The Dream Shifter

Chapter 230

  The long night continued without giving up any luck for all involved. Far from the camp in the middle of nowhere Atlantis, the vehicle that carried Vangelis' team parked for a stop. His team remained inside the vehicle as ordered. Staring around the horizon, he calculated his position.

He knew from their maps where they stopped, but it bothered him. The Captain foresaw them returning for their comrade. Everything Simonides told to him about them made him agree with the assessment. They sounded painfully naïve, enjoyable ones to crush. He looked forward to meeting them, but they found them nowhere.

Crouching to the ground, he ran his fingers over the pockets of earth. 'The radar shows nothing in the area… We traced their course from Skoupa, but nothing…' Vangelis gazed up at the horizon, the general location of their camp. They did not know where to find their captured comrade. The retreat even used a hover vehicle to leave no traces, to slow down their plans. '…hmm…'

More questions surfaced. 'As he figured, if they traveled by vehicle, they would have reached camp long ago, even without tracks to follow. The camp sticks out, especially at night…' His head turned back in the direction that he knew the battle took place. 'They walked the whole morning, not even hiding themselves… Did they walk back?'

Standing up, Vangelis took a few steps further away from the transporter. He crossed his arms still letting his eyes do the work. 'If they walked, then that could explain things… If they walked they could be anywhere along the route, especially if they're searching… I would have thought we would see some sign of them…'

Settling into the bothersome back-up plan, he turned back to the vehicle. 'No other choice… We'll waste time just searching the area…' He approached the passenger side door, noting Iole still obediently waiting. His hand knocked on the metal to get her to open the door for him. A second later, it swung open, but she held her gaze forward. "Follow the tracks to the battle site."

"The enemy is not there anymore," she replied without missing a beat.

Vangelis lowered his eyebrows a touch. "This is an order."

"Our orders are to halt the enemy's progress."

"Unless you've suddenly found them, I see no reason to stay here." He leaned into the cabin of the vehicle towards Iole. His hand pressed into the passenger seat. "A superior officer is giving you an order. Go to the battle site. We'll pick up their tracks from there."

Fumiko and Stamatia's explosion rocked the tent of the temporary command center. The only thing keeping it from destruction was the fact that Simonides had three MPs stations around to dampen the effects of their battle. It spared nearly a fifth of the camp from the devastation.

Simonides kept his eyes focused on the display even though his mind turned focus briefly to the quaking. He bore witness to many duels between MPs over the years, but it still unnerved him the destructive nature that they could achieve. A disastrous scenario such as the one that occurred in his camp fell on his list of possibilities, but he still did not give it high odds. He counted on his contingencies halting their progress. They continued to leave him with more questions than answers. He had not found the correct way to fight them. Everything about them defied reality, even more than a MP user.

Once the shockwave passed, everything turned eerily quiet. All of the soldiers in the tent paused waiting for the fighting outside to roar back to full veracity, yet it remained silent. Seconds passed onto minutes before the tension eased up.

He stared more intently at the map in front of him. A MP user generated a battle map for him to give him a better sense of the chaos within his camp. Enough time passed since the fighting began that he turned his men's panic around. His command restored a small amount of order.

In front of him, particles rained down creating a hemisphere with detailed topology and mapping of everything within the region. It did not identify individuals with names, as Simonides would have preferred, but simple dots with health conditions. He saw where his men stood and the fighting happened. The area of Stamatia's fight remained unknown. Heat from their fight disrupted the readings leaving them with a large circle awaiting the results. Outside of the dead zone, another individual waited on his orders to respond to the outcome.

Still it bothered him to only see a small force. 'Three intruders…where's the rest?' From the immediate fighting, he knew only three fights took place. He expected all of them in the camp, probably trying to sneak in. However, they found no one. 'There are some unaccounted for, but we've found nothing…'

Two considerations came to him while he stared longer at the map. 'They're either disguising themselves and hiding within our ranks waiting or…' Simonides stared at the placement of the fighting and position of anyone the map detected. He thought he started to understand the way they worked. Things happened within his forecast, but errors still occurred. The second option he dreaded more, since it meant that there was more still that he did not understand about them. '…they've split into two teams and this is all they set for a rescue… But what would the second team be doing?'

Waiting and responding was the only thing he could do at the moment. He knew if he made an action on only guess work the outcome could be worse. The number of MPs he had under his command were five short and four recovering. 'Regardless of the situation, they've come into den of the lion… It doesn't matter how strong they are… Everyone succumbs to fatigue… Well capture three more of them… They made a grave mistake falling for my trap…'

Seiji's words made her step back a little. She did not expect such an answer. Even though it did not make any sense to her, she saw in his eyes that he believed what he said. It muddled their situation further. She did not know what was happening any longer. "How can that be? No one leaves the barrier. We remain here protecting our privacy. What you're saying doesn't make sense. There's no reason we would want to attack anyone on the outside."

"I'm not too understanding of the whole situation, but my friend is the son of your late King. As it was explained to me, certain people don't want him to inherit the throne. That is the reason for the attack."

"That can't be…" The lies became worse. She knew it was impossible, no matter how much he spoke them as truths. Taking a firm step forward, she leaned toward Seiji. "The King has no son. It is public knowledge that the Queen died before giving him an heir. So you're lying. Whoever has been telling you this has been lying to you."

The new revelation gave Seiji pause. Most of the information he got from Yuki and did not think to question it. He figured that Ayumi told him it all, something that churned his stomach a bit. Even thinking about her made him angry. 'She's always doing her own thing without any regard for the rest of us. The only one that she wants is Yuki. Would she lie about that? Is there something else she wants?' Seiji's eyebrows twitched with the more that he thought.

It took him a few more seconds before he gave up the effort. A sigh escaped his lips as though expelling the troubles with the air. One truth remained. One truth he could not change or avoid. "It's true that she's probably lying to us about something. I don't know if this is one of those things. For all I know you're lying to confuse me." Seiji crossed his arms, to show that he still refused to fight the woman. "The reality is that we are here now. If it is because of lies, I'll deal with her after all of this is settled. The fact remains you're holding one of our friends. So until he's returned to us we won't be leaving."

She found his stubbornness continually frustrating. He did not believe her and refused to take her seriously. "So you're just like everyone else. Treating me like a child." Her hands rose looking ready to fight again.

"Huh?" Seiji tilted his head to the side not clear what the recent words from her meant. "What are you talking about? Why would I treat you like a child?"

"You refuse to fight me as an equal."

"That's got nothing to do with the other. My code prevents me from fighting women. I would never see a woman as a child." He waved his hand dismissing her proclamation. "Besides, you're like in your early twenties or something…"

"I'm fourteen," she stated clearly.

Seiji nodded in agreement with her, not immediately hearing her words. "You're fourteen, see! An adult…" His words caught up to what he repeated. It froze him for a second before he turned a little defensive looking back at the very tall…girl. "Fourteen? Now you're the one lying to me!"

She shook her head at him. The expression on her face did not change the entire time she stared at him. Her features gave no indication of deceit. In fact, some self-loathing sat behind her eyes.

It took him a little bit longer to take it all in. Even then, he still had trouble with the reality. He walked over to her suddenly looking very serious. She became defensive bringing up her fists to fight. Seiji reached out his hand towards her.

'He's ready to fight?' She tightened her fists up. His presence built tension down her back. Her body still remembered how strong and quickly he moved when protecting her. It planted a seed of doubt in her muscles. She did not know how strong he could be when serious. The way he looked, she thought she might learn shortly. She wanted to strike first, but her arms froze up on her. Her eyes closed.

Seiji stopped in front of her and paused with his hand still held out. "Hmm…" He lifted his other hand up to himself. His eyes moved between them thoroughly examining…something.

The long pause of nothing happening tightened the tension through her body. It turned everything inside her rigid as though the slightly movement would send cracks through her skin to crumble like dry clay. After the waiting became too long, she opened her eyes, finding the courage. However, she suddenly felt the life disappear from her body at what he did. Sweat dripped down the back of head.

Finished, Seiji took a step back. His hand rubbed his chin in deep thought. He kept silent for nearly a minute. It created a new awkward tension around them until his eyes slammed open. "You're…" He pointed a finger at her, but it quickly began to shake in front of her. Seiji pulled his hand back and braced both against his head. "I can't believe it! You're a year younger than me, but you're already taller than me!" He collapsed to the ground at the end of the declaration. "…reality's so cruel…"

She finally fell over once he finished. She saw his hand measuring out the distance in their height and could not believe it. After she saw it, she hoped he was doing something else, but the truth came out. It felt like a strange defeat. She did not understand him.

His reaction made her struggle to recover. "You're bothered about height…" It did not make any sense to her. An unusual and unexpected answer came from him. He did not act serious when it seemed like he should be desperate. His manner was nothing like what she came to know from those in the military. He was so different from her. The sight of him made her wonder a bit in awe. 'Is this what it's like on the outside?'

Seiji still muttered to himself about the height. "First I had to deal with that crazy tall third year girl and now this one too and she's younger… Why are all of the girls stealing my distinctive characteristic?"