(OOG: Yes, I know what 'kyo' means. But this isn't Japan, so live with it. ^.^ And yes I know this is corny, but it has to happen once in awhile...)

It was hot.

She thought maybe a ship such as the one she was one would have something like /air-conditioning/ -- where did that come from? -- but apparently it didn't. And it was just as sweltering underground as it was above.

Elanore sighed, mopping at her forehead with her hands. The heat was horrid... worse than just a normal day in Aveh. The nurse ahd said it was because they were in such a small, enclosed space, but... she thought maybe they just weren't properly equipped. It wouldn't have happened in any of the cruisers back home -- Home? -- but she couldn't expect that out of pirates. Not really.

That's what she told herself, anyway. And she may not have been dripping with sweat as the nurse had been, but she was /still/ sticky and hot and just... uncomfortable, to say the least!

"I'm just being a whiny brat, aren't I?"

Kyoko's breathing continued unbroken - she didn't asnwer. Not that she'd been expected to. /She/ didn't look particularly hot. But Elly wasn't even from Aveh after all, was she? Kyoko was - Kyoko had probably grown up with the miserable heat.

Carefully, Elly reached forward and laid a pale hand over her friend's forehead. It wasn't so cold as it had been that night in the desert, thank the gods. But... she didn't seem warm enough. It defied logic - in this sweltering heat, she should have been just as warm as everyone else, and yet...

She didn't seem to be getting any better. The nurse said she was stabilized, though what that was supposed to tell her, Elly didn't know. She wasn't a medical major... that was Lacan's job.

Lacan...?

No no... No, it hadn't been Lacan. He'd been into... what? Not the military, she remembered... he'd been too weak for that. No, maybe it was Sarah, or Jamie... they hadn't gone into Jugend with her. Or maybe she was getting the names mixed up again? It wasn't exactly easy to remember anything when all she ever saw were flashes of unintelligable shouting...

And Lacan wasn't... wasn't totally right. No... it felt as if he had come from somewhere else... but he hadn't been a Lamb that she remembered.

And there was that term again... Elanore's fingers stroked Kyoko's forehead for a moment, before withdrawing. /Lamb./ They had said Kyoko was a Lamb, and the term really didn't sound very flattering. It... scared her, almost... what if they made her leave her friend? What would she do?

It would be nice to find her home, and her family again... yet if she went with Shaina, and the other Elements - if she ever got the chance, anyway - she would have to leave Kyoko and Darius behind. And... and...

... And she just... she just couldn't do that. Not to Kyoko, and never, never for Darius. She could never leave him behind like that, not of her own will. /Never/.

It seemed... She looked at Kyoko again, not much caring if the others sharing the infirmary with her thought she was crazy for talking to the comatose. "Do you think I'm crazy, Kyo? I barely know him." She paused. "But then, you knew the whole time, didn't you? We were the idiots..."

She felt... terrible. Often, during their last days of relative peace in Bledavik, she'd almost dreaded the sound of Kyoko's voice. Her friend would always pop up after her talks with Darius, or during their 'dates', as she had been so fond of calling them... and simply imply with every word she said that they should admit to /something/...

But how could she feel like that about her best friend? It was horrible. /She/ was horrible, for even thinking that way. Kyoko had only been joking... and even when she'd been serious, she had also been /right/...

Elanore squeezed her eyes shut, teeth biting deeper into her lip; the coppery tang of blood filled her mouth once again. //I'm sorry, Kyo... I'm so sorry. I'll try never to think that way again...//

//Just... wake up.... please...//

"Please..."

No answer.

"I don't understand..."

Myaru's slight, chilling smile graced her lips once again. "Your friend is doomed, Elanore... You should know better than the others that the Lambs cannot dwell with the Abel."

She shook her head, eyebrows contracting. "I don't know what you're talking about..."

"No? You will remember in time. But... for now, you should remember that your friends are living in a different world, and they will eventually be led to the slaughter by your own hand. Or by that of your precious Lacan... Do not take your current situation for granted."

"Never..." Elanore whispered, backing away from the violet-haired woman standing before her. "I would never..."

Myaru's shoulders lifted in a shrug. "But you have before, /Elly/..."

...Elly...

Elanore shivered awake, sapphire eyes flying open as if she had been drenched with ice-cold water.

Or an ice-cold hand on her arm.

"Elly..."

Elly's head snapped around in a near panic, that misty apprehension Myaru's voice had ignited flaring forth to grab her throat - almost literally, it felt like. Her mind was scraping for ether before she knew it - but even as the cold, cold power started to swim in her mental grasp, her vision cleared and she finally saw the owner of the hand...

With a delighted cry, Elanore released her ether and leaped forward to embrace her friend - her living, /conscious/ friend.

"T-take it easy, Elly..." Kyoko's shaky laugh was definitely one of the more beautiful sounds she'd heard in her life. "I'm alive, you know...? Better than what I can say for those stupid Kislev soldiers, I bet..."

Elanore grinned into her shoulder, resisting the urge to squeeze her friend tighter. "You don't know how glad I am you're awake, Kyo..." Her expression sobered immediately, and she drew back, helping her friend rest back against the pillows. She wasn't healed completely yet after all - no reason to tax her eneregy /now/... "I didn't know..."

Kyoko waved her last words away with a weak motion of her hand. "I'm here," she repeated again. "So you don't have to worry... I know how you are, Elly... I don't want you beating yourself up over this."

Elly breathed a shaky sigh, bowing her head. "I can't help it. If I had just protected you... just a little more..."

"By what, cutting your restraints?" Her friend attempted to shake her head, and settled for a narrowing of her eyes when she couldn't summon the energy. "Then /you/ would have been hurt, and we would have both been dead. I don't know how to fight my own brothers, and definitely not an armed soldier..."

"Keh... I didn't fight. Clorys had it with that arachnid gear... if it wasn't for Marien and his group, we would have been dead anyway."

"See? Not your fault." Kyoko smiled, her face far too pale for the expression to look right.

"And where do you get that...?" Elly asked, raising an eyebrow.

Her friend shrugged. "You did what you could, or Clorys wouldn't have been maxed out like that, right? So don't sweat it. Besides, I'm the one who has to worry - I thought I saw /two/ of you out there after you dragged me out of the gear. Can you believe that?"

Elanore fell silent, her response dying in her throat as Kyoko laughed beside her. //Two of me...// Two. A girl with her face, a girl who had no business walking around and looking like her... And then herself, trying to take care of her friend.

The other had helped; she'd admit that. And why didn't she feel grateful for that? That girl had been her enemy, and yet she'd extended a helping hand when they needed it. //If I had done the same... I would have been offended, if she had reacted the way I did.// If the tables had been turned...

So what was wrong with her? She almost wished she could find that girl again, and apologize. It wasn't right, that she'd been so hostile... Kyoko's chatter - the fact that she was alive at all to do so - could very well have been attributed to that... reflection...

//I'm... such an ungrateful little girl, aren't I... Elly...//

She turned her thoughts away from the memories, back to Kyoko. Lucky... They were so lucky. Lucky to be alive.

Now if only she could find that girl and thank her for this blessing...

(Summary: Elly contemplates recent events; Kyoko eventually wakes up, to Elanore's relief. And she once again contemplates the encounter in the desert...)