Kairi looked back after hearing a familiar voice, "Well, well, if it isn't Arc. Strangely enough, it's good to see you're alive." She looked at him, "Don't tell me that you're wounded too."

He stretched out his wings.

"Not entirely sure, but I think these things, this funky sword, THAT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE, and the angel dude saying I was dead mean that 'alive' is a relative term."

Kairi's eyes opened wide as she noticed Arc's wings for the first time, "Wait a minute... You... have wings now? You died?" She raised an eyebrow, "Just what the hell happened?"

Dezil had been slowly going along, and the work was both tedious, and aggrevating. Half the reports were so old they crumbled to pieces in his hand, and some were mislabeled, while almost all were placed in the wrong boxes (Most likely on purpose to hide them better...). He was on his eleventh box, an felt like he had been there for days, even though he was more efficent than he thought and it hadn't been too long at all. He finally was halfway through one case, and almost passed over it when some subconscious part of his brain clicked the importance of the #223 in his mind with the document in his hand. He simply stared at it for a few moments in shock, the legend made real in his hands. There could be a hundred and one reasons that a document was censored by the king, ranging from the practical to the bizarre, but this was the only one ever censored for fear of the power of the Precursors, and he held it in his hand.

He tentativly opened the small package in his hands that had only been opened one other time by a king. He pulled out a packet of papers, <surprisingly skimpy> he thought, and quickly flipped through them, then started to read.

Page 1 was a simple document. In their travels far outside of the kingdom, they encountered a strange building. It appeared to be of precursor origin, and they would investigate. The rest was routine notes on location where they had traveled, date, and other unimportant data.

Page 2 was an account of the ruins. After a few days of research, the expert had believed it was an outpost, for when the Precursors had long ago fought with the Demons Hordes. It was an epic war that had raged on for generations, and the Precursors had barely won the war, but the cost had been the total collapse of their culture, and eventually extinction of the race. Or at least, that was what historians thought had happened, but there were no accurate records after the Demon Wars, so no one knew for sure. Important data was a strange plate they had found, which appeared to be instructions to a place of "great importance to the Precursors". There was a charcoal copy on a piece of paper, and a translation of the wrods according to the expert.

Page 3 was the charcoal copy in question. It was rough and tricky to read, and Dezil wasn't up to par on his Precursor, but it seemed genuine.

Page 4 was a last quick report, that they had spotted the city in question after a few days travel, and were sending off one last message before they entered. More routine info followed.

Page 5... was a transcript of the last words of the survivor of Exploration Team #223. Most of it was sounds, and cries for help from names. The survivor complained about cold, and dark, even though it was during the day in summer. The last things he said spoke of something coming for him, "It comes closer, I see it now, closer closer closer, always closer. It does not sleep, it does not stop. It speaks to me, horrible horrible things. Death, pain, suffering, it wants all these. I see it in my dreams, I see it as I run, I see it if I close my eyes. It comes for me, no, NO, I HAVE TO RUN, NO, IT'S HERE, NOOOOOO!!" The survivor then died of some sort of seizure, which was later discovered to be extreme fire damage to all his internal organs, but hadn't effected his skin...

Page 6, the official notice that this document, and all other documents related to it are now under the blackest security. Anyone with knowledge of the document is to be killed immediatly, and it is to be stored in the secret library.

Page 7... was it. The translation of the Precursor plate, which gave detailed instructions, and even a small map, on how to get to the city.

Dezil put all the documents back in their original container and said, "I found them, Exploration Report #223. I think it's time we got a little fresh air now, don't you think?" Dezil hid from his voice a slight quiver from what he had read about the Precursor base and whatever the "thing" was there.

Blyr heard Dezil's request to move out, and was glad his friend was thinking the smae way he was. I don't like this place. It's amazing, but the geomantic spirits here are long dead. If I had to defend myself using geomancy, it'd taje much more effort here. Besides, this place scares me.

"I hear you, man. Let's get out of here."

Ciaran arched an eyebrow at the engineer. "Why don't you tell us what that said, first... or just allow us to read it. I need to decide how I'm going to handle this with relation to Preos... and we can't be reading forbidden papers about the castle or others will begin to search this room and go mad or be killed by the curses on some of these items..." The emperor replaced the scrolls and boxes as he talked, tidying up the room in preperation to leave.

"Um, I hate to break up the warm fuzzies here, but if you want to get to your friends, I suggest we start moving. If I were them I wouldn't have stuck around a dessimated city for very long." Cassie considered for a moment the wierd new companions she had managed to find, and chuckled to herself as she began to walk towards Peros.

Dezil shrugged and said, "Here, you guys can read it. I want to try and take some notes on important details, and copy that map, but other then that it's mostly routine documentation." He handed them the full package so they could look it over.

Kairi glanced at Cassie, "Yeah, she's right, even though I really want to know what happened... You'd better tell me on the way." She said as the rest of them turned in the direction of Peros and started walking, Kairi was leading the Chocobo, "Um. Does anybody want to ride him or should I let him go free?" she asked after a bit.

Ciaran nodded slowly as he looked over the papers and then handed them off to Blyr, thinking deeply for a few moments. Finally, he crossed his hands behind his back and looked at first Dezil, and then Blyr. "I've decided that this is far too important to leave in your hands... I'll be coming with, to make sure that everything turns out properly. I'll also outfit all of you with anything that you need... you can take what you want from the magitek and magical artifacts here... just ask before you touch, they may kill you, and the magitek suits should all be fine, just the pilots that are dead... so we shall also take as many of those as possible, both for firepower and travelling speed. Plus... looking at this report, it seems like the monster uses some sort of magic to burn people from the inside out... the anti-magic fields will most likely come in handy." He then turned towards Ren, "In my absence, Lady Irda, you will reign over the country. When the engineers finish the death fields, have them positioned around the outer wall of the city, and activate them when the demon's arrive. If they're here before we return, we'll just have to attack the demons with the weapon from outside the walls." The emperor then walked over to Ren and leaned down whispering, very quietly in her ear, "After that, get them started on the zombification fields, and use them to raise as much of an undead army as possible... position them outside the city, to help fight the demons. Keep zombification fields layered with the death fields as well." Ciaran then backed away from her and spoke loudly again, "Simply discussing my remaining assets... Lady Irda... is this situation favorable to you?"
--
As the four congregated in the secret library and discussed, Derek had rode back out of the city and met with the refugees, explaining what was happening. "Ciaran said he'd help! They're going to a secret library or something... but most of the army is dead... but now we have N'Revat and Rab at our sides, as well as all of Ciaran's connections and power! We have a chance!"