Those who know me will say "Another fast update from the splooshie!"

I had way too much fun writing Runaway. The surgeon general should issue a warning about it. So here's your sequel!

Summary: Eight months after the events of Runaway, our two heroines go through separate (yet somehow parallel) quests to find their true identity, and the secret of their births. Along the way, they receive help from old friends- from the World Reunification Journey, and from the story "Runaway" both. And, in Raine's case, she finds someone else, someone dear to her she thought she had lost seven years ago…

In game time, this story takes place two years and eight months after the ending of the game. Lloyd chose Colette to be his partner, and they are now married with no children but have three dogs: Zelly, Colloy, and Percy. Zelos is still engaged to Pandora (against his will), and Presea has recently gone through a... shall we say... rebellious stage. Yuan regained most of his angelic powers after Kloitz nearly destroyed his Cruxis Crystal. Most- but the emotion dampening effects aren't the same, so he suffers from random mood swings. Last we saw, he had offered Kloitz's Cruxis Crystal to Genis, but for reasons that were never fully explained.

Warnings! Character Death, Gay/Lesbian Love, Incest, Possibly small torture scenes and offensive language. Not a story for the kiddies. If you are offended by these things, feel free to check out my story "Sheena's Problem" as it contains none of the above. (Except Language, but that's just a given for any of MY stories).

Pairings!Reena, Colloyd, Pregal, Gesea, GenisxOC's, RainexOC, SheenaxOC. Zelos is paired with everyone in the story. Since my fluid and volatile mind often says one thing and then turns around to write something else entirely, expect some fluctuations. Or, you know, it might just be a mystery that won't be explained till ten chapters later.

Ramblings!Expect lots of rants at the beginning/end of every chapter. Mostly they will be of the "R&R or the owl will eat you" variety. I love reviews so very much. In any case, please enjoy this story, as it is meant purely to entertain and does not necessarily reflect any of my beliefs or customs. Do not say I'm sick for anything I write, because your flames will only serve to warm my feet as I freeze in the air-conditioned loveliness that is the computer room. I will leave you to read, with these parting words:

Now… Now the fun begins!


The navy blue Rheiard sliced through the clouds, its newly refined engine not making a sound as it sank down to just above the warm, splashing waves. The sunny beach, with students out on their weekend break, was a teasing reminder that summer was nearing its end. Not that the rider of the Rheiard ever went to the beach. He veered off to his right, towards the city that had sprung up from its own ashes, much like Luin had. Neo, the city of New Beginnings, was also only a day's travel from the City of Scholars, Sybak. That was where the rider was heading, to fulfill a childhood dream. A dream of finally being in his element, a school where he could interact with other students.

Like a normal kid.

With a brief pang of nostalgia, he flew over the elementary division over to where the older kids would congregate. He landed in right in front of the dorms, the multi-colored engines of his Rheiard kicking up dust and making the ends of his double-breasted, navy blue coat flap like the sails of a ship. Swinging one long leg over the side, he hopped off onto the ground, pulling out a small mechanical device and clicking a button, shrinking the Rheiard to a pocket sized toy.

The rider looked around him. The area was empty- probably because they were all shopping around Neo or at the beach. Sliding his goggles up to rest on his impossibly spiky blue hair like a second pair of eyes, he tried to find something that looked like an office, or a place where he could find who was in charge. Finally, he found the main office and walked inside, spotting a desk and a young, pretty girl who looked like she knew more about this place than he did. That was good enough for him.

"Excuse me," he said, walking up to the desk. "I'm a new student."

"Ah, looks like you came at a good time then." She smiled, scooting out of her chair to open up a filing cabinet. "It'll be easier to find your way around when all the students aren't here causing mayhem. Can I have your name?"

He tilted his head to the side, his eyes questioning. "Meaning, you aren't a student?" he asked her instead of answering her question.

She flushed. "Well, yeah, I am, but I work part time here to help pay my tuition." She rifled through a few files before pulling one out triumphantly. "Hey, but I found your file! You're the newest student in a while, Genis…. Sage?" She looked up, her eyebrows rising so high that they became hidden by her brown bangs. "The kids around your area must have killed you for having that name, huh?"

Genis smiled, softly. "I had the name long before it was famous. Is there a copy of my schedule in that file? I lost mine on the ride here."

"Hmm, seems you're in luck, Genis. Here- classes don't start for two days though." She held it out to him and he pulled his gloved right hand out of his coat pockets to take it. The girl couldn't help but notice that, attached to the back of his hand, a large shining jewel was pulsing with its own light. Even she could tell an Ex-sphere when she saw one.

"Uniforms are only for the younger children, right?" Genis asked her, his grey-blue eyes scanning over the paper. When she didn't answer, he looked up to see her staring hard at him as if he held the answer to some deep, dark secret. "Right?" he repeated.

She started. "Um, yeah. Right. Aren't you hot in that outfit, though? Or wait-" she smiled, wryly. "Are you only wearing that so that your whole ensemble is blue like your hair?"

Genis tugged at a strand of his solid, sky blue hair, sparing it only a glance as he shrugged. "I don't get hot easily."

"Uh-huh. Here's your room key- try not to lose it." She pulled open a drawer and sifted through a ridiculous amount of keys before coming across the right one and handing it to him.

It was neatly snatched out of his hand by a newcomer, a teenager around his own age. "I'll take that, thank you Dick." He grinned up at the girl behind the desk. "Hey there, Alice. Busy flirting it up with Dick here?" He slapped Genis on the back, as if they were old pals. "You'd better not even try. He's totally gay for me."

Genis narrowed his eyes slightly at the newcomer. "Who are you?" he asked.

"I… thought your name was Genis…" Alice said slowly, looking down at the papers in her hand.

"Hmm?" the blond young man looked up. "Oh, yeah, but I just call him that because he's an arrogant asshole to everyone he meets. Aren't you, Dick?"

Genis shook his head, his face a tired, emotionless mask. "I think you have me confused for someone else. Can I have my room key back, please?"

"This is really a surprise. I can't believe now that you're all famous you forget your old buddy. I sure remember you, Mr. Four-Hundred-Out-Of-Four-Hundred-Points. How's your sister doing?"

Genis's clear grey eyes flickered with suppressed emotion as he began to understand. "You're not…?"

"I am!" Mighty grinned, but his eyes remained unsmiling. "Took you long enough to decide to come to school, you back-country hick. Ready for a retest to see how many brain cells you lost when you got smacked around by the Desians?"

A slow, savage smile spread across Genis's face for a moment before it was wiped away. He snatched the keys back from Mighty, dangling them in front of his face, expression cool. Another Ex-sphere was attached to his other hand as well, though it wasn't as large or bright as the first. "I would, but I really don't need to prove myself to you or anyone else in this school. See you two in class."

He left, but Mighty followed him. "I think that you should know," he said, matching Genis stride for stride, as they were both the same height now, "That we're roommates."

Genis stopped in the tracks. "We are not," he said.

"We totally are."

Genis lost his cool, glaring dangerously at Mighty. "You're really not funny. Stop bugging me."

Mighty chuckled, darkly. "Afraid not, bud. I'll bug you every day when you wake up until you're afraid to go to sleep. That is, until you re-take the entrance exam with me."

Genis counted to ten in his head, using the relaxation technique Yuan taught him to keep his face blank and smooth. "I already took it."

"Yeah, three years ago."

"Two years and eight months, if you want to get specific. But the records still show that I passed, and am welcome at any time I decide to come back. So you can…" he had reached his room, and stopped. Mighty stopped with him. "What are you still doing hanging around me?" he demanded. "Go study or something."

"I told you- we're sharing a room. Get used to it and open the door. I lost my key."


"Hey- hey look at the freak!"

She bowed her head, carrying a pail full of milk, concentrating on not letting too much of it spill onto the ground. Mesha didn't mind the insults because she heard them every day. Her father told her to ignore the boys, but she knew that was impossible. So instead she just bore them steadily, just another heavy thing to carry.

"Jeez, lookit her hair! It's green. She's such a little freak."

They were wrong, she knew. She knew there was nothing unnatural about a half-elf. She wasn't freakish, just different.

You go to the market and buy vegetables that I helped to grow so you don't starve; she wanted to say to them. She was angry, but not at them- just their ignorance. It baffled her the way they could be so stupid. Did they truly not realize? Or were they just ignoring it, the way she tried to ignore them? She had been nice to them, once. They had returned it with shoves and kicks and she had run home bawling to her father. Now she was polite. She didn't go out of her way to be nice anymore so that she could have it spat back in her face.

My father helped your father fix his fence, once; she wanted to say to another, when she recognized one of their faces. They had followed her, talking loudly to each other, jumping up to balance along the farm fences they passed and throwing rocks behind her. Of course they weren't brave enough to actually hit her, not after the first few times when her father had spoken to their fathers. They had probably gotten beaten. But there was nothing she could do about the taunting, since there was no way to prove it. Bruises could be proof. Sore feelings and pillows wet from weeping at night were not.

That made her angry too, now that she thought about it. She wanted them to hit her so she had an excuse to hit them back. And she wouldn't be afraid, like they were. At night, when her chores were done, she would practice fighting on a dummy. She read books from the local library, about the body. She knew there were ways that she could kill them, even though she was small and outnumbered.

But thinking about it made it worse. Now she knew the day could not go without incident, because she'd have to open her big mouth again to defend herself. I am not a monster! She yelled at them in her head. You're the monsters! I just want to live! Leave me alone! My father loved my mom, don't you understand that? Don't you understand emotions? What will you do when you have children and they come home weeping because the wolves in sheep clothing threw rocks at them?

She bit her lip so hard it bled. Just a little farther and she could give the milk to her neighbor, an older woman who paid her to help around the farm sometimes. Today it was milking her only cow, who knows what it would be tomorrow? Maybe help watering her small vegetable patch. But the boys had figured out her schedule, and came when they knew the old woman would be at the market. There was no one there to witness the teasing.

A rock skidded by her feet, making her jump. The milk sloshed a little and she cursed under her breath.

"I think she's gonna cryyyyy again, oh, oh the little girl she's gonna cryyyyy agaaaaain."

PANGslllluushhh!

One of the rocks had been terribly off-target, slamming into her pail of milk, jarring it out of her hands to splash all over the floor. She whirled on them, saw the guilt and fear on their faces for a moment.

Then they realized she was angry.

So they laughed.

"You morons!" She screamed at them, walking up to one and pushing him, hard. She knew him- Tommy was four months younger than her. But he was also four inches taller than her, and a human. "You- you fucking morons!" They laughed at her more, dancing around in circles as she tried to reach them, tried to hurt them. But she was blinded by her tears and the laughter, so she didn't see when one of them stuck his foot out and tripped her up. She stayed down, weeping into her palms as they jeered at her, forming a circle around her, raising the rocks high.

"You leave her alone!"

Mesha was startled out of her tears by an unfamiliar adult voice. This was a small town- everyone knew everyone else, and visitors were few and far between. At first, through her tear-muddled eyes, it looked like an old woman. But when she had wiped her eyes dry she had seen it wasn't an old woman- a young woman with white hair.

An angry woman. She marched over to them, strange, violet eyes seeming to glow with their own energy as she shoved a boy aside, helping Mesha to her feet. She held Mesha's hands up, gently, seeing how she had scraped her palms when she landed on the floor. "First Aid," she whispered. A cool, pleasant sensation washed over her, and for a moment, Mesha was at peace.

Then the wonderful, beautiful woman who had saved her picked up a staff and whacked one of the boys clean upside his head. "You like to pick on girls, huh?" the woman said, the picture of utter fury. "Or is it because she's a half-elf? Do you know you owe your pathetic lives to a half-elf? Do you?"

One of the boys had turned to run off in fear, but a pair of strong, nimble hands caught him before he could get far. Another person, a half-elf by his pointed ears, sneered down at him. "If you're too stupid to remember, why don't we ask your buddies, huh? Who saved the world- Lloyd Irving, right? And there were half-elves with him, too. Two of them." He shoved the boy back, hard, so he fell down on his butt. "Sit down and listen, you bunch of punks. While you were sitting here pissing in your beds because you thought Derris-Kharlan was gonna fall on your brains, the nine heroes were risking their lives so that you could live to see another day. And this is how you repay them?" He spat onto the ground near his foot. "You're pathetic. Now get out of my sight before I rip your fucking spine out through your ass!"

They scattered.

The red haired man glared after them for a moment before scratching his head sheepishly. "Yeesh, they were just kids."

"They were teenagers, Harley," the woman said. "By that age they know well enough what's right and what's wrong." Harley shrugged, and she turned to Mesha, her voice gentle.

"Are you all right?" she asked, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe at her tears.

"Th- thank you," Mesha hiccoughed. "I'm fine. Thank you." She sniffled, blubbering all over the half-elf's tissue. Then she for the first time realized completely what had happened. She jumped, nervously wringing the tissue as she tried to babble out an apology. "Oh gosh, I- I'm so sorry you had to get involved! They wouldn't have really hurt me; they don't really do that anymore, they would have let me go. I'm so sorry. I really have to make it up to you, somehow. Do you need a place to stay? My father's farm- I- I really am so very sorry!"

Harley laughed. "She's cute. What's your name, kiddo?"

"I'm not a kid, I'm just small!" Mesha said at once, without thinking. "I- I mean. Mesha. My name is Mesha."

"I'm Harley," the half-elf introduced himself. "I'm from Asgard. This is my teacher, R-"

"Raine Sage," the female half-elf cut it, smiling down at Mesha. "My name is Raine Sage."

"People call her "The Professor"," Harley added, grinning.

"So, Mesha," the heroine said to her as she tried hard not to let her jaw drop down into the spilled milk on the floor. "Where do you live? We'll walk you home. And while we're there, we can talk about something only people with Elvin blood in them can do called the 'Healing Arts'."

Mesha nodded her head, slowly.


"She's a remarkable girl," her father said, later that night. Mesha had arrived at her house with the two half-elves, though she was in a daze as she told her father what had happened. Hearing the story, he invited the two of them inside for dinner. Raine wanted to object, but Harley reminded her that he was getting tired of her cooking and could do with a change of pace. Mesha barely touched her food, going upstairs to her room. She had a lot to think about.

"Mm," Raine agreed with him.

"Uh… would you two like some coffee, or..?" Mesha's father, Peter, might have been handsome once. But a recent grief over the loss of his wife and the toils of scraping out an existence with a half-Elvin daughter had taken their toll on him. He smiled thinly at Raine, "I still have my wife's tea here, if you would like that better."

Raine nodded and smiled.

"I'll have coffee!" Harley said. "Never took a liking to tea." He bounced his foot on the floor as he sat at the kitchen table, glancing around the house with curiosity. In Raine's opinion, he needed the extra caffeine like she needed a sword blow to the head, but she decided to let it slide tonight. When the drinks were all brewed and set down into steaming mugs, Peter tried his best to relax.

Raine cleared her throat and began to speak when Harley butted in. "That's a beautiful picture you have up over there," he said, nodding with his chin to a simple charcoal drawing of a young woman. Raine noted the elongated ears and the petite, almost fragile appearance of the girl and decided that she must have been Mesha's mother.

"Did Mesha draw that?" Raine asked him, managing to tear her eyes away from the drawing.

Peter nodded. "She's very talented," he said, softly. "She taught herself how to read, you know."

"Did she?" Raine took a sip of her tea while Harley eagerly added spoonful after spoonful of sugar into his coffee. She gave him a meaningful glance and he stopped at once, trying his best not to look guilty.

"Yes. It makes me proud to know that my child is so much smarter than me." He sat back in his chair, smiling sadly. "But I'm at least smart enough to know you're not here for the coffee. You…" he closed his eyes, letting out a large breath, "You want Mesha for something, don't you?"

Raine threw his own words back at him, smiling. "She's a remarkable girl." Then she added, "As a human, you have no idea just how remarkable. She has a lot of raw power that can be harnessed to do great things. Just standing near her I can feel mana pulsing in the air around her."

Peter looked into his mug as if it held all the answers for him.

"I'm sure it must have killed you that there weren't any teachers in this area who could tutor her properly in elf matters," Raine pressed. "What I'm offering is a chance to teach her these things."

Peter shook his head slowly. "I wouldn't be able to pay for something like that, Miss Sage."

"I'm not asking you to pay. I'm asking you for Mesha."

"You mean you're going to take her somewhere?" he sat up, his eyebrows rising.

"I'm going to take her everywhere," she corrected him, taking another sip of her tea. "All around the known world… and then some. The roads are much safer then they were three years ago, and the best way to learn magic is to actually go out and use it.

"Around the world?" his eyebrows bunched together, the beginnings of a scowl forming on his lips. "You want me to just give up my daughter to two strangers who claim they're two of the nine heroes?"

"Actually, I'm just her student from Asgard," Harley said. "She's Raine Sage, though. She's got the Unicorn Horn to prove it. And a few letters from the king granting her all sorts of noble titles and things. And if you-"

"Harley," Raine said softly, and he stopped. Standing up and putting her mug down on the table, she picked up her staff. "I understand. I didn't really expect you to accept this anyway, at least not at first. But if you ever change your mind, please send a letter to this address in Meltokio." She pulled a notepad out of her pocket, flipping past pages full of monster stats to a blank page and scribbling down the address. She handed him the paper. "Thank you very much for the dinner and for the tea." Looking at Harley, she jerked her head in the direction of the door.

"Yeah, thanks," Harley said half-heartedly. Raine picked up her coat and they made their way to the door. But as they were leaving, Harley suddenly turned around and ran back to the table, slamming his palms down on the surface.

"But don't you see that this is her only chance to get away from here?" he asked Peter, breathlessly. "Don't you see that this way she can see the world? The whole world? And maybe she can make something from it?"

"Harley!" Raine said, sharply. "This is his daughter we're talking about. Try to understand how he feels."

"…Yeah, yeah, whatever," Harley shrugged angrily and stormed out past Raine. She sighed.

"Good night, Mr…" she paused, realizing she hadn't learned their last names.

"Zerep."

Raine nodded slowly and left, closing the door after her.


The next morning, as they were leaving town, Mesha found them. She almost lost sight of them when she tripped over her own two feet, spilling out the contents of her bag onto the ground. "Oh damn it all!"

She hurriedly stuffed her clothing back into her pack, looking around wildly for some sight of silver or crimson hair. When she did spot them, her heart leapt up into her chest and she rocketed up to her feet, running after them. "Wait!" she called, still trying to close her bag properly. "Wait! Raine! Harley! Please, wait!"

She caught up to them finally, bending down and gasping for breath when she knew that they wouldn't suddenly up and leave without her. She angrily wiped at her eyes, trying not to let her breath come out in hitches and sobs. "I.." she swallowed. "I have to go with you. I have to leave now or I'll never leave." She jumped, startled, when Harley put an arm around her shoulder. Briefly, she saw Raine smile, but when she turned to look the Professor full in the face, her expression was blank.

"Looks like we're going to have to get a new Rheiard for my new student," she said. "Until then, would you mind sharing with Harley?"

Mesha didn't know what they were talking about, and honestly didn't care. She nodded.

When they left to search for a flat piece of land to take off from, she only looked back once.

No regrets, she told herself. There can't be any regret.