It wasn't a candle anymore... being the absolute ruler of the most powerful nation in the world did have its perks. Krelian leaned over his desk, lightly running his fingers over the top of the report on his desk as he started into the darkness of his laboratory. The only illumination at the moment was a small lamp on his desk, as well as the dim illumination from several of the computer screens around the room.

And then even that went dark.

Krelian had to suppress a slight sliver of fear as he watched the light being sucked from the room around him... despite all of the assistance he had provided over the years, this one was still a wild card in his plans. Lacan had never been the most stable person after the war five hundred years ago, and flitting around like he had for most of the intervening time was not likely to have been kind to his sanity.

"I thought that I told you to keep out of my way Krelian. Interfere with my business, and I will crush you." The voice was a dark echo, a whisper from the darkness that surrounded him. Only one person had seen the face that had produced that voice... and that man was most likely the body that Grahf was possessing at the moment.

Leaning back, he quirked an eyebrow, lacing his fingers together at his waist. "I see...... And what have I done this time, if I may ask? Bred too many Wels? Dropped a bomb on your current vessel of interest?" Mouth tightening just slightly, he suppressed a stirring of fear.

What did he care of Lacan's plans? His goals were...... of lesser importance. And even he, with the power of the Contact, could not disassemble on the atomic level. Krelian was safe from death..... at those hands, in any case.

The man who had at one point been the Contact turned, walking to look at the numerous computer screens that lined the room. Many of them contained raw data... numbers that were like a second language Krelian had learned over the years. Some of it Grahf could understand, while other parts were like another language to him.

"Or......" Krelian stretched the syllable. "Have you simply come to try my patience?" He reached over and closed the folder on his desk, slipping it into a drawer. The screens and their data he could cope with the man seeing, but there was no predicting his reaction to Miang's latest project......

"Patience is something that you have always held in short supply scholar, ever since the days when you were a mewling babe," Grahf replied, the sneer almost audible in his voice. He reached down a picked a small, ceramic coffee cup off of the table, turning it over in his hands. "Always wanting things done now, or as soon as possible. Always wanting to learn everything as soon as you could, and not making room for anything else in your life."

"The ironic thing it that your lack of patience, or rather the lack of patience on the part of your pets and master almost destroyed all of your plans in one fell swoop." With that, the cup fell to the ground, the bits flying across the floor at Grahf's feet. "I have warned you about interfering... it will cost you everything one day."

"And you were ever fond of making threats, weren't you?" Krelian rolled the chair back and stood, arms crossed over his chest. The glass shards he kicked away, listening to them clink and skitter across the cold plexi-glass floor. "Even when you needed the rest of us to back you up."

He smirked, focusing on the shadowy form that had made its home on the other side of his desk. Would he be able to pull an answer from him? Or would it be another fruitless meeting, a venting of steam on the part of Lacan? It seemed sad he could not find other, smaller targets -- this was fast becoming a simple waste of time.

"State your meaning, Lacan, or kindly refrain from wasting anymore of my time."

Grahf's eyes burned into him from across the desk, as the dark figure picked up a small ceramic piece from the floor. With a sharp motion, he crushed it into powder with his fist.

"You do remember your dear friend Dominia, and the Heicht don't you Krelian? Or the fact that a pilot by the name of Elhaym van Houten was assigned to command the air support for the operation?" Grahf almost snarled out that last sentence, his hand tightening so that the bits of ceramic dust fell to the floor from his clenched fist.

"This 'Elhaym' turned traitor, according to Dominia's report to that piece of trash Ramses, and attempted to stop the Heicht from detonating on Kislev's reactor. She rode the ship down, attempting to divert its course until it detonated outside of the city limits."

"Admirable of her," Krelian replied, tilting his head a bit to the left. "I fail to see what this has to do with anything. I am aware of her defection, and the fate of the mission."

The top of Krelian's table cracked as Grahf slamed his hand down into it, leaving an inch deep impression. "Perhaps you are missing something IMPORTANT, Krelian. Your 'grand duties' are distracting you from the little things that have given me purpose in life these last five hundred years. The entire mission against Kislev was launched with the purpose of killing 'Him'. The new Contact, to be percise. And we know who usually ends up around 'him' at some point or another, don't we?"

"Ahh...... so you've come to......" Krelian chuckled, the laughter bubbling up inside of him desipte his best efforts to push it back. "...... reprimand me for my inattention......"

He turned away from Grahf, taking a few steps toward the back table before halting and glancing over his shoulder at his visitor. "You sound so much like a love-sick schoolboy, Lacan...... Do you really believe I would be so careless as that? I think we both have a vested interest in her survival."

"Planning on building another abomination like Ramses to fill her role then Krelian?" This time Krelian was certain that Grahf had sneered at him. "If you haven't noticed yet, I was the one who saved her when the Heicht exploded. Your 'vested interest' dosen't sound as obsessive as it once was Krelian... and where were you with your Omnigear when Elly nearly died? Seems that you prefer to watch from the sidelines while the woman you lust after goes off and happily martyrs herself again and again."

Anger flared in Krelian's heart -- no, white hot rage. The very -nerve-........! -Lust- after? -Obsessive-? Scathing curses came to his lips, the flame of ether jumped up before he could stop himself from grasping it...... and he gritted his teeth against them.

He had no illusions of his own power....... but he would have given his soul to cleave Lacan in two at that moment, had he a soul to give.

Elly.......

"If such is fate, Lacan, then so it is." It came out a hiss, barely civil. "I would rather she be dead than suffer in the grasp of one such as yourself. It is your plan, isn't it? To have her in your hands again?" Bitterness crept into his voice. "You will be denied, Lacan. Even she could not forgive you the death of her Fei."

The laughter that bubbled up from the depths of Grahf's mask would normally have chilled Krelian's blood. At the moment all it served to do was reduce his killing rage by a few notches as Grahf spoke again. "Her 'Fei'? That boy is as much mine as he is hers. I am the one who took him under my wing after you and Miang destroyed him. I am the one who gave him the strength that he has today. The boy is mine... heart, body, and soul."

Grahf's eyes flared at the thought of seeing Krelian's face when everything fell into place. "And do you think I'd allow Elly to fall into your hands Krelian? What is she to you, rather than a component for a system you haven't the intellect to comprehend? You were in love with her public persona, the ideal 'Sophia'... I think you are in for a rude awakening when we begin this 'plan' of yours."

"I don't think you can stop me, old friend......" He turned back to the table, running his fingers lovingly along an object indistinguishable under a blue shroud. The anger dissipated as quickly as it had come, and cold logic finally broke through. "But you are, of course, welcome to try."

"Our goals for the moment run parallel Krelian... for the moment." There was a rustle of black velvet as Grahf walked across the length of the room, his progress slow and purposeful. "However, do not expect to live once you have outlived your usefulness..."

Krelian smirked and turned, striking a feminine pose he knew always irritated Lacan to no end. "You would -kill- me? After all I've done for you......." His hand still lingered on the velvet shroud, tapping the object beneath it. "Really Lacan....... there should be no illusions between us.

"You can strike me, maul me, stab me...... but you cannot kill me." His mouth quirked. "Not even you......." A pause. "You wouldn't want to disappoint our mutual curse, now would you? Save the threats for later."

"Of course not, 'old friend'. I wouldn't dream of laying a hand upon you in violence... or an energy bolt for that matter." Grahf chuckled, and looked at the blue cloth that Krelian was examining. "After all, I am not the one who is using you. I make no promises to you... I only give you the truth."

Krelian followed his gaze to the cloth. "I do believe I suffer more from her ministrations than you ever have...... It's hard to believe sometimes that she's had any part of Elly......" He slipped his hand under the shroud, and pulled the object forth. "However......" Krelian drew the sword from its sheath with a steely hiss, admiring the smooth, polished glint of the blade. "She will pay. And soon."

The sound of Grahf's voice was liquid nitrogen. "You will never understand how much she has hurt me, 'old friend'. She can not do much to someone who has 'divorced themselves from human emotion', can she? That is her weapon, after all... that and her rather formidable physique, which she's used to snare that piece of trash."

"Perhaps." He grounded the point into the floor, leaning on the blade casually. "As for Ramsus...... I advise you to hold your judgement. Look what the poor boy has to put up with -- even I wouldn't wish that on him, useless as he may be."

Krelian tightened his fingers around the pommel of the sword, each ridge seeming to fit his hands like puzzle pieces. It brought back a slew of memories, that weapon...... It lacked only Miang's blood -- for 'her'. Even if she would never appreciate the deed.

"Back to the matter of Elly......"

"Keep a tighter reign on your Ministry pets." Grahf replied. "Remind them of WHY exactly they are so terrified of the Contact if necessary, but I have no pressing desire to drive into another sub atomic explosion in order to clean up your mistakes."

A smile again tugged at the corners of Krelian's mouth. "They hold their peace -- for now. The risk of losing their 'components' has finally been drummed into their brains, such as they are." Or, so he hoped. The loss of Elly would, after all, ruin their careful planning for at least another century. "And Elly will soon be under my control -- again. Don't worry yourself so much, Lacan. The 'mother hen' persona does not suit you."

Grahf didn't even bother to reply to that, instead turning to walk from the room. Just at the threshold, he stopped and looked back at Krelian. "You haven't changed one bit soldier boy. No matter how advanced your science becomes, no matter how great your power grows, you will always be a soldier. And you will never understand what Sophia gave her life for, and why she called to ME with her last breaths."

The room darkened to pitch black once again... and when the light returned, Grahf was gone.