Chapter V: Disguises and Plans

Light shown through the hallway window of the third floor of Hotel Lezareno, illuminating everything in a golden glow. The leader of Cruxis stood outside of his hotel room, leaning on it in an attempt to look cool, and doing a surprisingly good job of it. The door adjacent to him opened and the Chosen stepped out, the usual glow of his astounding beauty being dimmer than usual. "What's wrong Zelos," Mithos asked, "Upset you didn't get laid last night?"

Zelos slowly turned his head to face his superior. "Just… remembered some past events…" he said somewhat quietly.

Mithos raised an eyebrow as if to inquire further, but stopped as Yuan's door opened. Out stepped the Seraph Master of Electricity, his hair matching that of a recently electrocuted cat. Mithos snickered. "Oh, and what's so funny?" Yuan demanded angrily.

"Your hair," the Seraph replied, continuing to laugh at Yuan's appearance.

Yuan rubbed his hand through his hair, "Look, I had a long night, can we just go already?" He began to walk towards the elevator when he was blur of pink suddenly overtook him.

"You!" Zelos yelled in a accusatory tone, "You got a girl, didn't ya! DIDN'T YA!"

"No, Zelos, I-" Yuan attempted to explain.

"Why didn't you share!" the Chosen lamented, "Why, Yuan! Why didn't you SHARE!" He then fell, becoming a pitiful, crying heap on the floor. "Why did you make them all go away, Seles?" he mumbled over and over again.

"Err…" was all that Yuan could think of to reply. He turned around after hearing a loud thump, and he saw that Mithos had also fallen on to the floor, but he was laughing hysterically. The poor blue-haired angel simply smacked his forehead and entered the elevator without his companions. It made its descent to first floor and once it arrived, Yuan stepped out into the lobby where he was greeted by another exceptionally cheerful woman dressed in a revealing bunny suit.

"Good morning sir! Did you enjoy your night in Hotel Lezareno!" she shouted exuberantly.

"No, not re-"

"Of course you did! Come back again soon!" The woman then proceeded to kick the poor angel out of the hotel. Just before he hit the concrete, he spread out his wings and hovered momentarily before landing.

"That was… unexpected," he said, dusting himself off.

"My beautiful body!"

"How rude!"

The blue-haired Seraph turned around to see the two other angels, Zelos lying flat on his back and Mithos on his head. "I see you met the greeter."

"This is an outrage!" Mithos screamed, dusting off his jumpsuit, "How dare they treat the leader of Cruxis this way! I should smite them for such insolence! Judge-"

"Cool it, Mithos," Yuan said, "We have somewhere we should be right now. Smite later." With that, the Seraph took off toward the Lezareno Company. Zelos soon followed. Mithos stood there, a raging fire in his eyes as he glared at Hotel Lezareno.

"Insolent humans," he whispered, "I shall return." He the sprouted his wings and followed the other two angels.

Regal stared at a paper that Presea had placed on his desk. He grabbed his pen and attempted sign under the Vice Presidents signature. He failed, quite miserably in fact. He tried again, and failed again. Once more he tried to sign the paper, and once more he failed. The President of the Lezareno Company tried a several more times, but met no more success. He let out a long, contemplative sigh as he stared at the paper once more.

"You know, Regal," Presea began, having watched her friend fail repeatedly for the last hour, "You probably be able to do this if you just took off those blasted handcuffs."

"Presea, you know very well these are the-"

"Yeah, yeah, your crime. Regal, I have but three words for you: Take, Them, Off."

"But, but Mr. Snookums-"

"Forget Mr. Snookums!"

"Angst!"

"Not again…"

"Are we interrupting something?"

The Vice President turned away from the angsting teen trapped in the thirty-two year-olds body to the three angels who had just flown in through the window. "No Zelos."

"Good, because I'd assume we have some preparations to complete," Yuan said.

"Yes, plenty," Presea replied.

"Then let's get crackin'" Zelos said enthusiastically, "The sooner we finish, the sooner I rescue my hunnies."

Lloyd was, as usual, sitting upon his thrown looking quite devilish and drinking his blood red wine. Sheena sat beside him, playing a game of solitaire with her cards. The two of them sat silently as usual, but to anyone who had somehow managed to get pass Kratos and had randomly walked into the throne room, it would have been obvious that they were enjoying each other's company. Colette ran in and tripped an uncountable amount of times before reaching the throne. "Yes, what is it, maid?" the Demon Falcon asked.

"I finished the decorating the great hall, and the corridors, and the attic that no one is allowed into," she said while kneeling before the two tyrants.

"Excellent, excellent," Lloyd replied.

"But-"

"But," Sheena began, "There should never be a but, Colette."

The maid gulped and began to twiddle her thumbs. She looked down at the ground and closed her eyes before speaking, "But those life size statues that you told me to make and put in the garden—the one's that are supposed to be incredibly lifelike—I think I may have sort of put a strand of hair in the wrong place. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!"

"What!" the Card Mistress yelled.

"Colette," Lloyd began, his grip tightening upon his wine glass as little cracks appeared in it, "this… is… the… last straw!" he finished, his glass shattering into several pieces. "I have had it up to here with your incompetence! You can't go anywhere without tripping! You say sorry far too much! You are horrible at cleaning things," he stopped to rub his finger across his throne, one would be unable to see any dust on his hand without the aid of a magnifying glass, "—look at this throne, it's filthy! And to top it all off, you're just not fun to mock anymore."

The poor maid only stood there, unable to think of anything. For her, it was like her entire world had shattered into tiny glass shards that were now embedding themselves into her skin.

"Can I kill her now then, Lloyd?" Sheena asked, a look of sadistic glee crossing her face.

Lloyd, who was now calm once more and had magically pulled a new wine glass out of nowhere, shook his head, "No dear Sheena. We wouldn't want our guests to find any blood on the floor, now would we?"

"Darn," Sheena sighed. She thought for a moment, and then her face considerably brightened, "Colette, go lock yourself in the dungeon. We'll come for you when we're to fully dispose of you."

Colette followed Sheena's orders, crying as she left the throne room and made her way to the dungeon. Lloyd smirked, "You're not even sending an escort with her."

"Of course not, it's not like she has a spine."

The two rulers of Castle Raptor looked at each other, and then broke out in evil laughter, "Ahahahahahahahahahahaha-" They both stopped abruptly, though, when they noticed one thing was missing. "Where's our evil music!" they shouted in unison. The court musicians promptly woke up and hurriedly began to play music that sounded oh so deliciously evil. "Much better," they said, before returning to their maniacal laughing, "Ahahahahahahahahaha!"

Two police officers were surveying Altamira Beach. They had found a man and woman dead, and two other men attempting to stab each other while sing strange songs. They were able to stop the two men, and had questioned them as to what happened here. They had each blamed the deaths of the man and woman on their opponent. Now the police officers were taking a break, trying to sort everything out. "Well, this is quite bad," said one police officer to the other one.

"Sure is, Jim," the other replied.

"Unless either of them has access to magic, and I don't think they do, they can't be the ones who killed these two."

"Sure is, Jim."

Jim waved his hand in front of the other officer, "Are you listening to me Daniel?"

"Sure is, Jim," Daniel replied. He then fell over onto the table.

"Daniel, are you all- oof!" Jim yelled as he was smacked in the head with a staff.

"That was easy," said the staff carrier.

"Of course it was, K—err—Camilla," another man, dressed in green, said. 'Almost slipped there,' he thought.

"Camilla's a girl's name," the staff wielder said indignantly, "Let's go with… Kyle."

"Okay then," said the man in green as they approached the two men who had been questioned. "You two are Bernardo and Riff, are you not?" he asked.

"Who wants to know," Bernardo answered, slowly moving his knife not towards the two mysterious men as one would expect, but towards Riff's kidneys.

"I am Kyle," the staff wielder answered, "and this is my companion, Ro-um-"

"Rhododendron!" the man in green yelled while snapping his fingers.

"Rhododendron," Kyle repeated. "Good save," he whispered to Rhododendron.

"I know," Rhododendron replied.

Riff and Bernardo looked quizzically at the two men, and Riff spoke, "Whaddaya want?"

Rhododendron cleared his throat, "Well, we have come here to tell you that neither of you caused the death of Tony or Maria. The true culprits are two of the Four Seraphim, Yuan and Mithos, and the Chosen of Cruxis, Zelos."

The two street punks were filled with rage at this, "Where can we find these people!" they yelled in synchronization.

"We suspect that these three angels will be attending Lord Lloyd's dinner party tonight," Kyle said, leaning on his staff.

"Exactly how are we supposed to get there?" Bernardo asked, "We're on an island, recuerden?"

Kyle and Rhododendron moved out of the way to reveal to rheairds behind them. "Take those," Rhododendron said as Bernardo and Riff made their way to the rheairds. He then rummaged through his pockets to hand them two shiny orbs and two small crests each, "Take these as well, you'll need them if you hope to defeat those angels."

The two gang leaders hopped on to the rheairds, and took off. "Vengeance is mine!" they both shrieked, Bernardo adding a "¡Por orgulloso y los patos!" as well.

Kyle and Rhododendron looked at each other and simply smirked before walking away.

The rheairds landed on the ground, the moon shining of their metal chassis. The three angels landed next to them, being sure not to make a sound with their feet, but they were arguing about something. "I just don't understand why I should be the girl," the leader of Cruxis began, "I'm the boss, I shouldn't have to!"

"But it's so becoming of your womanly figure, Mithosette," Yuan snickered while pointing to the dress Mithos wore. It was white just as his body suit was, and it reached his feet, which he wore white high heeled shoes over. His face was covered in makeup, and he wore eyeliner around his eyes and long, angel-shaped earrings on his ears. The Lord of Cruxis succeeded in looking quite womanly.

"Besides, you drew the short straw, Yggdrasilia," Zelos mocked, pushing up the sunglasses he wore to make sure they covered his eyes completely. The Chosen wore a black suit and had spray dyed his hair black and wore it in a ponytail. His blue shield was on his back while his laser blade was disguised as a microphone.

"Nice one, Zelos," Yuan commented, "Mithosette Yggdrasilia… I like it." The lightning master had slicked back his hair and he wore a rather intricate suit, not unlike Regal's. In fact, he happened to look very much like a skinnier Regal. In his hands he carried what looked like an awkwardly shaped staff.

"Boys, boys," Presea said, "If you want to stop Lloyd and Sheena, you might want to actually go in the castle."

The three angels looked at each other, shrugged, and walked toward the entrance of Castle Raptor, followed closely by Regal and Presea. There, they were greeted by a doorman, "Mmmyes? Who are you?"

Regal stepped up, made a short bow, and spoke, "I am Regal Bryant, owner and president of the Lezareno Company." He motioned toward Presea, who also made a small bow, "This is the vice president, Presea Combatir." Finally, the President motioned to the three angels, "And these are our guests."

Zelos bowed, "Name's Zealot DeWilde."

Yuan bowed, "I am Anyu Iltnight."

Mithos began to bow, but Yuan discreetly stepped on his foot, and Mithos curtsied, "My name is," the Seraph Leader shuddered involuntarily before finishing, "Mithosette Yggdrasilia…"

The doorman checked his clipboard for Regal and Presea's names and checked them off. "Mmmyes, very good, mmyes. Proceed this way," he said while gesturing to the door behind him. The group entered the great foyer, where banners were hanging from the ceiling and where hundreds of guests were already assembled.

Regal turned to face his co-worker and the three angels, "Well, we should probably split into two groups. Group A will schmooze with Lloyd and Sheena while Group B will find Kratos and get Raine and Kate out of there. Group B will then make their way to just outside the throne room and give Group A signal. We'll all regroup around the rheairds. How's that sound?"

"Works for me," Yuan said.

"No way," Mithos said, "It's not my plan, we're not doing it."

Yuan's eye twitched ever so fractionally before he asked, "Then what is your plan, Mithos?"

"I propose that we form into two groups: Mithos and Yggdrasil. Mithos will distract Lloyd and Sheena with idle chitchat. Yggdrasil, on the other hand, will find Kratos who will then lead them to wherever those dastardly villains have trapped Raine and Kate. Once Yggdrasil has recovered the two scientists, they will reach objective point Cruxis Leader where they'll make some form of signal to grab Mithos's attention. Mithos and Yggdrasil will reform into Mithos Yggdrasil around the rheairds," Mithos finished telling his plan to his comrades, a smug look crossing his face. The entire group proceeded to smack their foreheads. "What?" Mithos asked.

"Mithos, that is the exact same plan Regal suggested, you just changed the words and, in all likelihood, laced it subliminal messages to worship you as a god among men," Yuan said. Mithos simply blew a raspberry at Yuan, who, in response, said, "That's very unbecoming of a woman, Mithosette."

"I hate you," the Seraph responded.

"I know," Yuan smirked. "Anyway, back to the point at hand, I'll find Kratos myself."

Regal looked surprised, "By yourself, that seems dangerous."

"Yes, if I'm not mistaken, your odds of success would drop to fifteen percent," Presea added.

"You seem to be forgetting to take Kratos into account," Yuan said, turning his back to the group. He began to walk away, "Besides, Kratos and I are best friends, in 4000 years you would think we've learned how to watch each other's backs." With that, the blue-haired Seraph was gone.

"Even I have to admit that was kinda cool," Mithos said, "But don't get me wrong, Yuan still sucks."

"Come on, let's go," Zelos began, walking in the direction opposite of Yuan, "We're starting to look suspicious, and looking suspicious hurts my chances with my hunnies."

"Zelos, we are not here fraternize with the opposite sex," Presea said, glaring at the Chosen as she and the others followed him.

"Aw…"

Yuan walked around a brightly lit room, looking from left to right for his brown-haired friend. He had been at this for only a few minutes, but he had already been stopped several times by people who thought he was Regal Bryant. Some wanted favors, some wanted to marry, and there was one nutjob who insisted that he resign as president and harvesting quintessence or some such. Yuan'd have to remember him and tell Regal just in case; he said his name was Galern or Nerlag or something. Finally, he spotted a shadowy corner in the bright room, and Yuan was sure he found him. "Now if I know Kratos like I think I know Kratos, he should be right-"

"Hello Yuan," the Seraph of Judgement said. "Enjoying the party?"

"Shhh! Shhh! Not so loud, Kratos," the Seraph Master of Lightning replied.

"Sorry," Kratos apologized, in a tone that did not sound particularly apologetic, nor did it seem to have any other emotion in it. "I assume your ready."

"Of course," he said, pointing to his staff.

"Then let us go," Kratos said, leading Yuan to the dungeon.

Lloyd and Sheena stood in front of their thrones, shaking hands with many guests, and looking generally jovial. "Ah, nice to see you again," the two said over and over again. Soon, Lloyd spotted the president and vice president of the Lezareno Company and he rushed over to them. "Regal! Presea! How nice it is to see you again!"

"It is quite a pleasure to see you again, Lloyd," Regal replied, taking Lloyd's outstretched hand and entering a conversation that was really about nothing.

"Sheena, you look… nice," Presea said, looking at Sheena's beautiful, but rather revealing dress.

"Jealous?" Sheena asked with a smirk while pointing to Presea's suit.

"I should think I wouldn't be-"

"Girls, girls," Zelos said, walking up from behind Presea, "No need to start hurling insults at each other." He rapped his arms around both women and pulled them close in what would look to most people like a group of long time friends hugging, but, being Zelos, it was most certainly far more suggestive. "You're both quite attractive."

Both women grabbed Zelos hands and moved them off of their bodies. "You seem familiar," Sheena remarked after taking a closer inspection of Zelos's face, "Do I know you?"

Zelos look flustered momentarily, but regained his cool. He bowed and struck a pose, "Name's Zealot DeWilde! Lady killer extraordinaire!"

"Charmed," the Card Mistress replied sarcastically.

The Chosen smirked in an attempt to look sexy, and he succeeded in garnering the attention of many women, Mithos among them, but not for the same reasons. "Zealot!" he said in a panicked tone, "You've got to help me! The men! They won't leave me alone! What's worse is they've all got to be in their nineties!"

Several elderly men, some in wheel chairs, others using canes, approached the Seraph Leader yelling catcalls. "Hey there, hot stuff!" one shouted.

"See! See! They're coming for me! They're coming for me!" Mithos shrieked in terror.

Zelos laughed, "Looks like you've got yourself a fan club, Mithosette."

"Aw man!" Mithos yelled before running away.

The doorman looked up from his clipboard into the faces of two young men, "Mmmmmyes?" The two men simply looked at each other before stabbing the doorman with their switchblade. "Mmmmnoooo!" the doorman yelled before slumping over.

"There's gonna be another fiiiight, toniiiiiight!" they sung as they charged into the castle.

Notes: I'm glad everyone's enjoyed Mithos's dream. We all know just how smug that angel is, it's only fitting he'd have a dream in which he is better than everyone else. Oh, and if anyone knows who Kyle and Rhododendron are, don't spoil it for the people who didn't figure it out. Sure, I didn't hide it particularly well, but some people might not know. So, once again, I'm glad everyone's enjoying the story.