She ran as long and hard as she could, until she grew too tired. As she slowed to walk, she realized how thirsty she was. Very, very thirsty. How long had she run? An hour? Two? Suddenly, the realization that she was thirsty and tired. With this last thought, she stumbled to her knees and fell.
Her last memory before fading into sleep was something tugging at the shoulder of her shirt...
:Wake up, Crystal!: Krinn snarled, pulling on her shirt. Two pairs of hands - Alex and one of his guards - picked her up and held her between them. Krinn, practically ignored despite the fact that he'd gotten Alex here in the first place, walked underneath the carried Crystal. :Wake up!:
No answer. She wasn't dead, though, at this range, Krinn could feel everything she felt almost as if they were one and the same. She was dying of dehydration, and quite badly sunburned. Not to mention fatigued to exhaustion.
Back at the base, which was less than a mile of walking, Crystal was laid down on her bed, and a healer was brought it. Using a combination of magic and herbs - plus quite a bit of water - he managed to revive her from her state of unconsiousness. When he told Alex and his guard that she was fine, she just needed some sleep, Krinn chased everybody out, then crawled up on the bed and laid down next to her.
"What's... going on?" she croaked, her voice still dry. She took the glass that had been placed next to her bed, with a huge pitcher of water. She filled the glass and drank it's contents, then began drinking thirstily from the pitcher itself.
:We found you in the desert. Thought you were dead, too: Krinn lifted his iguana head. :Alex helped me, and his guards. I think his name was Duyvere. Alex says that another of his guards, Matisse, is OK. He got transported back near the Engineer's Guild. His third guard, though... we haven't heard from him, yet:
Crystal gasped for breath after lowering the pitcher for the first time. Half of the water had been drained. "Well, what else could I do?" she asked angrily. Her voice was back, if a bit weak. "I am sorry for Neil, and that other man, but I had no choice."
:No on is blaming you, Crystal. We're still looking for Kenjii, but otherwise, everybody has been-:
Crystal leapt to her feet, unsteadily. "Kenjii! I forgot, he's back in the desert, Krinn! About an hour or two from where I was, in the opposite direction." She was too tired to think of directions in terms of east and west. "We have to go after him, he's fighting an Ultima!"
Krinn motioned for Crystal to get back on the bed with his broad snout. :Of course he is. We'll send-:
"I'm not having a fever dream!" Crystal interupted again. "We have to go after him!"
:Crystal, even if you're not making it up, or suffering hallucinations... then there's no reason. If he's fighting an Ultima, then he's dead already: Crystal seemed to dislike Kenjii quite a bit, so her response was not what Krinn had expected.
"No!" Crystal shook her head violently. "No, he's not dead! He can't be!" Without saying anything more, she turned around and ran out the door.
Krinn stood up, staring after her for a moment. :What the...?: Then he bounded after her.
Kenjii struggled against his bounds futiley. He couldn't move, it was as simple as that.
"What do you want from me?" he asked Skan. It shamed him that there was now more pleading than demand in his voice, but several hours of being shackled up like this did little to make you feel better. "I won't give you away. Just let me go."
Skan shook his head. "There is quite a bit I wish to know. It is easier to get it out of your mouth - through pain, of course - but if I have to, I will extract the information from your dead body. You will die anyway, so it hardly matters."
"But why?"
Skan stared at Kenjii for such a long time that new sweat began to work it's way down the mercenary's body. When he finally spoke, it did nothing to comfort Kenjii. "Lord Seth has discovered that you, boy, are his greatest threat. You've survived both of the ambushes of SWORDs we put out." The sudden grin that appeared on Skan's face held no mirth. It looked odd, half of it human flesh and lips, the other an odd mechanical mouth curving up. "You will not survive this one, however." Without any more departing words, Skan turned around to go to the hangar. Why, Kenjii didn't know, only SWORD went in and out, there.
Kenjii couldn't help but grin when Skan was gone, despite the threat. Crystal and Teron were not the only people he kept his psionics secret from. Had Skan known that, he probably wouldn't have placed Kenjii's weapons on a table in front of him. Focusing his psionics - it was only a little difficult to to his awkward position - one of his chatchkas began to vibrate on the table. Then began spinning abruptly, and launched itself at the cord binding his arms.
A loud metallic clang of the metal cord being severed was all Kenjii needed. He rubbed his wrists with a grimace, feeling where his shackles had dug in too deeply. No matter. He was free.
Fortunately, Skan had tried to mock Kenjii by placing all of his belongings on the table. What a moron! Kenjii tossed aside his shirt - it was pretty torn up, anyway - and put back on his coat. It felt good to be wearing it again. And in went his two chatchka and the gythka. Unfortunately, there was no way Kenjii could get his money, and he refused to spend another minute in this hell-hole.
Getting off the Soul Eater was no small feet. Basically, Kenjii just jumped off where the dunes were highest, rolling down the massive hill of sand, dirt in his clothes and hair. Fortunately, Kenjii knew very well how to take physical punishment, and suffered little damage.
"Now what?" he grumbled to himself. He could go back to the base, but what would they say to him? Would they know he worked for Skan, or would they think he managed to actually destroy an Ultima with so few scars? Desperately, Kenjii racked his brain for excuse as to why he was unharmed, and why it's been so long since he'd come back. All he knew was to go east, he didn't know how long. Hopefully, it would be a long time. He wanted to have a flawless lie set up. Screw Skan, and "Lord Seth".
Unfortunately, he had little time to think about it. Had he not been mulling over it so hard, he probably would have heard the SWORD behind him earlier, but no matter. He turned around, smirking, the gythka sliding psionically into his hands. But just as his weapon extended, and before he could see what was behind him, two more shapes from the front came out of their hiding places. The grin on his face dissapeared and was replaced with a look of horror. His head darted to look behind him, and his ice froze.
Ultima. Three Ultima SWORDs.
This was nuts! Absolute overkill! Other than Skan himself, and perhaps Slayer, now, Kenjii was perhaps the only person who knew how bad the Ultima's were. Slayer, a living legend, was told to be on par with one of these things. One!! Kenjii had been exaggerating when talking to Crystal (he should be, too, considering that particular Ultima wasn't dangerous), but this... this was impossible. Literally, impossible. Why does Skan want him dead so badly? So he can't give away the location of the Soul Eater? He could always just MOVE the damned thing! Kenjii shook his head in disbelief. Sending three Ultimas to kill a man who was "a threat to Lord Seth" wasn't overkill, it was little more than using a nuclear weapon to strike dead a deer!
Kenjii growled to himself, his knuckles clutching the gythka so hard they cracked. Well, fine. He betrayed Seth, he didn't have much longer to live anyway, even if he's hoped it could last more than an hour. At least he would go down fighting.
With a wordless roar, Kenjii threw himself at the first Ultima, the one behind him, lunging powerfully with his gythka. The SWORD sidestepped smoothly, slashing out with it's three claws, and catching Kenjii in the arm. Only two of the claws hit, thought they both opened up wide gashes. Behind him, Kenjii could hear the slight humming sound of the other Ultima's readying their beam swords.
Kenjii leaped back, barely avoiding another claw slash, then forward again, hoping to impale the Ultima's head with the gythka. This time he was successful, but frowned when the SWORD didn't explode. Perhaps this was not where oen would find it's generator...
Not pausing once, Kenjii took his two chathcka and threw them at the other Ultima's, speeding up their flight with psionics. Each one smashed directly into the two SWORD's right chest, where the generator usually was in the newer models. Again, no such luck, though the force of the blow was enough to make both Ultima's stagger back. One ever fell down.
Kenjii turned around just in time to duck, twisting under a slsh of a beam sword. He wrenched his gythka free from it's place in the SWORD's head, then leapt back again, lifting the gythka with both hands. The beam saber fell on the gythka, straining to break free and hit Kenjii. The mercenary's teeth gritted as he was forced a step back, then another. Then another. Suddenly, he twisted to the side again, just in time for a pink beam to fire from behind him, striking the Ultima in the arm, fortunately taking it out. The beam saber fell to the ground, no longer a part of the Ultima. But it raised it's own gun arm, levelling it point blank at Kenjii's head.
Kenjii leapt to the side, the pink beam streaking past time. Kenjii had hoped that it would strike another SWORD, but no such luck. Kenjii flipped to his feet - dodging another swrod thrust from the third Ultima - then spun around, striking out with the gythka. The blow didn't land; these SWORDs were extremely fast. the beam sword dissapeared as the Ultima made two lightning fast slashes, each one opening up three vertical red gashes along Kenjii's skin. Another gythka thrust was dodged, and Kenjii rolled to the side.
He came up behind all the SWORDs, who now had the decency to stand in his view all together. He realized he was breathing hard, and two of the Ultima's still had his chathcka stuck in them. Damnit. Kenjii was hoping he could manage to destroy one of them - at least one of them - but wasn't sure he could last much longer. He'd lost a lot of blood, and it wasn't long until the SWORDs beam cannons would not miss.
Kenjii took a deep breath, then leapt to the side again, just as three pink beams pierced the air where he had stood. With a desperate howl, he threw his gythka at one of the Ultima's left leg... that was the third most common generator location.
Fortunately, his aim was off, and the gythka pierced the SWORD's lower abdomen. Before Kenjii could even mutter a curse, blue electricity coursed through the body of the Ultima, and it exploded. Kenjii psionically guided the gythka back to his hands.
"HA!" he yelled triumphantly at the slowly advancing SWORDs. They had both of their arms, and his chatchka jutting out of their chest. "One down, two to go!!"
Kenjii charged forward, hitting the ground and rolling, under another pink beam from one of the Ultima's cannons. He came up, swinging the gythka diagonally, towards the lower abdomen, where he now knew the generators were. However, the SWORD anticipated this, and blocked the blow with it's arm, the one that usually held the beam saber - which it currently didn't. Kenjii spun to face the other one, but it's own beam saber struck him a glancing blow to his side, opening up a large wound. Blood spilled out, slickening the hand that travelled down to hold it in. Kenjii roared in pain, leaping back. His gythka was torn from his hands and sent flying.
Kenjii ground his teeth in pain. Damnit! And one of those SWORDs was readying it's beam cannon again. The pain in his side made the mental concentration for psionics difficult, yet he still managed to strike the Ultima hard enough to send it flying through the air, langing several feet away. Kenjii didn't even bother to look at it; he knew it would get up, soon. But for now, he had to take care of the one in front of him.
With no weapons, and the pain now strong enough to make psionics impossible, Kenjii had only one thing left to battle with - pure brute strength. Lunging forward, he struck the Ultima hard in the chest with his fist, denting the metal slightly. He ignored the pain that lanced through his arm, and punched hard with his other fist, in the thing's abdomen again. This time, there was no dent, but Kenjii was positive at least one of his knuckles were broken. The Ultima's beam sword came down once more, and Kenjii grabbed the hilt with both of his hands, trying hard not to let it touch him. He managed to kick the Ultima - repeatedly - where the generator was, but his feeble attacks did little damage. Finally, decided that now was a good a time as any to die, he let go of the saber, then spun around, kicking the Ultima as hard as he could where the generator was. The saber struck down on Kenjii's shoulder just as electricity shot through the SWORD. It fell over as Kenjii leapt back, but the exposion still knocking him to the ground, hitting the sand hard.
It took Kenjii several shaky attempts to get to his feet. His gythka lay a few feet away; he walked over slowly and picked it up. But just as he was about to put it away and congratulate himself on defeating three Ultima's, a pink beam fired by him, narrowly missing. Had he not ducked down to pick up his weapon, it would have taken his head off.
Kenjii rolled to his feet and chastised himself mentally. Of course the third SWORD wasn't defeated! He was actually surprised it had been out for as long as it was. Kenjii sighed. He could hardly stand, and the Ultima was raising it's beam cannon.
Not stopping to think, Kenjii ran forward, leaping into the air, putting all of his energy into one final blow. He flipped neatly in the air - the pink beam passed harmless underneath him - and slashed down, hard with the gythka. Light gleamed off it's blade as it cleaved through the SWORD's gun arm. But before he could pick himself up or even think about dodging, a piercing pain shot through his body. Kenjii's eyes widened in agony and shock. The Ultima had run him through the stomach with it's beam sword.
Kenjii could do nothing more than stare as the SWORD withdrew it's weapon smoothly, then raised it again to strike down a killing blow. Kenjii was vagueley aware of gunfire just before he blacked out...