Slowly you become aware of a slight breeze on your body.. the slightly warm metal of the vent.. the ache in your bones from sleeping in such an ackward position...as reality slowly sets back in. Utena mms slowly and her eyes flicker open, remembering where she is. She gazes through the vent directly before her head, to see what's going on below her. Inside herself, she knows she shouldn't have stopped to rest, but she NEEDED it.. she feels a little stronger now. A flurry of activity... between the slits of the vent you see dozens upon dozens of people filing back and forth.. talking to one another.. cameras.. media? Guards.. MANY of them.. Utena sucks in her breath. They're all over the place. She can't just drop down in the middle of this.. but she listens, trying to overhear exactly what they know.. if they've realized she's in the ventshaft.. You hear them chatter back and forth 'The Queen is dead?' 'Assassinated?' 'We have not disclosed that information.. nor confirmed it yet' *flashbulbs* 'The media have a right to know!' 'Does the Crown have an heir?' 'Will the murder be brought to justice?' Utena flinches and listens some more... wanting to hear as much as she can.. afraid to even MOVE now from her position, crammed and uncomfortable as it is... not until these people LEAVE can she move anyway, or risk making some sound that would give her away... Then you may be stuck for a long time.. afterwhile you understand the Palace is under constant until every last square inch is checked.. be it in the next few hours..or the next few months. It's a sheer miracle the guards haven't found you as it is... you have to do something.. Utena starts to shrink back from the grate.. maybe there's another shaft that she can take to get herself out of this thing... backing away slowly with sore limbs trying to keep her eyes open for another gap. As you clamber along silently.. you quickly find out this is a labyrnth of metal.. going to and fro almost endlessly in a complex web.. occasionally deadended by a whirling fan either blowing or sucking hot air.. The mazework it self seems to permiate the Palace very thoroughly.. and almost everywhere you got there are guards just beneath or somewhere near the grate... you could look longer .. but it's very tiring to constantly crawl like this.. Utena will keep trying paths until she finds one that dumps into an empty room.. or, which would be an even greater blessing, to the outside.. all this air has to come IN from somewhere... it's to that outmost vent she tries to find... praying quietly. At least she has the comfort that... narrow as these things are.. no one can follow her... she's just BARELY able to move through them herself, only because of her petite frame. However, she's quite blackened and weary now, exhausted... she forces herself to keep going. You scoot along..and jackpot.. you see a triad of large fans.. spinning quickly..drawing air from the outside past thick metal grates. Hrmm... Utena searches for wiring if she can reach it, intending to rip out the wiring so the fans will stop moving.. if she tried to force her way through they'd most likely chop her apart. The passage widens here some since the fans are of a much larger size. Indeed.. hrmm.. there's what looks like the wire junction.. on the bottom ..from which three tubes extend to the fans. They look pretty sturdy.. as you snatch them you find yet another problem with being petite and less strong.. you yank and yank..but these wires arn't coming loose immediately.. you need leverage.. Utena really needs a knife. But instead... she presses her hand flat to the ground and ... the sword's there in her hand... this is going to be tricky... she actually backs off down the junction some... sticks one hand in her pocket. Metal with a live current.. she's going to get a shock. but if she keeps her hand in her pocket the shock will at least bypass her heart.. it'll HURT, but she can keep functioning. Rubber soles on the treads of her sneakers, too; she slips the razor sharp edge of the sword toward the wire and underneath the junction to sever the wires where they're exposed. The Sword of Dios is razored edged, even metal wiring seems to slice with surprising ease as you cut downwards.. the predicted series of sparks goes off.. as you feel that hot jolt course through your body.. every muscle in your arms painfully tense... twitching as your nerves struggle to regain control.. but the fans begin to slow down and stop entirely.. Utena moans softly while the fans stop, sinking into the shaft. The rubber soles kept the thing from making a perfect circuit of her and the shaft or she'd be very, very DEAD right now. But she's in PAIN... tears in her eyes as she struggles to fight it and waits for the fans to stop moving... and for her mind to stop spiraling in the haze of red and orange.... although she doesn't realize it for some time, she actually faints away again, and it's about 30 minutes later when she comes back to... sword still beside her, cool air washing in from the outside... fans dead before her. You better move it soon tho.. modern technology can detect broken circuits.. they probably will be sending a repair crew soon.. most probably they haven't now because of the media blitz outfront..but eitherway.. it's best not to dally any longer than you can.. The Fanblades are wide enough and dull enough that you could slip between them.. and the metal grates are pretty thick however.. Utena turns the fans weakly with her hand so that there's a clear singular line to crawl through... when she finally gets to the grate, she hacks at it with the sword's edge... Sweet and sharp... The sound of metal ringing out on metal over and over fills the duct.. small sparks flutter out from the strike area.. eventually the metal finally begins to deform enough to slice.. but from your poor angle it's hard to do.. it's a pure miracle nobody has heard or found out about this by now.. Utena doesn't have the mind to concentrate on anything else but breaking that grating open.. Eventually... one after the other the rungs on the grate clatter downwards.. giving you a passage out.. looking out it's late afternoon.. a bit chilly.. your about ten feet off the ground.. which seems to be a back lawn.. filled with shrugs and small trees on the massive estate.. Utena pushes herself through it, sword first, stumbles out that ten feet and crashes heavily into an azalea bush on her back... groaning. No time to feel this.. everything in her hurts and her arm is twitching occasionally from the current she absorbed breaking the fans.. but the cool air is on her, and she's OUT... struggling to right herself so she can get MOVING. Well.. unfortunately buckingham is a pretty large place. The estate itself is rather vast.. as you run into a small forest.. buffering most of the estate from London proper.. you begin running through the trees..twisting and turning.. Utena keeps running. Has to. Can't stop... finally flinging herself up, high, into the trees to climb up and travel along the upper branches... more cover... and harder to catch this way... but god she's tired. Fights that too... just concentrating on her task, on escaping. They must know it was her.. and the camera saw her.. she may not even be able to get out of the country now. You run and run.. eventually clambering to the tree tops.. now moving from branch to branch quickly..but ugh.. pain, exaustion are slowly setting in..getting harder to keep your balance..but there..up ahead.. the outer walls.. Utena draws on.. something... as she sees the outer wall, refusing to let herself stop until she finds somewhere safe... once she's over the wall, all she has to do is find a nice, dark place to bury herself for a while.. maybe back in the subways again... You reach the furthest branch..which is a good 10ft away from the wall.. and the wall itself is 15ft high... Utena sighs, drawing to a stop. She appraises the situation and briefly ponders letting herself be caught and executed.. at least then she wouldn't be so damn TIRED. But of course.. she can't do that.. even the merest FLICKER of humoring that thought triggers flooding memories of what she saw in that 'Queen's horrible cahmber... those dead eyes turning to her, begging her for vengeance... she pauses, draws in her breath... then RUNS along the length of the branch... and JUMPS, flinging herself up, hands over her head, to grab at the wall. You soar through the air.. flinging yourself far out... the wind unfurls your pastel hair behind you.. as the air rushes by.. you feel your fingers just barely curl around the edge of the wall as you swing in and SLAM into the side of it.. the impact jarring one hand loose..but the other clings on desperately as you swing a bit more. Utena winces and drags her other hand up, scrabbling for hold.. rubber soled toes scrambling for a grab too, to keep herself from falling off... all her weight resting on that one hand's bare grip as she does... somehow she manages and pulls herself to the top of the wall... looking down wearily, with the wind brushing her face, over her tired body. If she could just give herself to the wind and let it blow her far away from here... oh lord, that would be so sweet. Hell, she'd even be happy to fall on Touga right now, so tired... Her ragged blue eyes stare out around her. Oh.. such thoughts would be wonderful wouldn't they be? As you look out..all you can see is just the streets of london.. beyond the mega highrises and skyscrappers of the world hub.. Utena sighs... twists, turns, grabs the wall and falls backward, then lets herself down to the ground from less of a distance, sinking into the ground though she landed on her feet. Tired. Heart beating so hard... She stumbles back up to her feet, looking around herself for a hiding place. And thusly you flee.. oddly enough there arn't many people on this side of the Palace..and the people there are.. all manage not to see you as you stumble into the shadows beyond.. slipping into quiet darkness between the great government buildings.. working your way deeper into london proper as the streets progressively become more and more grungy and typically urban residential... many nooks and crannies in the alleyways you can crash within... Utena is looking for an entrance to the Underground right now, though her limbs feel like stone and she's having a harder and harder time thinking clearly enough to even pay attention to what she's doing.. stumbling like a drunken woman along the quiet sidewalks.. almost pitching headfirst into the street... forcing herself by nothing but her will to move on, sleep below ground in the dark where she can't be seen, where people won't look for her so readily or care what condition she's in. Eventually.. you stagger to another subway openning.. clambering down the staircase .. seeing the abandoned platform with the dozens of slumbering bums.. covered in soiled rags and blankets.. as well as empty bottles of booze. The downtrodden never care about much else than their own worries.. giving you the quiet anonymity you require for slumber. Utena crawls into the darkest, deepest shadow she can find and sinks down into it as her energy almost immediately gives out, adrenaline stretched to its last... will exerted to its fullest. She moans softly and disappears into the darkness. As you fall into the darkness.. your mind is thrust into the place of dreams...at first your too tired to even dream very well..... but nonetheless it comes to you slowly... as the darkness slowly parts a bit.. a voice "Utena." dark and menacing.. Utena.. turns, in her dreams, weary but shining in it, still retaining the blessings of Michael and God, even if she's burned out in her body, her soul is that of the Victor. She glowers into the darkness facing that voice... The outline of a dark figure..wreathed in a strange shadow.. like a second body superimposed over it. Mimicking the obscured originals movements. An errie afterimage inplace of the first, "Salutations." 'Salutations' speaks the second echoing shadow.. echoing the first's voice as well.. Utena narrows her eyes. "Who are you?" Casting around herself, in the blackness of dream that's shades lighter than the black things before her... That dark voice speaks up, "A nightmare." 'nightmare' "A particularly bad one at that.." 'that' the images float a bit to the right.. their movements disjointed..hard to follow, "You did a bad thing Ten'jou.." 'Ten'jou' "A very bad thing." 'bad' Utena screams into her nightmare, into the shapes that are slowly surrounding her, "I didn't! I did a GOOD thing! She was bathing in blood! And YOU CAN'T JUDGE ME!" It corrects, "Of course I can." 'can' "Don't be so naieve girl.. " 'girl' that second, hissing whisper of an echo begins to become progressively more accusing, ".. we own this world." 'world' "And you.. being ON our property.. means we get to judge you however we see fit." 'fit' It continues, "We were willing to be merciful.." 'merciful' "..we even cut you a break.. " 'break' ".. But.. you spit in our faces and killed one of our own." 'own'.. Utena nods, wrapping her arms around herself, turning and turning.. revolving. "And I'll KEEP DOING IT as long as you push me! ONLY GOD can judge me.. ONLY GOD! I AM THE VICTOR AND I WILL *NOT* BE CONTROLLED BY YOU OR ANYONE!" She... -pushes- with her mind on the figures that drift around her like wafting smoke coils. The figures indeed recoil with your willpower... but the central.. more solid shadow chuckles a bit.. seemingly unconcerned, "Ooooh. Arn't we on one hell of a high horse?" 'horse' the afterimages whimper and sulk back from you, "Don't think your all that. Your an inconvinence at best.. and soon you will be rectified." 'rectified' "I just thought I would tell you.. your now the #1 most wanted fugitive in all the British Isles. And within a year.. you'll be public enemy #1 in every God fearing and English speaking nation on Earth. Lets just see how far you get.. little girl." 'Girl' Utena replies simply, in a fierce tone, "Get out of my mind. I won't tolerate this. You twisted what Anshi did for yourself. She wants me to stop you. I WILL stop you. I don't care what you do to me, I WILL do what I say. NOW GET OUT OF MY MIND!" The voice hrmphs..but does indeed grow more distant.. as the shadows receed, "We'll see how much your tune changes soon enough. Have fun Ten'jou.." 'Ten'jou' "We'll meet in person..soon enough." 'enough' And with that the shadow flickers completely out of existance..leaving your mind free to dream by itself until it's waking..