I made this chapter much longer by describing the battle between Sheena and the others. I hope you'll like it. = )
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Chapter Four
Take 1
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Zelos sat with his back against a rock, munching on the remaining food that was in the basket the young girl from Izoold had generously given to him, making sure Sheena didn't want any before doing so. He didn't insist when she said no. With skipping a night's sleep, he needed as much energy he could get his hands on to keep his eyes open. He had to admit though, the sight of Sheena's exceptional body kept his eyes open pretty well.
On her side, Sheena was enjoying the calmness right now. Zelos hadn't complained once during the way up the mountain, nor had he bothered with her decision to wait for the Chosen, Colette, and her party to ambush them.
Sheena looked away from where she was looking out for the Chosen's party, studying the Chosen sitting a short distance away from her, eyes closed as he rested against a rock. He looked exhausted. She wondered why and decided to ask. "Zelos?" she called softly, not wanting to make their presence noticeable.
"Hmm?" he asked tiredly, slowly opening his eyes, "What is it, Sheena, hunny?" he turned his head to her, only managing to form a sleepy smile.
He looked so cute like that, she let the nickname slide. "Are you alright?" she asked, a little worried. Maybe the end of the world was near and that's why the usual energized Zelos isn't here.
He laughed silently and rubbed his eyes. "I'm just tired I guess," he said, and then added a laugh, "Can't even come up with something to say." He laid his head back on the rock and closed his eyes once more. "Sorry."
She watched him carefully, wondering if he was really alright, but before she could say something, the assassin heard footsteps coming. She quickly returned to her watch. She spotted a man in purple clothing appear on the trail down from her. The man was soon followed by a younger man dressed in red, a blonde girl and two elves. One was a woman with silver hair and the other was a young boy with the same hair color.
Sheena signalled Zelos to come look. Quietly doing so, Zelos quickly recognized the swordsman in purple. What was a member of Cruxis doing with these people? That could only mean… 'That girl… She must be Sylvarant's Chosen,' he thought. He couldn't tell this information to Sheena though neither could he let himself be seen by that man. His cover would be blown in both ways.
Thankfully, Sheena was a well-trained ninja. After all, she hadn't been sent here for nothing. She asked for his attention by pointing at the blonde girl's neck. Zelos noticed her Cruxis Crystal there. Sheena then touched his Cruxis Crystal and looked up to meet eyes with him for his approval. Tethe'alla's Chosen happily nodded and winked at her. She nodded in understanding and got up.
"Stop!"
Startled, the group quickly looked up to where the voice had come from. Zelos carefully hid himself from them, but he had his hand on the hilt of his sword. He didn't trust the Cruxis member one bit and feared his strength. He would protect Sheena from him if he dared hurt her.
With elegance, Sheena jumped down to their level, landed easily and stood in a superior way. Zelos tensed in his hiding spot, seeing that man grab the hilt of his sword defiantly.
The young man in red was the first to speak. "What?" he asked confused.
"Is she a friend of yours, Lloyd?" the blonde girl curiously asked the one who had spoken sooner.
"Not that I'm aware of…" the guy in red, Lloyd she had called him, said.
'What idiots,' Zelos thought, 'how can they possibly be the Chosen's party?'
"… Is the Chosen of Mana among you?" Sheena asked them, with annoyance if Zelos would say.
"Oh, that's me," the blonde girl, stated happily with no idea of anything that was going on. 'Colette was what Sheena said her name was, right?' Zelos asked himself.
Turning to the Chosen of Mana, Sheena readied her cards. "… Prepare to die!" she said, just before dashing towards the blonde girl.
Startled, the girl tripped over something as the guy in red, Lloyd, dashed towards Sheena to protect the girl. In less than a second, a trap door opened right under Sheena's feet. Zelos held himself back as Sheena fell in the trap door. He did know she'd be okay.
"Oh no!" the girl got up and stared at the hole, "What should I do? I did it again…"
"You don't need to worry about it," the elven woman said, "If she had not fallen in, you might have been killed." Zelos wondered what the name of that voice was.
"But…" the girl, Colette, looked worried as she knelt down.
"Don't worry about it. Looks like she's an enemy" the red one explained to her.
"I hope she's okay," the girl kept worrying. Zelos was starting to wonder what her deal was.
"Even assuming her weight to be 45kg," the boy elf started, "and this hole to be 10 meters deep, and calculating the gravity constant at 9.8 per square second, the impact shouldn't have been fatal," he explained.
This information reassured Zelos quite a bit, until his mind made the calculation himself. If that hole was 10 meters deep and Sheena's weight was 45kg, it'd mean she'd hit the ground at 14 meters per second. That meant it was a good 50.4km/h drop. There was no way she was uninjured. After that, he didn't care much about the conversation and waited impatiently for them to continue their way so he could go save Sheena.
Finally leaving, Zelos jumped down and ran up to the hole. He could hear the sound of Corrine's voice calling Sheena's named. His worry only increased, the fall may not have been fatal, but she had to be hurt. 'You better be in one piece,' he thought as he materializing his wings and flew down the hole.
"Sheena!" Corrine called once more as Zelos landed on the ground and put his wings away. He felt exhausted and materializing his wings hadn't been a good idea. Spotting Sheena's unconscious body, he quickly grabbed her hand a casted his First Aid spell. Having no energy left, he drifted off to sleep next to her, still holding her hand.
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"Sheena! Sheena!"
She lifted her eyelids and focused on the one calling her name. "Sheena!" Corrine said, relieved to see she was okay. She sat up and reached a hand to her head, then noticed her other hand had been captured by Zelos'. Blushing, she looked at his face, only to find him not smiling. "What happened to him, Corrine?" she asked worriedly.
"He drained out his energy and fell asleep," Corrine explained.
Sheena looked back at the sleeping Chosen and released her hand from his, hesitatingly running her fingers through his long wild hair, a smile tugging on her lips.
"Sheena, they are close" Corrine said, turning to face an exit to the cave.
'I will not fail this time,' she thought as she got up, but paused to look, perhaps one last time, at him. Pushing that thought away she headed towards the exit. 'Don't worry, Zelos … I'll come back.'
She ran to the exit and busted the wooden door open. There they were. "…W…wait!" she force herself to say.
Lloyd spoke first once again. "…Wow, she caught up with us." She thought he looked pretty nervous to see her again.
"Oh, thank goodness," Sylvarant's Chosen said. 'Why is she happy to see I'm alright?' Sheena thought.
This was getting stupid. "…D…don't move!" the assassin threatened weakly.
"A wise decision," the elf woman said.
"…I won't be caught off guard this time!" Sheena continued with more force, not caring what the elf meant by that, "Prepare to die!" She took out one of her grandfather's guardian cards and summoned it to life. It shrieked a piercing call from within its beak and attacked the oldest among the group, who took no time to strike the first blow with his double-edged sword. She saw Colette materialized a pair of pink sparkling wings as she began to fight alongside the man while staying a good distance away from Sheena's guardian.
She didn't expect them to be so strong as a team, let alone as individuals. The boy named Lloyd was surprisingly dangerous, swinging his two swords around like that. Fortunately, he was very predictable and dodging his attacks wasn't a problem for her ninja skills. She successfully kicked one of his swords out of his hand and slashed a deep cut in his chest with her cards, cutting the red fabric of his clothes along with his flesh. He fell to the ground and cried in pain.
"Lloyd!" Sylvarant's Chosen called, and immediately flew to his side. "Raine!"
"Right!" the elf woman said as she place her staff perpendicularly with the ground.
Sheena was already in front of the elven boy with silver hair who was casting a spell as quickly as he could. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't fast enough, and just as he began to say the name of his attack, the final words of incantation, she sliced at his chest, too, and he fell to the ground with tears flooding his eyes.
"First Aid!"
Sheena's eyes darted to the elf woman Colette had called Raine. She was a healer, this was very bad news. She had to get rid of her as soon as possible.
Raine saw her coming and readied her staff, showing absolutely no fear despite how vulnerable she was. Sheena was sure she saw hatred in her eyes, so she returned the favor. Before she could strike, two flying disks blocked her way, cutting off a little of her raven black hair as they passed before her. She jumped back and watched the disks return to their owner, who was revealed to be Colette. Beside her she noticed the double swordsman was up on his feet, relieved from his wound she had inflicted him and was charging straight at her.
"Why you-!" Lloyd angrily said before slashing at her. He was probably close to the elf boy, something very uncommon in Tethe'alla. She wondered if it was the same in Sylvarant as she dodged more of his attacks.
Meanwhile Raine and Colette had rushed to the elf boy's side. Sheena cursed to herself, assuming they were going to heal him as well. She had to get to that healer.
She jumped high above Lloyd and ran to the three, throwing a card in front of her in the process and inducing her Pyre Seal just as she got close enough to her two main targets and the already wounded boy. The three were thrown back in an explosion of cards just as she heard her guardian let out one final cry. It had been beaten, but no matter, she was so close to ending the life of the elf woman.
"Demon Fang!" That Lloyd guy was so persistent. She dodged the attack by jumping in the air and was pleased to see the attack now going straight at the healer. Luck had never been on her side though, and Raine quickly set up a force field to protect herself. "Focus, Lloyd!" She yelled at him angrily.
Sheena heard him apologize before a shadow covered her form. She looked up, still in mid-air. It was the other swordsman, his swords was raised and was brought down on her before she could blink. At this point, it was all she could do not to be cut in half.
After that blow, she remembered falling to the ground painfully and a sword was pointed to her neck. She was defeated.
The man in purple, who she still did not know the name, drew his sword, clearly wanted to end her life, but the three youngest stopped him.
"Ugh… Just you wait!" she taunted, lifting herself up with difficulty, "I swear I will kill you all next time!" And with that she threw a smokescreen, temporarily blinding her enemies, and made her escape back in the cave.
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"Sheena, let me go get some gels for you!" Corrine insisted.
"It's alright, Corrine, I'm fine," the assassin insisted as well. She was already in a bad mood because of her failure and to top it off, Zelos was still sleeping. She couldn't believe it.
Corrine didn't like this at all. An idea came to his mind. He remembered that stupid Chosen using magic to heal her moments ago. With this in mind, the summon spirit bit Zelos' ear, earning a loud cry and a deathly glare. "You little –, what the hell was that for?" Zelos asked the creature angrily. Corrine pointed with his head to Sheena and Zelos instantly looked.
"Sheena! What in the world happened to you?" he asked, worry evident in his face.
She looked away stubbornly. She couldn't believe how weak she was. "I failed," she stated.
Zelos simply held out his hand. The summoner stared at it, wondering what he was waiting for. "I want you to give me your hand," he explained. "What? No way!" she protested. He laughed, "Look, it's ether you give me your hand, or I'll have to touch your wounds," he said, eyeing the one she had just above her left breast.
"You pervert!" she shouted, slapping him across the face, but he caught her hand before she could harm his pretty face. "There," he said, smiling, "was that so hard?" he laughed before casting his First Aid spell.
Her wounds were healed, but still she wasn't in any shape to continue pursuing the Chosen of Mana. So he scooped her up bridal style. "What are you doing put me down!" she demanded, pushing him and hitting him all the way out of the cave.
"Hmm… Where do you think they went?" Zelos asked, ignoring the protest of the demonic banshee in him arms.
"I don't know!" she shouted as she kept trying to get herself free from the Chosen's grip.
"Okay then," he said and marched down the rest of the mountain.
"Where are you going?" she shouted, "Zelos!"
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Author's note: Next chapter there'll be more freedom to work with, since there won't be any interactions with Lloyd and the others, just Zelos and Sheena = ) .. and some creapy fishermen.
Please review and tell me what you think! = )
