Update: 12/5/09: Recently edited this chapter making sure that everything is past tense like it should be. Other than that, everything else is fine.

Chapter 16: Separation

It was three weeks after the battle at Marberry Shore. Thanks to the efforts of Squad 7, Gallia has taken one step closer towards freedom. However, the victory at Marberry Shore was at the cost of Isara Gunther's life. Not only was she the Edelweiss's tank pilot, but was also a charismatic figure to many members of the squad. Especially to Karl, who considered her as a friend.

It was quite a melancholy atmosphere at Squad 7's quarters, everyone was depressed over Isara's death. At the lounge, some of the soldiers were trying to entertain themselves in order to forget. Karl, Lynn and their friends were playing card games, the one they are playing at them moment was Go Fish. As Karl awaited his turn, he looked at his hand, he started with about five cards, but ended up with ten. He was rather unlucky in these kind of games, every time he asked for a certain card from someone, they never seemed to have it and he had to take a card from the pile. He didn't mind though, he was with his friends and was having a little fun.

It was Homer's turn,

"Ms. Edy, do you have any fives?"

Edy looked at her hand, she indeed had fives, but she didn't intend to lose, so she decided to bluff.

"Go fish, Homer darling." she said with a smile.

"Oh, again…" Homer sighed as he reached out to the deck.

As they played, Karl took a look at Nadine, she looked quite sad, even a game of cards couldn't cheer her up. He then noticed that her hands were shaking, and her eyes were beginning to water.

"Um, Nadine? Are you alright?" Karl asked.

Almost immediately, Nadine slammed her cards onto the table, she then bursted out,

"I can't take this! When will all this be over?!? I knew I should've checked to see if there was anyone else outside the base! If I did, Isara would still be here!"

Nadine then laid her head on her arms on the table, and began to cry. Wavy placed his arm on her back in an attempt to console her.

"It wasn't your fault Nadine," Lynn said, "None of us foresaw what had happened."

"Gotta admit," Cezary, who was smoking a cigarette listening on the conversation. "I kinda miss the kid myself."

Everyone quickly turned and looked at him, dumbfounded to even hear him out of all people say that.

"She modified my scope so I can see further", Cezary explained, "I kinda owe her."

Karl was surprised , everyone missed Isara, even the darcsen haters like Cezary. He felt a little better knowing that he wasn't the only one mourning. He then looked at Lynn, who was also a little sad, he grabbed her hand and held it. Lynn looked and smiled, it was a small smile, but a smile nonetheless, and Karl was glad to ease her pain even a little.

-

Next Day

Everyone was at attention, they had recently received a new mission, and they were about to be briefed on what it was. Karl, as usual stood next to Lynn, he wondered what they were going to do next. Soon, Welkin stood in front of them and gave them their newest mission.

"Everyone, we have new orders, our next task is to liberate the town of Bruhl."

Karl's ears perked up, he remembered hearing that Bruhl was Welkin's hometown, and if that was true, it was also Isara's home as well.

"A-are you serious sir?!?" Alicia exclaimed, for it was her hometown as well.

"Quite serious Alicia, the regiment will surround the area while we go in and secure the plaza." Welkin replied

Just then, a young man with brown hair with a greenish hue wearing glasses came up to the front. Karl recognized him as Kries Czherny, he works in the R&D facility always making new weapons and upgrading old ones for the squad.

"Everyone, you all recognize Kries here, he's going to be the Edelweiss's new tank pilot." Welkin said

Throughout the squad came some murmurs and disgruntled voices, Karl was quite surprised himself, he didn't think Isara would be replaced already, but then he noticed the look of fear inside Kries' eyes, he was no doubt nervous about his new role bieng announced to everyone.

"Everyone, I may not be as good as Isara, but I will do my best to keep the Edelweiss in tip top shape, I won't let you all down." Kries said.

"You'll never take her place you bastard!" yelled a disgruntled squad member

Soon the entire squad was in an uproar, except for it's leaders and Karl and Lynn. Karl noticed Kries began to stiffen and look down on the ground. He looked scared and guilty at the same time.

"Stop it all of you!" commanded Welkin

"I know how you all feel, Isara's death was a massive blow to all of us, but you shall treat Kries the way you want to be treated. Do I make myself clear?" Welkin scolded

The squad reluctantly saluted and shouted yes sir to Welkin.

"All right, we began our march to Bruhl tomorrow, make sure to get plenty of rest, dismissed."

-

The squad was out in a dense forest in the middle of the night, they were making their way over to Bruhl. Normally, the squad would find someplace to rest for the night, but this time, Welkin was determined to get to Bruhl as soon as possible. It was understandable, Bruhl was Alicia, Isara, and his home. But Karl worried that this may end up being bad for the squad, considering they might not get any sleep, but he was afraid to object.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, Karl looked all around him and found a squad member lying on the ground, wounded. The whole squad went into a panic, but Welkin was determined to keep them in control.

"Everyone, calm down and get into combat positions!" he ordered.

Unfortunately, they didn't have the chance, as a missile from an enemy lancer hit the tank's side, the squad members who dodged the missile scattered. And as they did imperial soldier appeared from all sides and started to rush them. Karl frantically pulled out his rifle and started shooting, unfortunately, the panic had caused him to lose focus, causing him to miss all his targets. He then started to look for Lynn, hoping she was still able bodied, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"L-Lynn?!? Lynn! Where are you?!?" Karl called out.

"Karl! Over here!" Wavy called out, he was with Nadine and a few other soldiers, Karl quickly ran towards them.

As he did however, the blast from a stray grenade knocked him down.

"Gaaah!" he cried out.

He tried to get back up, but one of his packs was snagged on a branch. He couldn't reach it, so he struggled to get himself free, as he struggled, he caught sight on a group of imperials heading straight towards him.

"No! Not now!" Karl cried. He continued to struggle, but it was no use, he was stuck and couldn't move anywhere.

Just then, one of the shocktroopers he saw with Wavy and Nadine appeared in front of him.

He laughed maniacally as he fired at the unfortunate imperials that got caught in his line of fire.

When they were all dead, he shouted, "Yeehaw!"

He turned around and revealed himself as a young boy with what looked like an eye patch over his right eye, but upon closer inspection was actually half a goggle.

"The name's Vyse Inglebard, I don't believe we met yet, put er there!" he said raising his hand.

"Er, likewise, I'm Karl." Karl said as he shook Vyse's hand.

"I-If you don't mind, could you get me out of here?" Karl asked

"Already on it!" said a girl with orange hair with huge pigtails.

As she was setting him free, she also introduced herself,

"My name's Aika Thompson, a friend of Vyse here, sorry if he seems a bit strange."

"Um, no problem, not a problem at all!" Karl said, for he had experiences with strange people already.

After Karl was set free, the three quickly ran towards Nadine, Wavy, and another unfamiliar soldier, who had blond hair with a patch of red in front of it, almost like a bird.

"Wow! That was great Vyse! I wish I was able to do that!" he said

"Don't sweat it Alex! With practice you could do what I just did with ease." he said with a hearty laugh

"I wouldn't really recommend it…" Aika whispered.

The group quickly retreated from the intense battle. Karl was still worried though, Lynn was still missing and he had no idea where she was…

-

As soon as the group was far away enough from the action, they found a place to rest so they could save their energy to rejoining the squad, Karl became scared, he and Lynn were separated again and he ha no idea what to do.

Nadine, who had known Karl long enough to know what he was thinking just by looking at him, patted him on the back and reassured him.

"Don't worry Karl, I'm sure Lynn's alright."

"T-thanks Nadine" Karl replied.

"Who's Lynn, she a friend of yours?" asked Vyse.

"Well, kind of more than that really…" Karl said sheepishly.

"Oh, I see, don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Vyse said with a smile

"The whole squad already knows, Vyse." said Aika

"Oh, heh heh…" Vyse chuckled.

Karl then realized something, Vyse and Aika didn't look Gallian, in fact he did not believe he had ever seen anyone like them before.

"S-so, um, where are you from?" Karl asked

"What?" Vyse answered

"I-I mean, it's just that, you don't look like you live here in Gallia, I…"

"Hey don't sweat it, were not from Gallia."

"Nope!" Alex exclaimed "They're from this land called Arcadia! It's supposed to be this awesome place where ships fly high in the sky, and there are pirates everywhere!"

Aika nudged Alex, "Okay, okay that's enough…"

"What? It's true you know, Aika!" Vyse said

"Yeah, but…"

Karl was finding this hard to believe, flying ships? Pirates? This couldn't be real, on the other hand, he had witnessed a valkyria with his own eyes, so anything's possible he supposed.

"It looks like it's almost dawn, we should get moving." Wavy said.

Everyone agreed and started moving again.

-

As the group made there way forward, they cautiously kept an eye out for any imperials in the area. It was very quiet, which made everything seem unsettling. As Karl walked, he suddenly felt something strange below his feet, he looked down and jumped.

"Ahh!" Karl yelled.

"Karl what is it??" Nadine exclaimed

Karl pointed at the dead body of an imperial soldier.

"Don't worry man, he's already dead!" Alex said

"I-I know, it's just…"

"Wait a sec," Aika said, "if there are dead imperials here, then that means the rest of the squad can't be too far."

Everyone agreed and kept their eyes peeled. Soon, they followed the trail of dead imperial bodies to a small town, as they got closer, they saw a massive number of people evacuating the village, Karl wondered what was going on. As they got in closer, they found even more dead bodies of imperials on the ground. But this time, they found a stray bullet on the ground. Nadine, who was an expert on such matters, picked it up and inspected it.

"It's a bullet from a Gallian S-10. That's a militia standard rifle, we must be close to the others!" Nadine said

Karl hoped that they could find Lynn among the survivors. They then started searching the town, there was a major skirmish here, but it didn't look like any Gallians, civilian or militia were harmed. As Karl started to head towards a corner, he then started hearing a very sharp noise.

"Gaaah!" he cried.

The sound was loud, shrill, and very painful, it was almost like listening to a cat being eaten by a bunch of hungry ravens, which were at the same time cawing out in pain. It was almost too much to bare, but he couldn't stop now, he must find his fellow squad mates.

Eventually, from the distance, he saw a group of bodies lying on the ground, they were militia. Karl's heart sank, he was hoping they would be alive. But it was not until he saw Lynn's body, did he started to lose control.

"Lynn!!! NOOO!!!"

He charged straight towards her body, hoping that there was still a chance to save her. When he finally reached her, he started wailing.

"Lynn! Lynn! Don't leave me!!"

Lynn slowly opened her eyes, and said,

"K-Karl??"

Karl's eyes widened, she was okay.

"Lynn! What happened?? What happened to everyone?!?"

Around them laid the bodies of Susie Evans, Jann Walker, Homer, and even Marina lying on the ground, but upon closer inspection, they were not harmed. In fact, they got themselves back up as soon as he asked. They were all groaning as they got up.

"We're fine Karl, it's just that, well…" Lynn hesitated.

"What? What happened??"

"Edy sang to us." Marina said coldly.

Karl was dumbfounded, "E-Excuse me?!?"

"She's serious honey…" Jann said, "She was so bad we all were forced on the ground."

"Now, I won't be able to hear well for quite a while…" Susie said.

"So, that was that horrible sound I just heard??" Karl asked.

"Hmm, hmm, afraid so…" Homer said.

Suddenly Edy came and found everyone back up.

"I'm back darlings! I hope you had a nice nap!" she said

"Oh my, Karl! You're back!"

Karl nodded, "Yup, and so did Wavy, Nadine, Vyse, Aika, and Alex."

At that moment, the people he had mentioned came and reunited with the others. They talked to one another about their adventures away from the squad. Apparently, Lynn and the others were helping a small village evacuate from an imperial invasion, and succeeded.

-

Soon, the entire squad was back together. As they stood in attention if front of Welkin, he began his speech.

"Listen, I apologize for my rashness. If we actually would've camped out for the night instead of pushing forward, none of this would have happened."

Karl was surprised, even the great Welkin Gunther made his fair share of mistakes, he was glad that even he had flaws.

"But, what matters it that everyone made it alive. This has shown me that even without my guidance, you were all able to use your friends, allies, and natural abilities to make it out of this intense situation, and I'm proud of you all."

The whole squad saluted Welkin, as a way of saying thank you. He saluted back and finished,

"Now, let's continue with our mission, to save Bruhl."

"Yes sir!"

Karl, Lynn, and the rest of the squad continued their way over to Bruhl, where their next major battle will take place..

That was my longest chapter to date so far. Phew. I apologize if I made Vyse and Aika out of character at all, I never actually placed Skies of Arcadia and therefore, don't know much about them. Thanks for reading and remember to review and give me any pointers on how I can improve.

Have a good day!