Greetings, my faithful readers!
In this chapter, you will find out not only what Raine's gotten her hands on, but you will see Lloyd's attempt (hinthint) to get them home, as well as the discovery that they are gone from Symphonia.
Thanks to all reviewers, death to those who didn't.
For the disclaimer…say hello to Yuan!
Yuan: Where the heck am I?
Zoray: You are in my domain. You will do as I say, do you understand? (evil author glare of instant obedience)
Yuan: must…resist…oh, it's no use. Zoray owns nothing of Tales. Just this very twisted plot.
Zoray: Thank you…(starting in realization) Hey!
Yuan: Anytime, my lord.
Zoray: As a reward (smirks), you can do the disclaimer for every chapter from now till the end of this fanfic!
Yuan: Oh, lucky me. (Wanders off grumbling)
TWO WORLDS, ONE SOUL
Chapter III – Discoveries
Aaron and Kratos dashed into the kitchen to find Raine tugging frantically at the light switch.
"Aah! Raine! Get away from there!" yelled Aaron.
"But…but…IT"S SO FASCINATING!" she yelled, flicking the switch on and off like the madwoman she was, dazzling Kratos with the strobelike effect. "HOW DOES IT WORK!" Kratos, having recovered his vision, aided Aaron in hauling Raine bodily away from the wall. Kyle came in with Genis and Lloyd.
"I can see only one solution to our 'Raine's insatiable curiosity' problem." Said Kyle. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked Aaron with a mischievous look in his eye.
"I read you loud and clear, my friend." Replied Aaron, nodding sagely, and went to get his duct tape.
Approximately three and a half minutes later, Raine was securely bound to one of Aaron's kitchen chairs.
"Not quite what I meant…but it works." said Kyle.
Lloyd was about to put a gag over Raine's mouth, but Kyle stopped him.
"We can put up with her mouth. We don't need to cause her any unnecessary humiliation."
Lloyd cocked his head and opened his mouth, but closed it and just shrugged. "Seems pretty necessary to me…" he muttered.
"Raine…please just calm down. Although this may seem drastic measures, I just want to keep my house and its technology intact. You wanted to know how the lights work…"
(A/N – I just decided to spare you the boredom of having Aaron and Kyle explain the various technologies in the average Earthling household)
"…and that's how the phone works." Kyle finished. He looked sideways at Aaron. "Is that everything?"
"The TV, Gamecube, and computer I believe"
(A/N – more boring explanations. I think you get the point. Moving on…)
"I'm impressed the level of your technology without using a bit of magitecnology…"commented Genis.
"Although some parts are very similar…" continued Raine, "I noted you never mentioned Teleporters. I take it you haven't created functional one yet?"
"Correct. The one we have can only move atoms. As far as I'm aware, you don't know anything about actual space travel…" said Kyle.
"Unless you count Derris-Kharlan, but even that utilizes teleportation…" added Kratos.
"You know…as interesting as our world may be, I'm sure you guys would love to go home…" said Aaron.
The company murmured its assent.
"So, Lloyd, why don't you fire up the Eternal Sword and take them home?" said Kyle.
"All righty then! Here goes…" he squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated. Five minutes passed.
"Any day now would be fine, Lloyd." Said Genis.
"Hey, shut up! Would YOU like to do this?" growled Lloyd.
"Point taken,"
After ten more minutes, Lloyd gave up. "I don't get it. I'm visualizing the Sword appearing in my hands like I did last time, but nothing's happening…"
"Perhaps it could be the fact that there is a dimensional barrier between you and Origin, and his power cannot reach you to activate the Sword?" suggested Kyle.
Aaron and Kratos nodded their agreement.
"In that case…I guess we're stuck here until the others notice we're gone and come to rescue us…" said Genis.
"Wonderful! The perfect opportunity to study this world's technology!" cried Raine.
"Wonderful! The perfect chance to play a videogame starring myself!" cried Lloyd. Smack. "Ow! What was that for?"
Aaron sighed.Wonderful. This was just getting better all the time…
Symphonia
"Alright, everyone! Dinner's ready!" Colette called. No one answered, not even with angelic hearing could she hear a response. "Odd… where could they be?" She looked out into the yard, but there was no one. "Regal? Dirk? Do you know where Lloyd and the others are?"
"I cannot say that I do. I thought they were outside." Came Regal's voice from the kitchen.
"Neh, I dunno where any of 'em are. I've been in me forge all day." Dirk's voice said from the forge.
"Oh well. I'll just go and look for them myself!" Colette said in her eternally cheerful tone. She headed off into the woods to look for Lloyd and the others. In hindsight, a very bad idea.
--- Hours later ---
"Where the heck could they have gone?" said a mystified (and completely lost) Colette. "LLOYD! LLOOOOOOOOOYD!" she cried into the night air, "WHERE ARE YOU?"
…………
"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?"
…………
"WHERE AM I?"
Only silence answered her.
Sheena snapped out of her reverie with a shock. Grumbling to herself, she picked up her guardian cards and glared up at the sky, as if it was somehow their fault she had been disturbed. With a final muttering, she vanished in a puff on ninja-smoke to see what Colette was screaming about this time.
Zelos was walking up the trail to Dirk's house, when Colette's cry pierced the air.
"Ah! One of my super-gorgeous hunnies is in danger! I must go and save her!" With that, he drew his sword and ran triple-time into the forest, following the sound.
Presea grunted and swung her axe. It bit deep into the oak, cleaving all the way through.
"Timber." She murmured, as the tree fell with a deafening crack. As she began to drag it back to the house, (with one hand, might I add) she heard Colette's yell.
"A friend is endangered. I will go an assist." dropping her burden, she took off to help.
As Colette wearily prepared to make another attempt to locate Lloyd and the others, Sheena appeared in a cloud of smoke.
"All right, what's happened." She asked, still mildly annoyed for the interruption of her meditation.
"Well you see…" Colette began, when suddenly a cry rang out from the surrounding trees.
"Don't worry, I'm coming! The great Zelos Wilder will save you!" the idiot ex-Chosen charged out of the forest and, upon seeing that there was no danger, attempted to stop. His efforts merely caused the situation to get worse as he tripped over a root and ran right into Sheena. The two of them collapsed and rolled, eventually coming to rest with Sheena sprawled out across Zelos' chest.
"You know, Sheena…if you wanted me like this before…all you had to do was ask…" said Zelos with a glint in his eyes and a perverted grin on his face. Sheena was a little dazed from impact still and didn't respond. Zelos took the opportunity to wrap his arms around her, and the result was electric.
"Zelos…"Sheena said with deceptive mildness, "Is that your hand on my butt?"
Zelos, seeing the fire in her eyes, realized his danger and attempted to flee, but it was way to late. Smack smack smack smack smack smack smack. Lets just say that Zelos' face would have matched Lloyd's jacket.
"Ooh, that's gotta hurt." Said Colette.
"Stupid pervert had it coming." Growled Sheena.
"Hey, that's a bit harsh…" objected Zelos.
"You deserved it!" said Sheena, growling louder. She took a step forward, grasped Zelos by the shoulder, and shook him hard.
At that precise moment, Presea entered the clearing. She looked at Zelos, then at Sheena, and a small smile made its way onto her face. Sheena noticed her expression and immediately her anger turned to horror.
"I swear, this is NOT what it looks like, I just…I mean, Zelos, he…" she stammered.
Zelos burst out laughing. "Denial is always the first step, hunny."
Smack. "NEVER call me that again!" said Sheena, still raging.
"If I could continue…" Colette said quietly.
"Of course. I'm sorry. Something about Lloyd…"
"Ooh! Did he ask you to go out with him?" One guess who that was.
Smack. One guess who that was.
Colette turned bright red, but continued on. "Lloyd, Kratos, Genis, and the Professor have vanished!"
"Huh? Vanished? Where did they go?" asked Zelos.
"That's gotta be the dumbest question I've ever heard! If she knew that, would she be running around in the middle of the woods this late?" replied Sheena testily.
"They were outside, waiting for dinner when I last saw them. Then when I went to get them, they had disappeared!"
"Maybe Raine dragged them off to some ruin or another?" suggested Zelos.
"Nah, Colette would have heard Lloyd arguing with her. Besides, she would have dragged the rest of us off too." Said Sheena.
"Maybe they were kidnapped!" said Zelos.
"Odds of them being defeated in combat and taken prisoner outside an occupied house that contains one with angelic hearing are 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 to one." said Presea.
"Sounds pretty convincing when you out it that way…" said Zelos.
"Why don't we just go back home tonight and go talk to Tiga in Mizuho tomorrow? The network is pretty knowledgeable, if anything's happened, they'll know about it." Suggested Sheena.
"Search without proper rest is a waste of energy and will accomplish nothing. Let us begin tomorrow." Said Presea.
"But before we do, how about some dinner? I'm starvin' over here!" complained Zelos.
As the group headed back to Dirk's house for dinner, they were completely oblivious to a lone man on a rheaird high above them.
"Disappeared without a trace, hmm? This could be worth investigating…yes indeed…" he flew off and disappeared into the night.
Ha ha! I've got you at a cliffie! (Evil author laugh) Now! Read and Review, or else I will have Yuan slice you up with his giant two-bladed thingie!
Yuan: it's not a "thingie" it's a-
Zoray: I don't care! I am the author, and you are in my story! It's a thingie if I say it's a thingie!
Yuan: Yes, of course it is, how silly of me… (Grumbles death threats)
Is it just me or am I getting more and more random with each chapter? Ah, who cares? Just please, review my story. Thanks. See you next timeI
Yuan: You forgot the chapter hints.
Zoray: Thanks! (Gives Yuan a cookie) Here!
Yuan: Yay! Sugar!
Zoray: Next chapter – How long will it take to them to realize that the others have left the planet? How will they handle life on Earth? Who was spying on Colette? All that and more in Chapter 4!
Yuan: That's all, folks.
Zoray: Shut up, Yuan.
