Thick clouds speckled the sky as the setting sun garishly lined them with an orange light. The song of snipes started to die down as they retired to their nests for the day, and the din that had once filled Haven from the morning now was quieting as well as its inhabitants retired to their homes.

All had entered into the safety of their abodes, except for several knights engaged in a heated dispute.

On the one hand, there was a party of knights that had been soliciting the others for crowns, and they had kept this up for the whole day. They were led by a particularly unpleasant fellow, who looked threatening and powerful, and spoke in a booming voice. The other party was a group of knights minding their own business at the auction house who fell victim to the former party. They were ostensibly led by the depraved, self-indugent, and ill-tempered knight known to not many others as Thimol. The rest didn't know him at all.

"I WANT SOME CROWNS!" the red-eyed lead solicitor howled, his cohorts whooping and yelling as he fired his Polaris into the air, causing a racket.

"I will give you scoliosis and herniated discs like you would not BELIEVE, you nimrods." Thimol proceeded to storm over to the raucous solicitors, swearing and making all sorts of rude gestures. "Cease and desist or you shall be MADE to cease and desist, and I will do it very painfully, this I swear on the Faust of my loins."

"You got some CE?!" asked one solicitor very loudly, slapping Thimol on the face. He must have been impaired in some way, for Thimol was bigger than most other knights, and was much bigger than this particular knight. It mattered not anymore. This knight was going to be impaired in many other ways now. Thimol grabbed the knight by the collar and lifted him into the air.

"You want CE? Hey, I know a place just a few miles off where you can find all the CE you want." The solicitors calmed down now, and backed away from Thimol a bit, and the others who were trying their best to ignore the currently unfolding event that was supposed to be background noise (few bothered to watch at all) now couldn't help but look, some of them even laughing at his misfortune.

"H-hey, put me down!"

"One expedited flight to a better place, departing IMMEDIATELY!" Thimol swung the knight away, tossing him into a thick patch of undergrowth. He probably wasn't hurt that much, but I'm not a doctor, so I'm not really to make any judgment on that matter. Well, who cares, anyway? That knight was scared witless, and began to run for mommy, but the others were starting to get riled up.

"Hey, what the hell, man?" The lead solicitor approached Thimol with hostile intent, backed by his cohorts, all of them equally angry, but Thimol, being a hard-headed paroxysm of compulsive violence, was not one to be so easily deterred. He strafed behind the leader, and thrusting his arms forward...

...grabbed him VERY inappropriately.

"You look handsome this evening..."

And as if they'd all seen a Tortodrone, the solicitors had run off, screaming about various immunodeficiency viruses. The leader, however, remained there frozen, even after Thimol had let him be. He shuffled off into the distance, clasping himself with his arms and shuddering and keeping his legs REALLY close together. Once an exemplar of self-indulgent, testosterone-driven merriment, the knight was now a pathetic display of emasculation.

"That's what I thought," Thimol spat contemptuously. At this point, the bystanders had been thoroughly annoyed, and probably were more upset with him than the solicitors, but he didn't care. They were no longer here to affront him with their demands for loot to which they had no right. Thimol sat down on the steps at the fountain, just watching everything that went on around him.

It seemed strange how that the Skylark crashing hadn't dampened the spirits of anyone too much. Of course, no one wants to stay here on Cradle for the rest of their lives, not only because of the nature of this planet, but also simply because the knights didn't have the means.

But for others... they'd given up altogether on trying to leave Cradle.

Then Thimol's thoughts were interrupted when he spotted a Greaver flying about. This was unusual, for obvious reasons, but Thmol was more concerned about what the presence of the Greaver could mean. He stared at it intently, and it gazed beack eerily with it one eye.

BANG

Thimol perked up at the sound of a gun going off. Someone had shot down the Greaver.

"Whoo!" A knight came running up to the felled Greaver, collecting the coins and embers jumping out of its body. "God, if only there were more, then I wouldn't have to go to the Clockworks!"

Thimol guffawed in spite of himself, thinking that he'd become too presumptuous and paranoid. It was just a stray Greaver, after all.

"You look terrible," came a voice from behind.

Thimol looked back to see that Sylvanius had deigned to pay him a visit.

"I'd think that you think that I always look terrible," Thimol said, getting up on his feet and dusting himself off. "What's your point?"

"I mean you look scared. You never look like that."

"It's nothing," Thimol said, turned away. "I'm just tired. What possessed you to see me, anyway?"

Sylvanius chuckled. "Well, I was perfectly fine with ignoring you, but when I saw how you reacted to that Greaver, I thought something was up. Usually, you strike them down on sight with extreme prejudice."

"Like I said, it's nothing."

"Don't give me that, Thimol. You may seem an idiot, but you know many things that most other knights never could even imagine to exist." Sylvanius walked in front of Thimol to face him. "Something's up with the Greavers, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Thimol asked with a degree of alarm.

"They're turning up in large numbers lately, and their movements have become more systematic, more... collective, as if being led by something."

Thimol started to look genuinely worried. "Well, that could be anything, I--I mean..."

Sylvanius stood silently, staring at Thimol. "I see you're in quite a shock. I should leave you until you're not so wracked."

Thimol looked up. "Wha--? No, it's--"

"No, I should apologize. I was being intrusive. We'll discuss this at a later date."

With that, he left and faded off into the distance.

----------

Later that evening, when the sun had concealed itself under the horizon, Thimol was lodged with a few other knights, for the purpose of what he called "companionship". Of course, everyone knew what he meant by that, and he wasn't ashamed to speak of it one bit, even though they'd all made it clear that what he did in his leisure time was something expressly not for their ears.

In any case, while Thimol had fallen asleep, he and his "companions" awoke to the sound of a low, thunderous rumbling.

"No, you do the laundry..." mumbled one knight, throwing something at Thimol and fortunately, narrowly missed. Thimol got up and looked out. The moon was blotted out by a large, shadowy mass that moved quite rapidly. Then suddenly, the door burst open.

"I usually don't make it a policy to barge in on you during your 'special' time, but I'm sure you can see this is urgent."

Thimol swirled around. It was Sylvanius armed with two Blitz Needles.

"I'll need you to put something on and tell me what's going on. In that order, please."

"Okay, okay, I know."

Once Thimol had suited up, he came out to see that it was indeed a storm of Greavers. The worst of his fears had been confirmed.

"It's not possible..." Thimol spoke with almost a whisper.

"You'll have to expound on that. I have a feeling things will become unpleasant in the forseeable future."

"It turns out he isn't dead after all."

"Come on, who?"

It was then that a winged figure delicately descended upon them. His wings were like that of the Greavers' except they were large and imposing, and they had a gossamer quality about them that colored the moonlight a deep blue. He also had the horns of a Greaver, but otherwise, would resemble one of the Knights.

"Grisaut."

"I'm surprised you still remember me, Camber." The one named Grisaut had touched down, landing without so much as the noise of a pindrop. Thimol gazed at him intently, and he at Thimol. "I was afraid you were still too upset with me to even grace me with a kind word, but I was hoping we could talk again, perhaps settle our differences a little more... civilly this time?"

"You've got some nerve showing up here after betraying me and leaving me for dead, you bastard," Thimol said, drawing his Flourish. "But I've defeated you once. I'll do it again."

"Camber, I know you're upset. You have every right to be, but I beg you to hear me out, please." Grisaut spoke with what seemed to be genuine contrition, and Sylvanius felt as if he wanted to give him a chance, but Thimol had other plans.

"You idiot," Thimol shouted with frustration. "I will NEVER be part of any effort to colonize Haven. It just isn't possible, and it'd be of unequivocal and absolute detriment to all of us. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"No, I still don't quite understand. You still haven't been able to get the Skylark back up, and while it's become quite clear that there's no hope of ever leaving Cradle, you all continue to muck about in the Clockworks, as if to find some kind of miracle among the gears and Gremlins. It's surprising how Vaelyn hasn't died of boredom yet, or embarrassment, for that matter. She's like a child who's just been told that her dead pet went to live in a farm." Grisaut chuckled. "On that note, what's Ozlo up to? The usual? Has he said anything on the matter at all? Will he continue to remain silent and unseen while you all work yourselves to death trying to reach the end of this proverbial rainbow?"

"And you would have us live in a world where we're constantly in danger from Gremlins, who like to attack anything with vital signs? And not to mention the pperpetual uncertainty from the Clockworks. I'm not living in a world where every day is a fight with my own home planet."

"You are KNIGHTS! You are bound by a DUTY to fight to protect each other."

"That's enough." Thimol lunged at Grisaut, poised to strike at his heart, but almost out of the blue, Thimol was swept aside by something very fast, and it went skyward, carrying Thimol along. It was a large, gray Greaver with an eerie, red eye, possibly acting as a guard to Grisaut.

"So, I take it you used to be a Knight?" Sylvanius asked.

"Maybe in the eyes of everyone here, I used to be, but I am still a Knight, fighting to help you all see the reality of your situation, and possibly to rectify it, if you all are willing to cooperate."

"Tch. You're deluded beyond belief." Sylvanius had pointed both Blitz Needles at Grisaut. "You would speak of a Knight's duty to protect his peers and yet you threaten us--the very ones you say you are sworn to protect--with violence?"

"Violence?" Grisaut laughed. "These Greavers are simply here to assist me, and of course, if anyone wishes me harm, they will protect me. Speaking of which..."

Before Sylvanius could fire at Grisaut, another one of the guardian Greavers came and shielded him, and Sylvanius's attacks did little to affect it, and before the Greaver could charge at Sylvanius, he strafed to the side, narrowly avoiding being heaved into the sky himself. His guns, however, weren't so fortunate, as the greaver had swiped them from his hands, leaving him without a weapon.

"Damn."

"Hmm, that's rather unfortunate," Grisaut said with a tone of mockery.

"Hey, Sylv!"

Several knights had come running toward him.

"Did you see? The Greavers are out in full--BWHOAMAGOD What is that?"

Upon seeing Grisaut, the Knights drew their weapons and prepared to attack.

"Watch out, this one's tricky," Sylvanius said.

"Hey, it's four-on-one. How hard can it be?"

"Three-on-one. He's disarmed me."

The Knights gulped. And flinched when Thimol had impacted the ground in front of them. Apparently, he'd been hurled down by the first Greaver. He lay there groaning.

"Hah. What a sorry bunch. I guess I won't need to get my hands dirty just yet. I'll just be looking for Ozlo in the meantime. It's about time someone spoke to him."

With that, Grisaut floated up and flew away while all the Knights could do was watch.

"You two," Sylvanius ordered two of the three Knights. "Go to HQ. Tell them Ozlo is in danger. You come with me and help me get Thimol to safety."

"What is going on?" Sylvanius thought to himself.

----------

Thimol awoke in a room dimly lit by moonlight shining through a small window. He was on a bed, stripped of his armor and bandaged almost all over. It looked ridiculous, sure, but he was dropped ten stories or so, so it was understandable. He tried to sit upright, but instead recoiled and curled up in pain.

"Well, I'm never doing that again."

Then lights came on, and Sylvanius and a medic entered. Sylvanius sat down next to the bed, while the medic began to examine Thimol.

"I understand Grisaut and you have a history," said Sylvanius. "Care to share something about it?"

"Well, I'm not particularly in the mood right now seeing as how it hurts just to LIVE, but my little story here could be of some use to you, I guess, so I should oblige." Thimol pat Sylvanius's hand and flashed a cheesy grin. "Plus, you're my friend."

Sylvanius rolled his eyes.

"Well, Grisaut and I were close." Thimol raised his brow. "Like, REALLY close. When we first met, he was something like a mentor to me. Things quickly get HOT etc., etc., and we're all lovey-dovey, but he starts getting all angsty about trying to get off of Cradle and he eventually gives up all hope, even though I try my best to keep him motivated, and then one day, when we were on another mission with some other guys... he found something strange, but he never told anyone what it was."

"But you suspect it may have had something to do with him turning part Greaver."

"Yeah. Anyway, he tells us that he found something that would change everything, and we see that he can command a small flock of Greavers. We think it's a little cool at first, but when he tells us that he was going to 'relieve Ozlo of his duties', then we get kind of scared and try to stop him. He kills the two guys with us and nearly kills me and leaves me for dead."

"But you didn't die, apparently."

"Course not."

"So how'd you kill... or, try to kill Grisaut?"

"Well, I just followed him, dying along the way, and I impaled him. I checked his vital signs and everything and I made sure he wasn't going to pull any reincarnation crap, but I guess I was never cut out to be a coroner."

"Obviously if he could miraculously come back to life, he found something big indeed." Sylvanius rubbed his chin. "I guess trying kill Grisaut again would prove fruitless, as he could just come back to life again."

"So what are we doing then?"

"We go look for what Grisaut found. You remember where that might be?"

"Uhh..." Thimol rolled his eyes about in deep thought, which was something he'd never done in a long time, so he was struggling a considerable amount. "Well, I remember a cave-like area, but the name escapes me. All I can remember is that it might have been either in a Fiend-themed stratum or--WOOH!"

Thimol perked up at the medic, who'd pressed gently at Thimol's fractured ribs with this fingers. They looked at each other.

"Don't start this again," the medic said, annoyed.

"I won't if you won't~" Thimol giggled with unskillfuly feigned innocence.

The medic narrowed his eyes at Thimol and continued his work. Sylvanius narrowed his eyes at Thimol as well and just signaled him to continue.

"Uh, it was Fiend-themed. That's all I can remember."

"All right. I'll see to assembling a recon team to finding this place. You'll have to heal up in the meantime." As Sylvanius was about to leave, he paused for a moment to add: "Also, don't bother the medic."

"Don't worry, I'm just going to keep him company~"

"Oh, shut UP." The medic said, throwing a wooden splint at Thimol's face.

Meanwhile, at Spiral HQ, Grisaut stormed the structure with his Greaver army in tow, and it didn't take long for him to have the knights standing guard either carried away by Greavers or given a thorough paddling. He then walked over to the Command Console room, where Ozlo was, and forced the doors open with a swipe of his mighty wings. Sure enough, there was Ozlo, tapping away at a screen and talking with someone.

"Well, if that's not the problem, then what is? No, I'm telling you... I said we can't do that; it'll blow the entire ship apart, and we don't have the resources, manpower, tools or time to build another one."

Grisaut slowly approached the captain. "Ozlo, we finally--"

"Hey, can it wait? I'm talking with someone. Anyway, like I said, that power source is too unstable..."

"Hmm, not big on formalities, are we?" Grisaut quickened his gait.

"You're not supposed to be here," Ozlo warned him. "Wait, what? "Panels"? What do you mean?"

"So, is THIS the problem? You ignore the very ones that cry out to you for help?" Grisaut's voice had risen to an indignant yell now, and was storming over to him, and was almost at arm's length when Ozlo, almost as if possessed, and all in one motion, pulls out a shotgun-like weapon and blasts Grisaut's wings off. Grisaut stumbled backward, groaning in pain.

"YOU..." Grisaut collapsed on his knees and groaned again. "How DARE you..."

"What did I say? You're not supposed to be here. You're not authorized. Also, I was speaking with someone and you interrupted me." Ozlo cocked the shotgun and aimed at Grisaut. "That is RUDE."

Just as Ozlo pulled the trigger, Grisaut was instantly picked up by a large Greaver, and only managed to have his arm grazed by the shot.

"I can't believe that... WALKING WASTELAND was made captain. He deserves death and death ONLY."

As Grisaut departed from the scene, Ozlo was suddenly met with a whole cloud of Greavers.

"I said I'm busy." Ozlo fired several shots into the throng. "All of you get out."

----------

"Back so soon?" Thimol lay in bed, watching Sylvanius gingerly enter the room. "What happened with recon?"

"It turns out that no recon was necessary," Sylvanius said, sitting down.

"Huh?"

"Let's just say that in place of the Arcade is an very large hole, with Greavers coming in and out."

Thimol's eyes widened. "You can't be ser--"

Just then, a Knight bursted in through the door.

"HQ's been attacked."

"What?" Sylvanius jumped to his feet. "What happened to Captain Ozlo?"

"We don't know; the building's surrounded by Greavers and no one can get in."

Sylvanius immediately armed himself. "Thimol, can you get up?"

"Lemme see..." Thimol sat up and crawled out of the bed, and sure enough, he was able to stand up. "Well, I think I'm okay. Gee, that medic's something."

"We're going to HQ. Now."

And indeed, as they ran like heck to HQ, they saw that the entire place had been trashed, and the calls of Greavers could be heard from within, as well as gunshots. Once they'd reached the very heart of HQ, however, there was nothing to be seen save for the dim glow of what little functioning electronics were remaining in the room.

"Well, thanks for the help, guys." A figure rose from a pile of rubble. "We showed those dagnabbit Greavers who's boss, right?" He raised his arms and spread them apart, gesturing to the entire room. "And no damage was done in the process! Look!"

Sylvanius stepped forward and spoke. "Ah, we apologize, sir, but when the Greavers attacked--"

"Shut up, shut up, I was joking, but whatever..." Ozlo tossed his shotgun to the floor. "Can anyone tell me what's going on?" He asked in an annoyed tone, but before Sylvanius could even open his mouth to answer, Ozlo started again. "Ah-bup-bup, as soon as we find, y'know, a place, instead of staying in this DITCH."

Ozlo began walking out of the room, while Thimol and Sylvanius just stood there, frozen. Thimol gazed around the room, seeing all the felled Greavers.

"Did--did he do all this?" Thimol asked, amazed.

"Hey, I swore I could have said something... Something like... 'COME ON, GET OUT'?" Ozlo said, popping back in the room.

Once Thimol and Sylvanius followed Ozlo out, they'd began to explain the situation to him.

"So knights Sylvanius and Camber, is that correct?"

"How'd you know our names?" Thimol asked.

"Integrated uplink. I can see alerts and stuff, and bring up information that I need. Muy convenient, but annoying when you're sleeping or having 'unprofessional relations' with your colleagues."

"So then 'Thimol' isn't your real name?" Sylvanius asked Thimol.

"No. That was an alias I'd adopted after the whole incident with Grisaut. I wanted to forget that, and my new name was a part of that."

"Hey, HEY." Ozlo waved each of his hands in front of Thimol and Sylvanius. As he got their attention, he pointed with both hands to his head. "I'm talking," he whipsered. "So, get me up to speed. Was this an assassination attempt or something?"

Sylvanius began to speak. "Sir, we don't--"

"Ah-dah-dah, don't do that 'sir' thing. Just talk to me like you'd talk to Bright Eyes over there, 'kay?" Ozlo quipped, pointing to Thimol.

Sylvanius continued. "Ah... we don't know if there was to be an attempt on your life or not, but we believe that the attack on HQ was part of something bigger regardless."

"Wait, wait, 'regardless'? Is my life suddenly not that important anymore?"

"Uh..."

"Ah, sh-shh't. Joke. So, what is this 'something bigger'?"

"As far as we can tell, it's an organized attack on the Knights to overthrow the current chain of command, led by a turncoat who goes by the name of Grisaut."

"Grisaut..." Ozlo tapped his chin. "Oh, him. That guy was nice. Good knight, too. Too bad he went..." Ozlo's gaze fell upon Thimol, who looked back sullenly. "...crazy. I'm sorry if I offended you; I didn't mean any disparagement by that."

"Ah--?" Thimol's expression lightened up. "Oh, no, I--I was just... I mean, I was offended, I guess, but I forgot that you were just joking."

"I was indeed, but I forgot that Sylvanius mentioned that you two knew each other." Ozlo chuckled. "I forget to shut up and think sometimes."

"Ah."

"So if I'm understanding this right, Grisaut wants me out of a job, at the very least?"

"Correct, s--correct," Sylvanius replied.

"Hmm... Hard to please everyone these days." Ozlo stopped a minute. "This gives me an idea."

Ozlo produced a small device with a screen and keypad and started typing something rapidly.

"What's that?" Thimol asked, looking over Ozlo's shoulder.

"Shut up," Ozlo said, pushing Thimol away. "We're going to meet someone. Follow me."