SFF: Teachers are laying off homework! I have time to update! And plenty of it!
DF: Don't you think you should come up with a disclaimer?
SFF: Disclaimer? Um, sure, okay! I own a goldfish, and nothing more!
Amy: I like it!
Jen: You own me and Shuya, idiot! As well as Amy.
Amy: Me and Shuya? Why didn't you say me and Amy? Hmmm? -grins deviously-
Jen: -blushes- SHUT UP!
SFF: Hehehehe! Cute. I own 3 teens and a goldfish. That is all. Happy now?
Jen: Yes.
DF: Now you begin!
SFF: Right, Amy!
Amy: Chapter 26: Wonders/horrors at Lake Umacy! The truth about Jen
Everyone arrived at Lake Umacy Raine ran around to see what 'wonders' she could find, thought Genis was bracing himself for the 'horrors'. Raine suddenly stopped running around and looked disappointed.
"There's nothing here! No ruins! No artefacts! Nothing!" she huffed, in a very bad mood. Presea and Sheena both took a look around, wondering why Jen mentioned this place. Seles looked into the lake and she really liked the area.
"This place is so pretty! I've never seen anything like it! Though that's probably because I've spent most of my life locked up in a prison..." she sighed. Zelos gave her a pitiful look.
"Really?" Genis asked, taking a sudden interest in her. Seles nodded back, but their little moment was short lived since Colette noticed something on the lake bed.
"What's is that? It looks like an animal..." she pointed at it. Then Raine's eyes lit up with joy.
"A UNICORN!!!" she screamed. Shuya and Sheena both looked surprised.
"Those things still exist on this side?" Shuya asked.
"It looks like it," Sheena replied.
"This side? Don't you have them in Tethe'alla?" Anna asked.
"There haven't been any spotted for years. If they are, they're always captured for their horns, as well as research purposes," Zelos replied.
"Can't we help it?" Colette asked, feeling sorry for it.
"We could try swimming to it?" Lloyd asked, not knowing much about oxygen.
"You won't be able to hold your breath long enough to reach it," Regal told him, which deflated Lloyd's balloon.
"So what can we do?"
"Undine," Presea stated, which made Sheena jump.
"That's right! Undine is the Summon Spirit of Water. If Sheena formed a pact with Undine, we could probably reach it," Shuya said. Sheena looked slightly nervous, but decided to try and be brave this time.
"YES!!! LET US TRY IT!!!" Raine exclaimed.
"Wait, where is Undine?" Sheena asked.
"Good point..." Presea whispered.
"We could try asking in the Palmacosta region. Undine would be at the seal of water!" Colette said, probably knowing that because she was the Chosen.
"Right then! Let's do that!!" Raine said, and dragged everyone along behind her.
In Tethe'alla...
Kratos went to Ozette to try and find some Sacred Wood, though he was told that their lumberjack, Presea Combatir, wasn't around, so they weren't sure when he'd be able to get some. But there was something else on Kratos' mind. There was someone he decided to go and visit. And lived close by to Ozette. He found the house and knocked on the door. A girl opened the door, and immediately called for her master.
"L-Lord Kratos?!" the small man gasped.
"Nice to see you too Altessa."
"Tabatha! Show him in!"
"YES MASTER." Kratos entered, while Altessa was hoping Kratos wasn't there to make him take part in any new experiments after what had happened last time.
"I've left Cruxis, and I have no intention of going back," Altessa said, wasting no time.
"I'm not here to force you back. I need information."
"About what?"
"My sister." Altessa paused, wondering what would come out of Kratos' mouth.
"Go on."
"You worked closely with Cruxis. Surely you've heard something about her being an angel." Altessa didn't reply. Since he had lived quite some time since Cruxis were in need of his dwarven skills, he knew exactly what had happened to Jen.
"Altessa!" Kratos demanded a response.
"Your sister was a test sample. Lord Yuan carried out the experiment." Kratos suddenly remembered Jen's words just before they parted. 'Choose your friends carefully.'
"Test for what? You must have helped."
"Yes, we used another girl to grow the Cruxis Crystal. When the crystal was ours, Lord Yuan blackmailed Jen into participating in the experiment. Jen agreed, and she became an angel."
"What was this experiment?" Altessa took a deep breath, knowing that if he told Kratos about the experiment, and someone found out, he would probably be killed.
"You must promise me I will be safe. I won't tell you if it means my death."
"I can't guarantee anything. If you want protection from someone from Cruxis, you'll have to be on their side, which you are not." Altessa thought about what Kratos had just said, And knew that Yuan had cruelly manipulated Jen into taking part in the experiment. He thought that the least he could do was tell Kratos why his sister agreed.
"This is the whole story. Jen was captured by Lord Yuan and his men. I was there too, and the young girl who had been used to create the Cruxis Crystal was dead. Jen refused to take part in the experiment because of the meaningless death of this child. But Yuan knew that you were the closest family Jen had and you were all she had left. He said that the experiment was to ensure your safety, and that if she didn't do it, you could die."
"When did this happen?" Kratos interrupted, beginning to make a connection about an experiment carried out before he became an angel.
"The time before you ingested Aionis. Lord Yggdrasil worried that you would be killed. He was unsure if you would live." Kratos was able to figure out the rest.
"But if the experiment didn't work, Jen would have died. Did she know that?"
"Your sister didn't say anything about her feelings. Lord Yuan told her that if she took part in the experiment, you wouldn't have to die. I don't know what she knew or didn't know. You'll have to ask her yourself. All I know is that she ingested Aionis, it worked on her, she recovered from the toxicosis, and the exact same thing happened to you." Kratos sighed, wondering what Jen was thinking.
"If she ever needs your help, you'll her help with no question. Understand?" Altessa nodded, and Kratos began to leave.
"By the way, Presea has been cured." Kratos left a stunned Altessa to continue with his work.
Back in Sylvarant...
The gang arrived in Palmacosta. They had fly over Hakonesia Peak by squeezing on to the rheiards. Palmacosta disappointed the Tethe'allans since they were expecting more from Sylvarant's biggest city. Anyway, moving on.
"We should ask around, shouldn't we?"
"Perhaps the person involved in the politics in this city would know what's going on," Raine suggested. Colette and Lloyd ran off together, and ran into a familiar face.
"Hi there," the girl grinned. At first neither of them recognised her, but after everyone else caught up with them, Zelos immediately recognised her.
"OH MY GOD! JEN?! IS THAT REALLY YOU?!" Jen hadn't bothered changing back to her 12 year old form. She was happier actually looking like a 15 year old.
"Yep."
"You look sexy- AHHH!" Jen kicked him in the stomach to shut him up, while Lloyd had questions for her. Nothing new there...
"Why are you so much bigger than before?!"
"There's not much point in asking me something like that. It's the same as asking me why I can raise the dead." That kept Lloyd quiet, but they were still wondering why she was an angel.
"And the angel business?" Sheena asked. Jen smiled.
"Allies and enemies," she simply said. She didn't want to tell them anything.
"What?"
"When the time comes, you'll know." They all knew she didn't like talking about herself, so there was no point in interrogating her any further.
"If you're looking for Undine, she's at Thoda Dock. Though it'd be better if you spoke to Dorr first," Jen said.
"You have a surprising breadth of knowledge about everything. You knew the about the Unicorn at Lake Umacy, didn't you?" Raine asked.
"Yeah. You're the healing artist. I figured you could use the Unicorn Horn." Raine froze, remembering that the Unicorn Horn could grant additional healing powers.
"Why didn't you say that in the first place?! And who the hell is Dorr?!" Lloyd asked.
"Dorr is the Governor General of this place. By the way, this wing pack has more rheiards. Travelling will get quicker, Lloyd Irving." She directed that statement at Lloyd despite the fact she hadn't seen the full extent of his laziness.
"How did you know he was lazy?" Genis asked, thinking it was funny. Jen knew Lloyd was just like his father when he was Lloyd's age.
"A little birdie told me," she smirked. Genis smiled back.
"Well then, let's go and see Dorr!" Colette said, about to leave.
"Have fun!" Jen said, walking away. Anna and Shuya were quick to stop her.
"W-wait! Where are you going?" Anna asked, since she wanted Jen to help her meet Kratos.
"And why were you here?" Shuya asked her.
"I'm going to take care of something. I do have a life outside the Chosen of Tethe'alla. I've just finished taking care of some business here. Anyway, I'll see you again soon. I can promise you that." Alicia was on the tip of Presea's tongue, but Jen was already gone.
"Wow, she runs really fast..." Seles babbled. Then a group of soldiers ran past in the direction Jen ran off to.
"YOU!" one of them yelled. Lloyd turned around to face him.
"That girl that you were talking to! Where did she go?"
"I don't know... She didn't say," Lloyd blinked, wondering what was going on.
"What did she do?" Raine asked, assuming Jen had done something wrong, which she was right to do.
"She stole the Book of Regeneration!" Colette gasped, wondering what Jen could possibly want with it.
"How?" Colette asked.
"She tricked Governor General Dorr into handing it over! The damn girl is a thief and must be punished! GET AFTER HER YOU MORONS!" he screamed at the soldiers. Lloyd sighed wondering what Jen was up to. The screaming soldier finally left, leaving the confused group to move on and speak to Dorr.
Jen was...
Taking off on a rheiard.
"Hehehe!!!" she snickered and flew off the an empty area, where she looked at the book.
"Triet ruins... Thoda Dock... Balacruf Mausoleum... Tower of Mana... The rest is unreadable... Oh well! This is good enough! It sounds about right anyway... Hey Grandpa!" Jen's crystal once again appeared in the form of a hologram.
"Good work! I told you it worked every time!" Justin said, referring to Jen tricking Dorr into handing the book over. We'll talk about that later.
"What do you want with this piece of rubbish anyway? I could have told you where the Summon Spirits were!" Jen huffed, slightly annoyed since she thought her time had been wasted.
"I want to know about angels. You've suddenly interested me since you were fighting against that wind monster in Asgard."
"Oh? So I'm a test subject again? Great!" she growled, but didn't say anything more. She had been involved with the project involving her drinking power, the Angelus Project and a project her Grandfather involved her in. Now she was subject of angels again. What an interesting child! Well, moving on.
"Now then, tell me what you find."
"This stuff will be a load of crap cooked up by Cruxis! None of it will be true!" Jen protested.
"Well, let's see what crap we can find," Justin replied, and Jen opened to book to take a look.
Back in Palmacosta...
"Professor, what is the Book of Regeneration?" Lloyd asked after the soldiers murmured something about the 'little brat' escaping.
"It's a book that guides the Chosen of Sylvarant's Journey of Regeneration. Though what Jen wants with it confuses me..."
"We'd better go and see Dorr," Genis said, and off they went.
They arrived at the centre of town and saw a small boy talking to a man and a girl.
"Governor General! Daddy is still at the Human Ranch and he hasn't come back yet! And I've been a good boy!" he whimpered. Dorr had a poker face. He didn't feel sorry for the kid at all.
"Don't worry. I promised didn't I? Everyone who was taken to the ranch will be saved!"
"But I'm lonely!"
"Just wait a little while longer!" the small girl next to him smiled. That gave the boy slightly more confident.
"Okay! I'll keep waiting!"
"Good boy! Let's go Kilia." The 2 left and the boy ran off.
"That must be Dorr. C'mon!" Genis ran off into the building with everyone else following.
Kratos again...
Kratos made his way back to Sylvarant and wondered what to make of everything Altessa had told him.
"Why did she do it?" he thought to himself, and felt the need to see her. He'd heard the commotion in Palmacosta despite being miles away, which was only due to his angel senses. He then heard something weird.
"I told you they were lies!" Jen's voice.
"I suppose so... Oh well, do what you want with the book!" Another voice, which Kratos didn't recognise. In any case, he headed in the direction where he heard Jen's voice.
"Stupid book! I'd rather burn it! But I don't think that would be allowed!" Justin had already gone back into the crystal, so Jen was trying to decide what she wanted to do with the book.
"Hey short stuff!" a voice from behind came. Jen spun around and saw her brother towering over her?
"And what do you want?" she asked, glaring for no particular reason.
"Causing trouble again?" Jen smirked at that remark, actually PROUD of what she had done.
"I don't care..." she mumbled.
"Why didn't you ever tell me that Yuan turned you into an angel?" he asked. Jen flinched, wondering how he knew.
"What the hell are you talking about?" When Kratos first saw her after Yuan captured her ALL those years ago, Jen told him a wondrous story!
"You told me Yuan wanted to kill you because of the time you drowned his goldfish."
"It's true! I'll tell it to you again-!" Jen was about to babble some crap until Kratos grabbed her and slammed her against a tree.
"Stop lying! And how can you drown a goldfish?!" he said, very sharp with her. Jen sighed and looked to one side.
"You had better things to do than to bother with me..." she said. Kratos released her and looked at her. She was serious.
"If I bothered to blast my way into that base to come and get you, then I would have bothered to take care of you. I didn't believe your 'I drowned his goldfish' story because at the time, I didn't care, as long as you were safe. Whether you like it or not, you're part of my life." Jen didn't reply, possibly because she knew she would be answering more questions any second.
"What were you thinking when you agreed to that experiment?" See what I mean?
"What was I thinking? Erm... I drowned a goldfish?..." Kratos gave her a 'dumb ass' look. Jen huffed, and still didn't answer.
"Did you know you could have died?"
"Yeah."
"I need to know what that experiment was for. I didn't quite catch that." Jen rolled her eyes, but came up with an answer.
"They needed to test that it was safe for you to ingest Aionis. So I tested it for you."
"Why? If you could have died-"
"I'd already lost one brother. I was about to lose another..." she interrupted. Kratos' heart skipped a beat at his little sister's response. She was more compassionate than he thought.
"Well how do you think I would have felt if you'd died? My little brother followed by my sister? We would have been in the same boat if either one of us died. I know it hurt you a lot to lose Jack, but you managed to pull through." Jen was silent, knowing her brother was right.
"Hmph..." she muttered, thinking about something else on her mind.
"Hey! You wouldn't let Anna near you when you first met! How comes?" Kratos paused, wondering how Jen knew that.
"Okay, you have to tell me how you know everything. It's like you're psychic!" Jen smiled, not really wanting to tell him, but there was an easy answer.
"Funky magic!" she grinned. Kratos glared and answered her question.
"Why do you think? Origin's seal + Cruxis + running away + girlfriend trouble."
"But you didn't care in the end?"
"No, not after I remembered what you said."
"Me? What did I say? Don't you know better than to take my advice?" Kratos poked her ribs grinning.
"You said that if you found someone who loves you and you love them back, then it's stupid to let go of them. Even if there's trouble around, you'll still be happy because you love each other." Jen's face looked blank, as she tried to pinpoint when she said that, but she couldn't.
"I said THAT?! Was I on drugs or something?"
"You were probably on morphine. I think you'd been sick. Or something... Anyway, I took that advice. I think you should take that advice too." Jen then looked shifty.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, saying all those words in the same second.
"Shuya."
"I don't like him!" she blushed, trying desperately to hide the truth.
"You love to hate, don't you? You're nothing but trouble, but I'd don't think he cares about that. He just wants to know you." Jen sighed, wondering what to make of that.
"And try talking to people more, instead of being anti-social all the time."
"Like you can talk!" she grinned. Kratos smiled back.
"You and your son are alike."
"How?"
"You love asking my questions! I could swear you were the same person! God..." Kratos grinned, feeling pretty good about what Jen had just said.
"If you want to see Anna... then you'll have to come to Palmacosta tonight. I'm gonna head back there now." Kratos nodded.
"See you later!" Jen ran off, feeling weird inside, since she hadn't had a heat-to-heart with anyone before. Or maybe she had, she just didn't remember.
Back to Palmacosta...
"She told you... that if you didn't give her the book, she'd DROWN your GOLDFISH?!" Raine screamed, throttling Dorr. Yes, that's what Jen said to get the book.
"I love my goldfish! If I didn't have my wife, I'd have married it!" Dorr said, sounding like a dork. Kilia, Dorr's daughter looked like she wanted to be disowned.
"Father..." she whispered, feeling embarrassed.
"What a fool..." Raine sighed, not able to say much more.
"Let's go shopping!" Colette chirped.
"You sound like the white chicks..." Anna mumbled, referring to the movie.
"What?" Colette blinked.
"Nothing... Anyway, I agree! We should do a bit!" Sheena and Presea also agreed.
"A girl thing..." Regal muttered to himself.
"Dorr, get over your goldfish and discover women!" Zelos said, and off they all went.
"Don't listen to him Angelina! I love you!" Dorr said, hugging the fish bowl. The fish just blew some bubbles. What a loser...
SFF: Dorr was insane because I don't like him!
DF: Does anyone?
SFF: True...
Amy: Jen is the loving baby sister who likes Shuya!
Jen: Shut up! What is it with you making me drown goldfish? GOLDFISH DON'T DROWN YOU DITZ!!!
SFF: Hehehehe!!!
Amy: Psycho!
SFF: NEXT VOTE: Colette the traitor – what do you think? Oh yes, and if you know about Amy (from my other fic) do you think she should make an appearance?
DF: Definitely NOT!
Amy: Please let me appear! See y'all soon!