[1-3] The Nose

[Amaterasu]

The silence between Saber and Fiara was broken by the sudden turbulence. How good that the both of them had buckled up in their seats. Fiara looked at one of the Syntech employees hanging on to a chair so as not to roll down the corridor, then with wide eyes looked out the window. "What...? Don't tell me we're-"

Her monologue was interrupted by the creaking of metal being twisted, followed by screws literally shooting out of the walls and floor and bouncing off. She quickly covered her face with her arms to prevent the projectiles from hitting her, but also obscuring her own vision in the process. When she looked back up, she only got one brief look at Saber before her chair was ripped out of the floor by the enormous forces. With her still buckled into it she was sent flying downwards - that is to say, towards the front of the plane. "SABER!" she screamed, reaching out as if that meek gesture could oppose the unbelievable forces that were at work here, before her head hit one of the walls and knocked her out cleanly. In retrospect, one could say that this was what saved her, because being knocked out meant that she couldn't undo her belt. Her chair got stuck between two walls as the plane split in half and she was sent dropping down towards the island.

---

How it was that Fiara survived the crash - no, not just survived, but made it out with nothing more than a handful of negligible scratches - bordered a miracle. She woke up in darkness, barely able to breathe in the air around her that held more smoke than oxygen, and found that only centimeters away from her face was a wall of impenetrable steel, the remains of the plane. She was also still buckled into her seat... all this combined caused a claustrophobia attack inside her. She thrashed around, screaming and yelling, unable to grasp a clear thought. Someone heard her, ran over and heaved the metal plates out of the way to come to her aid. "Relax! Easy! Calm down there, I got you! I got you!" the voice yelled past the metal. It was a female, but Fiara didn't recognize her. She could see light shining through from behind her as the metal was lifted and forced herself to calm down. With a sharp edge she cut open the belt that held her strapped to the seat and slipped out as soon as she could, then helped her savior with moving the metal until she could escape. Coughing, shuddering and suffering the aftereffects of her panic attack, the planecrash, the head-splitting headache where she had been hit, the lack of oxygen to her head and the sudden light flooding her vision all combined, she could only see blurs and barely held herself on her feet. However the Syntech employee that had helped her took her into her arms and held her until Fiara could recover. "You okay there?"

"No", responded Fiara after a bit. "But I don't think anyone is at this point. I'll live though... thanks. I owe you." She looked around them, ignoring the rest of the group for now. "Are we on the island?"

"No... the flight would have taken longer than this. We're stranded."

"Awesome", mumbled the girl under her breath, now feeling better, and looked herself over, then the employee. They were covered in dirt and ash, their clothes had rips and were singed, but they were in surprisingly good condition. With a bath, new clothes and a bit of time for the body to recover, they would be good as new. She looked for the best route out of the planewreck - best leave it before it explodes or something - and tugged the employee along by her hand. Not that she needed to, the woman followed her after a brief hesitation.

Fiara caught sight of Karl Jak, talking to one of the other contestants. Others were escaping the planewreck or joining up with the group from other sides. None of them were particularly injured, Karl seemed... cheerful, even. Was he not worried that they were stranded on some unknown island in the midst of nowhere and not even near the stranded group that they'd gone out to rescue? Not worried that they were now stranded themselves? And why were they all in such good condition? Sure there were some corpses, but from what FIara could see they were all Syntech employees. The contestants that she'd seen so far were barely scratched.

Something was amiss here. Fiara knew next to nothing of Dante's Abyss, but from the few bits of info she'd caught, last year had been a massive game show of sorts. Recorded and broadcasted. Could it be that... no. It was no use in speculating away now. It might have just been a miracle, they all had gotten very lucky. She had to find Saber again... she might be here among the wreckage, or elsewhere on the island? The plane had split in half, she remembered that much before having been knocked out. Saber must have been on the other half, if she wasn't here. But she wouldn't be dead, Fiara knew it deep within. She was too tough to die in a planecrash like this. Just like herself. "A phoenix rises from its ashes", her parent had told her time and time again. Around her, the fiery wreckage. She should have been incinerated, but she wasn't. Had she perhaps died, and risen from her ashes anew?

"On second thought... go join the rest of the group", Fiara told the employee. Saber's image passed through her head. Saber wasn't a coward: she would not have fled the scene. She would have done the right thing and helped. And Fiara was no coward either. So she walked onto a strip of scorched, but bare ground where she did not have to climb through wreckage pieces, and kept her eyes out for limbs, bodies, and her ears open for cries for help. She wasn't a hero, really. But she could help out a bit.

If anyone wants Fiara to help them out of the wreck, feel free to play her for a bit. If you want to do more, poke me and we can discuss more.

Also, in case anyone missed it in the Flight posts: Saber = Arturia.