A/N: So, I take it you were all surprised? ...Good. Think this is the only plot twist I'm going to throw at you? Think again. This chapter was approx. 1800 words long. I'll try to make it longer next time.. And sorry for the cliffhanger! ..Not! AHAHAHAHAH! I'm so frickin' evil.. It's not my fault, God made me this way.
ISMENE. How could I live on, alone without my sister?
CREON. Do not say "My sister"; for you have no sister more!
Kuchinawa said nothing, merely holding up the frightened, babbling Fortune Teller. He looked to Kloitz. "Your orders, Master?" he said, shaking the Fortune Teller roughly. "Oh, shut up," he told her, disgusted.
Sheena flipped out her cards, rushing towards Kuchinawa. "I'm not waiting for any orders! You're mine, Kuchinawa!" Jumping high, she landed behind him and slashed with her cards. He gracefully ducked out of the way, his brown eyes emotionless. Sheena growled. Punching, kicking, waiting for Kuchinawa to start striking back and stop running away. But he didn't. "Orders, Master?" He said again, louder this time.
"Kill her," Kloitz shouted as he clenched his other fist to reveal a second hidden blade. "I'll deal with the other two..." he looked down at Raine, who was still lying on the ground, quivering. "...And then I'll kill you. Don't think I'll be nice because we're siblings. Argh!"
Kloitz was tackled to the ground by a slim blond youth. "This is for using sacred shinobi magic when you don't have the right!" Ken shouted, punching him in the face. Kloitz snarled like an animal, slashing upwards with his arm-swords. Ken leapt off of him, landing in a crouch just a few feet away. Reaching into his robes, he pulled out two katars and relaxed into a fighting position, letting his Mizhuho training take over. He didn't really get a chance though, before he was knocked back- not by Kloitz, but by Yuan.
"Out of my way," Yuan snapped, ripping off his cape and tossing it aside, letting the winds carry it off into the shadowy abyss beyond the town gates. Unsheathing his sword, he pressed the activating switch that revealed the second hidden blade. "Go help Sheena, rookie."
Ken looked from Yuan to Kloitz and then nodded, sprinting off in the direction of the sparks that could only be two shinobi's battling to the death. Lugging the short fortune teller about, Kuchinawa hurled his dagger at Sheena, quickly grabbing another from the seemingly limitless supply he held in his robes. Sheena was having a hard time trying to hit him, and it didn't help that he had a human shield.
There was a small yellow blur and the Fortune Teller was snatched out of Kuchinawa's hands. Standing a few feet away with her in his arms, Ken deposited her at the town gates, giving her one of his daggers. "Here you are, miss," he said. "But don't worry, you shouldn't need to ever use it."
The Fortune Teller put a hand to his forehead, making a small symbol of protection on him from the blood trickling down from her mouth. "Goddess Martel bless you," she said, and he grinned at her.
"Hey Ken! Stop flirting and start fighting!" Sheena shouted, furious as she was nearly decapitated. Knocking Kuchinawa back with a Pyre Seal, she paused to yell again. "Get Raine out of here! Yuan and I can handle these bozos!" And then she was back to fighting, calling up a magical shield to block a sudden rain of flying daggers. Ken snapped to attention, rushing back into the battle, past Kloitz and Yuan who were locked in a corps-a-corps, the larger half-elf bearing down on the former Renegade.
"What's the matter, seraphim?" Kloitz asked, seeing Yuan's arm's starting to shake from the strain of blocking both arm-swords at once. He pushed harder, forcing Yuan onto his knees. "Did all of your strength come from that toy on the back of your glove?" He glanced over at the Cruxis Crystal, now split nearly in half. The stone didn't so much as flicker anymore, looking dead and normal as a common garnet. "Two blades isn't enough?" Kloitz slowly leaned forward, grinning wider and wider as he saw Yuan's arms giving out. Yuan moved quickly, breaking the deadly lock and rolling to the side as Kloitz collapsed onto where he had been kneeling moments before. Leaping away on all fours, Kloitz got up and clanged his arm-swords together.
"Do all your nice little dodges!" He said, hacking and slashing wildly. Yuan could only dodge, and block, side-stepping and ducking as he desperately forgot about trying to inflict pain on Kloitz and instead concentrating on not getting any of his appendages severed. "You can't run forever!"
"I'm fine!" Raine snapped, getting up and shoving Ken away. She looked about her wildly. "Where's my st- aah!" Raine could only clutch at Ken's shirt as he effortlessly scooped her up and rocketed back towards the town gates where he deposited her next to the Fortune Teller.
"Where is my staff?" She demanded again, wriggling out of his grasp and trying her best not to collapse in a fit of nerves then and there. "How did you even get in here?"
"Uhh, not much time for talk now Miss Sage," Ken said. "I've got to help the Chief!"
"Not until you tell me what's going on!"
Ken pulled at his hair in frustration. "Look, it's all really secret Shinobi magic! All I can tell you is that we're kind of in an alternate dimension. I'll quickly pull open a portal for you two to escape, but you won't be able to come back. OK?" The Fortune Teller nodded eagerly, but Raine pulled down the front of Ken's shirt, bringing them at eye level. The school teacher from Iselia glared at him, her light purple eyes glowing the same uncanny light that Kloitz's did.
"I'm staying here," she said, slowly, carefully.
"But you can't cast very powerful spells without the Unicorn Horn!" He protested. "And besides, if things go bad here the Chief can trap us all here forever. This is the only way. We've already got a plan, and it includes getting you to safety, Professor!"
"Send her instead," Raine said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder at the Fortune Teller. "I'm staying here, for better or for worse. I'm not about to abandon her!" Letting Ken go, she turned to watch Sheena dueling with Kuchinawa. "We've been through too much already." Her eyes watched the flying daggers and seals exploding with pure mana.
Ken inhaled sharply through his clenched teeth, looking from the sparring ninjas to his former teacher. "Fine," he said. "But I'm sending her through." Putting an arm out, as if to shield Raine from whatever spell he was about to cast, he said, "Stand back." Flipping out a dagger, he concentrated all of his mana into the blade, slowly slicing it through the air. Again she heard the dreadful screaming sounds, and knew now that wherever this place was- whatever it was- it was alive, and they were cutting through it as surely as Lloyd's twin swords would cut through flesh. Ken began to chant in the Mizuho language, bright blue mana surrounding his hands and the entire knife, and he drew the blade through the air again, like he was actually trying to harm it. Like a blade through thick black fabric, a tear was made in the air. Through the other side she could see the normal Triet, hear the sounds of a bustling bazaar. Stuttering her thanks, the Fortune Teller scrambled through into safety.
"All right, then," Raine said, turning back to the battle. "Let me see what magic I can still- Ken!"
Ken had lifted her up again, pressing something into her fist. "I'm sorry Professor!" He said, not sounding sorry at all. In fact, he sounded delighted. "But my loyalties are to my Chief, and to Mizuho. It's been fun. Really!" He grinned reassuringly at her and tossed her through the portal onto the hot sands of Triet, yelling after her. "Good bye Professor Sage! Sheena gave me orders, and Mizuho orders are to be carried out to the death! I'll give Kloitz a few bruises just for you, OK?"
Raine scrambled to her feet, feeling hot rage and indignation bubble up inside of her as she ran for the gash in Reality. "No!" She said as the wound healed and disappeared. She ran through where it had been and then whirled around as if she could spot another opening somewhere close by. "No!" She yelled again, feeling her knees give way from sheer exhaustion. She couldn't remember the last time she slept, or the last time she had felt so utterly useless. The schoolteacher pressed her hands against her eyes, shuddering wildly.
She wouldn't cry. She wouldn't cry over this. She wouldn't cry because she had abandoned her best friend. She wouldn't cry because she knew Ken was hopelessly outmatched and was way too green to be just thrust into a battle like this. "Crying is useless," she said, slamming her open palms onto the scalding desert sands. She watched the tears fall, sizzling as soon as they reached contact with the ground. "I can't cry.. Like some.. Silly school girl.."
But she could cry for her brothers. For the brother she left behind, and the brother who left her.
And she did.
After a day.. An hour… some increment of time, she couldn't be sure, Zelos found her kneeling on the sands outside of Triet, staring at the unhealthy red color her palms had become after being pressed against the sun-drenched sand for so long. The Fortune Teller was long gone.. Probably back to her hut to fix her broken crystal ball.
"Whoa!" He said, rushing over to her. "Raine! Baby! What the heck are you doing? Did you find Genis? Where's the Banshee?" He held out a hand to help her up.
"I don't know," Raine said, pressing her palms together and concentrating her healing powers. A gentle, soothingly cool breeze sprang up, tugging at her clothes and making Zelos's blood red hair whip about his face. She looked at the ground, ignoring his offered hand and unfolding the scrap of paper that Ken had given to her before he had forced her to escape.
"…I don't know…"
From somewhere behind her, she heard the tell-tale buzz of a Rheiard engine. Zelos looked up, his face confused at first, but then it was overwhelmed by outright surprise. "Y-you!" He said, a delirious, puzzled grin on his face. He pointed at the newcomer, his mouth agape. "Even you showed up?"
Another breeze, stirred up by flapping wings, made Raine wipe her face clean and turn around to see... that the cavalry had arrived. Despite herself, she smiled thinly. "You have an incredible sense of timing," she said. "I guess it runs in the family."