The scream struck Ragnir's ears like a hammer. No one told me we needed earplugs!
And then he heard someone say, "That was a Valkyrie! It didn't feel friendly..."
Ragnir lifted his hands up to his ears and gritted his teeth. A Valkyrie.
Could it be Serah?
Ragnir tried moved toward the source of the scream, eventually getting a slight bearing. There was one Valkyrie other than Mundy that he'd met since unfreezing, and that was Serah. So, without much of a plan, he stumbled forward, ignoring the darkness...
...then the noise stopped. The darkness lifted.
"Ragnir! Are you OK?"
It was Rega. "I'm fine! That Valkyrie. Where'd she go?"
"Valkyrie?! So that's what that was."
Ragnir felt the adrenaline leaving his system. His ears were still ringing from that noise. Valkyrie was nowhere to be seen... Ragnir let out a word that isn't meant for polite company.
"Ragnir. Language."
"Ahem. Excuse me..." Ragnir fell on his stomach. "Hey, sis, you mind..." Ragnir drifted off to sleep in the middle of the stairs.
---
Rega, with the help of another recruit, had dragged Ragnir back into his sleeping bag.
Now it was time to continue that other project. "Hmm. Need three more of these fuel cells..." Rega looked through a checklist. "Boy, when Ragnir wakes up, he's gonna be surprised."
The busted Mecha Knights had usable spare parts, and Rega had a need for spare parts. The Starpod wasn't ever going to fly again, not after the kind of disrepair it (and the Skylark) had suffered. But it wasn't entirely useless...
Again Grael found himself interrupted, this time by total darkness. Blinded, he dropped to the ground again where he felt more stable, he heard noises, but couldn't recognize what they belonged to. He kept one hand tightly gripped around his gun...
Then it ended, the darkness cleared away and the Mecha-Knights were all revealed to be destroyed. While Grael saw that the injured knight was the one from earlier, the one with the interesting Magnus, he would be no use medically, he didn't have any knowledge of medicine. Nevertheless, he decided he would take the time to inspect the Mecha-Knights now that they were hopefully harmless.
He picked his way to the nearest one and knelt by it, prying its sword from its arm. Grael tossed away the blade, now if the construct reanimated somehow, then it would be harder for it to just gut him instantly. He pulled a screwdriver out of his belt and poked around the bot.
Let's see what makes you tick...