The Dream Shifter

Chapter 181

The crowd had started to disband by the time Yuki returned to Seiji. "Let's go back to our friends." He glanced over at Yori to know how he looked. All he saw was a mute void. Something had him distracted and entranced. Yuki wanted to stop, but they had no time to rest. They guided him back with them to the inn.

Eudokia glared at him from the side of the inn before they even reached the steps to the door. All of them stood outside with a waiting expression on their face. The only other one that appeared upset was Saki. Waiting until Yuki got into the shadow of the building, Eukodia nearly stomped over to him. "I knew you were stupid, but even I didn't think you were that stupid! What do you think you're doing?!" She jabbed a finger into his face not quite touching him.

Assaulted by her did not even turn Yuki blue or shake him. He held on to Yumi returning her fierce stare. "I took responsibility for my actions. I thought that's what you wanted."

"How is declaring to everyone that you're the King's son taking responsibility?"

"I won't let this happen again."

"So long as we're roaming Atlantis this will keep happening. You can't prevent it."

"Then we'll make it so that they know where we are. So they don't have to search. Just follow us!"

She got up in his face at that point having had enough of his childish dreams. "Are you trying to make it impossible for us to get into the capital?"

"I'm not having them ruin anyone else's life because of my presence! I didn't come here to bring trouble to the people!"

Seiji stepped up around Yuki, oddly quiet up to that point. He took up the right flank of Eudokia. "This is a fight between us and them. If they're going to involve innocents then we need to make sure we don't give them a reason."

"You're both idiots, but I shouldn't be surprised at this point."

"They're right," added Saki, "I can't let them involve others that have nothing to do with our fight if we can help it."

Out of the side appeared Chiharu like a shadow. Unlike the rest, she remained in her black ninja attire choosing against blending in. "The more we fight them the more it'll slow us down in reaching our destination within the time frame. It's best to avoid detection and deal with the problems the military causes to the civilian population after we've dealt with the ruling party. Also it is likely that if we don't stop in towns along the way we'll minimize their need to search them."

Annoyed by her empty emotions, Seiji leaned through the group over to the girl. "You heartless little—"

"It's the most practical solution."

Yuki stepped between them to prevent them getting into a fight like in the past. He had to keep them on the topic rather than letting fist fly like Seiji resorted too often with Chiharu. "Chiharu, the practical solution isn't always the right solution. Sometimes you have to make the choice that you know is going to be difficult, but it is the right thing to do."

Taking a step back, the ninja gave Yuki an aspirated sigh. She crossed her arms and turned part of the way away from his sight. "This isn't some book where you're the hero and everything works out in the end. The right thing to do gets people injured or killed."

"It's not right to involve them."

"I feel the same," Fumiko declared. Since the debated started she had been out of sight. Leaning more than standing with the inn as support, she brought the group to look at her. Fatigue only began to describe how she appeared to them. A heavy weight seemed to be dragging her features down and even her voice. "We should minimize the damage to people."

"That's just wishful thinking!" snapped Eudokia.

Seiji pressed himself into the group. "You're the one that doesn't understand!"

The yelling and fighting that continued between them started to cause Yumi to stir. Her feature twisted down in pain until she jerked suddenly awake. She nearly fell out of Yuki's arms before settling back down. As she came alive a pained scream came from her bringing everyone back to Yuki and quiet. Yumi looked about from her vantage point getting an uneasy sense in the air. She felt like she had jumped into the middle of a conversation and started talking without understand any of the context. They stared at her, some with concern and others accusatory.

It took a few moments longer to realize that Yuki held her. 'Yuki?! Why am I…' She shifted around in Yuki's arms wanting to be free. The pounding her chest became almost unbearable for her to take. "…I-I can stand now…"

"Oh, sorry!"

Yumi set down on the ground again patting out her clothes. Moments later, she fixed on the group. She felt the tension that lined everyone and seemed to understand the problem. "I think our first decision should be leaving the village. Everyone I think can agree to that." They gave her a long pensive look not sure why she spoke with such certainty in her voice for having been asleep. Yet none of them could disagree with what she said. "Once we're back on the road we can settle the next problem. Do we have all of the supplies?"

"…yes…" replied Eudokia slowly lengthening out her answer. Hesitation still filled her, but she wanted to move on as well. So she did not fight it further.

"Good. Since everyone seems to be here, let's go!"

Night still lingered unwilling to let go of its umbrella under the sun. The moon still poked through leaving the plains of Atlantis painted in green and pale blue. Amongst the endless rolling hills an array of soldiers laid out on the backs. Some of them still were unconscious and others resting to recover from their failure.

Left with a simple patch work on his cheek and jaw, Captain Simonides sat staring with a frustrated crease in his forehead. His operation resulted in failure. Utter failure, a word that tasted poor in his mouth. He remained quiet ever since he woke not even giving his subordinates orders. Their own troubles kept them from asking anything of him. He did not understand the situation and the foe that he faced. All he had from them was confusion.

A pained groan came from the soldier next to him. It built into an awkward lullaby of tortured moans. Slowly it subsided as the soldier finally woke up feeling even worse. "C-captain?" questioned Eusebios, but not out of confusion for his presence next to him. He looked around at his body not certain why he still lived. "Why am I not dead?"

Simonides did not even glance at him. "We found you unconscious like the rest of the team. Only Kalliope and Philon sustained serious injury."

Eusebios touched his hand to his chest where he knew Yuki had hit him. He felt sore and a little pain, but nothing like he remembered. It should have killed him he knew. "…I don't understand…"

"…nor I…nor I…"

"I'll go tend to Kalliope and Philon." Eusebios stood up staggering a little feeling the exhaustion still. He did not wait for confirmation and did not expect to receive one. The mood the Captain was in told him enough.

'I'll need to bring in all of the Whites in for this, Eusebios won't be enough…'

Dawn rose upon the lands of Atlantis waking tired souls that already experienced a very long night. Stationed between Skoupa and Kapni, the South Gate soldiers took up camp. Still only light in numbers the ranks slowly swelled in the morning as messages reached further away troops. The main garrison of troops at the South Gate still had half a day to reach the base and the outer stationed soldiers even longer.

Late in the night after assessing damage and strength, Simonides ordered messages sent out to his entire division to mobilize. He had underestimated the strength and power of the invaders figuring on only one a small battalion to deal with the threat after the initial search party failed. Two failures changed his view. They had already penetrated further than thought possible. They had to stop them quickly and decisively, he had determined. It meant recalling all of his troops from their posts and emptying the barracks. The invaders would face the full weight of the South Gate Division.

Since the morning had finally come one new duty befell Simonides that he did not look forward to handling. He made no outward show of it to his men, but it concerned him. Failures happened as expected, however correcting mistakes happened quickly. With how far the intruders made it so far, they would not be pleased. The actions he took would not set well either. He was no more pleased than his superior would be, but he could not have planned for such powerful opponents. Hopefully, they understood it as well. Playing politics was not his strength.

Simonides strode through the camp, still coming together. It had only begun to be set up a few hours ago as uninjured men arrived. All of the men in his squad remained unable to do much more than rest to recover from injures. Eusebios spent the remaining hours of night healing any damage they took, but fatigue and exhaustion, naturally, could not be returned. He expected them to be ready to move out when he gave them the order. They wanted their chance at settling the score as much as him.

Arriving at a large tent he motioned to the White at the flips. "Communication field. Link into the lines so I can speak with Command." The man straightened up a little coming to attention acknowledging the request. Rippling at the man's feet was the last thing Simonides caught before passing through the tent flips.

He took up a seat at a simple wooden table that held a couple metal boxes and a smooth circular disc. No wires ran between the devices, but lights began to flash signaling power being sent to them. Simonides still had to wait for the line to be established. All through the ground wires ran to all corners of Atlantis. The military communication line and emergency line made use of advanced technology compared to the rest of the land. At the time it was more advanced than the outside world, but it had since caught up to them. But unlike the rest of world, it remained inactive and inaccessible by normal means. The lines required the use of a Meso Presecho to connect to it granting security and ensuring the public did not accidentally use it. In fact, most of the public knew nothing about it.

Leaning in the chair produced a creak of old joints rarely used. Dust still settled out from the cloth of the tent that had not seen use in decades. The only thing that kept it in use rather than burned was the quality of its make. It gave an annoying remainder of how much they fell into complacency with only routine events popping up. No one prepared for anything such as this to occur. Simonides hated the feeling of unpreparedness.

Once the line finished connecting and someone on the other end accepted the call, the disc on the table began to glow. Particles of light streamed up from disc reaching a quarter of a meter in height before cascading down. The effect created a fountain like surface tinted teal. A shape formed in the fountain taking on the appearance of Simonides' superior.

Simonides stiffened a little trying to withhold his surprise of who appeared before him. "General Alexander!" He had expected to be addressing one of the Majors or a Colonel stationed at Command rather than the General himself.

The projected head and neck of Demosthenes gave a polite knowing little grin. Age gave him clarity and keener sight into reading others. "No need to be so surprised, Captain."

"…yes, sir..." He never knew completely how to be around the General. The aging man displayed many different emotions and personalities almost as though calling upon what was needed for the occasion. It always left him feeling like he was playing catch up to maintain the pace the man set for the room.

"Your message sent in from the emergency line caused quite a stir. Considering the nature of your report I wanted to hear this personally."

The grave serious tone breaking into his words weighed on Simonides the importance of what he said. "As stated in the message there has been an incursion at the South Gate barrier. Our first attempt to capture and release failed at the barrier. More than thirty of my soldiers were knocked out in a matter of moments."

Not even a twitch of an eyebrow came from Demosthenes. "They were not incapacitated by the barrier?"

"Negative, sir. Initial reports suggest that it had no affect on them."

"Troubling news, indeed. You have renewed your search for them?"

"Once I arrived I mobilized the available men I had to continue the search. We found the intruders hiding in Skoupa. While conducting a search of the village we were ambushed by the intruders. They wiped out my team as well as our MP."

"Even your MP. They must be very formidable to succeed in taking out a MP."

"They were very powerful. I believe them to have at least three MPs of their own."

"Sympathizers?"

"I don't know, but they were speaking a foreign language from one of the Asian countries. They might be rebels working with outsiders."