A/N: AHAHAAH! Booboo, if you had just googled up his name, I'm sure you would have found it. No, I don't mean Ken like Barbie and Ken! And actually, now I don't have a beta reader anymore. I think I might just do the rest of this myself. Matt has offered to beta read, but now I'm thinking I'll just save that for when I start to post up the sequel... I'm bad! I started writing the first chapter when I should have been writing for Runaway. Now what have we learned? If Dragonwings says "I'll update tomorrow with five thousand words" I will probably update five days later, or the same day, with either two or ten thousand words. (:grins:) aha. Oh well.

It started as a single pinprick on his cheek. By the time they were over Iselia, Yuan was soaked through. He didn't feel most of the rain because of what was left of his Cruxis Crystal, but he could tell that the brat was having a hard time staying on his Rheiard. Narrowing his eyes at the inconvenience and to keep the water out of his eyes, he flipped his communicator headset to 'on'. "Sage," he said into the microphone, "Feeling up for four more hours of flying in this weather?"

The navy blue Rheiard flew closer so that he could see the driver clearly, even in the thick cascading waterfall surrounding them.

"No way!" Genis said, the almost manic passion in his voice sounding clearly through the static. "Kloitz is in Triet, right? Then we- not- w- wuh-whatchoo!" Genis sneezed, and the Rheiard jerked to the side almost colliding with Yuan. Yuan flew back a safe distance from Genis.

"Watch what you're doing, Sage!" He yelled into the microphone, waving one fist above his head.

"We're not stopping 'till we reach Triet!" Genis said, speeding up.

Yuan gritted his teeth and flapped his wings once or twice to gain on the half-elf. "Kloitz might be in Triet," he said, stressing the word 'might.' "Listen, I don't even know why I'm arguing. There's nothing to argue about." Flapping his wings again, he twisted in midair until he was right in front of the speeding Rheiard. Bracing himself, he reached out and grabbed the handlebars as the Rheiard slammed into him. Slapping Genis's hands away from the controls, he forced the Rheiard to slow until it was hovering in midair.

"You're going to listen to me, boy, because if anyone is in charge of this little duo here it's me."

"Ah- ah-" Genis said. His head jerked forward. "At-choo!"

"If it wasn't for you," Yuan continued. "Kloitz would be dead, I wouldn't be feeling cold because my Cruxis Crystal wouldn't have been broken, and you wouldn't be sick."

Genis put both hands to his mouth, unable to answer due to his sudden sneezing fit. "Atchoo! Ah-at-choo!" His eyes spoke well enough for him, though, because if looks could kill Yuan would be falling through the air like a stone. He flipped off his communicator.

"And!" Yuan said, not done. He leaned forward to yell in Genis's ear. "You are of no use to me if you're dead! So stop acting like a brat and start using your head and tell me where we can get shelter around here!"

Genis hesitated a moment, wiping the fog off of his goggles. Then he took the controls back from Yuan and glided down into the forest, slow enough to let Yuan know he wasn't trying to make a break for it. Yuan sighed, sliding his wet blue hair out of his face and following Genis. He saw the navy Rheiard land and the rider stumble off of it. Landing lightly on his feet, he walked behind Genis through the rain until they reached a cave opening.

Genis trudged inside, dripping water from his new blue coat. Collapsing on the floor with a grunt, he rested his back against the cave wall and snapped off his goggles to glare at Yuan. "Hap- hap- choo! Happy now?"

"I won't be happy until Kloitz is dead," was Yuan's curt response as he moved over to the other side of the cave, wrapping his cape around himself and listening closely to the sounds of the storm. The moment things began to let up, he planned to drag Sage out and dump him on his Rheiard and see if Kloitz hadn't moved on to wreck more havoc already. Sighing again, he held his hand up to his face and looked at the hairline crack on his Cruxis Crystal. He jumped when he heard a loud clattering sound at his feet, and then glowered again when he saw that Genis had just dumped some firewood on the floor. He held out a hand, chanting the words of magic, and soon the flames were casting eerie shadows on the cave walls.

"It could be worse, kid," Yuan said, watching the steam rise from his clothing. The familiar warmth of a fire was soothing, almost as if he hadn't been four thousand years without being able to feel anything like it. He could have been sitting there with Kratos, if he just closed his eyes and remembered. "You could be with Lloyd and your sister instead of me. They would have turned around for Iselia long ago, I'm betting."

"Sage, Kid, Brat," Genis shook his head, dumping his coat on the floor. "You seem to call me everything but my real name. Not that it matters, I guess. Once I kill Kloitz, y- yuh- yuhchoo!" Genis rubbed his nose, shivering despite the warmth of the fire. "You're going back to your place in Triet."

"I'd be there right now if I could teleport." Yuan raised his fist up at Genis, the hairline crack painfully obvious when the crystal was glowing as it was now. "So stop whining and sit down. I'll take the watch."

"Sure you won't fall asleep?"

"I can't, remember?"

"Right. Whatever." Genis settled down on top of his coat, turning so that his back was facing Yuan. Outside, the storm continued to rage. Yuan barely moved from his spot crouched on the floor, much like Kratos had in the original journey to regenerate the world with Colette. Kratos had had to then fake sleep when his watch was over, but this time Genis knew that he could sleep the night away. Yuan pulled a dagger out from under his cape, slowly twirling it between his fingers. The naked blade reflected the moonlight and the light from the fire, and to someone who had only walked in to see the shadows that the fire cast might have mistaken him for an ogre, plotting something sinister deep within the cave.

Twirling the dagger, his eyes moved to watch the sleeping teenager, making his mind move to why he was bothering to stay here.

Yuan saw the Rheiard crash into the ground, mentally going over the costs of repairing the damage while tracking the silver-haired thief's position as he leapt off of the out-of-control machine at the last second. He slammed into the ground, rolling away from the burning wreckage and then rested on his back, breathing heavily as Yuan lightly stepped onto the ground after dissolving his wings. Kloitz stood up, shakily, one hand over the glowing stone embedded into his hand. Then he burst into fits of laughter.

"Good!" he said, catching his breath. "That's... so... good! I had no idea of this sheer power that these crystals grant you! Will I be able to fly as well?" He craned his neck, trying hard to see if perhaps a small pair had sprouted on his back already.

"Give that to me now, Kloitz. You don't know what it is you have."

"Feh." Kloitz shrugged carelessly, cracking his neck. "Give me one good reason why I should listen to you."

"If you wear that without a device called a key crest, you will die."

Kloitz was silent for a moment. "... That's a pretty convincing argument," he admitted, almost sheepishly. "I'll need to look into that when I'm done here."

Yuan tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, pulling his cape back with one hand to show the sword strapped to his hip to Kloitz. "You're mistaken if you think I will let you live long enough for the Cruxis Crystal to kill you," he said, drawing the sword. The hilt was too long, long enough for both hands to grip it comfortably, yet he held it with one hand.

"Thbbbb!" Kloitz's scarred and leathered face seemed to grow years younger as he childishly pulled down his eyelid and blew a loud raspberry at Yuan.

Yuan's eyebrow twitched as his steel-toed boots tore up the ground, unsheathing his sword and slashing out at Kloitz in one smooth moment. Kloitz stepped to the side and Yuan followed up with a few more even strokes, carefully monitoring every breath and twitch of muscle, trying to see if Kloitz had any style he was familiar with.

Kloitz flew clear over Yuan's head, activating a switch on his black bulky gloves. Whzzz! There was a mechanical whir and by the time he had landed behind Yuan in a three-point stance, two blades now ran parallel to the backs of his hands. Grinning, he turned and slashed at Yuan's back, but the seraphim had leapt up into the air. Kloitz rolled out of the way of the metal-plated boots and avoided being decapitated a few times before managing to get back on his feet and face Yuan.

"Damn," Kloitz said. "You are an interesting one."

Yuan said nothing. He glanced over at the smoldering Rheiard. There was no hope of ever repairing the machine now, and all because of this thief. Yuan's eyes narrowed and he twirled the sword in his hand once before charging yet again. Kloitz sidestepped, dropping low and slashing with his new glove blades. Yuan hopped out of the way and smashed his boot down on the blade, snapping it at the hilt. Kicking it to the side, he thrust his sword point down to where Kloitz should have been. If he hadn't teleported to right behind Yuan. "Surprise!" He shouted joyously. He kicked the back of Yuan's knees, making him fall like a house of cards. Yuan was almost too shocked to act. No! He's only had it for a day with no tutor, and yet he...?

Yuan rolled away, almost tripping over his own cape in his haste to get away. Kloitz was doubled up in laughter again, holding onto his sides as if they threatened to burst. "Having trouble?" he asked.

"Just die already!" Yuan spat.

"No way," Kloitz said in response, for a moment glancing at something behind Yuan. The hairs on the back of Yuan's neck shot straight up in alarm and he heard it then, a faint rustling in the trees that the wind or other animals couldn't account for. He whirled around and locked sword with none other than Kuchinawa. Kloitz grinned and rushed in to attack Yuan's unprotected back.

Whzz! There was another mechanical whir.

Shhnk.

What had once been an ordinary ex-sphere enhanced sword was now a double-bladed sword. The long hilt, which had looked odd- even ridiculous- on the normal blade now made sense as Yuan gripped it with both hands, knocking both of his enemies back. He leapt into the air, staying there with his wings unfurled. Yuan's wings made the day seem dull in comparison as the scorching hot winds gathered at his feet, his sword tip pointed directly at Kloitz.

"Judgment!"

Kloitz threw his arms up in front of him; "Force Field!" he said as Kuchinawa flitted out of the danger zone with eerie speed.

When the smoke cleared Yuan had almost cleaved his sword through Kloitz's torso. Managing to deflect the blow, Kloitz stumbled back, parrying and blocking as best as he could. "Kuchinawa!" he shouted over the clang of steel against steel. "Help me!"

Yuan swung his sword low, and when Kloitz jumped over the obvious attack he quickly moved and swatted him away with the flat of one of his swords, sending the silver haired thief to the ground. Running over, he slammed one boot down on the glove blades, snapping it clean off at the hilt. Twirling out of the way as Kuchinawa rushed in, Yuan snatched off his cape and tangled the ninja in it, forcing him to collide with his partner. Using the confusion of all the mess to his advantage, he leapt into the air and called out again:

"Judgment!"

Kloitz looked up at the bolt of lightning came crashing down, vainly lifting his arms over his face as if that would protect him.

"No!"

"No!"

Yuan was rudely awakened by the angry shout. Seeing the mess of spiky silver hair and feeling the hands shaking his shoulder, he thought it was Kloitz trying to throttle him. With a yell, he exploded into action and knocked Kloitz onto his back, pinning him there with his dagger to his throat.

"You- you moron!" Genis sputtered.

"...Oh," Yuan said, taking his dagger away. "It's just you." He looked around him at the cave. Using his internal clock, he could tell that it was only a few hours later than when he had... slept? Slept. For the first time in over four thousand years. The fire was nothing but ashes.

"Just me, huh?"

"Well, you're certainly not Kratos when it comes to battle. What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is you fell asleep!" Genis accused him, beginning to wriggle now that the heavy, armor-wearing seraphim wasn't trying to kill him. "And get off of me! I'm starting to feel violated."

Yuan's eyebrow twitched and he considered staying there. He could knock the boy unconscious, bind and gag him with his own clothing, and then set off- alone- to find Kloitz. But then he thought better of it. As things stood, he didn't know of a way to stop Kloitz without Genis's help. Besides, if he did that then the kid would really start to think Yuan was trying to "violate" him. As if he knew what it was like to be violated in any way.

So instead, Yuan took a big fistful of Genis's hair and shoved the side of his face into the cave floor. "Please apologize for insinuating that I am a homosexual."

"Cripes! Let me go!" Genis yelped. "It was just a joke!"

"Mm... Don't care. Apologize, now." Yuan's smiled, an expression that Genis had never truly seen on his face.

Genis shoved Yuan away. "Get off of me, Yuan!" He said, expecting that to be the end of it. He started to get up but before he could react, Yuan slapped him, a back-handed slap that sent him to the floor again. Blinking to clear his head, Genis angrily tried to swipe back but Yuan practically pounced on him, pinning him to the floor again by his shoulders. Genis's lips were two thin lines of anger. If it had been almost anyone else except Yuan, he probably wouldn't have been so confused, but it was. This was definately not Yuan-like behavior.

"Yuan," he said, carefully enunciating every syllable. "Get. Off."

Yuan's head jerked to the side in a nervous twitch, the smile still on his face. In the semi-darkness of the cave, his Cruxis Crystal flickering instead of the steady glow it normally transmitted. Genis swallowed involuntarily when he saw that Yuan's eyes were also flickering, sometimes blue and somtimes a lighter purple, like his Crystal.

"What's to stop you from turning out just like Kloitz?" Yuan said softly, the lines on his face sharply drawn in the on-again, off-again light of his Crystal.

Genis lost it, throwing Yuan off and punching him under his chin, just about the only part of him that wasn't completely covered in armor. Quickly grabbing the knife that Yuan had been fiddling with earlier, he took off with it, stumbling and crashing into bushes in the pre-dawn light. Swinging a leg over his Rheiard, he revved up the engine and zoomed into the sky, the throbbing in his face growing worse. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing that Yuan had given chase. What the heck was wrong with him? Genis swallowed, going as fast as he dared, and soon Yuan was far behind him.

Yuan had flown after Genis for maybe fifteen seconds, his eyes still glowing with their unnatural light before crashed into the forest, his wings lingering for one fleeting second before they flickered and died.