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Chapter Four

"If that's how it's gonna be," Sanya says, her eyes flashing with anger "let's go, Kuzonay."

A small light by the monitor blinks in acknowledgement of her command, and soon she's speeding off quickly, leaving the object of her rage a small and ever shrinking speck behind her. After she's certain he is long gone and she herself is lost to him in the darkness that enshrouds her, she slows down and lets the ship begin drifting lazily.

Leaving the ship to drift aimlessly for a bit, she retreats to her quarters in the back and slumps down in the oversized and overstuffed bucket seat that nearly conceals her entire form. The top of her head, barely visible over it's high arms and back, and her legs dangling just above the floor are all that remain visible to anyone that might approach her, not that anyone would. She's all alone once more, just like always. It's nothing new to her, and she always knows it'll be this way, but she never has been able to brace herself against that, not enough to help block out the pain anyway.

"It's always gonna be different, isn't it, Sanya?" she says to herself "But it never is. When will you learn?"

Her moment of self pity is ended prematurely however when an alert begins sounding up front. Rising to her feet she rushes to the monitor but is knocked down when the ship shakes violently. Scrambling to her feet she continues racing to the command station. Once she arrives she sees that several patrols have surrounded her and began opening fire without so much as asking her to surrender. Such is the life of the most wanted of the royal family of Milarim.

"He sent the royal forces after me?" she says incredulously "Well if that isn't an all-time low! Even for him!" she adds, sorrow replaced by anger again. Climbing into her captain's seat she begins utilizing both manual and voice commands "They have us surrounded, we can't possibly fight them all. Evasive mode, Kuzonay! Those guys are no match for us. Let's show them what we can do."

The ship begins evading the shots with an ease that baffles the patrol captains and crew, but even still it can't avoid all of them. No ship or captain, no matter how capable, and they don't come much more capable than Sanya and Kuzonay, could evade all of the fire from so many ships. Between the abilities of the two of them however they do manage to break through the the circle of enemies and slowly put distance between them and the patrols, letting a few missles accomplish what sheer speed couldn't.

After a tense few moments, Sanya is once again in the clear, but her systems indicate that her ship did not come through in as good of shape as she could have hoped.

"Damage at thirty six percent, power at forty three." she says as she reads her ship's vitals "This isn't good at all, Kuzonay." she continues, placing a hand gently on the command panel "There are no safe dock points around here, and we can't slow down or those royal goons will catch up with us again. Think you can make it a while longer?" a low sound comes back in confirmation. "You always have been tough, Kuzonay. We'll be okay if you can just hang in there a little longer. At this speed we should reach a safe zone within a day or two."

Finally relaxing a bit once more, she sinks back into the far less accommodating captain's seat. Closing her eyes she chides herself for her lack of alertness. Had she not left the command station and headed for the back to pout, she would have seen the attack coming and Kuzonay wouldn't be in this shape. Kuzonay, her one and only faithful companion. She had went to sulk though, and as a result the only one to ever stick by her side through thick and thin was on the verge of... she shakes her head to drive the thoughts of what might happen from her mind. Kuzonay will be just fine, and she plans to make sure of that.

"Kuzonay." she says as she sits up straight again and reaches for the controls "Enter rest mode to conserve power." a questioning sound calls back to her "I said enter rest mode. I know full well the risks, but I'll keep us safe while you rest. I'm more than capable of defending us against those clowns. Do you doubt that?" a brief and low sound calls back "Then do as I said."

And with that the ship emits a long humming sound as the lights inside begin shutting off and the defense systems are lowered. After a moment in darkness the humming ceases and the command center lights up, along with the monitor. The ship is in full manual control now and there would be no way to wake it up in time should an attack ensue at any point. Sanya knows all too well how dangerous this is for both of them, and that had she not put Kuzonay into rest mode she at the very least would have been spared death should any unfortunate events occur, as the ship's Captain Protection Protocol would have ensured not only her protection, but also her escape. Still, ship or not, Sanya is more than willing to risk her life to protect it, and that's what she does.

They sail along in silence for a few hours before an unexpected attack from behind sends them lurching forward and nearly throws Sanya out of her seat.

"What the heck was that?" she says as she scans her monitor and all radars once more but sees nothing. There's no way the royal patrol could evade her detection like this, but who could?

Another attack shakes the ship and the damage indicator rises to sixty seven percent, it's defense systems still down. A loud humming sound begins as Kuzonay autowakes itself in response to the attacks, and Sanya initiates a three hundred sixty degree energy signature scan of the surrundings to identify the source of the attacks. She can't evade them if she doesn't know where they're coming from. As the system scans the area behind them and to the right, she locates and identifies the attacker: a bounty hunter.

"Rylan." she says, disgust and fear in her voice. As she does so he launches another missle which she evades, albeit barely as the ship hasn't fully awakened yet and using the manual controls alone makes the ship far less maneuverable than it normally is.

Firing a shot she knows won't hit him, she hopes to put him on his toes and get him off of the offensive long enough for Kuzonay to regain full functionality. It works, but not as well as she'd hoped as he manages to recover and return fire once more before she's ready, and Kuzonay takes another hit. A low rumble sounds as the ship awakens finally, but it's a bit too late as the damage has climbed to eighty seven percent.

"I'm sorry, Kuzonay. I tried my best to save us." she says, as she fires another shot in desperation and misses.

Another missle strikes them just as the defenses go back up which manages to save Sanya but not Kuzonay. Damage indicators climb to ninty five percent and controls shut down.

"NO!" Sanya shouts in command to her ship "Don't you dare initiate protection protocol!" a soft and soothing sound comes in reply "I said no, Kuzonay!" no response, but a protective case rises around Sanya, encapsulating her "Kuzonay!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"SIXTEEN?" Aaron shouts as he jumps to his feet, sending his chair sliding back and toppling over.

"What?" Lauren asks, clearly confused by his reaction.

"You're sixteen, that's what!" he replies as he brings his hands up to hold his head "I-Is it even legal for me to let you live here? I don't think it is. I don't know, I'm not familiar with the laws of this place. I mean it's innocent enough but that's not the point! The point is that I could get arrested for taking you in maybe and...ahhhh, why did I have to know this?"

Lauren stares at him as he paces the floor rambling in such a manner that she can scarcely understand him, one hand on each side of his head, he looks down at the floor as he continues babbling on in broken sentences. The whole scene strikes her as quite humorous and she can't stop herself from giggling a bit at it.

After a few moments Aaron notices her and stops dead in his tracks. Standing there he looks at the woman, no, the girl laughing at his distress over this. What is wrong with her? Does she not understand how serious this is? Seeing him staring causes Lauren to go from giggling to nearly rolling with laughter.

"What is so funny?" he asks sounding slightly irritated, and though Lauren can certainly understand his irritation she can't stop laughing long enough to say anything. Instead she holds her hand up to signal that she needs a moment before answering.

After a few more moments she finally manages to calm down and tries to speak, but as soon as she opens her mouth to do so, she begins laughing again. Aaron clearly isn't enjoying this as much as she is, and turning away he heads for the front door in a huff.

"No, wait." Lauren finally calls out to him, sorry that she was unable to control herself sooner "Please don't be mad."

"Well what do you expect me to do?" he nearly shouts as he turns and comes back into the kitchen "I tell you I could go to jail and you go into a laughing fit. I don't find that idea funny."

"Neither do I." she replies serious finally.

"Then why the laughter? You sure seemed amused." he says, his voice lower than before but just as irritated.

"It was your reaction." she says with a smile "You really should have seen yourself. You looked like something out of a sitcom."

"Yeah," he says still looking unamused "really not helping your case any here."

"I'm sorry." she says as she puts on a stright face "I'm well aware of why you reacted the way you did, but still...it was quite a sight." Aaron stands still and silent for a moment, and Lauren wonders what he's thinking.

"Looked like a sitcom, huh?" he says with a crooked grin, and she nods and laughs softly "Alright, well what do we do now?"

"Well," she begins as she looks down "I could leave if you wish."

"No, putting you out on the street isn't an option." he answers, causing her to look up, relief written on her face.

"Thank you, Aaron. Or should I call you sir? It's only polite to address old people formally after all." she says, sporting a smile that shows that it's taking everything in her not to bust up laughing again.

"Now listen here, whipper snapper," he begins, causing Lauren to fail in her attempt to hold the laughter back "you need to obey your elders, and I said none of that 'sir' stuff."

"Yes sir." she answers, and after another smile she becomes serious once more "As you'll recall, I told you my tutor had kicked me out and cut me off from the estate. I also informed you that I was mother's only heir. You do realize that means I've no family whatsoever around here, and the estate staff aren't concerned with my whereabouts."

"So..." Aaron seems to not understand her point exactly.

"So," she says realizing she has to spell this out for him "I'll not be missed. Don't you think they'd have put out a search on me by now if they missed me? None of my family even lives in this country, and none of them know I exist, nor do they know what became of my mother after they kicked her out for becoming pregnant with me out of wedlock."

"They did what?" Aaron's eyebrows shoot up at the comment, and he takes his seat once more.

"She shamed the family with her actions, and so was kicked out." she repeats herself "She left and came to this country to be rid of every tie and reminder she could. Besides that, being an unwed mother was an incredibly shameful stigma in her old country, and she didn't wish for either of us to have to put up with that."

"I can certainly understand that," Aaron says "I saw a lot of big injustices when I was younger based on social stigmas."

"Then you see the necessity of her actions." Lauren replies "And you see that there is no cause for concern over my presence here, despite my age."

"Yeah, I guess so." he says as he tries to assure himself that there's no danger of any trouble "But if it's all the same to you, I'd rather keep this a secret. For both our sakes."

Lauren nods, and the two of them continue to discuss this matter and others over the remainder of their breakfast. Afterward they clean their dishes and Aaron goes back to work as always, while Lauren rests for the most part, but manages to sneak in some work that she thinks Aaron won't notice. He does, but he doesn't say anything.


_________________________

A shrill scream fills the uncharacteristically warm late Autumn air causing Aaron's ears to perk up and the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end.

"Lauren?" without so much as setting his tools down, he runs as quickly as he can in the direction of the scream and only hopes he can find her before it's too late if something happened to her.

~~~~~~~

Standing still Lauren stares at the body of a young woman, apparently in her late teens or early twenties. She can't decide whether she should walk toward the body to ensure that it is indeed a body and not an injured woman that she could help, and running away as quickly as she can.


It'd been six months since Lauren came here, and she hadn't bothered this building once since the day she was injured trying to open the door, but as she walked past it today while out for some fresh air, she couldn't shake the strange urge to try pulling the door open and looking inside once more. She knew it was nosey to prowl around in there, but she felt so compelled to look, and so, against her better judgement, she did.

She managed to get the door open once more and this time was satisfied with a small enough opening to slip through. After all, she didn't want to risk another pulled muscle. As she slipped inside she felt around for a light switch but didn't find one, which seemed somewhat odd to say the least given the complete lack of windows in this building. How did Aaron see anything in here? And why not just add a window or something for pratical purposes?

As she stood staring into the darkness around her, Lauren's eyes began slowly adjusting until she could at least see enough to walk without stumbling. She began venturing deeper and deeper into the large room until she spied something lying on the ground beside what appeared to be a large crate sitting conspicuously in the middle of the room. Walking closer to it, a certain unease began building in her, though she couldn't understand why. Was it guilt for snooping, or something else entirely?

As she got within a few feet of the object she managed to make out the form of a woman. Lauren's mind began racing wildly as she tried to piece it all together. Hadn't Aaron been concerned with her having entered this building back when she hurt herself doing so, mistakenly thinking it was the storage shed? And he had failed to identify the building explicitly, all he would say was that it wasn't the storage shed. But if it wasn't the storage shed then why did it have so many boxes in it? What was in them? And why was there a dead body in here? Was this why Aaron had chosen not to put windows in? To block the screams of a victim?

Lauren's stomach began lurching wildly and before she could stop herself she vomitted right by the dead body. After she finally stopped wretching she opened her lips to try speaking to the woman to see if she was alive still, but before she could do so she spied what appeared to be a large shard of glass protruding from the woman's midsection, and her words were stolen away, replaced by a blood curdling scream.


What kind of monster has she been living with all this time? Was this what he did? Preyed on young women like herself and then lead them to this...this slaughter house? Would this be her soon? At that thought Lauren's stomach begins churning again, but she manages to hold it back.

Turning, Lauren starts to run, but as she does so she sees the door being pulled open effortlessly and Aaron standing in the doorway, an ax in his hand.

"Lauren!" he shouts and she nearly jumps out of her skin "What are you doing in here?"

"Stay back!" she shouts and begins backing away slowly.

"What?" he says, sounding genuinely confused. He's quite the actor it seems. "What's going on? Are you okay? I heard you scream and"

"And you knew I'd found out your little secret, is that it?" she cuts him off, her voice laced with sheer terror "Well I'm not going to be your next victim, you... you monster!"

She's crying in fear now, and backpedals even more until she stumbles over the woman and lands flat on her back, her legs across the woman's sternum and face.

"What the heck is..." Aaron says as the light pouring through the open door now falls across the woman "What... What is she doing here?" he sounds as shocked as Lauren.


The woman begins to move and groan, prompting another shriek from Lauren who scrambles back to her feet and stares in shock.

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Well I did NOT see that coming!! :O What a twist you pulled here dude. I am loving this story so far!

I was wondering when the "Not based in reality" aspect was going to kick in lol
But user is right, that was definitely unexpected.

It's obvious you want us to think the injured woman is Sanya from the beginning of the chapter, but for some reason I get the feeling it's not going to be that simple...

What I want to know is more about Sanya's world.
Is it the same on a technological level as Aaron's? You were vague enough about the details to make it hard to determine exactly how advanced the technology was. Is she from a different world ( or "realm" if you prefer ;P )? Regardless of where she's from, or who she is, how did this woman get into Aaron's shed when injured so severely, since it's obvious opening the only entrance is a struggle?

Also, it'd be funny if this story started to have a "harem" aspect to it, although in a joking kind of way XD Aaron certainly seems to be a chick magnet lol.

-Edit-
Mispelled "Sanya." I keep wanting to call her Sonya with an O. I'm terrible with the names you come up with man lol.

A user of this : Glad to hear the twist wasn't so crazy that it lost your interest. I was a bit worried that it might since the story started out with no indication of the level of fantasy it'll get into (and has officially started getting into as you can see). It only gets twistier from here.
And it's great to hear you're enjoying it so much. Thanks for reading!


Mynamescox44 : *cox looking around "I don't see any fantasy s WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED?!?"* lol Yeah this was the beginning of things. It'll get more out there soon. xD

Glad to see it left so many questions. :3 All the better, since the next few portions will focus on some of the very things you asked. Also it's good to see you took my caution about missable but important details to heart. Lol

xD I actually was sitting there while working on the opening portions (which we're still in) thinking "I hope they don't see this and think it's a harem story". Lol I mean when kept clean I actually love that genre (as is evidenced by my YouTube animé history), but I was worried it might be considered offensive if it was perceived as such. Also was kind of worried that following Caitlin with Lauren might give the idea that I was writing sexist and stereotypical portrayals of women. I think Sanya will go a long way toward showing that isn't the case, and Lauren's character is far from finished developing.

Heh Yeah it's actually pronounced Sonya despite the spelling. I settled on Sanya for two reasons: one she was nearly Samra and Sanya is close to that, and two Sonya makes me think of Mortal Kombat. xD

Eirinn : How much more fantasy will it go into? Can we be expecting red and white mages? Not a problem man, I really love your stories!