Chapter Four is fast arriving, but first, I take some time out, as usual, to acknowledge and answer questions from my reviewers!
Fenrir - Yep, they're slowly realising their feelings… Keep watching!
Chibi - Indeed. Those dern pesky flimsy ninja garbs! XD

I don't own any of the characters, place names or anything like that, including Derris-Kharlan, Flanoir, Lloyd Irving, Sheena Fujibayashi or any others. That's Namco's little treasure, not mine.

---Chapter 4: Out of the Frying Pan…---

"Ok… Tell me why we're going CLOSER to Cruxis and those crazy people again?" asked Zelos, exasperated.
"We need a fragment of Mana, and then we can heal Colette." Raine answered.
"Only problem is… That place is crawling with Cruxis troops. We'd be lucky to stay unseen." Sheena added, obviously nervous herself.

The eight Rhieards landed beside the Tower of Salvation, and the riders dismounted and packed them away. Zelos led the way, as they needed Tethe'allas Chosen to open the doors to the seal. This obviously made him feel much more important, and he was even more obnoxious than before. Sheena hated him already, and they hadn't even got through the doors.

"Oh come on! The Great Zelos does it again! I'm too cool for sch- Ow…" Zelos had started, and was interrupted by the deceptively quick fist of Sheena to the back of his head.
"Please shut up… Or next time, it won't be your head I'll aim at." she said, irritated. Zelos said nothing for a good ten minutes. By then, they had made it through the haunting "failure hall", and were in front of the seal.

Lloyd turned round and talked to the group. "Ok, let's run through the plan once more, just in case something happens to any of us. If one of us gets spotted, tell the others, and run to us. Actually, we'd best stick together- um…"
"So, you plan on raiding Cruxis, with no proper plan of attack. I expected more from you Lloyd." said a voice that came from behind him. Lloyd spun to find Kratos standing there, arms folded as usual, looking quite disappointed. "You mean to heal Colette's rare illness, yes? And how did you expect to gain access to the Mana Fragments? Or elude the many Cruxis guards while wandering through the floors of Welgaia?" Kratos kept piling on the questions, which Lloyd couldn't think of ways to answer, annoying him.
"We would have found a way, Kratos. And with no help from you either." said Lloyd, bitterly. "I thought there was some way, some how, that you may be good."
"Well I apologize for disappointing you, Lloyd." retorted Kratos insincerely.

"Guys, get ready. Kratos, don't hold back!" said Lloyd, taking out his swords. Sheena prepared her cards, and the others did the same with their weapons. Kratos stood in front of them all, Flamberge in hand.
"I hope you've improved…" he growled, and he started toward them.

"Beast!" Lloyd batted him back almost immediately. Kratos, shocked, got to his feet quickly, and started an incantation.
"…Rest in peace, sinners! Judgment!" he yelled, and focused rays of light beamed down around the seal room. Lloyd had to hold his swords above his head to block one, and it dispelled everywhere, causing brightly coloured flashes for a while. Sheena was making short work of dodging the rays, her ninja skills helping her reactions, along with her Exsphere enhancement. That is until, she turned her attention away from the sky for a second to watch Lloyd fight with the traitorous angel. This turned out to be a big mistake, because as soon as she did so, a beam of light shot down onto her, just missing her head, hitting near her right shoulder.

"Augh…" she groaned, and she fell to her knees, clutching the shoulder with her other hand. Her right arm felt numb, and she couldn't move her hand.

"Sheena!" Raine yelled, running over to her side. She held her staff over the affected arm, and a white glow emanated from the end of it. "First Aid! It's the best I can do in this situation, I have to watch out for the others in case Kratos injures them, or me for that matter." she told Sheena. The white light wrapped around all of Sheena's right arm and shoulder. Sheena could feel a slight relaxing tingle, and the light faded. She tried moving her arm again, and felt a huge rush of energy run to it. It was the best it had felt in weeks. She quickly ran up close to Kratos, near Lloyd, and started throwing her ofuda around. A couple had hit Kratos around the face and chest, but to minor effect.

Meanwhile Raine had just finished healing a minor scorch on her brother, after Kratos had let fly with an Eruption spell. She already started to feel tired. She just hoped the group could defeat Kratos soon, so that she could have a small breather.
"My turn." she said to herself. She charged up a spell, which gathered on the edge of her staff in a bright glow. "Photon!" Almost instantly, a cage of light energy gathered around Kratos, paralysing him for the time needed for Lloyd and Sheena to combine their power, and land the finishing blows. Kratos fell to the floor. He got back up to his knees, grabbing his torso, which Lloyd had just dealt a nasty stab.

"Gnn… You seem to win this one, Lloyd. But I have something prepared for just the situation." He clicked his fingers with his free hand, and angels, all dressed in suits of armour and holding shortswords surrounded the group.
"No mercy this time, Lloyd. Surrender." said Kratos, with a coldness in his voice Lloyd had not yet heard from him. As ordered, the group stepped onto the transporter at sword-point, and were taken to the Welgaia prison cells.

After a while in the cold, sterile cell, Sheena and Raine turned sharply with a jump to face the men's cell, which now had a huge gaping hole in the bars.
"What the hell happened!" Sheena exclaimed. She had started to nod off before the blast.
"Well… er… Regal decided to show off and just blasted a dirty great hole in the prison cell, using his hands!" said Zelos, slightly dazed at what he had just seen. Genis was still just staring at Regal, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Sheena thought she heard Lloyd mutter something along the lines of "So cool!" before the guys escaped, and ran to free the girls. Personally, she would have enjoyed the sleep. She was just falling into a strange dream where herself, Raine and Lloyd were in a small rowing boat. Raine was holding her hand, and didn't look scared at all. Sheena's thought were spinning in her head; did she like Lloyd, or the warmth of Raine's hand? She had woken up before the dream went any further.

The group moved out into the angel city of Welgaia, and ventured into the largest building there, hoping that it had something to do with mana control. Luckily for them, it did. There, in the middle of the room, was a stern looking angelic guard, blocking the pathway between massive walls of mana fragments and Exspheres yet to be used. The group put themselves into a situation where it looked like the humans were prisoners to the Sages and Colette.

"We are in need of a fragment of mana for compatibility tests with these humans. It is of utmost importance." Raine had said, sounding almost professional in her authority. Sheena was impressed.
"I apologize, but a temporary halt on mana fragment distribution is in place. Even with identification (which I assume you will show me soon), I am forbidden to give you a mana fragment for now." the guard had said, with a hint of a look of satisfaction on his otherwise blank face. The group were interrupted by a loud beeping sound coming from their left. There stood a hologram of Kratos, who was looking at the guard.
"I have sent couriers to fetch a mana fragment, we need one for the Chosen's ritual." he said.
"Y-Yes, Lord Kratos. I will send it right away." the guard stammered, apprehension in his voice. Kratos disappeared with another beep.
"I assume you are the couriers Lord Kratos had sent. But I am not so sure. You have humans with you, Lord Yggdrasill would not trust something so important with humans." the guard asked, giving Lloyd, Regal and the other humans questionable looks.
"You defy Lord Yggdrasill? I will have to ask for your name and rank, sir, so I may report you to the Lord for insubordination…" Raine had started, but the guard interrupted, spluttering,
"H-Here, I'll fetch one!", before flying to a container on the wall, and flying back down with a small chip of a rainbow coloured substance. The group now had everything needed for Colette's healing process. They quickly left the building, and headed to the exit warp.

"Identification and ranks, please.", another guard had asked, stopping them. The group were forced to move away, and try to find an alternative exit. They searched through the strangely beautiful angel city, looking for another exit warp, and they had almost given up when they spotted one on the far end of the city's refreshment bays. They had reached it, when they heard a loud shout from behind them. The guards had found the group.

"Quick, into the transporter!" Lloyd had said, before warping down. The group had followed, and Regal had transported just in time to dodge them. They appeared in what looked like the maintenance shafts, and started walking down to the end of it.

"Weeee! Hey c'mon guys you gotta try this!" said Zelos, scooting by in the air at zero gravity.

"Zelos! Look o- never mind…" Raine had started. Sheena did her best to hold back a laugh, as Zelos floated by them like a dead fish, holding his head. He had hit the opposite wall, unable to stop himself. After a period of weightless flailing around, the party had made it through the to other side, where they had found what you could call a pedestal, with a key card slowly spinning in a bath of green light on it. Lloyd walked up, and carefully took the key card, half expecting an alarm to sound off. They turned around, and amid cries of "No!" and "I don't wanna go back in there!" from Zelos, who was still rubbing his head, they ventured back into zero gravity.

"Never… again…" the pretty-boy had said as they made it out, and started to the elevator which would take them back to ground level. Sheena was happy- she had found something else to fight back against Zelos with, next time he tried something perverted.
The group had decided to head straight to Altessa's place, as Colette looked visibly worse as they went. Once they had made it out of the seal room, they set out their Rhieards and flew to the dwarf's house in the cliff face.

Hours they waited, anxious to know how Colette was doing. Sheena missed Raine, as she had been in the bedrooms treating Colette ever since they got here. Still, she couldn't help herself from nodding off, and waking with a start. The one time that she forgot to wake up, she was instantly floating back into the make-believe boat with Lloyd and Raine. Raine was rowing this time though, and looking considerably worse for wear. Sheena's hand was in Lloyds, and he was the one giving loving looks.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, Sheena felt repulsed, and tried to yank her hand out of Lloyd's grip. She stared at Raine, who quickly looked back. Anything… Anything she could do to get close to Raine instead… In her desperation, she grabbed Lloyd's forearm, and flung him out of the side of the boat, causing a huge splash, disturbing the dreamy calmness that the river had a few seconds ago.
"Raine… I-" She was cut short by the Professor's eyes, a deep greyish blue, which contrasted well with her shiny silver hair. She felt as if she would drown, like Lloyd probably was now, but she didn't care. Genis could be practicing his magic on the bay and Sheena wouldn't have noticed, or cared for that matter. Raine was staring right back, back into Sheena's brown eyes. She had started to blush, something that Sheena was already doing quite profusely. She knew she felt the same way, and like Sheena, couldn't get to saying it. She opened her mouth to speak, and instead Zelos' voice sounded.

"Yo, Sheena! Wake up my voluptuous hunny, Colette's gonna be OK!" he had said to her. He was hunched over, hands on his knees watching. Sheena realised she was in the corner of Altessa's living room, her head resting in the corner. When she opened her eyes to see Zelos, she jumped back, and quickly stood up.

"Just… Just a dream…" she muttered to herself.
"What was that babe?" Zelos said.
"Uh… Nothing. I'm going to see Colette…" Sheena said, vacantly making her way to Altessa's bedroom.

And there we are! The first proper Reena bit yet. It's bound to improve as I go along, okies? Until then, enjoy this chapter, reviews gladly accepted. This is Scott-kun, signing off.