A Hero's Heart
By Airship Canon
Disclaimer: I don't own ToS... blah... blah... blah I do how ever own Reiko Indignir. He's a character I created. He's mine. And any and all characters spoken of in this Fanfic have no connection to real people at all.
Reiko Indignir
Aerifdall. The hidden half-elven village. The people here have been discriminated against past the breaking point. Now their leaders were plotting to revolt. They want to get equal rights for the half-elves in Tethe'alla. They were going to take Tethe'alla by storm, starting the revolution in the forests near Ozette, and move on to Sybak, and finally take the movement on to Meltokio, where they would overthrow the king and take out the cruel, unjust monster that is the Pope of Tethe'alla. But the Pope was tipped off. Two nights before the revolution was to begin, the Pope's personal army, the Papal Knights arrived at the village gates. Their orders were to wipe out the half-elves down to the last woman and child.
"Ready, steady… aim carefully… fire the arrows!" ordered the Commander Knight, Kyle Pittman III. The volley of flaming arrows was launched into the village, setting it ablaze. As the town was set on fire, soldiers marched into the town capturing any one that the could… the men were executed on spot by shooting them with the burning arrows. The women and children were marched off to Meltokio to be fed to the beasts.
In the chaos, a half-elf known by the name of Emily was helping some of the children escape the massacre. Young Reiko Indignir barely could walk when this was taking place, his parents where both captured by the Papal Knights, but thanks to Emily's altruistic sacrifice he escaped and was taken to the flying city of Exire. Shortly after helping Reiko escape the massacre, Emily herself was captured by Pittman's forces.
That was 24 years ago. Now Reiko is one of the most wanted criminals in all of Tethe'alla. His crimes: interfering with justice, harboring criminals, and letting them escape, blasphemy against the Pope, treason, and caste deception. To the racist leaders of the Church, and many people of Tethe'alla, he is a monster who murders good Papal Knights, and sets the evil half-elves free. On the other hand, to the half-elves, he is a valiant hero that saves them from the injustice displayed against them by the Pope and his servants.
Reiko awoke to that nightmare again. He had this nightmare many times. The ghost of the past haunted him continuously, he was haunted by the memory of the family he lost because of Pittman. He looked around. It was dark, there was a charge in the air. Lightning illuminated the area around him. He was in the Temple of Lightning, for that was his place of training, the place where he could hone his lighting magic skills, without constantly being on the run from the Papal Knights and the soldiers or bounty hunters of Tethe'alla. "Westerly, it is time to go buddy…" he said to the dragon next to him. It roared in comply. Reiko and Westerly walked out of the temple. The sun was just beginning to rise, and the Tower of Salvation loomed in the distance, looking quite majestic as the golden light of the sun glinted off of it. "Westerly, we're going to Flanoir today. We have to get going…" Reiko said, as he mounted the Dragon, ready to take flight.
Escaping the Base!
"Come on, Colette! Follow us, we'll protect you!" Lloyd cried out to Colette, but it was to no avail. The impossibly violent, lifeless being, that was once the friendly and happy Colette, continued to follow at the same slow rate, not even acknowledging Lloyd's cries. Before the events that had taken place at the Tower of Salvation Colette had loved Lloyd, but now, she won't even acknowledge his existence.
"There he is! Get him!" cried one of the Renegade foot soldiers. Three of them ran after Lloyd, but caught up to Colette first.
"DO NOT TOUCH THE ANGEL!" shouted another soldier. But it was too late. One of the first three's unsheathed sword cut Colette's hand. Colette turned around, her Chakrams in hand. "Fools! Do you realize what you've just done! You've killed us all!" the soldier cried. He tried to run but Colette threw her weapon, hitting him in the back of the neck, instantly killing him. She then raised her right hand, and moved it so that it created a cross in the air. Suddenly it began to rain high-energy beams of light, and in an instant, all three of the remaining Renegades were dead.
Lloyd looked back and saw the carnage that Colette had caused. He hardly could believe his eyes. The friendly girl he once knew and loved was gone, but he hoped that she wouldn't be gone forever. He badly wanted her back, the girl whom he loved. The girl Cruxis had taken from him, so unjustly. But at that moment he had to get out of the base, and as Sheena had said, they could take the Rheairds and make for the flourishing world of Tethe'alla. There, Lloyd hoped, he would find the method to save Colette from what Cruxis had turned her into. Lloyd and his friends boarded the Rheairds and took off. They swooped around and began their trip through the dimensional boundary that separated the two worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla.
Joining In!
Reiko was flying towards Flanoir when suddenly there was a bright light over a nearby mountaintop. From that light four objects shot out of that light at an incredible speed. Reiko looked at the objects with intense curiosity, trying to figure out what they were. Aboard one, he saw a young maiden, of only about 16, she had long golden blonde hair, and a beautiful face, but she also had eerie red eyes, and wings. Wings. Upon seeing this girl, Reiko thought that the objects were mystic chariots that the angels of Cruxis used to traverse the skies. When one of the objects began to jerk and fall, Reiko and Westerly turned around and followed it. He watched as the four objects crashed atop the Fooji Mountains, just southwest of Meltokio. He watched the people who he thought were angels leave the mountains and head for Meltokio. They weren't angels at all. "Oh, that just some of the Renegade's magitechnology. But that girl…" Reiko said. He then flew off to Sybak, the university town. A few hours later, he heard some news that startled him.
"Two half-elves were just arrested for treason, and are to be publicly executed at the Meltokio Coliseum. They are being lead across the Grand Tethe'alla right this moment."
"Great…" Reiko thought to himself, as he left the city, and got on Westerly's back and started flying towards the end of the Grand Tethe'alla Bridge. On the flight to the end of the bridge, he unsheathed his Zweihander, Glam. Along the way, he saw the same people that he saw at the Fooji mountains, chasing after the Papal Knights. The came to the end, and the knights tried to cut them off by raising the drawbridge, but they did not stop, they tried to jump. But they failed, only that angel girl made the jump. But right before they were going to hit the water, there was a surge and they were launched over the drawbridge, and made a safe landing. At that time, Reiko had already landed, and stopped the advance of the Papal Knights.
"Let those two half-elves go!" Reiko demanded.
"Move out of the way! Don't interfere with justice!" they replied.
"Let our friends go!" Lloyd demanded, coming up from behind. He had unsheathed his two swords, and was ready to fight the Papal Knights to rescue his friends, the two half-elves who were arrested; Genis and Raine.
"Looks like you're trapped, Mr. Papal Knight. If you let the half-elves go right now, I'll let you live… I don't know about the person with the twin swords behind you, but I, Reiko Indignir will let you live," Reiko arrogantly said to the Papal Knights holding Genis and Raine under arrest.
"Fool. Do you think we are going to let them, or you, leave? You know the law, all half-elves who are guilty of any crime are executed, no matter the circumstances, and treason is a high crime indeed." the leader of the group of Papal Knights replied.
"How can they be guilty of treason? King Tethe'alla XVII controls all of the lands of this world! What, were they planning to somehow go to Sylvarant and aid in the World Regeneration Ritual there and bring death and destruction to this land?" Reiko sarcastically asked them.
"That's exactly what they were doing."
"Yeah. Riiight. So are you going to let them go or not?"
"Have you even listened to us?"
"I didn't think so." After Reiko had finished speaking, he swung his massive sword, bashing the leader of the group of Papal Knights into the ground. "STAY DOWN! THUNDER ARROW!" The leader of the knights tried to stand up, but as he did, he was hit with many blasts of lightning. He was killed by the electricity.
Reiko then drove his sword into the dead body of the fallen Papal Knight. He used his sword a pole vault, and while in the air, he threw a dagger. "RAIDEN!" he yelled out, as the dagger plunged into the chest of another Papal Knight. The knight clutched his chest, and his vile blood stained his green armor, then lightning struck the knight, and he died in an instant.
"I'm a noble knight of the Pope's Army! I'm not going to be defeated!" shouted the last remaining Papal Knight , the one who Lloyd was fighting.
"TETHE SEAL LIGHTING!" Reiko shouted. Lloyd then found himself empowered, as lightning energy began to flow through him. As Lloyd continued to slash away at the knight, he was inflicting lighting damage.
"Use a thrust attack! You'll do more damage!" Reiko called to Lloyd.
"Uh… ok… SONIC THRUST!" Lloyd shouted. Lloyd thrust his swords forward and stabbed the knight, but now, lightning struck the knight hard. "Once more!" Reiko called. As Lloyd began to use his new Lightning Thrust technique, Reiko once again used his Raiden attack. The final knight was dead. Genis and Raine were freed.
After talking about it for a few moments it was decided that Genis and Raine could rejoin Lloyd's group, even despite the fact that they were half-elves. Then Reiko asked, "Lloyd, would it be all right if I could join your group? Any friend of the half-elves is a friend of mine."
"Uh… sure… um what's your name again?"
"I'm Reiko Indignir. I'm a half-elf like Genis and Raine, but it seems as if you and most of the rest of your group don't discriminate against the half-elves."
"That's right. We won't treat half-elves any different from anyone else."
Reiko looked around, and then he noticed Colette. It was that same angelic maiden that he had seen near Flanoir. But something was wrong with her, and even Reiko could notice it.
"Uh… that girl with the wings and red eyes…"
"Colette?"
"Umm… Yeah, is something wrong with her? I mean she doesn't show any emotion, she doesn't speak, and she doesn't react when spoken to… That can't be normal, is it?"
"No…" tears came to Lloyd's eyes, as he thought of Colette, the way she used to be, not this violent zombie that Cruxis had turned her into. " She used to be, nice; I'd say the nicest, and happiest person on all of Sylvarant, but because she's the chosen, Cruxis tried to kill her! They took her soul, and turned her into this…"
"She's the chosen of Sylvarant?"
"Yes she is. But completing the World Regeneration Ritual would mean her death… and I'm not about going to let that happen."
"So exactly what happened?"
"She was going on the ritual of releasing the seals… but with each one, she lost part of what made her human, and…"
"Losing her humanity… that's not right…"
"Then, when we were going to go release the Final Seal, it became clear that she would die upon the completion of the ritual, so I fought against the Angels to save her. But… it was too late, Cruxis had already transformed her into this, by stealing her soul… she was gone…" Lloyd fell into tears as he remembered everything that had happened at the Tower of Salvation five days ago.
"Man… that's horrible… it's so sad…"
"Well, what about you? Why did you go through the trouble to save Genis and Raine?" "I'm one of the 11 survivors of the Aerifdall Massacre. My entire family, most of my friends and many others were murdered by the Pope's Knights. Only 11 out of 237 people lived… most of those killed where women and children. I take it as a responsibility to save half-elves that are oppressed by that racist Pope and his marauding armies!"
"Well shouldn't we go pick up the Rheairds?" Zelos interrupted.
"Pick up? How do you plan on moving those things?" Lloyd inquired.
"He most likely has a Wing Pack. It's a product of magitechnology, most Tethe'alleans have one. It is capable of holding large objects, in a light-weight, small size container," Reiko answered.
"Aww man! You spoiled the surprise!" Zelos complained.
"Let's get going! To the Fooji Mountains!"
"I can't believe I'm going to have to climb that mountain again…" Lloyd groaned.
"Oh come on! It's for your Colette!" Reiko said.
