Conflictions of the Mind
-Chapter Eight-
The Blessed Taste of Irony

--

Discomfort, endlessly has pulled itself upon me
Distracting, reacting
Against my will I stand beside my own reflection
It's haunting how I can't seem...
To find myself again
my walls are closing in

--

The scandalously dressed woman scowled as the shaking of the earth disturbed her research.

It was rare when she was on the earth, after all; having access to the higher levels of the so-called Tower of Salvation made her all the more reluctant to return to the same levels as those who remained on a lower rank than she.

Even so, with the time on her hands momentarily.. it wouldn't hurt to check a few things out. There were too many unanswered questions, especially after certain deaths within the high order. Not to mention the traitors in their midst.. the woman prided herself on being an overseer.. yet even she could not see everything. With luck, that would change. Now.

After all, she, despite being the leader of the Desian Grand Cardinals had very little to do with research; her role was to aid their Lord as much as possible, mostly by making sure that the others.. behaved well. Those who deserved their fate--had they not planned against /her/? How foolish they had been, to trust in Kvar and Rodyle!

"Pah.. Rodyle." She spat with distaste, her dark eyes narrowed over at the records that they had managed to acquire from his base before it was taken over by the rebel forces. The information that he had not let them see; fueled by his own machinations, perhaps. She grimaced as she studied the records that he had left behind; records of the failed angelus project; of his own cruxis crystal attempts to enhance his own form. She smirked slightly at that recollection; after all, it was she who had planted that very idea in his mind. Such a fool he was, then!

"Of course I was shrewd enough to see his greed, and he fool enough to waste himself at the last." She smirked, continuing to check the files. There was a large amount of data on the Angelus project, to be certain; of the names of the failed experiments and their fates were also listed. Also, intriguingly, a separate case was listed. The half-elf raised an eyebrow as she clicked on it. Something about this file seemed familiar..

The first few pages only a true scientist would be interested in, she soon found out. While they all were, as a whole, fully educated about the use of exspheres and crystals, only Kvar and Rodyle had seemed to take an extreme interest in their inner workings, especially with the angelus projects. Admittedly, she knew very little about the projects themselves; it was only until after she heard Lord Yggdrasill mention them after Kvar's death was she able to update her knowledge. Considering the rate of failure of the existing tests, she was not surprised.

"And we still have the useless chosen to consider," She muttered, scanning through the pages and the multi-dimensional diagrams that popped up on the screen, though that halted her as she read the description briefly. "..So this is the crystal that split in two."

She frowned a bit, peering closer to read what had been recorded there. "..Approximately two years ago, the crystals were finally reactivated. They were later removed from our storage chambers by Lord Yggdrasill, who hasn't spoken to us of their use since." A faint smirk appeared on her red lips, though she shook her head, scanning the rest of the screen. "It still doesn't explain it's importance, or exactly what it does." She couldn't turn up a name either; though there was an identification number, at the least.

Pronyma rose from the desk and carefully shut down her workstation. Everything was in perfect order, of course, and for the moment she was quite alone. "I think it's time to do a little investigating of my own."

Laughing a bit to herself, she removed the pair of glasses that she had been wearing, and vainly examined her form in the mirror. She was a perfect being. She would be the one to honor her lord, and gain the triumph that went with it.

--

The sky was painted with streaks of peach and saffron.. an early evening sky that had been clear. Within a single moment, it was a throbbing, violent mass of violet, with electricity pulsating throughout it. Their hearts pounded soundly in their chests as they ran from the now-tilting Tower of Mana, the rumbling of the earthquake clambering after them like thunder on their heels.

In the distance, dark clouds formed above the Tower of Salvation as monstrous roots burst upwards from the ground and wrapped its way into the foundations, leaving it to crumble in its wake. The worlds screamed as the tree emerged, and the balance was shattered. The roots ripped their way across the land, some rippling into the ocean, others ravaging the earth.

The tower of Mana sank sideways, the stairs leading up to it now buried with the shifting of the ground. Now they could only stare at the building that they had been in to the destruction that lay before them. Watching the tree split the earth and the roots destroy everything in its path.

Raine felt compelled to watch, though she also felt sick to her stomach. The gnawing at the back of her mind was back. A low buzzing sound inside her head seemed to intensify as the seconds sped past, droning out the sounds of everything around her.. and suddenly time was no more. Her hand went to her pocket as a reflex as those around her continued to panic.

"Is that.. the giant Kharlan tree?!" She heard Genis say weakly, his voice a mixture of awe and horror.

A giant, seemingly transparent green seed rose up from the depths, entwined within the gnarled tree's branches. They all stared at the tree, stared at the seed that seemed to rise with it, bathing in the excess mana and growing wild with each moment.

Unable to blink, her hand reached in for the shard, closing around it tightly. A familiar sensation stole over her; as if she was being first blinded by a white light and then suddenly pushed back into the depths of her own mind, returning to the sea of forgotten memories while events passed her by. Fighting it was futile. It caused too much pain and at the moment there was too many things occurring for her to even attempt to.

"Martel!"

She vaguely heard Yuan's voice, though hearing that name sent an icy shiver down her spine. Yet she could not reply, now, despite sensing her lips drawing back to give a skeptical response. "Martel? The woman about to be consumed by the tree is Martel?"

"Why would Martel reappear with that grotesque tree?" Yuan looked as powerless as he felt at that moment. Somewhere inside her mind, she heard a bitter laugh.

-You brought this on yourself, Yuan. You were the one meddling where you shouldn't have been.- Mithos thought smugly, watching them. -Betrayer.-

The earthquake was on his side too; he could feel the ground shaking.

"I was afraid this would happen." Kratos said grimly, his arms folded across his chest.

Yuan whirled around to face him. "What do you mean?"

"Having lost the stability, the seed has gone out of control." Kratos' tone seemed oddly unaffected. It was a marvel how he was able to detach himself from the chaos surrounding him.

Yuan, however, would now bear the responsibility of the world's destruction on his back. If they didn't find a way to fix the problem. Mithos knew full well that they would have no choice but to cooperate. All of their trials and sabotage would have been for naught.

Raine was swimming in a sea of vagueness. Her eyes could not move from the being trapped within the seed.

"No! The purpose of the spirits was to isolate the seed and prevent it from growing!" Yuan cried out in dismay.

"That was only half of it. The worlds were forced out of phase by Yggdrasill. They should have drifted apart and been consumed by the void." Kratos continued to explain in his unaffected voice. "This was prevented from happening because the seed was placed in the center between the two worlds."

"I don't need a lecture from you to know that." Yuan snapped.

Mithos could only shake his head. They were circling the problem without setting a finger on how to set it right. Even Raine didn't seem to have any ideas stored—then again, it was difficult enough to allow her to respond while he held the corresponding link. He could make her talk, and offer only hints to the solution, though he sensed that Kratos and Yuan were smart enough to realize their error and fix everything.

"Then.. everyone will die." Presea's soft voice was consumed with sadness, and startled Mithos from the banter in the group.

"Everyone, except for that tree, and the Angels on Derris-Kharlan." Kratos corrected.

Mithos smirked slightly. They were smart enough to figure out how to reverse the problem. Even Yuan wouldn't leave precious Martel to such a fate.. the spineless traitor. Suddenly his head felt light. He was losing control; either the hold that Raine had on the shard wasn't enough, or there was something that he was missing. -Martel-, he thought, keeping Raine's unblinking gaze towards the seed. –Martel, can you hear me?-

There was no reply, save the wind became a little stronger on his side. The Tethe'alla side. The ground still shook and he fell to his knees.

-Martel.. soon, you will be freed from your prison.- He smiled. –Four thousand years have passed you by, sister. Now you will truly be awakened.-

For a moment his eyes were pulled away—his hold on Raine released for a moment as he turned his head rapidly as a scream reached his ears. For a split second he could see her—Martel. Beneath a high rock wall she stood, paralyzed with fear as a boulder shook overhead and slowly tumbled free. Horror caught his tongue, and he released the hold on the shard completely as he rushed towards her.

He realized his error too late.

"Mar--!"

In Sylvarant, Raine held her hands to her head, her head swarming with pain and confusion for a few moments. A fog seemed to lift from in front of her eyes, and she blinked as her vision returned.

Colette was staring in the direction of the tree. "That voice.. it sounded familiar.. it sounded like.."

Raine had heard something, but she wasn't about to say anything. It felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her mind, allowing her to take in the events around her more carefully.

It didn't take too long for a conclusion to be reached. Despite the disagreements.

"Preparations for the Mana Cannon, the shutdown of the mana reactors throughout the world-there are too many things we need the Renegades to do. You don't have enough troops to do everything." Lloyd said resolutely. "We'll go."

Sheena turned towards him, a shocked look on her face. "What are you saying?! We have to head for the Mana Cannon!"

"You and the Renegades can take care of the Mana Cannon. Kratos and the rest of us will infiltrate the Iselia ranch. Fire the Mana Cannon when we give you the word. You wouldn't be able to trust the signal if it came from Kratos alone, right?"

"Well, that's true, but..." Her words faltered.

--

The wind howled around them furiously, switching from being warm to unnaturally cold, for Sylvarant, at least. The tree was still growing, though thankfully not as quickly as it had been previously.

The Summoner paced back and forth after her role had been designated; she would be leaving with the renegades, whom she surprisingly felt comfortable around. She wasn't really pacing out of apprehension; it was more to keep the chill out of her bones before it was time for her to step up to the plate once again.

"Are you all right with this, Sheena?" Regal asked her quietly. "I do not believe it is in your best interests for you to leave on your own."

Presea nodded in agreement. Now that the life of the world was hanging in the balance, after running through the possible conclusions in her mind, the answers still seemed a bit bleak. "It likely won't take all of us to break into the ranch.. we need to be as spread out as possible to make sure that we are all being utilized. This is our world we are talking about."

The black-haired ninja smiled. "Hey, I wish it weren't this way. You guys know what I have to do. You guys need to do your part and fight for Tethe'alla for me."

Presea nodded slightly, her hand absently touching her cruxis crystal. "..You're right. We will go to the next Ranch with the others, then. The rest of the world is in your hands once more, Sheena."

"Heh.. Someday we'll look back on this day, and find the complete irony of this situation." Sheena remarked, tilting her head to the side. "Now I suppose I understand how the Chosen feel, when you get the responsibility of the entire world on your hands."

Regal studied her. "Perhaps. But you have had your share of hardships.. and you are saving not one world, but two."

She smiled at him sadly. "I suppose when you put it that way.."

"We all believe in you," Presea replied softly. "My calculations are not always correct. This feeling.. it is hope."

Sheena smiled at Presea,

(I will consider you as my sister always)

and then lifted her head up to the sky, letting the wind hit her full in the face and streaming her black hair behind her. For a moment it was silent, and she let her mind wander.. wander back to past, in Mizuho.. the time she spent with Corrine, and the fatal mistake that they had made all of those years ago.

"The irony," she whispered to herself, wrapping her arms around her chest.

"They're calling for you, you know, oh female savior of the world." A familiar voice spoke behind her, and for a moment the winds changed, sending red strands of hair into her vision.

She whirled around, her nervousness gone and replaced with irritation. "Zelos!"

--

If all went to plan, this Rheaird flight would go smoothly. If all went to plan, this task would go quickly. The irony, how things never seemed to 'go to plan'. Flying through that evil-looking sky made them all shiver--even Kratos, for all of his practiced calm.

This was their fault and they had to fix it. They all knew this.

"Forcystus.." Genis winced at the name of the Desian overlord, the first they had faced and yet left to the last. "He.. he was the one who did that to Marble. Who made her attack us."

Lloyd turned his head to the side so he could get a better look at his best friend. "Yeah. We'll defeat him, Genis."

Genis nodded; all he needed was that confirmation. They were strong, after all -- if any of their struggles proved anything, it was that.

"Marble?" Raine was stirred from her thoughts and stared at them. The buzzing in her mind had faded, and she slipped the shard back into her pocket. "..The Iselia ranch. Chocolat is still there, is she not?"

"She is." The answer came from Kratos, and they turned their heads to look at him for a moment. He still seemed to some rather aloof; though for Lloyd and the others, it was as if he had fit right in, as he did before that last betrayal. Almost. There were some rifts that never could heal.

"I'm surprised that you remember." Colette replied softly. "Why should you even care? You're on their side, aren't you?"

"I see you still don't trust me," The Seraphim remarked.

"We have no reason to trust you. Lloyd is correct." Raine spoke sharply. "You may be working with us now, but if it is only to serve your supposed greater purpose, where will that leave us all in the end?"

Lloyd turned his head back towards Kratos. "I'd.. like to hear the answer to that, too."

Kratos shook his head. "It is not for us now to discuss."

--

It took them less than an hour to reach their destination, which was mostly made in silence. Kratos was quick to show his effectiveness, and Lloyd found himself remembering how well they had worked together as a team.

"We aren't leaving here until we fix this problem." Kratos said sharply. "Anyone not up to task may step aside now."

"Not like we have a choice." Zelos remarked with a smirk.

"Wait. We won't have enough time to save the captives." Raine spoke quickly.

"It looks like we'll have to split up." Kratos remarked with dismay.

Lloyd nodded. "Half of us will find the control room, while the others will free the prisoners.."

"I'll take the lead with freeing the prisoners," Regal spoke quietly, "Unless you preferred I traveled with you?"

Lloyd nodded to the chef. "Right. I'll take Kratos, the professor and.." he frowned slightly as his gaze sought the others left. "..Genis with me. We have a score to settle with Forcystus, after all."

Zelos smirked. "Well I'm sure the prisoners will be glad to see my exquisite visage come to rescue them. The ladies, at least."

Raine shot him a look. "Can you stay serious for even one minute with everything that is going on?"

Colette's face displayed a hurt expression for a brief moment. "I see. Very well, Lloyd. Do be careful."

"We'll stay together until we locate the cells." Kratos continued to speak as if there had been no interruption. "There's no need splitting up when we don't have to."

--

"Lord Forcystus! There is an ambush preparing on the other side. Possibly sent on by those fool renegades."

"We wiped out the traitorous renegades." Forcystus smirked and shook his head. "No. It is that child, Lloyd Irving, who still has the exsphere that we need. You know what you have to do." He tapped his chin thoughtfully with his free hand—not the one with the cannon attachment--and added, almost as an afterthought, "And if you can, bring me the boy."

"Irving?" The Desian Commander asked with some distaste.

Forcystus smiled grimly. "No. The half-elven boy that is traveling with him. I've heard some interesting things related to me from Lord Yggdrasill.. and he has left it up to me to make.. certain things interesting."

The commander nodded. "As you say, Lord Forcystus." He glanced to his troops with a sharp turn of his head. "Lets go!"

--

The random battling had been a nuisance.. Kratos found it typical, and yet strange, how his loyalties seemed to switch with the tides. Perhaps he truly didn't know what side he stood for.. yet his heart felt no obligation to these Desians. Many slaughtered by his smooth, clean strokes with his flame sword.

As he sheathed it, another round came in. A hand touched his arm for only a moment. "Let Lloyd take the forefront for a few of these battles."

Raine's voice was oddly calm. Kratos turned a questioning eye to her. She replied with a shrug. "You trained him, have you not? Or do you not wish to view his acquired skill?"

"Yes.." Kratos said dryly, "Though I dare to ask what that is to you?"

Raine stepped back so that the others could take care of the pesky raybits buzzing around. He did the same as well, allowing Zelos to run up and attack.

"Perhaps I should ask you that question, Kratos. I have been.. trying to make sense of your motives. Yet it is a strange puzzle to me." Her gaze went over to Lloyd in battle. "I care about that boy, Kratos. I know he is the key to your puzzle."

He studied her eyes. They seemed normal, now; not the way they were during the aftermath of the Tower's fall. At the time, he had too many things on his mind to rationalize exactly what Yuan had said to him in private before the chaos. "That has nothing to do with our current quest." Was the answer he gave her.

A short laugh answered him. "So you bluff once more, mercenary. I will find out your secret, and the truth about your loyalty-adjustments."

He folded his arms at her, slightly amused. "And then what? What would be the point?" He glanced back towards the battle. Presea was hacking the last raybit into submission. Lloyd looked over at the two off to the side questioningly, though was out of range to hear them.

"I told you. I care about that boy." Raine explained simply, before taking up her staff to move back to the front. "Lloyd. Use the sorcerer's ring on those reactors. We don't have much time to work with, you know."

"Right," He complied quickly.

The reactors glowed a soft blue, and the door opened. He then turned towards another door and opened yet another hall.

"Heh.." Kratos mused to himself as they filed inside carefully.

--

"Genis?" Colette asked quietly. The boy glanced at her, and then towards Presea, who was carefully sliding her thumb down the side of her axe, testing the blade. "Are you all right?"

He flashed one of his nervous smiles at her. "Yeah, of course."

Kratos frowned, and glanced towards them. "We have to keep together. We're sure to find the captives in one of the next rooms."

"Yeah.." Genis replied, though he still lingered behind them at the back of the pack.

He didn't like this place. Something was haunting his footsteps.

'If we had come here in the first place,' Genis wondered to himself, 'We would have been able to put this place out of commission a long time ago. If we had only been stronger, we could have saved Marble from what happened.'

He glanced down at the exsphere on his wrist, and grimaced. It was his fault. All of it.

Sometimes he could hear her voice in his mind; he knew that it wasn't her ghost, or anything; it just had to be his imagination. His guilt. The symbol of his guilt that he bore with him.

It wasn't like having handcuffs to retrain his hands from fighting, or wielding a kendama. It was mana that struck her down. Fire. Lloyd was foolish to take the blame. He was the half-elf, the outsider. He shouldn't have trusted Lloyd's harebrained scheme. Their intentions did more harm than good. Like now, with the tree out of control.

Salvation couldn't be further away. Or so he felt. His nerves felt like thousands of tiny insects were walking steadily through them. He could feel the crawling. It was underneath his skin, running along his bones. There was an unwavering sense of unpleasantness

(ick)

Which refused to go away, despite how many baths he took, the times that he would scratch his arms nearly raw because of the guilt. That line between human and elf had been drawn so deeply in him – rejected from both sides, that even with the altruistic thoughts of his friends—perhaps Mithos had been right, and there was no way out of it.

He rubbed his arms absently.

Ick.

He saw Desians in front of him, and this time stood back to watch. Presea's moves with her axe were graceful yet deadly. Which was amusing, in a way, considering that Colette was the opposite of Presea, and had less skill and precision with her attacks. Yet Presea's movements were smooth and flawless.

He didn't want to be near Kratos. The mercenary seemed to smell with betrayal. Or perhaps it was a similar guilt that they all seemed to share.

Suddenly a hand clamped over his mouth, taking him completely off guard. To make matters worse, a few more Desians rushed over to attack the group, leaving them likely too distracted to notice.

And he struggled. He whacked his captor a few times with the kendama to release himself.. only to get knocked down by what felt to be a paralyzing form of electrical mana. "..Ugh.."

The boy crumpled to the ground.

--

This attack had taken them by surprise. As Regal knocked the last Evil Sorcerer into submission with one of his powerful attacks, Presea glanced around the narrow and now thankfully empty corridor. "..Probability of more encounters, 75 percent."

Raine held onto her staff, closing her eyes and kneeling. "Quick.. gather around me, everyone.. healing circle!"

"Much better." Zelos grinned, springing up off the ground. "Ah.. but those battles were nothing! Bring them on, I say. Though we could have used a bit of squirt's mana powers of destruction. The brat has been unusually quiet through this." He glanced around, surprised when he wasn't met with a snappy reply by the brat in question.

This however, made Raine get to her feet quickly to glance around sharply. "Genis?" she near-shouted, having only just realized that she hadn't heard from her brother in some time. "Genis, come out this minute! It isn't the time for games."

"He may have his moments, but I hardly believe that he would be playing 'games'." Kratos remarked, his comment seeming almost idle judging by the calm tone. "Perhaps something caught his attention and he went to investigate."

Regal frowned, but nodded. "He is smart. If he saw the opportunity to slip off and do something.. but we don't know how long he has been gone, or if he'll think to return to us here.." He saw the look on Raine's face and stopped himself from saying the next part on his mind. 'If he'll be able to.'

Kratos nodded. "Correct. In the meantime, the world hangs in the balance. I think it's best if we split up earlier than intended." He turned his head. "Raine and.. Lloyd, I would guess that we are still going as planned?"

Colette frowned. "But.. getting this place shut down was your priority, wasn't it? Since you didn't let me.. um.. go along with you to help with that, then I'm sure we can find Genis." She looked at Raine, a slightly hopeful expression on her face, "Unless you decided to.. change your mind."

Raine put a hand to her forehead, closing her eyes tightly. "..No. Kratos is right. We.. we must stick to the original plan."

Kratos looked at Raine for a long moment. "Yes.. we do need you to help with the computer system."

"But we have to find Genis." Lloyd persisted. "He isn't back yet, and somehow.. something just doesn't seem right about this." He pushed his hair back with his hand. "I.. I know we should go along as planned, but.."

Kratos looked at Lloyd. "You remember what we taught you. You can't rush into things without all the facts. We don't know what happened to Genis, and we aren't likely to get any information by standing around. Raine and I will go to the control room. You guys will look for Genis and free the captives."

This time it was Regal who frowned. "Raine. Are you comfortable with this plan?"

She looked up at him. "We don't have much of a choice, Regal. He's right. All we are doing now is procrastinating while the seed goes out of control. We must stop it at all costs." She looked towards Kratos. "I'll be able to keep an eye on this one, at least. You guys.. be careful."

"All right. We'll meet up again.. all of us." Lloyd sighed, and looked at Kratos, "You've betrayed us before, and I am hesitant in trusting you again. Don't let anything happen to her."

Zelos smirked. "Don't we have a plan to attend to here? Finding the brat? Saving the world? The world won't be saved by idle chatter, you know."

"Then you'd better make sure that none of it occurs on your watch." Kratos replied calmly, and with that, he and Raine turned and headed through another door.

With that, Kratos secured himself as once again being an unofficial leader of the group, a position of power that only Lloyd could envy.

Regal frowned thoughtfully after them. "..I hope they can handle it on their own. There is still the leader of this ranch to worry about, is there not?"

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah, but Kratos has obviously been holding out on us for some time. I.. believe that he is with us. For now. I should have gone with them.. but I think we can do better by making sure that the enemies are out of the way."

Colette smiled. It was a strange smile, as if she was pleased that things had turned out this way. "Now we must find Genis and keep the promise to Chocolat." Her smile seemed to falter, "I was just speaking to him. He was acting a bit strange, you know.. oh. I hear something."

Presea turned her head. "Footsteps from behind us. We must be in for another ambush of sorts."

"I say we just get the heck out of here and avoid it." Zelos remarked, pointing in a different direction. "Genis may have slipped off over here, and we don't want them getting him alone, though he can probably flash-fry them in an instant.."

"That is the most sensible thing that you've ever said." Regal remarked dryly, though he was quick to take the lead as well, though not as strangely assertive as Kratos' authority had been.

--

It was dark and fuzzy.

Then he realized that it was because he hadn't opened his eyes yet. So he did. And he blinked. Everything was still fuzzy. The electricity, which had zapped him only some time before still buzzed softly in his brain. He was going insane.

And he still felt the crawling.

The fuzziness that was his vision couldn't tell him much. He could sense that his hands were bound in some way—a moment later he discovered, finding this oddly humorous—that they were bound with steel at his wrists. Clasped.

His exsphere was gone. He felt weak—powerless. His one true friend throughout his adventure, offering her silent, comforting support—had been stolen from him. It made him feel naked. Demoralized. And here he was with handcuffs bound to him.

In his delirium, he laughed at the irony. Laughed and wept at it, yet did not know what was behind it.