A/N: OK, I'm sure by now a lot of you have gathered WhaTHIGO (What The Hell Is Going On), but since I like to have everything settled out and placed out on the open for everyone to see, this chapter is... EXPOSITION! (Alternate title is "ToFlanoir!")Everyone gives their part of the story. If this chapter served only to confuse you further, I have failed you as a writer. Oh well. No more votes, the winner of the contest is Genis and Yuan- together!

The door squealed open; five blood-stained and disheveled fighters (and two with spotlessly clean armor and shining white-and-pink silks) entered the foyer.

Pandora looked up at her fiancé and his friends. She sipped from a cup of tea- or maybe it was coffee- and then set it down, ringing the bell for the servants as Lloyd and Colette jumped from their seats, rushing to their friends. The living room became an impromptu medical station as the wounded were set down on couches and chairs, blankets thrown over them and apple gels applied liberally. It suddenly occurred to them how much they had relied on Raine when they were injured, as they were forced to use the bandages and gels brought by the servants.

"Dad! What are you- why is- What happened? ...You're back!" Lloyd hugged him tightly before he even got a chance to say, "Hello."

"Don't touch me!" Yuan snapped, bristling at the maid who approached him with bandages. The maid took a few hurried steps back, still holding the bandages as she murmured a thousand apologies. He lurked in the corner of the room farthest from everyone else, settling down on the floor with his back to the corner, one knee drawn up to his chest. "I don't trust anyone but Sage to mend me," he said, placing a hand over the plate armor that had failed to protect him. Kratos's only response was to toss him an apple gel, which he caught with one hand and swallowed whole.

Genis looked to Raine, who was still deep in slumber. Taking a blanket from one of the maids, he draped it over her before turning and trying to make himself useful, helping the maids bring fresh bandages and apple gels, of course coming back every so often to just make sure Raine wasn't being disturbed by anyone. Like Zelos.

"Ah- that's- hold up that's- oh great, thanks a lot, Dead-Weight!" the Ex-Chosen in question fumed from the other side of the room, looming over Ken. "You got blood all over my couch!" He gritted his teeth, shoving an apple gel in the unfortunate's face. " Ready for this? First Aid!" he said, waving a glowing hand over the various abrasions on Ken's body.

"It's not like you can't buy a new one, Wilder," Ken, trying to be reasonable, had his hands up in a sign of defeat, too tired to really care. Ignoring further exclamations of outrage from Zelos, he rested his head on the back of the armchair he was sitting in and promptly fell asleep, one hand resting always on his dagger.

Zelos stood over him, hands on his hips, glaring as though the practically unconscious shinobi could see him. Then he turned and smiled at Genis, winking. "I like him," he said, jerking a thumb at Ken. "So. Gonna explain what the hell has been going on?" He hooked his belt by his thumbs, casting a glance over at all who were present and not dead asleep. "It seems all of us know something the other doesn't, like all the puzzle pieces are locked in different treasure chests. Why don't we start with you, Genis? Why don't we see what this puzzle looks like when we have all the pieces?"

Genis had his jaw set stubbornly; he sat down on the edge of the couch his sister was nestled in, one hand resting on her shoulder. "I want to wait until Raine is awake."

"I want a lot of things."

"Instead of acting like children, why don't we concentrate on making sure this location is secure enough to rest?" Kratos suggested, walking over to put a restraining hand on Genis's shoulder.

"Peh! Are you kidding?" Zelos grinned. "As if those two are gonna come over here after the whooping' we gave them?" Kratos was silent, instead walking over and locking Zelos's front door. "Whoa, what if my hunnies come to visit?" Zelos whined, rushing to the door and scratching at it like an abandoned cat.

"I am standing right here," Pandora gently reminded Zelos. She was perched on the edge of the couch Sheena was resting on. She took a damp cloth and cleaned the flecks of blood from Sheena's face, "You should at least try to be more- oh." Pandora stopped mid-sentence as Sheena's eyes snapped open. The Chief of Mizuho's hand had whipped out and she was clutching at Pandora's wrist tightly, her nails digging into flesh, her brown eyes hazy and unfocused.

Pandora winced. "Sheena. You remember me, don't you?" Sheena blinked a few times before waking up and letting go of Pandora. The noblewoman quickly brought her hand up to her chest, nursing it as Sheena sat up, rubbing at the bruises on her throat.

"Pandora," Sheena slowly agreed. "Where...?" she asked in a harsh voice. She took a moment, clearing her throat, before repeating herself. "Where.. is Raine?"

Pandora nodded over at Raine, still asleep. Sheena nodded, scooting away from Pandora on the couch. "I don't want to ruin your dress," she muttered. Pandora shrugged, and Sheena looked down at her own hands, perhaps not quite comprehending why they were soaked in dried blood.

"Sheena-cake!" Zelos cooed, "You're up!"

"...Your voice woke me up."

"Love for me brought you back from the Abyss, eh?" Zelos said wisely, misunderstanding her meaning.

"Keep still for a moment, will you?" Pandora ordered Sheena, wiping away the rest of the blood caked to her face and hands in a few quick swipes. Sheena, flushing, quickly stood up and away from Pandora. A maid approached her with a glass of water and she accepted, trying to get the harsh quality out of her voice. Colette hugged her tightly.

"Herm," Sheena coughed a few times, scanning around the room. Zelos, Colette, Pandora, Lloyd... were next to her. Ken was asleep in a plush chair and perched on the armrest was.. Kratos? He nodded a brief greeting to her before drawing a stone over the edge of his blade. Shhhnkt. Shhhnkt. Shhnkt. Well, he hadn't changed much in two years... Raine and Genis were on the couch opposite from her, him watching her as she slept.

"So..." Sheena remembered clearly, a sudden flash of Yuan skewered on the end of his own blade. "Yuan is..."

"Right here," Yuan spoke up. She turned to see him sprawled out on the floor, looking a bit paler than usual but no less unfriendly. "Yuan is right here."

Sheena slowly sat down again when Colette let her go. "So now what?"

"I think Genis has a lot of explaining to do," Zelos said.

"I agree with Zelos," Lloyd said, one hand resting on Colette's shoulder. "I'm more confused than anyone."

"Some things never do change," Yuan said.

Genis shook his head. "I already said, I want to wait until Raine-"

"We know," Yuan and Zelos said at the same time. They blinked, looking at each other, before making a face and looking away. "But I think I deserve to know what's going on," Zelos continued.

"This has to do with my family," Genis said. "This involves her. If you don't like it, tough."

Yuan got to his feet, one hand still over his abdomen. "I was stabbed, you ungrateful little brat. My Cruxis Crystal was shattered, and if I'm right, the same is going to happen to Kratos's."

"I got blood on my couch."

"And we're your best friends," Lloyd added, motioning with one hand to himself, Colette, and Sheena. "If we're not involved, I think you must have changed since the last time I saw you. It's proof enough that you didn't ask me for help when you saw me only a week ago! Maybe we could have prevented things from going the way they did." He walked forward, one hand on his sword pommel. "So come on, Genis. Tell us everything."

Genis sighed. "I don't know the whole story," he admitted. "Some of this stuff happened before I was born, or when I was too little to remember."

"Tell us what you do know," Colette urged, sitting down next to him, trying her best to be comforting as she placed her hand over his. "Every bit helps."

"OK..."

Pandora stood up. "If it helps, I'll leave. I don't belong here anyway."

"No, you can stay," Genis said, surprising her. "You're in danger just being close to me."

Slowly, Pandora sat back down, listening intently.

"This all started when Raine and I came to Sylvarant from Tethe'alla," Genis started, using his free hand to tuck a strand of hair behind Raine's ear, out of her face, "But that's the part I'm most confused at, so I'll just go to my part. We were in Luin, but we were going to leave the next day because Raine doesn't like being in that city too long. We... started fighting over something really stupid.

"For Martel's sake, Raine, it's just a simple question! You don't have to explode over every little goddess-damned thing I say!"

"And I decided to cool down by riding out past Luin's bridges. I had Noishe with me, so I was pretty far away when I saw it."

"Ahh, and this would be my part of the puzzle," Yuan spoke up. He was leaning against the wall, smiling grimly. "A very powerful Cruxis Crystal had been stolen from the Triet Base. It was one of Mithos's pet projects, but a dangerous one. Inspired by the legends humans had been adding onto the Church of Martel of a hierarchy of angels, he decided his Cruxis Crystal wasn't sufficiently superior to mine and Kratos's." Yuan traced a finger along the crack in his dead Cruxis Crystal. "It would control the others, and even I don't know what other powers have been enhanced in this version of the Crystal. Kloitz-"

"The one who attacked Mizuho..." Lloyd said.

"My brother," Genis added. "Lloyd, you were there when we found Virginia so you know my father's name was Kloitz... I guess I had a brother, too. Raine never..." Genis scratched his nose. "Sorry. Yuan?"

"Of course. I caught up to the thief, Kloitz, only I wasn't counting on him having a partner or his ability to control his Crystal after only a day, and with no Key Crest."

"Judgement!"

Kloitz threw up his arms, unable to lift a barrier in time, his eyes wide. The scream ripped from deep inside him.

"No!"

When the dust cleared, he was still standing there, a shimmering violet shield wrapped around him and Kuchinawa. He had summoned it with pure willpower.

"Genis arrived and helped me..." Yuan narrowed his eyes. "But he didn't really do much except bleed. Kuchinawa was more than a match for him. But the blood seemed to have triggered even darker powers that the Crystal contained. That was the first clue that he must be somehow related to the thief, because I had seen the designs for it. Mithos was... odd. It might be that he was going to use the Crystal as a tracking device, perhaps to see if he could find any living relatives." Yuan slowed down, considering his own words. Then he shook his head. "I don't see any other reason why, even though that's ridiculous. The Yggdrasial line died with him and his sister.

"The thieves escaped with Kloitz's newfound powers."

"Take me with you."

Yuan stopped, his wings unfurled as he saw Genis slowly applying an apple gel to the gash along his upper arm. "Do I look like a Rheiard?"

"My Rheiard is in Meltokio. It's not that far."

"...No thanks. You've done enough harm here." Flapping his wings once, he lifted off and began to fly out in the direction Kloitz had gone, ignoring Genis's shouts and the warning bells that were going off in his own head, that maybe, just maybe, the thief had some sort of connection to the youngest Sage. Genis was left on the ground, seething, until he hopped up on Noishe again and rode to Luin. He wrote a hasty note to Raine, not thinking things through, just knowing that she couldn't get involved. Kuchinawa had called the white-haired thief 'Kloitz'. His father's name.

"Hold on," Genis said, opening the flap to one of Raine's pockets. "Here's the note, right here. I knew she'd keep it."

Genis took a pencil, scribbling down on the scrap of paper: "Raine. Don't try to look for me. Things will be better this way, trust me. I'm probably not gonna come back for a while, but stay put, OK? Please believe me when I say I don't want you here with me. -Genis."

"No wonder," Sheena burst out. "You know you really had her panicking when you got up and left like that, Genis."

Genis hung his head. "I said I'm sorry. I just didn't want to get her involved."

"Well, she's involved now. We're all involved." Kratos examined his sword with a keen eye before deciding it was as sharp as he was going to get it. He sheathed it in one quick, smooth motion.

"I should have known you didn't come to visit me, or even your son," Yuan complained loudly. "It's because your Cruxis Crystal is starting to break, isn't it?"

"I'm not here on a field trip, if that's what you mean. I made a decision to stay on Derris-Kharlan, and I intend to keep to that oath."

"Goddess. Two years or two thousand, you never change. You're still a thick-headed-"

"Listening to you two," Raine said, propping herself up by one elbow as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, "Is like listening to an old married couple squabble."

"Raine!"

"...Hello Genis." She sat up fully, taking in her surroundings. Her lilac eyes sought out everyone, resting on Kratos. "This means..." She stopped, as if saying the words made her mouth taste foul as the memories came back in sudden flashes of clarity. "Kloitz is gone?"

"Don't remind me!" Genis said, standing up suddenly with his hands clenched into fists. "But Kratos made sure he wouldn't be wrestling anytime soon. But are you all right?"

"Yes.. I remember." Raine stood up, searching the room again until she found Sheena. "Are you all right? You were passed out by the time I arrived. Oh." Raine walked over and reached out, cupping the back of Sheena's neck with one hand. Tilting her head back so she could get at Sheena's bruises, her eyes softened in sympathy. "Are you OK? First Aid."

Sheena felt an instant relief, a cool elixer sliding down her throat. "Thanks," she muttered, feeling embarressed again and glancing away from prying lilac eyes. "I'm fine now."

"I was stabbed," Yuan said, breaking the moment. "Right here. Thankyouverymuch."

Raine sighed, clapping her hands together as she stepped back from Sheena, turning to face the former Seraphim. "I'll help. Just stand still a moment..." Holding out both of her hands, palm outwards, she focused on the spot of ground underneath Yuan. Arcane, pulsating drawings were magically etched onto the carpet as she closed off the spell. "Healing Circle!"

Yuan was able to solidly stand on his own two feet. He closed his eyes and tilted his head upward, a desert tribesman experiancing a sudden cooling shower. When the soft winds had died down, he sighed quite audibly. "Oh.." he said, opening his eyes. "Lovely, lovely. Don't you need your staff, though?"

Raine put a hand on her hip. "I'm sure you can come to your own conclusions based on the facts you see, Yuan."

"Of course. Keep your secrets."

Raine tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Is there anyone else injured?" she asked.

"Nope. A few apple gels and a First Aid was all Dead-Weight- I mean, all Ken needed," Zelos said, cracking his knuckles. "He's got a lotta guts and a lotta luck." He grinned, and repeated his earlier sentiment. "I like him! Genis has got some funky thing going on with his arm, though. We tried washing it off, but its like red wine... or blood... on a cream couch. The stain will never come out."

"Let me see," she ordered, and Genis complied. She took his hand, turning it this way and that, flexing the fingers carefully. "Nothing is broken.. it's all in order. It's just..." her eyebrows furrowed as she rolled his sleeve back, running a finger along the skin. "Stained, like Zelos said."

"Can't you fix it?" Genis asked, biting his lip nervously.

"There's nothing to fix. Your arm is perfectly normal and fuctioning as it should. There's nothing to heal... Nothing wrong."

"Nothing wrong? I look like I dipped my arm in a barrel of cranberry juice!"

"At least you still have an arm," she said, soft enough so that only he could hear. He grew solemn at once, angrily glaring at the floor next to Raine. "Now tell me. How far does the stain spread?"

"I have no idea." Genis pulled the hem of his shirt up over his head. "Just a bit past my shoulder onto my chest, I think." Noticing the very critical glances Zelos was giving him, he flushed and quickly pulled his shirt down again. "What?" he snapped.

"You know..." Zelos started slowly; Genis tensed in preparation for the humiliating comments that were sure to come. "Muscle you up, give you a tan, you could be your brother," he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Genis, expecting a much different comment from the perverted ex-Chosen, blinked in surpise.

"They are twins," Raine said, and noticing the angry red scratches and purple blotches on Genis's cheek, she ran a finger along it. "First Aid. You should have gotten that treated as soon as it happened, Genis. It might leave a scar. Hold on..." Yuan had an expression somewhat akin to guilt running across his face when he saw that his gauntlets had done quite a bit of damage to Genis's slender pale face. "Fraternal twins. There are a lot of differences in their appearance besides the obvious ones of skin tone. The shape of their noses and chins, their hair, their... their eyes. I don't remember all that well, I'm afraid there's not much I can share."

There was a long silence in the room.

"...In any case," Yuan said, making a small motion towards the maid he had refused earlier. She warily walked to him, nodding and agreeing at whatever request he had made and then scurrying off, returning soon with a mug of steaming coffee, black and sweet as sin. "I soon realized my mistake of leaving Genis behind and sought him out in Meltokio. You two..." he nodded to Colette and Lloyd, "Had dropped him off there, yes?"

Colette nodded several times. Lloyd shrugged.

"And that's really all there is to it. I knew by then that Genis was blood-related to Kloitz, and I had retrieved the documents about the few flaws it had. I went for Genis and we started tracking the Crystal."

"And when I saw my Cruxis Crystal was behaving oddly," Kratos spoke up, "I knew the same must be happening to Yuan's. The four Seraphim's Crystals have always been connected. I teleported to the Triet Base, hoping to find Yuan, but instead I found Genis flying overhead on his Rheiard. We flew to Triet, found Tethe'alla's Chosen and Raine and... the rest is obvious."

"I bumped into Yuan on my way back from Mizuho," Sheena said. "Ken was waiting for me at the gates babbling about ancient Mizuho magic. I have no idea where Zelos was when we got in, and there really wasn't much time to search for him." Sheena gave him a long, hard stare, which he returned by smiling inanely at her.

"So, is that the whole story?" Lloyd asked, feeling as though this entire explanation had really only served to confused him further.

"No," Sheena said. "We're missing the beginning. We're missing how these two" -she motioned to Raine and Genis- "Were seperated from their brother, and how he managed to survive all these years."

"Nngehm. Did I miss what? I missed? Something?"

The entire room sweat dropped as Ken woke up from his doze, uncerimoniously wiping away the drool collecting on his chin. Zelos insinuated his way over to the shinobi before anyone else could react. Leaning down, he muttered, "Only the part where your Chief declared her undying love for me, Dead-Weight. Nice of you to join us." Louder, to the room, he said, "And because all of you were concerned with other things, and only my genius brain could think of it, I asked the Fortune Teller woman where Kloitz would be headed next. Soon we'll have an ending to this story."

"The Fortune-Teller is unreliable," Yuan snorted. "But why didn't you say this sooner?"

Zelos shrugged. "I was waiting for the right moment, y'know? And the chick likes to talk in riddles. Something about mirrors and dunes and things."

"You didn't think to memorize it or write it down?"

Another maid appeared, handing a slip of paper to Pandora.

"Hey, not all of us have super-cool powers of memory, Professor my love, and I was in a rush." At her disapointed frown, he shook his head. "Fine, fine, I remember some of it. She said, 'He seeks to live in the mirror-world. Blah blah... The mirror of his soul and the mirror of our world is found in the white wastes, the dunes of Triet's mirror.' Ok, so maybe my version isn't as eloquent but it's the same message. He's hiding out in Triet's mirror."

"Flanoir," Pandora said, her first word spoken since Genis began his story.

Zelos deflated like a bullfrog. "I was gonna say it."

"Hmm? Oh, your riddle. Well first of all, it's an obvious riddle. But none of that really matters now, does it?" She held out the paper the maid had brought to her, showing them all a clear picture of Kloitz and Kuchinawa. "Two fugitives last seen in the Flanoir area," she said proudly. "I asked one of your maids to go to my mansion and give my servants the physical descriptions of the two you are all discussing. They retrieved this information for me." She stood up, walking over to a nearby closet and opening it up, taking a fur coat out. "Zelos, I hope you don't mind if I come along. And I'm sure your lady friends wont miss this coat..." draping it over her shoulders, she turned and grinned. "Are we going to Flanoir now, or are we going to wait a while longer?"

Sheena hopped up. "The Rheiards are all waiting outside the town gates. Let's go!"

"Huh. Well, you can be useful sometimes..." Zelos shook his mass of red hair out of his face, matching Pandora grin for grin. "Just give me back my fur coat."

Breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep-

"Shit. Not good."

- breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep-

She could barely seee the others through the thick white sheet surrounding her at all times. She tried to keep a tight grip on the Rheiard handlebars, but her bare, exposed fingers had completely numbed. Every inch of her not covered by fabric felt the firey cold needles of the wind until slowly she couldn't feel anything at all. She was blind, she was in the air, she was numb. She might as well have been dead.

- breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep breep-

WARNING! WARNING! Urgent red letters flashed in the eternal whiteness, followed by a stream of elven she had no idea how to decipher. WARNING! WARNING! The normal letters sprung up again as the Rheiard began to lose altitude in the Flanoir snowstorm, rattling and shaking and making noises that were definately not normal.

- breep breep breep breep breep bree-squee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-

"Goddess damn!" Sheena's teeth were clenched together so tight she didn't even understand what she had just said. The eternal whiteness could have been more sky- or it could have beeen the ground. WARNING! WARNING!

-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE- EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-

LOSING ALTITUDE! WARNING WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-..krsshhsshhsshh...

My buddy Matt has a fanfiction here on It's in the TOS section, and it's called "Kidnap." Presea-centric, which you really don't see that often, now that I think about it. Go check it out, its in my favorites list. His pen name is "AmericanIdiot56". And did who you voted for not make it? Not to worry! There'll be a new poll in the sequel...a BETTER one. Heh heh heh heh...