"Who hurt me so bad?" he asked, as though the answer were obvious. "I remember the night Tyros' men came for me like it was yesterday..." He halfway closed his eyes as he recounted the events. "I was living with my older brother at the time in a small town just outside Illum. It was raining and it was late at night. They didn't even knock, they just kicked in the door and grabbed me. My brother, who was freaking out, asked what was going on. You know what they did?

They stabbed him. Right there in the living room. Right in front of me. I cried out, tried to break free and be with him as he died, but they wouldn't let me move. Then they left him and drug me through the streets. My brother died that night."

Leon sighed, his eyes starting to brim with tears. "And then I escaped. You already know that story. Well, I ran, back to the town you found me in. That's where I was raised, you know. I ran back home to my parents. I had to travel on foot, which took almost half a week. When I arrived I found the door ripped from it's frame.

I asked everyone what happened, and got pretty much one answer. Tyros, him personally, forced his way into my home and murdered the rest of my family. My mom, dad, even my little sister." He had tears running down his cheeks now. "That's why I hate him so much. That's why I hate anything that has to do with that man. You think I am putting on a mask I'm not. This is who I am.

I have a soft, sensitive, caring side, but I've kept him locked away for a long time. I lived alone in my old house for almost half a year, then you come along and try and take me back to Tyros..."

Melli stopped now, he could finish the rest. She listened quietly, she felt pain erupt in her as he told her what went on. She had always been kept in the dark with their victims, she never wanted to know what had happened to them. It was awful, now she really knew why she just let it all stay from her mind. Now she knew that she didn't want to hear, but she couldn't stop the compassion she felt for him.

She didn't know why, she'd never really been compassionate or felt symapthy for another human being, but she wrapped her arms around him. "I'm sorry, I didn't know, if I had known..." she trailed off feeling absolutely horrible. Now she understood the small tip of what she had done. For Leon to have lost his whole family, that was horrible.

Melli didn't know what to do but hug him, she felt awkward since she'd never done this before, this was completely foreign to her. "What can I do to help make up for what the Spire has done to you? I know it will never be repaired, but let me do something for you." She said feeling a lot of self-loathing at the moment.

Leon seemed to relax a little as she hugged him. His burnt skin tingled from the contact, but he didn't mind. He hadn't talked to anybody about what happened to him in so long. It felt good to talk about it. Leon knew that something had changed between him and her. He wouldn't have considered them friends, more like aquaintances.

But now he felt they had taken a step up. Now he would consider them friends. He didn't turn to face her when he spoke. "You can help me bring down Tyros... I don't know how, but I will take him down..." He spoke with certainty, and he truly believed that he would bring down the King.

Leon slowly stood, then turned to Melli. "Get some sleep, okay?" he smiled at her. "I'll make myself a little mat or something and sleep down here." He winked, trying to convince her he was back to his old self, and went to rumage through the bathroom/laundry room. He returned with a spare blanket and pillow and layed them on the floor.

Melli felt a chill run down her spine as he asked her to help him stop Tyros. She bit her lip unsure, she knew a lot more than her station was supposed to, but she owed Leon this much. So instead of saying anything negative, she nodded her head. "I'll do what I can," she said. It gave her room to be flexible, to back out, but she knew when it all came down, she wouldn't.

She smiled as he smiled at her but rolled her eyes as he winked and went to get something to lay on the ground. She sighed and looked around for a moment. She watched him as he attempted a worthy sleeping area, but gave a defeated sigh before smiling slightly. "Uh, you know Leon, not that I'm suggesting anything or have some sort of hidden meaning behind my words," she said explaining a little too much as she held her hands out almost defensively.

"I think there is enough room up here, I don't think it's right for you to sleep on the floor. As long as you don't kick, I think we can share the bed." She offered tentatively. She refused to look him in the eye at the moment, so she just stared at her hands as her burned cheeks seemed a bit redder.

Leon looked down at his shabby sleeping area he had made. The carpet on the floor wasn't very comfortable and he knew he would wake up with a sore back. He looked up at the bed and sighed. He wanted to get in the bed, but getting in the bed with her would feel really awkward.

"I, uh, guess it's big enough," he said. Leon unplugged the alarm clock and awkwardly layed in the bed, then looked at Melli. "What? I feel like sleeping in, that's all." He saw the worried look on her face. "Look, I doubt they'll find us out here. Not real early in the morning anyways. Don't worry about it." He gave her a reassuring smile.

It was awkward at first laying here with Melli, but after a few minutes Leon didn't mind. He hadn't put his shirt back on, but he rarely slept with one on anyways. Besides, it would've burnt his skin. There wasn't anything weird about the two of them in the bed together being nearly naked. Leon didn't think anything was likely to happen anyways. He reached up and turned off the lamp, but it would be a while before he was asleep.

Melli still felt a bit uncomfortable, and boy was it awkward. She didn't regret offering him to be on the bed. She just wished it didn't feel so weird. She made sure she had an extra blanket wrapped around her, even though it hurt a lot, so nothing would happen in the middle of the night. "Well we can't sleep in too long," she said and laid down carefully so the blankets wouldn't scratch at her back.

She was nervous, even though it was highly unlikely, Tyros would still be able to find them and that thought made her very nervous. She closed her eyes after he turned the lamp off, but her mind was still active and her ears were very sensitive to any strange sound that might threaten her.

Melli fell asleep much sooner then she had anticipated, her mind was full of disturbing dreams, but they didn't bother her nearly as much since it was the same scenario every night. She was used to the horrible nightmares by now and wasn't the least bit bothered as she slept on. Sometime in the middle of the night she had rolled over, covering all the space between her and Leon and then some.

There wasn't much room between them, but she hadn't shared a bed with someone ever, it was odd, but she unconsciously curled up into him with her head on his chest. She was chilly and his burning skin felt good on her own.

Leon looked curiously over at Melli. His eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could see her head moving slightly. Careful not to wake her, he raised his body up a little and held his head next to hers. She was mumbling slightly, barely audible. She was either having a really exciting dream or a nightmare. Leon's bet was on the latter.

He laid back down and closed his eyes. A few minutes passed and there were no noises other than their quiet breathing. Melli surprised him by rolling over, then curling up to him. He knew she was asleep and didn't do it on purpose, but it still brought some red to his already red cheeks.

She was still moving her head some on his chest. He cautiously reached up with his arm and gently laid his hand on her head. She stopped moving her head around and actually seemed to relax a little in his arm. He must've been imagining it. He quietly yawned and closed his eyes, finally drifting off to sleep.

Melli was coming to the height of her nightmare, the worst part, the part that made her want to scream and rip her hair out with the frustration and helplessness she felt everynight. And then...it was gone. Completely gone, right before her eyes the whole thing disappeared. She didn't know why, she stood there, dumbfounded as everything melted away and she was plunged into dark.

This made no sense, this had never happened before, and yet, she welcomed the darkness gladly as her mind slipped away and settled into the most blissful nights sleep she had had in what was probably years. The security she felt being with Leon was foreign to her, she'd been so used to just fending for herself, so why should she feel so secure in this young mans arms.

For the rest of the night she was quiet, and still. She didn't move, didn't talk, just rest like she normally would have. The night wore on and faded into morning. She was still sleeping rather close, very close actually, nearly on top of him, before her mind was slowly coming out of the quiet state it had rested in.

Leon was still in deep sleep when Melli began to wake up. His arm was still around her and his head was tilted back on the pillow. His mouth was open slightly, but he wasn't breathing loudly. Sunlight came through the blinds on the window, casting shafts of light over the bed. One of them lay over Leon's face, though he gave no indication of noticing it in his sleep.

It was late in the morning, about ten or eleven. Leon had slept all through the night without waking. He looked peaceful in his sleep, like he had completely forgotten about the talk to two had the night before. Leon tried to be as optimistic as he could about life, but almost everytime he slept he pictured the horror he experienced when he came home that day to find his house destroyed and his family gone...

Melli slowly woke up, she was usually up the moment it was light out. Her mind didn't want to be in the nightmare longer than it had to be, so it was a very great surprise when she woke up to see the sun about an hour away from reaching noon. She looked around curiously, sitting up slowly since her burn still hurt. Her hair was a little messed up, but it was short enough that it didn't look horribly terrible.

A yawn escaped her mouth as she leaned on her hand. She quickly took her weight off as she had nearly fallen over something soft and looked down shocked to see how close she was sitting next to Leon. "Ah!" she said startled and falling backwards, eventually off of the bed. She grabbed a blanket quickly and wrapped it around herself, her thin and small clothing not much protection. She peeked over the edge of the bed, what in the world had gone on during the night?

Melli didn't remember anything, nothing, her whole mind was blank. ... Blank! She felt a surge of happiness rush through her as the pieces clicked together. She didn't like it, but somehow Leon had kept the nightmares away. She felt so relieved. Ever since she had joined the Spire Guard, she'd been stuck with her nightmares. Somehow, by some miracle, the nigthmares were frightened away and she nearly wept tears of joy.

Leon slowly stretched and opened his eyes. He yawned and popped his fingers, then looked over to see Melli peeking over the side of the bed at him. "Well, morning there Beautiful." He yawned again and sat up. Melli had pulled all the blankets off when she scrambled off the bed, so Leon didn't have anything covering up his body.

He got up and stretched again, wearing only loose night shorts. He reached up and rubbed his eyes, then looked over at Melli. "Why are you on the floor? Roll off the bed or something?" He turned away from her and walked into the bathroom.

He came back out a couple minutes later carrying clothes in his arms. He laid her clothes on the bed, then put his shorts on and started putting his shirt on when he asked, "Did you get a good nights sleep? You were having a nightmare last night.."

Melli blushed as he greeted her. She didn't know why, and she couldn't think of a come back, so she kept quiet as she stared at him. "Uh, yeah, I uh, rolled off," she said getting to her feet while holding the blankets tightly about her. She watched him walk to the bathroom and sat on the edge of the bed with a sigh. A few more moments and he would've seen her...cuddling with him.

She shuddered at the thought. The teasing would be endless and would get worse and worse. She grabbed her clothes and quickly changed into them. She was glad to be back in her own clothes, but she still felt violated for some reason.

Melli blushed and looked at the floor in embarrassment. So he had heard, she groaned at the thought, she didn't want him to tease her about her nightmares, they were truly frightening and no teasing matter. "Yeah, I was..but than I uh, got a good nights sleep." She said not wanting to admit how she got it even though she did owe him a very big thank you. She didn't get it, she'd tried everything to get rid of the nigthmares, everything, and yet in one night he'd forced them away.

Leon finished dressing, looking like his normal, good-looking self again, and began packing up the things they brought out. He didn't say anything about what happened during the night, she obviously didn't think he was awake when it happened. He smiled to himself, then walked over to the window.

He looked outside, seeing most of the small town from the room. He saw even more desert surrounding the town. That brought a frown to his face. "Well, Beautiful, looks like we gotta find a ride."

Leon didn't have much money. It would cost money to buy a ride to the next town, even more to rent a vehicle, and even more to buy it alltogether. He shook his head and looked at Melli. "I hope you have some cash. If not I think we'll be walking through the desert again.. Or we could stay here for a while, find a way to earn some quick money.."

Melli let out a sigh of relief as it seemed like he'd been asleep the whole time. She felt a brighter smile come to her face, she felt confident now. She walked over to the window as well and sighed. More desert, she was not excited for that. Her whole body hurt where the sun had scorched it the day before.

"I have some cash, but it is mostly credit with the Spire. It should work fine for a while, but the farther we go, the less my credit will work. As soon as we are out of Tryos' hold, than it will be useless, until then it is big enough to get us anywhere we want to go and anything we need." She said, frowning slightly at the thought of all that sand. Even if they got a ride, it would still be through the desert.

They would be at risk again to be shot down, or they could run out of fuel. "We should keep moving until we are far out of his reach, and even then, it might not be enough." She felt troubled. What if they'd never be free? What if they were caught and killed? Those thoughts sickened her.

Leon nodded, agreeing with Melli. "We need to head east. If we can get to Tarskus we can catch a ship off this continent." He sounded more and more confident as he layed his plan out. "First we'll need a vehicle. Nothing that flies, though I don't think there are any airships here. Then we'll head north until we reach River Leum. Then we can get catch a boat at the town, Leum, named for the river.

We'll go east, downstream, and from there we can get to Tarskus. Only problem is that our faces are probably on every wanted poster in all of the main cities and towns." He walked over to the bed, where he had layed down the satchel, and slung it over his shoulder. He had refilled and packed the cantines in the satchel.

"Well, come on. We don't have time to waste. I can't wait to get out of here." He started walking toward the door. "I hope you learned a thing or two about dodging authorities while you were with the Guard."

Melli listened as she looked out the window. It was a good plan, just one flaw, the wanted posters and the many authorities that would be buzzing about, especially at the coast. "It sounds all fine, I know enough about them that it should be easy enough to handle. I don't want to take any more lives unless it is necessary or they deserve it." She said and followed him out of the room. She sighed as she realized something. She quickly went up to his side.

"It will look really odd if we seem to not like each other very much, or at least not as though we get along very well. So I hope you are a good actor, because right now, we're posing as a couple. It'll be our best first defense." She said, looking him sternly in the eye before giving him a brief kiss on the cheek and pulling back with a wink.

"Come on handsome!" she said in a rather girlish voice while grabbing his hand and walking down the hall. Quickly the curious eyes that followed them looked away so as to give them some level of privacy as they made their way out of the building. Melli kept up a good face, but she wasn't excited for this...at least, she was 99% sure she wasn't. There was only 1% doubt, and it was enough to cause her a lot of trouble in her head. Now all they had to do was look convincing and get out of there!

"Oh, first you hate me and now you want to be my girlfriend?" he asked as she grabbed his hand and practically pulled him along. "You need to make up your mind." He laughed, but did take notice of how they weren't drawing much attention. Maybe posing as a couple would work after all. Leon already knew she could handle herself in a fight, so he didn't have to worry much about that.

The two walked out into the bright daylight and onto the sandy road. There wasn't any pavement or other forms of making a road, only that there were wide sandy spaces between the buildings. They walked down the street, Leon looking around like he was interested in visiting a new town. In reality he was scanning for any type of vehicle shop.

Then he spotted a rental/repair shop for a vehicle called the Desert Shredder. Leon stepped around back and was surprised at what he saw there.

The Desert Shredders were big, about two or three times the size of a Cyber Cycle. The steering mechanism and control board were much the same as a Cyber Cycle, but that was about the only similarity. On the bottom were big flimsy pieces of metal that looked a lot like skiis. Wheels were under the metal and there were two thrusters on the back.

"This is going to make desert travel a piece of cake," he said to Melli. "The thrusters on the back propel it, obviously, and the skii's on the bottom make going through the sand about as smooth as sailing on water." He smiled and stepped up to the salesman, quickly renting the best one he had...

Melli scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Well I prefer hating you, but right now this is the best chance we have of going unnoticed. People naturally look away from couples who share affection." She said drawling the word out. "The closer we get to the enemy, the more we'll have to be love-dovey," she crinkled her nose at the thought. This wouldn't be exciting. She was a little apalled at the thought, but if it would keep her alive...

Melli was surprised by the size of the Desert Shredder. It was more then she had expected, but it really did seem like travelling through the desert would be easier. The faster they were out of this god forsaken place, the happier she'd be. "Alright, then let's get out of here." She said quietly as Leon rented the one that had the best condition.

"Hey, you stay here, I'll go see if I can get some supplies," she said and slipped away from him. She was glad to have her hand back, but oddly enough, she missed his presence. She dismissed those thoughts and quickly moved through the town until she found a decent looking shop. There she purchased things like sunscreen, they'd need a lot of it, the bluish gell that had really helped their burns, some more food, bigger water containers, just trivial things.

Melli put the things on the counter. The beady looking man stared at her for a moment, his gaze hard. Melli had to use her credit and a light flared in the mans eye. "Ah, I know who you are!" he screamed triumphantly and reached for a small knife concealed under the counter. Melli panicked, and without realizing what she had done, the man lay dead before her.

The look of death on the mans face frightened her. She'd never unintentionally killed someone. Her stomach churned and she felt like she was going to hurl. She quickly scooped up the supplies and flew through the town to where Leon was. She was ghost white, her hands were shaking as she dumped the supplies in the back. "Leon," she began quietly, in a ghostly manner, "we need to go now."

"Damnit, they recognized you didn't they? Well hurry up and get on before they alert the authorities." He said hushed, hurried tone. He helped Melli up onto the Shredder, then climbed on in front of her. "Hold on." he said over his shoulder. He flipped a few switched and fired up the engine.

The Shredder shot forward, not too fast but fast enough. Leon steered it through the gate and drove through town. He saw a bunch of people gathered around a store, but kept driving, not thinking anything of it.

The Shredder left the town and Leon had to slow it down when they came to their first dunes. The skii's on the front made going through the sand smooth, but he didn't want to ramp off a dune and damage the vehicle in any way.

Melli was quiet gladly took his help. She quickly fastened the safety belt and leaned her head against the head rest as the reality hit her of what she had done. She'd never felt regret or remorse for killing someone before, this was completely new to her. She gripped the side of the Shredder as the vehicle shot forward fast enough for her head to snap back a little. She held tightly, her knuckles going very white.

The sight of the crowd around the shop sickened her and she grew paler. They were soon out of the town and blasting through the desert at a fair enough speed. She looked over at Leon who was only concerned with getting far away from there. She sighed and finally looked away. The heat and smell of the desert helped to aid her stomach and she soon felt better with some color in her cheeks.

"Leon, I killed a man," she said quietly, her face going white again as she looked at him slightly. She didn't want to go in detail, but she wouldn't feel right in keeping her mouth shut. She had done something wrong and she needed to tell someone.