Her eyes felt far too puny and minute to be able to take in all of the beauty around the wonder-struck winged woman despite their sudden increase in clarity. The sky that had always been a light blue when seen anywhere from Skep was now a shade of green that felt too conspicuous to the girl who had never seen such a shade before. She was able to perceive flashes and tinges of violet here and there and the sky seemed to gradually darken as her wings beat faster and faster to bring her up until it was black everywhere. Her features shone with enjoyment and were lit up by the greenish blue emissions from Skep as she marvelled at the unimaginable beauty of an all-black expanse lit up in places by stars and their planets such as Skep.

She was far too involved in attempting her best to imprint the picture she saw in the screen of her mind to notice that a few blue and red beings had neared her on their flying broomsticks. 

"'Ello, miss?" one of the red-skinned men clad in indigo attempted to capture her attention but his efforts proved to be futile.

The blue-complexioned woman next to him rolled her eyes at him as she whipped out a torch from her crimson robes and shone its bright red light right at the girl's eyes, causing her to start and dip a few metres in altitude. The entire party of blue and red pursued her while she fled back down to the planet she'd lived on her entire life, her instincts fighting against returning to Skep while her mind assured her she had to get away from the weird creatures. 

Her wings beat powerfully as she strove to cross the near-white band that she recognised as being the one she'd shot up through after she'd lost control of her wings. Thankful for her wings to be in her control again, she had just reached the tip of the white band when she was yanked back with far more power that she could even dream of mustering on her own.

"Listen, miss, we aren't going to harm you, but you've just got to listen to what we have to tell you and-" the red man began to reason with her as he clung to her feet, only to be interrupted by her shoving her heel into his forehead as she briefly lifted off and then dove full-speed, clearing the band easily.

"Rax, just maybe you should let us handle it when that happens again. You lost us a very strong one!" one of the blue women yelled as she pulled him back onto his broomstick, off which he'd fallen when the girl had fled.

"Fair words, Kal, considering that your precious Fav was the one who'd startled her! If she hadn't done that, we'd already have that bee on our side," the red man closest to Rax snarled at her.

"We're just wasting precious time, Haz, let's get to leaving now. If she blabbers to those ridiculous MasSkeps, they'll be out here hunting us down plenty soon," Fav frowned at the three before she took off as quickly as she could, the entire troupe tailing her in a jiffy.

Down in Skep, Castanea felt sickened the second she came out of the confines of the band. After the fresh feel of the air above the band, Skep's air felt far too murky and stale when it trailed through her respiratory system. Her senses seemed to have dimmed severely and she could barely comprehend anything around her. Her wings that'd beat so powerfully earlier now shrivelled and she could do nothing to fight the lack of consciousness that overwhelmed her. The mere thought of the fall would have frightened her out of her senses had she not already been so weak and incomprehensible. She barely felt the pull of the vacuum machinery being switched on as she was dragged into the delivery room through the gates that were wide open. Her head was set gently on a surface that was cool, so cool, as she slid into unconsciousness.

•••••

"Do you understand the impact this could have on our entire species, Garza?!" five of the woman's eight hands slammed down on the granite countertop at once thunderously, causing all those seated around the table to flinch.

"I- I'm not really sure about that, Capitano, she's just one of those several scum and we could easily wipe out her memory or her so the rest of those dimwits never understand what lies more than a foot beyond their poor eyesight," the one being addressed stammered as he spoke up in a light and yet serious tone, being cautious not to look the livid woman right in the eye.

"Don't be ridiculous, Garza! You know very well that she's one of the most efficient ones and that we can't get away with a simple memory wipe because traces will certainly remain, especially amongst the stronger ones. She's certainly one of them and maybe some scum even managed to get to her before she fell!"

A deafening silence fell over the group as her words sunk in and they realised that the seemingly tiny being that lay unconscious on the counter could be the one rebel to end their entire species if they didn't put an end to her soon. Killing her right away wouldn't do any good as their kind never died so easily and nobody would be able to believe that someone of her caliber had just been sucked into oblivion even if they were to come up with an alibi. 

"So what do you propose we do?" the boy standing next to Garza asked the woman, hoping for her to give some sort of answer that would end their woes and put their fears to rest.

"Simple. We turn her against her own kind. Along with some brainwashing, that ought to work wonders. It won't be the same as before, though, because she will be so different. Why did this have to happen at Skep, our best centre?" she spoke quietly.

"Don't count out Zephyr, Cap, they're seemingly the most fragile and useless but the quality is pristine-" one of the youngsters in the group spoke out, abruptly halting when the head communicator burst into the room, panic writ large on his severely wrinkled face. 

"Cap Mixis, the MasZephyrs are calling! They say it's an emergency!" he gasped for breath as he quickly configured the wide screen set in the wall of the room to display the message.

The woman's eyes turned wide as she inspected the image, all of her hands lifting off the counter as she ordered direct communication lines to be opened between the MasZephyrs' headquarters and the room she stood in. She had a moment of brief pause as the communicator swiftly swished around his hands and their pitch-black casing to connect the team to their counterparts in Zephyr.

The group began to whisper among themselves the implications of Zephyr's announcement. They had a bunch of packagers and servicers run amok and defy the order, which wouldn't be looked upon kindly, especially considering how publicly they had fled. The Bordeaux Melange who had single-handedly been handling all of Zephyr's humongous traffic had been put so out of form that he was forced to be off duty for a minimum of four complete cycles.

"Can you hurry up already?" Mixis growled menacingly, baring her twenty odd teeth as she cornered the communicator.

His hands sped up as his effort finally bore fruit and the screen flickered to the MasZephyrs huddled in front of the screen. Upon noticing the MasSkeps, the one directly in the centre of the group burst out, "Capitano Mixis! We have no head of power now!"

Mixis looked at Castanea out of the corner of her eyes as her lips broke out into a sly grin, "Well, now you do."

°°°°°

In case you're still confused:

-MasSkeps- the ruling authorities lording over Skep, their primary head being 'Capitano' Apolka 'Apo' Mixis.

-MasZephyrs- the ruling authorities dominating Zephyr. Their primary head was Bordeaux Melange (technically still is, but he's incapacitated as of now).

Also, I know, too many characters introduced at once so sorry about that!

In case of further confusion, let me just list out the characters introduced in this chapter:

-'The Scum' on broomsticks- Rax, Haz (red); Fav, Kal (blue)

-MasSkeps- Capitano Mixis, Garza.

Thank you for reading and letting me know what you think!

°°°°°