Ch. 5

Lloyd, Colette, and Zelos stood at the outside of the chapel speaking of their current situation.

"No way! Seriously?" Zelos asked, surprised.

Lloyd nodded solemnly.

"Man… Little One and Quiet Guy are really gone…"

"Zelos," Lloyd glared, "This is serious!"
"I know! I'm taking this as badly as you are! Sheesh, calm down!"

"But the weird thing is…" Colette interrupted, "Is that whatever or whoever murdered Presea and Regal had incredible powers. It caused a huge crack to appear on the ground…"
Lloyd nodded, "We're up against something extremely powerful, but I'll stop at nothing to defeat it…"

"I'll help too," Zelos replied, "At least… I'll try, I'm not going to run away or anything though."

"I trust you now, Zelos." Lloyd nodded.

Colette's widened. "Do you hear that?"
Lloyd and Zelos looked up. "No," Zelos said, "What is it?"
"I hear… Sheena…"

"What's she doing here?" Lloyd asked, puzzled.
"Don't know, let's go see. Where's her voice coming from?"

"The slums… but… um… guys… she's saying some really weird things… I don't even think this is Sheena."
Lloyd blinked, "What do you mean?"
"She says she's here to murder the Chosen… now's she talking about her grandpa… now she's talking about…"

"I don't like the looks of this, let's go check it out! Colette, Lloyd come on!" Zelos commanded, and he ran off.

Lloyd and Colette raced after him, both very worried.

Colette led the two through the slums, follow the long train of words. They ran from alley to alley. It seemed like an eternity for the three.

Finally, They reached their destination. Colette gasped and pointed with a shaking finger at a dark figure laying against a dirt covered wall. The figure was engulfed in shadows and the three couldn't see the face. But they knew what who it was.

"Sheena!" Zelos called out and ran to her. Lloyd and Colette followed.

"Sheena…? What happened?" Colette's voice was full of worry.

"Is the Chosen of Mana among one of you…" Sheena's voice was a low moaning sound. There were many cuts and bruises all over her. And the pins that held her hair up was gone, causing her hair to dangle down to her shoulders.
"What? Sheena, what are you talking about?" Lloyd's eyes widened.

"Guys, look here!" Zelos motioned for the two to come over. Zelos kneeled down and pointed at Sheena's skull. "There's a… a huge bruise here… it almost likes like her skull was slightly crushed."
Unexpectedly, Sheena's eyes snapped wide open. "Guys!" she gasped. She slowly tried to get up, but immediately fell back down, howling in pain.

"Sheena, don't move!" Lloyd commanded.

"Guys…" she moaned, "I have to tell you something…" She coughed and blood appeared on her hand.

"Sheena," Zelos began, "For now, don't say or do anything. We need to take you to a doctor immediately. I think the injury on your skull is doing something weird to your brain, you think you're in the past…"

"Exactly!" Sheena hissed, "That's exactly why I have to tell you this now! I'm very lucky to have the three of you here… Just... please listen, while I can still tell you this.

The group went quiet.

"There's this thing…" Sheena began, but then began to cough blood. Zelos went over to help her, but she pushed him away. "This… dark cloud, it came to our village and destroyed it. Everyone's dead now, except for me." She started to shake. "It was so powerful… and… and I couldn't even touch it! My attacks just went through, like it was mist!"

The group's eyes widened.
"I saw the cloud before, I saw it at the party the other day. I thought I was imagining it, but I wasn't after all… B-b-but the weirdest thing is… is that the cloud was---" But before she could finish she started to cough like crazy. She started to shake, and her fists started to tighten.

"Sheena…" Zelos began, "If you're in pain, just cry. It will make you feel better."

"No!" She yelled, and then started to cough again, "Being feminine just isn't my style… I've said before…" But tears were already starting to well up in her eyes.

"Just cry, Sheena," Zelos said again.
Sheena couldn't take it anymore; tears started flowing in her eyes. "I lost grandpa… this time for good!" she sobbed.

Zelos slowly wrapped his arms around her. Instead of usually hitting him or pushing him away, Shena let him. "Grandpa…" she sobbed.

"It's alright Sheena… we'll avenge your village, I swear it."

Sheena nodded.

Meanwhile, Lloyd and Colette looked at each other solemnly. They both knew that Altamaria was destroyed by that dark cloud. They knew their enemy.

"Sheena," Lloyd began, "We have to take you to a hospital! You're loosing blood!"

Sheena wiped her tears away, "No!" she said forcefully, I haven't told you-" But then she started to cough again. Then, she started to mumble again.

"Kuchinawa…"

Suddenly, it happened again: The sound of an explosion, the cry of people in terror.

It was back.