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YES! Summer leave ^_^ Now I can write more often, with less stress. Nothing much else to say. Enjoy!/?

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It had been a rough night. Although the whole simulation was just a simulation, the sensations were real enough. I had ignored Iris and just went straight to bed. She was confused but, as always, didn't seem to have a problem with not meeting me. She didn't even say good night, or anything.

I woke up with a slight head ache. It was far from the initial ones, so I imagined that I was making some progress. But as Shay had told me, I should avoid getting them in the first place.

I walked out of my room and decided not to use shadows as my main transportation method. I walked up two levels on the newly painted ship. I was happy for Jack. This was all he wanted. A proper, well maintained ship. He was very happy, as well. He had been drinking after my training session yesterday. Probably because it hadn't been tested, and was the only part of the ship that was left to perfect. And now, that worked too! He had reason to be ecstatic.

I had been called up on the command deck, once again. It had been two weeks, since Zach was brought in as a new member of our rag-tag group. But he seemed to adjust quite well. He wasn't quite as jumpy, and was calming down. He didn't shriek every time he met Draco, anymore.

Apparently something was going awry, and everyone had grouped up. By the time I managed to step on the deck, only Zach, Shin and Raven was missing.

Jack and Lulu both seemed rough. As if neither had had a proper night of sleep. But both were content. Lulu was beaming with joy, and Jack only had a slight hangover. I could smell the alcohol, but decided to keep that to myself.

"Yet again," Lulu spoke up, sighing heavily. "We have met another hitch in the road."

Oh great. It wouldn't be a proper story to tell, if there weren't "hitches" Prothero sulked. He liked to fight but hated being forced to it.

"A hitch?" Iris nearly leapt with the question. Nobody else had time to even properly process that sentence, before she pushed the matter forward.

"Well..." The mouse scratched the back of her head. "We could head straight to the Virtues..."

"But?" Zach walked in. That left both Shin and Raven unaccounted for.

"But." Jack interrupted. "Raven cannot keep up the constant charge on the Centaur. He's down at sickbay with Shin, due to some sort of fatigue."

"Hmph. 'Some sort of'." River huffed. "With what that poor raptor has gone through, it is surprising that he hasn't died yet." The shark rose up and gave a glare to the lion.

Great...

"Is there any way to recharge, other than-" I tried to ask, but I was soon cut down by Iris.

"Than using Raven?" She finished my sentence. I resisted the urge to glare at her. I was slowly starting to resent the swan and she knew it. Iris had been trying to patch up things but I had blown her off. Nobody even knew about us, and she had made sure of it. So had I, as of lately.

"Well duh." Jack rubbed his head with his mechanical right arm. "It was designed by us, so it was designed to be used by us." He was starting to lose his cool. Probably the hangover, I reckon.

"So what's the problem?" I asked, quietly enough not to provoke any small internal conflicts.

"There's only one facility with the capacity to charge this ship. And we would have to take the generator cores from there. That'd leave them completely without energy, or the capacity to provide it, later on." He spoke through gritted teeth.

Yeah. We can't take supplies from our enemies, cuz that'd be just plain rude, eh? Prothero grinned. I agreed, for once.

"But that'd have to be a military base, right?" I tried to be careful with how I put the words in my mouth.

"Yeah. The Zero-Division's military branch, yes. So?" The lion glared at me.

"Well... From where I stand, we would only be declawing the enemy. Where does that come across as a bad idea?"

"Agreed." A weak voice came from behind.

We all turned around, only to see an exhausted raptor, supported by Shin, walking in the room.

"They've done nothing to help us. Besides," he coughed once, "besides. We took their top-of-the-line aerial experiment already, didn't we?" He held a pause for a moment. "So why does taking a few generators hurt them more than this ship? Last time I checked, those could be manufactured in days. This ship took years to build, am I right?" The raptor stared at Jack, who only returned a confused look.

"But this ship was min-" The lion started.

"Yes. But Zero-D owned it, right?" Raven lashed quickly, not giving any mercy to Jack.

Jack only slumped back in his chair and started tapping the desk. Raven sat down with a victorious grin. He coughed once, before starting again.

"Look. I know that, for some reason, I don't mean as much to ya'll, as others." He glanced at Lulu, then at River and quickly at me, then continued. "And I know that I am far from the brightest in the group. But taking their supplies helps us in two- no. Three ways here." He raised his hand and curled one finger in sight. "One, we can move faster and stop less. That saves time and makes this trip a whole lot easier." A second finger is raised. "Two, we take supplies from the enemy. That makes chasing us a bit more difficult, not that they really seem to be pouring any effort into it, anyways. And three," he uncurls the third finger with a grin. "I get to NOT die. That's just for the sake of my own convenience, though."

We all nodded at both of his claims. At the third, I even smiled a little. Shin wasn't pleased with the joke though, and he gave a quick peck on the side of Raven's scaled lips, whispering something quickly. Raven smiled and patted Shin's shoulder, both smiled but didn't bother letting us in on the joke.

Jack pointed at a map on the wall of the deck. "So... Assuming that we all agree..." He gave us all a moment to nod approvingly, before sighing. "We head a little south from our intended course. It'll make our trip longer by a day or two, depending on how long it takes to snatch a few generator cores."

I looked at the map. It seemed to show all the Zero-D's facilities, along with some mage-strongholds and a few civilian camps. I stared at the base Jack was pointing. It had a strange "x" on it.

"What's that?" I pointed at the strange marking, and Jack understood.

"We use that insignia to show which facilities are classified, and non-classified. Generally, the public doesn't know about the existence of classified bases." He then pointed at two other sets of markings. A "+" was for non-classified, and "-" was for classified.

I shook my head. "But that doesn't look like either of those."

He grinned. "That's because this is very classified. Only Generals, a handful of trusted soldiers and the Admiral know of their existence. The workers too, of course."

"So... Heavily guarded?" I asked.

"Let's put it this way." He leaned forward. "Remember the docks? How well guarded they were?"

"Yes?" Of course I did. It had been a pain to deal with.

"Well. That was a non-classified area." He grinned and stood up.

Wonderful...

So. We were going to steal some kind of power core from a 'very classified' military area. Brilliant. I didn't even understand why we needed a 'core', when we already had generators. It made little sense to me, if at all.

"Do we know what the facility researches?" I asked. If it could be like... I don't know... Food research? Like. Highly classified food making plant, or something.

"It seems to have something to do with auralites." Jack thought outloud.

"Auralites?" I asked. I wasn't quite sure what they were but Iris had explained to me, that they couldn't use magic, but had full control over their aura.

Lulu sighed. "Auralites are what mages call 'limitless elementalists'. As you know, a fire mage is capable of learning water magic, but it is painstakingly difficult, near impossible."

Iris cut in, obviously keen to get my attention. "But auralites manipulate their own aura. They can extend it to anything near them. Water, fire, earth and air. It makes no difference to them. Bodymorphing is far easier with them, since the aura is part of the person."

"Isn't magic part of them too?" I pursued my curiosity.

"Yes. But magic can become it's own persona, as well." Iris smiled. "Prothero is a prime-example. If you only used your aura, Prothero wouldn't have any voice to speak with."

Well fuck tha-

Shut up. Seriously. Shut. Up.

"And?" I urged them to continue.

"Aura is like... Blood in your veins. It replenishes itself very fast. Magic can take a few days for it to be usable. With aura, it's just a matter of minutes." Lulu finished.

"So then... Non-mages could use that?" Shin spoke up.

"Yes. Which is why technicians show an obvious interest. Not only is it more potent, but also faster to refill, than magic." River huffed. "Of course they would want to abuse it. However, finding an auralite is extremely difficult. Aside from the crystalline-elementalists, there are no others to teach the control. Most auralites walk without knowing that they could fly." Raven grinned at River's last remark.

"So should we expect auralites, if we infiltrate?" Iris' curiosity seemed to pique.

"More than likely." Jack sighed.

"Fine." Raven got up and flexed his muscles. He seemed tired, yes. But other than that, he looked like he was ready to go. "When will we be there?"

"If we change course, we should be there in two hours, tops. By five." Jack answered.

"Just in time for dinner, I guess." Raven laughed and walked out from the room.

We sat in silence for a moment. Shin had followed the raptor and everyone else started to follow suit. There was a sharp turn and some cutlery got smashed, as the Centaur made a turn to the left, above the clouds. I went up on the flight-deck, just to vent out.

I climbed up and marveled at the sea of clouds that the Centaur was sailing on. I could see a 'hole' in the 'ocean', a cloudless sky for some. I peered over and saw a huge forest. We hadn't set a foot on solid ground in a while. And from the looks of it, this facility we were headed to was in a forest. That suited me just fine. I sighed happily and closed the door behind me, making sure it was locked. It didn't matter to me. I could just slip under the shadows and through the little crevices in the metal. I didn't want to be disturbed.

Okay. Summary.

We were currently being hunted by the Seven Deadlies, based off from some old human biblical myth. Assuming that they all follow the same myth, they would be as follows: Gluttony -met him already -, Greed, Lust, Wrath, Pride -or Vanity, as some call it, Envy and Sloth. These guys would be the most powerful mages, right? And they were after us too, eh?

I watched some clouds pass by above me. It calmed down my thoughts a bit.

Okay. Graverobber. Lulu's old teacher. The only other dreichoon I've even encountered - besides myself. He seemed to be stronger than the Seven, if possible. He was also after us, me in particular. He didn't feel like he posed any threat, right now, but he could harm anyone else, if they got in his way. I mean... He took Jack's arm, just because he needed a new one. He had a 'valid' reason for doing so. Even the fire... He had a 'reason' to do so. To get into the Mirror. But... But why would he... Then there's the necklace. I tapped the three snakes bound to a dead hand on my chest. It didn't seem magical, in any way. But it was supposed to be for the sole reason of me getting control over the Shadow. So far, I couldn't feel a difference. Made no sense to me, whatsoever.

Then there's the matter of the Virtues. We were going through all this trouble of warning them. But I didn't need to. Plus, if Graverobber is after me AND the Virtues, wouldn't this only be helping his cause?

I stood up. I didn't feel like lying down anymore. I started walking down the deck, so that I could look down at the clouds whizzing below us.

From what I could gather, nobody -besides River - had met the Seven Virtues before. How do we know that this isn't some mindless trap? It's not like we hadn't done that already.

Zach. Oh boy... I don't even know where to start with, with that boy. He was 13, no parents, besides Gluttony. I closed my eyes and Sought him out. Yup. Meditating. He was always doing that. I understand that it's part of his training and all. I also could see the strength he had. Comparing him with Gluttony would be like comparing River and me. His strength was immense. And he knew it, too. That is why he persisted on practicing so hard. He wanted to restrain that strength.

I stretched my hands out. Felt like pretending I could fly, I guess. Nothing much made any sense, so I let everything just be as it was.

Had one crazy thought though. Back when Graverobber set that place on fire, I sprouted wings. I had always wanted to fly. Then again, doesn't everyone?

I had been practicing body morphing. It wasn't difficult, in itself. It just took some focus, that's all. And I had locked the door, so if something did go wrong, they wouldn't be able to help.

I weaved all the shadows near me, around me. After five minutes, I managed to pull it off. Then wrapped them around me. My already black fleece turned jet-black and I forced the shadows into my back, under my scales. I had to make it go under the muscle, to expand it. I cringed. It was painful, yes. But I also managed to flex my aura a little, as Iris had taught, to relieve my pain a little.

After another five minutes. I felt and heard a pop. Then a crack, followed by a snap. I grunted at the pop, cringed at the crack and shrieked at the snap. I felt a new joint clicking into place, followed by many more.

Then it stopped.

I stretched to look at my back and jumped a little. I had two wings. Two huge wings. Two wings, about the size of my tails! I jumped out of pure joy and... Slipped. For a moment I was worried. But my sharp - and grotesquely long - talons in my feet managed to catch the metal.

I huffed and puffed for a long while. I had wings. Okay. Now. How do I get rid of them?

I looked down from the side of the ship. I flexed my newly discovered appendages and looked over the board again.

Aah, fuck it.

I stretched my webby wings quickly and jumped.

SONUVAFUCKINGFLIPPINGDOGGYLAWNMOWERHOWDOTHESEWORK?!?!?!

Ah, there. Got it.

I glided carefully along the ship. My wings were stretched to their fullest and I managed to drop a little under the Centaur. But I pulled up and flew next to the massive ship. I couldn't describe the feeling. It felt so awesome! I was flying!

I glided for a while still, before heading up in front of the command deck. I wanted to see their faces.

Nobody was there. All the windows were black. The glass shattered and darkness poured out. It pierced everything. I could see Jack trying to struggle with the tendrils, but one went straight through his skull. Another tore Lulu in pieces, where as the rest simply gutted, eviscerated and lobotomized the rest. But I couldn't see Iris in the bunch. She was in the darkness, pulling the strings. The beautiful swan was corrupt with power, wrecking everything inside.

She saw me. I rolled in the air and formed a blade from my arm. Too slow. A tendril cut my wing and I fell, screaming. I could see the ground coming at me. I would hit it any minute no-