On the way back to Ozette neither Genis or Raine were able to sleep in the least. Both could only think of one thing. Cloud tied a rope around Genis's waist to keep him from running too far ahead of the group, needless to say this didn't make the young mage happy. Raine was an unhappy kind of distracted. Aeris wanted so much to tell the others why Raine was so unhappy, but Raine had begged her to swear silence. The group arrived at Ozette late at night. Fortunately, Genis was already asleep. Cloud was carrying him, rope still around his waist. The group checked into the inn.
The next morning Genis was in high-spirits, he made everyone breakfast humming a cheerful tune. "Boy, the brat's sure in a good mood this mornin'…" Zelos commented. "Sometimes I wish Kratos was here instead of your bigmouth, moron…" Cloud replied. "You're so mean to me!" Zelos whined. "Oh, stop complaining. I'm being nicer than usual…" Cloud commented. "That's still not an improvement!" Zelos whined again. "Would you like me to start threatening you again?" Cloud asked sarcastically. "Com'n you two, not this early I just woke up…" Vyse tried to break up their fight. "Lloyd, can I go on ahead and pick up Presea?" Genis asked. "You don't have the Key Crest…" Lloyd replied, "We'll all go after breakfast…"
Breakfast had just ended and the group had come outside. "Question; what are we gonna' do after we give the Little Rosebud her new present?" Zelos asked, "I mean supposing she turns back to her 'normal' form…" "Isn't it obvious? We continue to seek the Rheairds…" Regal responded. "I think we should go, as cute as it is, Genis is getting really antsy…" Aeris giggled.
As they came out of the inn, a man pointed them out and said, "There they are it's the wanted criminals!" With that a bunch of soldiers surrounded them. "Well, well; if it isn't Master Zelos, I trust you are well?" the eldest soldier, whom everyone assumed to be the Knight Captian. "Am I really this much of a problem to the Pope?" Zelos pondered out loud. "More importantly, how do these guys all ways end up where we're going?" Sheena growled. "All right guys, I got a plan…" Lloyd started. "Yeah, we fight our way out!" Vyse shouted as he charged full-blast at one of the soldiers. Terrified of the young pirate, the soldier struggled to parry but proved useless against Vyse's superior natural sword fighting skill. Another soldier fell when a kick from Regal glanced off the side of his head. Lloyd was parrying with the Knight Captain. "You aren't that bad, kid…" he commented. "I'm better than you think…" Lloyd returned disarming him. "Lloyd!" Cloud yelled, "we need him alive. Tell the Pope that from this point on, any soldiers he sends after us aren't coming back…" "I'll not…" the Captain replied. "Then we'll just have to leave a note on your carcass…" Cloud explained. Seeing that the deceptively strong and fast warrior was not bluffing, the Knight Captain called his remaining comrades and fled.
"Ow!" Colette cried. "Colette!" Cloud and Lloyd yelled in unison. After being examined closely by Aeris, she said, "She's not injured, but she's running an incredibly high fever. What could be causing this much pain, though?" "I'm fine, I'm sorry to cause everyone to worry so much…" Colette managed to say. "No, this is not something that you should be sorry for, Colette!" Lloyd replied kneeling down and wrapping his arms around her. "Move, please…" Presea's voice came from behind Lloyd. Lloyd released Colette and let Presea come closer. She swung her axe at the group causing them all to jump back. She then knocked Colette unconscious, at that Cloud and Lloyd were a little panicked, but then slowly settled down. Just as they did, the man they had seen earlier arrived on dragonback. "I am Rodyle, the most clever of the Desian Grand Cardinals. I hope you don't mind me borrowing the Chosen…" he cackled evilly, as he did another dragon appeared and picked up the unconscious Colette. "Filthy desian! Release my daughter!" Cloud commanded. "Do you think I would listen to a command coming from a forsaken Cetra?" Rodyle responded. "What did you just say!" Cloud asked angrily through gritted teeth, "Desians are the forsaken ones! Causing people they call 'inferior' to suffer for the purpose of their own advancement! You desains disgust me! You and your accursed exspheres!" "I would love to stay and chat but you have company…" Rodyle cackled as he flew off. The group turned around to see more Papal Knights. "Damn!" Cloud, Lloyd, Vyse, and Zelos cursed in unison. The group was too low on mana to do anything more than surrender. The Papal Knights knocked them all out.
