And we're back, with another exciting chapter of Twisted Angel. Introducing a new character this round, and new problems for everyone to deal with.

Making everybody's lives interesting is so much fun!

Oh, yes, yes. I don't own TOS, or Namco, or anything of that ilk. However much I might want to...

And thanks to RoyalFanatic, my constant reviewer. Whack Zelos for me!

Chapter 4: Adanos

"Can't... sleep..." I muttered, tossing the blankets off and sitting up. There was a bit of a commotion outside the inn. Perhaps it was that that had woken me, but...

Well, I wasn't getting back to sleep any time soon. Grabbing my bow, quiver, and guards, I slipped out of the room I was sharing with Colette, strapping the guards on as I went down the stairs of the inn.

I went out the door, up the stairs, and stopped by the notice board. In the main square, two very familiar people were fighting three Desians: two with whips and one with a bow.

Oh, no. They followed us.

Lloyd was busy entangling his swords in one Desian's whip. Genis was whacking the other with his kendama; the two were leaving the bowman unoccupied. Probably not the best idea.

An arrow flew over Genis' head as he landed another blow with the bright red orb on his kendama. Three against two was hardly fair, so I decided to lend my friends a hand. Or an arrow. Whatever.

In a flash, the bowman was on the floor, three arrows sticking out of his chest. Lloyd had killed his in a similar manner, and was going to Genis' aid. It's hard to kill people with a blunt weapon.

They had things in hand. I slung my bow over my shoulder and went toward them, my long steps closing the distance between us easily.

Lloyd had probably known whose the arrow was, and what it heralded. As the last Desian collapsed, he was already turning toward me, a guilty expression on his face. My mouth opened to deliver a lecture of some sort, which was still putting itself together in my head, but Lloyd beat me to it. "Don't say it, Chance, I know I'm not supposed to be here."

I closed my mouth. Opened it. Closed it. Opened it... and talked. "If you're not supposed to be here, then why are you?" I snapped, trying for logic.

"Um." Lloyd started thinking hard, never a pretty sight.

"We can't go back," Genis said helpfully.

"And why the not?" I transferred my angry gaze to him, and he flinched. The angrier I am, the dirtier my mouth gets, sad to say. I start with other languages, and move into our own as I get more upset.

Genis knew this too, as did Lloyd. Several years of being around me had taught them to step carefully when I started swearing.

Genis picked his next words carefully. "It's a bit of a long story. But, um, the short version is that we were banished."

Maybe not such a good word choice. "Banished!" I half-shrieked. I remembered to keep it quiet at the last moment, out of respect for those sleeping. It was the middle of the night, after all.

"Yes, banished, Chance, keep your voice down!" Lloyd hissed. "We've also got the Desians after us. Me. Look." He pointed to the notice board, where a crude but recognizable picture of himself was on a piece of paper under the word, 'WANTED'.

"You're a wanted criminal? Oh, Raine's going to love that," I muttered.

"Oh, yes," Genis replied with feeling.

Footsteps, heavy and booted, sounded from the entrance of the desert city. I whirled, intending to give whoever it was a piece of my mind, but I was cut short by the two balls of light that cannoned into Lloyd and me.

I fell, rather ungracefully. I just had the presence of mind to not fall on my bow before unconsciousness claimed me.

------

I woke sprawled on a cement floor. It took me a while to remember what had happened. When I did, I groaned. The ball of light had hurt, dang it.

I rolled over, onto all fours, ignoring the pounding pain in my head. I stayed there for a moment, canvassing myself for any possible injuries. I didn't feel hurt; if I had been wounded, it was negligible. Weapons, however, were another matter. My kidnappers had seen fit to leave me my arm guards, and the ribbons around my neck and in my hair, but I had no bow, no arrows, and no daggers.

Voices from outside the cell -- for that's what it was, a cell, with barred door and all -- arrested my self-examination. I sat back on my knees and listened.

"If so, I feel sorry for that Lloyd kid," one person said. The two talking were probably guards.

"Yeah, he can't possibly escape execution!" the second jeered.

Execution?

"What about that girl they brought in with him?" the first asked.

Footsteps. Another voice interrupted. "She's not your concern. Lord Yuan has plans for the girl." Great. I'm planned for. Somehow, that just doesn't make me feel as loved as it should. I made a mental note of the name. Yuan.

"Anyway, Lord Botta's calling you," the third Desian went on. "I'll keep a watch over these two." Botta. Another name to remember. Any name with a 'Lord' in front of it was worth keeping track of. Besides, this one sounded familiar.

"Gotcha." Two sets of footsteps heading away.

I looked out of the bars on the door of my cell. Across the way, I could see Lloyd, awake and as confused-looking as I felt. He mouthed something at me, and I tipped my head inquiringly. I couldn't read lips.

His shoulders slumped. Suddenly he perked up again. As the guard passed between our cells and turned to come back, something glinted on my friend's hand. The Sorcerer's Ring! I was suddenly very glad he hadn't given it back.

Fire shot out of the ring and slammed into the guard. He yelped and ran in the opposite direction... away from us! Yes!

"You okay, Chance?" was Lloyd's first question.

"Fine. You?" I asked. "And before you ask, I'm not quite angry with you any more. I'll have to save that for after we get out of here... wherever here is."

"Oh good." He let out a heavy breath. "I'm fine. And I think I can reach the door lock from here."

I watched as he moved to the side of the cell and stuck one hand through the bars, reaching for the button set into the wall. His fingers stretched out and brushed against the button, very lightly, but it was enough. The bars on his cell slid into the wall.

"Great. Get me out," I demanded. "I don't think I can reach."

"Right." He slipped out of the cell and ran across the hallway, triggering the mechanism on mine. The bars lifted away, and I happily came out of the cell.

"Thanks, Lloyd," I said. He waved one hand at me in a 'it-was-nothing' gesture. "So. I vote we get out of here."

"I wonder why," Lloyd said sarcastically.

"Hey. Sarcasm is my department," I told him. "So. First priority is to find where they put our equipment. We won't get far without weapons."

"Okay," he agreed.

We proceeded a few steps into the... ahh... what was it called? Where were we being kept?

Before I could think more over that, Lloyd pointed out something. "Hey, look, isn't that our stuff?"

I looked. Over in one corner, beside a desk of some sort, a pair of swords leaned against the wall beside a very familiar bow. "Yes!" I hissed, springing upon the weapons. I handed Lloyd his swords, which he sheathed, and looked around. No daggers. No quiver, either. How was I supposed to fight if I didn't have arrows?

Oh, that was going to be fun. I cast Lloyd a glance. I really didn't want to have to play the damsel in distress and have him rescue me from every guard that might come our way.

But it looked like I might have to.

With a sigh, I returned to the main path, carrying my bow. "No quiver," I reported. "Which means I'm going to have to rely on you. I can't fight if I don't have any weapons. In hindsight, perhaps I should have learned hand-to-hand fighting as well..."

"Maybe," he said, not unkindly. "Here, I have an idea." That was scary. "Take the Sorcerer's Ring. It might help you defend yourself, at least a little."

"Thanks, Lloyd." I extended my hand, and he dropped the silvery ring into it. I slid it onto my middle finger, smirking inwardly, and dropped my hand to my side. "Shall we go?"

We hadn't gotten much farther down the hall when two Desian guards spotted us. "Prison break!" one shouted.

"Oh crap," I replied. "Um... you didn't see us. We're not here."

They exchanged glances. "What are you talking about? Of course you're here!" the first said.

They charged. I meeped and hid behind Lloyd. I am helpless without a weapon. It's not even funny. I turn from a sharp-tongued, brave young woman to a cowering, scared little girl.

This is why I like my weapons.

Lloyd was a little hard-pressed, fending off two foot soldiers at once. Luckily, they didn't have whips or bows; both were wielding short swords.

He blocked one blow with one of his swords, stabbing at the other guard, who leapt back, out of the way. As he was coming back, Lloyd was able to briefly devote the tender attentions of both his blades to the nearer guard, marking him but not seriously wounding him.

Guard A came back, and Lloyd was again having to fence two-on-one, one of his swords for each of the Desians.

I hadn't before appreciated just how hard it is to fight while defending someone. Not only do you have to not get yourself killed, but you have to make sure nothing gets past you and to the person you're defending. More than once, Lloyd was forced not to take advantage of an opening in order to block a stroke from hitting me.

Eventually, several minutes and curses later, two dead Desians decorated the floor. This was a good thing. For us, at least. Definitely not for them.

Stepping around them, I continued down the hall. "Thanks, Lloyd," I said. "I'd have been so dead if I was alone."

"No problem," he said immediately. "Should we continue?"

"That's what I'm doing," I informed him. We came to the end of the hallway, and a door. It opened as we stepped close to it. I looked up, while Lloyd went through. What made it do that? How did it work?

A moment later, Lloyd dragged me through. The door slid shut behind us.

We approached the center of the new room. It had a large pit in the middle of it, with a glowy thing to one side, vaguely reminiscent of the place where we'd found the Sorcerer's Rings. I would have examined it closer, but Lloyd heard something. "Get down!" he hissed, and tackled me into the pit.

Luckily, it was pretty shallow, though the edge was sharp. I was ready to whack him when the door at the other side of the room opened. A pair of Desians came in, looked around, and then made to go back in, but the door was locked. They made a great show of electrifying the little machines that ran around the room and placing them on two pads before leaving. That must be the door lock mechanism.

I clambered out of the hole. "I appreciate the gesture, Lloyd, but could you not tackle me next time?" I requested.

"I didn't exactly have a choice," he responded, perhaps a touch snappishly. "It's not like there was time to explain."

"True," I admitted. "But still..." Putting that aside, I went to examine the glowy thing. I had absolutely no idea what purpose it served. Curiously, I put my right hand into it, and pulled it back a second later. A strange shock had run down my arm from the Sorcerer's Ring. "Um, Lloyd, is it supposed to do that?" I asked nervously. The gem was now a bright electric blue. I waved it, and a ball of electricity shot out. "I didn't know it did that."

He shrugged. "Hey, don't look at me. You want Genis or the Professor for that."

"We don't exactly have either of them," I pointed out. "But I think I just figured out how to get to the next room. You know those little things running around in here?" I pointed out the two cream-colored things, busily whirring around the room. "I need you to catch them, one at a time, and hold them down over those two blue pads." I pointed those out, too.

"Sounds easy enough," Lloyd replied, and, without further ado, threw himself atop the nearest one. It started making funny noises, squirming to get free as he dragged it over to the closer of the two blue pads. He held it there while I adjusted my aim.

"Okay..." I fired the ring at the thingy, shouting, "Let go!" He started back, and the little thing was struck by the ball of electricity. Blue crackled over it, and it floated in place, over the pad.

"Again," I directed. Lloyd rolled his eyes, but obeyed my direction. Soon enough, there were two little thingies floating on their pads, and Lloyd and I were through the door.

This hallway was surprisingly empty. Nevertheless, I tiptoed. Lloyd just clomped along beside me, negating any attempt at stealth I was making, but maybe there was no one listening. Maybe I would get lucky.

We actually made it to the end of that hallway without being spotted. I breathed a sigh of relief as we slipped inside the next room.

This one had a strange machine in the center of it, and two doors leading out, not counting the one we'd entered through.

"So. Banished, huh?" I said, almost idly, as I poked various things in the room, hoping to find an instruction manual for the machine.

He gulped audibly. "Eh, it's a bit of a long story."

"How long do you think we have here, genius-boy?" I asked, strolling over to a black-topped pedestal set into the ground. Oh, hey, instructions!

I listened with half an ear as Lloyd startled babbling something about 'not very long, they might catch up with us,' and resolved that if he said something useful, I'd pay attention. In the mean time, though, I'd read the instructions.

'Cube Lock,' the heading read. 'This lock is configured for three doors. The electrical devices to operate the lock must be charged with some form of electricity in order to turn it. The different colors must be aligned to make the different doors open: red with red, green with green, and blue with blue.'

I looked back at the machine in the center. Sure enough, in the middle of it were three colored dots, placed in a circle; around the edge, on a different, raised circle, were three more dots, in different places. That might make sense. Lloyd had shut up by now, and I looked over at the devices on the wall. Three pillars, each marked with a different number. One was 180, one was 90, and the last was 45.

Angles, perhaps? And electrical energy... I looked at the Sorcerer's Ring. It was still blue. I studied the center device again, now, seeing what had to be done. Aligning the green ones would take a 90-degree rotation.

I stepped up to the so-marked pillar and fired the ring. The ball of electricity lit the pillar up, and the circle around the cube revolved. Lloyd jumped back. "Whoa, Chance, what did you do? It moved!"

"We have a winner," I sighed as the circle stopped and the dots aligned. A green light flicked on, and a mechanical voice chimed, "Door to control room opened."

"Well, let's go!" Lloyd said happily, and walked speedily toward the door. Adjusting the bow across my back, I followed.

The door slid open for us, and we stepped into another hallway. It branched to the left a bit farther along. We stood at that intersection for a bit, me looking straight, Lloyd looking left.

"Let's go straight," I decided after a few seconds. Then, of course, a Desian soldier pounded down that hallway.

"You two, halt!" he called.

Lloyd was already running. I wasted absolutely no time in following him through the first door on the right in the branching hallway. It slid shut behind us. I listened, heart pounding in my chest, as footsteps thundered by.

The boy breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, that was close."

"For once, you showed some sense, finding this door," I agreed. "Thanks for that. Dang it, I'm going to owe you after this, aren't I?"

He flashed me a smug grin. "Yes."

"Excuse me," a dry voice said from behind us, "but just who the hell are you?"

I froze, and shot Lloyd a venomous look. "Maybe I don't owe you, if you've just gotten us into more trouble," I warned him quietly as we both slowly turned around.

There were two people in the room. One, the standing one and presumably the one who had just spoken, had long, bright blue hair pulled back in a tail at the base of his neck. A dark blue cloak covered most of him... save for his extended hand, which had a ball of glowing light in front of the palm, undoubtedly magic of some kind.

The other one was a boy who looked to be about my age. He was kneeling on the floor at the far side of the room, by the wall, his right arm pressed against his chest. His shaggy white-blond hair hid his eyes, but his mouth was set in a tight-lipped grimace of pain.

Lloyd was speaking, and I decided it might be best if I listened. Maybe I could make sure he didn't put his foot in his mouth. "Give me your name, and I'll give you mine," he was saying.

I would have slapped myself if it wouldn't have undermined my image, what there was of it. Lloyd, could you not come up with something more original?

At the sound of another voice, the boy in the back looked up, catching my attention with his piercing green eyes. "Help me," he mouthed.

My decision was made. I was sworn to regenerate the dying world, and there was no way I was going to let people suffer when I could prevent it. Before the blue-haired man could say anything, I stepped in between them. "Okay, you two, enough male posturing. We all have the same questions."

The light ball faded. The threatening man and Lloyd both looked at me incredulously. "Male posturing?" they repeated, disbelievingly.

I swallowed hard, but I couldn't back down now. "Yeah. You don't really need to impress anyone. Besides, I can guess your name." I focused the full brunt of an annoyed stare on the other man. "You're acting arrogant and self-important; you're in a richly furnished room; you can wield magic; and, to top it off, there's a frightened-looking human in the same room with you. You must be heading up this... facility. I've heard only two names that could possibly be attached to you: Lord Yuan or Lord Botta."

"How did you figure that out?" Lloyd wondered, looking at me, astonished. It was simple logical reasoning, but most of his reasoning revolved around battlefield tactics, and not logic.

The blue-haired man arched one fine eyebrow of a similar color. "Your reasoning is surprisingly sound," he admitted.

"Great. Which one is it?" I asked, pressing what little advantage I might possibly have.

Before he could say anything, though, the door slid open behind us, and there was the black-haired guy from the Temple, and I put things together. He'd been called Botta, so this guy must be Yuan.

"Never mind. Your name's Yuan." I smiled impishly at him. Lloyd grunted, while Yuan and Botta looked a little discomfited.

Botta was not to be distracted from what he had to say, though. "Lord, as you may have seen, the prisoners have escaped."

Yuan glanced between us, settled on Lloyd. "Ah... so you're Lloyd? Hmm... I see the resemblance." What the...? "Botta, do you know who this girl is?"

"She's the Chosen's sister," Botta said stiffly.

I sighed. "Okay, fine. My name is Eurydice. You seem to know everyone else's names." These people weren't getting to call me Chance.

"In any case, sir, the Chosen's party has entered the building, and they're headed this way," Botta continued.

Yuan's eyes lit up. "Let them come!" he ordered.

The heavyset Desian coughed. "Sir, Kratos is with them."

"Everything will be ruined if he sees me," Yuan muttered, half to himself. "Take care of them, Botta."

Without waiting for an answer, Yuan turned. The boy in the corner had been watching our exchange, tracking the conversation as words flew between us. Now, as Yuan came toward him, he cringed, ducking his head again. Yuan grabbed the boy by the collar of his ragged clothes, and started to drag him toward the other door in the room with more-than-human strength.

The fair-haired boy struggled against the man's grip. "Help!" he screamed.

"Lloyd!" I shrieked. "I have no weapons!"

Taking my point, Lloyd sprang forward, sword drawn. Yuan released his prisoner an instant before the razor-sharp blade would have removed his hand. I was sure he was going to attack Lloyd, but instead, he slipped through the other door and vanished. The boy crumpled to the floor. Apparently Yuan was sure Botta was going to take care of us.

I came over to Lloyd and unslung my bow, laying it on the ground as I knelt beside the boy. He needed a better name than that, but it would have to wait until he was well. "Lloyd, I hate to play damsel in distress too often, but I think you're going to have to defend me."

He unsheathed his other sword. "We'll be fine," he said, but his tone was unconvincing. "You heard the blue guy, Colette's on her way."

Botta produced a giant sword out of just about nowhere. "Prepare to die," he hissed.

"I'd rather not," I squeaked.

Then the door we'd come through slid open again. There were Kratos, Genis, and Colette. "Lloyd, you're okay!" Genis cried.

"Chance!" Colette put in. "You're both all right!"

"Yeah." I glanced between them and Botta. "Two orders of business: don't get killed and defeat this guy. Where's Raine?"

"She went to open an escape route," Kratos responded, already moving between Botta and his target. The others followed.

Botta smiled grimly. "I can take care of you all at once!" He attacked.

His Rock Breaker attack flew into Lloyd, and rocks rocketed over my head, leaving dents in the wall. I flinched, ducking a little in reflex as I looked at the boy. The noises of battle rang in my ears as I tried to get him to uncurl from his fetal position.

It was like trying to get a grub to uncurl. More than once, I had to duck as rocks flew over my head; at one point, sharp rocks jabbed up from the ground, scant centimeters from my behind. "Hey, watch it!" I yelled over my shoulder.

"Not my fault!" Lloyd yelled back.

"I don't care!" I shouted.

While I was yelling at the battlers, the spellcaster in particular, the boy had uncurled, a little. As I turned my eyes back to him, he stared at me through his veritable mane of whitish hair. This was an improvement. "Are you all right?" I asked, having to practically scream to make myself heard over the noise of spells, swords, and breaking rocks.

"Not quite," he answered, wincing. "My arm--"

"Got it. But can you walk, say, out of here?" I interrupted. Botta was wearing down, and if Raine made any mistakes with the Desian technology, we might have to run out of there very, very fast.

"Perhaps." He sounded doubtful. "With help, maybe."

"Okay." I looked back over my shoulder, watching the battle.

Kratos and Lloyd slammed Demon Fangs into Botta's sword at the same moment, and the blade broke off, shattering on the ground. He was left clutching a broken hilt. He looked from it to us, then dropped the hilt. "I underestimated your power," he muttered as he ran out.

That done, I figured we were in the clear. Colette ran over to me. "Chance, you're all right!" she exclaimed. "But... who's this?"

"I don't know," I replied calmly. "But I couldn't let one of the Desians drag him off to do who knows what to him, could I?"

She shook her head emphatically. "No, of course not!"

Raine came in, saw the sword, and walked over to it, plucking a blue gem out of it. "Hey, is this an Exsphere?"

"Good to see you, Raine," I said. "I don't know about that, ask Kratos or Lloyd. Did you get the escape route open?"

"Yes, who's this?"

The clash of swords was still ringing in my ears. I tapped one experimentally. "Everyone's going to ask me that. I don't know, like I said. But I wasn't going to let a Desian carry him off to do who knows what to him."

"Thank you," the boy put in. "I think I do owe you my life."

"Um, what did he want you for, anyway?" I inquired. As I waited for an answer, I moved around to his left side, wrapping an arm around his middle and draping his good arm over my shoulders. He staggered a bit as I pulled him to his feet, one leg buckling beneath him.

"It's a long story," he said, between gasps. "Ouch."

"Let's get out of here, back to the inn," Raine advised. "All can be explained there. I, for one, want to know more about Exspheres." She tucked the blue sphere into one of the pockets of her orange coat.

"Right," Lloyd agreed. "Chance, I'll take your bow."

"Thanks," I said, and was reminded of something. "Oh, yeah, Raine, I'm sorry, but that quiver's disappeared. I couldn't find it anywhere. Which means, from now on, I'm going to have to buy arrows in the towns we come across. There's no time for me to be asleep for a week."

"We'll deal with that later!" she warned, holding up a hand. "I'm fairly certain I got just the locks, but I might have managed to trip a trap, as well. We should get out of here."

Raine lead the way, followed by Genis, then Colette, then Lloyd, this last holding my bow and occasionally almost tripping over it. Kratos let the unnamed boy and me go ahead of him, bringing up the rear, apparently content with the slow, limping pace me and the boy managed to accomplish.

"What's your name?" the boy asked me as we were passing through the Cube Lock chamber.

"Huh? Oh, my name's Eurydice, but just about everybody calls me Chance." I gave him a winning smile. "What about you?"

"My name is Adanos."

Okay then! Okay, a bit later than Friday, but close enough. There was a powerout, and I couldn't get it up when I wanted to. So oh well.

I honestly have no clue when I'm going to put the next part up. I do need input, though. There are two possible things I could do with Adanos, and I can't decide between them.

I'm not going to tell you, either… that'd spoil the surprise. The two options are A and B; if you review, please specify which letter you prefer, in your review.

Thanks!

EbonyShadows