Chapter Twenty-One: Dove's Rest

A trail of smoke curled through the pine trees up ahead. They were pretty much out of the mountains now, coming down the last big hill. The dirt trail was bordered on both sides by tall yellow grass and low bushes, broken up by chunks of boulders. To their right was a steep sloping hill, where the grass waving in the breeze glinted as if it had been turned to gold. To their left, stiff bushes growing almost vertically separated them from an almost ninety-degree drop. The tops of pine trees were about eye-level beyond the bushes, and it was through these trees that smoke from a chimney reached up to the sky.

"We must be nearing the inn Shea mentioned," Pierce said, eyes on the smoke.

"Thank Origin," Rowan said. "My feet are killing me. I can't wait to lie down in a proper bed."

"Me as well, especially considering I have to go back through the mountains right away."

"What? Why?"

"Shea came with you to guide you through the mountains. I came with you to keep an eye on her. Now that you've made it through the mountains, I don't know if I can justify continuing to follow you. Cleopolica needs me, and Shea still hasn't served her sentence in jail yet."

Rowan frowned. "You know, Shea's really not that bad. She only stole because she was trying to help people."

"Yes, I am aware of her circumstances."

"But you still want to throw her in jail just because she was doing her best to help poor people? It's not fair!"

Pierce sighed. "It's more complicated than that, Rowan. I can't go making exceptions for law-breakers just because they happen to be otherwise nice people."

Rowan scowled. "Why not? The law is there to protect good people and punish bad people. So you shouldn't be punishing the good people – that goes against the whole thing!"

Pierce shook his head. "No, it's more complicated than that, I'm afraid. You can't just sort the entire population into 'good' or 'bad'. Humans, half-elves, dwarfs… no one is born inherently good or inherently evil, so it's not as simple as picking out the good people and letting them get away with whatever they need to do. And if I did pardon Shea based on the fact that she is otherwise helpful, it would establish a precedent that I have the ultimate say over justice in Cleopolica, which is not the case."

"But you're the captain of the guard. It's in your job description that you're in charge." This whole thing seemed overly complex to Rowan. He took a moment to fantasize about being the captain of the guard in Luin, and how much simpler he'd be about things. The jerks who pissed him off and made life miserable for the rest of the town would be punished, and the good people – like his family and the people he worked with – wouldn't have to worry anymore.

"No, no, no," Pierce said. "I'm not in charge of justice, I'm in charge of upholding justice. I don't make the laws and I don't decide who deserves to be held accountable for their actions and who gets a free pass. That is far too much power for one man. So I let a girl off for stealing because she really needs it. What's next? Letting a murderer off because the victim might have deserved it?"

Rowan kicked a pebble and watched it skitter along the path before falling off the side. "That's different."

"No, it's not. It's just a different extreme of the same principle.

Rowan didn't really know what to say to that. He guessed he could understand where Pierce was coming from, but it still didn't seem right to punish Shea for helping people. In order to change the subject away from something that was confusing and frustrating, he said, "You know, Ferris told me before we left that he'd heard people talking about renaming the city after you."

Pierce turned his head to give Rowan a strange look. "After me? What?"

"Yup. Apparently they want to call it Asgardpolica or something."

Pierce shook his head in mild confusion. "That's an awful name for a city."

"I agree. Kind of a mouthful. They should shorten it, call it just…" he waved his hands through the air in front of his face, "Asgard. Short. Simple."

"That's even worse!"

Rowan laughed. "Yeah, they'll probably just stick to Cleopolica."

The path they were walking down finally levelled out, revealing a small wooden inn set against the cliff they had been walking down. A hand-painted sign above the front door proclaimed it to be the Dove's Rest Inn, accompanied by a small painting of a little white bird. There was a live white bird perched on the sign, but this one was splotched with green and chirped loudly when it saw them.

"Looks like the others made it here fine," Pierce said.

Rowan wasted no time in striding through the front door. Inside, there was a long wooden counter immediately across from him and the space in front of it was filled with a handful of tables and chairs. To the right of the counter was a staircase leading up to the rooms, and to the left was another door. Most importantly, sitting at one of the tables by a window was Spirit, Shea, and Kratos.

"Hey, you made it," Shea said when they approached. Spirit said much the same thing with her eyes.

"I trust you had no complications?" Kratos said.

"No, pretty easy walk," Pierce said. He pulled a chair over from the next table over. The table they were sitting it at four chairs, but Shea was using a second one to rest her leg. She had bandages wrapped around her calf, stained red where blood had seeped through. "And you?"

"No trouble," Kratos said. "The route was a bit uneven, but quick enough."

"I lost my bag," Shea said glumly. She rested her chin in her hand and scowled at the wooden table. "All my gels, all my supplies, all my antidotes… everything."

Rowan tried to pat her shoulder encouragingly, but it didn't seem to help much. "I'm sure you'll be able to replace them."

Pierce looked around the room. "Where are the owners? It seems odd that no one would appear to greet new customers."

"They're busy with some sort of family emergency," Shea said. "The woman asked us to take a seat when we got here and said she'd be back with some water and glasses, then came back with some first aid stuff for me, but I haven't seen her since."

"That was nice of her," Rowan said, sitting down at the next table over. "So we don't have a room for the night or anything yet?"

"No, but there's no rush," Kratos said.

Rowan was about to make another comment when a small girl appeared from behind the counter. She looked to be about six or seven years old, with blonde hair in pigtails and a short blue dress. She marched up to the table and put her hands on her hips, and announced, in the bossy tone of voice six-year-old girls as a whole seemed to have perfected, "My mummy said that you people can help yourself to food in the kitchen, and she'll kill you later."

The group stared at her. "Um…" Shea said.

Pierce raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure your mother said 'kill'?"

The girl shrugged, accompanied by a whining sound that would probably have been "I dunno" if she had bothered to open her mouth. "It was somethin' like that."

Kratos said, "Did she perhaps say 'bill'?"

"Yeah, that." She was slightly irritated, like she couldn't understand why these people were making a big deal between the words 'bill' and 'kill'. "Oh yeah, and there's a bathtub in the back and you guys can use it. And I think you should 'cause you smell bad. Especially you." She pointed one stubby finger at Rowan. "You smell like fish."

Rowan's hand on the table turned into a fist. "Why does everyone feel the need to tell me that?"

Pierce said, "It's probably because you smell like fish."

The little girl crossed her arms and nodded sagely.

Rowan threw his hands in the air and stood up, the chair scraping against the floor as it skidded backwards. "Fine! If everyone is really so offended by how I smell, I guess I'll go take a bath!"

"It's not really you, I think," Shea said. "It's that darn coat you always wear."

"Gee, thanks," Rowan said. "Good to know it's not me who smells, just my clothing."

Shea covered her mouth. "Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to offend you!"

To the others, he said, "I'm going to go find that bath. See you guys later."

After Rowan left, Kratos and Pierce followed the little girl to the kitchen to get food. Spiritua watched them go, not terribly excited at the prospect. She hadn't eaten anything at all since they'd gone to the Tower of Mana. Kratos said this was part of becoming an angel, and she didn't like it all that much. What was worse, though, was the fact that she hadn't been able to get a single night's sleep since the wind seal. Even though she didn't actually feel sleepy, it was very tiring to never give her mind a chance to rest. She hadn't talked to Rowan about any of this yet, either. She wanted to tell him, and explain what was going on, but there was never a good time. They were always surrounded by the others and she didn't want to talk in front of them. This was a private matter, but she and Rowan never had any time alone. She hadn't even talked to Kratos about the sleeping thing yet, but since he never pressured her to try and sleep when he saw her lying awake at night, she assumed he knew.

"Hey, Spiritua," Shea said. "Thanks. I probably would have drowned if you hadn't pulled me out."

Spiritua just smiled and nodded her head a bit.

"And how's your snakebite doing? Is it clearing up?"

She nodded again. The wound hadn't bothered her at all in the past few days. She was really glad Shea had joined their group. It was good to have a doctor around. At the same time, though, she couldn't help but feel a bit of resentment towards her. There was a reason she hadn't had a chance to talk to Rowan, and that reason was Shea. He was always trying to talk to her or impress her or just generally be with her, and it felt like Spirit had been put on the back burner for now. She knew it was silly to be jealous, that Rowan had his own life to live and couldn't pay attention to her all the time, but she had never had to share him with anyone before and she wasn't sure she liked it.

Kratos and Pierce returned with bread, meat, and cheese to make sandwiches. While the other three dug in, Spiritua sat in the corner and tried not to look at the food. It smelled really good, too. Instead she looked out the window, watching the leaves on the trees play in the breeze.

"You're not eating, Spiritua?" Shea asked. "You know, I never see you eat. It's not healthy to skip so many meals."

Spiritua stared at Shea, hands clenched on her lap. She didn't want to talk about this, but she didn't know how to avoid it now that it had been directly brought up. She opened her mouth but no sound came out. Desperately, she looked to Kratos for help.

"Angels do not require food as often as regular humans," Kratos said. "It's nothing to worry about."

"Oh. Well, ok. I still think you should eat something at least every now and then, though…"

The front door opened and Rowan came stomping in, water running down his head and soaking the neckline of his shirt. "Hey, you started eating without-"

Slam! A young woman burst through the back door. "How can you be content to just sit here, Father?" she screamed to the back room. Her hand holding the door open was shaking and her face was red and streaked with tears. Everyone at the table froze, sandwich halfway to her mouth in Shea's case.

Only then did the woman notice them. Her face slacked for a moment, and then a stiff smile pried open her mouth. "O-Oh. I'm sorry. I was going to get you water…"

"It's quite alright…" Pierce said.

Rowan, still standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, dripping wet, said, "Uh… are you ok?"

The woman rubbed her eyes and leaned against the counter for support. "N-no, I'm not. My son… my son is gone…"

"Where did he go?" Rowan asked.

It wasn't the woman who answered, but an older man who came out the door after her. He had greying hair and a tired face, but most distinctly were his long, pointed ears that stuck out from the sides of his head. Spiritua knew it was rude to stare, but she had never seen an elf in real life before. "My grandson was taken by Desians."

"I'm very sorry to hear that," Pierce said.

Rowan, though, cocked his head to the side. "But… you're an elf. Desians go after humans, not elves."

"There is time to talk later, when you are not dripping a puddle all over my floor," the old man said. "Please, allow me to set you up with rooms for the night."

The old elf, whose name turned out to be Benedict, gave them keys for two rooms on the second storey. The room Spirit was sharing with Shea was small, with barely space for two beds and a little end table between them. When they returned to the main entrance, they found the boys sitting with Benedict. Rowan had been given a towel finally, so he had traded soaking wet hair sticking to his head for damp hair standing up in a mess.

"Greetings," Benedict said. "I have been told that you are the Chosen of Mana."

Spiritua was a bit started at suddenly being addressed and looked over at the guys, wondering which one brought it up. Probably Pierce, she deduced. Rowan still wasn't keen on the whole Chosen deal and Kratos seemed much more likely to try and stay secretive. She met Benedict's eyes again and nodded slowly while taking a seat next to Shea.

"So are you a believer in Martel, then?" Shea asked.

"Hm…" Benedict said, stroking his beard. "I suppose I am still undecided on that. I have too many questions and not enough satisfactory answers."

"What questions?" Spirit asked. She was as certain in her faith as a fish was sure it preferred a lake to a desert. She wasn't one for idle chitchat, but if she could help someone embrace the goddess, then that was a discussion worth having.

Benedict smiled at her. "Ones I don't think you can answer, my dear."

Spiritua frowned. She knew the teachings of Martel back to front; if she couldn't answer them, no one in Sylvarant could. But he didn't seem to want to talk about Martelism right now, so she didn't push the issue.

"I am curious," Pierce said. "How did an elf come to run an inn in Sylvarant? I was under the impression that all the elves were in Tethe'alla."

To this Benedict gave a grim smile. "Ah. Well, you are mostly correct. I, however, happened to be traveling at the time when the war ended. One minute I was travelling back to my home in Heimdall, and the next the earth rumbled and shook and I discovered that my country was no longer there."

Spiritua listened with rapt attention. She had never met anyone who was old enough to remember the separating of the worlds. The mystery of the disappearing landmass had plagued a generation of scholars, but still nobody could quite figure out where Tethe'alla had disappeared to. The leading theory was 'the moon' but even that was just a guess.

"After it finally sunk in that there was no way for me to return to my home, I settled down here and built this inn with my wife, a human woman I met in Sylvarant."

"I'm still confused," Rowan said. "So, your kids and your grandkids are half-elves then, right? Then why would Desians capture your grandson? They're on the same side."

Benedict sighed. "My grandson – Isaac – is vehemently against the Desians. A group of Desians passed through this morning. They were already in a bitter mood about something – I believe I heard them mention something about their ranch falling and barely escaping – so when Isaac got in their faces about how they were giving half-elves a bad name and it was their fault humans hated them, they said he obviously didn't appreciate all the good Desians were doing for half-elves. They dragged him off with the intention of forceful recruitment."

Spirit looked down at her hands. In a way, they were responsible for this. The Desians wouldn't have even come if they hadn't taken down the Cleopolica ranch. And yet, she couldn't wish that they hadn't done that. Even if it would mean this boy wouldn't be in danger, all those hundreds of other people would still need to be saved. As regrettable as it was, the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, and sometimes sacrifices had to be made. But… that didn't mean she had to let it just happen.

She looked up and said, "Where did they take him?"

Benedict gave her an appraising look, and then said, "They headed east. There is a port on a small harbour on the east coast where they can take a boat to the ranch in the Iselia Forest."

Spiritua nodded. "Don't worry. We're going to get him back."

At this announcement, the rest of the group shot their heads in her direction. She returned their incredulous stares with an even and determined one of her own.

"We're going to what?" Rowan was the first to speak. "Spirit, I know it's sad and all, but we can't go around saving every single person we find in danger. I'm sorry, but it's just not possible."

"I have to agree with Rowan," Kratos said, with an expression that clearly added his distaste at needing to say that. To Benedict he said, "I'm very sorry for your loss, sir, but we are on a mission too important to risk taking detours."

"I understand," Benedict said. "I wouldn't wish strangers to get hurt fixing my family's troubles. I see your group has some things to work out, though, so I shall go see to my daughter." Once the elf had left the table, the arguing could truly begin.

"Spiritua is right," Pierce said. "The only reason the Desians came here and were in such a foul mood in the first place was because of our actions. We are indirectly responsible for the boy's fate."

"The Desians are the only ones responsible," Kratos said. "The best thing we can do right now is continue on our journey and regenerate the world, ridding Sylvarant of them."

"But if we don't interfere, the boy will be a Desian himself at that point. If we leave him there and then regenerate the world, he would be sealed away with them and we would be responsible for his fate a second time." Pierce banged his fist on the table, making the silverware rattle.

Spiritua watched the argument with interest, though to be honest she didn't much care what consensus they reached. She was going to rescue Isaac, and the others could accompany her if they wanted to.

"Be logical," Shea said. "How do you expect to rescue him? You're proposing going up against an entire troop of Desians – and however many more there are at this port – with just the five of us."

"We successfully infiltrated and took down the Cleopolica ranch with just three of us," Pierce said.

"To be fair," Rowan said, "we had a bunch of us on the inside, and the pirates. So it really wasn't just the three of you."

"Exactly!" Shea said. "Thank you, Rowan. You're going to get yourself killed, and then you can't regenerate the world."

"Rowan," Spiritua said. He looked over and she met his eyes. "I'm going." They held a stare-off for almost half a minute. The rest of the group waited, unsure if something was going to happen.

Finally, Rowan flicked his eyes away and sighed wearily. "You idiot," he grumbled. "We'll leave tomorrow morning."

"Rowan!" Shea said. "Don't cave so easily!"

"I'm not!" he said. "I still think it's a dumb idea. But trust me, she's going to go whether we agree or not. We can either sit back and protest the stupidity of this, or follow along and make sure she doesn't die."

Spiritua smiled at him. At least someone got it.

Kratos sighed. "This is a waste of time and energy. But if this is truly what you wish to do, Chosen, than I will do my best to protect you."

"Well, guys," Shea said, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to sit this one out. I'm still sore from getting banged around in the river, and I'm not too keen on fighting in the first place. I'm going to stay here and see if I can work on replacing my gel supplies."

"Alright," Kratos said. "Then as Rowan suggested, we'll leave tomorrow morning."

Spirit was glad the others were going with her. Even if she would have done it on her own, it was nice to know she would have backup.

Once that was settled, the group scattered. Kratos and Pierce left to discuss the matter with Benedict while Shea went in search of his daughter, who was named Mary, to discuss where she could acquire the ingredients she needed to make gels. This left Rowan and Spiritua sitting across the table from each other.

"Why are you so determined to do this?" Rowan asked. He seemed an equal mix between frustrated with her stubbornness and honestly confused.

Spirit shrugged. It was hard to put into words exactly why she felt this way. "Because… it's the right thing to do."

"You're going to get yourself hurt if you keep insisting on helping everybody you see."

"I rescued you. Would you rather I hadn't?"

Rowan scowled. "That's… different. I'm your brother."

"Isaac is somebody's brother, too."

"Well… yeah, but he's not yours. All I'm saying is, you can't take responsibility for everyone. Or else you'll drive yourself crazy worrying about everyone in the world even if it's not actually your problem."

Rowan didn't really get it. Since Kratos had told her that she was the Chosen, that was pretty much how she felt all the time. She was the one destined to save Sylvarant and regenerate the world, so in a way, everyone's suffering was her responsibility because she was the only one who could put an end to it. What she said, though, was, "If it were me kidnapped, you wouldn't hesitate to barge in stupidly."

"I told you, that's different," he rolled his eyes like this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"But it's not," she said. "Isaac and I are both just people. I'm not worth any more than he is."

Without hesitation, he said, "You are to me. Dad told me to look after you, and I'll be damned if I let anything happen to you."

"Rowan…" she looked down at her hands. "Actually, there's something I need to tell you about becoming an angel."

Rowan frowned. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

She shook her head. "Probably not." And so she told him everything about becoming an angel. As she had predicted, he didn't like it. He looked alarmed when she explained that she could no longer eat and absolutely outraged upon learning that she couldn't sleep.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"There wasn't a good time to talk," she said.

"Bullshit. You could have talked to me any time! Why were you hiding this from me?"

"I never tried to hide it." She felt a twinge of resentment. She had truly never put any effort in hiding it from Rowan. If he had been paying attention to her instead of Shea, he would have realized something was up and if he had directly asked her about it, she wouldn't have lied. Maybe that was part of the reason she hadn't brought it up before: she wanted to see how long it took him to notice.

Rowan calmed down. He seemed to pick up on the unsaid part of that sentence. "Spirit… you know I care about you. I'm just trying to make sure you're ok. So, in the future, tell me if something is wrong right away, ok?"

She nodded. "Ok. Maybe now is the time I should tell you that since becoming an angel, I've acquired a rare form of wing cancer."

"What?"

She grinned. "Kidding."

Rowan's face was still frozen in shock-mode. "That's not funny."

"It is a little bit."

"…Ok, maybe just a bit."

Lloyd woke up the morning after his illness feeling immeasurably better. His stomach had come to the realization that it was not, in fact, an Olympic gymnast and could settle down and stop flipping around all the time, and the throbbing in his head had turned down from 'almost constant' to 'pretty much non-existent'.

He yawned and rolled over in bed, seriously debating whether or not today was a sleep to noon day. Then it hit him that today they were leaving Altamira and it was his last chance to see his friends before heading out. Only five minutes after that realization, he was up and dressed and out the door. He burst into the hallway with such vigour that he crashed into a maid carrying a room service tray to another room. She fell over and the tray went flying through the air before hitting the ground with a loud crash! Jelly-side-down toast stuck to the carpet, an orange slowly rolled down the hall, and a newspaper absorbed spilled cranberry juice, blurring the text.

"I'm sorry!" Lloyd said, jumping up and offering the maid his hand. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!"

"Obviously," the maid said while brushing crumbs off her dress.

"Here, let me help you clean that up," he said, reaching for the soggy newspaper.

She snatched it out of his hand. "I think you've helped quite enough, young man."

"Ah… sorry." The maid busied herself with cleaning up the hall while Lloyd sheepishly made his way to the elevator. While he was standing at the end of the hall watching the little lights change as the elevator sped upwards to him, he was able to think about the newspaper he'd seen. Thinking back, he was almost positive he'd seen his name mentioned, but the text was so blurred with cranberry juice it had been impossible to make anything else out.

He considering going back and asking to see it again when the doors slid open with a ding. "Oh, hey, Lloyd," Sheena said, smiling. "Kratos just sent me to wake you up. The others are all down in the lobby to see you guys off."

"Oh. We're leaving already?" He stepped into the elevator with Sheena and began the journey down. "I thought we wouldn't leaving until this afternoon.

Sheena fumbled for words. "W-well yeah, that was the original plan but… Kratos decided he wanted to get out of the city as soon as possible. Because you guys are already behind schedule, so…"

"Oh." It wasn't much in the way of responses, but it was all he could think of to say. Sheena bit her lip and watched the numbers light up with such purposeful nonchalance it circled back around to chalance. Was that even a word? Lloyd was pretty sure it wasn't. He creased his brow and rubbed his chin, simultaneously wishing Genis were here so he could ask and glad he wasn't so he wouldn't mock.

He was concentrating so hard on what the opposite of nonchalance might be that the dinging of the elevator doors opening caught him by surprise.

"Here we are!" Sheena said. As they walked across the lobby, Lloyd noticed a stack of newspapers on the main desk, which reminded him of his encounter upstairs.

"Oh, hey, did you see the paper this morning? I thought I saw my name mentioned but I didn't have time to look closer at the headline."

Sheena's eyes went wide. "What? No. I didn't. Don't worry about it."

Something was up. Lloyd had never gotten good grades from the Professor for logical deduction, but even he could tell something wasn't quite right. "Sheena…"

"Good morning, Lloyd!" Colette said in her usual chipper voice when he met up with her and Kratos. "Do you feel ok today?"

"Yeah, I feel great," Lloyd said, casting his worries aside for the moment. To Kratos he said, "Do we really have to leave so soon, Dad?"

"Yes," Kratos said. "We've wasted enough time here already."

Lloyd slumped his shoulders. "Fine…"

"Regal was too busy at work," Colette said, "but Zelos and Presea are coming to say goodbye."

As if on cue, the front doors to the hotel opened and the pair of them strode in. "Good morning," Presea said politely when she reached them.

"Good here at least," Zelos said. "But man, did you guys see what happened in Palmacosta?"

Immediately, Kratos and Sheena whirled on and Sheena yelled, "Zelos!"

"What?" he said. "I was just trying to talk about current events! You're the one who's always saying I need to stop being so self-centered!"

"Hold on," Lloyd said, his worry levels rising back up at an alarming pace. "What happened in Palmacosta?"

"Er…" Sheena said, avoiding eye contact.

Colette looked about as confused as Lloyd. "Is something wrong?"

Presea was the one to answer. "The protesting in Palmacosta ended up giving way to violence. Raine has been apprehended as an instigator."

"What!" Lloyd could hardly believe what he was hearing and so rushed to the front desk to grab a copy of the newspaper. He read the headline on his way back to the group. Riot in Palmacosta: Half-Elf Companion of the Hero Lloyd Suspect. Below that was an artists' rendition of Raine, the artistic level of which was almost as good as Lloyd's wanted posters. "What is this?" he demanded of his friends. "Why would the suspect the Professor?"

Zelos shrugged. "She was probably the only half-elf at the scene and half-elves make good scapegoats."

Sheena glared at him.

Zelos held up his hands in defense. "Don't look at me, I'm just quoting popular opinion!"

"And you guys weren't going to tell me about this?"

Sheena looked guilty, but Kratos just said, "There's nothing you can do about the situation. It would only distract you."

"You mean you knew I would demand we go to Palmacosta right now and put this right."

"…Yes. But we're not going."

"Like hell we're not!" Lloyd knew the paper itself hadn't been the one to offend him, but in this case he didn't care if he shot the messenger. Or in this case, crumple it up into a ball and throw it on the floor. "Professor Sage is in trouble. We have to help her!"

"I'd like to go too," Colette said. "We need to help our friends!" Unfortunately, Colette's days of being the final decider thanks to her title of Chosen were long past.

"Lloyd, I need to get to the Tower of Salvation as soon as possible," Kratos said. "We don't have time for a sojourn to Palmacosta."

"Well, then I'll have to take a branch out of Spiritua's book and go on my own and you can come with me if you want."

"Leaf," Presea said. "You mean leaf."

"Yeah, exactly!" Lloyd said. "I'm going to leave!"

Presea looked confused. "That's not what I… never mind."

"Lloyd," Kratos growled in frustration.

Lloyd planted his feet and crossed his arms.

Kratos buried his face in his palm. "Alright! Have it your way. Those Exspheres don't actually need to be taken to space. I can do that whenever."

Lloyd felt only a tiny flicker of guilt at that, but it was quickly smothered by his overwhelming resolve to go to Palmacosta and make sure Raine and Genis were ok.

"If you're going to Palmacosta," Sheena said, "then I'm going too. I was considering heading over there myself after you guys left."

"Let's all go!" Zelos said. "We can make it an adventure."

Kratos just looked more and more irritated by the second.

"I shall ask Regal if he has time to accompany us," Presea said. "I am sure he would like to come if he can fit it into his schedule."

"We're getting this done with as quickly as possible," Kratos said.

"I know," Lloyd said seriously. He had been trying to go as slow as possible for the first part of their trip, but know that the Professor might be in danger, he wanted to get there as quickly as they could.