whipped around in mid-step and swept upwards with his stave, striking Siren under the chin.

The blow didn't hurt the android but Raja could feel from the resistance running along his stave and into his arm that something invisible yet solid was there. It didn't make any sense but Raja was not the kind of person to disbelieve something just because he could not see it. He believed in his god, and he had believed in the Garuberk Tower in much the same fashion. He was a priest after all. "Do ya want a piece of me, you daft phantom?" He threatened loudly with a wicked smile. It was odd but he was enjoying this. "Come here, I'll give you another!"

A voice from nowhere spoke. "Shut up." It said.

He heard a click, then a low persistent whine. Raja tensed, then turned to his friends who had stopped to see what was wrong. They were standing in a little cluster, like bowling pins waiting to be knocked down. It would be a breeze to strike them all at once. The priest had another revelation. "Hey!" He called as he whipped his head over to face them. "It's that robot guy! Scatter!"

The blast from Siren's shot was pretty devastating but it was a petty foi technique when compared to the power generated by Siren's spells. He used his cannon first because he always started small and liked to work his way up to the big guns later. That way the only fools who would be able to see his true power were the ones worthy of that kind of death. Rika and Chaz leapt out of the way like a pair of professional acrobats, Hahn hit the dirt like his life was depending on it (which it was), and Rune sidestepped and missed gaining second degree burns by the width of a piece of paper.

Rune had raised an arm up to his face to shield it from the plasma blast. The flash was pretty blinding and left a streaky afterimage imprinted nastily on the surface of his vision. The attack had come from nowhere. Nowhere at all. There simply was no place to hide in this tiny metallic corridor. "Damn it," the esper cursed, unsure of where he should be facing, "Show yourself, Siren!"

He answered with another shot. Chaz screamed as he was somewhat burned, a little too close to the blast zone for comfort. That seemed like a warning shot, or maybe Siren was planning on singing them until the pain was too much to endure. Rune was trying to identify the angle of the shot, hoping that he could pinpoint the source of the fire from there. His friends were scattered now, it was hard to see with them all over the place. Maybe if he… was that movement he just saw? It was weird to see nothing move but he had, or at least he thought he had.

Was it… maybe there?

"Everybody get behind me!" Rune shouted and braced his feet heavily against the ground, drawing one hand back in the casting of a spell. He concentrated, tried to clear his mind and stop thinking about how the oxygen was slowly getting sucked from the air, particle by particle. He closed his eyes and heard his friends gather behind him, but he was particularly worried about Demi who was the most vulnerable of them all. Siren was using some kind of technology to appear invisible to them, but that had to stop now.

When the others were safely out of the blast zone Rune watched for another ripple of invisible movement against the wall. No technology was perfect and the esper was sure he had what it took to stop it. However, if this invisibility was a magical technique then they were royally fucked. A tingle of crackling electricity zipped up his spellcasting arm to his shoulder. It hurt, but only a little, it was more of a twinge than a pain. Rune heard the high-pitched whine of a turbine starting up again and he had to attack now, before Siren could let off another shot.

"Tandle!" He shouted and called forth multiple bolts of lightning, sapping the charge from the air and the walls of the space station itself. It struck and bounced off the walls with an eager kind of energy, attracted to their invisible foe. As long as Siren was made out of metal he could not escape Rune's spell. The magician could feel Demi clinging to his white cloak behind him, the girl probably reasoning that the safest place for her to be was exactly where the spell's caster stood.

The quality of the air seemed to change. It was becoming noticeably thin already but now it was charged and felt odd, like on a field just before a thunderstorm. The whine from Siren's cannon slowed down and ceased, there was a short crackling series of flickers and then the android's thermoptics died. Suddenly their enemy was standing right in front of them, in plain sight, faint smoke rising from his camouflage system.

There he was. The infamous Siren. Only Rune had had the displeasure of meeting him before so to the others he was still a stranger. To Rika and Chaz it was like they had stumbled across Wren's, their Wren's little brother. Siren was not as broad and was only slightly shorter than Wren, but the way he was outfitted and carried himself made him seem like the bad guy right off the bat. The red hair briefly reminded Demi of Mieus. It was so surreal.

He lowered his weapon and stared at them, just as Rune and the others stared back. He was smiling while Rune and company were not. There was just something not quite right about that smile, it was cruel and venomous even as it looked amused. When the wren-type started laughing it sent cold shivers down Rune's spine. Androids shouldn't be allowed to laugh. Only Demi had permission for something like that. Siren didn't seem at all anxious that six protectors of Algo were on the verge of engaging him in battle, quite the opposite, he seemed eager for a fight.

"Bravo, you have found me." Siren congratulated in a voice that was identical to Wren's. When Demi heard it she ducked behind Rune even more. The android from Azura was in fully functional working order now, unlike the time he and Rune had first met and getting rid of him would be difficult. The esper had been inhibited by the atmosphere last time and it was happening again. Siren brought the breathless cold of deep space with him wherever he went. "It is your turn to hide now and I will find you." He said.

"Why are you doing this? We haven't done anything bad to you!" Rika shouted before Rune could get a word out. She felt so exposed without her weapons but there was nothing that could be done. If she could just reason with him then maybe they would be able to come a mutual understanding. It was worth a try. Back on Azura Rune and Wren mustn't have been in the negotiating mood. Rika felt that she needed to make up for that.

Whatever point she was trying to get across did not even touch the android, let alone get through to him. "You are a pack of filthy layans. That is enough of a reason for me." Siren lowered his gun arm and raised his spellcasting hand. Rune wasn't certain if he was going to cast a tsu, or a flaeli, or perhaps something even nastier. "In the name of Orakio sa Ruik I will destroy you."

"Go to hell, Siren! Flaeli!" Rune cried and made good on his shout, creating and hurling a volley of molten fire straight at his enemy. This wasn't the time for negotiations, it was the time for action, or had his friends forgotten that they'd be dead meat in under a quarter of an hour? The magician braced himself against the rush of air that would come when the spell struck its target, hoping that the others had remembered enough about his magic to do the same.

The hot lashback swept over him like a warm woolen blanket, but something was not right. There was far too much heat generated for it to be only a singular spell. Siren had struck back with a flaeli of his own and managed to cancel Rune out, a few pitiful embers and sparks falling to the floor. When the smoke dissipated both the magician and the esper were left unharmed. Siren may have been outnumbered six to one but only a few of those six actually carried arms and were dangerous. He was not afraid.

It seemed like he was going to win either way. If he killed them here where they stood he would win, and if he stalled them long enough for the air to run out he would be able to watch them choking and writhing on the floor like dying cockroaches. That would certainly be a treat to see. Siren's hand was glowing a very dull red from all the heat generated by his flaeli spell. The blue-haired layan also appeared to be sweating heavily. "In the name of Orakio sa Ruik I will destroy you." Siren repeated himself dully, then suddenly he became animated and shouted; "Burn for your sins!"

Raja spoke up, shoving the person who was standing next to him away. Hahn nearly stumbled and tripped over his own feet. The dezorian bishop had not really done much since he had arrived on the space station but there must have been a reason why he was sent here and he needed to have faith in that. "He's stalling for time! Run! Get out of here!" He cried, towering above his friends and raising his hands to chant an invocation.

Another flaeli spell hit the team but once again it was blocked from causing harm, the six protectors shielded by Raja's blessing skill. Hahn was the first one to get the heck out of there, followed by Chaz pulling Rika along behind him. Rune sighed in frustration, he wanted to stay and fight, but he had to consider his friends before he could consider petty thoughts of revenge. He took Demi's hand, the girl still hiding behind him and fled with the android at his side. Once his friends were gone Raja ceased his chant, finishing it off with blowing Siren a quick raspberry and then running away.

Siren turned his head to watch his quarry flee down the corridor. Passively he allowed them to get a few good seconds ahead of him, shaking his spellcasting hand a bit to cool it down. He had already mapped this corridor earlier in the night, he knew exactly where it was going and that there would be no bends in said corridor for a very long time. It offered him a good clean shot if he wanted to shoot them all in the back. It would be an awful way to die, a sudden excruciating pain and burning from behind, then nothing but the uncertainty of death.

But Siren had not considered the idea that somebody was thinking the very same thing, even now. As a stealth android it was virtually impossible for anybody to sneak up on him; he constantly monitored the area around him for signs of electrical activity or breathing. It was one of his many prides. Wren was not trying to sneak up on him, nothing of the sort, he had just been on his way to the spaceship docks and found the red haired wren-type standing in the corridor, charging up his cannon. He had his back to him and Wren thought it so dishonest not to hear an electrical signal for detecting, it was like a thief without a shadow.

He was not going to get another chance like this again. He could hear the footsteps of his friends as they fled. It sounded like… five or six of them altogether, so hopefully nobody had been left behind. Wren dropped to one knee to get the perfect, precise shot, much like soldiers used to do during the wars. Siren's armor looked strong, not standard issue, but if he was accurate enough he might be able to blow a good-sized hole in his back. Wren didn't hate Siren, he told himself that he didn't feel much of anything at all for him, but negotiations were over with and it was time to kill.

Siren sensed him. As soon as Wren entered his exaggerated field of detection he knew he was there. The android whirled to face this new threat, identified the threat as being the wren-type he had disposed of earlier, and gave Wren an honest 'oh-it's-you-I-thought-it-was-going-to-be-somebody-dangerous' smile. Had Wren been Rune, Chaz or possibly even Rika he would have been perturbed, but as he was he shot at Siren impartially.

The shots fired were dampened by the barrier Siren hastily set up, so instead of killing the other android it only managed to wound him. Smoke rose from his armor that had partially degraded in places and stray electricity crackled from those areas. Wren rose from where he had been kneeling and advanced on Siren, intending to finally spark him and put him out of his misery.

Siren selected the most intelligent thing to do. When faced with the choice of two different targets it was prudent to go after the weaker one, starving for oxygen and afraid, and worry about the more hazardous target later. If he left the layans alone for too long they would definitely get away. Siren recovered his balance from being hit by the shot and immediately spun around again, running away and reactivating his repaired thermoptic system, vanishing from view.

That was bad. Wren was only capable of detecting him visually. "Wait." He said in monotone, not really expecting Siren to listen to him but needing to say something all the same. Wren broke out into a sprint, hoping to catch up to the target or get to his friends before the enemy could. He knew that the thermoptics weren't perfect, vague glimpses of motion were the only things that could give Siren away and Wren was certain that the other android would not be keeping very still.

He didn't think about what would happen if Siren intentionally hung behind as he passed him, for that would give the other android the opportunity to shoot him just as Wren had shot him before. However, Wren would not be able to sense the shot and raise his own barrier in time.

The funny thing was that Siren knew how to mask every facet of his presence, even his audible footsteps. Wren did not know that Siren had slowed down a little and had fallen in step with him, running by his side. It masked his footsteps wonderfully. He could so easily reach out and spark the traitorous layan sympathizer again, but he had bigger fish to fry. Mostly he wanted this wren-type to see his friends die, whether by the failing of the life support or by Siren's own hands. Maybe both.

Wren got to the docks and found his friends clustered out the front of the Landale, nervous and anxious like a pack of little lambs. They were worried that if they got inside the Landale would send them away and Wren would not be able to follow them, but if they stayed where they were for much longer they'd run out of air. The temperature had dropped pretty low too, evident by the way that their breath fogged up visibly at every exhalation.

They looked terrible, as well they should after such a sudden scare in the middle of the night. Rune and company were still very tired from the busy day yesterday. They had scarcely gotten three hours of sleep and they thought it would have been better if they had never slept at all, at least then they wouldn't have felt so cheated of their repose. Rune himself looked like crap. As Wren ran along the ramp to the Landale Demi fought her way to the head of the small crowd. "We thought you weren't going to come!" She exclaimed. "What is going on? What's the situation?"

"I said I would come and so I have." Wren replied seriously, but he spoke quickly as he was in a hurry to explain. They were practically out of time. It was so foolish of them to wait out here while they were still in danger. "I was unable to reactivate the life support system. You cannot stay out here any longer. Please get inside the Landale, Siren could potentially be anywhere now." He reached over Rika's shoulder and opened the airlock using the small control panel upon the hull.

The palmans, numan and dezorian could just about feel the sweet nourishing air wafting out from inside the ship, thick and wonderful when compared to the thin unwholesome stuff they were inhaling now. It made them feel lightheaded and a little weak. "Where are you going to take the ship?" Chaz asked as he nursed his burn, getting ready to lead Rika inside. Beside him Rune was frowning, his eyes closed.

He had already made his mind up about that. "I will not take the Landale anywhere. That will be Demi's task. I am going to stay here and deal with Siren. Zelan is too important to be jeopardized. Now all of you please get inside."

Rune leaned over and whispered something very quietly into Hahn's ear. His face was grim and Hahn looked very anxious, but as Rune whispered the historian went from looked anxious to downright scared. Paling, his hand went to his belt and remained there, nice and still. Hahn kept a firm eye on Wren as Demi began her protest most vehement.

"Master! You said you would come with us!"

"I said nothing of the sort. Check your memory. I said only that I would meet you here." This definitely wasn't the time for an argument. Technically he was correct, but Demi looked like a puppy that had just been kicked. Wren was hardly capable of feeling bad for her, he was thinking only of neutralizing the danger while keeping his friends well away from it.

The Lutz whispered another word or two to Hahn as Demi clasped her hands together. "But what if he ends up destroying you? I saw what he looked like. He's frightening. Even Rune was matched when he started casting spells! Master, forgive my impertinence, but I don't think you can win against him alone."

Demi did not yet know it but her little plea to her master was probably going to save his life and maybe even the lives of some of her other friends. For as Wren opened his mouth to answer her he knelt down slightly, a habitual movement for talking seriously to the short android girl, and gave Rune and Hahn exactly the opening they were looking for. The historian's hand moved from his belt in a practiced flash of motion, the quick gleam of a piece of mahlay alloy the only indication that something had been in his palm.

It flew over Wren's head and stopped suddenly, stationary, floating in midair. Half of the knife blade had completely disappeared. Hahn had not been blowing hot air when he said he had been in constant physical training, the speed in which he had drawn the knife and the accuracy in which he had thrown it, even without a visible target spoke for itself. Everybody turned to look at Hahn, him and his magical levitating knife.

Rune crossed his arms and smiled haughtily. "You think that you can hide yourself in every way, Siren, but one esper cannot hide from another. I always knew you were there, hiding as Wren's shadow."

Siren appeared in a shimmering of invisibility and yanked the medium-sized knife out of his throat. He did it angrily, fiercely, not caring if he wound up injuring himself further. He had spent too much time thinking about the senses of the machine instead of the senses of the magician. It was a mistake that he would pay for. Every second was precious, he needed to use it well. Rather than boast, insult or threaten Siren shifted the knife properly in his grip and lunged at the most vulnerable target closest to him, letting out a short shout of aggression.

Wren could hardly believe he had been stalked in that way. He might have been only a few seconds away from being killed. As Siren darted forward and raised the knife Hahn had given him he had to pass by Wren, and as he did so Wren involuntarily pulled the oldest trick in the book. He hadn't meant to do it, some program in the back of his mind just suddenly activated. He stuck out his foot.

And Rika had been prepared to defend herself against whatever came at her, armed or no, but it was not necessary. He came at her as if to stab her but tripped at the last moment, leaning forward, then Wren brought his free arm up and jammed his elbow into the small of his back. Siren fell. This was the break they needed. "Everyone into the Landale!" He ordered, stepping over the red-haired android to approach the entry hatch.

"C'mon." Rune agreed and was the first one inside, followed by Raja and Hahn. They had waited long enough anyway. Rika took Chaz with her as she fled, nearly yanking the youth's arm from the shoulder socket in the process. Demi turned her head to watch them go but she did not know if she could follow. Somehow she felt that she'd be betraying her master if she left, even though she would disobey his explicit order if she stayed.

"Demi," Wren said, and now he was beginning to sound annoyed, "leave."

It was like a slap in the face. Somebody needed to pilot the Landale and that somebody had to be her. Wren had activated the timed lock to the ships' door so after it was sealed the next time it would open was three hours. She couldn't come back to help him after that, but it was okay because he didn't want her here. "Yes sir." She said and turned to follow the others.

Siren grabbed her before she could leave. His hand shot out and clamped down on her wrist with the power of a vice, pulling her against his own body as he climbed to his feet. Demi cried out in surprise and tried to pull herself away. She was scared of this evil mockery of her own master, absolutely terrified. Siren must have picked up on that too but in truth he had only grabbed her because she was the easiest one to reach. "Let me go!" She cried, horrified.

The android just couldn't stay down for long. If they were going to get away then it would not be without a price. The little girl was easy to hold on to, she was very weak compared to his own great strength. This was another traitor to her race and she deserved death just as much as the others, maybe even more so. They as layans did not have a choice of their birthright, but the renegade servants of Orakio had had a choice in their fealty and they had chosen evil. Siren could kill her now as an example of the retribution yet to come.

Wren took Demi's other hand as she reached out for him desperately, a silent cry for help. For a moment or so it looked like a comical tug of war was going to begin between the two wren-types, with Demi the line in-between. She tried to yank her hand out of Siren's grip a second time, frantically thinking that she should spark the scary siren before he could spark her. It would work well, only that with their hands joined the electrical surge would run through Wren as well and severely injure him.

"Let her go." Wren said and glared at Siren, at the android wounded with his chance of killing slipping away from him. He could incapacitate Siren now and put this little crisis to a swift end, yet that meant doing the very same thing to Demi and he couldn't bring himself to consider that. Siren saw that he had the upper hand now. He didn't care who he killed. He smiled. Wren didn't like that look, but what he liked even less was the gathering electrical charge building up in Siren's hand encircling Demi's wrist.

Demi felt the increased charge and tried not to panic. She twisted in Siren's grip and finally faced him, looking him in the eyes. Previously she had hidden from him, either by hiding behind Rune or averting her gaze. Demi had just been scared of him which was understandable in the circumstance. Siren had not really gotten a very good look at her either, he could tell she was a little female android and that was about it. She wasn't very important in his plans for vengeance. Because she was so small Siren hadn't even seen her face. He saw it now, the light green hair, the lighter green eyes, and the strange-looking red mark upon her forehead.

And the most unlikely thing happened. Nobody ever could have guessed it.

He recognised her.

"Le Cille." He said, astonished.

Siren released her. He hadn't intended to but he had just been so surprised. It was more than surprise, it was horror, mortification, disbelief. He didn't know how to handle it. Wren saw his chance and took it without a second thought. He raised his gun-arm and struck Siren as hard as his could across the face with the barrel of his weapon, then he grabbed Demi and lifted her clear off her feet as if she weighed nothing at all. He held her in the crook of one arm and retreated soon after, heading into the Landale with the hatch closing behind them like the swift blade of a guillotine.

He snapped out of it a second after it was too late. Recovering from the blow Siren charged the closing door but his hands hit the metal of the outer hull. "No!" He shouted angrily, pounding the barrier which separated him from his kill with his fists. That damned android and his little friend! They had ruined his plan! He took some steps back and shot a few times at the ship, but it was useless. The Landale was designed specifically for withstanding great heat, the heat of reentering the atmosphere of a planet.

The girl was a Le Cille. That made no sense. The Le Cille clan were the purest and wickedest bloodline of the layans that had ever existed. They were the mortal enemy of the Sa Ruik clan, but he had just seen a former servant of Sa Ruik in the form of a Le Cille. It did not compute. It was impossible. Siren did not understand.

It, or more correctly, she was destined to become the object of his obsession in the long dark times that were to come.

†††

When the door clanged shut behind him and the timer activated Wren realised that he had just screwed himself over. There was no way he could reclaim Zelan now. Demi's little arms were wrapped around his neck and she had her face buried in his shoulder. Siren had really frightened her and Wren wouldn't be able to pull her away even if he tried. His friends were in the hallway waiting for him, Rune at the front as he had somehow become their unofficial leader. The magician ran a hand through his long messy hair tiredly.

"Let's get out of here." He breathed. In about a minute all the air on Zelan would be gone. There was no point hanging around an area they couldn't reclaim. The only thing that Rune wanted to reclaim right now was a nice safe bed. Chaz had his hands on Rika's shoulders and Rika was holding her elbows protectively. Hahn and Raja seemed like the only ones who were okay now, Hahn having used up all his fear after flinging the knife at Siren and Raja was practically impervious to such things.

"I cannot leave Zelan behind. I have sworn to defend it at all costs." Wren argued wearily, his argument redundant because he could not go back even if he wanted to.

"You've left it before." Rune reasoned softly. They could hear faint rumbles from the outside of the ship, Siren shooting at the Landale in frustration and in an eager bid to blast a way inside. "Look, we're not abandoning anything but we need to get out of here before that crazy bastard puts an open-air balcony in the side of the ship, 'open-air' being purely a figure of speech."

"This is true. I will proceed to the bridge and take the Landale into safe space. I doubt that Siren will follow us. He has something more valuable than a few meager kills." Wren said as he gently set Demi down and was relieved when she let go of him. The android wanted to do the exact opposite of what he was saying but that choice was out of his hands now. He brushed through the crowd of his friends and acted like leaving his duty didn't bother him at all.

"Something more valuable? What's that?" Chaz asked in a hesitant voice.

Rune snorted. "Isn't it obvious? He won the castle siege. He now has a base."