A/N: I AM NOT DEAD.
In other news...
Seriously, I just have no idea how you guys got those baby ideas from. Anyway, nice guesses. Hopefully with the end of this chapter, you'll be one step closer to knowing the truth of Raine Sage. And speaking of babies, Colette's is going to be a boy! Not that the characters know that, but now there's something you know for certain will happen... because at this point, there's no guarantee that Partners will have a happy ending...
Oh yeah, and the lemon is finished. Gimme a PM if you want to read my crap.
I am a hostage to my own humanity, self-detained and forced to live in this mess I've made. And all I'm asking is for you to do what you can with me, but I can't ask you to give what you already gave.
Enjoy.
OoOoOo
The door opened and Presea looked up to see Pandora stepping in, lightly shutting the door behind her as she trained her eyes on the gently sleeping figure. "Still out?" she asked, leaning back against the door with her hands clasped behind her back.
"Yeah," Presea said. "How're things on your side?"
"He's still asleep too," Pandora said. "It's been... almost a whole day. Are you sure you don't know what happened?"
Presea shook her head, biting her lower lip before standing up from her seat next to Genis. She stretched her skinny arms high above her head, listening to the symphony of small pops erupting from her back. "Genis started yelling at Matias and his Cruxis Crystal started to act weird. Genis stepped into Matias's bubble and roughed him up a little, and then they just passed out."
Pandora fixed her dark, intense gaze on Genis, lying prone on the bed. Presea tried not to notice, but in the end she glanced sideways at Pandora, muttering, "...You can switch with me, if you like."
Pandora quirked her eyebrows up. "I'm sorry?"
"If you want to look over Genis, I can look over Matias."
"Why would I care either way?" Pandora shook her head in dismissal, but didn't leave the room. "Though I can understand it if you would rather be with Matias. We can switch if you like."
The pink haired girl stopped stretching, whipping her hands back straight to her sides as she smiled thinly at the knight's daughter. "You can't be serious," she said, her voice expressing nothing but the words. "I expected a little more self-control, or at least a better excuse."
Pandora crossed her arms. "I only do what my father expects of me. I have no such obligation to you, Miss Combatir."
"You and Genis," the girl said.
"Yes?"
"You guys are dating."
"Of course not."
Presea knew she held a trump card, but it didn't seem to be working the way she had planned. Growing angry, she decided to put a little bit of force behind her words. Stomping over to Pandora, she arched up on the tips of her toes so that they were almost eye to eye. Her fists were clenched at her side. "Don't act stupid when you know I know everything," she snapped at the older girl who acted so indifferent. "Take the discovery of your indiscretion with a little grace. Accept it. Denying it makes it worse."
Tilting her head to the side, Pandora smiled easily at the little girl. "Yelling isn't very graceful," she pointed out. "But I'm telling you right now, Genis and I aren't dating."
"No?" Presea challenged.
"No," Pandora answered. "He's my consort. Lover. If he were a woman, he'd be my mistress. Unfortunately he is not, and I don't know the male equivalent for what he is. But we're not dating, because we don't go on dates. He's ashamed of me and of himself because he feels he's betraying one of his best friends, and so we hide what we do, behind locked doors." Putting her hands on Presea's upper arms, she held fast to the girl. Bending down to plant a friendly kiss on the cheek as ladies tend to do in court, she smiled into Presea's ear. "So does knowing that make you think you have the upper hand over me, Presea Combatir? Like you can... blackmail me? Like you can..." she pulled back, regarding her with eyes now strangely soft, like the night sky. "...Threaten me?"
Presea shoved her hard enough to make the normally floating half-elf stumble over her own two feet. "Maybe not as much of an upper hand as I thought," she admitted. "I've never met a noble who didn't sweat easily, but I guess dealing with your sort requires some blacker dirt."
"My sort?"
"Your sort of half-elf," Presea said. In sharp contrast to Pandora's placid, far-reaching pools of darkness, Presea's eyes were storm-tossed, gloomy gray oceans. The waves intensified, though the composure on her face hadn't yet broken. "Your sort of noble," she said, with two spots of pink color high on her cheeks. She swept past Pandora and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Pandora stood with her arms crossed again, her eyes closed.
"What a confused child. Too bad, she's cute," she muttered to no one, since Genis was fast asleep.
OoOoOo
Raine dreamed.
In her dream, perhaps her imagination had been too tired to play memory games, because there was no eerily familiar family scenes in Virginia's house. Nor were there dreams about the climb up to the Tower of Salvation, of giving her life selflessly, of falling, falling, falling... being caught, and a shimmering of orange wings. Or nightmares, of never being caught, of never seeing an end to all her darkness, only feeling the dead, stale air whush past her face as she looked up, praying to a false Goddess for forever to have her student-turned-hero succeed in his quest. Those were recent nightmares, after the World Reunification was over and the group split apart and Raine began to loose her focus in life. Nightmares that had plagued her since she was a little girl always included falling, too, only this time she had been pushed... and there was no air.
Only salt water.
No, this time she dreamed she was in the very same lobby of the hotel she was staying in with her two newest students, Harley and Mesha. Half-elves, just like her. A temporary focus, a pet project she only recently began to attach her hopes to. She stared up at the out-of-focus ceiling, shimmering in the fog of a dimly remembered locale. She hadn't paid much attention to her surroundings in wakefulness. Sitting up on the couch, she looked up and there he was, waiting for her like he was in all her dreams nowadays. He had his arms at his sides and his posture was relaxed, but she could see his anger like it was a living thing in this world.
"Hello, Alex," she murmured, her eyelids heavy.
"Don't fall asleep," he warned her quickly. "If you fall asleep here, you'll wake up in the real world. You're not in a deep sleep, either, so being too alert will probably wake you up as well. So just... be careful."
Raine nodded, her movements languid. It was a strange sensation to see when you could actually feel that your eyelids were closed. "Where am I?" she asked, dimly aware that she did not like this state of dreamy carelessness.
"Taking a nap in the hotel lobby," he said.
She felt a spark of indignation at that, her eyelids opening somewhat. "I don't take naps," she said. "I barely sleep at all."
"Your student suggested it, since she knows you don't sleep," Alex said. The anger radiated stronger than it had before. "Mesha," he said. "She is what I wanted to talk to you about in the short time we'll have together."
"You've already rifled through my memories, what other truths could you possibly want?" she asked him, sighing. A few gossamer bubbles escaped from her mouth, floating around the room and sparkling prettily, like the wristwatch that dangled from her arm. Already the room was beginning to lose its solidity, already she could feel that she was not upright but lying facedown against the couch, her eyes were closed, and she shouldn't be able to see anything at all.
Alex huffed, his glowing dream-face fuzzy. "Memories reflect what happened according to what you saw and the prior knowledge you have. They don't have want I want. I want to ask you... why? Why did you take advantage of her last night- she's only a child for the love of Martel."
Raine smiled, completely unashamed. "I felt like it. I'm not doing anything terrible to her. She probably enjoys the attention. I'm..." she stopped. Her voice was a low mutter, but still very audible in the space that the dream occupied. Guilt began to crawl into her tone, guilt brought on by self-awareness that had only been fuzzy before in this dreaming state. "I'm... using her. For more than just... that." Her head tilted back and she glared at him, the dreaminess suddenly gone, the Professor fully awake and haughty.
"It's my business, and mine alone! Get out!"
Raine jerked, sitting up straight on the couch. She looked around the hotel lobby, confused and embarrassed, to see if anyone had heard her. But no... she was alone. Sighing, the Professor brought her knees to her chest, resting her forehead on top of them. A nightmare is all it had been, she told herself. Not that she could remember what it was about. She never remembered what went on at night, dream or nightmare.
Looking at the time on her watch, she realized she'd been asleep for over an hour. Cursing, she shot to her feet and ran out the door, looking around for her students. They had been told to meet her at the memorial just outside the Academy, the fountain that listed the names of all who had died in the Palmacosta disaster almost three years ago.
She slowed as she saw a familiar green head circling the fountain. Mesha walked with her hands clasped behind her back, her normally smiling face introspective as she read one by one the names of the deceased. She looked like she was searching, and apparently found the name she sought. Stopping in front of the fountain, she looked at the name for a very long time until she felt a pair of arms wrap around her in a loose hug. Seeing the familiar blazing orange sleeve, Mesha tensed and flushed but wound up unable to decide whether she wanted to pull away or step closer. She never got a chance to, anyway, because the Professor had let her go.
"Zelos helped with the funds to build this," Raine said, one hand still on Mesha's arm. She was looking up at the fountain, too. "To remember."
"That's good. I had heard about this memorial but never saw it before now. Someone I knew died here," Mesha said, not intending for the words to slip out.
Raine's silver eyebrows went slightly up at that. "Ah," she said, looking now to her student. "I see. I'm sorry."
And then there wasn't anything else to say. The awkward silence was at hand, and Mesha's desperate topic of conversation hadn't done anything to divert it. Raine didn't seem bothered, though, moving to sit on the edge of the fountain. The plaza was empty of students since most were in class at this hour, in their dorms, or trying to wheedle a snack out of the lunch ladies. Mesha quickly followed her, sitting a safe distance away becoming uncertain when Raine bridged that safe distance and gently placed her hand on top of Mesha's. She sneaked a hurried glance at Raine, but the Professor was looking somewhere distant, somewhere pleasant, too, if the serene expression on her face was anything to go by. Mesha looked at her again, this time not turning away so that she could watch the Professor for the first time with these fresh new eyes that had opened only the night before.
"I hope that isn't too forward of me," she said, sounding genuinely concerned as she broke the silence.
"Oh... uh... uh... no." Mesha turned her gaze to her lap, all the while thinking that Raine had already been too forward in kissing her. Raine's hand shifted and her fingers wove nicely in between Mesha's, sending her heart beat spiking in something similar to fear, but not quite. She looked up again at Raine, biting her lower lip.
"How does that feel?" Raine wanted to know, finally looking her in the eyes.
Mesha gave a half-laugh. "Cold," she said.
"What?" Raine's eyebrows furrowed for a moment and then she realized. "Oh- you mean my hand. Sorry." She pulled her hand away, but Mesha grabbed it again, carefully watching Raine's face for a reaction.
After a moment of internal debate, Raine cracked loose a small smile.
"So does this mean-" Mesha started, shifting so that she faced Raine, and scooted closer to her.
"Heh-heh-heh-LOOOOOOH, LADIES!" Harley yowled, barreling in between them to sit with an arm over each of their shoulders. Mesha fumed in silence as Harley kept on; unaware that he had interrupted anything. "So are we ready to get out of here or what? I've been waiting forever for Sleeping Beauty here to wake the hell up." At this last statement he pulled Raine closer to him in a jarring hug, shaking her slightly.
Mesha got to her feet, smoothing out her skirt. "I don't care where we go next," she said. "Harley? Why don't you choose the next city?"
"Asgard," Harley said at once. The two students looked to their teacher and she rolled her shoulders, her palms up to the sky. Harley grinned, sweeping Mesha up in a crushing hug. "Excellent! I need to talk to Linar about some bugs in our secret weapon!"
"When exactly are you going to tell us what this secret weapon is, anyhow?" Mesha demanded, wriggling free of him and shooting a concerned glance in Raine's direction. The Professor didn't seem bothered by Harley's displays of affection, though.
"You'll see," Harley said with an unusually enigmatic smile. But it was soon washed away as he grabbed Mesha by her hand, the same hand that Raine had been holding, and dragged her away from the fountain despite her protests. Raine moved to follow them, holding back an amused chuckle. But when she glanced down to check the time, her heart gave a lurch.
On the memorial- the entire memorial- names were carved into the surface. Each name was small, and there were many, but one name couldn't but attract the Professor's attention. A sickeningly familiar name. Leaning closer, she put one hand over the name. The engraving was very small, she saw now- it was a wonder that Mesha or Raine had been able to find it at all, drowned among the names of the dead.
"Raine! Are you coming?"
Raine clenched her fist over the name, not moving. "In a second!" she called back, still gazing at the name she hid, her hand closed as if trying to snatch it away to a place where no one could see it, ever again.
OoOoOo
"Oohh, my head hurts…"
Pandora's head shot up. Stumbling to her feet and wincing when she found that one of them had fallen asleep, she went to Genis's bedside and helped him sit up straight, watching his movements intently for any signs of a relapse. "You OK?" she said after a moment, pouring a glass of water from the pitcher at his desk. Genis mumbled something unintelligible and she resisted the urge to dump the contents of the pitcher over his head to wake him up fully and get some answers, reminding herself that he wasn't in the greatest condition right now.
"Where's...?" his cloudy eyes suddenly sharpened. "...Matias!" he snarled, throwing the covers off of him and leaping out of the bed, managing to take three full strides before he began to wobble uncertainly. Pandora followed him, ready to step in in case he fell down.
"What happened?" Pandora asked him, intent on milking what information she could while Genis was still lucid. The way he was acting, he was bound to pass out again. And she wasn't about to be the one to stop an angry, ex-sphere powered half-elf...
Genis pulled on a shirt, weaving his way to the door. "That... half-elf..." He fumbled with the buttons on the shirt. "Is my cousin!"
Pandora's eyes widened. She stopped in her tracks. "What?"
"You... heard me...Damn it! Why am I...so... tired?" Leaning against the door, he conked his head against the wood a few times, trying to regain his senses. "She... he... That half-elf... Went inside my head, Pandora! I was so..." he began to slide down the door, his massive frame crumpling under the exhaustion. "I was so... so...scared...I'd never... never..."
He fell asleep again. Pandora sighed in frustration, carting him back to his bed with some difficulty before tucking him safely back inside. She smoothed his wild blue hair back with one hand, kissed his lips, and then went back to her seat to watch him sleep.
OoOoOo
"Whoa there!" Presea said, pressing Matias back into his bed with tiny hands that belied the strength contained within. The pseudo-angel blinked at her, muscles taught with fear. "It's only me," the girl said to him, in soothing tones. "Presea. Remember?"
Matias jerked away, drawing his arms around his chest protectively and shrinking away from her. The scales on his wings rattled with the movements.
"Water?" Presea said, grinning and holding a cup up to his face. "Regal told me and Pandora that you might be dehydrated when you wake up, god knows why. But you probably know, don't you? You gonna write to me, tell me what happened? Or are you going to..." she mimed zipping her lips shut. "Keep your silence?"
The fabric around Matias's mouth stretched as he tried to move his lips in vain, signaling with his hands as he 'spoke'. Presea handed him a paper and pencil that she kept ready for when he woke up, feeling a sick mix of pity and amusement at his attempts at speech.
I need to speak with Genis again something went wrong last time I dont know what
"Why did you guys pass out?" Presea asked him.
Something went wrong, he wrote again. Then, looking at the cup Presea was holding, he waved it away, his lilac eyes betraying the sadness he could not voice.
"Oh... right." She put it away. "You uh... can't drink anything?"
Matias mimed a slashing motion, running a finger over where his mouth was hidden under his scarf. Then he held both his hands out, slowly linking his fingers together until his hands were folded as if in prayer.
It hurts, he added through the paper. No matter how many times I cut them they just crawl back into place like worms. I need to speak with Genis and Sheena.
"Yeah," Presea agreed. "But you need to lay still for a whi-"
The room began to shake.
OoOoOo
A/N: That's it, I can't take it anymore! I'm sorry nothing happens in this chapter, I just can't think of anything else to write! I keep getting stuck when I describe what happens next, so I'll just start fresh next chapter. That always works. I'm sorry it's been such a long time, but a lot of stuff has happened, and I'm working on original fiction as well now. Just... don't give up on this story yet. It's almost over.