Okay, Okay, I can take a hint. This story is henceforth resumed without an end in sight. (Relatively speaking)
Thanks so much for the overwhelming flood of support I've received with my selfish little announcement, I see now I was just taking the easy way out. I had no idea just how many of you were actually following my story. My thanks go out to the following for talking me out of my insanity:
Adriannu255
Noir Dormi
Rory
Meowzy-chan
Forceuser3 The Jedi Master
Mavrik Zero
Kite1763
Miyu the Vampiress
Also all of you who have ever read my story. I…Wait a bit, it appears I have an uninvited guest…Augh!
Yuan: (Throwing Zoray against the wall) YOU ARE A DORK. Why'd you have to go and let your inferiority complex get in the way of your writing? PEOPLE LIKED IT, IDIOT.
Zoray: Please, Yuan (And readers) …I'm sorry…
Yuan: You'd better be…OR ELSE (Spins sword-thingie threateningly)
Zoray: My, how the tables have turned. (Hides katana) Oh well. For the sake of my readers (and my health) let's get on with this thing!
Two Worlds, One Soul
Chapter IX – Prisoner
Lloyd hurt. It was as simple as that. His mind was a haze of red fog, and coupled with the jolts that periodically shook him, it was impossible for his muddled brain to think clearly. He drifted in and out of consciousness randomly. He had no sense of time whatsoever, it could have been minutes, hours, or even days since Orois' fist had sent him spiraling into blackness.
At one point he was aware of shiny chrome and soft black leather, a faint rumbling noise, and strange music. All it seemed to be was a heavy rhythmic thumping and a deep voice chanting over and over again how he was going to slaughter someone. He resigned that he was going to hate that music till the end of time. Then there was a bump, and darkness claimed him.
He became aware of being carried, and observed a dirt path beneath him. Slowly, as blood rushed to his head, he realized he was upside down, slung over Orois' shoulder like a sack of flour. He didn't last long, and soon he knew no more.
He awoke once again an unknown interval later, and as he slowly opened his eyes, he realized that he was lying on a cold metal floor. He tried to sit up, but when he even moved his head, white-hot shards of pain shot from his spine throughout his entire frame, and he instantly collapsed, barely suppressing a cry.
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." Said a hated voice from somewhere out of his vision. He couldn't make out direction, as his head was still swimming.
"I've given you a strong dose of my dart poison. Any movement at all will be excruciating." Said Orois. Lloyd saw the shadows coalesce and a form step from nowhere into the semi-light of the sickle moon, that was streaming in through a small round window.
Orois paced slowly around Lloyd, observing silently. When he had completed a full circle, he stood motionlessly, half his face in shadow, and half in the light of the moon. In the moonlight, suddenly Lloyd noticed a glowing mark on Orois' forehead. It was a waning crescent moon, cloaked in blue flames. It took a few more minutes for him to realize that it wasn't actually on his forehead, but on a black cloth band around his head.
Finally, Lloyd decided to try speech.
"Wh- What...what do you want with me…?" asked the swordsman.
"Oh, it's not so much what I want form you…its what I want from Kratos." Came the cold-voiced reply.
"What do you want with him?" asked Lloyd, fearful for his father.
"I want him to suffer." Said Orois. His voice was as cold as ever, but in his icy eyes there appeared a flame of angry passion. "I want him to feel the pain of having one close to him torn away forever…I want him to sink into despair before I kill him. He will come within an inch of his sanity, and beg for me to end it. And end it I will, but I will do it so very agonizingly slowly that he will be pleading me to kill him…"
Lloyd, completely not grasping the situation, replied, "And what's that got to do with me?"
Orois barely restrained himself from gaping at the boy. Could Kratos really have produced a son this dense? He sighed. "That was so dumb, I'm not even going to answer." He muttered.
Lloyd heard him, and knew his plan was starting to work. If he could convince Orois that he was a lot dumber than he was, he might get a chance to escape. Plus, if he could keep him talking, the poison might wear off, and then he could try to attack…
"You, Lloyd, are key. Kratos has already lost his wife, now think if he lost his only son to his mortal enemy as well…thus the beginning of the despair that is the entire point of Jinchu! I want to drag out his suffering, give him back the grief he gave me tenfold…I will torment him with the loss of his son, and that is only the beginning…"
"You mean there's more?"
"Of course there's more! You think that my entire plan would be to kidnap you and wait until Kratos goes completely crazy from guilt and hopelessness (Unlikely, but hey, if it was your son…) and then comes looking for you, no doubt tearing the whole country apart until he comes bashing down the door to this place, and the two of us end up fighting some crazy clichéd-and-overused-but-still-weirdly-effective-heroic-good-guy-versus-psychotic-evildoer-fight-scene and then some sappy reunion father-son junk and then I do some crazy impossible resurrection scene and then the two of you gang up and kill me forever?" (MAN I'm bad at subtle foreshadowing.)
He said all of this with a strange glow in his eyes that was eerily familiar to the look in Raine's eyes when she goes on one of her monologues about ruins. Lloyd was mildly disturbed.
Continuing the monologue… "No. Of course not. My plan is a multilayered, complex web of despair that will settle slowly over Kratos... wrapping slowly around him until it is far too late…now that I have torn you from him, the next step is…is…" the light faded from his eyes, "Darn, I hope I have it written down somewhere…"
Lloyd resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He wished Kratos could hear this, perhaps he wouldn't worry so much. Naaaaaaaaaah.
As Orois went off somewhere to look for his 'Revenge on Kratos' plans, Lloyd decided to try to test moving again. When he could no longer hear Orois' boots clicking on the metal floor, he twiddled his fingers experimentally. They burned as if on fire. He decided to wait on that a little longer.
Looking out with peripheral vision, he observed the room in which he was held. It had black metal walls inscribed faintly in silver with fractal-like designs. The floor was brushed steel plates, and just below the ceiling line were a series of small round windows that let in light, although inactivated light panels were set into the steely ceiling. There was a faint noise that reminded him of the magitechnology in Yuan's bases, so he assumed was either in or near Orois' command center. There was no obvious door, so he assumed it was behind his head, where he couldn't see.
His observations of the environment complete, he looked down as best he could at himself. He was still wearing the Earth clothes, and Orois had confiscated his Material Blades. He cursed himself for not carrying a concealed dagger, although Orois most likely would have found it.
He decided now that, pain or no pain, it was time to move. As test, he curled his right hand into a fist. It burned, and small spikes of pain shot up his arm, but it was bearable. He shifted and began to sit up. He let out a faint grunt as the toxin activated, but continued anyways. He had to do something. He was not about to sit around and wait for his friends to come and rescue him. He leaned against the wall after finally making it upright. He turned around, and found a doorway leading out. He glanced at the room looking for something, anything that could be used as a weapon. All there was was a metal cot, a blanket, and a small table. All in all, an absolutely spartan jail cell.
He crossed the room slowly to the door, and was not surprised to find it locked. He examined the lock, and found it to be a complex electronic device he had no idea how to pick. He tried everything in his power to pull back the panel around the lock but his efforts were in vain. He sank to his knees, pounding his fist against the door. His fist collided with the lock, and the door popped open with a hiss. The unsuspecting swordsman, who had been leaning against it, fell forward onto his face. To his surprise, there were no guards, just an empty hallway. Carefully proceeding down the hall, he couldn't shake the feeling that this was far too easy.
Eventually, he arrived at a door in the wall. He stood pressed against the wall next to the doorjamb, and waved his hand in front of the door. It opened with a hiss. He stood nervously for a minute, and the door hissed shut again. Assuming that no one was within, he entered cautiously. What he saw was a treasure trove of weapons. There were axes, lances, spears, swords, knives, and polearms of all shapes, sizes, and descriptions. Some were simple, elegant tools, some were outlandish and exotic creations, and some were so barbaric that he looked away. And there, resting on a plinth in the center of the room, were his Material Blades, locked away in a glass case. After a moment's hesitation, he hefted a heavy gold hammer from a nearby rack, and lifted it above his head. He swung with all his strength…
-
Orois, meanwhile, was in another room, this one filled with computer terminals, large projected displays, and massive cabinets filled with files on every imaginable subject. He was hunched over a drawer of one of said cabinets, rifling for a file.
"Hmm, lessee…K…K…Kelly Clarkson…no, that's not it…Kill Listing…man, now that's a big file…Aha! Here it is! Kratos Jinchu Plan!" He took a sip of coffee as he lifted the precious file out of the cabinet. Before he had a chance to swallow, he spewed it all over the desk as he looked up at the display screens. To his great surprise, Lloyd's cell was vacant, the guards gone. Probably off drinking coffee somewhere. When I'll get my hands on them, I will soooooo fire them. Then the camera's view snapped to the trophy room, where our hero was busy swinging the Hammer of Thor at the glass case that contained the young angel's blades. As the sound of breaking glass was just beginning to sound in the trophy room, Orois turned to shadow and disappeared.
"Now that I'm armed again, I'm all set to-"
"Put them down and get chained to your cell wall." Said Orois, in his customary cold voice.
On impulse, Lloyd spun, slashing out with the Vorpal Blade . Orois, taken for an instant off guard by the youth's reaction time, received a very shallow cut across his chest before he drew up his knives to divert the killing force behind it.
"Dark Banishing." Said the assassin, extending his open palm and blasting Lloyd onto the shattered plinth with a pulse of dark energy. Lloyd cried out as the shards of glass cut into his arms.
He leapt up of the plinth, rebounded off a weapon rack, and came down upon Orois with swords spread wide. Orois shunted the attack almost without trying, and Lloyd crashed into the floor, skidding along and smashing into a rack of spears, several of which he sent flying at Orois. The assassin darted around the assault, and fell upon our hero in a series of lightning-quick attacks that Lloyd barely defended against. He got to his feet with difficulty, but once he was up, he had no intention of going down again.
"Fierce Demon Fang – Twin Tiger Blade – Super Sonic Thrust – Hunting Beast – Psi Tempest – Rising Falcon – Demonic Circle!" Lloyd's combo went on and on. He used every technique he knew, fought to the limit of his ability and beyond. He joined the strikes flawlessly, and even the eternally critical Kratos' jaw would have dropped just a little at the display.
Lloyd, exhausted from his exertion, fell to one knee, leaning heavily on his swords. He barely had the energy to look up to see the effect of his strike. What he saw was Orois, standing, and unharmed. His mutant exspheres glowing a radiant cyan, he towered over Lloyd and laughed. His laughter echoed in Lloyd's head as he sank into unconsciousness.
The last think Lloyd saw was an image of his father.
I'm sorry Kratos…I've failed again…
MAN am I evil. As you can see, this chapter was certainly very Lloyd-centric. I know it was short, but you guys wanted an update and I won't have time for another for at least a week. I apologize for my idiocy, and I swear it won't happen again.
! – Have you ever noticed that, even though he wields two swords, Lloyd swings only his right? I'm serious! This is easiest to see with the Material Blades, as they are different in appearance. That was when I first noticed it. He only swung with Vorpal Blade! I tried all sorts of techs, and even in Sword Rain and the like he only used the right one! Try it! (and correct me if I'm wrong. I'm really sure I'm not, though.)
See you all soon!
