Elanore peeked around a corner, straining to keep all but her eyes from view, should someone see her. But the corridor was clear, and she gestured for the others to follow, throwing a meaningful glance to Shaina.

The Water Element shrugged, smiling sardonically as if to say, "It's your turn now. You're the trained infilterator."

She was tempted to stick her tongue out at the other woman, but managed to restrain herself and keep on, striding quickly and staying several yards ahead of the group. It -was- all coming back to her, as she went along -- it was almost surreal, how quickly her body reacted, as if it remembered what she had not been able to pinpoint for the last six months.

And as soon as she did something, she remembered doing it before...... as soon as an idea occurred to her, or a plan of action meant to get them through the Kislev guards popped into her head, flashes of memory would accompany it. Things were just as Myaru had said; all she needed was something to remind her, as if it was only momentary forgetfulness she was suffering from.

The same had applied to people -- after spending so much time with the Elements, and Lord Ariath, she found herself recalling all sorts of tidbits and personal experiences with them. Even Aishou...... though she still did not understand that part of the equation.

She stopped at another intersection and peered around the corner, snapping back immediately when she caught sight of the backs of two Kislev officers standing in the middle of the hallway. A door marked "Base No. 12" sank into the wall just beside them; she assumed it was their post, and that meant that they were finally nearing the outer gear docks.

Elanore turned to face the group and made a shooing motion, signalling for them to hold their position until she signalled again. The Elements shrugged and stopped immediately, but both Darius and Kyoko took another few steps toward her before they finally took the hint and went back to the others....... she almost expected to see them pouting, but they simply watched silently.

With a quiet sigh of relief, Elly turned back toward the Kislev soldiers. They still stood in the hallway conversing, their backs turned to her.

"...... Bought her a sapphire bracelet the other day, but then what happens?" The man to the right spread his arms wide. "I get to her house with it, and she demands that I exchange it for......"

**Shift change?** She wondered, slipping into the corridor and approaching them silently on velvet feet. **Stupid...... they should be manning the post, not talking about their girl-friends.**

**Just two more steps......**

"That's jacked, man. Why do you put up with that?"

"Who else do you think will go out with m--"

Elly wrapped her hands around his forehead and under his chin, snapping his head back with a sharp crack. The officer fell bonelessly to the floor, silenced.

"What the hell?!" The other officer lunged at her; a blade flashed in his hand, aimed for her throat.

She side-stepped, grabbing his shoulder and using his momentum to throw him forward and over her shoulder. He hit the wall head first with a sickening thud, and slid to the floor much as his companion had. **This is it......?** She felt a flash of contempt, nearly palpable, it was so strong.

"Wait a......" Elly blinked, biting her lip hard. A stab of pain jolted the feeling away, and she stood staring at the two Kislev soldiers in shock.

**That was unfair. They had no reason to be alert...... What did I do? They were just doing their job.......** They were dead; she could tell, somehow. But she could have just incapacitated them, maybe tied them up......

"Oh god......" Tears sprang to her eyes, and she backed away from the corpses shakily.

A hand clasped her shoulder. "Elly......"

She clasped Shaina's hand tightly, not turning around. Her shaking didn't stop, though she was able to blink her tears back before they spilled over onto her cheeks. "I...... suppose I went a little overboard, didn't I? It......"

"Part of the training, Elanore." She turned to look at the Element, unable to keep the pleading expression from her eyes. Shaina sighed. "You were like this at Jugend too. Just......" She shrugged, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Once you remember enough, these things won't happen. But as long as you're on 'automatic pilot' so to speak......"

"This is what I used to do? Just......." Elly shook her head, keeping her eyes averted from the guards. "This is what I trained for?"

"No, of course not. But this sort of event arises when you're in the military, Elly. Just remember that......"

She motioned, and Elly followed the Element's gaze to the intersection they had come from. She caught only a glimpse of Kyoko's hair ribbon before she dashed out of sight.

"Remember, Elly." Elanore nodded, and Shaina gently disengaged her hand. "The others are coming. Pull yourself together and go on ahead."

She nodded, pulling one of her gloves off and wiping the blood from her lip. She kept her gaze straight ahead and began walking down the corridor, leaving the dead guards behind. She sighed in relief as soon as she turned the next bend.

If only it was that easy to leave the memory behind......

The secret docks stretched into blackness on either side of her. Since it -was- a secret location, no power had been alotted for luxuries like lights, or automatic launchers...... Only a few red power bulbs dotted the wall, stretched at long intervals. For all Elly could see, she was alone in that ocean of blackness, with the ghostly machine standing before her.

'Chlorys' was its name. Tall, sleek, and pale lavender, it rose out of the darkness like an angel, soaking in the red light and reflecting white.

**Angel of Darkness, or Angel of Light?** Elanore stared up at it expressionlessly, knowing she should hurry, but not quite able to make herself move from her spot. **I remember her. I remember this gear......**

Darius stopped for a moment, siezing her by the arm. "Elanore, what's wrong?" he asked, quietly. "The guards will be here soon... we don't want to get caught, do we?"

She blinked, coming out of her trance to stare at Darius's face. "What?" She rubbed her eyes, glancing at Clorys again. "The guards won't be here for another ten minutes. Plenty of time for us to escape. If not......" A memory drifted up. "Clorys can take care of them while the rest of you escape."

Darius stopped, looking her in the eyes. "Clorys? Is that this gear's name?" Elanore gave a brief nod, her gaze still fixed on the gear. Darius smiled, and added quietly, "Flashback?"

Elanore nodded weakly, still absorbed by the sight on the gear.

"Well... if you know how to operate it... why don't you take it Elly?" Darius suggested quietly. "I'd feel safer if you were in a gear you knew..."

"It's just...... very disturbing, suddenly knowing all of these things. Some of it is...... horrible. But I still can't quite place it. I wish......" She bit her lip, raising her left hand palm-out toward the gear. "Well, at least -she- isn't a terrible thing......"

The gear's eyes flashed to life, blazing deep azure in the shadowed hangar. They seemed to focus on Elanore for a moment, and then the gear moved, slowly lowering its body until it knelt just low enough for Elanore to climb into the cockpit without using the platform.

Darius held out his hand, helping Elanore into the the padded seat. She nodded in thanks and Darius dropped down to the floor.

"Weltall should be around her somewhere." Darius shouted. "Probably deeper in the hanger... I'll only be a minute."

"Darius......." Elanore crept forward, leaning out of the cockpit so she wouldn't have to shout. He stopped, and she knelt at the edge, not unlike her gear. "You will be careful......"

Darius gave her a wink and a toss of his blonde mane of hair, smiling at her. "Hey, you know me..."

"Of course I do... thats why I'm worried." Elanore replied, a mock hurt expression on her face as she looked down at him. They were less than a foot apart, and Darius's face softened.

"I'll be careful... and I'll see you again. You don't take any chances either... thats my job for this mission." he replied, a half smile on his face.

"You've always been too sure of yourself for your own good......" She smiled, reaching out to clasp his hand. "But I'm sure you'll be okay. Besides...... you're my only sparring partner, right?"

"If I wasn't, where would I be now? I certainly wouldn't have defeated Ariath to claim the hand of the lovely maiden, now would I?" Darius replied teasingly, running his thumb over her palm. "....damn sparring set." he added, flushing slightly.

Elly laughed, and pulled him closer. "I'll never say a word." She planted a kiss on his cheek before releasing his hand. "See you at the rendevous point."

"Almost made the whole escape worthwhile." Darius replied with a chuckle. "I'll return the favor when we get out of here."

Elanore nodded as he turned away, watching as he squared his shoulders. "I'll catch you on the outside... if I'm not at the rendevous point, I'll try and catch you at the base of the Aveh mountains." Without turning back, he added "Take care of yourself."

"You know I will!" She ducked back into her gear and slapped the switch, letting the door slide closed over her last vision of Darius's back. **He had better be careful!**

"Elly!"

Elanore turned back to the door, recognizing the voice behind the muffled shout, and slapped it open again. "Kyoko! I thought you had found another gear dock!"

"Well......" She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "-Victoria- found the dock. But she didn't ask if I knew how to pilot the things or not."

Elly grinned and stepped aside in the cramped cockpit, making room for her friend to jump in, and closing the door again as soon as possible, eyeing her watch. "You really cut it close! I'm glad you got here okay before the guards came!" She slid into the pilot's seat, glancing at Kyoko, then around the cockpit. "Hmmm......"

"Don't you -dare- think of throwing me out!" Kyoko punched her playfully in the arm, then squirmed forward and settled behind Elanore's seat. "I can brace myself here, and if I can just reach......" she trailed off, and Elly felt part of the slack on her restraints pulled out from behind her. "There."

"You're secure?" Elly tried to twist around and see, but Kyoko's use of the belts had made her restraints a bit too tight for such movement.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

She nodded, though her friend couldn't see it, and tapped a few buttons on her console, letting her hands remember the work so she wouldn't make any mistakes. Clorys hummed to life, fully awake, and Elanore searched for the controls.

There weren't any controls.

She blinked, feeling a bit stupid. She -was- supposed to pilot using levers, wasn't she? Every other gear she had used in the last few days before the attack had been equipped with them. How -else- was she supposed to do it?

Closing her eyes, Elly looked back, trying hard to remember any tidbit of her conversations with Shaina. They were all muddled in her head; flashes of her dreams kept drifting to the surface, and she finally just gave up.

"Everything okay, Elly?"

"Yeah......" Her eyes still closed, Elanore rested her hands on the arms of her seat.

//"...... operated by implants. Do you remember?"

"Implants? I......"

Shaina took her hand, gently disengaging it from the railing. "These," she pointed to three, pale white scars on the palm of her left hand, forming a triangle, "Are how you control gears in your Class. Faster response, direct ether amplification......"//

She sighed. **Always when I'm not looking for it. You'd think I would learn.** The scars on her hand meant...... what? She opened her eyes to glance down at the arm of her chair, and her gaze fell upon three slender needles, each portruding from the point of an etched triangle at the end of the left arm.

Needles. Elly winced just thinking about it.

But she had to do it, for the implants to channel her instructions....... Bracing herself, Elanore rested her hand over the tips of the blades, aligned with the scars on her hand, and pushed down. Hard.

Blazing pain immediately immobilized her hand, jolting her against her restraints. The needles connected with the implants in her hand, and her muscles tightened as the two components clicked together and began to channel information.

Elanore let out a slow breath, pushing the air out with the rapidly fading pain, and unclenched her jaw. It wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be....... She didn't feel much different, aside from a faint sense that she was...... 'bigger', maybe more ponderous...... The feeling was familiar, and almost soothing. Even the pain in her hand seemed like nothing out of the ordinary. It was all something she had done before, after all.....

She supposedly operated the machine by merging via the implants; time to test it....... Elly opened her eyes.......

And jumped again as the entire hangar sprang to life before her 'eyes'.

"Elly......?"

She blinked, but nothing obscured her view. **The gear's eyes? Am I really seeing through the gear's eyes? Or is it just a hologram?** Shaina had said...... what, a direct feed to her senses? It was supposed to give her control that only the so-called Omnigears had been able to claim before. Or close. She remembered studying the Omnigear in Solaris with her team, and finding nothing even remotely as primitive as the circuitry required for what she was doing now.

**......Solaris?** She paused. Lord Ariath had mentioned that word often, when he thought she couldn't overhear. **What is Solaris? What is it to me?**

"Umm...... Elly, I think we're running out of time......."

Elanore shook her head to rid it of the unwanted thoughts and speculations, and felt herself smile. "Don't worry Kyoko....... we've still got three minutes, right? We can get out of here in that time."

She hit the button for the power release, and immediately began to walk the gear out of its moorings, wincing as she felt the circuits in her hand start to work harder. It was a strange, tingling feeling she wasn't sure she would get used to anytime soon, but at least it didn't hurt......

"Okay, we're out of here," she said, more for Kyoko's benefit than her own. Clorys moved faster, and Elanore typed the code Shaina had given her into the console by feel, watching through her gear's sensors as the massive titanium door opened to release her from the prison of the dock.

"So far so good......" Kyoko shifted in her half of the restraints. "I just hope we don't run into anyone out there. I'm not looking forward to any kind of gear battle in this get-up."

Clorys jumped out of the hangar, running lightly across the sand bordering Bledavik, and keeping just out of sight of the improvised sentry towers set up by Kislev. They didn't have any range, but thruster emissions would likely alert even them to Elly's presence.

A glimpse of another gear blip at the corner of her sensors made Elly stop short, just behind a jutting piece of broken masonry that had likely been part of the Inn before the attack.

Minutes passed silently, her friend having decided to keep silent for the trip rather than distracting Elanore with questions and chattering; instead, Elly watched the screen avidly, making use of the gear's 'eyes' to keep track of the arachne gear until it passed what she thought was a decent enough range.

"I hope it's far enough......"

"Gear?" Kyoko asked, subdued.

"Yeah......" Elly began to steer Clorys away, in the opposite direction, walking steadily away from the city -- though slower than she might have liked. "One of those freakish, arachnid-looking things. I -hate- those. They remind me of something when I was a kid." She shuddered, but kept the gear's steady pace. It wouldn't do for her to call attention to herself too close to the wall.

"Uh..... Elly, I think it's following us."

Elanore glanced back with Clorys's eyes and cursed. "Hold on!" She pushed the gear into a run, dashing straight from the wall into the open desert, trying to head in the general direction of the meeting point. She couldn't go directly there with the gear on her tail, but she could make a little progress, and maybe lose it......

"No good Elly......." Kyoko's voice was rising in alarm.

Elanore bit her lip, then halted her flight and turned around, trying to focus; the familiar, icy burn of Ether sprang up under her skin, and she threw a bolt of ice at the gear, hoping to knock it over and buy some time.

"Attention unidentified gear!" Static crackled the transmission, fluxuating as her ether residue strengthened. "You have unlawfully attacked a Kislev Soldier. Power down immediately or I will be forced to take action."

Elanore froze for a moment, then gathered her power again and unleashed as much of it as she could, given the rush.

As soon as she let the power loose, Elly bolted.

(Summary: Elly and Kyoko make good their escape, and regain a few memories along the way as Elanore is forced to use her old skills to keep everyone safe. Just before escaping Bledavik territory, Elly runs intoa battle with an unidentified Kislev gear.)