Shards of Regneration

by Kasan Soulblade

Religion is a panel of fine stain glass window, but when that glass is broken it is among the shards that you must look. Each shard is a soul, and if you put them all together perhaps the truth will be seen and all illusions lifted.

6. A Child's Game

To the readers,

A silly/serious chapter for this fic, poor Kratos he seems to be the brunt of everyone's ill humor. A club, Guardian and the dreaded "ruin" mode all come to pass. The fire temple is probably going to be a whole chapter all by itself. Short chapter (under 30 pages) and I guess you can tell who Lloyd's going to have high friendship points with at it's conclusion. This is a kind of dribble chapter as I am still nerving myself for the massive amount of fighting scenes in the Fire Temple. Sorry if everyone's a tad OC, I'm trying to stay loyal to DES, and the game all at the same time and I'm finding it a bit difficult to do that.

Kasan

FairyV: Raine's violent streak kind of gets to me too, there probably wont be as much of it in this fic as there should be if I wanted to stay really close to her "character" as it is it'll tapper off later on in the fic.

FallenStarAngel: Less Raine, less Noishe in this chapter of the fic and more Kratos and Genis (trying to maintain some balance here by alternating character focus every few chapters) Hope you like this chapter

Gamecubegirl1: "Massive" is not the word. My notes stretch from the scenes in Iselia all the way to the Tower first visit and the notes over a hundred pages. If I can I will go through the game, if not I'll try to cut off at the tower, but if you think DES was long this fic's going to be a heck of a lot longer. I probably will cut this fic into "Seal books" Begining to Izoold would be the "book of fire" I don't know how I'm going to cut this all up yet, when I work on it expect some changes in my profile though.

MoonCannon: Thaks! I'll try!

Chapter 6

"Something wrong Kratos?" Genis teased his eyes wide with mirth. The mercenary said nothing, only clutched at his stomach and staggered to the men's privy to get violently ill. He staggered out of the dark closet like room ten minuets latter, to see Genis tying up the last strings to his packs. The small boy looked over Noishe's huge shoulder as he worked the packs on the dog's shoulder strap, and it was that wide grin that told the mercenary that something was amiss. He had been approached, by all people, Colette in the morning telling him that there was this club he was going to be initiated into, and that I would spare him a lot of pain if he were to just to agree to the rules. He had scoffed; he would not play along with a child's game, not even to appease the Chosen.
The pitying look she had cast him, mingled with disappointment had made him worry. His main worry though had been that this was yet another wedge he had driven between himself and his client. Now his thoughts were much changed after breakfast.

He worried that this was all planned, that Raine cooking breakfast had been planed. How convenient for the children to suddenly praise Raine's cooking, a few words of encouragement, some under cooked meat and green peppers later, and he was fighting down a case of stomach flu. And none of the others were sick. Colette had oh so conveniently recalled a ritual that made her have to fast for the daylight hours, Genis had made himself toast before Raine had gotten up so he only had to stomach only half a serving. Kratos… Kratos had no way out, and so he had to eat the food with Raine in eager attendance. Lloyd had slept through the whole event, and since he only had crawled out of bed till noon he missed breakfast and lunch. While running around the room in a mad attempt to get packed the boy made himself a sandwich and wolfed it down, and again Kratos and Genis were the only ones to have Raine's cooking inflicted on them. Yet halfway though the meal Noishe had strolled in and taken a large bite out of the stuff on Genis' plate, then padded out and by the sounds of it had spit it out and buried it. Genis pleaded being full and had strolled off, and again only Kratos wound up eating the meal and with Raine watching him like a hawk he could not avoid eating it.

And to add pain onto injury not praising the woman's cooking got immediate praise out of the children, for every hint of dissatisfaction Colette would say she wished she could eat, and Genis would yap about how good the food was.

Coincidence, after lunch he knew that it wasn't, and he was starting to regret dismissing Colette's warning. So while they traveled, leaving Triet behind them, Genis leading this time, Kratos had fallen behind and conveniently disappeared for a few moments behind a clump of short squat cacti. After his last batch of sickness passed he looked up, looked at the food that his body had so wisely rejected, and realized it looked better now then it had on the plate. He grimaced, spat out a few curses and was surprised to hear someone approach.

"Hey, you alright?"

It was Lloyd, he had been the least active in his torment. Had been showing him a kind of backward sympathy, sneaking the mercenary condiments to cover the taste of the food, had conveniently tripped and knocked the mercenaries bowl of seconds to the floor so that Kratos did not have twice as much 'food' to bring up latter on. But still the boy had laughed at him, had teased him along with Genis.

All for not agreeing to some stupid game, Kratos closed his eyes, moved to find his feet, and was a little surprised that Lloyd offered him his hand. He took that hand, allowed the child to pull him to his feet.

"Here."

Surprised by the continued generosity Kratos took the handkerchief and whipped off all traces of his sickness off of his face.
"Ew you think I want it back now? Keep it."

"I never knew…" The mercenary picked his words carefully, his mood was very precarious. He was torn between being very grateful for Lloyd covert sympathy and help and just as equally furious that the boy would take part in this foolishness. "I never thought that a mere child's game could be so cruel."

"Hey, you started it! And Colette told you that it wasn't a game, we were being serious and you didn't trust that we were taking it seriously. Well same to you, we don't know where you stand with Colette, but as her friends were gunna make sure you are alright for this job. Think of it as a test like the one Raine's got you under." Lloyd looked at him with a shocking seriousness, for once there was no smile on the boy's face. He carried himself with a somberness more suited to a man going to a funeral. "And I wouldn't take it lightly, the meals were a hint of what it's going to be like if you don't pass."

"Is that a threat?" Kratos stared at the boy his own expression a neutral mask that hid an inner turmoil of emotions that he did not want Lloyd to notice.

"No it's the truth."

Kratos blinked, and for the first time took Lloyd very seriously. He dropped what Lloyd probably dubbed his superior attitude and nodded his head to acknowledge the point and his faint hint of respect for the young man. Yes, he was not a boy but a young man, and despite the rashness, the playfulness, he needed to keep that in mind. He had been slipping, had been treating them all like helpless children. Or more accurately he had been treating them talking baggage that was conveniently able to keep pace with him.

"Besides not being poisoned on a regular basis what will entry in this… 'club' get me."

"I can't tell you, part of the oath."

Kratos rose an eyebrow.

"You can at least tell me who's in charge can't you?"

"No I can't." Lloyd grinned at him, obviously liking having a bit of information that the know-it-all "I'm soo much smarter then you" mercenary didn't have. Kratos didn't need to be able to read minds to know Lloyd's thoughts on him, all he had to do was be able to read sleeves for the boy kept everything there. "Sorry."

Insincerity in that last word made Kratos snort, and he adjusted his cloak.

"We best move on, the others will get concerned if we are missed."

"You gunna be able to keep up?"

"I am fine." Kratos stared at Lloyd, considered correcting the young man's appalling word choice and merely bit his tongue. "Though if I have to eat another batch of Ms. Sage's cooking I may not be. And that would lower my efficiency for this job."

That was a hint, a hint that Lloyd best talk to their little leader and tell them to stop these attempts to tlinepoison him.

"Yeah," Lloyd's toothy grin did not comfort the mercenary. "Another batch of Raine's cooking would be bad for you, huh?"

"I am serious about this." Kratos snapped, "Do not underestimate me when I am being serious or you will be as guilty of what I have done to you and your friends. And if I dub you guilty I might just ram a bowlful of Raine's porridge down your throat to teach you some humility."

"Ha! You and what army?" Lloyd teased, and the mercenary found himself grinning back, a small guarded grin. They both began to walk back to the rest of their company at a slow easy pace that allowed for easy chatter.

"I do not need an army to deal with you."

"Oh yeah I bet I could so kick your…"

"Lloyd Irving!" Raine shrilled from the top of a dune some way off. "Get over here right now!"

"Man you got me in trouble!" Lloyd gripped; his ribbons that hung around his neck like shredded bits of a cloak seemed to droop as he shook his head. He smiled though, waved at his mentor and seeing that they were coming but still were not putting any speed in it the woman tapped her foot. Even from their distance Kratos could read the anger in the elf teacher, could hear her grumbles of uncomfortably specific tortures she was going to inflict on her pupil.

"I believe you are going to be Raine'd when you catch up to your teacher Lloyd."

"Nothing new, happens all the time, or you so old that you forgot I said that?"

"There is a saying that one is a glutton for punishment, if ever that was the case with someone I knew it would be you boy. And I am only five years your senior, I am not that old… yet."

"Hurmph." Kratos chuckled at the bad impersonation of himself and he watched with amusement as Lloyd crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared at him. "How old you think I am, sheesh, to be five years younger then you I'd have to be like thirty something."

Kratos felt a wrench in the vicinity of his chest; he had had this conversation with someone else a long time ago. Lloyd flushed, obviously thinking he'd gone and hurt Kratos' feelings, and moved to awkwardly correct the situation.

"Totally out a line there, sorry…" Lloyd coughed. They had reached the base of the hill and Raine's grumbled threats were getting ominously louder. "I'm sixteen so if you were five years older then that…"
"I stand corrected, I am seen years your senior." Kratos sighed, shoved that old pain down and ordered himself to focus on the here and now. "But you are only sixteen, you look older…"

"He doesn't act it!" Raine growled, they had a last strolled into her hearing range. Colette, and Genis, happily perched on Noishe had not minded the wait but the professor radiated her anger. She did not want any delays, and if she thought it would make them go faster she would have put them all on Lloyd's massive pet and pushed them all to the temple. "Come on we are going to be late!"

"Late, professor temples don't move or anything how can- Ow!" Lloyd rubbed at his head where the slender woman had smacked him with a hand.

"That's not important, come on!" Then she all but dragged the young man down the hill, and saw the reason for the woman's excitement. The stones of the temple poked out from beyond the next massive hill. Kratos grimaced, stared at the sandy mound and the few pillars that were a hint of what was to come. The bricks were black, and on closer observation he would wager they were covered in soot. A warning, and a good one, that they were all going to enter the temple of fire, armed with steel and wood they were going to go through a mess of traps, demons, all centered around flame.

He sighed, only to himself, for Lloyd was being dragged by an excited Raine and the prancing Noishe not far behind her were already climbing the last dune. He stood, on the brink he stood and hesitated. They were going to their deaths, if not at this temple then the next, or the one after that... Eventually they would all die at the hands of the demons in one of the temples, it was only a matter of knowing that the odds always seemed to catch up with those one the regeneration journey.

Eight regeneration attempts ago, eight centuries ago, one woman had made it through all the trials and saved the world. It was so long ago, so much time had passed, and due to that time he could almost feel the world dying under his feet. He could see that death in the pinched faces of the people; could see it in the rivers that ran more often then not with dust rather then the pulse of life. And what pulse was there was sluggish and slow. The world was dying and they were asking a child, no a group of children, to save it.

His stomach writhed and that motion had nothing to do with the food he had been forced to eat earlier today. His sickness had nothing to do with food at all.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"And low from the ashes of the phoenix shall first step to the light be found." Colette quoted as she read some script in angelic. She stood in the shadows cast by a wall and a half. It had once been a building, Raine assured them that this had once been a city. All the stones were black, and brushing up against them made that black spread. The whole city was covered in soot, it was an empty city of partial walls and broken walk ways. They crossed across a broken cobblestone road and at every house Raine would make this scary squeaky noise and dash inside.

Raine had had her reading bits and pieces of the ruins that had writing on them for almost an hour. The three males had gathered some distance away from Raine who was skipping, skipping from pillar to pillar dragging a very scared Colette behind her. Soon though Raine's happiness, once Colette realized it was happiness, infected her. Now two pairs of boots were skipping and chattering about angelic language.

"You didn't warn us about this wizard…" Kratos growled, staring at the woman with something close to fear on his face.

"I was trying to keep it quiet." Genis bowed his head, sighed. "I asked her to act normal and she said she would."

"If this is normal then Kratos is the most cheerful man in Sylvarant." Lloyd whispered, scared to catch Raine's attention and be the victim of a grill history lesson. "Man, poor Noishe, I wanna save him but..."

Noishe trailed after the girls ears slicked back. He had been so happy when Raine had pulled off their supplies off of his back, and that happiness had fast faded when the basket had been tied to him. He now was carrying all of Raine's archaeological tools, notes, and writing utensils plus a handful of vase shards, rock, and other weird things and was clearly getting tired.

"Whiiine!" Noishe turned to Lloyd, his face saying 'save me' unfortunately the sound made Raine look at him.

"Kratos, Genis, kill me now before she does… please?"

"Lloyd, could you come here please?"

"Guys? Guys?"

A quick look over his shoulder showed the other men to be slinking off, looking for safer patches of shade to hide in.

"What a bunch of 'good' friends you guys are!" Lloyd called to them, then with a sigh tried to smile. "Yeah professor, I'm coming…"

Genis snickered, ignored the mercenary and had a good laugh over Lloyd's misfortune. Now he was holding a basket that Noishe had been carrying. Lloyd's dog had tried to slip off but another basket had been strapped to him and he was now being loaded down again.

Lloyd turned to them, his glare said louder then words that they'd be joining him soon. And in less then a moment Noishe turned to Genis and made the same pathetic whine that had caught Raine's attention the first time. Raine turned and Genis swallowed hard.

"Genis, could you help us out?"

"You're so next." Genis warned the mercenary as he joined Raine with a phony grin on his face.

Soon he was holding a small pan used for cooking and it was brimming with bits of pottery. He held it up with two hands over his head, and Raine would drift over to him with a dreamy look on her face and drop a few more shards into it. Lloyd trailed after his teacher gasping and panting, a basket large enough to chuck two Genis' in it in his hands.

"And how," Kratos asked as he abandoned the sanctuary of the shadows to catch Raine's attention. "How does this get us to the seal?"
\pard line "Its research Mr. Aurion, we should always take time to conduct research so that we have an idea what's ahead." Raine then cocked her head to the side, her eyes measuring Kratos' frame.

Kratos looked a bit scared; he went for his sword and took a step back obviously thinking that he was going to be Raine'd. He blinked at the basket that was thrust into his hands, stared at it, then at the teacher.

"You are out of your mind if you think for one second I am going to…"

Raine merely smiled at him and dropped a large rock with runes on it in the mercenary's basket.

"I'll trade you." Lloyd gasped to Genis.

"It is bigger then me! I can't lift it!"

"Kratos?" Lloyd shot the man a puppy eye look that Noishe used on him all the time.

"No."

"Noi… Never mind."

Noishe glared at him, and then padded after the two women with a grimace on his fury face. And so they entered the remains of the city of fire, carrying half of it with them.

"Professor!" Lloyd called out; his earlier pleas for a break had gone unheeded so he was going to try a different idea. He shot the two other guys an apologetic look then gathered his courage. "I have a question."

"Yes Lloyd!" Raine beamed at him, the physical embodiment of good will and cheer.

"What made this place so… You know ash covered?"

"Oh what a good question I'm so proud of you Lloyd for showing some intellectual curiosity! Colette, sweetie!" Raine chased after Colette a smile on her face. "We're going to be having a lesson."

"Lloyd… if you ever get an idea like this again…" Genis took a deep breath. "I'm going to fireball you!"

"I just want to stop, just for a tiny bit, aren't you guys tired?"
"Yes, but you've never been lessoned by Raine when she's like this! It's scary, it scares me, I still have nightmares and I only came with her to a ruin once when I was six!"

"Did I do something bad?" Lloyd looked pathetically at his best friend.

"Very very bad." Genis snapped, his eyes wide in terror. "It's on level to that story where Ayborost opened the chest that held all the world's evils and let them all out!"

"Nothing can be that bad.s24 "

"You'll see…." Genis moaned, set the pan aside. "I on the other hand am going to be prepared." Genis pulled out his backs with it's handful of apple jells.

"At this rate we are never going to get to the temple!" The mercenary fumed, setting aside the over flowing basket filled with rocks that sported squiggles that Colette claimed were angelic writing.

"I warned you guys, Raine and Ruins equal bad news, but neither of you believed me!" Genis flared, oblivious to the fact that Raine was fast approaching from behind. "We'll be here for days looking at rocks and pottery until the world end-" Genis closed his eyes and swallowed. "She's behind me isn't she?"

a99 The smack he received was answer enough for them all.

"Oww…" The silver haired elf rubbed his head and looked over his shoulder to his ill humored sister. "Need to look behind me from now on…"

Raine coolly sat on a boulder not covered in soot and her pupils crammed into the shadows of a nearby building. She then drew out a bundle of papers from Noishe's basket. The dog only lay down by the professor's feet, his expression saying that he was grateful for the chance to rest.

"Now then to answer your question Lloyd, there was a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions during the last half millennia ago that tossed a large amount of soot into the air, it fell on this city and…"

She went on, and on, and on… And after about ten minuets talk about soot Lloyd felt his eyes begin to shut. Genis poked him, tried to keep him up, but soon became so engrossed in the lecture that he forgot all about Lloyd. And when the poking stopped the inevitable happened. He didn't slump forward, only drooped, his head bowed down, and he mumbled something. With that soft protest sleep snatched him up and through the whole lecture he napped.

Raine only went on, and Genis cheerfully added fuel to her passion of learning by asking a few questions. Soon Colette stopped being interested, and slipped behind Lloyd. After a few playful tugs on his hair bored her she began to tie his shirt's neck ribbons into a braid. From a little ways of in the shade of a pillar Kratos watched it all. He listened to Genis and Raine conduct a conversation about geology and society that left him with a dry taste in his mouth and made his eyes begin to glaze. He watched, as Colette, bored with braiding, began doing some very exotic knot work on Lloyd's ribbons. He smiled indulgently at the girl as she began to take advantage of Lloyd's thick mess of brown hair and work that into braids. Safe enough for the moment he scooted closer to the pillar, tucked one leg under the other it's sprawled mate and shifted his belt around so his sword wasn't digging into him. The basket, he happily pushed that to the side, squirmed a bit, then comfortable let the pillar take most of his weight. From behind a curtain of his own wild auburn hair he watched as Noishe yawned, then rested his head on his paws and followed his master's example. He watched as Colette smiled to Lloyd and began to try to work both hair and ribbon into some sort of artistic weaving masterpiece, and at that sight he chuckled. Colette turned to him, somehow heard the near silent sound, and he waved her on to her pleasure. She smiled, winked, then went back to her work.

He blinked in surprise at the girl's friendliness with him, her trust. He should have considered that a victory he guessed, but for some reason gaining her trust just did not seem important right now. The moment seemed to weigh out everything else, it was peaceful, quiet, and almost like the old days.

He smiled at that thought, it was not all that different from his first journey as a mater of fact, this batch was just as wild and undisciplined. 'And just as crazy too', he thought to himself as he took in Raine's all too bright eyes. 'No crazier, this batch is crazier then the first I traveled with, then my first clients'.

Suddenly, though the trip seemed like it was indeed going to be a long one –two years at most was what his instincts told him- that didn't seem too long a time. And it was not as if he was in a real rush to get this done. He had as much time as he needed. Kratos let his eyes slip shut, he was about ready to attempt to follow Lloyd's example when he heard a soft whisper of sound, a dry raspy croak that did not come from a human throat. Noishe's huge jagged looking ears snapped up, he found his paws, shrugged off all of the junk that Raine had forced on him, then ran off with a whine.

"Huh… what's going on!" Lloyd stumbled to his feet, and his two ribbons of white poked up, supported by the half finished braids Colette had been working on. Over all the effect was much like rabbit ears. Lloyd ignored how Genis had fallen over in laughter, ignored Colette's giggle, and turned to Raine. "Professor where's Noishe?"

"He just got up and left!" The silver haired elf picked up a broken pot like I was her own child and nursed it to her breast. "He broke valuable artifacts!"

"He ran off… everyone we gotta get out of here, the only reason Noishe runs is if there's a monster nearby!"

"A monster!" Colette hopped to her feet looking scared.

"Yeah, he's normally brave and stuff but when there's a monster he just freaks and runs."

"Lloyd he runs away from 'rabbits'" Genis snapped, "He probably just smelled a mouse or something."

"He does no run from," Lloyd reached up and worked the ribbons out of his hair, "rabbits."

"Does too!"
"Does not!"

"Does too!"

"Some other time." Kratos barked, pulling his sword from its sheath and standing in one motion. "Silence, don't you hear that?"

"Hear wha-"
\pard line "Shh!" Lloyd cocked his head to the side then sniffed. "It smells like a maple wood fire."

"Maple wood fire?"

"Shut it Genis! It smells like a fire place! Doesn't anyone else smell it?"

"Faintly," Kratos scanned the area looking for something out of place.

"Kratos look out!" The boy in red's eyes widened, the mercenary threw himself to the right, and the very earth where he had been exploded in a mess of fire and sand. The wave of fire stopped slamming into the earth and it withdrew, condensed into a flickering or of fire then that too disappeared. And for just for one second a small red orb the size of a dog's toy was visible, then as if offended with the staring it was getting the fire reappeared, whipped around the orb like a shroud, and gave the thing an illusion of being a miniature sun.

"Genis, cast a water spell on it, it's an element of fire!" Raine yelled, then with a slight gesture sent a soft glowing light from her hands, it flew across the space between herself and the mercenary and settled on the man like a bird to roost and some how was absorbed into the man's scorched back. Kratos nodded to the elf in thanks then to their horror walked right up to it and brought his blade down, the orb shuddered, and the fire shivered, then blasted out towards the mercenary. Kratos managed to throw himself to the side, to dive out of the way, and the orb spin around it's awareness seemed to regard all of them then settle on Colette.

"No!" Lloyd jumped between the thing's path of 'sight' and Colette, bradished his lone wooden sword at the thing and could almost hear it laugh at him.

Realizing he could do nothing Lloyd grabbed Colette's limp hand and ran for the nearest sterdy looking wall.

"Aqua Edge! Uh oh…. No not that way!" Lloyd spun around, and seeing the spell shoot under the monster and still feeling its attention on him did the only thing he could think of. He shoved Colette behind the sanctuary, felt those razor sharp waves smash into his feet and fell on his face. The orb flickered, seemed to be choosing between him and Colette, then when that feeling of being watched settled on him Lloyd paled. He scrambled to his feet cussing up a storm as the fire around it grew darker, more intense.
He then ran the opposite direction he had shoved Colette into, right into… into a place where there were no safe walls to duck behind, it was all sand and… and one basket, the basket Kratos had been lugging around. Without another thought he dove behind it, tucked himself into a tiny ball, and as a last rational thought tried to curl up as much as he could over his sword so he wouldn't lose his last weapon.

The air roared, he smelled the woven basket catch flame, smelled the burning minerals, and realized that it wasn't enough, that the attack was going to burn through the rocks and get to him and if he moved that wave of fire would follow and… he closed his eyes, put his hands over those eyes, and with a very Noishe like whimper, hoped he was wrong about how stong that fire was and...

"Guadian!"

Lloyd lifted a hand that he'd put over an eye and looked around. A soft blue, the blue of starlight through ice, through crystal, was all around him. The smell of winter filled his nostrils, dazedly he tried to find his feet, and bumped into something that felt like a wall… no not a wall a shell, a shell of crystal!

"Stay down!" Kratos snapped at him, and Lloyd meekly nodded his head and lay down. That's when he realized the dark shape in front of him was the mercenary. And some how, with his sword in front of him in a wired salute the mercenary was turning aside that raging fire. From the silver blue tinted world he could see the fires rage around him, saw but did not feel the heat or particularly moved when the sands turned molten and lapped at the edges of the shell like water at the bank of a river.

"C..cold…"

"Hold out a second more." Kratos ordered calmly, "it's almost over."

Lloyd could only shake and twitch as the winter cold seemed to seep inside of him. He thought somewhere he could hear a whisper of a wind chime, like the one at Phardia's house. It was so soft, so peaceful, he closed his eyes as cold and peace tugged at him. Then suddenly the heat was back, he moaned in pain as his whole body just hurt from the shift of winter cold to fiery hot.

"You're alive!" Colette squeaked she ran to them, hugged the mercenary then hugged him and broke down into tears. Dumbly Lloyd stared around him looking for the fire monster. It wasn't there… and it was then he noticed how Colette was cradling her hand. Ugly red burns were all over it in the rough shape of a crescent moon.

"Professor Raine! Colette's hurt!" Lloyd hollered, Raine and Genis came over then, and it was to Lloyd surprise that Genis had tears in his eyes. It was then Lloyd really looked around.

And he forgot to breath.

A V shapped mass of earth that split from where Kratos had thrown himself in front of Lloyd. The lines of the V were made of pure molten rock. The line run on for several feet, and was still smoldering.
"Blew itself out." The mercenary said smoothly. As if he did this every day of his life. "You just invoke anything with a trace of fire element in its pride and they all but kill themselves trying to get even. This one did just that and quite literally blew itself out."

"Shit…" Lloyd gapped at the fire. "How did… what… I… I think need to sit down."

"Are you hurt?" Again that calm, and for a second Lloyd had this feeling it was totally fake. Like the mercenary was shaking inside but not showing it on his outside.

"I… think so…" Lloyd swallowed, and then noticed blood on the older man's shirt. "You're bleeding!"

"Hmm?" Kratos turned, and noticed the pin prick droplets of blood on his tunic that gave him a few speck of glossy black amongst the mass of normally heavy black fabric. "It's nothing, don't worry about it is an after effect of the technique I used."

"Oh alright, if you say so…" Lloyd shook, unable to get up just yet, and watched as soft golden light poured from the professor's hands and fell into Colette's. "Th… thanks…"

"No problem, you have a good eye."

"Oh um yeah well I was the only place you weren't looking you know so go figure that's where it had to be."

Kratos rose an eyebrow at him but said nothing more.

"Lloyd…" Genis decided to attach himself to the young swordsman's side "You're alright, I didn't mean to miss with the spell I didn't I'm sorry and..."

"Whoa, you're starting to Colette-Talk me over here, everything turned out alright." Lloyd ruffled that mess of silver hair. "Don't let it bother you, we're all safe, that's all that matters."

Lloyd hissed as Genis bumped into one of his new burns and Raine turned to him concern in her eyes.

"It's just a sun burn nothing serious and…"

"Tunic off." Raine snapped. He tried to ignored Colette's giggle but he was all too aware that his face was growing really hot.

"I'm fine really, nothing's wrong and… Ouch! Genis!"

"Colette could you, Kratos, and Genis, turn around, it seems as if our hero's shy."

"Professor!" Lloyd went redder if at all possible. "It's nothing honest!"
"Come on hero." Genis teased. "Be brave!"

"Shut it."

"Children." Kratos sighed and they all fell quiet and turned around.

Lloyd fumbled with the buttons, blushed even harder as Raine poked and prodded him, then put glowing hands over his burns and watched in satisfaction as they disappeared. She then patted him on the head, and Lloyd almost as red as his shirt, fought with his clothes once again.

"Look you're blushing!" Genis laughed and Lloyd kind of missed the apologetic worried Genis he'd seen a little while back.

"Yeah yeah…" Lloyd reached up and wondered what the heck had happened to his head. Hair didn't normally tangle itself this bad unless it had help.

Colette giggled again and he wondered, for all of two seconds, he had something else on his mind.

"Hey Kratos that spell you used… un Guardian wasn't it?"

"Technique, it is not a spell." Kratos shrugged.

"Same difference, I was wondering how the heck you do it? I mean it looks like a spell and all but human's can't use magic…"

"They can not?" Kratos rose an eyebrow as if to say he thought Lloyd was wrong. "Well I guess not, what are you getting at Lloyd?"

He looked at the trail of fire, and knew that this was important, that with this he could protect everyone else.

"Could you show me how? I mean I might not be able to do it cuz I can't use magic but if I could…"

Kratos smiled at him, not the indulgent smile a man casts at a silly child or a "I know more then you" smirk. This was a real smile. He never saw Kratos smile like that, ever.

"You want lessons, from me? I thought I was the jack ass, stone hearted, jerk, and bastard, whose soul was made of ice. I thought I was the person who would aid no one without feasible profit."

Genis Raine, and Colette even, flinched at Kratos' bland tone and cruel glint of satisfaction in his eyes. Lloyd met that gaze though and did not flinch.

"I don't know who you are, where your from, that's your business unless you want to make it mine. " Lloyd took a deep breath. "We go of on the wrong foot, that's for sure, all of us got on your wrong side. That's then, this is now." Lloyd extended his hand, took in the mercenaries emotionless face, and wondered what the man was thinking if anything. "So, a new beginning? I'm Lloyd Irving."
"Kratos Aurion…" The mercenary's voice had a certain tight quality to it, and his eyes seemed to seethe with emotion that Lloyd couldn't understand. The mercenary took his hand, gripped it firmly. "A pleasure Lloyd."

"Yeah," Lloyd found a smile on his lips and was surprised to see one that matched it on the mercenary's face. "Same here."

Lloyd firmly told his ex-sphere to stop tingling now and released the older man's hand.

"Umm well I'm gunna go fetch Noishe, um I'll be back in a bit for those lessons, if you wanna teach me that is."

"Not a problem at all." Kratos turned on the other's his eyes had a speculative glint in them. "As a matter of fact it might behoove everyone here if they learn it."

Colette and Genis slid behind Raine. Raine looked like she\pard fs24 'd rather have someone else to hide behind. Lloyd just shrugged and ran off to find Noishe and get back as soon as he could.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Remain calm, take a deep breath, and relax. If you tense up this wont work and you'll just waste your energy."

Raine nodded, closed her eyes, and frowned.

"It's not a matter of concentration Ms. Sage, just relax totally and you will know what to do. Gather the power before you and force it into the air around you."

A soft green light surrounded the elf woman; I was the green of trees, the green of life. Kratos drew his sword, brought it down on that light and took a step back to absorb the force of his deflected swing.

"Good, boy, the same."

Genis closed his eyes, then with a smug smile made a sky blue light envelope him. Kratos brought his blade down and had to drop it as lighting slithered across the light and nearly shocked him through his sword.

"Creative… a word of caution though Genis, by making it into an attack you lesson the defensive power. Know when to make it aggressive and defensive and also know that once you pull the trick on someone once they are probably going to figure it out and have a way to counter attack you next time. Also, you drop the shield when you call the lightning, and any man can just as fast drop his sword and work a knife through your fallen protections before the shield is whole."

"I don't drop it!" Genis protested.
"I may be wrong or I may be right, but do you wan to learn the hard way if that's the case?"

Genis paled and made no farther protests.

Finally Kratos stood before him, and Lloyd felt his blood go cold. He didn't think he could just stand there hoping that a light would push back a sword. Every instinct said for him to dodge, or block with his sword, not just stand there. Yet Kratos seemed to understand that, he sheathed his sword and looked at him for a long moment.

"We'll forgo testing until I'm satisfied you can hold it for a few moments. Now then, recite the lesson."

"Calm, center, the blade can not pass unless I will it." Lloyd closed his eyes, stroked the hilt of his tlinesword like he always did when he was thinking deeply. "The power within is forced without to block the blade, forged of will, of my will I control it, command it and summon and dismiss it with thought."

"Not through force." Kratos added firmly. "You don't force it, you can't force it, you call it and it comes."

"That what I've been doing wrong?" Lloyd muttered.

"In part. Try it when you are ready."

Lloyd closed his eyes, tried to think about willing something out of him that he couldn't see or touch and felt himself getting lost. He opened his eyes and looked at the mercenary and sighed.

"We've been trying this for an hour and it's not working, look everyone else has it I'll just stick with getting out of the way."

"Like this afternoon?"

Lloyd winced, and closed his eyes, and tried again. He couldn't see it couldn't touch it, and again he got lost.

"All right, what's the problem, you're giving me a headache with that scowl." Kratos gently shook him, brought him out of his attempted trance.

"I can't see it, I can't picture it so…"

"You can not manipulate it, your imagination is the tool you are using and it is limited on this front." Kratos frowned. "I can see the problem then."

"Heh Lloyd's imagination is always limited." Genis teased, but this time his comment cut a bit too deep and Lloyd flinched.

"Ms. Sage, could you take the two children to our camp, I'd like to talk to Lloyd and I could do with a little less distraction."

Raine firmly dragged Genis off and Colette followed.

"Is he right I mean could it be I'm just not smart enough?"

"Do you want my honest opinion, even though it might be a bit… uncomplimentary?"

"Shoot." Lloyd had shrunk into himself, feeling so low he was sure Kratos couldn't kick him down farther.

"Your friend has a very limited idea of what intelligence is. His intelligence, facts, figures, order, is the only type that he has any faith in. Because of that he limits himself and doesn't trust anything else beyond it. Imagine nothing Lloyd."

"Wha- Alright... Nothing, like think nothing, or imagine a place with nothing in it? You can't do either, unless you want me to go to sleep or something."

Kratos chuckled. "I think you've gotten enough sleep for today."

"Yeah…" Lloyd ran a hand through his now un-braided hair. Colette, he decided was not safe to be by when she got bored. It had taken over an hour to work out the tangle of braids. "I guess so."

"Why not? Why can't you imagine nothing Lloyd? Isn't nothing little more then a deep black pit that stretches to eternity?"

"A pit has sides, nothing can't have sides cuz then it has something, and…" Lloyd stared at his hands. "Well most pits have a bottom, and how'd you know it doesn't have a bottom unless you check?"

"Very good, ask Genis that sometime and I wager he would not have come to your conclusion, or rather the one you are getting at."

"What am I getting at?"

Kratos seemed to ignore that. "It will come to you eventually if you think on it. Now, the point, the problem might be that you are trying to imagine something you can not comprehend. A blind man can not see colors therefore it would be impossible for him to distinguish between two of them if they were put before him. I have been teaching you like you can see mana, and that is my problem, you can not, that is why you are stumbling."

"Oh, I get it… I think… Maybe…."

"What do you think of when I say red?"

"It's my favorite color."
"I should have seen that one." Kratos shielded his face with a hand and taped on finger against his chin, the mercenary was obviously thinking fast. "How about the color blue?"

"Umm winter?"

"Winter?" Kratos cocked his head to the side, his red-brown hair fell into his eyes. "And what is winter Lloyd?"

"Cold, it snows sometimes and…" He then launched into a story about how he filled a bucket with snow and put it on the door frame to the temple so when one of the priests opened it… Kratos did not seem to mind this tangent, merely listened then nodded as if satisfied.

"Emotional, I should not have been surprised." Catching the confused look Kratos frowned, his manner was of someone trying to explain something complicated. "one person thinks differently from all others, but there are ways to tell the general way a person sees their world. You rely on emotion, intuition, hunches and put the world together after you experience it. That is what I've been doing wrong, since you can not experience mana there is no way that what I've been saying has been helping you. Try this insteed, think of somewhere safe, the safest place in the world to you. Once you remember that and the feeling, focus on the feeling Lloyd, I want you to try to imagine it around you, holding you, protecting you. Am I making any sense?"

"A little bit."

Lloyd closed his eyes, and tried to think of all the places he felt safe…. And was not coming with much of anything. He racked his brain, tried to remember not feeling confident that he could take care of himself. Then something, something kind of slithered around in his head. It was like a glimpse of something from under a curtain. The smell of leather, steel, sweat, a gentle touch, fabric under his hands, and starlight, those things washed over him, confused him a little, but made him feel safe and warm. That warmth seemed to drift around him, like gentle hands, a bell sounded and he snapped his eyes open.

Kratos stood giving him a long brooding look, and it was then he realized that the whole world was tinted a silver blue. There was a flash of light, and he blinked as the world regained it's normal color. The mercenary sheathed his blade, and it was only then that he realized the man had slammed his sword into the shield's light.

"That's tough." Lloyd muttered, trying to not sway while he stood.

"You over did it somewhat this time, practice and you will get better."

And with that the mercenary walked off.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Kratos merely shrugged, his cloak flapped in the late afternoon breeze like a pair of wings.

"You don't come back in an hour and I'll make Noishe fetch you, and you wont like that!" Lloyd called to the man.

He might as well be talking to the air, Kratos ducked behind a building and was gone.

"I'll never figure that guy out." Lloyd shrugged, shifted his sword around, then turned to camp the others had made. It was a short walk, and when he returned alone the professor gave him a funny look.

"He went for a walk I guess." Lloyd shrugged. "I'm starved, what's for dinner?"

"I'm so happy you asked." Raine grinned and Lloyd remembered that she was going to cook all the meals, and he'd come back without eating the snack he'd made earlier today. "Pea and green pepper soup and we will be having spicy cake for desert!"

"Oh.. nice…" Lloyd realized why Kratos hadn't come back, and he'd probably stay away until dinner was over… or try.

Lloyd took his bowl of food and joined Genis, who wasn't quite at the 'need to take a walk' faze of Raine's cooking yet.

"Hey Genis you think Kratos' trails up yet?"

"I don't think I could stomach another trial day myself." The elf hissed, rubbing his stomach.

"So he's one of us."

"Kind of…" Genis looked like he was suffering and would be leaving soon.

"So he's one of us, thick and thin." Lloyd lifted Noishe's whistle.

"I'd say… yeah." Genis smiled at the whistle, an evil smile.

"Raine's cooking too?"

"That's the thick part I think." Genis swallowed hard. "I'm gunna go take a walk Raine!" He called to his sister and all but ran off.

Lloyd only grinned, then blew on the whistle

Noishe came out of the gathering darkness, the sun's dying rays set his silver coat to a multitude of fiery hues.

"Hey glorious green leader," Lloyd grinned to Noishe and the dog wagged his tale as he heard Lloyd address him by his rank. "New member's going to be late for the meeting, you wanna bring him here?"

"Bark!" Noishe ran off, tail waging like mad.
Leaning against his nest of packs, blankets and artifacts that Raine asked him to guard, Lloyd smiled and waited eagerly for the stars to come out. Noishe would take a while and he could sneak some star gazing into it before the new vict- err member joined them. He couldn't wait to see Kratos' face when he found out the leader was Noishe, it would be great. With that parting image he drifted off to sleep.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Lloyd, you have got to see this!"

"Huh!" Lloyd blinked, then stared at where Genis pointed. The elf was trying his best not to laugh at the sight of the big bad mercenary being dragged to the camp by his belts. Genis laughed and Kratos' glare could have killed them all. Showing typical loyalty when faced with an angry adult Genis pointed to Lloyd.

"He owns the whistle, yell at him."

"You told me it was alright." ne
"Did not!" Genis yelled.

"Did…" Lloyd sighed. "Not again, alright, yes I did it, you were late so I had Nosihe fetch you."

"Meeting." Raine asked.

"Umm yeah, that's right, so we'll be off then…"

"Have fun." Raine looked to the baffled mercenary. "They think their so mysterious, all they do is gossip, the only mystery is their initiation process."

"Yes," Kratos glared at Noishe and was dropped to the sands. "A mystery..."

Colette only giggled, then went back to reading some book in angelic by the fire.

"Oh here's your dinner." Raine handed him a bowl of something green and a slice of yellow soft bread with red specks on top. "I'll see you when you get back."

Her tone had the heavy reek of 'go run along and play' to it.

"This had better be worth it." Kratos snarled to himself a he trailed after the children, if it wasn't he would keep his words and both boys would be force fed more of Raine's cooking.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"You actually brought that? Dump it over there, we have sandwiches." Genis pointed to the one blanket he'd brought, and there was in all truth one sandwich on it. Kratos eagerly obeyed, snatched at the real food and took a seat on a nearby rock. "I guess the first thing about this is that we all have taken an oath to prevent Raine from cooking. But most people don't believe she's so bad at it so we normally have to make the experience it first…"

"I think I'd rather starve to death before even smelling that food again." Kratos muttered.

"Amen." Lloyd snuggled more into his blanket and the nook between two blasted walls he had claimed for himself. "That's the first oath, only in the case of two broken arms do we allow Raine to cook."

"Is that all this is?" Kratos asked. "An anti-Raine cooking club, while the cause is noble enough…"

"There's more to it, our leader's late when our leader gets here we will cover everything."

"Colette, she's the leader?"

"Nope. Try again."

"Certainly not Raine."

"Nope," Genis turned to Lloyd. "Hey five gald if he stutters once reality set in!"

"You know you keep losing these bets maybe you should stop or something but yeah, fine I'll take you on that one."

"Noishe… Noishe… … he's…"

"Oh man this was worth it!" Genis laughed at the mercenary's expression.

"Yeah… guess so…" Lloyd closed his eyes.

"Hey, no sleeping!" Genis picked up a pebble and hit Lloyd with it.

"I'm tired.. magic's tiring!"

"Yeah well I'll magic you awake next time!" Genis mock growled.

"Yeah sure." Lloyd looked up to the darkening sky.

Genis entertained himself by throwing pebbles at Lloyd while Kratos felt his patience slowly running out.

"Is there any point to this at all?" Kratos' voice had dipped to a dangerous whisper.

"Huh, Genis let's run through the signals for Colette since she isn't here, seems safe enough. I'm guessing Noishe couldn't get away but I don't think he'll care that he wasn't here for this."

"Signals?"

"We have a code worked out, some of it's in what we say and some of it's gestures or bits of dwarven. Most of the time we use it if we think something's wrong with Colette. First thing about her you really need to know, she never tells you if something's wrong, you have to figure it out for yourself, so that's what we do, someone sees something and gets worried it's how we let the other's know without telling her."

"Because the second she knows she tries to hide it." Genis added glumly.

"And then you start to say 'did it really happen?' She's managed to hide a cold so long that it turned to something nastier before Raine could do anything about it." Lloyd looked to the stars, but neither mercenary or wizard missed how his hand clenched on the hilt of his sword. "So after Colette you wanna teach him my signals then I finish by running through yours?"

"Lloyd that might not be safe I mean there might be another fire elemental around."

Lloyd sighed, "Man I wanted to explore."

"What you mean," Genis' grin appeared. "Was you were getting bored, I swear you have the attention span of a fish."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

Kratos took a bite into the sandwich more to keep from saying anything cutting to either of the boys then any real appetite. He ate the whole sandwich while the 'fight' continued. Kratos sick and tired of it glared at the children. His eye that peeked out from his wild hair seemed to turn the air to fire and the elf who was in mid stinging retort lost his train of thought. Lloyd paled, woke up completely, and was groping in the dark for his remaining sword but when Kratos didn't get up and kill them he relaxed a small bit.

"Yeah... the signals... right let's work on them right now..." Lloyd managed to find his wits before Genis. "Alright whenever I see anything funny going on with Colette but don't know what it is I always ask a question about rain, not the professor but weather you know? Now depending on what else I say after..."

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"I'll give you boys credit, this is a thorough system you've set up." Kratos admitted as Genis wound up his end of the briefing. "If you hadn't told me what was going on I'd never had known it even existed."

"Scary thing is Lloyd made most of it up." Genis tossed a pebble at the Iselian swordsman who slept through the attack. "And it was his idea too, after Colette got really sick after hiding that cold he decided we needed to do something about it and he spent days making this up. We used to have it written down but after a while we both just memorized it and burned the notes."

"I would never have expected any subtlety from him, he seems honest, to a fault."

"He is, that's why we only have a few things that we can talk about in it. We could have made a whole language up but all it really can say is who's sick, hiding something, or to arrange a time to plan something."

Another pebble went flying, smacked against Lloyd's boot and the swordsman still slept on.

"You haven't told me everything yet have you."

"Things we can't tell you, like the code we made up for you for starters. But we never hide anything dangerous, ever, that's part of the oath we hold up."

"You never made me swear to anything," Kratos protested mildly, the glare he shot Genis was enough to make the boy put the pebble aside and leave Lloyd alone. "Why is that."

"You're only in part of the way." The silver hair lad told him, fearlessly meeting those black brown eyes. "We only teach you what's necessary for now, if you get in all the way then we'll come up to you privately and brief you on what we keep secret from everyone else."

"You don't trust me yet?" Kratos did not sound pained, was only stating a fact.

"No, I don't." Genis stared at the sky, it was better then those all too calm eyes. "The only ones here who I think do are Noishe and Lloyd. But then I don't know that for sure. I can tell you this though, we all have our oaths, our... Rules that we go by and we will tell you them if you ever pass our individual tests. We were open about this test, we wont be open about our personal tests. I can also say that no one has ever passed my test, Colette and Rain have passed each other's and I think Raine might have passed Lloyd's, but I'm not too sure. I also know that the only reason Lloyd didn't ask Colette to accept his oath was because there's something in it that she'd never agree too. Well that's what Raine told me."

"I have to wonder what Lloyd's oath is... if there is something that he feels Colette wouldn't do... it makes me wonder." Kratos shifted his gaze to Lloyd, Genis could feel it slide off of him and onto his best friend. "Aren't you jealous, that your sister passed and you have not?"

"No," Genis picked up another pebble and threw it at a cactus. "I know Lloyd, he has a good reason and though he is a thick headed sometimes he knows what he's doing, there's gotta be some reason why I can't do part of it, for all I know I'm just too young."

Genis threw the next pebble a bit harder, telling himself he was not jealous, saying it over and over again in his head.

"Trust his judgement, I would, and that says a lot." Kratos' attention seemed to have drifted back to him. It made Genis shiver. There was something creepy about Kratos, and it wasn't that he wore all black.

"You don't know him, how can you say that?" Another pebble was thrown, harder then the last.

"I know his type, protective, honest, loyal, dedicated, I've seen bits of him in the faces of those around me." Kratos sighed. "We should head back, night has fallen and many creatures come out to hunt when the sun sets in this clime."

"No, I'll wake him up." Genis grinned as the mercenary turned to him. He rubbed his hands together and Kratos wisely stepped aside. Genis tip-toed to Lloyd and cupped his hands over Lloyd's face. He whispered a quick chant, filled his hands with icy water. Then with a quiet chuckle Genis spread his hands apart and let the summoned water fell.

"Ack! Co..cold! Damn it Genis you are dead you hear me!" Lloyd staggered to his feet, tripped over his sword that he'd left on his lap. He stooped over looked desperately for his blade, then finding it got to his feet and held it over his head like a club. "When I get you you'll wish Raine was raine'ing you!"

Genis was running before Lloyd had even finished the first word.

"How can you stand this!" The young man growled at Kratos, he then pulled his hair out of his eyes. "You're mince meat you hear me Genis! You're going to be Noishe snacks when I'm done with you!" He hollered into the night, then muttering something about a puddle he ran after the wizard.