Well, after several decades or so, here is the next chapter. This chapter killed me to write, just because it's at this point where Lloyd starts acting like Kratos and everything in the game sucks again and it's just like blahhh. Or at least that's how my memory of it is. :/
As usual, own nothing. I'm not sure quite how much I like this chapter, but hey, I'm done with it now. Enjoy, and thanks so much for waiting!
It was just like it had been before.
Not before as in before this whole mess, when Lloyd and Zelos had been fighting Sidewinders and giant ladybugs and swamp things together, but no, when everyone had been working together for a common goal (which often turned out to be Make-Zelos-Feel-Pain) but at the same time...it was nice. He couldn't deny that. It was nice that the other Regeneration heroes finally admitted he was right and, man, when they decided to throw themselves at some goal, their enemies were doomed. It really was a wonder he was still alive, Zelos thought with a wave of affection, but really. Really.
He had just blinked. Blinked. And then everything went from bleak to awesome. Okay, sure, maybe they had all run off, leaving Zelos to fight with the brats, but hey. At least they were here, at least they were trusting Lloyd again—maybe not completely. It wasn't so easy to shift your way of thinking and uncertainty so quickly, but they were here, and they were kicking ass. That was enough, for now.
Zelos felt a kind of unruly satisfaction as his sword drew blood from the blue haired imposter's arm. "That's what you get for trying to get people to think that Lloyd would do that kind of thing," he snarled, and brought his sword up quickly to block the next attack.
One of Emil's tiny little imp monsters hopped up to smack Decus from behind, flapping its arms as it attacked feebly. Honestly, Zelos hated those little things. Not only were they next to useless, but the ones that weren't close to useless were ones that always made Zelos paranoid. He had fought monsters like that before. It was not fun. Fighting alongside them was a little disconcerting.
Decus screamed in a high pitch that rivaled Zelos's own as Emil's Sandworm ripped the ground apart as it burst up like a whale, razor spikes spinning towards Decus like an old torture machine. Zelos shuddered. He remembered spikes like those. He'd been very surprised and very happy to survive that. Thank Martel for Raine.
Decus lay on the ground bleeding, and the monster eased back to Emil's side, standing—could worms stand?—just in front of the red-eyed boy.
"Oh," Decus wheezed. "Oh, fuck."
Zelos might not like the Sandworm, but the creature certainly made the job faster and easier. He opened his mouth to say something—he wasn't sure what he would say yet, but he was certain it would be snarky, witty, and probably jackass-ish, but that was okay, because he really didn't feel like he had any obligation to be nice to this bastard.
This bastard is making my life shitty.
Something red caught the corner of his eye, and he was barely in time to block yet another sword strike from the Kratos lookalike. Okay, maybe Kratos had been a little heavier-set and had had brown eyes, not green, but the fact was...well, he really just very much disliked them both.
Very much.
"Don't get in the way," Richter growled, and shoved Zelos back with force that rivaled Emil's when he was red-eyed. Zelos stumbled back, with a quick snappy thought to Martel or the universe or whatever the hell was governing his life.
I am not amused.
She, he, or it probably didn't care, but hey, now it knew. He'd better be getting something awesome for this by the end, because this all was sucking quite a bit.
"Richter!" Emil's voice, whiny again. "Why are you—"
Richter seemed to fly at the blond, and Zelos was only able to get a swordswipe in before one of the weapons crashed into his gut. He heard a worrying crunch as he fell to the ground, trying to get his breath back.
"Get back," he gasped at the brats. At this point they were squealing and running. Together, even. Periodically, Marta would stop a few feet away to try for a spell, only to get interrupted as Richter slashed diagonally at her. Emil would run at Richter out of the blue, only to be caught in a high-powered lightning spell, screams barely audible over the sound of the spell itself, with all the zapping and crashing and sizzling.
Dear god, has no one taught them how to fight? Zelos forced himself up off the ground, snarling against the pain. Come on, come on, I haven't even gotten to gloat over the fact that I'm right yet! He didn't like the way his body was shaking, or the way the pain was like a shooting headache, making it difficult to think, let alone act. Get up, you whiner, GET UP. Couldn't stop now. But, oh, geez...
He got to his knees just in time to see the demonic tint in Richter's eyes and see the man lift his sword to begin the arcane spell.
We are so screwed.
Lloyd Irving was having a hard time concentrating.
The first thing bothering him was of course the fact that, you know, most of his friends whom he had trusted hadn't trusted him back, actually thinking that he would possibly do something like that, and that...that wasn't exactly putting him in the best mood.
The second thing was, and this probably doesn't really come as a huge surprise, was Zelos.
Lloyd wasn't really feeling too great about leaving his best friend behind with the two new heroes, Emil and Marta he thought they were called? Anyway, he didn't like the idea that it was only Zelos and those two against Decus. Someone who had nearly singlehandedly caused the destruction of Palmacosta and had nearly turned every one of Lloyd's friends (once-friends? Lloyd hoped not) against him was probably the easiest foe to defeat.
And Lloyd didn't like how his friends were all holding themselves away from him uncertainly, like they didn't know quite how to act now, like they weren't sure quite how much they trusted him, no matter how much they wanted to. He didn't think he'd ever felt so apart from them, and briefly wondered if this was how Zelos had felt the whole time during the Regeneration journey. If it was—and Lloyd was fairly sure it was—he was glad he'd taken the time to be Zelos's friend.
And Alice's voice gave him a throbbing headache.
There were a lot of things Lloyd didn't like today.
Zelos chose that moment to run up, the other two behind him.
Zelos looked like crap.
In the best possible way, of course.
The only way to describe what had happened to his coat and pants was to say that they had been "fried," and not a nice, golden, fried-in-butter fried, either. No, this was more of a charred, blackened something, something nearly unrecognizable. Blood was fast drying on Zelos's now-exposed arm and on the visible part of his chest—his cheek, on his once-white pants—
"Didn't you cast a healing spell on yourself?" Lloyd demanded in a low voice as Zelos drew up next to him. "What the hell happened? Was Decus that—"
Zelos grimaced painfully yet humorously, pressing a hand to his side. "Richter," he said. "And I ran out of mana and orange gels after healing the two of them. They're not used to this. Ow, shit." He caught Lloyd's worried look, and said, "I'm fine. Don't worry about it."
"Yeah, because you definitely look fine."
"I'm not at my best, but I'm not about to die."
Raine was eyeing them with an almost-glare, something almost like concern for Zelos's state, but not enough for her to take her attention entirely off what Alice was saying. Zelos hissed through his teeth, steadied himself on Lloyd's arm.
"Okay, maybe I am."
"Dork," Lloyd mumbled, and dug through his pockets for an orange gel, a pineapple gel (though Zelos was a bit allergic to those, surely it would be better than the swordsman about to collapse right there?), anything—found an orange gel. Offered it to Zelos.
"I'm not taking that."
"Take it."
"It was in your pocket."
"Take it."
"It has lint on it," Zelos whined.
"Take it," Lloyd growled back, and shoved it at Zelos, who didn't have the strength to refuse, though he glared rebelliously as he chewed through it.
"How long has this thing been in your pocket?"
"Does that matter?"
"It's like chewing through bricks."
"It's been awhile since I've been able to restock on items, so I've been trying to use them really sparingly."
"Fantastic." But Zelos muttered a quick "First Aid," and looked a little bit better.
Of course, it was at that moment when Lloyd, finished worrying about Zelos (at least for the time being) and finished being giddy over the fact that Zelos was here, right here (also for the time being only, he was sure), realized he probably should have been listening to what Alice had been saying, because as annoying as her voice was, it might be important and Yuan might want to know. For being the brains behind the whole plan (whatever the "plan" was), Yuan managed to make it to precious few of these little trips. Little dangerous trips. Lloyd was pretty sure Yuan sent him here to do these things on purpose.
Speaking of which...
He couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for what he was about to have to do.
Dammit, Yuan.
"...destroyed by Cruxis?"
His head jerked up, every nerve tensing as adrenaline rushed into his veins at that simple word. Name. Whatever. It was amazing, in a way, that hearing "Cruxis" still sent him in Fight Mode, even after these years.
The blue-haired imposter was grinning leerily, smugly down at all of them, hand on the railing above them around Alice. Lloyd really needed to stop getting so lost in thought.
"Ta-ta," Alice said sweetly, and Lloyd couldn't help but shudder at the sick sweetness in her tone. There was just something about it that sent everything in him wanting to run.
And then they were gone.
Zelos relaxed perceptibly next to Lloyd and rubbed his hands together and said as cheerfully as he could—which apparently wasn't that cheerfully—"Well, I guess that's that, then!"
There were mumbles from the rest of the group, overlapping to the point of being unintelligible. Marta behind them, as well, didn't take her soulful eyes from the grey brick ground, and Emil imitated her. Zelos swiveled his body around, trying to ignore the stretching pain it caused, and said: "My, everyone's so gloomy."
Lloyd managed a smile and said, "Well, yeah."
Zelos looked at him and said, "I'm glad you're back," and wondered at the falter in Lloyd's small grin, and didn't bother to shove the question in his mind aside this time. He had no reason to think that there wasn't something bothering Lloyd. Hell, this whole ordeal was probably about the worst he'd gone through, even when everything had seemed lost on the Regeneration Journey. Even then, Lloyd had had the security of knowing that he had at least seven other friends he could count on, ones who all counted on him. He didn't have that anymore, and that had been what had kept him going before.
Zelos found himself brushing his charred fingers against Lloyd's shoulder and saying softly, "Hey."
Lloyd looked up at him, and Zelos just wanted to hug the shorter swordsman so badly he could almost touch it.
But he didn't. Instead he just smiled at the red-clad one, and said, "Let's get home and figure this out there, okay?"
"Yeah," Lloyd said slowly, but wouldn't meet Zelos's gaze. "And, uh...yeah." There was a pause, and he said quietly, "Sorry."
Maybe that had been the wrong thing to say.
But Zelos didn't know how he could have said anything better.
Well, that's happy, now, isn't it? Sigh. Anyway, next update should be coming soon.
THANK YOU GUYS AGAIN YOU ARE AWESOME