Welcome to Gaia! ::

I laugh heartily, and we are out of the fleet's range. That is when a large blob of ship appears out of our port side port hole. "Ah, here Charlie is now," I say eagerly. We are boarded by him and three of his mean, all hardy looking people. "Welcome aboard.... the Leviathan. Its a nice name to call a ship, no?" He nods apprehensively. He had a curled wolf tail, and pointed ears. I would ask.... but I doubt it would end too well. So I just say: "Welcome aboard."

"Pleased to be aboard," he says. He looks at Hitomi.

Charlie nods, and I wait for him to start talking, but our meeting is short lived. Both ships start to be pulled backward. I run to the back of the medium sized ship. There, back the way we came, was a huge spiral that seemed to be sucking everything into it. The men off his ship scramble to get back and help, as I turn I watch him go. He catches my eye, and nods. I smile going to the controls. "Hitomi, when I say, go ahead and pull this lever, as hard as you can. Meanwhile, I am going to go work on our engines. Atlantis has many mechanics, I picked up a few things." I run off to the engines, and then start to work on them. I pull out certain things, like the large magic crystals that served to pull the ship up. I grab a blaring walky talky. "My ship's Float Crystals are fried. Whatever is pulling us killed em!" I talk out, a voice greets me, urgently describing what I need to do. I ignore him. I grab a large needle out of a toolbox, and stick it through the crystal. I shove it back in, and feed a bit of magic into it. The recharged crystal starts glowing red again, and the ship lurches. I immediately pull my bow and turn. A Judge sits in the door way, a gun pointed at my head. "Hitomi! Pull the lever!" I shout out. Now, the ship rocks, and the Judge is thrown off balance. I loose an arrow down his throat, but my paradox is off, and it misses. I loose another, this time perfectly, and he dies. I run back to the controls, and grab them from Hitomi. "Go back to the engine room, and when I tell you, pull that red crystal, with the needle!" I yell at her, we were heading toward the ground fast.

I yell out for her to pull it. And when the ship lurches, and falls to the ground, I push out as much thrust as I can. We start to pull away, and then it happens. A large yellow beam of light cuts through the ship. I yell out to Hitomi, but when I look back, the ship had been severed in two. Falling, I could hear the ground fast approaching, and there was nothing I could do. The silence, the lonely silence of wind was harrowing. I look up at the fire maybe three feet from my head, and dive further into the small space. The metal at my back would probably kill me. I wait for it, and then I hear metal hit ground, which would be Hitomi's part of the ship. "By the Gods, you better live-" My voice is cut short as I feel myself thrown forward. My6 part of the ship had hit ground, and the impact was dreadful. I black out clutching my heart.

I flutter into consciousness. Then I try a limb, and it is pinned, and mutilated, under a piece of steel. I roll over to face it, and use my other arm, free and working to get it out. I achieve mild results, and give up. "Grrr." I growl, and start kicking it off. I get it and start to nurse the mutilated limb. After a while I start to move around, and get up to explore. Surprisingly, the bridge had survived, and that was where I was. The walls on all sides had no door, and I could find no way out. Luckily, I had holes near the ground, small enough to let in some fresh air, but other than that, I was stuck, and screwed. I plant myself next to a wall, and lean back. "I just got this ship too! What, is being a pirate not good enough?!" I yell out, to no one in particular. The walls echo it back at me. I sigh and wait for something good to happen.

I fall asleep after a while, and rest fitfully, my arm hurt so bad. After a good nap, I wake and start to assess my options. No food, no water, and trapped. The ground was soft, so I could probably dig my way underneath, but I doubted I could get far without some kind of tool. I find a good piece of steel and start to shovel, and after an hour of grueling work, i am free. To find Gaband. He stands there with three soldiers on either side, pointing various weaponry at my face. I smile a cocky smile and put my hand on my hip. "Well now, if it isn't Mr. Judgemaster. What do you want, Mr. Judgemaster?" He brings a fist into my gut, and I double over.

"Your dead, you know that?" he asks. "Ready, aim...." I look up, a smile still on my face. His eyes narrow. I grab something in my pocket, and throw it at him. His face looks flushed with anger for a moment. Then he brings his fist into my face. "Your dead meat, boy. But, unlike Sara, I am going to throw you in a ring to fight for your life. It will provide entertainment, do you not think so? You will have weapons, or else it would not be fair. Bring him." I am picked up and dragged to a waiting truck, and thrown in. I sigh, and worry if my life could get any worse.

I wake again in a small concrete room, with no one else but me, the cold walls, and a metal door. It was familiar, to be sure. Then a soldier comes in, followed by a black suit. They take me away to a small armory, and force weapons into my hands. Next, I am being lead, an I.V. in my now perfectly normal arm, to a small room adjacent to a large ring. The take the medical stuff, and put me out into the dirt floored arena. People cheer on from metal rooms with high, double paned thick glass. I shout some profanities, and then am confronted by a weak man with a small whip. He scurries off to a corner, and I shake my head, disgusted. I turn, and then I hear him transform. I whirl, but he is upon me. What he turned into, was like a cross between a bird, a human, and a large leopard. The claws tear into my back, and I scramble away. He stalks to me, and digs his claws back into my skin. I scream, and slash at him with a broadsword, but it proves ineffective. The crowd cheers, and after ten minutes, I black out.

_____________________________________

Vertusk hears the crowd, and worries. "What could be happening?" he asks a man next to him. He details Azelus' torture and bloodiment. He shudders, and when he hears the people in the arena take Azelus off, he scurries off to where they would be taking him. Once there, Vertusk breaths for a moment. "Randell?" he asks tentatively. Azelus moans, but does nothing more. He grabs him and takes him out of there. He avoids any soldiers, and loads him into a portal. Once there, he takes him to Logan, who groans at his condition. "Yes, it is bad. I do hope we can do something for him." A woman of about seventeen comes up, her eyes worried. She toils about him, fixing wounds, healing him. Logan comes up at the end, and lays an antilaw card on his stomach.

"You can not denounce your powers, Azelus. We still need you. With this, you can fight Gaband. Then, we can bring peace to the universe. I hereby reinstate your Judicial Powers, Judgemaster Azelus." Logan steps back, and that is when the light enshrouds Azelus. They sit to wait, wondering when it may happen he should be woken.

I wake some time later, my wounds had healed, with large, pink scars striking my eyes. I was inside whit, with white as far as I could see. I had armor on, and a cape. I squint at the light, looking for something. I instinctively grab for my bow as I see a large buffalo barrel into my view. I walk along, and when I can get a good shot, I take it. But it fails, and the bow comes three feet short. I adjust, but the arrow splits the first one I loosed. I throw my bow down in anger, and grab for a gun at my waist. The bullets fall short as well. Angered, I rush at the animal, but even though it does not move, I can never get close to it. I thrash about in anger for a while, and sit, facing the large animal. "So hungry..." I say. And I realize why I want the thing, I was starving. It was food, and I needed it. My armor falls away to reveal tattered clothing. And I look back to see a camp of tents, people with tattered clothing stand wanting me to bring back the bison for food. I get back up, and grab my bow and quiver. I load an arrow, wait for a while, and launch it. The buffalo hits the ground with a thud, the arrow protruding from its eye. Several young men come and drag it back to the camp. That is when I see a cliff. I walk to it, but when I get there, I reel back. A large city stands with gleeming walls keeping peasants from it. I hear the crunch of a man's footsteps behind me. I turn to see Vertusk.

"It is not your fault, Randell. What happened, it happened." He says, eyeing the city. "Who knew the fall of Sara would breed this? A universe filled with poverty, hate, fear? I am sorry that you still feel it your fault for taking the defense she had. But it is not. Come, come back to the camp. We have the hungry that need to eat."

"Vertusk, tell me, how did she die again, Sara?" I ask, he snorts, but goes along with it.

"Scarlet killed her! Remember?" He says, exasperated. "I thought we were clear on that? After you killed Gaband, we found Scarlet's reincarnation, and we brought her back up to speed. She killed Sara on the steps of her castle. That is when the realms remelded, into this." He waves to the land. "A world of nothing but green grass, high cliffs, and white sky. Its a pity. No beaches, anywhere. I remember you said you would do anything to feel the sand between your toes again." He shakes his head and leaves me. I look back.

"Damn those wealthy Judges. You should have killed them along with Gaband. We would not be looking at them prosper in that damn city. Should have blown up the Earth too." I turn to see a young lad of fourteen. He sighs. "I know, what happened, happened. It just does. Come, Azelus. Your village needs you." I follow him back, the bison was cooking now, and the meat smelt good. I lay back in a large chair. The village people adorn my head with a mask, and they don theirs as well. We wait for the meat to get done, and I doze off.