Rena's eyes widened and she instinctively grabbed onto him. "No.. you're kidding, right Dias? ..that's not funny.." she sniffled, hiding her face in his clothes. Dias let her cry for a moment, then pushed her away.
"If you want to do that, go do it on your lover." he gestured toward Ashton, who turned beet red and shook his head furiously.
"I-I'm not--" he began, but Rena cut him off.
"Where is she!? Show me where she is!"
Dias pointed behind himself, shrugging. "Go see for yourself." he watched her silently as she ran off, then turned to Ashton.
Ashton was starting toward Rena, slowly, to give her time. Dias sighed and followed, eying the three bodies of the figures he had disposed of earlier, and wondering if he should bother to hide them so Rena wouldn't see.
When the two got there, Rena was next to her mother, squatting down and listening for a heartbeat. She raised both hands to try to heal Westa, but stopped when one of Westa's hands lifted and touched hers. The young mother suddenly got up, startling both Rena and Ashton further. The latter hid a little behind Dias, saying something about Westa being a ghost risen from the dead. Westa smiled slowly, between coughs.
"Rena..." she whispered, her eyes moving back and forth, "Dias, Ashton, you two have grown since I last saw you. You've both become rather handsome haven't you... not that you weren't before of course."
Ashton stepped forward. "You shouldn't speak if you're sick. Are you hurt?"
"Did they do anything to you?" Rena added in.
"My time is soon to come," Westa replied, "I'm happy you came for me though. Rena-- I have some things to tell you."
Dias took the hint and nodded, turning to leave. "You too," he hissed to Ashton, who sheepishly followed.
They came to a clearing when Dias spoke. "I have things to tell you as well."
"You? To me?" Ashton wondered aloud.
"...you weren't able to help the people of Arlia. You even allowed Westa to be kidnapped. Didn't you live with her?"
"You didn't hear? Westa was in the mayor's house--" Ashton sighed, "I... know I let my guard down. I left Arlia myself for two years, in order to be rid of my curse... and returned two days ago."
"Ah, no wonder you seemed to be missing something... (and you even left Rena alone... if only I had known...)" Dias muttered, "No matter. What is important is that you managed to save Rena. If you hadn't, you would have lost your life about now."
Ashton stepped back a little. ::Better not make this guy mad...::
"I have a favor to ask of you."
"A favor...?"
"...Rena. I want you to protect Rena."
"Me? Why not do it yourself? ...you know you're much stronger than me..."
"I can't... I can't stay near her or I'll cause her trouble. She worries... too much about me. My life revolves around battle. She would be an easy target for anyone against me." Dias turned away, but not before Ashton caught the look of pain on his face. "Rena... I cannot protect. I wish to, but I cannot."
"You...love Rena, don't you?"
"As a younger sister yes. I... don't want to lose another... she is too young for me to be anything else."
"Dias..." Ashton stepped forward, shaking his head, "Age doesn't matter if you truly care for her! (Erm, at least, that's what I think...)"
Dias stood silently for a while. "You're a bit too naive if you think that way. But anyway...if you think to hurt her in any way, you'll be answering to me."
Ashton slowly nodded, his expression serious, "I think I can take up that favor... because I don't want Rena hurt either."
"...heh," Dias smirked, glancing sidelong toward the other man, "You've fallen for her too, haven't you?"
"I... well... um, I... you see... I..."
"Nothing to be ashamed of... as long as you treat her right." he began to walk away.
"H-hey where are you--"
"Tell Rena I'll be going on ahead. I'm going to look for the other two... if we're fated, we'll see each other again shortly." he paused, stopping in his tracks. "Ah, if you happen to find them before I dispose of them, remember one thing..." Dias' eyes narrowed. "They're stronger than they look." he lifted his hand, "Don't tell Rena, but this isn't from a silly mistake."
Ashton nodded. He hadn't thought that Dias would be the careless type, especially when it came to weaponry. He watched Dias go and sighed slowly. Rena returned to him about an hour or so later, her expression downcast.
"Rena... are you alright?" he ventured to ask.
"My mother.. passed away." she said, her voice dull, "I wasn't able to do anything to help.. I just finished burying her."
"...oh. I see. You could have let me know... I would have helped."
"I wanted to do it myself." the young woman clenched her fist. "I won't forgive the men who caused this! I'll get revenge for my mother.. I'll find the two men left that Dias didn't--Dias.. where is he?"
"He told me to say he went on ahead of us."
"Oh.." Rena's ears drooped. "I wanted to talk a little more with him too."
"Um, Rena," Ashton said finally, "I want you to know that if... maybe if you feel bad enough to..." he shook his head and stepped forward, taking the young woman into his arms. "I know that you're sad... go ahead and cry if you'd like."
He half expected her to try and laugh it off, but even she was tired of it all. She burst into tears, holding tightly onto him the entire time.
~~~
After she was finished, she posed a question. "Um.. Did he say anything about where the two others went..?"
Neither had any clue as to their whereabouts, so they decided to stop by Cross to at least stay at a hotel for the night. There was a room still open when they arrived, to their relief.
"I want to wake up early and set back out," Rena said, to Ashton's slight irritation.
"Meaning we can't sleep in?" It seemed Rena had forgotten he had still not gotten any rest.
"You can.. but then I'll leave without you."
"No way. I'...m here for you, Rena."
The young woman blinked, then felt herself turning red. The two turned a corner and he continued.
"What I mean to say is...Rena..." Ashton said, his face burning, "I love--"
"Claude!" Rena blurted out.
"Huh? Um... not exactly... wait! What about Claude?"
Rena had already run past him and was hugging a familiar blonde swordsman. A small tinge of jealousy found its way into Ashton as he approached, but he couldn't help but lose his anger when Claude stuck out a hand.
"Hey you two, long time no see! Hm, seems you two are more than just friends now, eh? A little like me and Precis maybe?" Claude teased.
"Well no, not really," Rena said, shyly looking toward Ashton, who couldn't help but think ::We might have been if you didn't just interrupt us...::
"What!? You and Precis are married? Congratulations!" Ashton heard Rena exclaim after a while. His eyes widened. He felt slightly sad and relieved at the same time. At least his first crush--er rather admiration, for he had always enjoyed being in the enthusiastic girl's company--had achieved happiness.
Claude was nodding happily. "Here, let me show you..." he dragged both of the others to his room, then popped in and back out. When he appeared the second time, he was accompanied by a slightly older looking (and a tad taller) Precis. She was carrying a baby in her arms. She beamed at Rena and Ashton. "I have a second one coming up too," she confessed, patting her stomach.
Rena and Ashton couldn't help but exchange glances and think, ::They're quick...::
"Well, you sure look older and prettier now, Precis," Rena said, smiling, "I'm glad you seem to be doing well."
"All 'cause of Claude!" Precis replied. It was obvious by then that her enthusiastic behavior hadn't changed over time. "He even got me these clothes to wear instead!" she was now wearing a pink mini-skirt and top, which was slightly baggy to make sure it didn't hurt her stomach. "Oh but it's so nice to see you guys! We're meeting up with Celine here supposedly and we tried to contact you two a few days ago, but when I called, some weird guy picked up and said you weren't home."
"Some.. guy?"
"Yeah, he said he was your boyfriend... uhh I forgot his name though."
"Razp!?" Ashton and Rena exclaimed at once. The latter looked disbelievingly at the former.
"You know him?"
"It's a long story... I'll tell you later," he said sheepishly.
~~~
"I'm sorry that we couldn't get separate rooms," Ashton said as Rena and he entered their room. They had promised to meet up with Claude and Precis in an hour to eat dinner and so went to put their things down.
"It's okay. I'm fine with it and at least we have separate beds.. I wouldn't want either of us to have to sleep on the floor."
He nodded and watched her take a seat on the closer bed. He correspondingly took a seat on the other.
"I wonder where Chisato and Noel are." she said slowly.
"Probably out traveling." Ashton said with a shrug.
"Ashton," Rena began, casting her eyes downward, "I.. need to tell you something."
"What is it, suddenly? So serious..." he frowned, seeing her squeeze the sheets as if she were in pain. He got up slowly and squatted down in front of her on the bed. "Rena...?"
"My mother told me why she was attacked. She said the men were looking for Nedians.. the last surviving three. It was because of me that she was attacked. They didn't know that I was home then and she didn't say anything more to them. I.. might not have been able to even speak to her if Dias hadn't come in time." she moved her eyes toward him, timidly, "I think they want to do something with the Nedian ability to heal. I..'m scared Ashton, they might be after me. Noel and Chisato are in trouble.. I.. don't want--"
"Don't worry, we'll find them before they can do anything more." he winked, "We have to. The others will help too, I'm sure. We should discuss it over dinner."
"Yo--you're right.. but I don't want to cause trouble. I.. know that what Dias said about his wound was fake. The men are people that not even Dias can handle alone. I.. should have stopped him.. we should have gone together! He might be in trouble.. all because of me.. my descent.. If anything happens to Dias, I.."
"It's not your fault, Rena. Besides," he glanced aside, "I promised him that I would protect you."
"But why? I don't want you to risk your life protecting me.. You shouldn't risk your life just for a friend--"
"Of course I should! But... I only go all out to protect those that I love."
Rena's eyes widened. "Then.. you.. d-don't mean to say.."
"...I love you, Rena."
The door opened a few minutes later to reveal Celine, who immediately blurted, "Rena darling, I thought you might want to borrow my room so that you don't have to stay alone with Ashton tonight--" she trailed off, noticing that the two were as of then locked in an embrace. She watched silently as he shifted forward and leaned down to place his lips on Rena's.
"Or maybe not~, nevermind, excuse me!" Celine shut the door.
Rena pulled away a moment afterwards. "Um..I though I heard Celine's voice a while back.."
"I didn't hear anything..."
"Must have been my imagination.."
~~~
Celine waved a hand irritably as a waiter served the group their food. "I can't believe you two didn't notice when I was talking to you." she rolled her eyes, then crossed her arms dramatically. "Hmph..."
Rena sheepishly scratched her head. "So-sorry, Celine, I thought I heard you, but--"
"You were too in the moment, yeah yeah." the mage sighed. "It's alright, Rena darling. But I wonder why nobody told me that you two were going out?"
"Well, they weren't," Precis interrupted, "At least, that's what Claude said that they said!"
Ashton and Rena exchanged embarrassed glances. Claude simply shrugged. "We have more important things to discuss now, don't we?"
Everyone at the table nodded. Rena poked at her food, as the others ate in silence.
"Hey Rena, whaddya have to say, hm?" Precis finally blurted out. Claude put a hand on her shoulder, and she glanced aside.
The young Nedian took a deep breath. "You all.. know my mother, right? ..she.. passed away."
"What!?"
Celine tried to look interested in her food as she spoke. "Rena darling, I'm sorry to hear that."
"That's not all of it, though," Rena said slowly, putting down her fork and reaching for her cup. "Arlia was.. attacked. I don't exactly know by who, because.."
"More importantly, Dias is after the attackers right now." Ashton filled in, and Rena gave him a look of relief. "According to him, there's five in the main group. He's disposed of three, but there's two left. One is a mage, supposedly. We don't really even know where the men went. All we know is that--"
"I'll take over the rest, Ashton." all eyes diverted back toward Rena. "Before.. my mother passed away, she told me a few things about the men. She had gotten kidnapped by them, because of me.." she leaned back, sighing. "She said that they were after the 'three remaining Nedians,' and she had gotten kidnapped because they thought she knew where they were. They had known that she was taking care of me, but she didn't let them know that I was back home already. My mother didn't know exactly why they are after Nedians, but.. I think it has to do with their ability to heal. Chisato doesn't use it, but Noel.. I think that they might be in trouble. Have any of you kept track of their whereabouts?"
Claude and Precis shook their heads. "Not after we went to Earth. We knew about where Celine was, and that you were still in Arlia, but that's about it..."
Celine looked thoughtfully upward. "I have a feeling that knowing that Chisato darling, the two would probably be traveling. Why don't we take a look at the papers around the areas, and see if she has written any articles for them recently? Or for Noel darling, try going anywhere with animals--"
"That would be such a waste of time though," Precis said, shrugging. "There's animals everywhere, and we don't have time to look through papers, because by the time that we do that, the other guys woulda probably found the two!!"
"But there's nothing else I can think of, darling," Celine remarked, folding her arms. "Does anyone else have a better idea?"
"Does Dias know where he's going?" Claude blurted out.
"I assume so," Ashton muttered, "But we don't even know where Dias is anymore."
Rena looked down. "This is all because I spent too much time healing everyone else. I should have been awake when the men attacked Arlia. ..it's all my fault.."
"This isn't the time to be saying things like that," Claude said, "Hey, if you guys don't mind, why don't we go and help you out? It'll be like before." he turned toward Precis, "Uh, though I guess this time it might not work out..."
Precis shook her head. "Go ahead, Claude! I'll be fine by myself! I'm going to go visit Dad, Nineh and Bowman in Linga anyway! And while I'm at it, I'll visit Leon at the castle lab! I guess I can't go with you guys this time though, because of my kids...I'll still be rooting for you though! And how 'bout I try to look for information while I'm at it?"
She dug through her bag behind her, then pulled out two objects that looked suspiciously like boxes with antennas on them. "Here, take one of these! I brought 'em back from Earth! They're called...uhh...cell somethings..."
"Cell phones," Claude said slowly, scratching his head. "But you brought them here? I don't know if the signals from this planet will work like they do on Earth."
"Don't worry! I fixed 'em up so they would!!" she looked energetically from side to side. "Okay? It's settled then!"
"I hope you didn't forget about me yet, darlings," Celine said, pushing herself forward to make herself look more important, "I'll be going with you all as well. You can all feel safe again, now that I'll be joining you like before!"
Rena smiled slowly. "Thanks.. you all.."
The heraldic magic user stood up, pushing her plate aside. "Now that that's understood, I'm going back to my room. I have a feeling I should get to bed early, if we're traveling with you two." she started out of the restaurant, then turned, sending the young woman a wink. "We'll find Noel and Chisato in no time, so don't you worry. Have a good night's sleep as well. See you tomorrow, darlings!"
They watched her leave in silence.
"Hey Ashton," Precis asked, "What happened to your dragons? I forgot to ask earlier..."
Ashton sighed. "...I guess I should explain about them. (Although Celine won't hear the explanation...)" he glanced toward Rena, "I haven't explained to you about them either, have I..." his eyes diverted to the side. "You both know I stayed in Arlia with Rena for a year, but after that, I left, in order to rid myself of my curse. As Rena had said before, I knew that the way written in Mars would end up killing the two...and I couldn't just... so I tried to look for a different way to get rid of them... and return to my normal body. One of the days, I ran into a mage, who told me that he had an idea of how to get rid of the curse. I followed him back to the Salva Drift, which was where I got cursed in the first place... and he casted a spell, which I had never heard of before. It was quick as a snap, and not even painful. Gyoro and Ururun were back in the Salva Drift, and I was back to normal. You don't know how happy that I was...up until he told me the consequences of the spell. He had reversed the spell so that I would return to my normal body, but at the expense of the bulk of my experience as a fighter..." Ashton trailed off, pulling Rena slightly toward him. She blushed slightly and he continued, "...I'm sorry I didn't return to Arlia sooner, but I didn't want to return as a complete amateur in battle. I didn't think that I would be welcome if I was... so I set out to train again, and spent the bulk of the last year trying to re-polish my skills... but even though I knew my skills before, I can't seem to acquire them faster than before. ...I'm sorry, Rena... if I had known, I might have not..." he slammed a hand on the table. "If I hadn't done what I did, I might have been able to fare better against the men who attacked Arlia... if I had waited just a little longer..."
"Ashton.." Rena shook her head, moving away from the young man, "Don't worry about it.. it isn't your fault. I'm just glad you made it back alright." she stood up, turning around. "..I think I'm done eating.."
"You didn't eat anything, though!" Precis complained.
"I'm okay. I don't have time to be eating."
"You needta get all your nutrition or else you'll regret later!" she pointed out.
The blue-haired young woman smiled and shrugged. "I think I'll go and see if I can find any information about Arlia or Noel and Chisato around town. Excuse me."
"...wait, I'll go with you!" Ashton exclaimed, following her out of the door.
Claude and Precis exchanged glances. "Something wrong, Claude?" Precis asked after a while, "You seem a little pale."
"I'm fine...just thinking that Dias had a problem with them makes me wonder..."
"Oh who cares about that! I mean, he was alone then, but when we find him we won't have a problem because we have more people! Plus, he might have gotten weaker you know, maybe he hasn't trained hard enough! You've been training for a while afterwards, so you might even be stronger than him!"
"...no... knowing him, he has been training as long as I have...maybe even more..." the young man's eyes moved upwards. "...I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about it all."
"...Claude? You're acting a little strange."
"Oh? It's nothing." he smiled weakly. "Nothing at all."
~~~
The next morning, the group found that there had been little information around Cross, besides that a man said that he thought he recalled a reporter by the name of Chisato in Hilton before.
"Might as well travel to Lacour, I guess," Claude said slowly.
"Wait one second!!" Precis demanded, waving an arm. "How 'bout this!? I'll go to Lacour, because I sorta haveta to get Linga. I'll try and find information over there, and if I find the two I'll let you know."
"I think it'll be a little dangerous if you do..." Ashton said.
"No way! I mean, what will they do to a grown woman like me with a kid and another one coming? Heehee and if there's any real problem I'll use Bobot and kick them into the sky! Don't you worry about me! I haven't lost my touch just 'cuz I'm a mom now, you know!" she winked. "You guys should stay around here and check this place out! I have a feeling they should still be around here anyway, because thinking logically, they shouldn't have been able to make it to Lacour that early could they? It takes a while to get there... don't worry about my traveling over there, I'll just call bunny!" She skipped off toward the direction of the port. "Don't bother coming with me, I'll be fine alone! Buh-bye for now! Claude, you'd better come home as soon as possible, 'kay?"
Claude watched her leave, a look of concern on his face. "Maybe I should go with her to Linga and then meet up with you guys again later. I'm a little worried about Precis."
"That might be a good idea. Claude darling, you know what might be better? If you just stay with Precis in Lacour. Rena darling and Ashton darling both have me with them, so we'll be find on our own. Precis on the other hand..." Celine attempted.
Claude nodded slowly and handed her his cell phone. "It'll be easy enough to understand how to use. Be careful you guys!"
"You too, Claude!" Rena and Celine waved and Ashton nodded, giving the other young man a smile.
"See you soon, Claude." he said, as the blonde swordsman rushed off to follow his wife.
"And good luck," Rena said, grinning. "Precis might take a while to convince that he should go with her."
"True, true."
"More importantly, darlings, what is our plan?" Celine asked, putting her hands on her hips. "We shouldn't be wasting time here, that's for one. Considering Lacour is being taken care of... if you two don't mind, why don't we stop by Mars? I might be able to find out something there. My relatives may know something..."
Rena nodded slowly. "I guess so. Since we have no idea where Dias is.." she sighed. "I wish he could have told us where he was heading.."
"We'll meet up with him again soon," Ashton said, "Hopefully..."
"..I hope we can find the others before time runs out.."
"Hey, Rena darling, don't worry too much. It isn't like Noel and Chisato can't fend that much for themselves either." Celine pointed out.
"But still, neither are as strong as Dias."
"...we never know..." the woman glanced away, knowing as well as Rena that she was right. "Anyway, let's head to Mars."
~~~
"Dias! Dias Flac!"
The man ignored the irritating voice, passing by the people of Mars. He wasn't planning on staying. He had a sense for where the evil had gone, and it was nonexistent in this village. The other men must have past it by and gone straight for the port. He smirked slightly, it was too easy to tell their place of destination. Much too easy.
"Dias Flac!"
He had gotten a little too used to his popularity after the Tournament of Arms already. Sometimes he wished he hadn't bothered to enter, if he was to be getting pestered every few seconds by a random fan of his.
"Mr. Flac!!"
"What do you want?" Dias turned around, his eyes narrowed. "I don't have the time to be talking to you."
"I--I'm sorry, but someone wishes to talk to you, so--"
"Who? Why? Tell them that I'm busy."
"U--um, but they insisted on speaking with you. They said that they're related to you."
His eyebrow raised. "Related? Hmph. There's nobody left who's related to me."
"W--well, but you might as well listen her out, shouldn't you?"
"Are you trying to order me around? Listen, I don't have time to waste around here." He turned back around.
"Well fine then...but she told me that she would be waiting at the second room of the inn." the stranger grumbled to himself as he walked away, "Some Cecille whatever..."