El Hazard is distributed in North America by Pioneer
entertainment. I claim no rights to it. It's really
pretty good, and I suggest you give it a try.


                    Gallus' Last Stand


    It is very easy to gain access to the Stairway to Heaven the
second time. All I have to do is project an image of me not being
there, and I easily slip in, with Rune Venus and her sister,
Fatora. Quite simple, really. When Ifurita came we left, just in
case it could pierce through our technique. Who knows what that
thing is capable of? Their Ancients were extremely advanced and
built their devices exceedingly well-- no one knows better than us,
of that fact. 

    Nothing to do now but watch and wait... and let the past invade
the present. Like the first time I went alone to the surface. 
    The sun was bright, blindingly so almost. It always is, your
first time. I blocked it out with my hand, and noticed the sky wa a
darker blue than my skin, and then remembered what I had to do on
the Surface World. I knew I could do it-- my teachers said I was a
prodigy and that the Talent ran strong in me. 
    Now anyone who came by would see a young, fair-skinned boy. I
quickly moved away from the entrance and made my way down to the
water. I walked along the river for a while, listening to it and
watching it catch the light from the sun as my eyes grew used to
the brightness and glare. I remember laughing then, I remember
singing or whistling some song. I remember happiness.
    I walked a distance, marvelling at the blue sky and the yellow
sun and the green grass, until I came to a river and another child,
who was playing there, by herself. In my innocence, we became
friends, and promised to meet there the next day, after playing for
hours.
    Hide and go seek was my favourite game-- my best, two, of
course. I was happy, carefree. Happiness never lasts, not for us,
not on this world, cast out of Home.
    The day came when adults found us, but that was okay, because I
looked like one of them-- I could maintain our deception for longer
than many, already. Now she was escorted by them-- always under
their watchful eye. 
    Then (don't remember) one day (leave this alone, not this
memory) my mother (foolish, foolish woman, why couldn't you just
stay and send someone else? Why couldn't you have waited just a bit
longer?) came to look for my. My mother, who had never been on the
surface before during the day, and quite possibly never during the
night, as well. My mother, who got lost and confused and frightened
quite easily. My mother, in whom I already surpassed in using the
illusion and decption techniques born in our people. And she found
me (why could you not have wandered around a little longer? Or
found me sooner?). I knew her immediately-- every child recognises
their mother, regardless of what she might look like. No Phantom
Tribe child is fooled by any illusion when it comes to their
mother, not even (or especially not, perhaps) newborns. I was no
newborn.
    I was coming out of the water-- we were swimming, when my
mother came out of the woods, wild-eyed and panicking. Maybe that
was it, maybe that's what caused it to fail, but her illusion
dropped at sight of me, just as I, surprised, shouted, "Mother!"
    The men, guards, noticed her immediately. 
    I got away, she did not. 
    I still know the exact tree where she hung, struggling with the
makeshift noose for far too long. Her body, I do not know what
happened to it-- they posted sentries around it for a long time in
case we tried to take it.
    I did not go to the surface again for a very long time.

    And now I watch them activate the Eye of God-- I watch them
begin the salvation of my own people and their own destruction.

    And now I watch them use the Eye of God on their Bugrom foes--
soon my plans will come to fruition.

    And now I watch as they realise everything is going wrong, and
that their victory will be their downfall. 

    And now I watch from my hidden vantage point, until the time is
right. 

    "Correct," I say, a hint of glee in my voice, "no one can stop
the Eye of God now."

    Oho! A smart one. I chuckle slightly. "That's right, I
sabotaged the control unit, and now it won't stop. But _you_ are
the ones who set your own destructions in motion! _You_ activated
the ultimate weapon, aware of the lethal potential. Now you will
witness the dire consequences of your foolish actions." If you were
only kind to us, in the beginning. If you could accept us, this
need not have happened. If we had more time studying the Eye, this
would not have been necessary. If, if, if.... If wishes were
fishes, then this world would be an ocean.

    "Do you understand now?" I said, confident that boy Makoto
would comprehend what must have happened to my people.

    And then the unthinkable. "Unlike you, we're not filled with
hatred for El Hazard!" the boy shouted back at me defiant and
strong.

    I... do not understand. How could he not understand us? He,
they, the Earthers... They're like us, aren't they? They were taken
from their home just as we were, ripped from our rightful place,
weren't they? I don't understand, I cannot fathom the possibility
that he cannot understand what my people have gone through.

    Hate El Hazard? But course I do, with all my body and all my
heart. How can I not? My first thought when I wake, and last
thought before I sleep. It wracks my dreams and fills me, every
single moment of every single day. This hate scares me sometimes;
the overwhelming nature of it subsuming anything else I might do or
become. I just want to get rid of it, forever and ever, to live
without hate for once, but it will only allow me one way. This
world and its peoples are the focus of my soul's hate for what
they have done to my people and it will onl be sated by revenge.

    I cry out in rage, wordless and formless rage as I lunge
towards him with my blade, scattering images of light and mist all
around... but he has that girl with him, another one of the
Earthers. The one who found me out, who found out my Kiriyah. 
    Oh Kiraiyah, dear Kiraiyah, sweet Kiraiyah, faithful Kiraiyah,
if I had known, if I had only known... but how could I? I failed
you, my Kiraiyah, but I shall not fail the rest of our people,
I'll--

            --PAIN! My shoulder. The boy, Makoto. The girl, Nanami,
directing him. How else could it be? Doesn't matter now, it's too
late for them to stop it, the Eye is in overload, and soon it will
rip apart this accursed land as surely as this world tried to rip
us apart.

    They deserve it, oh they deserve that at the very least, they
must. Beat us down. Made us slaves. Brought us from peace to a
world of chaos and fear and war and hate. Forced us into the dark,
where we became pale shadows of what we once were. People of the
Sky, that is what our name for ourselves translates into, but now
our skin is almost as pale and colourless as there's is. Gave us
knowledge of violence and death, first-hand. They did not even stop
to ask us who we were-- not them. That we were not them was enough
for the killing to start.
    We ran. We hid.

    The wound is clean-- barely a scar left after I get it treated.

    We ran, they chased. They found, they killed. They captured us,
bound us. The women raped, the men slaughtered mercilessly. We
toiled under their brutal rule as they tried to remove us from El
Hazard in a different way. Slow genocide, born out of small minds
and unreasoning hatred and fear. I have reason, ever so much reason
to hate. 
    We perservered. We grew crafty, we honed our powers more and
more. We learned how to hide, even in plain sight, with or without
our newfound ability. We slid away, down to caves which we found.
Deep, dark places they would not go to because of some
superstition: the Underworld, Land of the Dead. Reminds them of all
the people they killed.  
    I hate them, always, now and forever, for what they did to us,
what they do to us and what they will always do to us unless this
works and we can go Home. If I could let it go, I would, but... it
has become as much a part of me as my hands, my heart. If I could
get away, bring the Phantom Tribe-- their name for us, not ours,
not the People of the Sky-- Home, even that would be enough.
    The caves didn't bother us-- already used to the dark, we were
trying to survive, and if it was the Land of the Dead that only
meant that we could be with our loved ones. We survived, and in a
way, prospered, to an extent.
Slowly.

    My people, soon we shall be going home! 

    No! The boy is going to try and interface with the Eye! He must
be stopped! He'll ruin everything! If he stops it then it won't
overload, and if it does not overload then we will lose our last
chance to find a way home in the ensuing void! If only we had more
time, we would have figured it out, I know we could have. We could
have gone back, using less drastic measures, surer methods. I think
I could have come to terms with that even, eventually. Whatever
else may be, hate and revenge are second to Home.

    Get up! Get up, blast you! Last chance to stop him! Good, now
run! I scream out again, no one can reach me, I'm almost on him! I
won't fail you now, my people! We will find our way through the
Void to our Home. Our scientists assure me it will be possible.

    --Pain! White hot, through my back, through my chest. Ifurita!
My legs aren't working anymore. Not fair! Not fair! So close, I was
so close! Marrying Rune Venus wasn't going to work, at the very
best I might have been able to lessen the hate these El Hazarders
held for my people, nothing more. 
    So I take her sister, in an effort to find out how they control
the Eye and to gain access-- and then the Earth-boy Makoto
arrives, and takes her place. I compensated as best I could.

    I'm dying, I don't want to die. My people need me, I can't fail
them. I'm dying, I can feel the world go cold. They need me, whom
else is there to free us? I'm dying. Who will lead them out of the
darkness into the light? I don't feel any pain anymore-- a very bad
sign. I don't feel much of anything anymore, actually. My hate, so
burdensome, I'm sorry but now you'll never find an end. As long as
there's pain, I knew I had a chance. Have to-- Najato.  
    Last act. My heir, the one I've been grooming to take over
after me. Concentrate, must concentrate. Form the image on his
eyes, only for him to see. Focus past the numbness. You will have
to lead our people Home, Najato, because I cannot. Instructions on
how to find the book of our history on or in this place, this El
Hazard-- every act the peoples on the surface of this accursed
planet have ever done to us in our exile here. Not something we
give out to everyone-- only the ruler and a few others, so that it
isn't forgotten, and so that we don't die in an hopeless war. 

    He understands.

    My people, my people, I have failed you! I tried, I did
everything I knew how and I still lost. Why do the bad guys have to
win? Why does might have to equal right? Why--

    It's getting dark now. I can't see anything anymore. Cold, why
do I feel so cold?

    I just wanted to live without hate for once, why won't you
allow me that, just for once?

    What's that? I can see it; light, shining so bright. Ahead of
me! Our Home! Where we belong! It's just like I pictured it: sky
deep blue, the colour of skin, and soft clouds and verdant hills
and _oh my God it's so beautiful_ it fills me up to overflowing and
I don't want to go I never want to leave here and please let me
stay I'll be good I promise this is all I ever wanted don't take it
away from me please please pleasepleaseplease. 
    I can see group of people come to welcome me, with one ahead of
the others. They aren't the pale shadows of living for generations
in caves, but the colour of the sky, just like my hands now, I see
as I raise one outstreched towards them. I can almost make the one
in front (her?) out now.
    Mother?
    Is that you? Mother?
    Oh mother, I'm Home now.



Notes: A rewrite, from something I posted once, long ago. I
lengthened it a bit, as well. Not completely comfortable with it,
either. I am planning/writing a fic about the history of the
Phantom Tribe-- kind of a supplement to the Disks, but not part of
that series (On the Creation of Demon Gods, Genetic Engineering and
Reengineering in El Hazard, and eventually the Eye of God disk).
Some of the things mentioned here will be given more detail in
that, obviously, having taken some things from that one for this.
Have only recently figured out how I want to write it, and I think
the format I'm choosing will, at the very least, be appropriate.
    They mentioned the Void, in the OAVs, in connection with the
Phantom Tribe, and that the PT came from it, via the Eye of God. I
have construed it to mean they were plucked from their planet and
dumped in El Hazard, but what if instead they actually lived in the
Void (space? interdimensional/universal space, perhaps?)? That
would suggest a wildly different development and most likely
society, and yet another reason to hate the El hazard natives, for
placing them in such an alien landscape. Details of said Void might
be interesting (is it really as empty as the name suggests).
    I'm tired and rambling right now, and not especially coherent
(gee-- there's a big shock, eh? Me, being rambling and incoherent
^_^ ) so that's that.


Well, I am in fact still alive, am going to AWA, have more Hawaiian
shirts to wear there, and will undoubtedly forget to bring duct tape
so that people around me can get a word in edgewise. ^_^
	I just wanted to get this out before I left, and well, that
pretty much means doing it now, because I'll have no time to do so
on Wednesday. Hence, it isn't really quite up to my satisfaction
yet-- there's a few things I think should still be expanded upon.
If you agree, then tell me (it would also help if you told me what
you think should be expanded upon). Heck, even if you think it's
fine as-is and that I shouldn't mess around with it further, you
should tell me that, as well. Basically, C&C would be nice, is what
I'm saying. :)



Matthew Lewis is:
	a proud member of Lumpy Pot Productions:
http://members.xoom.com/Morisato/home.html
	in need of updating his webpage at:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Flats/9345/index.html
____________________________________________________

"The only people who see the whole picture are the
ones who step out of the frame."

-Sir Darius Xerxes Cama, The Ground Beneath Her Feet
 by Salman Rushdie
____________________________________________________