Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to a) Baten Kaitos b) Fire Emblem or c) Mountain Dew. Actually, this is the first chapter where I do not make a reference to Mountain Dew. I put it in the disclaimer out of tradition.

This chapter will contain, as usual, cursing and spoilers for Baten Kaitos. Previous chapters have contained unhealthy amounts of caffeine consumption. I personally believe that if you cut Astarael open, her blood would be 25 percent Mountain Dew… but that's not really the point. On with the story!

Chapter 4: Warnings of Pain

Crack!

Her whip snapped forward effortlessly, with a speed and grace achieved by long hours of practice, and wrapped around the hapless creature. With a jerk of her wrist, she pulled it back. Blood and fur went flying everywhere as the shuriken embedded in her whip tore the monster to pieces, and as the whip came back it wrapped around yet another monster.

"Sure, I can get you the stuff. But why are you making a weapon, Astarael?" Kala asked, her brown eyes darkening.

"I'll explain when you get back. Just take the money and go," Astarael snapped, shoving the fistful of bills into Kala's hands. Kala's glare said that the younger girl had some major explaining to do…

Crimson droplets flew everywhere. There was nothing left moving in the small clearing but the lone woman, who was panting and covered in blood.

The dark sky opened up, and the rain that had been threatening all day started falling. She had always thought, as a child, that the sky always looked like it was crying when it did this.

"Time to go home," Astarael said darkly.

The rain fell on the roof.

Astarael screamed and kicked her white gorilla.

No internet access, no video games, no ANYTHING that made her life fun. Except killing things.

Because that was all her parents didn't know about. The killing. That's what you get for being honest…

"What a sick little girl am I," she muttered, as she kicked her wards against evil up from 'disable' to 'flash fry'. She REALLY wanted to see something burn. And all because of some stupid pieces of paper that didn't really have any bearing on anything.

When did I become so violent?

There was only one place she really wanted to be, one place that she would never see again. Someplace where life was more about getting ahead.

She kicked the gorilla again and listened to the rain fall, silently telling herself that she didn't want to go out and destroy something. She was lying again, of course.

Kalas leaned against the wall of the Magic Institute, trying to tell himself that he wasn't annoyed at Mizuti for being late (Stupid… she said that she had something very important to tell them, and then she didn't show up!). It was a very warm morning, and he was having trouble keeping hiss eyes open for some reason… and Xelha had left to search the city for Mizuti and hadn't come back yet…

It was really aggravating to be falling asleep while he was annoyed, but…

A girl with short blue hair screamed and threw herself on the ground as a hail of bullets flew over her head. Blood was already leaking out of a large gash in her tight-fitting navy blue top, darkening the color to almost black and staining her kaki slacks a vibrant crimson…

She hit the ground on her injured side and was already rolling when a blur of color slammed into her previous position.

"You'll have to do better than that!" sneered Folon, despite the fact that parts of his blue/orange hair were slick with his own blood. The girl whirled, bringing her weapon (A whip with sharp, pointy things sticking out of it) to bear, and it wrapped around his waist. Kalas couldn't see her face, her hair was obcuring it…

"I don't need to do any better than this to defeat you," the girl snarled. And multicolored wings erupted from her slender, almost wraithlike figure, and she started to chant… "I am the Fire, hear my voice! Guardian Spell: Hellfi-"

"Crazy Rabbit!" shrieked a feminine voice from behind the girl (Kalas could recognize it. It belonged to Ayme). And the blue-haired girl screamed in pain as the bullets ripped through her, her yellow eyes going so wide Kalas thought they might pop out of her head.

Wait.

Time out.

Yellow eyes? Blue hair?

"Astarael?" Kalas gasped, jerking awake so quickly that he nearly fell over. He recovered quickly, his glare daring anyone to laugh. Of course, since everyone passing by could guess easily who he was (keeping something as big as the defeat of a god secret wasn't very easy…) they all looked away and quickly found other things to do.

She hadn't looked the same as she had when they had parted company a year ago. First off, she had looked solid. Well, duh, she did have her body back now, so that made sense. Her hair had also been longer the last time he had seen her, and the last eight inches a medium brown color. But it had definitely been Astarael. He'd recognize her voice anywhere.

"Just a dream," he muttered, kicking the ground. But some nagging little voice in the back of his head refused to believe that. "Well it's not like she'd ever be fighting Ayme and Folon in real life. No one's seen them since Malpercio was defeated. For all I know, they're both dead." And he fervently hoped that they were. Even though they had helped defeat Malpercio, Kalas couldn't forgive them for the part they had played in killing his 'grandfather' and brother, Fee. Having to confront them now, when he essentially owed them one would be… awkward. (1)

"Just a dream," Kalas repeated more firmly as he started scanning for Xelha and Mizuti. He was very pissed at both of them at the moment. It was THEIR fault he'd had that strange dream, after all. If only Mizuti had been on time…!

Not thinking about it, remember? He reminded himself.

9:04 pm. Astarael was 'asleep'.

Translation: she was playing Fire Emblem on her emergency Gameboy Advance SP, the one that really belonged to Azil that she usually hid between the mattress and the boxsprings of her bed. (Yeah, she shouldn't have nicked it, but it had just been sitting in the family room collecting dust for two MONTHS, it was a crime against video gaming systems. It had been there, demanding to be played. Who was she to say no?)

…stupid frickin' parents… damn midmarkingperiod reports… damn flying things that spit magic that ruin my backpack… damn life in general… she grumbled as her paladin cut through one of the enemy magic users.

Fire Emblem was one of those games that she could probably play forever. But she didn't really have time to be doing this. She should really be making lists of things that could explain the monsters suddenly developing magical powers. Or a possible list of reasons for her mother NOT to replace her beloved purple backpack with a rolling monstrosity.

But really, this is more fun, she thought absently as the enemy decided to throw themselves uselessly at her paladins, which resulted in them being cut to pieces. She could worry about those things tomorrow…

A huge peal of thunder startled her slightly. No, she was definitely not going back out tonight. Which meant that she got to enjoy a rare night off without her conscience nagging her.

Just have to go to bed at midnight, 'cause I made that stupid promise to Selih. Yay, another night ended with nightmares about white wings…

About half an hour later, Xelha and Mizuti showed up, both looking a little worse for wear. Kalas's annoyance dissolved instantly, replaced by rage. Who had dared to attack them! He was going to knock some heads in, that was for sure…

About half an hour later, Xelha and Mizuti showed up, both looking a little worse for wear. Kalas's annoyance dissolved instantly, replaced by rage. Who had to attack them! He was going to knock some heads in, that was for sure…

"What happened to you to?" he asked immediately, blunt as usual.

"Erm… we sort of got jumped by some toughs. Well, I did, anyway. Normally, that wouldn't be such a big deal, but I kinda… left my deck at the inn…"

"Don't look so angry, Kalas!" Mizuti piped up. "The Great Mizuti took care of them! But that be beside the point. The Great Mizuti be finding a rift between dimensions! We can go visit the Spirit!"

"What?" Kalas spluttered, dumbfounded, flashing back to that unpleasant dream – just a dream, just a dream! – and staring as Mizuti.

"Really?" Xelha asked.

"Really. Truly. Completely and absolutely," Mizuti replied happily.

"Do you think that this has something to do with the strange way the Artifacts (2) have been acting lately?" Xelha asked.

"Maybe. Perhaps. Possibly," Mizuti replied "Would you show the Great Mizuti one or the Artifacts?"

Obediently, Xelha took off the Earth Pendant, which she always wore and handed it to the oddly clad sorceress. Mizuti looked at it. The Earth Pendant looked the same as always… except for the faint black hairline cracks that ran through its white surface. Kalas flinched slightly. There were more cracks than he had remembered.

"The other two Artifacts are the same," Xelha said darkly.

"Hmm… this be bad. The Great Mizuti has a theory, though."

"Well, spit it out!" Kalas snapped. Mizuti grated his nerves sometimes…

"Well… since the Guardian's power is what repaired the Artifacts, perhaps if something happened to her…"

"Do you think that Astarael might be in danger?" Xelha asked. "But what could possibly be powerful enough to pose a threat to her?"

"The Great Mizuti do not know, Xelha. However, none of us really know anything about Astarael's homeland," Mizuti pointed out.

They all brooded over that for a moment. Then, Kalas broke the silence.

"We're heading for Alfard," He snapped.

"Huh?" Xelha asked.

"We need to get in tough with Lyude. Then Savyna and Gibari, but they're going to be harder to find. We're going to pay a visit to Astarael, and get to the bottom of this…"

The girl with black wings extended a tendril of power at the wards, only to have a dehibilating burning paintossed at her over the link. What had possessed the Guardian to strengthen her wards to killing levels? Did she know?

No, it was too early for her to have figured it out. Humans tended to overlook the evil that festered right underneath their noses…

Until it was too late to do anything about it, anyway…

They black-winged girl laughed quietly to herself. Soon, things were going to get interesting…

Eh heh heh… My midmarking period report was ALMOST as bad as Astarael's. So, during the week, I am on lockdown, which sucks muchly(No internet access for Phoenixfire1389.) I'll try to keep up with updates.

Anyway… like the name of the chapter? Well, be on the lookout for 'Warnings of…' chapters in the future. Or any chapter in which Astarael dresses in a navy blue shirt and kaki pants… (evil grin)

Also, if I spelled names of people/places in the game wrong... I have never claimed to be anything but an abysmal speller, and these are not the sorts of things that spellcheck can fix. So if you find anything wrong with spelling or gramar, please tell me!

Oh, and Kalas, Xelha, and Mizuti are currently in Komo Mai. I'm not sure if I specified that in previous chapters.

1: I will now explain the previous little paragraph, since I know that some of the people reading this story haven't played much Baten Kaitos. And this is a spoiler if you have not beaten the game. Ayme, Giacomo and Folon worked for Emperor Geldoblame, and were trying to kill our beloved Kalas for a vast portion of the game, and he was trying to kill them. Ayme and Folon stop after Kalas kills Giacomo (with the help of the Guardian Spirit :-)). Then, near the end of the game, Ayme and Folon use Alfard's End Magnus to help break the barrier around Malpercio's fortress, Cor Hydrae, so our heroes can go in and kill Malpercio (But spare Melodia, urk, she should have died, I hated her so much...) So yeah, they're evil… but sort of not. Kalas still hates them for killing his family.

2: The three Artifacts (The Ocean Mirror, the Earth Pendant, and the Sword of Heaven) were key in defeating Malpercio. They all got broken at some point or another, and were repaired by the Guardian Spirit during the final battle.

Now... reviewer responses!

wingsofheart: I will! And I hope you like this chapter too! I haven't had time to finish reading your Baten Kaitos stories (curses her parents and their stupid grades fixation) but that's what I'm going to do next.

Luna-Starr: Nope, the evil girl isn't Melodia. But, with as much as Astarael hates Melodia, I assure you that she will make an appearance. And yeah, Melodia was pretty awful, I hated her so much! That, and I frankly think that she seduced some of the otherevil guys. Namedly, Geldoblame and that guy you have to fight before you go in and defeat the evil Kalas... can't remember his real name right now. Even though they never come out and say it in the game, this is my little theory.

Coatlicue7: You really should get the game as soon as possible. I'm glad you like my story so much, even though you probably shouldn't read it until after youplay the game. just know that this is chock full of spoilers (Hands you an official looking piece of paper that reads 'you have been warned...')