It was a long evening for Victoria.  The night was darker than usual and her taboo, earth creature company did not make her feel any better as the time crawled by.  After reaching her ship, which had thankfully been exactly where she’d left it, she’d sedated the young man so she wouldn’t have to deal with him while trying to make sure she was out of reach of the demon.  As promised, she couldn’t raise their transport ship so presumed that both angels were dead, or as good as, and set her sights on a location that would allow her to boost her transmission signal without being detected.  Hopefully.

                Tapped into the sensors of her ship and fully incorporating her invisibility, she ran as silent as she could, but any angel knew that was no guarantee against a demon in the dark.  Her only hope was that the Royal she’d run into earlier hadn’t been able to track her.  Ideally, he would have died in her last minute attack, but she doubted it.  He seemed… more resilient than that.  Sighing heavily and wrinkling her nose, Victoria shifted her wings and glided into position over the water.

                Low level scans of the satellites floating around the Earth confirmed there was one or two she would be able to bounce a signal off of to get a message of some kind headed towards the Negel Cemeste.  Heavens knew how long it would take to get there, but if they at least knew about the treaty violation that happened here, the Council would be able to take action accordingly.  “Let’s see,” she hummed under her breath, typing in the encrypted message carefully, just in case it got intercepted and possibly decoded.  Couldn’t be too careful in this instance.

                With a whispered prayer, she launched the message and immediately moved again.  She didn’t want anyone being able to triangulate her position if they happened to notice her signal.  Eventually she realized going underwater would be her best bet and subsequently dipped the skimmer beneath the surface, diving into a surreal darkness that could have been even more foreboding.  But a demon’s tracking ability wouldn’t work half as well with the liquid barrier between them, and so long as she wasn’t using any other abilities, they wouldn’t be able to track her cosmic energy signature either.  She didn’t even want to think of what the saltwater would be doing to her ship, but it was better than being noticed.

                At last, Victoria settled her vessel on the sandy bottom in shallower waters so the pressure wouldn’t be too great.  With a final breath, she rubbed at her eyes, powered down the ship as much as she could, and slouched in her seat.  “Now what…?” she whispered, the weight of her mission and the new danger pressing heavily upon her.

                The demon had openly admitted that he was here to kill Gunwoo, which meant he was more than confident in his ability.  Nor had she been able to see him around his shadow cloak.  Maybe he would have been familiar if she had.  Not that it mattered.  It changed nothing about her current mission other than making it more dangerous.  Time was very much against her but so long as neither of them knew where Gunwoo was, he was equally safe for the moment.  And she was going to have to be okay with that.

                Getting up, she stretched so that her hands brushed the top, even with her elbows bent, and shook herself out, rustling cramped feathers in the process.  “Let’s see what’s in the back,” she murmured, swallowing around a dry throat as she quietly ignored the rumbling in her stomach.  It had been several hours since she’d eaten anything.  But as soon as she moved to check the rear storage compartment, she saw the earth creature sleeping peacefully in her copilot seat.

                A thoughtful frown crossed her face and Victoria moved to squat beside him, one hand resting lightly against .  The bottoms of her wings splayed out on the floor, bending against the metal, but she paid it no mind as she inspected the man she’d… rescued?  Kidnapped?  She wasn’t entirely sure anymore but she’d been almost positive the demon would have taken him if she hadn’t.  Of course her actions were completely against the rules but if this… man knew Gunwoo, then he might have a better idea of where the angel had gone.  Though why any such creature would know the Heir enough for that was beyond her.  It didn’t negate the fact that she could divine they were definitely connected in some way, which was troubling enough as it stood.

                He was pale and lithe – almost too skinny in her opinion, and his dark hair contrasted sharply with his light complexion.  She didn’t know the significance of his clothes, but they at least seemed to suit him.  But he was still strange to her.  Why would he know the Heir?  And why had he thought Gunwoo might have been in that room?  Surely they weren’t living together…

                The thought made her frown harder and she sighed with a shake of her head.  How was he hiding his wings all the time if that was the case?  It would have made more sense for him to live alone.  The same thing for that shop she’d been in.  Even invisible, her wings had barely fit amidst the shelves and such.  And in getting out the front door, she had still banged them on the sides in her haste.  The alarm had gone off but she’d been long gone before had to worry about it.

                “I just don’t understand,” she eventually sighed, rubbing at her temples with both hands before retreating back to the rear storage unit.  She snatched a sealed packet of nutrimeal, a grainy, mushy, unappealing collection of food that tasted better than it looked, but still left much to be desired.  The skimmers were not fully equipped with food creation units so that would have to do in the meantime.  Fortunately, by the time she was finished, the synced clock showed it was closing in on dawn and her accidental passenger was finally starting to show signs of waking up.

                He groaned and shifted in the chair, face scrunching up plaintively at coming to consciousness.  One narrow eye cracked open first, partially obscured by the fall of his bangs, and then both widened as he suddenly realized he wasn’t anywhere he should be.  “Yah!” he screamed, practically falling out of the chair as he scrambled away from Victoria.  She had to hide her amusement as he rattled off the expected series of questions: who was she; what was he doing here; why did she have wings; and what was she going to do with him?  Apparently that was somewhat universal.

                Ah well.  “None of those questions are important,” she explained, peering at him from the other side of the narrow ship.  There was just enough room to stand around the seats in the middle, though it was cramped with her wings pressed against the hull.

                “Eh?” the man flinched, running slender fingers through his bangs as he wildly looked around the dim interior.

                It occurred to Victoria that he couldn’t see much at all.  Apparently the earth creatures were fairly blind too.  “Where is the He… Gunwoo,” she amended, almost referring to his title instead.

                “What?” he gasped, squinting in her direction while he felt around for something to defend himself with, if she had to guess.  “Why are you looking for him?” he whispered, trying to become one with the wall as he resorted to hugging himself defensively.

                Victoria stifled a sigh and resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose.  Why did no one ever just answer the question?  “Do you know where he is?” she stated again, keeping her voice calm but sharp.

                The man frowned, a wary, defensive look slipping into his dark eyes.  “Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.  I don’t know anything about you.  Kidnapper!” he scowled, brave in his outraged anger.  “Oh my god!  You blew up my apartment!” he suddenly yelped as he remembered what happened before he woke.  “Why were you in Gunwoo’s room?!  Were you that shadow I saw before?!”  He stopped his tirade of questions as his eyes got even wider when something else occurred to him.  “You’re the reason he was acting so weird before he left!”

                Immediately, Victoria slipped over the seats in the center to effectively pin the man against the wall, trapped in the barrier her arms and wings provided.  “When did he leave?!” she hissed determinedly.

                The earth creature froze, his eyes blinking rapidly as a squeak of sound emerged from his throat.  He stared at her face first, and then became distracted by her wings with a look that said they should have been impossible.  She cleared and he looked back at her, shrinking even further in the small space left.  “I-I’m not t-telling you,” he stammered in a weak voice that still held a thread of quiet resolve.

                Victoria could admire that.  Obviously, he considered himself a friend.  But that helped none of them at the moment.  Her lips pressed into a thin line while she narrowed her eyes and then pushed back, giving him space to breathe again.  He inhaled immediately, never taking his eyes off her.  “Do you want Gunwoo to die?” she asked carefully, her gaze holding his.

                With every trace of suspicion he could muster, the man shook his head.  “Of course not.”

                “Then I need you to help me,” she explained, her lips as she weighed her options.  She’d already broken the rules by taking him with her and letting him see her as she was.  There was no getting around the fact she was already in violation of the Sentient Species Act, and telling him anything more would only get her into additional trouble, but she was searching in the dark and the Heir’s life was in the balance.  It would be enough if she could find a way to save him by breaking the rules.

                Confusion and distrust warred in his face.  It was clear he didn’t know what to think and her proximity was likely not helping, but there wasn’t much room for her to move elsewhere after all.  “Why should I help you?” he finally asked, suspicious to the end apparently.

                Victoria took a small breath and adjusted her wings again, catching his eye as he couldn’t help but look at them.  She knew he wanted to ask, but there were more pressing matters between them at the moment.  “Because the shadow you saw in his room was a demon that wants to kill him.  I am the angel that wants to save him,” she explained, pointing at her wings expectantly.  “And neither of us know where he is, but if the demon finds Gunwoo first, he will kill him.”  The man’s mouth dropped open slightly.  Victoria was well aware the information was hard to believe for one such as he.  “So if you know anything about where he would have gone, I need that information.”

                His face scrunched up and he took a moment to rub at both eyes with his hands, slowly spreading the fingers open to look at her through them.  “Nope.  Not dreaming,” she heard him mutter quietly.  After another tense moment, he finally dropped his hands to his sides and shook his head quickly.  His mouth opened like he was going to say something but then only air came out in a strange laugh.  “I don’t know,” he finally admitted with a hesitant shrug, still shocked by the whole situation.

                “Was there anything he seemed interested in before he left?” she prompted, gesturing with her hands as if it would help.

                Not surprisingly, he still seemed lost at her question and she frowned.  But then his head tilted and he mimicked her frown, the expression thoughtful instead.  There was still a hint of uncertainty in his face as he looked at her, but he his lips and slowly explained, “He asked me to help him find someone named Myungsoo.”

                “Myungsoo?” she blinked, actively searching her memory to see if it would prompt a face she should know.  “Who is that?” Victoria queried, biting the side of her lip.

                The man shrugged and offered, “The assistant to the President, Military Commander, and Head Researcher of the A&D Division.”

                That sounded important and like it could be a clue of some kind.  “Where does he live?”

                Again, a shrug followed the question.  “No one knows.  It’s confidential.”

                Star shards.

                “But everyone knows he spends a lot of time at the corporate headquarters,” Victoria dismissed it as soon as he mentioned the location – too public, “and their top secret research facility.”

                “Where is that?” she asked, expectantly waiting for an answer.

                “I don’t know,” he shrugged with a confused look on his face.

                She waved her hand dismissively and hurried to her seat, motioning for him to get into the one behind her.  “Would they have artificial angels and demons there?” she asked, turning enough of the systems on to grant mobility.

                “I suppose so,” he admitted after a thoughtful pause.  That was likely something else the public had not been told.

                “Well enough,” she nodded in understanding, pulling up the holoscreen to get a better bearing on the cosmic energy she’d detected on the island in the middle of the sea.  With the morning light, the demons wouldn’t be able to move as freely without risking being seen, and as for her, she would be invisible.

                “Where are we going?” her passenger asked in confusion, though he did get into the seat as directed.  Good for him.

                Victoria glanced over her shoulder, dropping the wing so she could better see him, and smiled.  “To get Gunwoo of course.”

                “Eh?” she heard him gasp, though she paid it no mind as she nosed the skimmer above the surface of the water, praying the salt hadn’t done much to the outer hull.

                The sun was just starting to crest over the horizon before her scanners picked up on a faint, familiar signal.  “Highness?” she breathed with a perplexed look as she recognized the energy signature as an older, Royal model she’d been familiar with several years ago.  Why wasn’t it running invisible though?  And why was it heading for space?  “Frozen ether!” she cursed as she glanced at her passenger surreptitiously.  Interacting with him on the planet was one thing; taking him with her into space was another entirely.

                “What’s wrong?” he asked, aware something wasn’t adding up.

                Too late.  She could sort it out later, but if she saw the Heir was moving, the demons would probably notice it too.  “Hold on!” she instructed, accelerating fast enough to break the sound barrier.  She heard her passenger squeak as gravity pulled against them while they angled up towards the sky.  Victoria was further out than she wanted to be, but if the energy readings she was detecting from his ship were any indication, it wouldn’t take her long to catch up.  Why were the power levels so low?  His wings should have been refining the cosmic energy to recharge the magi-techno drive.  It didn’t make sense…

                “Why are we heading towards space?” the man behind her asked in a thin, worried voice.

                Victoria chose not to answer him as she watched the signal stall at the outer edge of the atmosphere.  That was strange…  But then she noticed a slight energy discharge appear near it, making her gasp.  “Demons!” she scowled, wishing she could go faster in the atmosphere.  Instead, all she could do was watch the ship on her screen.  She clenched the piloting stick tighter and tighter as cosmic energy signals from the demon ship appeared in tiny bursts on the screen.  Obviously, it was wreathed in shadow, but it was too weak to be piloted by a Royal so that meant there were at least two demons nearby.

                As the ship careened back into the atmosphere, Victoria leveled them out and prayed to the cosmos she would be able to get to him in time.  Something was wrong and she didn’t know what it was, but she didn’t like it.  Gunwoo’s cosmic energy was much lower than it should have been and there was no way his protection was going to be able to stand up to a demon ship in that condition.  Her fears were realized when she saw the ship explode on screen, still distant but the power expenditure was unmistakable.  “No!” she growled, the sound of her voice keeping the man behind her fearfully silent.

                But then she noticed a very tiny signal appear for the briefest of moments just above the water.  It was angelic in nature, she was sure, but she didn’t know if it was residual cosmic energy from the spreading debris or the escape pod from Gunwoo’s ship.  A quick scan of the area showed the cosmic energy of the demon ship to be gone again, hiding once more, but if she got within visible sight, she would be able to see a moving shadow in the day.

                “What just happened?” her guest whimpered, clearly able to tell something was going on.

                “I’ll let you know when I do,” Victoria sighed with a storm of nerves living in her belly.  Two demons against her were not good odds.  Add an earth creature she shouldn’t have and the loss of the Heir’s main ship and she was even worse off.  His cosmic energy signature had essentially disappeared and she was on her own.  Quite frankly, she wasn’t sure how the day could get any worse.

                His head hurt, he was tired, and Gunwoo had no idea what in the universe the cosmos were trying to tell him.  No matter how many more times he attempted to divine answers, it was all such a jumbled mess of distant possibilities that it was impossible to sort out, leaving him more frustrated than ever before.  The only thing he managed to discern was that there was some kind of danger on the horizon.  He wasn’t sure if it was to him or just a potential danger in the area, but there was something he needed to be aware of.

                One thing had become clear though: he needed to move.  He was out of supplies, out of time, and out of places to run or hide.  His only real options were heading directly to the facility to try and contact Myungsoo in the hopes that he was the liaison and that he would be inclined to help Gunwoo, or he would have to attempt to fly off the planet.  The problem with the latter option was simply that if anyone was paying any attention at all, he would be caught.  Without his wings, he couldn’t generate enough cosmic energy to recharge the converter that would allow him to become invisible or achieve any degree of warp speed.

                “So stupid!” he grumbled at himself, rubbing his temples with his fingertips.  Ultimately, that meant he really only had one option left but it just felt wrong to try and walk right into the humans with the intent of actually telling them what he was.  Which also meant that he was going to try something that would get him in more trouble.  Not that he wasn’t in enough already, but what was one more thing at this point?  And really, the humans saw UFOs all the time anyway.

                It was heading towards dawn and his only idea was to wait until the sun crested so that he might be temporarily lost in the early morning splendor.  That, and so few people were up at that hour anyway, relatively speaking.  “Okay Nishtival,” he murmured, pacing up and down his ship with nervous energy as he checked and rechecked everything he could.  He wasn’t prepared.  He knew that.  But there was no way he could prepare better in this instance.  Right now, he was banking on luck and that was foolish and unreliable, and yet, he’d had success with it in the past.  Maybe one more time?

                When the time came and putting it off any more was unavoidable, Gunwoo bit his lip and finally flopped himself into the chair, ready to do this.  But doubt still clawed at him.  He felt like he hadn’t thought it through enough and that worried him this time.  Nishtival came to life under his hands despite his misgivings, powering up to maximum so he could do a full burst and escape the area as quickly as possible.  Hovering in place, he spun gently, aiming towards the sun so he could use it as a backdrop as he made his ascent.

                ‘Where will you go from here?’

                Damn his mental voice…  “Anywhere but here,” he answered himself, taking a deep breath as he nosed the ship up and then gunned the throttle.  Gravity pulled at him and the ship, pressing him into the seat hard while Nishtival rattled around him.  Gripping the armrest hard, he activated a circle of protection around the ship while he was locked in.  It helped decrease the resistance against him but the strain on his person was more than he anticipated.

                ‘You can’t even maintain a shield enough to get yourself out of here.’

                “Yes I can,” he muttered through gritted teeth as clouds passed him by while he climbed further into the atmosphere.  Space beckoned just beyond if he could only make it there.

                ‘And then what?’

                Star studded eternity glittered before him, but Gunwoo sagged when breaking free of the final atmospheric layer nearly drained him dry.  Drifting into the cosmos, Gunwoo sighed and leaned his head back against the rest, a bitter smile pulling at his lips.  That was why he had his doubts.

                “And then I die,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes at his own blind stupidity.  “No food.  Insufficient power.  I’d be stranded on some random planet at best.  Or stuck floating in space until I died or someone found me.  That’s one way to be free,” he whispered, leaning forward to turn the ship around.  The flicker of something not quite right made him pause mid-turn.  Parallel to the Earth, he thought he saw a moving shadow, which would have been fine on the surface, but there was nothing here to give him such an impression.  “Star shards!” he gasped at the same time that he rolled the ship towards the planet, hitting the left wing ers to make him spin.

                A spark of light appeared from the shadow, passing so close to his ship, Gunwoo was certain it would have killed him.  The sensors came to life in that instance, blaring a proximity warning.  “You think?!” he scowled, crashing back into the atmosphere with reckless abandon and no protection.  He couldn’t risk blacking out right now.  “Come on.  Go!” he urged his ship as he banked left and right, up and down and any which way to keep the following demon ship from getting a solid lock on him.

                Nishtival bucked and heaved.  The cockpit rattled viciously and warning signals continued to sound off as pieces of the ship started to burn and tear away.  “Just a little more,” he pleaded, darting through clouds that dissipated with their passing.  He had to get back to the island.  Now!

                Gunwoo didn’t know why a demon was in the area.  He didn’t know why it was trying to shoot him down.  He only knew he didn’t want to die.  And that meant getting to some degree of safety.  Whatever that meant.  “Yah!” he yelped as an energy shot grazed him, making the power fluctuate and dim.  “Come on, Nish,” Gunwoo swallowed, extending the side wings for better maneuverability.  The semi-flexible appendages yanked the ship this way and that, jerking Gunwoo around mercilessly, but he was still in the air.  Still flying like Victoria taught him.  He just needed to aim for the research base.

                “!” he growled when one of his wings was finally destroyed, sending him into a partial spin.  “Stabilize, dammit!” he commanded, yanking on the control stick as he retracted the other wing, relying on the shorter span to help restore control.  It helped, but there was a hell of a pull to the right.  Gripping the stick with one hand, Gunwoo used his left to activate the auto-pilot function as he finally turned the nose in the general area he wanted to go in.  Eyes went wide as the entire ship shuddered.  Power stuttered, nearly dropping him from the sky.  “Emergency power!” he called out, manually angling the ship with the nose down, praying the increased acceleration would help kick start backup emergency power.

                The barest flicker of responses hummed over the console and Gunwoo yanked back on the stick with both hands, feeling his entire body shake with the compromised hull.  Power jolted back on with the immediate warning: Incoming Projectile blaring on his screen.  Gunwoo screamed and hit the emergency escape button.  He lost his breath as he was forcefully yanked from the ship and jettisoned with the seat into a personal pod that fell away from the Nishtival.  The angel flinched when the ship exploded, sending fiery debris after him.  A last second protection measure saved him, but left Gunwoo lightheaded.

                “Turn.  Turn,” he gasped, nudging the pod to the left as he ghosted over the ocean.  He didn’t know if the demon ship was still following him.  The flickering sensors wouldn’t tell him, but he could see the island.  He hadn’t gone far from it when he’d went up, so he was still near it as he came down.  But his control was shot and his consciousness was fading.  “Go,” he urged, squinting at the blurry destination before him.  The nose of his pod dipped slightly and he bounced off the water, the sensation warring to jar him awake or make him black out from the energy draw.

                “Almost,” he whispered, staring through narrowing eyes as land approached him much too quickly.

                He’d meant to make a quiet landing so he could get out of the ship and get close at a calm, peaceful pace.  Apparently the cosmos had other ideas.  Gunwoo’s body went limp as he hit the sandbank on the beach.  Ragdoll, he flopped around the confined space while the pod tumbled erratically towards the research center.  He out completely when it crashed through the nearest building.