(author's note: First, thank you very much for all reviews so far. Special thank you to YggiFan10, who seems to be one of the very few to really enjoy the story so far. Oh and thank you so much for the grammar lesson XD. Second, please do not point out any spelling mistakes in the reviews unless I ask to in a sidenote (you know who you are AND I'm going to ignore you). By the time you notice them, I already did, but since I'm a lazy insertbadwordhere, I just don't correct them after the chapter has been uploaded. I do my best with the grammar, but sometimes I just can speak no good english no more. Third, if you don't like the story, the idea OR the way I write, just don't read. Simple as that.

Well for the fourth and most likely most important part: If you haven't noticed already, I'm very picky about the especially Raine talks, so please pay attention to this since I consider this important for future parts. I hope you keep on reading and you like what I came up with so far. Oh and expect a LOT more chapters. The first 7 were merely an introduction... Note end)

"W-What? Who are you? What are you? What do you want in here?"

The old man's body shook in fear as he walked backwards to the other end of the room, watching the figure sitting in the big open window. All he could see was a faint silhouette, a shadow caused by the cold light of a pair of wings on the person's back. The figure slowly left the window, crawled inside the room. The bookshelves got slightly illuminated, the back of the books bathed in the soft color and reflected it faintly.

"Why are you here?", he cried out again. He hit the back of the room, felt the wall behind him as well as his legs shaking. He was scared, more than ever before in his life.

"I know who you are", the figure started talking. "and what you are doing."

"I never did anything wrong!", the man cried out.

"You, who defies the teachings of our holy church."

"No! Please don't! I never did anything that disagrees the teachings!"
"You did threaten the chosen, did you not? You want to kill him so you can have the ultimate power within the church."

He felt his legs weaken. Just the wall behind him was holding him up this moment.

"Please...", he begged. "I never meant to."

"There is no excuse for such a crime. Our goddess and we of Cruxis bless the Chosen and every violation of our goddess' will must be punished."

He screamed in fear as the figure came closer. The soft light of the candles was consumed by the cold light of the figure's wings, ruthless eyes glimmering in the shadows. The door was forced open, but the guards inside stayed in the hallway as they saw the angel standing in front of him, walked backwards and dropped their weapons.

"I-It's Spiritua!", one of them cried out and they quickly ran away, so the angel turned the attention back to him. Still he was not able to move, petrified by the presence in front of him.

"May our goddess have mercy on your soul", the figure said, he screamed again, the smile and those glowing eyes burned inside his mind.

Just as his life ended, the warm flame of the candle was blown out.

"Good morning", Zelos said as Sheena rolled around and finally got up from her place. "Finally awake, honey?"

"Do I look like I'm still sleeping?", said assassin said and fixed her hair. The black haired girl usually had her hair open while she was sleeping, at least when it was cold like it had been this night. A quick look around and she noticed that the others were either asleep or not there. Not there meaning Raine... again. The professor went away at night a lot the past week, saying that she was unable to get some proper rest and making herself useful instead.

"Aren't we a little sunshine?"

"Where is the professor again?"

"Beats me. She asked me to take over the nightwatch so she could go check out something."

"I was 'checking out' a save way inside the town, if you must know." Raine joined them at the already burned down fireplace. She seemed to be in a unusual good mood this morning.

"Good morning, Raine", Zelos said happily, crawled over to her and grinned into her face. "Did you miss me while you were gone?"

"You have go two seconds to go back to your place before I kick that grin out of your face."

Quickly the Chosen retreated, lifted his hands in defense. Sheena could just laugh at that. Zelos was such an idiot.

"I'm sorry, beautiful. Just trying to be nice."

"However", Raine interrupted before the redhead could start whining again. "I have been close to the city and I passed some travelers. It seems that something has happened within the city walls. Maybe we should learn about it. I also think I heard some guards looking for you regarding this case." She looked over to Zelos.
"Me? Why me?"

"I do not know. That is why we need to find out about it."

The past few days could not have been any worse for the little group. Wherever they went in Tethe'alla, they were followed by the pope's assassins who particularly tried to kill Zelos and Colette and since the Rheairds were much to peculiar, they decided to travel by foot... again. This ended in a lot of whining this time not only by Zelos, but by Sheena, Lloyd and Colette as well. Tethe'alla's cities were much further apart than in Sylverant. In order to prevent further problems, they wanted to get to Meltokio, so they could settle things right with the pope himself. Zelos didn't want to involve the king because he saw this as personal threat and if the people of Tethe'alla found out about this matter, there would have been a great mass hysteria. None of them wanted that, however since they couldn't get into the city the evening before, they camped outside by a little forest with Raine taking over the nightwatch. Sometime during the night she woke up Zelos, asking him to take over. She still wore that white coat, mostly because her other clothes were still missing and she refused to wear the dress that was still at Altessa's house, even though Zelos begged really hard for it.

(Warning: very, very uninspired little passage. Sorry to be skippy again)

A few minutes, more like hours later, the rest of the group was awake, too, but most of them still sleepy. Still they sat down together after they had breakfast for discussing the next steps.

"They locked down the sewers", Raine said. "So we need to find another way in."

"Can't we just take the front entrance and ask for the guards to take us to the pope?", Colette asked, rubbed one eye since she was still very sleepy.

"And get killed in the process. No thanks." Zelos crossed his arms behind his head and looked up into the morning sky. The sun had already risen and the bright blue color hurt a bit in his eyes. "He's mostly after me, isn't he. I could distract the guards so you guys can get in."
"This would..." The professor couldn't talk any further, stopped suddenly in the middle of her sentence and stood up.

"Raine? What is it?", Zelos asked and got up as well. It didn't take him long to figure out why she acted like that. The sound of cracking branches and armor was in the air.

"They will find us."

Lloyd pulled out his swords.

"Then we'll defend ourselves."

Quickly the group picked up their weapons as the first soldiers already arrived. At first the soldiers, definitive the pope's guardians, got into a defensive stand, yelling some commands up to the point where they noticed Zelos.

"Wait!", one of them yelled and walked back a few steps, immediately putting down his weapon. "We're not here to fight you. We have a massage from the king. He said it is important and that you and your companions are asked to go to the castle as soon as possible."

"Me?", Zelos said in confusion and put away his sword. The guards usually sided with the pope and tried to kill him a few times by now. "Well... alright I guess? We'll go there as soon as possible."

The guards quickly retreaded, seemed to be glad that they made it out of the woods alive and delivered the massage. Regal raised an eyebrow.

"This sounds like a trap."

"Well it doesn't hurt visiting the castle anyway, does it?", Lloyd said and scratched the back of his head. "We need to go there anyways to get our ER fixed."

It was the second reason why the group needed to get to Meltokio. Only the people at the research academy were able to fix the ER that broke earlier for whatever reason. No one knew how it happened, but they needed it to get to the mines. The area was made of mountains and made it impossible to land there with their Rheairds.

So after they prepared and packed their equipment, the small group went to the gates of Meltokio, where the guards wanted to stop them at first, but then quickly let them through. Inside the crowd went on as usual. People running around in the streets, busy and carrying their things for the market or their shops or holding tightly to their personal belongings. However they left the 'normal people' behind quickly and entered the noble part of the town containing the castle. In front of said castle a few women ran up to Zelos.
"Oh master Zelos!", one of them shrieked. "They said that you were chased. We were so worried."
Zelos laughed and smiled at them. "There, there my little beauties. As you can see I'm perfectly fine. No one can just chase me down. I'm the great Zelos Wilder. But say my darling" the woman sighed in awe. "can you say what happened while I was gone? The town seems more busy than usually."

"You don't know? Well it's only a rumor, but they say the pope died last night."

Zelos blinked confused and tilted his head a bit. "Died you say..." He looked over to Lloyd. "Let's check that out after we got to the king, okay?"

"Yeah. Sounds important."

The red haired chosen kissed his fangirl's hands goodbye and smiled at them before going ahead.
"I'll see you around."

Raine stayed behind, looked over to the church's tower. It got noticed after the group took a few steps. Genis was the first one to turn around.
"Sis? Are you coming?"

No reaction. He went over to her and pulled the white edge of her coat.

"Sis? Hey Raine..."

"What?" She looked down to the small half-elf. "Actually I would like to visit the place where this murder occurred. Maybe we can find something out there."

"But we need to get to the king. He gets pissed otherwise."

Colette went over to Raine. "I would like to go there, too. I want to pray for the pope's soul."

"Then I suggest that the chosen and I go to the church. Not all of our presence is necessary. We meet again in front of the castle later."

Everyone agreed and Raine nodded slightly at them before they broke up. She and Colette took the left road which lead directly to the church.

"Professor?", Colette started half way. Actually the young woman was not in the mood to talk, but when the chosen wanted to, she was not the one to refuse her company, so she looked over to her.

"What is it?"
"Is something wrong lately? You behave a little strange."

"Strange? What do you mean?"

"Well you haven't schooled any of us lately and you go away for hours on your own. That's nothing like you, professor."

Raine looked down the road again, still putting one foot in front of the other to reach their destination. This again. She had this conversation a lot lately and every time she thought of another excuse.

"A lot has happened lately. But keeping you safe is more important."
"Why?"

"We do not know if Mithos is still after you." Of course he was not, but it that was not for the chosen to know. On the edge of her mind she noticed a certain person, but she decided to ignore him for the moment. "Let us hurry so we can join up with the others."

"Okay!"

Inside the castle, Lloyd and his companions knelled in front of the king, who still looked a bit pale after his illness. That means, all except of Zelos. As chosen, he never needed to kneel in front of anybody if he didn't want to.

"Welcome back, chosen one. I apologize for all the trouble you got through."

The redhead smiled.

"It was nothing I can't handle, your majesty. But why did you want to talk to me?"

"Well...", the king started and closed his eyes, apparently to think about his next words. "I suppose you heard the rumor that the pope died?"

"Yeah something like that. So the rumor is true?"
"I fear it is indeed. But what is more important, he was murdered."

Simultaneously the group shouted "What?" and Lloyd nearly jumped up from his position.

"But who would do such a thing? I mean he was bad, but no one is worth getting killed."

"It so happens that there were two guards who saw him shortly before he was assassinated. Both of them claim that it was Spiritua who passed judgment upon him."

"Spiritua?"

"They saw a person with luminous wings, just like the chosen of mana from Sylverant has them. I want to ask you, since she is still with you, if you are connected to these cases."

Zelos stayed quiet. Colette couldn't hurt anyone, however, they still had a second angel in their group. And the recent events made him think a lot. But Raine wasn't able to hurt anybody, right? Even if the color, her behavior was different, she was still the lovely professor, not able of murdering anyone.

"I ensure you that no one of my friends have something to do with this. Maybe the guards just went crazy after witnessing the pope being assassinated."

"It seems that everything is normal here", Raine said after she and Colette entered the church, looked around for a bit. She spoke silently even though the church was empty. They walked in front of the big altar and looked up to the colorful windows. No everything seemed fine, however it was quiet. Far too quiet. Also she still felt the presence of a half-elf, a powerful one, too. That smell of many was so familiar. She looked over to Colette, who knelt down on a bench, praying silently to herself.

"Oh holy spirit", the little angel whispered. "Please help us on our journey..."

She stopped listening at this point. Not only because she was not interested, but because of the person who just entered the holy halls of the church. He closed the heavy doors behind him and turned around, walked a few steps towards the two women. Colette noticed the person as well and got up from the bench.

"Yuan", the blonde said in surprise. Raine walked to her side. "What are you doing here?"

The blue haired half-elf looked over to the two of them, crossed his arms and stayed in silence for a few seconds. Now he understood what he was told. He would recognize that crystal the scholar wore everywhere. At first he never thought the story was true, but now that he saw it with his own eyes, he had no choice but to believe. Yet there were still a few things he wasn't sure about just now.

"If you don't mind, professor" He choose to use this term in front of the chosen. "I'll take the chosen."
"Oh but I do mind." The other half-elf pulled Colette behind her. "What could you possibly want with her?"

"I don't think this is of your concern. If you're not willed to give her away, I will just take her."

Of course there was no order from Yggdrasil to recover Martel's vessel, but this was not his goal. Just to let the situation escalate and to pick a fight. Yuan just hoped that he predicted her actions correctly, or he could end up getting beaten up. He didn't feel well to fight at a sacred place, but no one would enter right now after the pope's death. Not until the funeral.

Raine turned around a bit and looked at Colette.

"Is there a back exit?"

"Uh...Uhm the one in the office..."

"Go get the others."

Her order was harsh, not allowing any questions. At first the human tried to refuse.
"But Professor...!"
"Did I not make myself clear? Go!"

"But..."

"He is after you. I can not protect you forever. Now go", Raine hissed between her teeth and the chosen ran to the back of the church and inside the pope's office. Such an annoying little brat. But with her gone she was able to use her powers without getting worried. It would take the human enough time to run to her friends so she could beat down the other half-elf and to pretend he ran off. Just as the little girl was away she looked over to Yuan again. He did not move at all, so he could not possibly be after the chosen. She actually expected him to run after her.

"What do you really want?"

"I wanted to see for myself what Mithos did to you."
"Did to me?"

"I can't tell for sure now. But I will find out." The dual-blade appeared in the other angel's hand, and he got into his fighting stance. "Prepare yourself!"

"So you really are a traitor. Fine by me. Neither will you get the chosen, nor will I allow you betray my brother."

Brother... Was she still talking about the little silver-haired half-elf he met in his base so long ago? Whatever could he want with him? Unless she wasn't talking about her real brother. The only person he was betraying was Mithos. So his former friend did confuse her mind, just as he was told. He knew this from Pronyma. Sometimes it was just to easy to get information out of that woman.

Some shining white rings appeared around Raine's wrists and Yuan felt pure mana leaking from them. He knew that way of fighting just too well, but now he needed to find out if he was right with what he suspected.

"I heard you beat Kratos. I have to say, I am impressed. But don't think I'll hold back like he did."

She grinned.

"I hope you do not."

"I still find it worrying that both of the guards gave the same testimony, independent from each other", the kind said, still looking over to the little group including Zelos. The chosen himself looked over to the side on the red carpet and got lost in thoughts. Who could have killed the pope? And why? He was sure that Kratos would never murder anybody without a very good reason and he didn't think that Mithos was ordering it either. The only solution he had was that someone from outside interfered, maybe Yuan or one of his people.

"Do you have some more hints for us, your majesty? Maybe we could investigate in that case."

"I was hoping you suggest this, chosen one. I heard of your success in several other actions you took. The guards, who witnessed are in one of the guest's rooms. Let one of the maids take you there."

"Thank you, your majesty. Oh and my darling princess", he said and smiled over to the princess, bowed a little. One of the maids lead them through the corridors, while the group talked about the pope's murdering and Spiritua.

"So...", Genis started and looked over to Presea. "The legend of Spiritua exists here, too? But she was a chosen, right? So why are the people over here so afraid of her?"

Regal looked down to the little brat, raising an eyebrow. "Chosen? Spiritua was an angel."

"Angel...", the little half-elf repeated. "She wrote the chronicles of the world regeneration on our side. And she's said to be a chosen. So how does it come that she's an angel over here?"

"I guess the chosen himself knows the story best", the blue haired man said and looked over to Zelos, who was staring down the corridor as the walked. However he didn't seem to notice that he was talked to. "Zelos!"

The redhead jumped a little. "What? Don't startle me like that. You're giving me a heart attack."

"Spiritua's legend. I was hoping you could tell us since you are the head of the church now."

"Spiritua? Uuuuhm... let me think. Spiritua is considered a guardian for the chosen of mana during their journey. It is said that one of the kings of Tethe'alla wanted to kill one of the past chosen so he could be the only power in politics and the church of Martel. He arrested the chosen under false pretenses and wanted to execute him in front of the palace. But just before he could be killed, he called out to Martel and an angel was sent from the heavens. Said angel was Spiritua and she slay the king in front of the people for defying the teachings of the church."
"Ever since no one dared to lay hands on the chosen again", Regal added after Zelos finished his story. "The fountain in front of the castle was built there to honor Spiritua and to make the people remember the event."

"She's a big deal here then, too", Lloyd said and just as he finished there was the sound of breaking glass on the other end of the corridor followed by quick footsteps. "What the..."

A faint, but just too familiar female voice was heard between the angry screams of the servants. "S-sorry!"

"That's Colette!", the brown haired swordsman said immediately and ran to that direction, followed by his friends. After a short time they already saw the blonde angel running up to them. She tripped over one fold in the carpet and fell down before Lloyd's feet.

"Ow..."

"Colette. Are you alright?"

He helped her up. She looked confused and she was shaking.

"Y-Yeah. But... the professor... Yuan... the church..."

"Colette calm down", Sheena said and walked to her side. "Breathe and tell us what happened."

"No time..."

Inside the church the fight already raged. Raine had grabbed one of the candlesticks, broke of the bottom part in the process, in order to get a better defense against Yuan's dual-blade. Still he was more difficult to defeat than she first thought, not showing mercy as he promised. He interrupted her when she was about to cast a stronger spell, dodged or parried the weaker ones and forced her to concentrate completely on hand-to-hand melee combat since she did not get enough distance. However the battle was not really one-sided. Raine managed to get a few hits on Yuan with either the candlestick or the mana-rings around her wrists. Yet she took some damage mostly from his dual-blade.

One hit and she was sent flying into one of the benches, which moaned under the weight before it broke. Gladly she did not feel any pain or else she would have been immobilized for a short time. She had just enough time to catch her breath before she rolled on her side and dodged the blade. It crashed into the cold stone and sparks flew up into the air, leaving a mark. She turned around a bit in order to get more grip before she aimed for his side with the candlestick. The other half-elf barely blocked it by pulling the dual-blade just in time in front of his body, but could not avoid being sent flying again. The white haired woman stood up and the two of them looked at each other. He was testing her, not fighting properly.

"You are a bad actor, Yuan", she said and wiped off a few drops of blood from her cheek.

"And you can do better than that."

"Maybe I am not trying."
"Well you better should."
And exposing all of her abilities? No way. It was just a matter of time until Colette returned with her little friends and she was not willed to get caught red-handed doing a more powerful spell. To give the traitorous angel a runaround should be enough for now. She strengthened the grip around the golden pole and ran up to him again.

As far as he could tell to this point, the two of them were equal to each other, however both of them were holding back a lot. Yuan has been able to land some hits because he got her by surprise after he was able to repel some of her kicks, this oh so familiar moves. She wielded the candlestick like he handled his dual-blade, but she didn't seem to make use of the mana-rings around her wrists too much other than to defend herself. Yuan couldn't tell if she was doing it on purpose or because she just didn't know how to use them as a weapon.

He ducked under the blow, parried the second one with his blade and held her in her position. In the corner of his eye he caught the shining rings like solid material floating around her wrists in midair.

"... I see..."

"You see what?"

Yuan just smiled a bit.

"I see that there may be still hope for you."

He sent a small electroshock through his blade and pushed her backwards in the process to gain some distance. His blade disappeared and he crossed his arms. Even if this was only a test, he still felt exhausted.

"I think this should be all for now."

"So you intend to run off?" The mana-rings disappeared and he felt that she locked the leaking mana back inside.
"I would call it tactical retreat."

"Call it what you will."

The wooden door from the pope's office creaked and the voices of the group were heard. Just seconds later they stood behind the other half-elf.

"Are you alright, professor?", Lloyd said and looked over to him. He wanted to pull out his swords, but Raine stopped him. Yuan took a look around. Some benches were destroyed, wax was all over the floor and a few of the candles were still burning.

"I am fine", she said, still looking at the blue haired half-elf. "He just intended to run like a coward."

Again Yuan had to smile.

"However you put it, we will see each other again..."

He turned around and mumbled a teleportation spell, back to the Renegade's base.

"Raine you're hurt", Genis said after Yuan left and looked up to his big sister. She had several scratches, some of them bleeding, but rolled off over the white coat.

"It is nothing. I am okay."

"But Raine..."
"More importantly he did not get Colette." She looked over to the blonde. "Since he was after her, I consider this a success."

Raine throw the broken candlestick into the broken benches.

"Well...okay...", Lloyd seemed confused and looked around for a few seconds. "Man what happened here? Did you two fight?"

"No he offered me some tea", the professor said ironically and raised an eyebrow. "What do you think happened here?"
"But you've never been a melee fighter?"

"I learned a few things during our journey." She looked over to Regal. "And I used some of your movements. I hope you do not mind."
"No. Not really..."

"Talking about movements...", she interrupted him and crossed her arms. "I would like to take part in future combats."

Up to now, the group forced her to stay back so she wouldn't get hurt. After all she was still the healer for them.

"W-What? But why?" Genis blinked in shock and also the rest of the group seemed a bit in shock.

"Since I got this crystal I can feel it enhancing my abilities even further. Just healing and not taking advantage of it would be a waste." Raine lay two fingers on her temple. "Just as I copied a few of Regal's movements, I think I can learn even more from our enemies as well."
"You can do that?" Lloyd seemed overjoyed. "Wow this is so cool, Professor Sage."

Genis didn't seem to enjoy this as much as the rest of the group did, but held back for the moment. After all this was his sister's decision, not his.

"Well I suggest that we head to the Inn and discuss our further actions there. Also I would like to know what the king said."

The others agreed and they went out of the church. However Zelos stayed there for a few seconds, looked over to the candlestick the half-elf just threw away like a piece of junk. It was badly damaged, had marks and blood all over. She definitely fought with it and he saw Yuan bleeding.

"Zelos? Are you coming?"

Raine stood in the door, looked over to him over her shoulder.

"Yeah. Wait for me, my darling", he said in his happy tone and then followed her. When they were alone again, he finally needed to ask her. Not only about this fight with Yuan, also he had to ask her if she was the one who murdered the pope.