Hello again everyone! Here is the third story I will be working on. And just a heads up to newcomers, this is a sequel to my last Vesperia fanfic, Ring A Bell. So there will be some OC characters and references to plot points from that fic that will show up in this. But I don't think knowledge of my last fic will be needed to enjoy this one. This story is all about the next generation. But if you're a newcomer and are confused by something that has something to do with the last fic, like what happened to Zaphias or something, feel free to message me and I can help clear it up. Or you could always read the fic yourself lol.

Read, review, enjoy!


Tales of Vesperia: Generations

Chapter 1: New Faces

The ruins were dark though enough light from the scattered openings from the surface made it easy to see what was before them. However an adventurer would have to be careful on these paths. All the moisture in the air made the ground and stones slippery.

But that didn't stop a young man from jumping down off a path to another one just a couple feet below. He inspected the area to see if there were any monsters. Two mismatching swords were on his belt and one hand rested on one of them. The youth had wild dark hair that was medium in length that looked like he needed to run a comb through it a few times. He wore a white shirt under a thin indigo jacket and dark pants and boots. Under the left sleeve was the glimmer of a golden bracelet.

Seeing no monsters outside of poliwigles, he looked back up at where he had jumped and saw another young man had started to climb down. Sadly, he seemed to be frozen in place. The one at the bottom put his hands around his mouth and shouted to the other, "Come on, Rune buddy. It's not that far."

The young man named Rune, moved his head just enough to look down at his friend. "Raiden, are you sure there aren't any monsters?" He said in voice that made him sound like he was going through puberty all over again.

Raiden let out a very loud and tired sigh, hoping his friend would hear him. "Yes, it's fine. Now hurry up before we lose all our light." At the pace Rune was going, they could end up spending the night in the ruin. Maybe if he told Rune that he might hurry up a bit since he's afraid of the dark.

"O-ok, I-I'm c-c-coming," Rune stuttered and his foot started to move down to another place holder. Just as he was about to put his weight on it, the rock he held onto broke off and he lost his balance. Rune let out a very terrified cry until he landed on his behind in front of Raiden. He groaned and rolled to his side as he moved the hood from his red mage's cloak off his head. Both the adventure's pack on his shoulders and the small pouches on his belts all stayed intact from the fall. Rune had short brown hair and googles over his eyes that he wore instead of his glasses when the two of them ventured out like this.

Raiden held his hand out for his friend. "You okay Rune?" He asked. "Nothing broken?" It would be a pain if he had to carry Rune all the way back to Arie Hollow. Not to mention how scary Rune's mother would react to them sneaking off and getting injured.

Rune grabbed Raiden's hand and the twin swordsmen easily lifted him to his feet. Rune was surprisingly light. "I'm fine," he answered and started to make sure he had everything in his pack. Then he started to dust himself and said, "We should just leave. We're going to get in trouble."

Raiden patted Rune on the back, maybe a little too roughly. "Come on buddy, we've come this far. Besides, you're the one that wanted to find an old blastia."

Rune had talked about wanting to examine a blastia. All the old blastia bases had been converted to other useful tools for the new technology. So the best chance to study one was to go to an old ruin and look for one that hadn't been excavated.

"You just wanted to go on an adventure," Rune moaned. "And then dragged me along so you'd have a good enough excuse." He hung his head in defeat.

Raiden moved around Rune and started pushing him forward so they could continue moving. "Just think about what it'll be like to find an old blastia and then you can do…whatever it is that you do with something that doesn't work anymore," Raiden tried to persuade. He did think it would be cool to see an old blastia that had been used for daily use during their parents' youth. Besides a bodi blastia. But he wasn't sure what his friend was planning to do with it. Rune had tried to explain it once, but Raiden couldn't comprehend.

But if he was really being honest, he just wanted an excuse to leave the village. It would also do Rune some good too. He needed to get out from between a book.

His friend didn't say anything. Rune just moaned about how his mother was going to kill him, but offered no resistance. If they could get back before their parents even noticed that they had ditched school, then everything would work out.

Eventually Rune started walking on his own although he made it very clear he didn't like it. His head hung down and his feet were dragging with his arms hanging loosely by his sides. Raiden began taking the lead just in case they did run into a monster that wanted to fight. Rune was liable to wet himself if he was startled and came face to face with a monster.

"How much further do we have to go before we head home?" Rune asked.

Raiden thought about it for a moment. When would be a good time? The Dwemer Ruins had been excavated for blastia for decades. So the top levels wouldn't have any. "I guess when we go deeper and actually find a blastia," Raiden answered him.

There was a loud moan from Rune, "Do you know the odds of the two of us finding one after mages and guilds have already searched." Then his voice started growing more hysterical. "This is so dangerous. Even professional archeologist get killed from cave-ins and monsters. Not to mention the injuries from falls and other things that are unpredictable."

"Uncle Karol was twelves when he joined guilds and did all sorts of dangerous thing. This is nothing," Raiden pointed.

"Yes, I'm sure my mother will love to hear how I'm like Karol," Rune muttered.

"We'll just go a little deeper and then we'll head back home. Sound good?" Raiden offered.

"Fine. Let's just hope that we don't run into-" Rune didn't finish his sentence. The ground beneath them vibrated a bit and they could feel the wind rush against their backs like something just fell behind them.

The two friends looked back and saw that it was a giant frog monster. Normally they only grew to an adult's waist, but this one was taller than them. Rune let out a started cry and fell backwards. Raiden just stared in awe at the monster's size. "That's one big frog," he commented.

"That thing might eat us and you're admiring it," Rune snapped.

"It's just a frog, it's not going to eat us."

"Are you saying it's not going to hurt us?"

"Definitely not saying that," Raiden said as he grabbed Rune's pack and jumped back in time to avoid the frog's arm that was swiping at where they had been. "It's still trying to get rid of us. I guess it thinks we're in it territory."

Rune stood up and clasped his gloved hands together. The various charms at the end of his gloves jingled together as some formulas began to glow on his gloves. "So we need to show it that we're the superior ones," Rune stated. His voice was still a little bit shaky but he always got a confidence boost when he could use his magic.

"Exactly," Raiden said as he drew his two weapons. He glanced at their terrain and noticed that there were some rocks that he could easily jump on to get higher up. "I'll distract it while you get the spell ready for the opening. The usual strategy."

"Alright, just be careful," Rune shouted out as an orangish tint magic circle appeared below his feet.

Raiden dashed toward the monster's side with his swords that began glowing blue. While he was still a distance away, he swung both swords to release the arte. "Azure Edge," Raiden shouted as the blue energy was released from his blades to a descent size ball of energy. It hit the monster right in the side and it managed to pull all his attention on Raiden.

So the young swordsmen ran toward the rocks with the frog hoping behind him. As soon as he jumped onto the rock, Rune was ready for his part. "Stalagmite," Raiden heard Rune shout out. A magic circle appeared underneath the monster and the earth beneath the monster suddenly shot up, making the frog airborne for a brief moment.

Raiden quickly readjusted his swords before he leapt toward the monster and spun his body to execute his next arte. "Tempest," he said as he felt himself spinning around faster. Too fast actually. He couldn't see what was going on anymore. But he did feel his weapons connect with something.

Crap, how do I stop? Raiden worried as the arte finished and he felt himself falling. His body was still twisting in the air and he couldn't really tell what was up. Eventually he landed face first with the ground. Raiden quickly pushed himself up in case the monster wasn't gone and ignored the throbbing in his face. He really needed to work on the landing.

But he got up in time to watch the giant frog limping away with the injuries they gave him. He apparently gave the monster a deep wound on its hind legs. Raiden released a sigh. At least it all worked out in the end, even if he did botch the finish. He looked down at his swords to see some blood on them. He very quickly tried to clean them with his sleeve. He'd get a long lecture from his mother if she saw their state.

"Raiden," Rune called out as he hurried over to his friend. "Are you okay?" He was clearly worried that he may have hurt himself with the fall.

"Of course," Raiden said with a grin as he slid the swords back into their scabbard. "That was awesome Rune, I'd say that was your best spell-"

Raiden didn't finish his sentence because Rune kicked his leg. "Idiot," Rune told him flatly as Raiden clutched his shin. "Why did you have to make the last move so flashy? You could have injured yourself. You might not have been able to walk. Then I would have had to carry you back home and we both know I wouldn't get us very far because of my lack of muscle mass. Then we'd be trapped down here until the monsters decide to eat us." He said all of that in just a few short breaths. His face was even red from the lack of oxygen he was getting.

As Rune was catching his breath, Raiden just gave his friend a tired look. "You're just over reacting, like you always do. We're both fine. What's the point of worrying over it now?"

"Maybe because you'll repeat it and it won't end so well next time," Rune muttered as he began tapping his foot in frustration. The action made Rune look more like his mother than he already did.

"You worry too much," Raiden told him. "I mean, what are the chances that we're going to run into a monster like that again?"

"There's no way it was natural. It must have mutated when the environment's whole system was changing," Rune muttered. "Chances are low of encountering something like that again."

Raiden patted Rune on the shoulder and started moving him along their path. "Exactly. And next time we're on one of our little excursions I'll be ready because I will have mastered that arte by then," he told him with a wide grin.

Rune readjusted his googles. "Yes, but then you'll want to try a new arte and we'll be stuck in the same predicament again," he complained. He was clearly imagining Raiden trying a new arte and possibly getting a more serious injury. He was still dragging his feet as they were walking. They would be here all night at this pace.

"Come on, you're the same way when it comes to spells," Raiden pointed out. When his friend mastered a new spell, he would run up to Raiden at school the next day to show him the formula for the spell. Even though Raiden didn't understand any of that, seeing Rune's excitement was contagious. It made Raiden want to practice more and master more moves. They've mastered the same number of artes. Although if Raiden had stuck the landing with his last arte he would have pulled ahead.

"Yeah, but when I'm working on a spell I do it in a controlled environment. Not when we're out here and our lives depend on it," Rune argued.

"Well that's how you know if it works is when you try it on an opponent."

"I'm done talking to you on this," Rune muttered as rubbed his head. He always did say that Raiden was big source of his headaches.

Raiden pulled at Rune's arm so he would speed up a little bit. "Good, then let's get to searching for blastia."

He heard Rune groan more at that and that only made Raiden grin. They didn't go much further before Rune began to suggesting they give this crazy idea up. "Raiden, can't was just call this quits? We're going to get into trouble when we get back if we don't get back soon."

"All the more reason to search more. Besides, I told my mom that we were going study. That'll buy us a little more time once school ends."

"And she bought that?" Rune exclaimed.

Raiden thought back to last night. When he had told his mother, she had that sparkle in her eye she always got when she was excited and had even made extra snacks for their study session. Then this morning she had wished him luck. "Yeah, she bought it," he said but was starting to feel incredibly guilty. She was going to be so disappointed with his grades. He hated lying to her. His mother just always had an innocent look and the thought of seeing her sad because of him was enough to break his heart. But he never thought about the effects of his actions until later. Like when it was too late.

His parents always said he was a here and now kind of kid. And that mind set tended to get him into trouble. Like he will be if they didn't get home at a reasonable time. Which is why he and Rune needed to hurry.

"There is no way I would be able to lie like that to my mother," Rune commented.

"I'm aware of that Rune," Raiden told him and made sure the young mage could see him roll his eyes. "I was there when you tried to tell her how the wind broke some of her equipment." Honestly Rune didn't even get that far in the lie before breaking down crying and started apologizing for breaking her things. Raiden had even coached him in it as they waited for his mother to return. Rune's mother was so taken aback that she started scolding Rune for not being a better liar. Then she turned to Raiden and scolded him for not being more careful since it had been mainly his fault. That was about three years ago and he hadn't improved. Rune was honest to a fault.

"Besides, you're making me sound like a delinquent," Raiden added.

"You say that after we skip school and lied to your mother," Rune pointed out.

"And what does that make you?"

"Your accomplice," Rune admitted. Then he sighed. "I need better friends."

Raiden actually started laughing and put his arms over his head. "Please, you'd be bored without me," Raiden told him.

"At least I'd get a lot more work done," Rune rebuked.

He was joking of course. They both knew that if it wasn't Raiden, Rune would never leave the lab, or talk to anyone, or really do anything that didn't pertain to magic. And if Raiden didn't have Rune then he would probably study less and get into even more dangerous situations. Yeah, Rune had talked Raiden out of going or doing even more dangerous activities.

"Like I said, boring," Raiden said. "Just admit it, your life is way more interesting with me around." Normally Rune would rebuke this claim. But he stopped walking and was silent. "What? Did you forget to do your homework?" Raiden asked.

It was then that Rune shushed him and he fell silent again. But for a brief moment Raiden could clearly hear a short battle cry. "You heard that too, right?" Rune asked.

"Yeah," Raiden said and looked down the path the noise was coming from. "Come on," Raiden whispered and carefully made his way down the path so he wouldn't cause unnecessary noise.

"Raiden," Rune harshly called out in a whisper. Raiden imagined his friend throwing a small silent fit before catching up with him. He grabbed Raiden's arm. "What if it's the knights? We're going to be in serious trouble if they find us here."

"Let's just make sure no one is hurt. If it is the knights, I promise we're going to get the hell out of here," Raiden told him. The last thing he needed was to cause his mother more worry with the image of her son being escorted home by the knights. Only people with permission could enter the ruins and they obviously didn't. But since the Empire didn't spare any knights to guard the ruins, people could sneak in and out all the time.

Rune let go of his arm and silently started praying that the knights were here.

The two of them quietly moved along and crouched behind some stalagmites that were at an edge. Below them was the source of the battle cry and they were battling a few crabs and there were even two golems.

However it wasn't knights as they thought. It was a girl about their age fighting all the monsters alone. But she was surprising doing well for herself. She had two knives in her hands that were making quick work of the monsters. She threw one knife at a crab's eye to disorient it. She then ran toward it and jumped on top of the crab, while also pulling her weapon out of the monster. Her sights were obviously on the golem behind the crab. The front part of her body began to glow before flames were around her, "Rising Phoenix" she called out as her body dived toward the golem. Its rock body shattered and she stuck the landing expertly and even sent out a Demon Fang arte to finish off the crab she had partially blinded.

"It's a girl," Rune muttered. "She doesn't look to be a knight." There was a little bit of disappointment in his voice after that realization. He really thought they would be able to leave if it was the knights.

"Yeah," Raiden agreed. If she was a knight she would be in uniform and she was only in traveling clothes. She had light pants with flat boots and blue collared shirt with fancy cuffs at the wrists and arm guards on her forearms. She also wore a black vest that had tailcoats in the back with two knife sheathes crisscrossed on her tail bone. Her dark wavy hair was free and only stayed out of her face because of a blue hairband.

The thought of her being in a guild did cross his mind, but not many guilds came to Hypionia. Plus she was alone. He and Rune hadn't run into anybody else. Why on earth was she here?

Suddenly she got caught by a golem's arm and she fell back, losing her grip on her weapons.

"Come on," Raiden told Rune and didn't hesitate to jump down the small ledge.

"Raiden," he heard Rune call after. But he soon heard Rune follow him down. However the mage fell on his behind again.

Raiden got in range and pulled one sword out to release an Azure Edge arte. The small force was enough to make the golem faze for a moment. It was plenty of time for the girl to get back to her feet and retrieve her weapons. Raiden used the same arte again to get the golem to focus on him instead. And it worked. "This way," Raiden told the monster and led him away from the girl and Rune.

"What are you doing?" He heard the girl call out.

"We've got this guy," Raiden told her as he narrowly dodged a crab's claw by rolling on the ground. He quickly jumped to his feet to face the golem. "You take care of the rest of the monsters." There was a brief moment when the girl just stared at him. But she nodded and resumed her fight with the remaining monsters.

"Ready when you are Rune," Raiden said to his friend after he jumped to the side to avoid the creature from crushing him.

Rune already had a spell circle below his feet. And Raiden groaned when he saw that it was water spell. "Working on it," Rune replied bitterly.

Raiden tried to create some distance so he could avoid the spell. But the golem had other ideas and he was surprisingly fast for a bunch of rocks. Then his arm came out and Raiden had just enough time to pull out his other sword to help block. The force made Raiden hit the wall and he felt his right arm scrap against a jagged rock.

"Splash," Raiden finally head Rune call out. A blue magic circle appeared above the golem and a small waterfall poured out of it and forced the golem to his knees.

Raiden shook the impact off and ran toward the golem. He transferred his mana into one of his sword. "Sonic Thrust," Raiden said as he stabbed at the center of the golem. It was enough force to cause the golem to crumble like the last one. With it defeated, Raiden let out a relieved breath. Rune ran over to him to make sure he was in one piece.

At the same time, the girl finished off the last crab. She sheathed her weapons and made her way to the two of them. "Are the two of you okay?" She asked. But she quickly glanced at Raiden's shoulder and she looked a bit concerned. "Looks like were hurt because of me."

Both Rune and Raiden looked at where Raiden had scraped his arm on the rock. But they only saw that he had a rip in his coat. The skin underneath was untouched. "It's nothing," Raiden reassured and showed her.

She did look a bit relieved. "That's good. But who are you two? Not many people are allowed down here."

"We could say the same thing," Rune pointed out.

But the girl pulled a slip of paper out of her back pocket and the two of them flinched when they saw the knights' seal. "I was given permission to be down here," she told them what they already knew.

Crap, not good, Raiden began to panic a little and there was no telling how much Rune was at this moment. The other part of Raiden that wasn't panicking was wondering how she got the knight's permission. She couldn't be a knight in training, could she? She wasn't in armor or even uniform.

"I suppose the two of you aren't supposed to be here, huh?" She said after reading their reactions. To their luck, she said, "I guess in return for helping me, I'll forget that I saw you here."

"That would be great," Raiden told her as he felt relived. "I'm Raiden by the way."

He felt an elbow to his side and heard Rune saying, "I thought we were going to forget we saw each other."

"Don't worry, I promise I won't tell anyone," the girl said. "You can call me Shea by the way."

Rune still had that worried look on his face. But eventually he introduced himself. "I'm Rune."

And Shea said the same thing most people did when they heard his name. "That's quite a unique name," she said to hide the fact she probably thought it was a weirder name.

With Rune suddenly getting embarrassed for his name, Raiden asked, "If you don't mind me asking, why are you down here?"

"Not at all. Some healers in Aurnion are low on some of their supplies, so I told them I would come to the Dwemer Ruins to get some moss they needed to make medicine," she answered.

"So does that mean you're with the guilds?" Rune asked.

Shea shook her head. "Oh no, nothing like that. I'm just doing it because I thought I should. I don't belong with the guilds or the knights."

"Aurnion's a long way from here," Rune commented. "At least two days on foot. Not to mention how dangerous it is traveling by yourself nowadays."

"And you're only doing this because you want to? Raiden asked.

"Basically," she said.

"Do you need any help finding these ingredients?" Raiden offered.

Both she and Rune were startled by this. "That's very kind of you, but I think I've got enough until their next shipment comes," Shea told.

Raiden was kind of surprised that Rune wasn't saying anything about how they were supposed to be looking for blastia. But he was probably hoping Raiden would forget and want to go home.

Then Shea pulled a pocket watch out and looked at the time. "Anyway, I should be going. The knights will be looking for me soon to make sure I'm out of these ruins." She picked up a bag that was probably full of the ingredients she gathered. "You two should probably come too if you don't want to get caught by the knights."

Raiden and Rune shared a quick glance. They agreed that their little exhibition was over and followed Shea.

Rune moved faster than he had all day. "I would also prefer to not end up like some of those others," Rune muttered.

Raiden quickly glanced and around monster carcasses, there was broken pieces of what looked like knight's armor. There was even a tattered tabard that looked like it had been there for a few decades. Raiden wondered how it could have gotten shattered into piece like that with no bones around.

He had to quickly shake his head so he could focus on his current task. Raiden tended to get sidetracked a lot at small details like this.

/~/~/

Skit: Not Getting Out Enough

Shea: So I never asked. Why were the two of you in the ruins?

Raiden: We were looking for blastia.

Shea: Really? I can't say I know much about them, but they're basically useless now, right?

Rune: That's true. They're basically just hunks of metal.

Shea: Then why would you look for one. Are the two of you aspiring to be historians?

Rune: Not really. My mother had been a big name in blastia research. So I would like to study something that she spent years working on. Plus I'd like to see if there really isn't anything we can do with it other than converting the metal to magi technology.

Shea: That's very admirable of you. *Rune suddenly looking embarrassed* So what about you Raiden?

Rune: He just wanted to get out of the village.

Raiden: What's wrong with that? I get excited when I think about seeing new places.

Shea giving a small laugh: Nothing at all. I think a lot of people share the same feeling.

/~/~/

It didn't take long to reach the exit, probably because Raiden didn't have to keep dragging Rune along. Raiden climbed up the rope ladder first. The entrance to the ruin was basically just a hole in the ground in the middle of the forest that had been discovered by pure accident about twenty years ago. Now there were just signs warning people away and a little shack where researchers and knights would stay. When it was first discovered, mages and knights were here all the time. Now they rarely came since there wasn't much left to study.

Raiden called to the others that there wasn't anyone or monsters nearby. Rune was next and Raiden helped him when he was near the top. Then came Shea and Raiden offered to help her up.

She didn't take his hand. Instead, when she was staring at Raiden's left hand. Or really the bracelet on his wrist. "Forgive my curiosity," she started to say as she climbed up. "But is that what I think it is?"

Raiden pulled his sleeve up to show her the golden bracelet that had very dull red stones in it. "Yep, it's a bodhi blastia," he told her with a bit of pride.

"No way, does it actually work?" She asked. She hadn't been the first to ask him that.

Raiden shook his head. "No. It was my dad's. My mom gave it to me as a good luck charm."

"A good luck charm that doesn't work," Rune commented. He was looking at the orange sky and let out a worried sigh. "Look how late it is."

Raiden patted Rune on the back. "Look on the bright side. We're in one piece."

"Something we wouldn't have to worry about if we hadn't snuck out," Rune muttered.

"Well I'd say it'd make a fine heirloom," Shea commented. But suddenly she looked over her shoulder like she had heard something. "The two of you better get going. The knights are coming back from the nearby village."

"I don't hear anything," Raiden said.

Rune grabbed the back of Raiden's collar, "I'd rather not find out. Come on." Rune tugged at him and Raiden clumsily followed as he was being pulled.

Shea gave them a small smile and a wave before dropping it to look like nothing was out of the ordinary. Raiden gave a small wave back while being dragged by Rune.

They made a little distance and stayed crouched behind of trees and shrubs. By then they saw two knights approach Shea. They were too far away to hear what was being said. However, it looked like they were leaving together on friendly terms. Shea walked with them no problem.

Raiden wondered briefly if Shea would be stopping by Arie Hallow before returning to Aurnion. That was the only town that was nearby before reaching the capital.

He didn't get to wonder long before Rune nudged him to go. It was getting late, and they needed to return home before it got much later. There was no telling how much trouble they were in for.