It all seems to fall at your defense.

[theschemer]

Ienzo ached all over.

He wasn't sure he could remember the last time that he felt so exhausted. He had slept well enough in the hotel bed, but a single night's sleep was nowhere near enough to soothe away the strain of travel. He had, thus far, been unsuccessful in his request for a second one.

Just under a week ago, he had been informed that one of the Ryoka had defected from the main group and relocated to Daguerreo, an ancient, vast and half-submerged library out in the wilds of Nabradia. The Ryoka in question, a man described as being tall and very similar in appearance to an Al Bhed, could only be Vexen. Or Even. Whatever he was going by now -- Ienzo didn't know.

Under ordinary circumstances, Ienzo would have pointed out that Vexen was a scientist and that a trip to a repository of information like Daguerreo would not be out of character for him, certainly not enough to count such a trip as being a defection. However, these weren't ordinary circumstances, not now. He remembered Ulquiorra's recording of the battle following the Fall of Midgar. More precisely, he remembered Axel's participation in said battle, and the fact that he was fighting alongside Saix. That, Ienzo was sure, would definitely be enough of a push to get Vexen to cut ties with the group once and for all.

After the revelation came to light (something that L was responsible for), a quiet meeting was held with some of the other members of Khamja. From there, it was decided that he should be ... collected. It wasn't that Ienzo was concerned about him returning to the Order that had made him agree to do it, it was more that he wouldn't put Vexen's elimination past certain members now that he had shown a desire to leave them behind. Clan Khamja was not exactly safe, but it was certainly safer than going it alone in a still unfamiliar world, with enemies behind you, even in a remote location such as he had chosen.

A brief discussion later and a small party was decided upon. It was a carefully picked group of powerful fighters, friends and, it had to be said, enemies.

The group that left the Desert Palace consisted of Lumi and Marluxia, a pair of full Khamja members with enough firepower between them to subdue an unwilling addition to their ranks; himself, due in part to his long association with Vexen, his similar circumstances and the knowledge that Vexen would not trust Marluxia or his partner in the slightest without someone to vouch for them; Ulquiorra, now known to be an associate of his and someone Aizen could trust not to let him escape; and Neliel, because she was strong, non-antagonistic and it was safer for two of Aizen's minions to go on a trip such as this than one, especially given the company.

So far, the journey had been arduous, at least as far as Ienzo was concerned. For a start, it had all been taken across ground, or under it, instead of by airship. They had travelled more of the Zertinan Caverns than Ienzo had known existed and, in spite of the fact that some of it had been undertaken on chocobo-back, there was rather more walking on his own two feet than he would have liked. The second leg had been across the desert, all mounted. The longest part thus far had been through a great tunnel called the Fossil Roo.

That had been the worst.

The Caverns were bad enough, but the tunnel was long to the point of being seemingly endless and, as if that wasn't bad enough, it was also full of air so stale that it had been recommended that masks were worn for that part of the trip.

The aspect of it that had unnerved Ienzo the most was the fact that the Roo stretched from one continent to the other. Underwater. The idea that there was no hope of escape in the event of a cave-in was not his idea of a good time. The huge Gargants that scurried along the long-dead root systems that sprawled across the ceiling was not much fun either and they had, at least to begin with, spooked the chocobos quite as much as they had spooked him.

Well, they were giant spiders.

It had not taken him long to work out that, when the tunnel was built by whichever ancient culture had carved it out, the path between Dalmasca and Nabradia had probably not been submerged at all. Indeed, the sea above them was very likely to be considerably shallower than the rest of it. It had, to his reckoning, been some sort of land bridge recently enough that an intelligent culture had made and, for the duration of their stay, maintained the path. It was a minor miracle that it had survived for so long without its integrity being compromised.

Alternating between riding and walking, they had made the trip from one end to the other in a few long and, after a while, rather painful days. The only positive aspect of the Roo was that it was, for the most part, free of monsters brave enough to bother a party of their calibre.

They had come up some distance inland on Nabradian soil. The nearest city and, as luck would have it, their destination, was Luxerion. It took the group more than a day to reach it, but it was visible long before that thanks to the sky-piercing spire of the city's Cathedral. Luxerion may have even lived up to its name if it wasn't permanently overcast and swirling with Mist of the sort of density that could probably be described as 'low-to-moderate-risk-to-foreigners'.

They arrived late and in darkness. Luxerion did not have much of a tourism industry, not since Nabradia's fall, so the party had no trouble getting a hotel room for the night.

With dawn having broken, the city was beginning to come to life again. Shops opened their doors as the cathedral's bell tolled and, an hour later, Ienzo found himself sat inside an open-fronted café in the railway station, nursing a cup of rapidly cooling tea.

Comments

[tozasemurcielago]

When the news had come that another of the Ryoka had abandoned The Order, Ulquiorra had expected that a party would be sent to collect them. Zexion had been collected in much the same way by Marluxia, Lumi, and Kuja; Khamja would hardly let the opportunity to further swell their ranks with The Order's defectors pass them by. He hadn't expected, however, that Zexion would be considered necessary enough to risk sending him out of the Palace.

It seemed that Zexion was considered precisely that important for this, however, and since Ulquiorra had become acquainted with him, Ulquiorra had been tasked with keeping an eye on Zexion.

Lumi and Marluxia were not important to Aizen-sama's plans, but Zexion had been, and may be again. Ulquiorra considered that his task was not only to ensure Zexion didn't attempt to escape, with his introduction to Khamja being partially involuntary, but also that Zexion made it back to the Palace in one piece. Ulquiorra was aware that Zexion's relationship with Marluxia and Lumi was tense at best.

There were similar tensions between Marluxia, Lumi, and the Ryoka they were going to collect, which was why Zexion was so important.

Neliel was in attendance to keep a lid on the situation, should one arise. She was also, Ulquiorra knew, there for his own protection. Aizen-sama would not have been content to allow a single Arrancar to travel with three Ryoka to pick up a fourth defector, as it would imply far too much trust.

They were travelling on the ground. It had begun with the caverns, then chocobos across the desert to the Fossil Roo, and from there to Luxerion. From Luxerion, they would take the train. Daguerreo was hard to reach, and a trip by airship would still have required leaving the ship in Alexandria to travel by foot or by chocobo across into Nabradia.

The train was a morning train, and so the party was up earlier than Ulquiorra would have preferred. He travelled with a minimum of fuss and complaining, but long days on foot or bird had taken their toll even for him, and a night's rest in a hotel had been appreciated. It hadn't eradicated the muscle aches and tenderness of the journey, and even though a shower had helped somewhat, Ulquiorra would have appreciated perhaps another couple of hours or so to sleep.

Instead, the party had temporarily disbanded to acquire supplies from Luxerion. Neliel had headed that way, and Ulquiorra had opted to stay in the station, with a cup of questionable quality coffee with a little more sugar than usual to mask the questionable taste, and Zexion.

He also had a newspaper, although there wasn't much of interest in it. The local news was of no concern, and the national news was of no great importance, but it had been worth a look to at least ensure that being out of contact with Khamja's main base for a while, and coming out into the Mist swamped lands of Nabradia, hadn't meant they'd missed anything significant.

They hadn't. They also hadn't attracted any attention themselves, as far as they could tell, which was good.

Ulquiorra folded the newspaper, half skimmed, and half unread, and put it on the table. The others would meet them before long. Then Ulquiorra would have to endure their company once more.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia had suffered a crick below his right shoulderblade since the chocobo ride. He wasn't sure whether it was the ride itself, or that he hadn't trained with his scythe since the start of the journey, and he was now starting to feel it. Zexion knew about it, as did Lumi, but Marluxia wasn't prepared to risk any techniques in the presence of Ulquiorra, or Nel.

Especially Ulquiorra. That one had the unique ability to replay anything he'd witnessed, in detail, for later analysis by third parties. Unfortunately, he'd had no good reason to reject Ulquiorra's company, especially in light of the fact that no one, including Zexion, trusted him with Zexion without an escort, and Zexion had become acquainted with Ulquiorra.

So Marluxia was forced to deal with the boy's presence. Nel, at least, was more pleasant company, and much more personable. Though she too could be a little stiff, when the time came. He couldn't quite understand Nel; she was loyal to Aizen but was far too genuinely nice to have any good reason to be loyal to someone like him.

Marluxia wanted to get this over with. Vexen would, inarguably, be an asset. Marluxia didn't like the man, although he wasn't about to pretend that the notion of having the three of them reunited under the same roof once more wasn't amusing. With both Vexen and Zexion nearer himself, and cut off from The Order, Marluxia had access to their innovations and discoveries where the likes of Xigbar no longer would.

It would cripple The Order, and boost Marluxia's power within Khamja, provided he could get Vexen to set aside his grudge for long enough to ally with him.

Luxerion was a strange place. Grim and haunting at night, it seemed much more pleasant by daylight. The church dominated half the city, and the other half was given over to shops and the train station.

They'd taken the opportunity to resupply, and were on their way to the station so they could catch the train to make the next leg of the journey.

"Have you ever been on a train before?" He asked Lumi. He'd discovered there were a few experiences Lumi was lacking, on this journey, and if he hadn't been on a train before, this had the potential to be an interesting part of the trip for him.

[declaregamuza]

The train had been a welcome break from a chocobo. The seats were more comfortable for a start, and there was a refreshment trolly that served tea of dubious quality, and sandwiches of even more suspect quality, but after so long, even a bad cup of surprisingly hot tea was welcome.

Ulquiorra spent most of the journey in what Nel considered his Power Save mode, speaking when spoken to, and otherwise very still, like someone who was dog tired and didn't have the energy to hold a conversation. Not that this was unusual for Ulquiorra. She certainly knew the feeling; she had aches where she had no business having aches, and she could have easily stayed in Luxerion for another night.

They couldn't risk someone from The Order beating them to Daguerreo, unfortunately. Once they had their target in the grasp, they could take as long as they needed to get back, but the thinking was that if Khamja knew he was there, others would soon find out.

Nel wasn't sure how likely that was, but L had been a bit spooked about losing all of his informants in Rabanastre, and was playing it safe as to the risk of there being a leak, or him having been beaten to the information about Vexen's departure, due to his sudden and unexpected lack of informants.

Nel had got through two out of date women's gossip rags on the journey. Anything to avoid pretending to be social when she was too tired to put the effort in. Marluxia and Lumi appeared obnoxiously wide awake, which didn't do much for Nel's mood regarding the two of them.

They'd waltzed up to the station with coffee. Nel hadn't commented on it, but had been amused to notice Lumi carrying a cardboard cup ticked off with the markers for 'latte' and 'vanilla', meaning he had something in common with Szayel.

When she'd read every scrap of idle gossip and sad story one upmanship in the magazines, such as the woman whose husband left her for a Seeq, and the other woman whose husband left her for a Bangaa while she was pregnant, and other such tales of romantic woe, she discarded the magazines. She was tempted, briefly, to offer them to Lumi, but thought even he might catch that dig, so she refrained, and checked on the kids.

Not that Ulquiorra and Zexion were kids in anything but the technical sense, but she felt like they were her responsibility in a similar way.

"Not long now," she said, snapping Ulquiorra out of his doze to get a nod from him and a small noise that was basically a grunt of recognition.

[thechillyacademic]

Vexen had been ensconced in his room's reading chair, as comfortable and as relaxed as he ever got, when he felt the air turn ... wrong. He looked up from the yellowed pages of his book and closed it over a finger, scowling to himself.

The thick, heavy wooden door, four hundred years old if it was a day, muffled any voices outside it, but it didn't dampen the trace amounts of energy signatures that he could feel. The familiarity of it cut through the ambient background noise of Daguerreo like a hot knife through butter and he felt the unpleasant prickling on the back of his neck before he fully realised what it meant.

Before he fully realised who it was.

Every instinct in him wanted to freeze the door closed, to coat the inside with ice and lock himself inside, but he sat there, unmoving save for a tremble in the fingers of his free hand, barely breathing. If he felt them in here, he knew that they'd be able to feel him out there, especially if they were looking for him and they had to be.

They. They.

How had they found him? He'd taken a strangled route to Daguerreo, going from Lindblum to Alexandria and then by sea instead of by train. He hadn't given anybody in Rabanastre any inkling that he was planning to leave at all, let alone where he was going to. He supposed that it was an obvious place for him to go -- it was the biggest library in the world -- but the more logical course of action would have been to lose himself in a populated city.

Preferably on Dorstonis.

He'd been foolish to think he might be able to stay at a remote location, even a remote library, without it coming to anybody's attention. He had expected the Order to come after him, some sniffer dogs sent by Xigbar at Saix's behest, perhaps. He almost laughed at the idea. But no, it was 'envoys' from Khamja. Five of them.

He supposed he should be flattered by the number. Zexion was there, as was Marluxia. He didn't know the other three, but he suspected that one of them was the associate of Marluxia's that he had brought with him. Reports said that they were inseparable.

The other two? He didn't know. The feel of them alarmed him for reasons he couldn't place. If he thought about it, he knew he'd be able to work out why, but the slowly rising panic made it difficult, even for him, to think, to put a finger on the memory. He'd subconsciously filed them into the 'dangerous' category already. He'd undoubtedly find out why, later.

He sat, very quietly, and jumped when he heard the rapping on the door. The deep, hollow knocks reverberated around his cold stone room and then cut off abruptly. Silence followed. It almost felt like they were giving him the option of responding.

That was laughable.

If Khamja was there, he knew had no option, not really. They were there to either recruit or kill him. If the former failed, they'd undoubtedly fall back on the latter. Maybe that's what Zexion was there for, to lessen the chance of them killing him like a schoolyard bully making the most of the 'if I can't have it, nobody can' mentality that bullies everywhere employed.

His suspicions were confirmed when he heard the scraping of the lock being picked.