HI GUYS IM 18 AND I GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL TOMORROW

*FLIES INTO THE FUCKING SUN*

DISCLAIMER: One does not simply own Tales of Symphonia.

Chapter 10: Reunions A-hoy

"Are you sure this the correct way, Genis?"

"Yeah, yeah, this is it. It should be just up ahead. …Raine, what if we don't get there in time?"

"Don't worry. I'm sure Lloyd will be fine."

"Okay…"

"…Genis, didn't I say not to worry?"

"I know, I know! It's just…Lloyd wouldn't even be in this situation if it wasn't for me. This is my fault…"

"That may be. But we can't change the past, Genis. The best we can do right now is go find hom before he gets into any more trouble."

"Y-yeah…I hope they're alright."

"…They?"

"Maybe if we try it this way…"

"We already did it that way. We'll have to try a way that we haven't done yet."

"But we've done this at least ten now! How many more can there be?!"

"I have no idea. Ugh, this is so frustrating…"

"Urgh…okay, one more time-"

"OW! Lloyd, you just shocked me!"

"Sorry! …Wow, your hair looks funny like tha-"

"Shut it."

The swordsman pouts a bit, but doesn't say anything else, turning back to the three pillars in front of us. I, meanwhile, attempt to smooth back down my already messy hair, only half managing.

If you couldn't tell, Lloyd and I aren't doing so good with this friggin' Gamecube puzzle. Every time we hit a pillar, it only seems to make it worse for us. It should be simple – hit the pillar with the corresponding angle, unlock some doors, BOOM, you're where you need to go. But it's NOT. We just keep messing it up and ending up in rooms and hallways that take us nowhere!

So far, we've ended up in about three different hallways. FUCKING THREE HALLWAYS. There were some rooms we ended up unlocking too, including (for some strange reason) a storage room. I think the most interesting time was when we ended up in a room filled with Raybits.

I rub a leftover singe on my glove at the thought. If these people were going for a confusing, complicated base layout, they nailed it right on the head.

I take another glance at the Gamecube in the middle of the room. Ever since we started messing with the floor system, the console has been doing this weird…stretchy-thing. Like, it keeps stretching and shrinking into some weird shapes, going from flat as paper to a rectangular tower at points. It's…really weird to look at.

Currently, none of the plates are lit, but there's a greenish hue all around the room. It isn't as bright at the blue light was when we first started, but it's getting there. Of course, I can't remember which plate we have to light in order to get to where Yuan's office is.

"Okay, so…" I sigh, walking back over to Lloyd, who's standing in front of the central pillar. Like in the game, the pillars go in order for what their angles are – 45O for the bottom pillar, 90O for the center, and 180O for the top. Of course, there's the problem of hitting the right ones to get the plates to line up.

Which is what we've been totally sucking at.

"Um…" I look back to the center of the room, eyeing the plates on the floor. Right now, the blue and green plates are closest to me, with the green plate pointing straight at the 90O pillar. Keeping my eyes on the floor, I walk around the massive contraption.

If you don't remember, there are some smaller plates in a ring surrounding the Gamecube, centered in a floor hollow. The colors correspond to the movable plates – green to the north of the room, blue to the east, and red to the south. So far, we've only gotten the blue plates to line up properly. We got close to the red, but we miscalculated the angle on that one (translation: Lloyd hit the wrong pillar on accident).

I stop in front of where the smaller green plate is. I look to the bigger green plate, then back to the smaller one.

These two are actually pretty close together…

After a minute, I look back to the pillars, thinking. Finally, I point to the pillar in the center. "Try hitting that one again."

"You sure?" Lloyd asks, looking at me.

"I…think so." I tell him, not entirely certain. He gives me a deadpan stare, and I shrug in response. "We won't know unless we try."

"…If you say so." He finally replies, before stepping in front of the pillar. Lifting his hand, he fires the Sorcerer's Ring, and the electric charge from it hits the pillar dead on.

A grating sound from behind us causes me to turn in place, to see the contraption in the room one again begin to turn. The plates circle until the green one lines up to the door behind me, and then stops with a click. The plate flashes with a bright light, and the green hue in the room suddenly turns sharper, making it seem like a green fog has covered the room.

I'm startled when a cracking noise starts up from above, and I look up to see small speakers attached to the ceiling. The crackling lets up after a moment, and a robotic female voice booms out.

PASSAGE TO CONTROL ROOM OPEN.

…Okay then.

"That hasn't happened before…" Lloyd speaks up, and I turn to see him looking at the ceiling. He looks down at me after a bit. "You think it's important or something?"

"We won't know unless we look." I reply, shrugging. I walk over to the door the green plate is lined up with, motioning to the swordsman behind me. "C'mon."

Y'know, to be honest, I really can't remember where this 'control room' door will lead us to. It's been waaaaaay too long since I've been through here in the game, and I didn't really care about remembering in the first place. So I'm pretty tensed up as the door opens.

And what d'ya know, it's another hallway! AMAZING. Luckily, I don't see any enemies right off the bat, so that's already better than most of the other areas we've ended up in.

"Another hallway?" Lloyd groans from behind me, voicing my own thoughts. I shrug at him, then begin to walk forward, keeping an eye out. After a moment, I hear the swordsman begin to follow me.

We only make it to the first intersection before a door opens In front of us.

And a Renegade soldier steps out, just feet from us.

"Whoa!" Lloyd exclaims, and I freeze up. Of course, because he did that, the soldier notices us, and I see him tense before running in our direction.

"Hey you! What are you doing here?!"

"Uh-oh.", says Lloyd. Yeah, BIG uh-oh.

"Run!", I screech in response, before immediately darting to the hallway to my left. I hear a yelp from Lloyd before the sound of his feet accompanies my own. Along with the sound of the Renegade chasing us.

Not really thinking, I keep running straight, even when I hear a door swish open behind me. For some reason, it sends little alarm bells going in my head, but I'd rather not stop and find out why that is. Unless I want to be face-to-face with an angry Renegade.

I skid to the left when an intersection opens up behind me, and quickly spot a door to my right. I run to it before the Renegade can turn the corner, diving through the entryway as the door swishes open and closed.

Immediately I'm plunged into almost complete darkness, the only sound being my own heavy breathing, and some sort of mechanical rumbling. I try to silence that as best as I can when I hear the footsteps of the Renegade soldier. I hold my breath when the footsteps are right outside the door, but release it when they keep going, until I can't hear them anymore.

Okay…dodged that bullet, I guess. Still can't help feel that something's…off, though. I know that you're not supposed to get caught by any Renegade soldiers, so why am I so-

Oh.

…Shit.

That door swish that I ignored was Lloyd going into Yuan's office, wasn't it.

I stand still for a few moments, in this unknown room in the dark, with the only noise being the machine somewhere in the room…before promptly smacking a hand against my forehead.

"I am such a fucking dip." I groan, rubbing the spot I just smacked. I think this is like…the third time today that I've forgotten an important plot point. And now, Lloyd is all by himself with fucking Yuan. I mean, I know that the rest of the group finds him before anything serious happens, but…god, I am idiotic.

*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*

I jump about…maybe five feet in the air at the shrill noise that sudden pierces the air. It stops as soon as it starts, and leaves total silence in its wake. Which tells me that the noise came from…whatever machine is in this room.

Which tells me that I should probably find a light switch or something.

Using what little light is filtering in through the closed door, I make my way over to the wall surrounding the door…but I try not to get too close to it so it doesn't open. I don't really want to reveal myself to any guards waiting outside the door…if there are any. I then begin the process of feeling around the wall for a possible lightswitch.

Finally, my gloved hand passes over something bulky protruding from the wall, just to the left of the door. It takes me a second, but I manage to flip the switch in the dark. I immediately have to shut my eyes against the light searing my eyes, but then blink them open so I can see where exactly I am…

…Um.

…A laundry room?

My face screws up in confusion at the sight of…what appears to be what I stated above. It actually seems to be more of a...laundry/storage room, than just a laundry room.

The room's actually pretty small, but there are some machines sitting against a wall just in front of me. I can't actually tell if they're washers or dryers, but…there are piles of clothes all over the place, along with some random boxes. So I'm just gonna say they are. Also, it smells like some sort of detergent in here.

I step further into the room, eyeing the piles of clothes scattered around the room. They all look about the same – Renegade uniforms – but I can see some other random items scattered around (I deftly avoid a random pair of boxers lying on the floor).

Some of the uniforms are in random piles, while others are neatly folded into stacks. Those are mainly on some shelves on the right wall. There are some shelves to the left also, but those are mainly filled with random boxes of things. Can't really tell what.

I have to stop when my foot slams right into one of the boxes laying on the floor. And possibly breaks a few of my toes. After a few seconds of hopping around and cussing under my breath, I look down at it. The box shifted a little when my foot hit it, so I can see something shining at me through the halfway folded lid flaps.

...

I kneel next to the box and open the flaps to see what's inside.

Sadly, it's actually not anything too interesting - just some mechanical bits to things I can't really identify. There's some gears, some bars, and...other things. I can't really describe then without sounding really idiotic. The box quickly loses my interest, because as I push the box away, I see a small bag on the floor next to a crumpled pair of pants.

Picking it up, I immedietly hear the jingling of some coins. Sure enough, when I open the pouch, I see a few coins at the bottom - probably some spare change that had been left behind. I do a little victory cheer, depositing the coins into my own money pouch.

…Wow. Lloyd and the others could be fighting Botta right now, and here I am in a storage room finding spare change.

I think I need to re-evaluate my life choices.

Click, click, click, click…

I freeze at the sound of footsteps coming towards the door. As I hear then come even closer, I jump up and run over to the light switch, turning it off as quickly as I can. As the room is plunged into dark once again, I watch the door, listening to the person come even closer.

My heart begins to beat faster when the footsteps stop just outside the door. I hold my breath.

Please, please, pleeeeeaaaase don't come in here…

…..

"I know you're in there."

My heart just about stops at the muted voice that filters in through the door. I don't really know what I was expecting, but…HE was not it.

"Normally, I would take care of you on the spot for breaking in here…" he continues, and my heart begins to beat again, going even faster. "…But, I'm going to assume you're with Lloyd's group. Unfortunately, that means that I cannot deal with you just yet."

I guess that's because of Kratos.

"However, if I manage to find you on your own once more…don't think I won't hesitate to kill you."

Holy fucking shit.

There's a brief moment of silence, which is immediately followed by the footsteps resuming, heading down the hallway. I wait until they fade away completely before I let go of the breath I was holding in.

I didn't really think so in the game, but here, Yuan is one scary motherfucker. And I didn't even SEE him.

As I try to get my heart rate to drop back down, I flip back on the light and head back towards my pile. I'm pretty sure it's about time for me to take my leave anyways.

Before I leave, I decide to go to pick up the box on the floor, to put it on one of the shelves. When I go to pick it up, however, I spot something else in it – a small glint in one of the corners of the box, a different color than the rest of the mechanical parts.

Curious, I rifle through the contents of the box once more, plucking the shiny thing out with one hand. I bring it up to my face, surprised by what I see.

A small box is perched between my gloved fingers, almost identical to the little blue one attached to my gun. A bright yellow substance fills the container, and there's an eerie glowing effect to it. Along with this, what appear to be jagged lines occasionally sweep through the fluid, almost completely white in color. Through the gloves, I can feel a faint vibration coming from the box.

...Even though this is actually really, really awesome, I have to quirk an eyebrow at my find. Why the heck would someone leave a mana cartridge in their pockets? Also…why would the person who found it just throw it into a mechanical junk box? Maybe they weren't paying attention or something…

In the end, I just shrug. It's a free weapon upgrade, so…yay? I guess?

Eh, let's just hope it doesn't short circuit or something.

I stash my find in the back pouch of my belt, grab the box from the floor and stash it back onto the shelf before heading over to the door. It swishes open, and I hit the light switch one more time before exiting the room.

I move cautiously back down the hallway, keeping an eye out for any more Renegade soldiers. When I don't see any, I pick up the pace, making my way back towards where I know Yuan's office is.

When I make to go through the door, I stop when I hear voices inside. Luckily, the first voice I hear belongs to Raine, so I know I'll be okay. I still can't help but feel nervous at the knowledge that I'll be facing the entire group together for the first time, though.

Steeling myself, I wait one more moment, before stepping towards the door, and it opens with a mechanical swish.

"…pened the escape route just now. Let's -"

Whatever Raine was going to say is interrupted when they she notices me come into the doorway. Immediately I feel everyone's eyes on me, but honestly…I'm more distracted by the state of Yuan's office.

I remember from the game that the office space was still pretty much pristine after the group had fought with Botta. Here, though…nnnnot the case. Pretty much everything I can see is trashed, including Yuan's desk. It's currently almost broken in half, and lying on its side against the wall. Remains of a few potted plants are scattered all over the floor, and there are some wall chunks accompanying that. The gaudy purple carpet is in tatters in places, and…I think there are a few bloodstains in places. Um, I don't wanna know where those came from.

I don't know what look is on my face when I look back up to the group, but I'm pretty sure it's a really weird look. I'm also getting some stares – mainly from Colette, Kratos and Raine. Kratos looks pretty neutral, but Raine and Colette look pretty shocked.

I wait a few moments, before saying the only thing that seems appropriate in this situation:

"The hell happened in here?"

"Lloyd."

"What?"

"About that fight earlier…"

"Are you gonna tell me that I got in the way?"

"You weren't bad. It looks like you've improved a little."

"What?"

"You need to learn more about yourself and your opponent. If you can understand your skills, you can fight the enemy more effectively. Sometimes you will fight enemies armed with poison – still other times, you will find your abilities suppressed via magic. The difference between knowing and not knowing those dangers and how to avoid them is immense. Merely swinging your sword is not enough. Don't forget that learning also leads to strength."

"Kratos…"

"I've spent too much time talking. Let's get going. Don't dawdle."

"…In other words, these Exspheres are amplifiers that awaken our dormant capabilities…I wonder if I could use one too?!"

"That would be difficult. Exspheres are harmful to the body without a Key Crest."

"Um…can't we make a Key Crest?"

"As I told you before, a Key Crest is made by processing inhibitor ore, then engraving it with a crest to control the Exsphere attached to its surface. It is said to be a secret art only known to the dwarves."

"Yeah, I can engrave that charm…er, crest, but only my dad can process the ore."

I rub my eyes in response to this conversation. Ugh…it is too late for me to try and pay attention to all this crap.

Right now, we're all sitting in the larger room of the Triet Inn (I can't be assed to remember the name right now). It's maybe…I don't know, 10 or 11 o'clock at night. It took us about 4 hours to walk all the way back to Triet from the Renegade base, mainly because everyone was completely exhausted from the events of today. Especially Lloyd, Genis and I. We walked across that fucking desert three times today. And right now, I'm definitely feeling the effects. My legs and feet are so freaking sore, I swear to god.

The only light coming into the room right now is the moonlight from outside, filtering in through the open window. However, it's pretty bright, so I can see most everything in here. Lloyd, Genis, and Colette are on the two beds on the other side of the room from me – Genis and Colette on one bed, Lloyd on the other. Raine and Kratos are leaning up against the wall to my right, in the space between the beds. Meanwhile, I'm all alone on my side of the room, sitting on my own bed. Which I'm currently falling asleep on. However, I don't think Raine would appreciate that, so I'm trying to stay awake the best I can.

Oh, speaking of Raine – remember when I said that her and Colette were really surprised to see me at the base? Well, that's because apparently, in Genis's haste to get help for Lloyd, he forgot to mention that I was with them. So they had no idea that I was even there until I walked into Yuan's office.

Let's just say there was some yelling and arguing involved.

But anyways, everything turned out okay. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. In this room. With a bunch of people, having a conversation, at the butt crack of night.

God, I just want some sleep.

I look up when I hear some rustling near the ground, and I look over the edge of the bed to Raine keeling next to a blanket, and…dumping a lot of things out of a bag. Uh, what?

"Is there any inhibitor ore among these materials?" she asks, sorting the random objects around at the same time. Lloyd and the others jump off their beds and head over to the little space she's made. However, I decide to be lazy and just crawl over to the bottom end of the bed.

"Raine!" Genis exclaims, and I look up to see a look of utter shock on his face. "Did you bring these from our house?!"

"Of course." She replies, with a tone that says that it's completely normal. "They're valuable research materials."

She points to some sort of pot thing. "This is a holy vase from the Balacruf Mausoleum." Then she points to a rusty looking sword. "This is a jeweled sword from the Martel Temple." Now it's some sort of crown. "This is a priest's crown from the Asgard Ruins." And then some sort of yellow rock. "This is yellow ore from the Hima mines…"

"What the…?" I look up to Lloyd, who has…some sort of grimace on his face. He gestures to the pile in front of us. "This is all junk!"

OUH. Big mistake.

I see Colette and Genis immediately take a step back as Raine's head jerks up. Instantly she's off the ground and in Lloyd's face, which currently has a look of something similar to panic.

"What did you just say?!"

The next minute or so is made up of Lloyd flailing around trying to avoid Raine's fists. He isn't very successful. Normally I would be laughing at this, but I am pretty much dead to the world at the moment.

The ridiculous display finally ends when Kratos kneels on the blanket, picking up what I know to be the Key Crest. He stands after he grabs it, holding it openly in his palm.

"Hm? This is…" Yes, Kratos, it's a fucking Key Crest. Can we just move this along so I can get some sleep?

Of course, Raine turns rapidly, forgetting Lloyd. She glances at Kratos's hand. "Ah, I picked that up in front of the human ranch." She looks at the mercenary. "It was engraved with angelic language, so I took it home."

Lloyd moves around Raine then, moving to stand in front of Kratos. He stares at the object in his hand for a second, then turns his gaze to Raine, so I can only see the back of his head. "Professor! This is a Key Crest!"

"The crest is half worn off." Kratos states, then holds it out for Lloyd to take. "It's unusable like this."

"…I can fix that." Lloyd nods, taking the crest from the mercenary. He examines it for a moment before looking back at the two adults. "Don't worry, Professor. You'll be able to equip that Exsphere tomorrow."

"Really?!" She looks excited at the news…kind of creepy. "Thank you, Lloyd. I'm sorry to make you go through the trouble, but I appreciate it."

It's at that moment that I decide to release a very big yawn. Like, one of those yawns that make your eyes tear up. Once my face gets back to normal, I look up at the group with watery eyes. "Does this mean we get to go to bed now? Because I'm seriously about to pass out here."

"Hm…yes, it is pretty late now, isn't it?" Raine replies, and I notice her glance out the window. "Perhaps we should all get some rest."

Ugh, thank god.

As soon as she says that, I tune everyone out as I flop backwards on the bed, my head not even hitting the pillow. I hear Raine leave the room with Genis and Colette, which alerts me that I'm now alone with Lloyd and Kratos. However, I cannot muster the energy to give a shit, so I ignore them while I pull off my boots, tossing them onto the floor beside my bed.

I don't even bother to take off my glasses. The last thing I hear before I drift off is Lloyd saying that he'll start working on the Key Crest…then I just sort of…black out.

For about an hour.

And then my stomach decides to wake me up.

I sit up in the bed, cracking open my eyes to find the room to be a bit darker then it was before. I notice Lloyd sitting on his bed, staring at me in slight surprise. There are some tools spread out on his bed sheets, telling me he was in the middle of working on the Key Crest.

"What are you doing up?" he asks me, blinking. "You've only been asleep for an hour."

I yawn, stretching a bit before answering. "M'ungry." Not really looking, I lean over to my right, reaching for my bag that I remember putting on the bedside table earlier. I remember I had left some food in there for snacking.

…Apparently I'm not as coordinated as I think I am, because instead of picking up my bag, I go a little bit too far off the edge of the bed, and end up falling to the floor in a heap. I hear a surprised noise from Lloyd after I go down.

After a few seconds of silence, he speaks up. "Uh…you alright?"

"Mnn." My response is muffled by the fact that my face is pressed into the floor. I pull myself up onto my knees, blinking sharply before reaching up and loosely grabbing one of the straps to my bag, dragging it off the table to the floor with me. Silence can be heard for a few seconds as I search through the bag, before I'm able to claim my prize – a very squished hunk of bread.

Eh.

As I begin to shove my snack into my mouth, Lloyd speaks up again from across the room. "You know, you can be really weird sometimes."

"Mfflb." Speaking through the bread doesn't seem to be working, so I quickly swallow the piece that I'm munching on, turning to him. "How so?" My voice is very monotone – most likely because I'm tired.

He shrugs, and I notice for the first time that he's not wearing his jacket. "Uh…I don't know. You just…are."

I stare at him for a few seconds, eyes half closed.

He blushes. "…Why are you looking at me like that?"

I blow a little raspberry at him, then return to my snack, finishing it in a few quick bites.

There's a few moments of silence as I finish eating, and then he speaks up again. "Hey, um...thanks."

That suprises me enough to wake me up a bit. I turn back to look at him. "Hm? What for?"

He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well, y'know...for coming to help me. I probably would've gotten stuck if you hadn't got there."

I can't help but scoff a bit. "Yeah, well, I wasn't much help anyways. I wasn't there when you ran into that guy in the base, even though I probably should have."

"You couldn't even see where I was going! You were in front of me, remember?" He flaps a hand at me. "Besides, how was I supposed to know there was someone in there?"

I don't respond to that.

Lloyd sighs at my lack of response. "Look, just...thanks, okay?"

I look at him for a minute before quietly responding. "Yeah...no problem."

There's a few moments of awkward silence, before Lloyd clears his throat. "Okay, um, I'm gonna...get back to work on this." He holds up the unfinished Key Crest in his hand. "You should probably go back to sleep."

"Mmm." I grunt in reply, grabbing my back again. "I think I'm gonna change first, though." As I say this, I pull myself to my feet, walking over to the door leading out of the room. "Be right back."

I exit the room as Lloyd calls out in reply, which is cut off as I close the door behind me. I then make an immediate beeline for the inn's bathroom, which, for some reason, is at the top of the stairs - just next to Raine and Genis's room.

Once I make it into the room, I change into the pj's that Nova gave me - a long-sleeved, black cotton shirt and some baggy grey cotton pants. I also manage to brush my teeth with some toothpaste and a toothbrush I bought earlier, which I really appreciate - I haven't been able to do that for about two days now. I think I was starting to grow moss.

Before I leave, I can't help but stare longingly at the shower in the room. However, it'll have to wait until tomorrow - I have a feeling I would fall asleep under all the hot water if I tried right now.

With a tired yawn, I exit the bathroom and make my way back down the stairs. When I get back to my room, I notice that Lloyd is gone. Must've finished Raine's Key Crest already. Funny, I didn't even hear him go up the stairs.

I yawn again as I shuffle over to my bed, throwing my bag back onto the small table to the right of it. This time, before I jump into the bed, I take off my glasses and place them on the edge of the table. Only then do I crawl back into the bed, throwing the covers over me and snuggling into them.

Once again, I'm out like a light, sinking into the warmth of a soft, slightly sandy bed.

...Uh, yeah, hai again.

Remind me to stop making promises about updating quickly. XD

Okay, soooooo...the reason this chapter took so long was...well, quite a few things. I actually didn't write anything for a REALLY long time, and then when I finally got going again, so many things got in my way. The best incident I can think of was me actually loosing my flashdrive (which is where I keep all my fic documents) for an entire weekend on my school bus. :[

Also, as sort of stated above, I've been busy trying to graduate from high school! I managed that pretty well, all things considered, but that really did take a toll on my writing abilities.

AND IM AN ADULT NOW HOLY CRAP. So weird, I started this fucking story in 2010, and I only have like...10 chapters. whatthehelliswrongwithmeaskjdkjsfnjs

But, uh...because I'm 18 now, and I REALLY don't want such an age gap with my S.I, I'm changing Cassie's age to 17. The year that the story is taking place will be in this year too, just for the sake of being accurate with events. I can barely remember being 16 now. :/

Another thing that happened in my absence was me losing one of my dogs. We have another doggie now, but the dog in mention, Yuna, was one of the dogs that was in the first chapter of this story. BECAUSE of this, I'm going to edit her out, to save myself a bit of heartache. :I

Soooooooo, yeah! That's all I really have to say for now. Sorry for the long ass author's note at the very end.

P.S - For those people who have one,and in case I've forgotten to mention it here, I have a Tumblr! The link is posted on my page, in case anyone wants to, like, bug me about stuff. :3

P.S.S - There's some art of Cassie that I've put on my page, so you guys can get a better image of her outfit! I tried actually putting them in here, but I guess they didn't work...:P

NEXT TIME: Back in the deserT AGH MORE SAND FUCK EVERYBODY