Hello again! This little baby came to me one night while I had a break from my workload of school work and was playing TOSC. Got to the Tethe'alla Bridge and left the game playing for about an hour as I wrote this. I enjoy reading Raine and Genis stories, especially with her raising him, but for some reason this dark story came to my mind and I had to get it written down. So without further ado...

I hate this place. I hate this world. I hate my life and who I am, but most of all, I hate humans. Well…not all humans. My friends are pretty cool, but they don't know where my sister and I are being held so they can't help us. Sis tells me not to hate the humans for how they treat us, that they are just afraid of what we are and what we could possibly do. She says that when humans don't understand something, they do the only thing they can to cover up their fear. They destroy it or lock it away, or even experiment on it to figure it out so that they never have to fear the unknown. But we're not the unknown, my sister and I. We're just regular people trying to live a regular life with our friends and save our worlds.

We're just regular half-elves.

I look over to where my sister is lying down, I assume she's asleep. They've hurt her, those humans. And some days, after they've brought me back to our cell, I think they've actually broken her. That's another reason why I hate them. We've been locked in this cell for days, I think it may even have been a month. Either way it's been too long. The first couple of days we were here they basically ignored us, only giving us one bowl of water from which my sister made me drink all of so that I would stay hydrated. The third day we were here they dragged me out of the cell. Raine tried to get them to leave me alone only to be shoved roughly and kicked away. I watched her eyes harden and I think I may have seen a flicker of fear in them as she watched them drag me down the hall until I could no longer see her face. I watched as three other human guards walked past us and I was able to glance that they were walking towards the cell I was being held in. I figured that they would just interrogate her. I thought that they would interrogate me. I was worried, but I didn't think much of it. My sister was strong and she would be able to protect herself.

That was when I heard her scream.

It was a sound I never thought I would ever hear. My sister never screamed, unless she was yelling at me or Lloyd for doing something stupid, but this was a different sound, a different tone. It sounded as if she were in pain, and before I was pulled out of the hall and into a dusty room, I heard her pleas to leave her alone. At that time, I wasn't positive about what happened but I know I did cry and I was angry and frustrated. I couldn't help Raine against her attackers. I couldn't save us from this horrible fate of being slaves until the humans decided to…kill us. When I returned back to the cell, Raine sat huddled in a corner, her clothes were all stretched, ripped, and wrinkled with a smelly sticky substance on them, and she had a dull look in her eyes. She didn't have tears in them though. I noticed that her cheeks and eyes were as dry as the Triet Dessert, and that scared me. I don't know what those bastards did to her that day, but I know that they destroyed something within her.

She's refused to eat. There were many times when she would just stare at her food, or snap at me to eat her portion because I needed my strength. Again, I cursed my weakness because I would cry until Raine would tell me to stop the tears before she gave me a reason to cry. I would stop immediately. My sister never spoke to me that way before and it scared me to hear her talk that way. Of course, she would apologize after, give me a weakened forced smile that never reached her eyes, and then tell me to eat again. I would do as she told me, after all, she was the only family I had left in either world and she was more like a mother to me than my sister. The guards began to notice that Raine wasn't eating when they made their rounds and saw how thin she was becoming and when they yelled at her to eat, she would continue to ignore them and refuse. Then they would get dirty and use me as bait. One of the guards tossed me into a corner and pulled his whip from his belt threatening to tear the skin from my body if she didn't comply. Raine hesitated one second too long before the leather cord struck my body. I don't remember much, but I do remember hearing my sister screaming for him to stop, but he just ignored her. I had blacked out by the twentieth strike to my body.

I'm not sure how long I was out for, but I woke up to Raine tending to my broken skin with a wet cloth. Her eyes were even darker and duller than I've ever seen them and as I looked into my sister's eyes I cried, not only for myself because of the pain, but for her as well. My sister refused to cry and I seemed to have enough tears within me to shed, so I cried for both of us.

Raine shifted in her sleep and I looked over at her. She was asleep from what I could see, her breathing even and her face relaxed. I wonder if she'll ever return to her old self again. It hurts my heart that we both may die in the cell… that Lloyd, Sheena, Presea and Regal will never come for us or find us. I could completely forget putting Zelos into the equation. He only looks out for himself and it was his fault that we were in this position in the first place. He sold us out to the Pope and we were arrested. Because we weren't full blooded elves, we weren't sent to live in the forest of Ymir with our mother's brethren. But I know that Lloyd wouldn't stop looking for us. He would fight to find us until it killed him. I'm just afraid that he will be too late.

Raine moaned in her sleep and I fisted my hands in anger. I'm not stupid. I'm only twelve, but I know what they do to her, and I swear if she ends up pregnant with one of their…spawns I'll hunt down every human and destroy them. If they thought Desians were bad, then they've never been met with the anger of Genis Sage. I never thought I would say this, but I would probably leave my friends and join ranks with Yggdrasil. No, I'm just saying this in anger. If it weren't for him, none of this would be happening anyway. We would still be in Iselia, laughing at Lloyds attempt to answer one of Raine's questions, looking on in wonder at how Collette could be so clumsy…and me pretending that Raine and I were something we were never going to be. I wanted so bad to be a full elf. Even in Slyvarant half-elves are shunned and avoided, but that's mainly because the Desians have scared the humans into thinking that all elves are bad.

I just wish everything could start over.

I just…want to get out of here.

Please…someone save us.

I don't know why I do it, but every night I close my eyes as Collette would often do, clasp my hands together, and pray to whoever is listening that someone would come and rescue us. I want us out of here so that Raine can get better. She's getting sick, I can tell, and I'm not fairing any better. I know that within another month's time, maybe less, one of us will perish. I don't want Raine to die…

I put my head in my arms, arms that were still scarred after that beating weeks ago. It was hopeless to pray for a miracle that would never happen. We were betrayed left and right from the very beginning. Even Mithos, who I thought was a good person, another half-elf child like me, turned out to be Yggdrasil in disguise. No one cares about anyone but themselves in this world.

"Genis."

I lifted my head to meet my sister's gaze. She smiled weakly at me and called me over to her. As I knelt in front of her, she grabbed me into her arms and hugged me as tight as she could in her weakened state.

"Don't give up hope Genis. Never give up hope, little brother."

I shuddered as I struggled to hold back my tears. One would think that they would have dried up by now, since I cry almost every day these days. Raine carded her thin fingers through my dirty hair and hummed the lullaby she use to sing to me when I was a small child. Even though I was too big for it, I curled up in her lap and allowed her to lull me to sleep.

"Help will come to those to wait, my son." Was the last words I heard before I entered the realm of dreams.

It was early the next morning, not even light out yet, when Raine and I were awoken by the pained screams of the guards and the sounds of swords clashing. I jumped up from Raine's lap and ran to the bars. I could see the shadows of two people fighting and then one of the guards were sent flying right past our cell against the wall where he landed in a heap on the floor, not moving. I heard footsteps and for some reason, I became a bit scared. Not knowing who was attacking, especially when you yourself have no weapons to use, would scare anyone who was vulnerable, but I didn't hide behind my sister as I wanted to do. I stood in front of her instead, standing my ground and glaring at the bars. If they wanted Raine they would have to go through me first.

The footfalls stopped at every cell and I could tell the person was looking into every one.

"Are you sure there aren't any more guards?" a familiar voice asked softly, which I was surprised about considering that Lloyd was never the quiet sort.

"They've all been taken out. Let's find Raine and Genis and leave quickly." Another familiar voice responded and Raine and I looked at one another in bemusement.

What in Martel's name was Kratos doing here? A better question was, why would Lloyd trust him to help find us?"

At last, Lloyd's face appeared at our cell and a smile I never thought I would ever see again appeared on the boy's face. I ran to the cell bars again with tears of joy in my eyes.

"Kratos, I found them! They're here!" Lloyd called down the hall.

I reached my hands through the bar and Lloyd did the older brother thing he normally did when he thought no one was looking and reached through the bars to ruffle my hair.

"You look like shit Genis." He said softly.

"Look who's talking." I replied with a smile.

Kratos appeared at the cell door and my smile vanished, replaced this time with apprehension and anger. Lloyd caught my expression and the hand that was on my head moved to my shoulder and he gave it a gentle squeeze.

"It's alright Genis. Kratos…Dad's here to help."

I looked at Lloyd perplexed. "Dad?"

"That would explain why he was always gentle yet strict with you, Lloyd, at the beginning of our journey. I knew there was much more to you than you put on, Kratos." Raine said from her placed on the cold floor.

Kratos just grunted as he put his hand on the door to the cell and cast a fire spell to melt the hinges. He walked into the cell towards my sister and I raced past him to stand in front of her with my arms out. Raine raised her arm to my shoulder and I looked at her.

"It's okay Genis. I'm sure that if Kratos wanted to harm us, he would have done so already. Besides, Lloyd wouldn't allow him to hurt us if that was his main intention."

I stared at my sister for a minute before lowering my arms. I glared at Kratos again before moving out of the way so that he could kneel before her. I watched as he assessed her wounds and weakened state before casting a healing spell on her.

"Do you think you can walk?" he asked her.

Raine smiled that forced smile of hers again. This time though, I could see a glimmer of my old sister in her eyes. "I'm not sure, even with your healing artes, the lack of nutrition has sapped any and all energy from me." She answered.

Kratos nodded before placing her arms under my sister's legs and behind her back before lifting her up. Lloyd came over to me and guided me out of the cell, allowing Kratos to carry Raine in front of us so that I could watch her at all times. Just as we were out of the make-shift jail, the sun rose into the sky and I looked to Lloyd as he looked down at me.

"I'm sorry that we were late Genis. I tried so hard to find you two for weeks. Then when I finally got a hint of where you guys were being held I wanted to head straight in there and take them all down, but everyone else…" Lloyd said, his voice cracking a bit as we stared at the brightening sky.

I shook my head. "It's okay Lloyd. You found us now and that's all that matters." I looked up at him and gave him a smile I never thought I would ever give anyone ever again. "Thank you, Lloyd."

Lloyd smiled back before looking out at the sunrise. "Collette and the others are waiting at Altesa's. I don't think I have to mention that they didn't trust Dad enough to come with me. Collette would have but I told her to stay where it was safer for her."

I wasn't sure how I felt that the other sans Collette weren't willing to give up their feelings towards Kratos to join Lloyd in the rescue mission. I would have been skeptical, yes, but I would have joined in a heartbeat in order to save one of the others. I shook my head and put the smile back on my face as I turned to watch the rising sun along with my best friend. It didn't matter. Lloyd saved us and that was all that mattered to me right now.

I looked to see where Raine and Kratos were standing as they also watched the sun rise. I walked over to the angel, who apparently is my best friend's father and looked up at him. When he turned his attention to me, I held out my hand to him. Raine shifted until Kratos placed her gently on her feet, Lloyd coming to help her and they watched the confrontation between us two men. Kratos took my small hand in his and shook it.

"Thank you, Kratos, for helping Lloyd save my sister and myself."

Kratos didn't say anything. He just stared at me and before I knew it, all of the anger, frustrations, helplessness and sadness all poured out of me at once and I threw myself at the older man, clinging onto him. I felt strong arms come around me and I just cried harder, having never felt a man's hug before, nor one that belonged to a father. It felt right and I couldn't help myself but to hold onto him.

At that moment, I allowed myself to forget that this man that I was holding onto for dear life had betrayed us at the Tower of Salvation. I allowed myself to forget that he could possibly still be working for the person who wanted my other best friend's body as a vessel for his dead sister and who wanted Lloyd dead.

At that moment, all I cared about was that I had friends surrounding me, human, angel, dwarf, it didn't matter. Even though I still hated humans, I was happy that this man was allowing me to soak his shirt with my tears.

Because I was free.

Hope you enjoyed it! Review if you liked it and Review if you didn't. :D