Chapter Forty-Eight: So Close
Water burbled over the rocks in the stream as Will and Zelos stood on the bank. The stream was narrow, but just wide enough to be impossible to jump.
"So..." Will said, looking at the swiftly flowing water. "How do we get across?"
They'd been hiking through the woods for about an hour, making their way around the mountain to connect with the path. The going was rough, and they constantly had to climb over rocks and push through foliage. They were hot and sweaty and constantly swatting at tiny flies, and they had both acquire a few minor bumps and bruises from stumbling through the woods.
"I suppose we could wade," Zelos said, looking at the water dubiously.
"We could," Will agreed. He knelt on the side of the bank and pulled his glove off, then dipped his hand in the stream. Ack! He quickly pulled his hand out and clenched his fingers. "It's freezing."
"Hm..." Zelos stroked his chin and looked around while Will put his glove back on. "A-ha! I have a plan."
"Oh?"
He walked a few feet away and started dragging over a ancient log. "Help me with this, will you?"
Will, catching on to Zelos' plan, quickly walked across the crunchy leaves on the ground and grabbed the other end of the log. He pushed while Zelos pulled, and they slowly but surely manoeuvred it towards the stream. Will hoped it would work; the log looked very old and partially hollow.
The leaves crackled as they pushed it along, before finally Zelos moved aside so they could stick his end out over the stream. The river banks were about two feet above the surface of the water on both side, and luckily the tree was long enough to not drop into the stream from unbalance before they could get it across.
It came down on the other side, and they pushed it a bit more to make sure it was steady. "Is it good?" Zelos asked.
Will stepped away to get a closer look at it. "I think so. Er... you go first."
"What?" Zelos gave him an offended glare. "I don't think so, bud. Hop on up there and make sure it's safe."
Will gave the log a dubious glance. He was pretty sure it would hold, but he would much rather Zelos tested it first. "Well, I just thought that since you're the Chosen One you deserve to be the first in everything."
"Ha! While that is generally true, I'm smart enough not to fall for this one."
Will sighed heavily. "Very well. I suppose that I shouldn't expect you to be the brave one. After all, you're a delicate city boy."
He started to climb up on the log, and Zelos' hand shot out to grab his arm. "Who are you calling a city boy, bumpkin?"
Will smirked. "You don't have to prove yourself, Zelos. I understand how difficult it is to do dangerous things when you're scared, and considering you've only been adventuring for about a month... I mean, I won't hold it against you if you make someone smaller and younger go first."
Zelos scowled at him, then pushed him aside and hopped up on the log. "Watch and learn, Lloyd."
'Oh, you're good,' Lloyd said.
Will stood back and crossed his arms, a content grin on his face. Zelos stuck his arms out for balance and started to make his way across the log. It creaked and groaned under his weight, but it seemed to hold him. Zelos was heavier than Will, so if it held Zelos, it should hold him as well.
Halfway across, Zelos suddenly stopped and stared at something on the log. Will wondered what was wrong, a concerned look appearing on his face as Zelos knelt down. The Chosen ran his hand over something on the wood, then he looked up. "Hey, Lloyd, would you come here and look at this? I think I found something."
Zelos had a worried look on his face, and Will quickly climbed up after him. What could be on the log? A mark, like maybe a Cruxis emblem or something? Or something even worse? His mind raced with possibilities, each more alarming than the last. He reached Zelos halfway across, and the Chosen stood up and turned around.
"It's here," he said, pointing down.
Will didn't see anything from standing up, so he crouched and eyed the bark closely, looking for whatever it was that had caused Zelos to stop. He ran his fingers across the bark. "What...?"
Then he felt hands on his shoulders, and the next thing he knew, Zelos was pushing him over the side. With a loud splash! he landed hard on his butt in the stream and stared up at Zelos in surprise.
The Chosen just smirked at him and crossed his arms, and slowly Will's outraged expression gave way to a grin. He laughed, and Zelos joined him. The stream was freezing and his legs were going numb, but still. Zelos had gotten him good.
Zelos crossed the rest of the way to the opposite shower, and Will splashed his way to the opposite bank. The water reached his mid-calves, though he was soaking wet from about the waist down.
He clambered back up on the other side, and just stood there for a few seconds, water running down his clothes. "Zelos? You're a jerk."
"You're the one who thought you could fool me," Zelos said, chuckling. "Come on, we need to find the trail."
Will nodded, shivering. Well, at least it was a nice change from the heat of the summer. They started walking again, Zelos taking the lead. "Hey, Zelos?"
"Yeah?"
"How are we going to find the others?"
"Oh, don't worry. I told them to meet us at the crossroads."
"Where?"
"On the way to Meltokio, there's another road that branches out to the old House of Guidance. Sheena knows where it is."
Will kicked a rock and stared down at the ground. "Assuming, of course, that they got away from Yuan."
Zelos was quiet and stared straight ahead. "Yeah. Assuming that."
Zelos ducked under a low hanging branch, and Will followed, his head brushing the leaves. "I'm sure they'll be fine," Zelos said. "Yuan was only interested in you, and I doubt he could take all of them hostage all on his lonesome." Zelos turned and grinned. "I'm sure everything will be fine. There's a spider on your head, by the way."
"What?" He threw his hands up and started swatting wildly at his hair. "Where?" Spider! There was a spider in his hair! It must have crawled in when he went under the branch! Oh god it was a spider!
"Er...you got it already," Zelos said and Will looked up to see him giving him a very scared look.
"...Oh."
Zelos smirked. "So...you're more frightened of a spider than you were of fighting Yuan."
"No," he said hotly, his face turning red.
"Riiiight. You should get your priorities straightened out."
"You know, spider bites can be deadly," Will said as Zelos turned away and started walking again. "Black Widows, Brown Recluses, you know?" He hurried his pace to keep up with Zelos. "You laugh now, but then you'll get bitten and then who's laughing, huh?"
'Will? You're a dork.'
'Oh, don't start that. I get enough of it from Ellie.'
'Zelos has a point, though. You freak out about spiders more than you do actual monsters.'
'I don't know why, ok? Spiders just freak me out.'
"Hey, Lloyd, do you hear something?" Zelos said, looking around.
Will immediately focused, trying to hear anything over the twittering of birds. He thought he might hear something, but it could just be an animal walking through the woods. They were, after all, in a wild forest, albeit one home to dangerous creatures. Tree branches creaked above his head, and he said, "Nothing out of the ordinary..."
Zelos shrugged. "Ok, just checking. I wasn't sure, and I bet you know more about the sounds of nature than I do."
"Uh, not really." His experience with 'nature' was a class field trip to Yosemite and the trees on the playground at elementary school. Well, that and this journey, but it had only been a couple months and he didn't consider himself Crocodile Dundee or anything.
"Eh, probably more than me. I grew up in the biggest city in the world."
"Well, if you hear something, tell me. It's probably nothing important, but just in case-"
Something large, heavy, and fleshy dropped on him from a tree. Will shouted as he felt clammy hands grasping at his face and neck. Legs wrapped around his waist and he heard a groan from a mouth at the back of his head before dull, tombstone teeth tried to clamp down on his shoulder.
"AH! Zombie! Get it off! Get it off!" Ew! It was licking him! He instinctively reached for his swords, but then remembered that he'd left them behind on Fooji Mountain. Will hopped around in circles, grabbing the corpse's arms and trying to dislodge it. It's teeth were flat but strong and it was trying to eat his left shoulder
Zelos ran forward with his sword, but stopped in front of him and said, "Stop moving! I don't want to stab you!"
"Get it off! Ow! Get it off!"
'Calm down! What did I tell you about screaming like a little girl?'
"Lloyd! Stand still and let me stab this thing!"
Will forced himself to stop, squeezing his eyes shut and hating the disgusting feel of dead flesh on his cheek. Zombies were gross and nasty and disgusting and terrible and ugh, get it off. It was chewing him, but incredibly ineffectively as it couldn't get through the fabric of his jacket.
Zelos slid his sword between Will's back and the zombie and jerked outward, cutting the zombie cleanly in two. It dropped to the floor, twitching, and Zelos slammed the blade through its head.
"There," he said, sheathing his weapon. "It's dead. Er, again. Are you ok now?"
"...Yes." He stared at the ground, feeling rather embarrassed about his panic. But zombies were just...yeuch. He was pretty sure his shoulder was bruised, but he felt pathetic enough about the experience to not want to beg Zelos for healing. It wasn't that bad.
"Alright, let's keep going. You're unarmed, so stay close to me in case we run into anything else nasty."
"Got it," Will said, resuming their walk. Zelos kept his sword out now, and both were constantly alert for sounds of monsters.
"So..." Zelos said after a bit, "we've covered zombies and spiders. Do you have any other crippling phobias that might pop up that you want to tell me about?"
"No, I think we're good."
He heard a groan and a rustling of leaves, and they both looked up to see another zombie shambling towards them. There were several more behind it, and Will shivered. They were just so gross. Plus, he didn't have any weapons. That really sucked.
"Don't worry about these guys," Zelos said, grinning. "I'll take care of them."
He did an artful twirl with his sword and charged towards the zombies, leaving Will standing by a tree and feeling very useless. Honestly, he wasn't really concerned about the zombies. They were slow and stupid and had very blunt teeth, but damn were they ever gross. He wasn't afraid of them, he just didn't want them near him.
Zelos dispatched the shambling group with little difficulty, leaving twitching body parts scattered across the forest floor. He twirled his sword again and slid it into the sheath, and gave Will a smile. "See? Cake. Now come on, we'll reach the path soon, and the crossroads only a couple hours after that."
"...and that is why you should always use strawberry jam and not marmalade," Zelos concluded several hours later.
"Huh," Will said. "I never would have thought about it like that."
"That's why you need to hang out with me more often," Zelos said. "I am a fountain of wisdom."
Will was about to respond, when he saw distant silhouettes. One of them stood up, and he instantly recognised the stand-er as being Raine. Yes! They'd made it! "Hey, it's the crossroads!"
"Excellent," Zelos said. "I was getting really bored of regaling you with wisdom from my breakfast."
"Honestly, I was getting bored of listening." It was twilight by now, and they had been walking down the mountain since early that afternoon. Will and Zelos had long since exhausted their supply of conversation topics, and Will had a feeling they wouldn't need to talk again for a week.
"I hope they great us with food," Zelos said. "I'm starving."
They hadn't eaten all day. Raine had been carrying Zelos' wing pack, so they didn't have any supplies on them and neither of them knew the first thing about hunting.
"As long as Raine doesn't cook," Will said. "You know she once tried to put mushrooms on ice cream?"
Zelos wrinkled his nose. "Blech."
They hurried their pace and Will picked up the scent of a campfire. Something was cooking, and his stomach rumbled. When they were halfway there, Genis spotted them. The half-elf jumped up and shouted, and the others stood up to see them. Will waved and grinned, and soon he and Zelos joined them around the fire.
"Lloyd," Raine said, hugging him before he had a chance to sit down. "Are you hurt?"
He shook his head. "No, Zelos used First Aid. I'm fine."
Raine smiled and released him. "I'm glad you're ok, Lloyd."
"What about me?" Zelos whined.
Raine rolled her eyes. "You too, Zelos."
"What happened?" Genis said. "You guys fell off the mountain!"
"Eh, like that hasn't happened before," Will said, taking a seat.
Genis rolled his eyes. "I'm serious, guys."
"Nothing much happened," Zelos said. "We tumbled down the slope, I cast First Aid, then we walked back."
"You didn't encounter anything dangerous?" Raine asked.
Zelos shrugged. "We had a run-in with some zombies, but they weren't much of a nuisance."
"Oh, Lloyd," Regal said. "We picked up your swords."
"Oh, great, thanks." He took them from Raine when she pulled them out of the wing pack.
"Don't lose these again," Raine said warningly. "It's dangerous to be unarmed."
"I know," he said. "I didn't lose them on purpose, you know."
He put the swords back around his waist, and Genis said, "Do you guys want any dinner? I'm almost done cooking."
"I'm starving," Zelos said, leaning forward. "What's cooking?"
"Pasta," Genis said. "But there's no sauce so you'll have to eat it plain."
"Could be worse," Will said with a shrug before finally getting a chance to sit. He leaned back on his hands, resting his tired feet. "So what happened to you guys? Did you have to fight off Yuan?"
"Not really," Sheena said. "After you guys disappeared, he kind of got pissed off and went to deactivate the trap."
Genis piped in, "We think he planned on taking us back to his base as bait."
"But," Sheena continued, "before he could even turn around, Genis blasted him with Eruption and Presea ran up and attacked him and we made a break for it."
Will looked over at Presea in alarm. "You sliced up Yuan?"
She nodded. "The attack was crippling but not life threatening. If he receives First Aid he will recovered fully."
"Wow," Will said, recalling how much difficulty he'd had trying to land a hit on Yuan. "Good work, Presea."
She stared blankly at him for a couple seconds, and Will felt rather uncomfortable under her stare, like she was staring directly into his soul or something. Finally, she said simply, "Thank you."
"The question," Raine said, "is what we are going to do next."
"Obviously we have to get the Rheairds back," Genis said.
"But we don't know where they are," Regal pointed out. "Sheena, could your spy network track them down as well?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I supposed so. It would take time out of the search for Colette, but we could."
"Why bother?" Will asked. "They probably took the Rheairds back to their base. When we came out in Tethe'alla, we were in a snowstorm. Furthermore, while I was in the Triet base Halsey said something about being found by Renegades near a city called Flanoir. It stands to reason that if we search around up near Flanoir we'll find the base."
Regal nodded. "Flanoir island is surrounded by tiny islands constantly cloaked in snow. It's the perfect place to hide something."
"How do we get there?" Genis asked.
"We can take the boat," Zelos said. "'Course, it's going to be disgustingly cold. I think we should all get warmer clothes before heading up to Flanoir."
"We can't exactly walk into any shop in Tethe'alla," Raine pointed out. "We're wanted criminals."
"But it's snowing up there!" Sheena said. "To go up to Flanoir dressed as we are would be madness. We'd all die of hypothermia."
"We are allowed to visit Mizuho," Presea pointed out calmly. "Can we not obtain appropriately warm clothing there?"
"Well...I guess we could," Sheena said, frowning. "We don't have a lot of winter gear on hand, but there are some warmer clothes in case a mission takes us up near Flanoir."
"So it's off to Flanoir?" Zelos said.
"Hey, wait," Will said. "Once we get the Rheairds, we still have to walk out of there, right? Wouldn't it be better to get fuel for them first?"
"F-fuel?" Sheena said, her face growing pale.
"Oh yeah," Genis said. "Didn't Tiga say something about the Summon Spirit before we left?"
"That's right," Raine said. "According to Tiga, in order to get the Rheairds to work, we need Sheena to form a pact with Volt, the Summon Spirit of lightning."
"The Temple of Lightning is on the way to Flanoir," Regal said. "We can stop there on the way."
"We still have to go to Mizuho to get clothes, though," Genis said. He leaned forward over the pot above the fire and stirred it, and Will stared hungrily at the simmering noodles.
"No," Sheena said. "I bet if I can get a message to Mizuho, someone can meet us at the temple so we don't have to go so far out of our way."
"That would be excellent," Raine said. "And we'll get a chance to see the Summon Spirit!" Her eyes gleamed and she clutched her hands in front of her. "Think of how exciting that will be!"
"Y-yeah," Sheena said, staring at the ground.
"Hey, Sheena, what's up?" Zelos said. "Why so sad all of a sudden?"
She quickly looked up. "I'm not sad," she said. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" he pressed. "You look like we just decided to visit a morgue."
"It's nothing," she said firmly.
"Dinner's ready!" Genis said, and pulled plates out of the wing pack. Boy that thing was useful. Spaghetti was passed around, and Will happily gobbled it up as fast as he could. It was dry, but he was starving. He hadn't eaten all day and it as already dusk.
'Well, it is September,' Lloyd said. 'Night's coming earlier.'
'Oh, that's true. Hey, isn't your birthday is September?'
'Yeah! September 19th! Are you getting me a present?'
'Sure, I'll give you anything I can find that will reach you in my head.'
'Oh. Dammit.'
'Heh. Don't worry. I'll get you something when this is all over, ok?'
'Ok! And I'll get you something for yours, too. It was July 11th, right?'
He nodded. 'Yeah. The day we went into the Tower.'
'You know...that doesn't seem like that long ago,' Lloyd said. 'But it's already been a month and a half.'
'A lot has happened.'
'I think you're about half-way, though. Almost, maybe. And then you can go back to Earth and... do whatever people do on Earth.'
'I think I'm just going to sleep.' He stared at his pasta and paused with the fork half way to his mouth. 'You know what? When we go back, it's still going to be Spring Break. I'll have Sunday off and then back to school on Monday. Ah, man, and I'll be sixteen again. Maybe not physically, but legally. That's going to be so weird.'
"Hey," Genis said quietly, walking on his knees to sit next to him. "Are you talking to Lloyd? You've been staring rather intently at your spaghetti."
Will immediately looked up, glancing around to see if anyone else had noticed. Then he turned to Genis and said, "Yeah. Just about...stuff."
"Like?" Genis asked, and Will noticed a hint of jealousy. He couldn't blame the kid, though. He knew how he'd feel if suddenly some other girl had replaced Ellie and he wasn't able to talk to her anymore.
"Birthdays, actually," he said. "Apparently Lloyd's is coming up."
"The 19th," Genis said importantly, as if trying to assert his position as Lloyd's best friend even from a distance.
"You don't have to get me a present," Will said.
Genis shrugged. "I probably should if we don't want the others to get suspicious."
Will just nodded and continued to eat his spaghetti. Sheena, meanwhile, put her plate down and said, "I'm going to go for a little walk."
"Don't wander too far," Raine warned.
"I'll be careful." She turned and walked off across the field, Corrine popping up out of nowhere to appear on her shoulder. Will watched her go, then turned back to finishing his meal.
When they were done, the group rolled out their sleeping bags and stretched out on the grass on the side of the road. The grass here was short like a neatly mowed lawn, and it was actually fairly comfortable. Although, maybe he'd been sleeping on the ground too much lately and his standards had just harshly fallen.
"So while we're just lying around here," Zelos said, staring up at the sky, "does anyone have any good scary stories to tell around the campfire?"
Will glanced at their campfire, which was mostly burned out, leaving only glowing logs. The rest of the group was lying around it, save for Regal, who was given the first watch. Will supposed this meant Raine had finally come to trust Regal, or maybe she was just tired and wanted someone else to split the night watch. As far as Will knew, he was next, and Genis and Presea were still exempt.
"Hey, Lloyd," Genis said, "I bet you have some cool stories."
"Why?"
"Well, you were raised by a dwarf so I bet you have stories we've never heard before."
Ah, ok. Because he came from Earth. "Well, alright." He sat up and sat cross-legged on his blanket. He wasn't really into scary stories, so he didn't know which to tell. Furthermore, most stories he was aware of depended on modern technology, like phone calls coming from inside the house. But everyone was watching him expectantly, so he quickly tried to Sylvarant-ize a classic.
"Ok, so there was this young couple who wanted to go out for the night," he began. "They drove off into the country side in a...uh, wagon. They parked on a hill just outside of, er, Iselia, and were going to start making-out."
"Hey, I like this story," Zelos said with a wink at Raine.
Raine just rolled her eyes and said, "Be quiet, Zelos."
"Before they did, the girl...looked at a newspaper that said an escaped convict was in the area and for people to be careful. It said that he could be recognised by having a hook for a hand and that he was very dangerous. The girl was scared and wanted to go home, but the boy was like Zelos and was incredibly horny so he assured her it would be fine."
"I take offense to that!" Zelos said while the rest of the group snickered.
"They started making-out, and then they heard a weird scraping noise on the outside of the wagon. They ignored it, the boy reassuring the girl that everything was fine and it was probably just a tree branch or something. So they kept going, and they kept hearing the sound again and again. Finally the girl was terrified that the boy reluctantly decided to go home. He drove them back to Iselia, and then when they got out of the wagon. He checked the side of it to see what had been causing the scratching noise. There, attached to the handle of the door, was a hook!"
They stared at him for a few seconds, then Zelos said, "Lloyd, your story sucked."
"Yeah, well, I tried." He shrugged and fell back, his head on his thin pillow. "Someone else can tell a story now."
"Regal, you tell one," Genis said. "You're good at telling scary stories."
Regal looked up from where he was sitting, and put his hands to his chin. "A scary story, hm?" He closed his eyes in thought, and then smiled and reopened them. "I think I know one."
"It better be scarier than Lloyd's story," Zelos said.
"That won't be hard," Genis said.
"Shut up, both of you," Will said.
Regal began his story. "I heard this tale from a merchant in Altamira, who saw all the events with his own eyes. In Meltokio, there is a Coliseum, where criminals are forced to fight for the amusement of crowds. The intent of this is for the criminals to die; a non-direct execution."
"That's awful!" Genis said, disgust on his face.
"It's true, though," Zelos said. "The Coliseum is hugely popular. It brings in lots of money for the government."
"That's unethical!" Genis said.
"Sh," Raine said, turning to him. "Calm down, Genis. There is no way for us to do anything about it, especially not in our current situation."
He sighed and stared at the fire with a grumpy face. "Fine."
"Regal," Raine said, "please continue your story."
"Many years ago," Regal said, jumping back into the pace, "there was a man who was falsely accused of mugging and murdering a wealthy man. The man was sentenced to the Coliseum, but much to everyone's surprise, he ended up being a remarkably good fighter. For years he fought day in and day out, and the managers of the Coliseum were never able to find an opponent for him to finally get rid of him. Some say the power of justice was on his side, and Martel was watching over him because he was innocent."
"Hey, I've heard of that guy!" Zelos said. "My mother told me that she saw him in the Coliseum when she was a little girl."
Regal nodded. "I'm afraid I do not recall his name, however.
"Eventually, the managers of the Coliseum grew tired of it, and sent their best knight into the ring with a poisoned sword. The man fought his best and very nearly won, but at the last minute the knight was able to knick his arm with the poisoned blade, and the innocent man was killed.
"The knight returned to his home that night, but the next day he was found murdered in his room. Meltokio was in an uproar, and rumours started going around that it was the man's ghost exacting revenge. This was called ridiculous, but then the managers of the Coliseum also started turning up dead. With his vengeance on those who directly wronged him out of the way, the ghostly killer began roaming the streets, killing innocents out of jealousy for his own false accusation.
"They called him the Phantom of Meltokio, and to this day he wanders the streets and fields around the city, waiting for an innocent person to wander off alone so he can slice their throats open with his sword, still stained with the blood of the knight who killed him. You only warning that he's coming is a gust of wind and the rush as his phantom sword slices through the air – but by then it's too late."
The group was silent after Regal finished talking, the only sound the gently crackling of the dying fire. Genis spoke first. "I just thought... Sheena's out there...all alone... and it's getting late..."
"Someone should go get her," Zelos said. "I nominate Lloyd."
"What?" Will said, sitting up and giving Zelos a pitiful look. "Why me?"
"Because you're brave. Now go get Sheena."
"Sheena hates me!"
"Well, I'm not walking out there all alone!"
"Make Regal do it!"
Raine cut in, "Regal is the night watch. He can't go wandering off into the fields and leave us alone here."
"But..."
"Aw, Lloydie," Zelos said, leaning over and throwing his arm around his shoulders. "Are you afwaid of the scawy phantom?"
Will rolled his eyes and shoved Zelos' arm off. "No," he answered hotly. He got up and said, "Fine, I'll go get Sheena back because you guys are all a bunch of cowards."
He started to walk off in the direction Sheena had gone, quickly leaving the circle of light from the fire. Soon he wasn't able to hear their voices, either, and he was alone in the field. Alone, save for the whispering of wind as it rushed across the plain. A gust of wind from the phantom? Argh, no, don't be stupid. That was just some stupid story.
He kept walking, taking steps faster as he tried to find Sheena. He was all alone out here; perfect prey for a murderous ghost. And he couldn't even tell himself to be logical and that ghosts didn't exist, because he'd seen ghosts.
'You've also fought ghosts,' Lloyd pointed out. 'You have swords. You can take that Meltokio Phantom if he attacks.'
'Heh. Yes. Of course I can. Not that I'll have to. Because he doesn't exist. Regal was just trying to scare us. And it didn't work. Not at all.'
A breeze swept across him and tickled the back of his neck. Will jumped and jerked his head wildly around, before mentally kicking himself. This was ridiculous. He just hoped he could find Sheena soon. She couldn't have gone too far.
"Sheena?" he called. "Sheena, where are you?"
He walked a bit further, looking around for her. Where was she? She had to be around here somewhere! Unless... unless the phantom got her! Gah, stop thinking idiotic thoughts like that! There was no phantom!
"Lloyd?"
"Ah!" He jumped and spun around, hands reaching for his swords and ready to slash that ghost in two. Instead, Sheena raised an eyebrow and stared at him with her arms crossed.
"What do you want?"
"Yeah!" Corrine said, popping up on her shoulder. "What do you want?"
"Uh, it was getting late and the others were worried about you, so I came to find you."
"I'm fine," she said, turning her head away just after Will caught a glimpse of her red eyes.
"Are you sure?" Will said. "I know you said in Asgard that you don't like lightning. Is this about Volt? Do you want to talk about it?" Will knew how awful he felt for accidently killing people, and he hadn't even killed half a village full of friends and family. It was no wonder Sheena was upset.
"Not from you," she spat. "Why did you really follow me out here, Lloyd? SO you can report my location back to Cruxis?"
Will sighed. "Sheena, I'm not a spy. I'm sorry for anything I've done to make you think I am, and I don't know what I can do to prove to you otherwise."
'You could tell her the truth.'
'In order to justify why I know everything, I'd also have to tell her that I know how the story ends. It's bad enough the Genis knows, and the more people who find out, the more they'll pressure me to tell them what happens next. It's easier if they don't know.'
"Why can't you just explain yourself?" she asked, looking up. "Why did Cruxis let you off? If Yggdrasill didn't have some prior commitment to keeping you alive, why didn't he kill you at the Tower when he had the chance?"
"I don't know," Will said. "And if I did know his reasoning, wouldn't that mean he explained to me and only further prove that I work for him?"
"Well..."
"I'm sorry I can't explain. Honestly, I'd like to know myself. I can't help that things outside my control paint me in a bad light. I'm just as scared and confused as you are."
"Nothing makes sense anymore, Lloyd," she said. "Everything was so much simpler before the Tower."
"Tell me about it," he grumbled. Louder, he said, "How can I convince you that I'm not working for Cruxis?"
Her eyes drifted to the ground and she shook her head while she spoke. "I don't know, Lloyd. I really don't." She glanced up. "I suppose it is possible that everything suspicious about you is the result of coincidences – you are notoriously unlucky."
"If I was reporting to Yggdrasill, wouldn't I have called him down here to kill you all by now? What reason would I keep leading you on? It's not like with Kratos, who was leading us to the Tower."
"You were the only one there when Colette got taken," Sheena pointed out. Corrine on her shoulder bobbed his head affirmatively.
"Yes, but if that was my grand scheme why am I still here?
"I don't know," she admitted. "But Corrine says your mana signature is out of whack."
"There's nothing I can do about that," he said. "Maybe I was just born that way. Maybe it's a birth defect or something. I can't help that I feel weird to him, but I can promise you that I would never betray you guys." He met Sheena's gaze evenly and said, "I swear on... on Colette's life that I would never betray you."
She sighed. "Fine. I guess." She looked off to the side, at the light of the fire. "I'm going to head back. Thanks for coming to find me."
She walked off, leaving Will standing in the field. He didn't know if his words had had any real effect on her, but he did hope she would be ok about going to see Volt. And...oh man, Corrine was going to die, wasn't he? He briefly wondered about trying to prevent that, but quickly disregarded the thought. He'd learned his lesson when it came to changing things.
He shivered as the breeze picked up again, and started after Sheena at a fast pace. "Hey, wait up!" He started jogging. "There might be a phantom out here!"
The room was dark. Rodyle hadn't come in yet today, so Ellie was even more bored than usual. She tried to sleep, but it was really hard to get comfortable in this position so she made do with a couple hours of drifting in and out of sleep.
There was a sound at the door, and she raised her head up from her chest as the lights flashed on. It wasn't Rodyle – just a few Desians. Yay! Food time! Ugh, it was pathetic how much she looked forward to breakfast like a dog. But she only got one meal a day, so she might as well enjoy it. Besides, this time, she had a plan. Ellie had never thought of herself as being particularly good at plans, so she was fairly proud of herself for this one.
The Desians walked over and she hung her head again as they undid that cuffs around her wrists and ankles. Her chin rested on her collarbone, and then she dropped to the floor and stumbled forward a few steps.
A Desian shoved her in the back and she started to walk after the other two. The first couple times they'd handcuffed her, but she supposed they weren't too worried about a threat from an exhausted girl who couldn't even use magic. They walked across the lab at a quick pace, and in the hall outside turned right. They did this every day, so she didn't have to pay much attention to the Desians to go the right way.
"Hey," one of the Desians said. "Are you guys going to the party tonight?"
The Desian in front of Ellie shrugged. "I might if I don't have anything better to do. It at Fran's apartment, right?"
The Desian behind her said, "Yeah. Starts at eight."
"I can't," said the third Desian. "I'm on prison duty until ten."
Blah, blah, stupid Desians. They didn't have much further to go, so it was time to act.
She stumbled and fell to the floor. She fought the instinct to catch her fall and slammed onto the hard ground, whacking her cheek on the floor, her arms useless at her sides. She closed her eyes and did her best to breath as lightly as she could.
"Whoa, hey!" the Desian behind her said. "Get up, worm!"
She didn't move or show any sign that she'd heard him. Then she felt a foot connect hard with her ribcage, and it was very hard to resist the urge to cry out.
"On your feet!" another Desian said.
"Guys, she's not moving."
"I can see that! Someone pick her up so I can beat the insolent brat down again."
"She doesn't look like she's breathing, either."
"What do you think's wrong?"
"Oh shit, do you think she's dead?"
"Dear Martel, Lord Rodyle would feed us to the dragons if she's dead."
"You idiot! You killed the Chosen!"
"I did not! She's not even dead!"
"What do we do?"
"I don't know!"
"Nobody panic!"
It was hard for Ellie to keep a smirk off her face as the Desians went into chaos around her.
"Quick, somebody get a medic!"
"Where?"
"You two go find a doctor. I'll stay here and make sure she doesn't get worse."
"Right!" Then Ellie heard two sets of footsteps running off in different directions.
'Ellie, Ellie! You're ok right?'
'I'm fine, Colette. Calm down.'
She heard the remaining Desian pacing around the hall fitfully, muttering to herself. Ellie laid completely still on the floor, waiting for the opportune moment. Then, when the Desian was walking passed at just the right time, she kicked her foot out at her shins and sent the Desian toppling to the floor.
"What the – hey!" she yelled as Ellie jumped to her feet and kicked the Desian again before she could get up. Ellie may have been weakened and exhausted, but she was still an angel and still really strong.
The Desian fell to the ground and Ellie took off, running as fast as she could. She knew she wouldn't have long before the Desian sounded the alarm, so she had to find a way out of here as fast as possible.
'Good job, Ellie!' Colette cheered. 'What's your plan?'
'That was my plan,' she answered as she sprinted down the hall.
'So, um, what are you going to do next?' Colette asked.
'I don't know! I couldn't think of anything past this part!' She sucked so much at making plans. But hey, Will always had bad luck with his plans, so maybe winging it would work out better.
She almost crashed into a wall as she rounded a corner, praying for a window she could jump out of. That counted as a plan, right? Jump out the first window she saw? She still had wings, so if she hit open air nothing would be able to catch her.
'Go, Ellie, go! I know you can do it!'
She ignored Colette's words of encouragement as the hallway was suddenly filled with an ear-splitting siren. Aw, crap, her escape had been detected. There was no time to lose, so she kept going. There weren't any windows in this hall, so she would have to try one of the doors along the side.
She paused in front of one and yanked the door open, finding herself in an empty office of some sort. There weren't any windows, but there was a door on the other side. The hallway outside would soon be filled with hundreds of Desians hunting her, so she decided to take her chances with the door.
Ignoring the angry rumbling of her stomach, she ran across the room and pried open the next door. Another hallway. Dammit, why did ranches have so many hallways? She ran down this one as well, hearing Desians in the hall she'd left. Her heart was pounding and she was exhausted, but she forced herself to keep going. She gritted her teeth and pounded along, then reached for the next door she came to. Inside, she found herself in yet another office. This one, however, had a window.
"Score!" She raced across the room to the small window. Outside, she saw a short stretch of beach and then the ocean. The only thing standing between her and sweet freedom was this stupid sheet of glass. It looked thick, too, though she supposed it was designed that way so that people couldn't easily break in.
She looked around the room, then ran over and grabbed a wooden chair by the desk. She remembered back in Palmacosta when she broke a window in Kilia's room with her arm, and how much that had hurt. She'd rather not repeat that, so she hefted the chair up and took a swing at the glass. The pane cracked, spider webs stretching out across the window from the impact. She could hear Desians coming, and if she didn't get out of here right now she was going to get caught.
She took another swing, and this time managed to send the chair through the window, making a fist-sized hole. It was still much too small for her to escape through, though, so she swung at the window again. The hole widened, and she could probably have squeezed through if it wasn't surrounded by jagged blades of glass.
'Hurry, hurry, they're coming,' Colette said, sounding frantic.
'I'm trying!' She beat the chair around the edges, slowly widening the hole. She could hear footsteps in the hall, coming closer. She probably only had a few minutes left, if that. Dammit, dammit, dammit, hurry!
The hole was wide enough by now, so she tossed the chair to the side just as the door to the office slammed open. Shit! She needed to pull her wings out to fly out the window, but Desians were running across the room towards her. She forced them out with more effort than usual considering how low she was on energy and TP, and jumped up towards her hole in the window.
She got her feet on the ledge and her head into fresh air when strong hands wrapped around her waist and started to pull her back. "No!" she shouted, kicking out. She smashed the guy in the chest, but there were several more to take his place. "Let me go!"
She struggled and grabbed for the window, but only succeeded in cutting open her arm on the jagged glass. "No, no, no!" They pulled her back into the room and away from the window, roughly pulling her arms behind her back. She gazed longingly at the broken window, pulling half-heartedly at the Desians. There were too many of them and she was too weak. "No..." she said to herself as they dragged her out of the room.
So close...
"I hate boats," Genis said a few days later, resting his chin in his arms as he leaned on the edge of their boat.
"Me too," Sheena said, sitting next to him in an identical position. "We've been doing nothing but boating around Tethe'alla lately. I'm sick of it."
"I think we all hate boats," Will said. He was lying on one of the bench seats in the back, staring up at the darkening sky.
Zelos leaned back in the prow and said, "Hands up who hates boats."
Genis and Sheena lazily raised their arms, and Will stuck his straight up in the air without sitting up. Regal was busy driving and obviously couldn't separate his hands to raise one without taking them both off the wheel, but Will was pretty sure by the way he stared sullenly at the horizon that he shared their sentiments. Raine was sleeping on the floor, having found boats much more tolerable if she wasn't conscious, and Presea just sat solemnly in the passenger seat.
"Hey, Presea," Genis said, looking over. "Do you hate boats, too?"
She stared at him, then said, "I find boats to be tedious as well."
"Are we almost there?" Will asked.
"We are still several days away," Regal answered.
"Great," Will grumbled, forcing himself to sit up and look beyond the edge of the boat. All he saw was water. Water, water, water, stretching out as far as the eye could see. Stupid ocean. He'd been six the first time he saw the ocean in real life, and it has been the most awe-inspiring sight he'd ever seen. Now, he was just sick of the water.
"Guys, we should play a game," Will said.
"What do you want to play?" Genis asked.
Will stared blankly back at him. "I have no idea. Anyone know any word games?"
"There's always word association," Sheena said. "You say one word, and the next person says the first thing to pop in the head after that."
"Worth a shot," Will said. "We'll go around in a circle. Sheena, you start."
"Um, ok. Uh...boat."
It was Will's turn next, and he answered with, "Boring."
Then it went to Regal. "Paperwork."
"Papercuts," Zelos said.
"It's your turn, Presea!" Genis said.
Presea said, "Blood."
"First Aid," Genis said.
And then it was back to Sheena. "Magic."
"Fantasy," Will said.
"Books," Regal said.
Zelos' turn. "School."
"Children," Presea said.
"Playing," Genis said.
Sheena sighed. "This is boring."
"If you're bored, Sheena," Zelos said with that little smile Will had grown to fear, "you can come over here and I can show you a good time."
She rolled her eyes. "Why don't I go over you and smack you instead?"
By now the sun was low in the sky, and Will was thinking of trying to get to sleep soon. Nobody trusted him to drive the boat after his first attempt, so that was left up to Zelos and Regal.
Suddenly, the boat rocked a bit. Will clutched the side as it bobbed back and forth in the water, and Raine woke up with an alarmed look. "What was that?" she asked, looking around in panic.
"Just a wave," Zelos said, looking over his shoulder at the ocean. "Don't worry about it, hunny."
"That was not 'just a wave'," Will said. "Something bumped us."
"Don't say that," Sheena said. "What else could be out here?"
The boat rocked again, this time more noticeably. Zelos jumped up from his lounging position so that he wasn't leaning over the water and everyone's eyes darted round, scanning the water for whatever it was. Raine looked absolutely terrified as she clutched her knees on the floor of the boat.
"Ok, everybody stay calm," Will said, drawing his swords and scanning the waves. "Regal, just keep going. Maybe we'll outrun whatever it is."
"There!" Genis shouted, pointing off the port side of the boat. "I see something!"
Everyone scrambled over to stare at where his finger was pointing, and Will thought he saw a girl's head in the distance. In the dying light, it was hard to make out, but he was certain he saw wet, gleaming blonde hair. "Regal, slow down! There's a person in the water! She probably needs help."
Regal looked over as well and slowly guided the boat towards the person. If there was a shark or something in the water, she could be in terrible danger.
As they got closer, Will was able to pick up the sound of her voice and she was...singing? She was singing in a different language, and something came over Will as he heard it. It was the sweetest, most beautiful song he had ever heard. The girl singing it wasn't facing them, looking off in the direction they'd been going. She didn't even seem to notice them as they approached her, just sang her wondrous song into the waves. Her blonde hair floated in the water around her, the light from the sunset making her bare, wet shoulders gleam. She was beautiful.
"Zelos!" Will glanced over to see Sheena darting between the seats to the front section of the boat to grab Zelos' coat as he started to climb over the edge, his eyes glued on the mysterious girl. Will couldn't blame him – he was almost ready to dive in after her himself. And from the way Genis and Regal were staring at her, Regal abandoning any semblance of controlling the boat, they were sharing similar thoughts.
The girl suddenly turned her head, and Will could tell she was looking directly at him. She waved her arm and gave him a faint smile that said 'come'.
He felt himself moving forward before he really knew what was going on. Raine grabbed his shoulders firmly and said, "Lloyd, what are you doing?"
Get off, Raine! He had to go to the girl! She was calling him!
"Regal, get out of my way!" Sheena said, grabbing the stupefied man's arms and pulling him out of the chair. This was made easier by the fact that Regal was already getting up and moving forward, captivated by the girl in the water.
"What is going on?" he heard Presea ask.
"It's a mermaid," Sheena said, powering up the boat. "Presea, grab Zelos before he goes over the edge." She complied, taking Sheena' spot in the front of the ship and holding firmly to Zelos' arm.
"Wha- Presea, let go!" He tried to pull away, but Presea was much stronger than him.
The boat powered up and Sheena made a hard right to take them back towards the Temple. No! They were leaving the girl! Stop, Sheena!
"Lloyd!" Raine shouted. "Snap out of it!"
Then he felt her palm slap across his face, and his cheek stung. "Ow! Hey!"
He shook his head, clutching the side of his face. What...?
"It's coming," Presea said. "Get ready."
Will braced himself as the mermaid crashed into the boat with all its strength. The boat rocked and Raine's fingers dug into his arm painfully. He staggered to remain on his feet, then noticed a clawed hand clutching the edge of the boat, shortly followed by that beautiful woman's face. She opened her mouth, though, and bared her tiny jagged teeth, glaring at them hungrily.
Will swung his sword at it, and it ducked just in time. "Move," Regal said, hurrying forward and elbowing Will aside. As the mermaid started to reach a clawed hand for Genis, Regal kicked it in the face as heard as he could. The mermaid disappeared, sinking below the waves.
Will sighed in relief. "Is it gone?"
The boat lurched, and Sheena gripped the steering wheel tighter. They heard a muffled scraping noise, and then Genis said, "It's trying to claw a hole in the boat!"
"If we get stranded in the water with that thing, we're toast," Will said, staring at the floor and the scratching sound in horror.
"But how can we fight something that's in the water?" Genis asked.
Will bit his lip and looked around. They didn't have much to work with, and every second that freaky mermaid was getting closer and closer to destroying their boat. Raine was panicking, Sheena was driving as fast as she could in hopes of shaking it off, and the others were franticly trying to think up a plan. They needed to hurt something that was in the water. It wouldn't come out, so they would need to hurt while it was still underwater..
"Sheena, stop," he suddenly said.
"Are you crazy?"
"No, I have a plan but we can't keep moving if it's going to work."
"Lloyd, are you trying to get us eaten by a mermaid?"
"It'd get me too, wouldn't it? Just trust me on this."
"Come on, Sheena," Zelos said. "None of the rest of us have a plan."
She grit her teeth and said, "Fine. This better work."
The boat slowly came to a stop, and the scratching sound got louder. "Now, Genis," Will said, "cast Eruption on the water."
"What?"
"Use Eruption on the water so that it will heat up. The water will get too hot and the mermaid will run away before she boils. Zelos, you cast Fireball."
"Alright," Genis said, and starting casting. Will waited impatiently for them to finish casting, until finally Genis said, "Eruption!"
The fiery explosion erupted on the water while Zelos shot fireballs on the other side, and then the two immediately starting casting again. Will thought he heard a hiss of anger from the mermaid, but it might just have been his imagination.
"Fireball!" Zelos shouted, and once again the water around the boat bubbled with heat.
"Eruption!" Steam rose from the surface of the water, suddenly followed by a splash and a hiss as the mermaid burst to the surface and barred her teeth. This was what Will had been waiting for, and slashed his sword at it, slashing across its chest. Blue blood welled up and the mermaid let out a high-pitched shriek, then abruptly turned and swam away, tail splashing the waves before it sunk too deep.
"Let's go, Sheena," Zelos said, and Sheena needed to more urging to fire up the boat again.
"What was that thing?" Genis asked, staring off the back of the boat as they sped away.
"A mermaid," Regal said. "They occasionally come to shore in the Altamira area, but can be found throughout the ocean. They're very rare."
"And very nasty," Genis said.
Will sat back down on the bench seat and said, "Sheena, why don't you keep driving. That mermaid...siren thing seems to only effect guys, so if it comes back I'd rather have you in control."
"Got it," she said.
"Well," Zelos said. "At least we can't complain about how dull boat rides are."
Ellie stood in Rodyle's office, trying to keep from trembling. She was surrounded by Desians and her hands were handcuffed behind her back, and a very angry Rodyle stood before her. Ellie glared at him and stuck her chin out defiantly even as blood dripped from her arm to the floor.
"I like the office," she said, glancing around at the plush red carpet and potted plants. "Nice interior design. Is it your wife's?"
Rodyle paced forward and said, "You have a very loose mouth for one in your position, Chosen."
Rodyle wouldn't kill. Rodyle needed her. She kept repeating that over and over in her head, because if she let her mind think she was expendable she'd break down in terror right now. But Rodyle needed her for the Mana Cannon, so she was safe. He couldn't let her die; he'd said so himself.
"If I were you, Chosen, I would show respect to my superiors."
"If you were me? Feh! You wish you could pull off these tights."
'Ellie, maybe you should try being nicer. If you made friends with Rodyle-'
'Shut up, Colette.'
'O-ok. Sorry.'
Rodyle growled and the Desian holding her tightened his grip as another one slapped her hard across the face. "Respect Lord Rodyle, inferior maggot! Apologise!"
Ellie raised her head, the side of her face throbbing from the blow. She glared hatefully at Rodyle, who looked at her expectantly. She took a deep breath to try and quell her anger, then said, "I'm sorry. I just have trouble remembering to respect someone who looks like a transvestite dressing up like a diseased turtle."
Rodyle narrowed his eyes at her and reached his hand out to grab her chin, forcing her to look in his eye. "I think we've been giving you too many luxuries, Chosen."
"Yeah, this is a regular five star resort."
Rodyle smirked at her. "I had such plans for you, you know. But I suppose your friends have no way of flying anyway, so that plan won't even work. But by Martel will it ever feel good to slit your throat the minute I don't need you for the Mana Cannon anymore."
Ellie's blood ran cold. No... no, this wasn't supposed to happen! Rodyle was going to kill her. Oh man, he was going to kill her. As soon as he realised her Cruxis Crystal wouldn't work for the Mana Cannon, he was going to kill her! And nobody was coming to rescue her.
"Take this inferior being back to my lab," Rodyle snapped. "We won't be letting you go for meals anymore."
"I can't eat standing up with no hands!" she cried as the Desians started to pull her away. Her voice cracked and she could feel herself losing her cool. But she no longer had the knowledge that she could just ride this out, because now Rodyle was going to kill her straight out, and it was all her fault because she'd been an idiot and couldn't hold her tongue.
"Don't worry about it, Chosen," Rodyle said with a smirk. "I've heard that humans can go about a month without any food whatsoever."
"No!" she was pulled back out into the hallway and back towards the lab.
'We'll think of something,' Colette assured her. 'You got really close with this plan, so I'm sure next time it will work out just fine.'
'There's not going to be a next time, Colette,' she said, feeling tears in her eyes and hating herself for it. She didn't want to cry and be a stupid pathetic girl. But...she also really didn't want to die. 'I can't come up with plans! I suck at it!'
'I'll help you plan something.'
'I don't know what to do, Colette. I'm scared.'
Over a week later, they finally reached the Temple of Lightning. The boat was docked at the old, mouldy pier, bobbing lightly in the waves. When they arrived, Raine had immediately run down the rickety wood to the grass and fell to her knees in relief after a week at sea.
Will followed the others off the boat and up to the mainland. Well, could it be called mainland if they were on a tiny island? It was good enough for Raine, though, despite the fact that they now stood on a small strip of grass no more than twenty feet wide that encircled a dark, foreboding building. It rose from the ground like it was part of the island, like a rocky, grass covered hill. Then it kept going up, and up, straight up into the sky like a lightning rod. The group slowed and gaped up at it, looks of awe on their faces.
"It's huge!" Genis said.
"No bigger than the Tower of Mana," Will said. "And at least we don't have to fight Volt on the rooftop."
"Fascinating," Raine said, completely disregarding her previous flee from the water. "I wonder how it was built? It looks like one slid piece of rock, as if the island was carved away from a giant piece of rock."
"That's impossible," Genis said. "No one could cave something that big."
"Maybe Gnome helped?" Zelos said. "Summon Spirits working together, you know? And then in return, Volt supplied electric lights for the Earth Temple."
Everyone's heads slowly turned to stare at Zelos, and Presea said, "There is a very low probability of the described circumstances occurring."
"Sheena!" They were distracted by the shout of a ninja. She stood up from where she'd been sitting by the entrance, and quickly walked towards them.
"Oh, hi Miyuki," Sheena said, forcing a smile. "You got my message, then?" It had been a simple matter for Sheena to get a hold of Mizuho. They had scouts all over the world, and she knew where all their secret meeting spots were. From there, a message to Mizuho was a simple carrier pigeon away.
The girl nodded. "Yep. You guys can help me load the coats into your boat. We don't have very many, so you may have to fight over the...newer ones."
Fear clenched Will's heart as he considered the possible outcomes of his luck pitted against potentially old and disgusting winter coats. This was serious business, so he rushed forward to a pile of clothing by the entrance. There was an assortment of thick jackets, boots, tukes, and gloves.
Miyuki and the others followed him over, and she said, "You might as well sort out who's taking what now. Here, let me help." She pushed Will out of the way and started pulling out articles of clothing. "Ok, we have two children's snowsuits." She pulled out two full body suits, one dark blue and the hot pink. The pink one had a picture of a white kitten's face staring up with beady little eyes.
Genis stared back into the eyes of the kitten in horror, and quickly said, "I'll take the blue one!"
Miyuki handed over and he clutched it jealously as Presea wordlessly took the hideous pink one. "Ok, and we have a large coat," she said passing it to Regal along with boots, gloves, and a scarf. "Three women's coats, and a medium-sized men's coat."
Raine and Sheena reached for their coats, and Will said, "Wait, we only need two women's."
"Yes, I'm afraid these are the only sizes available."
Will glanced furtively at Zelos. "That men's coat is mine."
"You wish, bumpkin."
They both started to reach for it, but Raine grabbed them both by their collars and yanked them back. "There will not be any fighting over this," she said firmly. "You can work this out like adults."
"I'm not an adult," Will said. "I'm seventeen."
"Close enough," she snapped. She turned to Miyuki, who was currently distributing boots, gloves, and hats. "We'll just take this stuff back to the boat. Lloyd and Zelos can work out who gets which coat while we're inside."
Miyuki, Sheena, and Raine carried the stuff back to the boat, split into seven piles save for the two coats that would be split between Will and Zelos. After they walked away, Will looked to Zelos and said, "You're insane if you think that coat is yours."
"Then clearly insanity is more lucid than I thought it would be."
"You already wear pink. Dressing in clothes actually designed for a woman won't be much of a stretch for you."
"Yes, but why should we deny you the chance to express your innate sexuality?"
"Actually, Zelos, I understand. You're just trying to be a good person. I mean, you already have closets full of women's clothing, right? No need to be greedy?"
"Oh Lloyd, don't be jealous that oodles of women take off their clothing in my bedroom and leave them there."
"I think it's sad that you have to hide all your insecurities behind your sex record."
"I don't-"
"Have you two reached a conclusion yet?" Raine asked when she returned.
"Yes," Will said quickly, turning away from Zelos. "Zelos is cross-dressing."
"What Lloyd means is that he's giving the man's coat to me."
Raine gave them a dry look and crossed her arms. "Ok then. I'll just let you sort it out. I hope you reach a conclusion before we get to Flanoir. I'd rather you not freeze to death because of a childish dispute." She turned to the others and said, "Ok, let's go in. We have an entire Temple to research – er, I mean, get through to reach and form a pact with Volt."
"Yeah, let's go in!" Genis said.
They started to go through the dark mouth of the cave. Sheena was the last to go, and Will heard Miyuki come up next to her. "Hey, Sheena, are you ok?"
He glanced back as she said, "Y-yeah."
"You don't have to do this, you know."
Sheena shook her head. "No. I have to do."
"Alright, well... good luck."
"Thanks."
She followed them into the cave.
As they walked along the entrance, Will sighed with the realisation that this would be another place that made the rational part of his mind cry. They were on a long, purple walkway, with what appeared to be a bottomless pit on either side. Why a bottomless pit? Why? It didn't make any sense. Was it supposed to be dug into the earth? So then why wasn't there magma and where did the trippy purple clouds come from?
"Whoa," Zelos said, twisting his head around as they walked in. "This place is crazy as sure as I'm getting that coat."
"Really?" Will said, looking around, equally awed. "Because I was pretty sure this was crazy, but since you're not getting the coat..."
"Dream on, bumpkin."
"Enjoy your ladies' jacket, pretty boy."
Will heard something crackling in the distance, and was met with the sad realisation that he probably wouldn't be able to get out of here without getting electrocuted. He really, really hated lightning. He'd heard that one man in the world had gotten struck by lightning about seven times and it was considered incredibly unlikely, but after dealing with both Kvar and Yuan Will was pretty sure he beat that record.
Raine seemed happy, though. She was practically bouncing as they walked along, and Will was half afraid she was going to throw herself over the edge of the walkway in the name of science. On the other end of the spectrum, Sheena followed silently at the back, staring at the ground. Her face was pale and her hands were clenched, and Will was dreading Corrine's death.
Will heard another crackle of lightning, and then they reached their first obstacle. They weren't even in the temple proper and already they were faced with the danger of getting zapped. Will could tell he was going to love this place.
Lightning crackled between two poles and blocked the path, then suddenly stopped for a couple seconds, and then reappeared. "We'll have to time this perfectly," Raine said. "Dart through just as the lightning disappears."
"This looks really dangerous," Will said. "I don't know about you guys, but I've been electrocuted enough times to know that if we mess up on this, it will hurt like hell."
"We must get through to form the pact with Volt," Presea said. "This will require some risk."
Will frowned and stared at the lightning, the hair on the back of his neck standing up from all the static in the air. He had to admit that he was really scared. Probably not as scared as Sheena was, but still quite frightened. He kept thinking back to Kvar's ranch, and those were not pleasant memories.
"We all know a form of Guardian Seal, right?" Sheena said, speaking up from the back. "If you use your shield, you can probably just walk through.
The rest of the party stared at her, kicking themselves for not thinking of that. Still, Will wasn't totally willing to go first. It seemed no one else was, either, and they stood awkwardly in front of the electricity. Finally, Regal stepped forward and said, "Bastion." The green shell appeared and he glanced at the others before walking right through the lightning.
The electricity crackled around him, but didn't go through the shield. Regal let Bastion disappear when he arrived on the other side, then turned around with a smile. "It appears to be perfectly safe."
"Good thinking, Sheena," Genis said. "Force Field!"
Will was very glad he could finally use Guardian. He pulled up the shield, held his breath, and walked through. As he passed through the lightning, blue light sparked all around him, and he couldn't hear anything over the roar of the lightning. And then it was suddenly gone, and he was safe on the other side with Regal.
The rest followed suit, and soon the walkway gave way to stairs. The stairs were even freakier than the walkway somehow, and Will was still very confused about how this temple even worked.
"Stairs, stairs, stairs," Zelos said. "Hey, Sheena, how much farther to the top?"
She frowned. "Um, not too much farther. The altar is right up there, but we might have to jump through some hoops to activate it."
"You sound like you've been here before," Raine said.
Sheena bit her lip. "I...I came here once before. When I was little."
Raine glanced over at Sheena's pained face and frowned, then didn't press her further. By that point, they had in fact reached the top of the stairs. A wall spread out across the temple, supported by thick pillars. This didn't make sense. Why –
'Don't,' Lloyd said. 'Stop it. Don't question how it works. It's magic.'
Will sighed and walked through the doorway. They were now in a huge stone atrium, with staircases going up on both the right and the left. The floor rose in the middle, and another doorway was on the other side.
"The altar's this way," Sheena said, guiding them up the stairs on the left. They followed her up the stairs and around towards the altar. When they approached, Will was saddened to see three large blocks sitting on top in red, blue, and gold.
"What are those for?" Genis asked.
"We can't get to Volt until we get rid of them," Sheena explained.
"How?" Genis said.
"Can we not simply blast them?" Presea suggest. "Or push them aside?"
Sheena shook her head. "They're imbued with magic. They can only be move by hitting them with lightning mana in a corresponding colour."
"So how do we get the right lightning?" Raine asked.
"There are these magical pedestal things," Sheena explained. "If you put your hand on it, lightning magic will change colour."
"Sounds like the Sorcerer's Ring," Will said. "Like in the Balacruf Mausoleum."
"There are three blocks," Raine said. "Are there three pedestals?"
Sheena nodded. "They're hidden throughout the temple."
"We'll have to hit all of them," Raine said to herself. "This could take a while..."
Regal spoke up. "Might it not be faster to split into three groups and each take one?"
Raine nodded. "That seems as good a plan as any. Alright, Genis and Zelos, you are the only two with lightning magic, correct?"
They nodded and Genis said, "And you have the Sorcerer's Ring, which we can also use."
"Very well. Lloyd, you take the ring."
She passed it to him and Will hesitantly took it. "Thanks." It felt nice to know that Raine trusted him with it.
"I will accompany Genis," Raine said. "Presea, why don't you come with us?"
"Very well," she said, while Genis' face brightened.
"Sheena," Raine said, "you can go with either Zelos or Lloyd."
Sheena looked between them with an unhappy look, which Zelos returned with a grin and a wink. She sighed. "I'll take Lloyd."
"Alright, we have our groups," Raine said. "Regal, you're with Zelos. We'll each go in a different direction and meet back here when we have the right colours. Is everybody clear on their objectives?" They all nodded, so she said, "Excellent. Let's head out."
As they started walking away, Zelos said, "Hey, Lloyd. Whoever gets back here first gets the coat."
"You're on."
