[title suggestions needed]

Part III

S'ai ascended the last of the stairs leading to the Above. There were hooded cloaks hidden in a notch before the hole in the abandoned alleyway. His origins were in the Light, but he didn't want to stand out. He chose a large Shrouded cloak, pulled the hood over his head and opened the hatch. A cold snap of Above air greeted him. From the alley, it looked like a maintenance hatch. It was just large enough for a grown man to squeeze through. The suns were setting on the Above, which suited S'ai's needs. He knew of a few places where the residents of the Above discarded their household objects, and odds were goods that he would find a generator that he or Q'renn could fix.

Finding a pair of lightly used generator cores at a refuse depot some distance away, S'ai started his journey back to the Gateway. He stuck mainly to the alleys and unused paths on his way there, but decided he might as well look at the market. Chances were he couldn't buy anything, but he thought he would take a short look anyway for nostalgic reasons. All of the shop owners were starting to close up for the night, but S'ai could still see that the world had stayed the same since he had left it. He pulled the hood closer over his face for fear that someone would recognize him. The crowd of Shrouded cloaks moved around him, buying tools, schematics, raw materials, and trading goods. Some tools that D'kal made found their way to the market via D'kal's anonymous friend, who sold them in the market, or traded them for goods the Underground needed. A cold gust of wind picked up. It blew right through S'ai's cloak and clothes and chilled him to the bone. What he saw next, though, gave him an even greater chill: a large, dark figure walking down the street towards him. No one else seemed to notice the figure; they were too busy buying their last items or hurrying home. This being was at least a foot taller than the people surrounding it, its bulk made it twice the size of S'ai, it wore a dark armour that seemed to swallow up the light. A cold stake of fear stabbed through his chest when he saw its fangs. Each a good deal bigger than his finger. Stained with blood. S'ai dodged into an alleyway and ran around the marketplace. The monster didn't make a sound. It brandished a gigantic, wicked blade in one hand and a powerful, other-worldly gun in the other. There were at least twenty-five innocent people in the street. S'ai could see the massacre between the buildings as he ran to the other end of the street. When he couldn't see it, he could hear it: the screaming of men and women, the wailing of children, the crash of shopfronts falling, the roar of fiery explosions. S'ai was thrown off his feet by a wall of flames bursting between the buildings as he passed. Primal instinct kicked in and the streets around him became a blur. He was no longer aware of the burning market place behind him or the beast spreading terror there. He practically fell through the entranceway to the Underground and down the stairs. He ran at his top speed through the compound. The first face he recognised was D'kal's. He dropped the pack of cores and shed the cloak. He ran into D'kal with such force that they almost fell over. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered, except for what the monster had done. What he couldn't do.

He was unable to catch his breath, either because he had been running so fast, or because of fright. He shook with shock. Before he knew what was happening, he felt himself curl into the fetal position. He tried to say something, but his mouth wasn't working. His lungs weren't breathing as they should. He couldn't see his surroundings, just fire and blood and the strange terror he had left behind in the market place. He wished his head would stop spinning. He couldn't think straight.

S'ai must have blacked out at some point, because he woke up in a strange bed. It was soft, warm, and in a dimly lit room whose walls were made from wood concealed by cloth. His clothes, which had been changed since he returned, were soaked in cold sweat. He lay for some time, just staring at the ceiling, not thinking, not wanting to think.

A familiar voice broke the silence, "Do you feel better?" It was D'kal.

"I think so," S'ai sat up, "a slight headache."