Part 25 This Sephiroth, That Sephiroth

Lina's head shot up immediately, her face all red. She spluttered as Tear and Natalia had finished dealing with her one wound. She had no idea what the heck had happened. She took one good look at her surroundings, noticing that she was still in Belkend's inn. At that instant, she took out her arms, holding them out. And then her mace appeared.

And that's when everyone panicked.

She weakly passed it to Tear, who took it with care.

"Use ...that. It's a fonon amplifier..." She said, weakly. The whole group, excluding Jade, who had no idea what the heck he did, stared at the staff dumbly, wondering the same thing.

How the heck did she get that from?

And then Luke remembered something. Jade's spear came out the same way. And then Guy remembered something. It was like telepathy. Guy had vaguely seen Lina force the fonons down her spear. Vaguely. He wasn't sure that really happened, but the evidence placed in front of him was conclusive enough to tell him the truth.

Tear didn't know what to say, but used the staff (mace) and used Heal. Surprisingly, it healed all of her wounds in one go. Natalia wondered why Lina didn't give it to her, but then she remembered three major factors.

One, she couldn't use a mace.

Two, Lina probably wouldn't trust her.

Three, Tear was technically her master, being Yulia's descendant.

Lina fell asleep, not knowing what was going on. So Tear left her mace beside her, leaving her at peace. She couldn't see, but there was a slight smile on her face, although it was red, due to the blush of embarrassment she had just suffered. Guy was confused, but decided to leave her alone, along with the rest of the group, Luke the only one left to carry her, and her mace back to her allocated room.

Lina awoke in her tattered and battered clothing. In her bed. It looked like it was about ten in the morning. She was quite surprised that no one woke her up yet. She found her mace placed gently on her table, which she stood up and picked up. The blood in her clothes was still evident, as was the grime in it. She walked to where her backpack was placed, where there were a new lot of everything. Well, apart from the gloves, but her gloves has served as her new mace holder, so she really couldn't do much about them.

"Well, I think we were on our way to the rest of the Sephiroths." She mumbled to herself, as she put on the spare clothing she had.

Once she had changed, she left the room to find herself facing the whole group, who were eating breakfast.

"Well, well. Someone slept in today." Said our favourite sarcastic old man.

"Well, if you were bashed up to the oblivion and back, I'd think you'd sleep in too." She retorted back, glaring at the back of his head.

"And Tear, thanks for healing me." She said, smiling in her direction quickly before glaring at the back of Jade's head again.

"No problems. It's my job, isn't it?" She said, laughing slightly. Lina cocked a brow at her before, yet again, glaring at the back of Jade's head.

"Well, anyways. If we're lowering the Sephiroth, which one is first?" Lina asked, cheerfully. But no one answered. She sighed and placed her hands up in a surrender type of way.

"...Let me guess, this silence has something to do with yesterday?" She asked, her gloomy voice returning.

"Yes, Lina. We want an explanation. And fast." Lina sighed.

"Do I have an explanation? Interrogate the man who did it first, before interrogating the victim." She replied, smoothly without any slip ups, which was something that she had expected from that mouth of hers.

"Well, Jade. Do you have anything to say?"

"I tripped. So, I'm going to say whatever happened was an accident." He replied back, as he sipped his coffee, 'cause all old people drink coffee.

"Well, you can't really blame me all that much. I had no idea what was going on. I just ended up calming down." She said. Guy nodded.

"Well, that was what kind of happened." Tear said, smiling at Lina sadly.

"He did trip on my staff. I just don't know how he landed like that."

"Well, we'll find out eventually. But for now, where are we going first?"

"The first one we're going to is..." Natalia started but never finished because she had too forgotten the location of the next Sephiroth they were going to.

"Meggiora Highlands." Was all Tear said.

They were walking down the windy path. The windy path to their certain boredom. It was quite warm, and humid, two things that you didn't want combined. Lina sighed for the twelfth hundred billionth time that afternoon. Yes, she was quite used to the weather, by far, but she just wasn't in a good mood. She wasn't in much of a good mood since the morning. If not for the presence of a certain someone, she would be the normal, jumpy and somewhat intelligent person she normally is. And then she found herself facing the sealed door.

"So this is it?" She said, pointing at the familiar looking door. Ion and Sync nodded.

"Yes, this is it. Thank you for your patience, Duchess." Ion said. Lina stood there, looking at him with a cocked brow, confused. Anise snickered, but Jade made the comment that annoyed her too far.

"Yes, Lina, your patience is quite loved around here." She stood there, took a deep breath, and then...

THREATENED HIM!

"Would you like me to spill all of your secrets to everyone here? I'm pretty sure they'll pay for good money. And Peony would love to see the reaction of everyone here." She growled, through gritted teeth. Everyone around her flinched, as they could feel the anger flowing out of her body. And the coldness in her words. And how much venom was in it.

"Of course, I wouldn't mind." He replied back, laughing. That was the total last straw for Lina.

"Blessed Drops." She muttered, drenching him. She turned around, her usual bubbly green eyes now slitted, looking like a snake.

"Next will be Starlight Explosion. You guys can deal with this. I'll be waiting in Tataroo Valley's Sephiroth. I can't handle the pressure you guys are exerting anymore." And she was gone. Just like that.

And all Jade did was dry himself before telling Sync to open the door.

In fact, Lina never went to Tataroo Valley. She ended up going to Keterburg. She never liked the place, so she never knew why she was there. But that place did have her best memories. The memories of her childhood. The memories of her brother. The memories of her friends. The memories of herself. It was the place where she wanted to be by herself. And the best place was her old house.

And that's where she went.

Her belongings were still in that house of hers. It wasn't empty. All of her toys, clothes, all of her pictures. She laughed to herself as she sat down on the seat, before breaking down.

"So, we're done here, where are we to go next?" Luke asked, as he helped Tear out of the place. She was quite out of breath as the miasma entered her body, like the theory had said.

"To Tataroo Valley, of course! Lina's waiting there!" Anise exclaimed. Jade laughed.

"She's not in Tataroo Valley." He said. The group looked at him with curiosity.

"Why wouldn't she be there?" Guy asked. Jade laughed again.

"She's tricking you. It's the last place she'll be. The first would be Grand Chokmah, the second would be Keterburg, the next would be Baticul, the next would be Chesedonia, and then, well, you get the picture. The last place she'll be is Tataroo Valley." Jade explained quickly, as he sighed. He already knew he had annoyed and pissed her off too far. Guy nodded.

"Well, that certainly sounds like her. But where would she be...?" He asked no one in particular. Strangely, someone other than Jade answered that.

"She's probably in Keterburg." And they all turned to Sync. They were all confused on how he knew.

"Gale, exactly how do you know?" Luke asked. He nodded and smiled.

"Easy. She told me. If I'm emotional, I'd go to Keterburg, if I'm happy, I'd go to Grand Chokmah, if I felt proud, I'd go to Baticul and if I felt worried, I'd go to Chesedonia." He said, quoting her. The rest of the group nodded in understanding.

"I see. I wonder why she told S-Gale though." Natalia said, thinking, as they walked back to the Albiore. Half the people in the group still weren't used to saying 'Gale', usually saying 'Sync' and then correct themselves, or stop halfway through their sentence.

Lina was still in Keterburg. Her mind went all hazy. It wasn't very lady like for her, but she really didn't give at the time. That was one thing she couldn't handle. Pressure. She used to, but ever since that dreadful day, she could never handle it again. It sent her into an emotional wave. But she did overcome it. Somehow, by overriding her feelings with work. Mathematical equations, that stuff.

"So, if two things have the same fono-" She was at the end of her theory when she heard a familiar sound. Well, squeaky voice that sounded more like a sound, well, you'll get it.

"Master, Master! She's here!" The squeaky voice that sounds more like a girl spoke. She took bunches of paper she was writing on that she had and placed them on the desk before playing dead.

"Lina?" She heard. The voice was quite familiar. But she couldn't point a finger on it since she was drifting.

"Lina?" Drifting.

"Li..na?" Drifting.

"L...i..na?" Drifting.

Drifting off to sleep.

The group found Lina lying on the floor, asleep. That wasn't how they thought she'd be, but docile was better than savage. As Luke helped Guy help her off the floor, Jade was interested in the pile of papers on the coffee desk. They didn't look battered. Actually, they didn't even look old. And there wasn't dust on it.

So it told him three things.

Lina had something to do with them.

Lina wrote on them.

Lina tried to cover it.

He sighed and took the pile of papers, which were about ten or twenty sheets of paper loosely in a pile, and held onto them, etching a note to self in his brain.

And the next place they ended up going to was Tataroo Valley, ironically.

They managed to get to Tataroo Valley still in the afternoon. One person had to stay behind, due to Lina's uhhh.... sleep needs. And of course, that person wasn't going to be Jade. One, Jade had to be there, and two, if he was to stay, Lina would blast him to the oblivion and back, most certainly. And then there's Luke. He couldn't stay behind either, because he was the main guy, and whatever, well you get the picture. And then Tear. They would've love to have Tear stay behind and rest, but she couldn't. One, she wouldn't and two, she couldn't.

So out of the whole group, the only people that couldn't stay behind were Luke, Tear and Jade. And there were most likely going to do this all over again, for Shurrey Hill and the Zao Ruins.

So, out of Anise, Guy, Natalia, Ion and Sync (aka Gale, they had to choose one person to stay behind with Noelle. If Ion was to stay behind, another person had to. And he wasn't particularly feeling too well, so he decided to stay behind. Out of everyone, Natalia would've been in a bad situation if she stayed behind, so after a fifteen minute debate, it was chosen that Anise was to stay behind.

Once everyone left, Anise started to talk to Ion about a few random things. You know, just stuff on the Order of Lorelei, and an explanation on Jade's plans of lowering the Outer Lands as, well as Lina pointed out, a lid on the miasma.

And then the zombie awoke saying 'I want brains!' ...actually, no. Lina had awoken, finding herself in a seat aboard the Albiore. Not the place she fell asleep in.

"Huh? What's going on...?" She grumbled as she forced her eyes to open. Beside her was Anise, who was playing with the small Tokunaga, while Ion was asleep. Noelle wasn't on board, presumably doing maintenance.

"Anise?" She asked. The girl herself jumped a bit at her question.

"Oh, Lina. You're awake." Anise said, cheerfully. She nodded, giving her the look of 'please explain where we are'

"We're in Tataroo Valley." She said, as she heard the door to the Albiore open. The two turned around and face Noelle, who was about to shout something, but when she saw the sleeping face of Ion, closed her mouth.

"They're back." She whispered. Lina nodded and walked towards her. She wasn't really walking towards her though. She was walking towards the door.

In a period of two days, they had been to Shurrey Hill and Zao Ruins, including the Meggiora Highlands and Tataroo Valley. They were currently all in Keterburg. Due to a snowstorm, they couldn't leave, so they stayed the night.

"I'm soo sorry. I can't fly in this snowstorm, and I also need to do maintenance to see if the Albiore is right to go after." Noelle said apologetically. Lina smiled.

"It's fine. I mean, if we can't get there, chances are Van can't either." She said, making something up in her head. Tear was quiet. So was Luke. Those two quiet was quite unusual. Though they couldn't do much about it. So Lina asked a question go get their attention.

"So, what are you guys going to do after we're done?" And since I'm evil, I'm gonna make you guess.

"I'm going back to Baticul."

"Me? I don't know. I'll probably go back with you."

"Where else am I going? Daath of course!"

"Same here."

"Due to my job, I'm going back to Grand Chokmah."

"I'm going to go to see Grandfather in Yulia City."

"Where else? I have a job to do, you know, in Baticul."

"I don't know."

At the last response, Lina laughed.

"Oh, for that one, you're coming back with me. Normally, Daath would be safe, but due to Ion already there, you won't be going back with him. Though I could help you see him, so you two can keep in touch."

Sync nodded, and so did Ion.

Tomorrow was the battle.

Against Van.

Well, not really. They were going to go to Mt. Roneal. They just couldn't, because of the snowstorm. But close enough.

Me: Yay! We're halfway! Well, not really. I meant near the end of this part. But, never fear, the next part will be extravagantly long!

Replica Me: And we both agree that she's slow~!

Me: HEY! Who the hell created a replica of me?

Jade: Not me.

Me: Who else could it be?

Jade: Van?

Me: Well, he's with the Vesperia crew, complaining to Raven about his costume.

Jade: Uh... Spinoza?

Me: He died.

(poof) Yuri: She doesn't own anything. And because Raven said the one for the Vesperia disclaimer, this is why I'm here.

(poof) Estelle: Please, review.

Me: Hey! You two, go back!

Yuri: No.

Estelle: They're fighting in there. We don't want to get hurt.

Jade: That means that the...

Me: Oh hell, they're coming. Bye.