Rydel is floating. Somewhere.
Things felt distant, even the sensation coming from his finger tips felt like they have traveled from the edge of the universe to get to his central nervous system. He tried to swing his arms, but his arms refused to obey his command and instead chose to annoying lag behind his consciousness.
What is going on here? Rydel is fairly certain that he is not dreaming, since a dream would be crazier, right?
But what really is crazy? Is teleporting objects across time and space with literally a slide of hand crazy? Seeing through the cosmos crazy? Being able to slide into a parallel dimension crazy? Generating a turbine worth of electricity just by thinking crazy?
Aha! That's what happened just now.
Rydel now vaguely remembered, Dolon was around, she was up and walking about. So what?
Why is he now trapped in this genjutsu world and every single movement felt like swimming in mud. Heavy, slow, unpleasant.
Rydel now struggled to breath, and in response he just breathed harder, and harder.
And Harder.
AND HARDER.
Rydel pulled his head back as a giant breath brought him back to the Aquarian ship.
He is really breathing now and to his pleasant surprise it's not that hard to breath. It is hard to move around though, as his limbs felt numb and heavy, like they have gone through a marathon race, while untrained.
But it's working, at least. And there is no lag from his brain to her limbs.
'That's was seriously trippy.' Rydel rubbed his eyes and stumbled up, besides him the rest of the crew are sleep quiet, but also moving like they are in the middle of a restless dream. Rydel scanned around as the shattered memories began to piece themselves back together.
It was a job well done, and everything is sorted out. Then all of them were sitting here in the room and Dan gave all of them some basic information about this organization that Ol was warning everyone about, it's name, and what it's purpose is. Then Cellica knew something is wrong, and somehow they were tracking Dan still.
They tried to figure a way out of this situation without wanting to leave behind the valuable asset that is Dan.
Then what happened? Rydel can't remember.
'Hey! Hey! Can you hear me? Shits going down!' Rydel went right up to Cellica who's breathing steadily, but not awake like he is. He grabbed her in the shoulder and shook her a few times. Her head wobbled around as the messy hair became undone and covered her face.
Good lord, now what? Rydel stood there and thought for a minute. He raised his right hand up high, and tried to make out the location of Cellica's face underneath the golden hair of hers. But if anything, he has now become a master of judging distances at this stage of the book.
'Forgive me, but Dolon's missing.' Rydel murmured to himself to assure that doing this won't induce even more turmoil to their relationship.
With his hand up high, he twisted his feet, let's the trunk carryover the speed and power and accelerate his hand. The fingertips travelled quickly through the air and whooshed all the way down when it stopped an inch from her. Rydel can't do it. This useless boy can't find it in him to put the hand on her face.
He deflated back onto his seat, contemplating what would have happened if the hand connects, is it going to be a glorious impact? He guess he will never know.
'Oh hell, this isn't going to work, right?' Rydel suddenly had an idea. It is so cliche that he doubt it would ever work, but words do hit harder than hands, maybe. Sometimes.'
Yo! If you aren't up already then I will eat all of your potatoe wedges!'
'Uh, what?' Like a shot of adrenaline entering a dying body, Cellica's body jolted around as she turned her head around to face Rydel with her eyes open up wide, 'wedges? What time is it?'
'No kidding....' Rydel jumped back in his seat and almost knocked it over, 'right! It's figuring out what the hell happened time! I am glad you are awake.'
'Did you have to hit me to wake me up?' Cellica glanced around with a confused as she touches her face, 'It didn't even hurt at all. Come on man!'
'What?' Rydel couldn't believe it, but there are more important things than convincing Cellica that he can hit a women with proper technique and power, 'anyway, go wake the others up how you think it should be done.'
'Ouch!'
'...this is some power.'
'Ahhh!!'
'Oh!'
Cellica was a lot more efficient when it comes to waking people up than Rydel, and the shot of pain and shock woke everyone up quickly. It is quite fortunate that no one was actually dead, and it seemed like all Dolon did was just knock everyone out, and exited, to somewhere.
After giving a bit of time for everyone to shake out, Rydel and Cellica gathered all of the ones left back into the main room and it became evident that both Dan and Dolon are gone.
'Cellica, are there any more of Absolute Being left?' Though the giant mountain base had been reduced to nothing but a pile of shattered rocks and rubble, Rydel still wanted to make sure that whatever their next steps are, it's hidden away from the group.
'No.' Cellica activated her artifact and scanned all around her, there is nothing that she can see, especially nothing as big as the mother ship of the Absolute Being hanging around somewhere. The mountain has a giant opening as if someone had taken a bite out of it.
Ol accessed the ship's sensor system from the table they are sitting on and checked using it's radar systems. There are indeed nothing.
They are all alone on this planet, for better or for worse.
As Ol turned off the scanning interfaces, he instinctively went over to look at the time and date, and paused there like a statue.
'What's up?' Cellica asked.
'It would seem like rather than having passed out for a few hours, we are out for a day or so, just like this.' Ol signed as he flipped the screen around to the rest of the group.
Rydel shot up, and walked around the room quickly a few times. If they are really out for an entire day, then Dolon could very well be captured or killed many times over. They would have zero idea and not been able to do a single thing, 'Ol, I think it's time we consult the scroll of truth.'
'I agree.' Ol agreed as he stood up as well, 'I will be a minute.'
'Sure.' Cellica nodded towards him as he strolled out of the room, then she turned to Mindo and asked, 'is there anything from the GBI?'
'My beacon was shut off when Dolon blasted us and took Dan away.' Mindo looked at Cellica disgruntledly, 'from my point of view, it could very well mean Dolon took the person of interest out and abandoned the group.'
'Don't even start, man.' Rydel scratched his head hard, 'I can understand why you would think that, but it's either one of us take the hit and bring whatever they are tracking Dan with away from the ship, or all of us get captured and you three killed.'
'Dolon would logically think she is the best option to be the one to draw them away, yes.' Cellica dropped her head down, 'but that literally defeats the whole purpose of us coming here to rescue Zel. Trading out one for another.....'
'Sorry....' Zel apologized, and Rydel simply padded himself on the shoulder.
'That is not strictly true.' Rydel disagreed, 'We would have ended up more valuable information if Dan was here and GBI can gain lots of useful information from him, but now both of them are gone...'
'I cannot simply take your word for it.' Mindo shook his head, 'unless there is evidence, Dolon would be on the same list Absolute Being is on.'
'Speaking of evidence...' Cellica stood up and went into the cockpit, 'there is a black box on every ship.'
The black box was found and the audio recording was played. Mindo conceded.
Also Cellica gave him a good smack down on how he wasted all the droids that would have been perfect for diversions.
'Right, no matter what, this is going to be a shitty situation for all of us.' Mindo massages his temple gently and tried to figure out a way to put everything together for his superiors, 'I assume you want to keep your... personal life hidden, Cellica?'
Cellica nodded.
'Right, so I will put it like this. I encountered this group, they resisted arrest, intiated attack and we were forced into hiding and missed the rescue attempt. How does that sound?' Mindo said so as he turned to the two rookies now sitting behind him, 'you keep it to yourselves ok?'
'Yes Sir.' They agreed.
'Thank you.' Cellica smiled towards them, 'I just don't think the Bureu is ready to learn of either us or the organization yet. So it might be of best interest for us to stay hidden for a good while.'
'That's true. We had a bad history of reacting to things a bit too...actively.' Mindo nodded, 'I will bring back whatever intelligence I can, and we can work together to track them down continually.'
'Consider this first contact,' Cellica reached out with her hand, 'I feel like I will be seeing a lot more of you, Mindo. Oh, also you can take the pseudo-artifact. I think this would be a good starting point for the Bureau.'
'Great, something to look forward to.' Mindo rolled his eyes and reached forward with his hand also, and they shook. After the injuries were fairly well sorted, Mindo then lead the two rookies off the ship and sent out of distress signal yet again.
As they head off to their 'hiding place', Ol had also returned from his room. He looked visibly tired, but with a renewed sense of hope in his movements.
'What did you ask?' Cellcia asked.
'When you only have one shot, you have to formulate your words carefully.' Ol said, 'I asked where Dolon is heading, with the assumption that she would be too valuable to Absolute Being to be killed, and the Scroll gave me a trajectory towards the region of space they are going. There is only one issue.'
'Which is?' Rydel asked.
'They are heading out. All the way out...deep into the wild regions.' Ol replied, 'outside of the sanctions of the settled regions. Somewhere quite hard to get to, especially deep in the wild regions.'
'Yes.' Zel suddenly chimed in, 'I was born there, and it was hard enough as it is to get out, with the help of my artifact. You won't stand a chance to survive out there.'
'But we are not going to just leave her, right?' Rydel knew there must be some sort of a plan by Ol, or at least some ideas.
'Yes, if we can find out how Absolute Being is recruiting their members, then we may be able to get to where Dolon is, eventually, as it appears they are taking Dolon back to their real home base.' Ol said, 'If they have managed to establish a stronghold in the wild regions, then they must have a stable and consistent means of travel in and out of there. That would be a much safer option for us to approach rather than charging straight into the territories of the war lords.'
No one said a thing. That means for them to save Dolon, they will either have to find a way to track down the recruiters of Absolute Being, find out how they are funneling people in and out of the wild regions of space and use that route to get in.
Or join the group as an undercover spy for the bearers, and find Dolon before getting out. This is no easy feat either way.
'Over the next few days, I will continue to find out more information to narrow down the uncertainties of this plan.' Ol reassured the people that are sitting in this room as he brought up an unofficial map of the wild regions and puts a sphere near the region of space that Absolute Being is heading towards.
'Shit.' Zel cussed as soon as he saw where Ol puts the location down.
'Zel, you know the wild regions, does that ring any bell?' Rydel asked.
'The bell had never been louder.' Zel sighed, 'that is right in the middle of the strongest and baddest war lords out of the seven, the region of the Grey Wolf.'
'That is quite a cartoon-ish name for a war lord.' Rydel joked, 'so I presume it's not somewhere we can just show up?'
'No.' Zel looked at Rydel, 'some sort of alliance must be formed between the organization and the War Lord, and I don't think there is any other way of easily getting in.'
'Shit.' Cellica cursed, 'so it seemed like working all of this out from the inside is the only way?'
'Unless we want to sit around and wait for them to catch all of us.' Zel said, 'I overheard that they are tracking down all the individual artifact users, and I am certain there won't be long before they come for you guys.'
'I don't think they track us down using how I tracked Rydel though.' Ol said, 'as I am fairly certain the Scroll is able to pick up when a new artifact is activated if I ask it, but it would only confirm the fact of activation and nothing else., and it had been fairly silent ever since Rydel joined. I suppose they are tracking the bearers down through the old ways of gathering intelligence rather than some elaborate artifact machine.'
'Which means that it's safe for us to use the artifacts, as they can't track the usage like Cellica can.' Rydel knew what Ol is going next, and was glad that that's the case.
'Anyhow, I don't think there is much for us to do now.' Ol said, 'let's go home, and I will use the next few days to figure more things out.'
The journey back to Athena was a somber one. Zel stayed with the bearers, but had his own ideas. Torelamri was surprisingly welcoming as the ship slowly descends and parked outside of the compound, but he froze when there is no one coming out after Rydel.
'Dolon?'
'She was caught, my friend.' Ol put his hand on Torelamri's head and comforts him, 'but we have a plan to get her back.'
'Hey, Torelamri.' Rydel pulled out the pair of maces and showed it to Torelamri, who looked up to him with a surprising showing of sadness, 'the mace worked perfectly. I knew I can count of you. Now, for our next plan to work, we will continually need your help. Can I count on you?'
'Count on me, you can.....always!' Torelamri nodded firmly, 'what are you going to do?'
'Well, I am going back to the space fleet.' Rydel laughed out loud, 'that's where Absolute Being is looking for more members to join their little party.'
'Are you sure you are willing to do this?' Cellica looked at him right in the eyes, 'this is no joking matter. I will arrange for you to enter the elite training corps, and that's also where they will be scouting for candidates to use the pseudo-artifacts the most given their higher starting points. There will be a lot of hardship in front of you!'
'Yeah, yeah. But free food and accommodation?' Rydel gave Cellica a hug, and she pressed her arms tightly against his body, 'plus despite being on different sides, I do like part of their goals. Who doesn't want to be the strongest versions that they can be, right?'
'Ok, now.' Cellica lets Rydel go, 'if that's the case, we then need to prepare you for the entrance exam into the elite training corps that's two months away. Don't say I didn't warn you then.'
Then, she left Rydel as Zel came up from behind and was waiting to talk to Rydel.
'What's up?' Rydel turned to see the one that started this all.
'Hey, I just wanted to say thank you...again for coming for me.' Zel stood a meter away from Rydel and bowed sincerely. Rydel wasn't expecting this at all and just stood there awkwardly, 'Oh you don't have to bow! It's just the right thing to do, right?'
'Right.' Zel stood straight up again, 'and because of that, one of your friend is captured. But this time, I will help you.'
'And what will you do?' Rydel asked.
'Just as how you will be going into the elite training corps to find a way into Absolute Being, I will be going back to the wild space, and find out about them as much as I can.' Zel replied to the surprise of Rydel.
'Are you sure? It wasn't easy getting out, right?' Rydel asked curiously as he didn't expect for Zel to want to willing head back to the place that he hated for most of his life.
'Yes, but this time is different.' Zel said, 'it's not only that I want to help your friend who came and saved me, but also I have a heard of a rumor. A rumor of one of the best thieves in the region pulling off an impossible heist under the nose of the Grey Wolf. From the sound of the job, it felt like someone from my past.'
'It sounds like my mother's doing. It sounded like she is involved.'