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.

15. magnitude

Chapter 15

The first Ranch

Magnitude

To my readers,

Been listening to the Tales of Legendia sound track... (Makes sounds of pure joy) I swear you PS2 owners are so lucky... Sometimes I think I should of got a PS instead of a Game Cube. Dorr and all that good stuff up ahead. Major changes to Dorr scene, had Kratos talk more then Lloyd, Oh and if readers want to offer alternant summaries for this fic or titles (even if it's already titled I'm not thrilled with too many of the titles) I'll probably swap your suggestion with what I have and I'll make a point of giving you credit on the beginning of the chapter you've named.

BTW the following note isn't for all of you, just the insulting reviewer whose comment I deleted, no matter what I've tried (shift 8) and the few codes FairyV gave me asterisks and most symbols will not transfer over from my computer to the fanfic account. So if you would kindly not bring it up again, I'd appreciate it.

Kasan Soulblade

"Begin," Kratos lifted his blade and Lloyd nodded, unsheathed his swords. It was weird fighting like this, now there was Raine and Genis and Colette and all the guards from PalmaCosta and the people who were going to pretend to be them as an audience. Kratos did not charge, this was aggressive combat training, they were letting the defensive sit for a while so that Lloyd could actually do something besides hide behind his swords when they got to the Ranch. Lloyd jumped delivered a two handed over hand swing with his lone sword. Kratos side stepped the attack, the blade bit into the ground, Kratos stabbed at his throat, but Lloyd turned the energy behind the leap into a roll, he rolled forward so all Kratos' blade edge hit was his pants.

Still Kratos had drawn a little blood with his stab…

Cursing the Iselian got to his feet and fast, good thing too cuz Kratos charged. The man delivered a swipe that honest to God screamed through the air it was so fast. Lloyd stepped back, and the blade whirled around, changed hands and came screaming just an iota not as fast, in an underhand slash. Lloyd wasn't as stupid as to try blocking it; he gave the mercenary as much room to deliver his slashes as he needed. Now, while the man was tensed up before he began his next slash! Lloyd stabbed with his blade, but Kratos gracefully hopped back, kept his arm to his side in what Lloyd now knew was a mock full force slash pose. Smirking Kratos tossed his blade from one hand to the other, not impeded by his shield Kratos was doing that a lot, swapping sword hands and overall being a show off. Lloyd knew he was supposed to go after Kratos, after all this was an attempt to hone his fighting skills but Lloyd hesitated. Chase Kratos he'd get creamed or let Kratos chase him he'd get creamed, not a pleasant set of options. He scuffed his boot across the sand and then an idea came to him, smirking he spun his blade in his hand, a taunting little challenge. The mercenary's eyes narrowed, never in his experience had Lloyd ever turned down the opportunity to charge him, to show he could beat him in a head on fight. Slowly Kratos came forward, he was watching Lloyd's arms however, no his foot, so he missed the first few hints. Delivering a sharp kick Lloyd sent an arch of sand in the air, Kratos hissed something in that weird language of his, covered his face with his free hand and staggered back.

"Ha!" Lloyd delivered a low chop with the flat of his blade aimed at the Kratos' legs; Kratos' blade thrust down and blocked the blow. He spun his blade; forced Lloyd's up with his and held them in a lock then with a wrench of his arm disarmed his pupil. The sword was pointed at his throat, and while most duelists would have acknowledged this as a sign of defeat it was a signal indicating that they were going to take up the second phase of their training. No rules save one -well two if it counted that Kratos wasn't to kill him but that went unsaid in all their matches- Lloyd had to keep fighting until either Kratos had delivered three hits, Lloyd had delivered three hits, or Raine broke it up.

"Hold it!" Lloyd croaked, holding up a hand. "I call one hit as already made."

Kratos frowned, lowered his blade so its tip pointed to the ground.

"I acknowledge no hit."

"Not me on you, you nailed me when I rolled." Lloyd pointed to his torn pants that had a thin trail of red running down his thigh.

"Ah… I thought I pulled that hit."

Which was as close as Kratos ever came to making an apology to anyone, Genis whistled in shock and the guards who were going to be playing "Kratos" and "Lloyd" frowned and began to talk amongst themselves. Probably taking notes on how they talked back and forth to each other so they could keep the act up once the real Kratos and Lloyd left. It was kinda creepy; they were making their own impostures now. Lloyd shook off that thought, now was not the time to be thinking about weird stuff.

"I acknowledge the hit." Kratos lifted his blade, but only to check and see if there was a bit of blood on it. If there was the dust was too thick about it to see. "Do you wish to get it healed before we continue?"

"It's not that bad." Lloyd grinned. "Just a scratch, not like you'd ever get a good hit on me that could honestly hurt."

Kratos chuckled at the bravo, seemed to crouch ever so slightly, his blade weaving through the air in front of him like a snake. It was going to be hard as heck to run past Kratos and get his sword, the man wasn't all that much slower then Lloyd when they sprinted, and that sword had one heck of a reach… But who said anything about running? Lloyd hopped back from the first slash, dodged the thrust by putting even more distance between them, then finally ducked under the high slash and hit the mercenary in a flying tackle at the waist. Kratos was so surprised by the Noishe styled move that he lost his feet, they landed in the center of the road, and Kratos abandoned his sword gripped Lloyd's wrists and kicked off the young man so that the momentum of Lloyd's tackle sent him flying. Gasping the swordsman landed almost on top of his sword, not the best way to get it but it worked. Grinning he snatched up his blade, staggered to his feet even as behind him the mercenary rolled over and pushed off the earth with his bare hands.

"I call hit!" Lloyd crowed, taking Kratos' answering snarl as a yes the Iseilan grinned. Now it was his turn to get even, Kratos' sword was a goodly distance away. It went even farther when Lloyd summoned the silver light along his blade and sent a wave of energy down the road to smash into the mercenary's sword. "Like heck you're getting that sword back!" Lloyd growled, charging for it, for now the fight turned into a face. If he got the blade he could fight with two swords but if Kratos got it first Lloyd would have some painful bruises for pulling that stunt.

Xxx xxx xxx

Raine sighed, set her hands over Lloyd's back and sent waves of healing mana into the young man's bruises. Lloyd lay on his back, the guards were shedding their steel armor and one of the slender ones was fighting his way into Lloyd's spare red shirt and overalls. The young woman who had died her hair white shifted uncomfortably in Raine's orange jacket and black pants, twirling a make shift staff in her hands with obvious discomfort. The fake "Kratos" had stolen the real one and was trying desperately to get his hair to look like the mercenaries.

"Have you ever heard of a hair clip, or a hair cut?" The man grumbled. Kratos' answering glare must have been ferocious because the guardsman stuttered an apology.

False Chosen and real Chosen were sitting on a rock alongside the road. The fake Chosen was braiding Colette's hair in return for the ribbon work that the blonde savior had done to her hair. They talked, leaned against each other, and it was impossible for Raine to tell that Colette was an angel in that moment. She looked like any other young girl who was just having a silly hair moment with her friends. Genis' sigh cut through the air, he was yet again trying to teach the young boy who'd dyed his hair white and was in a set of imitation Genis clothes how to use the toy kendama.

"OK I got it!" The boy piped, and there was a series of quick 'clack's and Genis laughed.

"That is better. Hey I'll challenge you to see who can tap it fastest."

"You're on!"

Soon it sounded like rabid woodpeckers were trying to gnaw through a tree as both kendama went to their mad tapping.

"Opps!"

Raine looked up, as did Genis, to see the human's kendama arch through the air and smash into Kratos' head. The mercenary wheeled about, his eyes flashing and the human boy pointed to Genis.

"Wow Genis I can't tell the difference between you two!" Lloyd laughed as the mercenary descended on the boy's promises of bloody infanticide written on his expression. "Run guys!"

Squealing in terror the children did so and Raine chuckled when she saw Noishe jog up behind the mercenary as he was about to catch Genis. Noishe leapt and the boy's got away, the mercenary being unable to run with three hundred pounds of dog on him.

"Bark!"

"Heh, I dunno if I should take lessons with you Kratos if Noishe can kick your butt then maybe he should teach me!"

"Damn it help me!" Kratos roared, he bucked sharply and Noishe smacked him with a paw.

"Ohh Raine'd by Noishe!" Lloyd laughed, and his laughter got cut off as Raine firmly smacked him with a hand on the back of his head.

"Stop gloating young man."

"Yes Professor… oww…" He rubbed his head.

"Oh I have an idea!" The human child grinned at the mercenary. "Come on Genis let's get the paints from my packs."

"Don't you dare!" Kratos tried to get up but Noishe was laying down, his tail thumping a wild tune against Kratos' legs.

"Come on Kratos, be nice to the children, it's just a game after all." Raine scolded. She patted Lloyd on the back to tell him they were done.

"Yeah Kratos lighten up, it's just a game… hey I think I have some feathers that we can use as brushes in my packs!"

"Oh I have some ribbons we could use from Triet!" Colette chirped.

Kratos was turning a very pale color as the boys returned with a few small bottles of paint, as Colette came back with an arm load of ribbons, and Lloyd came back to them sporting a feather brush for each of them. He however looked like he had been struck dead when Raine came up to him an opened pale gray battered case in her hands, inside was a number of paints for nails and powders for the face.

"No, absolutely not!" Kratos tried to squirm out from under Noishe. But the guardsmen wanted in on the fun and had pinned the limbs that Noishe could not cover.

"Do his eyelashes Raine!" Genis giggled and Raine with an evil grin on her face complied. Kratos squirmed, fought, and finally gave up.

"The second I can get up I swear I'm going to all but drown myself in a river to clean up, then I'm going to come back and…"

"Stop talking, you're making this really hard Mr. Kratos." Colette scolded, as she wove ribbons in the man's thick hair and decided she was going to make as many braids as she could.

"Opps…" Lloyd's feather stroke went into Kratos' hair because Kratos had jerked slightly.

"I'm going to kill you all…" Kratos snarled and made a choked cough –a muffled laugh?- as Genis stroked his neck with a paint laden feather.

"I do believe you are ticklish Mr. Aurion." Raine grinned down at the scared looking man. "Shall we test that hypothesis?"

Genis and Lloyd began to rub the feathers against Kratos' neck, in less then five second the man was howling with laughter, trying to get away. Kratos tried to make a few threats, but was soon having enough trouble trying to breath. Eventually they ran out of Kratos to honestly paint, every inch of his face, neck, and hands, were a riot of conflicting colors, and his hair, the sight of all those bright colored ribbons dangling from the ends of those locks of auburn hair. Genis and his imposter fell onto the road laughing, tears running down their faces. Colette giggled, and the guards were howling with laughter. Lloyd stared at Kratos, tried to keep a straight face, than seemed to hold himself together as his mirth tried to rip him apart. What was even worse was when the man tried to scowl; it made it all the more funny. Raine leaned against her staff, shoulders shaking; eyes running wet with tears, her laughter were so great it honestly hurt something inside. Kratos stormed off, they'd passed a river not too long ago and he went to it to clean himself.

"Oh Sweet Martel he's going to honestly kill us for that!" Genis croaked, whipping his eyes.

"Worth it though!" Came Lloyd's, and everyone's, general consent.

Xxx xxx xxx

Kratos stared at himself, and chuckled. Gods those children were vicious sometimes. He sighed, could tell Lloyd's slender swipes of the brush from Genis' wilder strokes and Raine's tightly controlled swipes. First off because each of them used different strokes and second because the all used different colors. Lloyd had traced a hundred lines of red over him, Genis' strokes were a deep blue, and Raine had taken the green paint. Dipping his hands into the stream he watched as the first of their play drifted downstream, at least the ripples obscured his reflection. Damn that she-elf, she had put choal around his eyes and put eyelash thickener over his lashes. He ducked his head under the waters and rubbed violently with his paint slimed hands, his hair fanned out behind him a mess of ribbon and locks. The ribbons were going to take at least an hour to work out, never had shaving his head seemed so alluring. Finally he decided to Hell with it, he peeled off his tunic, worked off his gloves and arm sheathes, nearly ripped off his cloak, kicked off his boots, and with some fumbling managed to get off his belts and pants. As exposed as he was the day he drew his first breath Kratos dove into the clear waters, a trail of color falling behind him. He cut across the length and width of the pond, allowing the waters to sooth him and take away the pressure of being forever alert. That was his mistake, as he stood a few feet in the pool he began to work off the tangled mess of ribbons and hair, he heard a sound more chilling then any roar of a monster. He heard a giggle, a female giggle, and he looked up to see woman in orange staring at him, it wasn't Raine however but Dorr's in training imposture. She calmly bent, picked up his clothes and walked off whistling a cheery tune. His roars that she return his possessions went completely unheeded, she took a seat some distance away from the river and made herself comfortable sitting on his cloak and looked at him expectantly.

Kratos only met her gaze in a one hundred percent genuine death glare, but his rage did not faze her in the slightest, she only waited. Luckily the water wasn't all that cold to him, he'd swim in colder and he could wait her out. Still he did not want to wait her out! He wanted his damned clothes back. This was why he never took jobs escorting women, this was why.

"The second I get my clothes back Ms. I am going to kill you, slowly." He whispered, treading water that if it had been sensitive to his tone had turned to solid ice.

"But the trick is getting your clothes, isn't it?" She smiled at him and Kratos hated that look. It was that puppy adoration woman liked to favor on him because he was quiet, and wore black. "And this is completely you fault, if you had responded to my flirting earlier I wouldn't have to do this."

Kratos growled and treaded water, praying help -or a monster he wasn't picky at this point- would come soon.

Xxx xxx xxx

"He's been gone for an hour… I guess I better go check on him." Lloyd said more to sooth Colette worry then anything else. Kratos was a good swordsman he couldn't imagine the man getting into a situation he couldn't fight out of, it was probably all the unbraiding that was taking so long. "I'll be back in a bit!"

Raine nodded, the guards went back to eating the lunch Genis' had made for everyone , and Genis was going over some kendama tricks with his new human friend.

That was the normal scene Lloyd left, what he came to when he got to the river was something totally insane.

"Oh hi!" The girl waved from her blanket of Kratos' clothes, a quick glance at the river told Lloyd exactly where Kratos was.

"Finally!" The mercenary snarled. "Do something!"

"Ummm…" Lloyd felt himself growing red. "I'm gunna go get Raine…"

"Not that!" Kratos howled. "This is bad enough as it is, I'll never hear the end of it if you fetch the elf!"

"He's so cute!" The girl sighed looking at Kratos all weird like. "I'll give you your clothes if you come out of the water." She said brightly.

Lloyd shuddered, no wonder Kratos was staying in the water, he'd seen one of the bakers like this after one of the woodworkers in Iselia. It had been scary as heck.

"You… you know your really putting him on the spot… I bet… he'd never go out with you after this!" Lloyd said, aware that Kratos' glare had shifted targets.

"So you mean he was interested?" The girl in Raine's spare jacket looked up at him.

"Ummm…" Kratos was trembling in his rage, Lloyd expected steam as well as several fireballs to come rising out of the water any second now. "Well isn't it bad for a girl to be chasing a guy without knowing anything about him?" Lloyd squeaked, shaking a little in fear.

The girl was thoughtful, her brown eyes calculating. "You seem close to him, I imagine you could tell me some stuff about him."

"Erm… Yeah I guess I could."

Little noises of outrage, sputters, and oaths, were coming from the river.

I'm so dead, deader then dead, please work or he's gunna kill me!

"Did you say something?"

"Nothing!" Lloyd coughed. "So what do you want to know?"

"Well we've been traveling together for a while and I haven't even heard his name once."

"Oh… he's Kratos."

"Hi Kratos, I'm Candy!" She waved and the mercenary slithered deeper into the water. "He's awful shy isn't he?"

"Yeah…"

"Oh that makes him even cuter!" Candy squeaked, clapping he hands. "So what's he do, like his job?"

"Umm, he's a traveling mercenary."

"What's it like?"

"Hard, he has to sleep outside a ton without a tent most of the time and kill monsters." Seeing Candy's look of disgust Lloyd added a lot more on. "It's really uncomfortable because there's no inn and none of the Houses of Salvation even let mercenaries in them! And he has to take monster ears or no one believes him that he killed all those monsters."

"Oh…" Candy defiantly looked less interested. "Does it pay much?"

"Ten gald an ear I think." Lloyd was lying like no one's business now. "Maybe even less."

"Does… he look for anything in women?"

Kratos' eyes promised instant death if he answered that one wrong. Tugging at his vest Lloyd coughed shifted and was aware of Kratos' eyes boring into him like knives.

"He's married!" Lloyd squeaked out the truth, under that gaze he could do no less.

"He is?" Candy pouted, "why is it always the cute ones that get taken? Are they close?" Candy said at last, in a small little voice that was filled with desperation.

Lloyd imagined that Kratos snarled something very "not-nice" -as Colette would put it- in his weird gibberish language.

"The closest!" Lloyd squeaked… the glare of death wasn't on him anymore but that girl must of been thicker then him to not feel those eyes on her. "Umm actually he's going with us to visit her in…" Lloyd tried to remember the map and just picked a name off of it at random. "Asgard, yeah that's right Asgard!"

It was the right thing to say because she looked very very disappointed and looked wistfully at the mercenary who was by now probably half raisin.

"Oh…" She got up, all hunger gone. "I'm sorry… Well is that elf kid done cooking lunch?"

"Yeah, he is." Lloyd sighed with relief, then paled a bit as she looked at him speculatively.

"When you grow up I bet you'll be cute… how old are you?"

Lloyd made a string of gibbering noises and almost ran as she cupped his face with a hand.

"Too young," her eyes sparkled. "When you grow up or find some other cute guys come to the boating dock for Thodia and I'll give you a free ride. For being such a sweaty I'll give you a free trip for you and your friends and for every cute guy you bring I'll give you all another ride, how's that?"

"Nice." Lloyd whimpered.

She looked to the water, her eyes hopeful.

"You wouldn't be thinking about getting out of the water now would you? If you did I'd give all of your friend's free rides forever!"

Kratos snarled something and dove under the water.

"I guess that's a no… Oh well." She left humming a tune and the second she had left Kratos' head reappeared over the waters.

"Is she gone?"

"I… think so… are woman always that scary?"

"No thank Origin most aren't that bad. My clothes if you would."

"Oh umm right…" Lloyd gingerly picked up the man's black tunic used them to carry the boots, he bundled the pants and undergarments and used the cloak to carry those then dropped it all on the sandy bank. Lloyd pointedly stared at a tree while Kratos got dressed behind him. The mercenary walked behind him, there was a clink of metal, the jingle of belts, and a soft sigh on the mercenary's part and Lloyd imagined the guy stroking his sword.

"I owe you one." Kratos said, and Lloyd turned to see the mercenary was fighting with his last boot. "I owe you a huge one… My God I thought I was going to freeze off my man hood waiting for her to leave."

Lloyd dipped a hand in the water.

It's not all that cold, it's kinda warm actually."

"I guess I still have some of Triet's heat in my bones." Kratos shrugged. "Just out of morbid curiosity what would you have done if she was still going to be persistent?"

"I'd of told her you worshiped other things besides Martel."

"Ah, alternate religion, the ultimate woman repellent." Kratos' lips curled though the rage still shimmered in his eyes. "I swear to the High God if she isn't gone by tonight I'll…"

"Well she should be, we're splitting with them tonight, right?"

Kratos nodded, grew somber.

"It will take three days to get to the ranch. I still wish we could have kept that horse or it would have taken only one."

"Where did you get that horse anyways?" Lloyd asked as they began to go back to the road, to the others. Despite being creped out earlier lunch sounded great right now.

"I would rather not discuss it." Kratos grimaced, looked at him weirdly. "You would not want to know."

"Oookay…" Lloyd frowned. "Does this have to do with the fat guy at the House calling you a bandit?"

Kratos grimaced. "I thought I told you I didn't wish to discuss this."

"Alright shesh, your weirdness is showing again."

"I will do what I can to restrain it."

And while Kratos was probably being serious Lloyd found it funny. Laughing, Lloyd draped an arm over the poor mercenary's shoulder. At the man's surprised expression -for all knew it could of stemmed from the laughter or from being touched, who knew why Kratos did what he did?- Lloyd laughed all the harder.

Xxx xxx xxx

The path was unguarded, there were no monsters prowling the area. It was much to their surprise then they made it to the Ranch and had not encountered monster or Desian. Kratos seemed to have fused his hand to his sword, and much to Genis' surprise Lloyd was acting the exact same way. But then they were acting a little alike now, they even looked alike wearing that same serious look with hands half fused to their weapons. There had been no games after they left the road and the guards. He and Colette had ridden Noishe while Lloyd and Kratos and Raine had walked. Kratos taking the point in front of the dog while Lloyd and Raine kept pace on the sides. It had been a somber journey, no one had talked, they'd all been so tense, so scared, and it had infected all of them, even Colette. On the eve of the last day, as they approached the ranch and slinked into perhaps the last clearing that was far enough away from the ranch to sleep at they found that someone else was there already.

Neil looked at them grimly after delivering his news of PalmaCosta's betrayal. Or, rather, Dorr's betrayal.

"Won't the army get suspicious when they wander around and don't find anything?" Genis growled.

"The Desian's do much like we do; they set up training exercises outside their base. I imagine the army will 'stumble' upon one of those and get enough blood to appease even the most blood thirsty vigilante." Neil shivered. "He told me, to my face that's what was going to happen, that your deaths were an unavoidable consequence and I had to steel myself for making such decisions for the well fare of PalmaCosta when he died. I couldn't..."

"You repaid his betrayal with your own." Kratos shrugged. "History will dictate who was just in the end."

"That son of a b-" Raine gave Lloyd a sharp look and even in his anger the red clad boy knew better then to finish that sentence.

"It was to be expected, PalmaCosta was allowed to have an army by the Desian's, this game has been going on for a very long time I imagine. But while we know Dorr's involvement we do not know the full extent. He could have valuable information or in fact be a mere pawn."

"What are you saying Professor?" Lloyd frowned at his teacher.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kratos crossed his arms in front of him. "I agree Ms. Sage, both with your logic and your suggestion."

"I still don't hear a suggestion." Lloyd complained.

"You aren't all that bright are you." Neil frowned. "I just... I need to go back to the army, warn them."

"Only if you want to be murdered will you do that." Kratos let his eyes bore into Neil and the man bravely returned that stare. "Few if any will believe you, oh you might be able to sway a few for you are in high regard, but even if they do believe you do you think they shall stop? Their goal is blood, and they'll have it, first the Desian's then the people who run PalmaCosta's high council."

Neil paled, looked into the darkness and harbored his grim thoughts in silence.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Colette protested as Kratos began to pack up their positions.

"We are going back to PalmaCosta to question Dorr."

Neil paled and looked scared. Little wonder he did, Genis thought to himself, the second we come back Dorr's going to know he double crossed.

"We can't leave, not with all of those people in danger in the ranch!"

Kratos scowled at Colette, it was Raine who spoke however.

"We dare not attack the ranch with no information, if Dorr has knowledge of a secret way in or some trinket that can get us by the guards without fighting it would be helpful. I know there are people in there being hurt, I know it's hard to walk away, but it's only for a little while then we'll be back and free them."

Colette jerked off Raine's supporting hand, her eyes fixed on the ranch.

"Raine, we can't leave, Chocolat is in there!" Genis protested.

They then all turned to Lloyd.

"Why me?" Lloyd muttered.

"Lloyd…" Colette looked to him and the swordsman gulped. "We have to go in, we can't make them wait."

"Come on Lloyd, we can't let Cocao down!"

Kratos said nothing, stared at the path back, which were words enough.

"Whatever your judgment is, I will… trust in it." Raine smiled slightly. "Perhaps those guided by instinct have a purpose and aren't always wrong."

"Thanks a ton Professor…" Lloyd grumbled, "I want to run in their and just fight our way through… but if that green haired guys ranch taught me anything… It's not to underestimate these guys. We need everything we can get. I say we head back, push Dorr around and get what we can."

Neil made a squeaking noise, not unlike a mouse protesting that it was going to be sent to fight a lion. Colette and Genis made louder protesting noises that were defiantly outraged.

"Lloyd you can't be saying that!" Genis yelled. "Those people are suffering; you didn't see what it was like for..."

"You don't think I didn't see!" Lloyd flared. "I lived less then two miles from one of these things! What I didn't see I heard!"

"That's enough." Kratos put a hand on Lloyd's shoulder. "Calm down Lloyd, now is not the time. If we are to carry through with questioning Dorr then we must head back now."

"Where is the main army?" Raine turned on Neil, "do they have orders to attack us, what of the commanders?"

"Fanatically loyal to Dorr," Neil frowned. "All of them adore him, nearly worship him, his father used to fight alongside them and he did to until his wife died. He would not orphan his child, he said, then…"

"Now isn't the time to be admiring the man." Kratos said icily. "He is a threat to this regeneration and must be dealt with as such."

"You sound as if you plan murder." Neil said softly.

"If need be, you might consider it an eye for an eye." Kratos said in a chill voice.

"We are not hurting him." Lloyd growled. "We're just going to question him."

"How, ask him nicely?" Kratos spat. "He's all but arranged for our deaths, I wager the Desian's already know we are coming…"

"You take an eye that someone takes from you and you're both missing an eye, no one wins." Lloyd snapped, he crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared up at the man. "If you're gunna kill him, than you're gunna stay here, with Neil."

"You don't give me orders boy."

"Vote, if we go to PalmaCost and question Dorr, who says we kill Dorr?" Lloyd said in a nasty tone, he waited no one raised their hands. "Who says we try to question Dorr, without hurting him?"

Lloyd, Colette, Genis, and Raine's hands went up, as well as one green paw.

"Fine." Kratos spat the word. "You have my word that I will not harm Dorr, but know your mercy will Damn you all to an early death."

Lloyd shrugged, it was his life and his death, Kratos didn't have the right to say a damned thing.

Xxx

"Alright," Raine snapped as she poured the bowls of her soup –it looked more like stew but no one was saying anything- for the group. "To quote Lloyd; this is annoying, beyond annoying. Every time something important happens and we make a decision everyone gets into a fight, this inane cycle that has to stop!"

"What?" Llyod looked up from eating, his mind had been else where so he was eating without thinking about it or saying anything, he'd been quiet since the fight.

Colette looked up from her food, she was for once sitting by herself. Everyone had taken seats as far away from everyone else as they could and still be in the firelight. Never had the saying together and apart been given such a concrete example as the one before her.

Genis refused to look up from his book to aknowldege her words.

Kratos stared off into the night, his hand absently running the oiled cloth over his blade.

no one had been talking to Lloyd except her, Colette and Genis had spoke a little to each other and Kratos had actually been abandoned by Noishe and left to brood by himself for the bulk of the day.

"In-ane…" Lloyd made a face. "Professor, what's in-a-ne mean."

"It means, stupid, Lloyd." Genis snapped over the edge of his book, there were some implications to his tone that Raine did not like.

"Alright," Raine glared at the lot of them. "I'm calling an emergency meeting, right now."

Lloyd yawned, "I'm gunna go to bed."

"No Mr. Irving, you are not."

"I got last watch Raine…" Lloyd made a face. "With Kratos, you know he'll skin me if I start nodding during my watch."

"Usar gravue Lloyd."

Lloyd stared at Raine, she'd just pulled the one thing on him he could not ignore, she had used the dwarven words that bound him to her.

"No fair!" He wined, sitting down in a huff more suiting a twelve year old.

Kratos looked at them both, shook his head and drew out a stone, and began to scrap the stone against the steel. They all winced as that grating sound filled the silence of the night.

"Would you stop that?" Genis snarled, lowering his book. "I can't read when you do that!"

"Well I need to be able to tend my gear Mr. Sage, if you are so delicate then feel free to go off a ways while I work."

"Genis," Raine snapped as her brother was about ready to do just that, "Sit down. Kratos play with your sword later."

Well she had Genis and Kratos' attention, though they were both favoring her with hostile glares. How did Lloyd do this? She who had been speaking all her working life in front of audiences found herself faltering.

"What's wrong Professor?" Colette asked, setting aside her food.

"What isn't?" Raine stood. "Ever since Lloyd made his decision we have been fighting. Every time Lloyd makes a decision everyone who doesn't agree with him starts fighting with him. It pits everyone against everyone else. I'm as guilty as the rest of you, but now seeing how bad it is I only have to say it must stop or I soon expect we'll have an argument about direction. Half of us will say east, the other west, and when Lloyd picks after looking at a map we'll all start fighting each other over that."

Colette giggled. "That's silly Professor, we'd never fight about that!"

Genis frowned, his expression thoughtful.

"Haven't we been though? Didn't we all fight each other when Kratos, an experienced traveler, tried to lead us and we didn't like his direction? When Lloyd sided with him we nearly exploded." Raine said to her brother, who seemed more open to her words now. "When Lloyd decided to side with Colette about going to the house of Salvation, Kratos and I tried to bully him into making him go around. And I know you gave him absolute hell over the PalmaCosta incident." Raine said to a chagrined Kratos.

"I acted out of turn, and I apologized to Lloyd." Kratos said weakly.

"Professor," Lloyd raised his hand. "I've got a question."

"Lloyd, dear, we aren't in my Iselia class room, you don't need to do that to get my attention anymore."

"Oh… habit… sorry. But, why me?"

"Why what dear?" Raine stared at Lloyd, as usual not understanding him.

"Why me, why do I have to pick every time?"

Crickets chirped as the adults and children looked at each other, embarrassed.

"Well… ummm…" Raine blushed, for once without an intelligent thing to say.

"Well you're good at it Lloyd, every time we have a disagreement you always step in and say something and it stops!" Colette chirped.

"I guess so." Lloyd made a face, looked at the green 'soup' he had been eating, he sniffed it and whistled to Noishe. "Here boy, you look hungry!"

"Bark!"

After eating Kratos' bowl, Colette's bowl, and Genis' bowl, there was still room in that bottomless pit of a stomach for even more. Noishe lapped up the green pepper split pea soup all the while purring happily, and Raine for once was uncaring. She was thinking on something else that suddenly loomed in front of her and stung like a quick cuff to the ears.

"We've been slipping again." Raine said quietly.

"Indeed…" Kratos muttered, looking shammed.

"Geze how could we be so stupid!" Genis smacked himself on the head.

"Guys?" Lloyd looked at them baffled.

"Nothing Lloyd," Raine smiled. "You can go to sleep dear, Kratos and I need to have a little talk."

"Nah, I'm up." Lloyd gave them all a cautious look, as if he was expecting them to grow claws and go at each other the second his back was turned. Considering their past behavior such a response was understandable.

"Lloyd, you are right, we have no right to keep shoving this onto you, even if you are the one we all trust the most in a crisis. We need to have a talk, and sort this out, and you need to sleep so… Kratos doesn't skin you alive during your watch."

"Alright…" he went to his blankets wearily, slithered under then and was still watching them like he was thinking he was going to have to hop out of the blanket and break apart a fight.

He was justified though, out of all of them he was the most free of guilt, and the guilty, well they had to sit down and have a long talk to fix what was going on. Which was exactly what they were going to do.

"A friend of a friend once made a recommendation, that all sensitive subjects should be addressed with some thing to keep the hands busy." Kratos drew out a pouch and tossed it to the small elf. Surprised Genis opened it up, stared at the mix of herbs.

"Tea?"

"Would you rather be it soup?"

Raine scowled and Kratos returned the look blandly.

"If we are guilty of one thing, all of us, it is that none of us can seem to take criticism well, so much so that we take a differing opinion as criticism. I imagine since it is a universal flaw that this is as good a starting place as any."

Raine chewed on her lower lip.

"I concur, it is a universal trait amongst this group."

And with that weird long word babble going on it took little for Lloyd to finally fall asleep. And while he didn't understand it at all, he thought he understood the tone. It was, kinda friendly, but with two adults, who knew?

Xxx

"Fireball!" Genis waved his hands and the orb of fire in his palm went up and fell from the sky like a meteor. His target dodged aside the attack, and the child elf lifted his kendama as the blade ached down. He managed to push aside the short sword –more accurately the sword pushed him aside- and tried to get off another spell.

"I told you Ms. Sage, this was not a good camp site!" Kratos snarled, stabbing at the bandit before him, the man in a dark green jerken and brown pants backed off out of the range of the attack. "Lloyd told you this wasn't a good camp site!" The mercenary swatted the arrow out of the air before it could imbed itself in his chest. "In the name of the true Gods, Colette said this wasn't a good camp site!"

The bandit was looking confused, as the man before him wasn't even paying him much attention, was just yelling at the elf woman who was clacking her staff against a the bandit groups witch's across the clearing. He didn't know that if Kratos had been even favoring him with half of his attention the man would have been dead long ago. The archer didn't have another shot, Lloyd summoned a wave of silver light and the man crumpled to the ground in pain. Seeing the archer out of it Lloyd ran to the thief that was attacking Genis, trying to get through the elf to Colette. Another demon fang and the man was out cold on the ground.

"Hey Kratos, you need some help?"

"I've got it." Kratos swatted aside the slash with his shield then with the hilt of his sword leading he smashed his weapon into the bandits jaw. The man spun, fell to the ground, and slumped at the mercenary's feet. Kratos knelt to rip the man's cloak off and whipped the coating of blood off of hilt and hand.

"You are becoming too reliant on that trick I taught you, it's making you predictable." Kratos scolded Lloyd, tossing the soiled fabric to the earth. "To be predictable it to…"

"Have openings and be dead," Lloyd sighed. "I don't want to kill then and that's the only way I know…"

"Use the hilts of your blades Lloyd, just smash the cross bar into…"

"Hey guys, my sister needs some help!" Genis yelled, breaking up the friendly argument. "Sheesh if we left you too alone you'd yap about dumb swords stuff and just forget everything else!"

"Ms Sage is doing fine by herself." Kratos grumbled, not liking the interruption.

Raine was doing fine on her own, she was by no means elegant, but she was doing a good job. She had smashed her foes staff so many times, so hard, that the wood was about ready to snap. With a sickening crack the witch's staff snapped in twain and with a loud thump the strike descended and smacked into the pointy broad rimmed hat, and went through that to his skull. The thief magi's eyes rolled back into her head and she hit the ground twitching.

"Uh oh, is she alright Professor?"

The elf kneeled onto the ground, checked the downed thief's pulse and sighed.

"She's alive, she'll probably have a minor concussion though."

"But she'll be alright?" Colette pressed, not at all concerned that the people around them had been trying to kill her.

"Yes Colette." Raine smiled indulgently at her pupil, patted the concerned girl on the head. "We should move on I guess, and I'm sorry everyone, I made a mistake…"

Lloyd blushed, scuffed a boot across the ground, thinking no one had caught the gesture because he was in the back of the group. In the gathering dark he did not see Kratos' eyes flick in his direction. The mercenary frowned, lagged just a little letting the energetic Chosen and Genis take the point.

"Sorry Professor, I guess it's kinda my fault we…"

"You were keeping an eye out for what you needed, and it was a nice catchy of herbs with other rare types. Your dazzle headache brew was running low due to the fact that I neglected to buy ingredients while we were in PalmaCosta. It was my fault in full that we needed to stop here, and I understand how uncomfortable you are in saying you need certain medicines sometimes. Most people find the need in something beyond themselves as an embarrassment."

"Well it is, I mean it's dumb that I need stuff for my head sometimes."

"Lloyd, we all get headaches, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Lloyd sighed while Kratos frowned into the dark.

"Yeah, I guess your right. But I bet that girl with the weird hat really needs it now, nothing worse for a headache then getting Raine'd!"

Raine made an outraged noise and Lloyd ran ahead, darted past Kratos and joined his younger friends. The mercenary smiled, stroked the hilt of his sword as they moved on leaving the bandits behind them. He was a little concerned, dazzle headaches were no light thing, but for now he would hold his curiosity in check. Not everything would have to be answered at once. He could wait as long as need be.

Xxx

"Professor." Lloyd frowned at the end of her lectures. "I have a question."

Raine smiled, pleased that Lloyd was showing some curiosity at last. It was the middle of the last day of travel, she had been teaching with a passion to keep the children's minds off of what was to come, and it was working to some degree. They had again talked her and Kratos, they had talked the first night of their journey, and after seeing Lloyd's brooding stares and Colette and Genis' strained expressions had decided distraction was needed. Kratos had agreed to handle Lloyd when the Iselian swordsman became bored with her lectures, but the bulk of distracting came to her.

"This is something they need, and I can not provide." Kratos had said as he looked at something far away. "I am as tactless as a boar, have the manners of a starving wolf, and little patience to play entertainer. I can keep Lloyd distracted, but my means of doing so would bother the Chosen greatly."

"Your stories." Raine had frowned, not liking them all that much.

"Call them as you will." Kratos said coolly. "I assign the task to you, since I imagine the tales of my travels would not be suitable entertainment for children."

So distract, or teach she did.

"What happened before the Church was established? Everyone always starts the story when the church was made but no one ever bothers to go beyond that."

"Lloyd…" Colette frowned. "The world wasn't even around way back then. The angels made the world, so there wasn't a time when there wasn't a Church of Martel."

"Oh," Lloyd frowned. "But if Kratos worships things that were worshiped before Martel then how could the Martel Church be there if it wasn't there when…" Lloyd rubbed his head. "Man this is too confusing!"

"It's a contradiction," Raine explained. "You have one source that says one thing, and then you have one man saying another. I don't mean to call you a liar Kratos, but there is much more proof with the text of the holy book, the ruins, and the various histories."

"No insult taken." The mercenary said, his eyes flicking across the world about them, forever looking for danger.

"I imagine the clans where Kratos was born were merely confused people who did not know of the ways of Martel." Raine continued.

"The Angels, didn't they make Martel known to everyone?" Lloyd protested. "So how come Dad, or me, or Kratos, didn't know?"

"They say everyone knows of the angels in their hearts Lloyd." Colette pointed out. "The Goddess puts that knowledge in all of us. Sometimes we forget, or accept other things as truth, that isn't the truth."

Raine watched Lloyd take a deep breath, exert control over himself, and she wondered who had been teaching him to do that. She only had to look at Kratos, who was favoring Lloyd with what could only be called an affectionate gaze, and she knew. Raine did not like the man, there was something utterly cold and calculating about him that made her leery trusting much less liking him, but he was helping Lloyd.

So while liking could never really come, trust was trickling in, she was learning to trust Kratos, as were they all.

Xxx

Through the hustle and bustle that flooded the main gates they managed to slip in. Part of the crowd they had blended in with the many merchants, travelers, and those on pilgrimages. Two elves, a mercenary, a swordsman, and a girl went unnoticed. They went to one of the lower class inns, and over the one room they were to share they took the tacky table and around it gathered around a map of the city.

"The office is here, and his house is here, we are here. From what Neil was able to tell us about the Governor-General he stays at the office the bulk of his time. He comes sun up and leaves just a little before sunset."

"Has anyone even been to the higher class streets when we were here last time?" Raine asked, looking at Lloyd pointedly.

"I didn't have time to explore as much as I wanted to, plus the cities really big so…" Lloyd blushed. "Sorry guys."

"I only went to the chapel." Colette said.

"And we were at the school every second we could get doing research and studying." Genis said to his sister.

They all looked at Kratos.

"The upper class do not normally allow sell sword of my low class near their yards much less inside to ask about jobs. The closest I've ever gotten to being inside was when I… Well lets say I knew the dungeon under one of the grounds of one wealthy merchant several years back and leave it at that."

"What did you do?" Lloyd asked, lips curling into a grin.

"I failed a bet, alright?"

"Wow I guess you can do stupid things too Kratos!" Genis laughed.

"Do not push my temper; it is very short these days." The mercenary said in a cold detached tone that made a chill run down everyone's backs.

"Umm… well what was the dungeon like?"

Kratos' eyes turned to slits and Lloyd cringed back.

"What I mean is if we get caught and thrown in them could we get out, like I did in Triet?"

"You never did tell us what happened in Triet, so how would I know if the experiences are comparable?" Kratos mused.

"I don't want to talk about it." Lloyd said quickly.

"Really?" Kratos' eyes seemed to glitter with malicious humor. "What did you do?"

"N...nothing…"

"He probably pulled a Colette step and the door popped open!" Genis chuckled.

"I did not!"

"Sure."

"Shut it!"

Genis stuck his tongue out and Raine restrained Genis while Kratos gripped Lloyd's fore arm.

"Play fight later." Kratos sighed, pushing Lloyd into his seat firmly. "Let's just say that willingly showing up on Dorr's door step and surrendering so we can try to break out of the dungeon cells under his mansion would not be the wisest of moves. Also, knowing what we do of the man's ancestors we can safely assume that the house was built for defense, not opulence."

"Huh?"

"Never mind Lloyd, the house probably isn't the safest place to attack." Raine said. "Plus his daughter would probably be there, we don't want to get her involved with this."

Lloyd nodded, agreed, as did Genis, Kratos was silent, his eyes brooding over the map.

"So let's go to the office then and…"

"Not now, it's almost sun set now, we probably wouldn't get there in time." Genis pointed out, the sun was setting the world behind them on fire, the waters of the ocean, which they could see from the dock side hotel, were crimson.

"Tomorrow morning then. We should set watches."

"In a town?" Lloyd protested.

"This is for all intents and purposes, enemy territory; we should not lower our guards."

"Kratos," Raine protested. "No one saw us enter or we would be in a dungeon cell by now."

"You're too nervous Kratos." Colette smiled. "The Goddess will protect us so we'll be fine. I bet everything was just a big accident and it'll all be all right come tomorrow."

Colette yawned, wished them all good dreams, and went to the bed that had been given to her. Colette and Genis would have the beds; Raine, Kratos, and Lloyd, would share the floor and hope the rats weren't overly brave. Kratos grunted, leaned against the wall, not willing to go to sleep without at least standing guard for a few hours. Raine curled about her blankets, eyes sliding closed, and she was asleep in a few moments.

"Hey Genis," Lloyd drew out a deck of cards. "You up to a game?"

Kratos watched the children play a few rounds of poker, odd and end things being offered in steed of gald. The children argued the value of beads, bits of ribbon, and a few wooden carvings, making their own currency of sorts. He watched as Lloyd bided a hand sized carving of a wolf, and pitted it against a few measly beads and odd end rocks. If sold the item would be worth at least fifty gald, well Kratos would have paid that much for it, it was a very high quality specimen. Demeaned by Lloyd himself, as the boy termed it as a drizzle projects, and constantly undervalued it's worth.

Soon yawns punctured the game, Lloyd encouraged his friend to go to sleep, and the wolf which had gone back and forth between the children was now secure in Genis' winnings pouch. Lloyd did not follow his own advice,

"You should rest; tomorrow will be a long day."

Lloyd shook his head, sat on the dirty floor a top his blankets but did not move to go to sleep.

"Too antsy, I'd walk around but I'd wake everyone up." Lloyd whispered.

Kratos considered, he was skilled enough a warrior to know when a situation was dangerous, and despite what he had told Raine he doubted they would be attacked. He mentally toyed around with the idea of tying to go to sleep, but with Lloyd awake he knew just how antsy the boy could get while being still. And how noisy Lloyd could be while being quiet.

"Do you know the game, Trava?"

Lloyd looked up, surprised. "I didn't think you played games."

"Even mercenaries play form time to time, though we are quiet about it." Kratos cracked a weary smile that Lloyd's more then made up for with its raw childish enthusiasm. "An old friend of mine used to play it… we became estranged over the years and I haven't found anyone who's traveled with me long enough to teach them the rules."

"Alright, it can't be that hard right?"

Kratos chuckled, that same glint in his eyes as all the times before when Lloyd was wrong and was going to learn painfully how wrong.

Xxx

"Cards and a board?"

"We'll start you on the easy form, just working with the pieces, if you like to I'll introduce the cards."

"Alright."

Kratos picked up the smallest piece, a small person in some strange jagged armor.

"This is a swordsman, he moves one league per turn, four of them may move at once as a unit…"

The explanation of the easy form took a whole hour, and Lloyd's head was ringing by the end.

"Don't worry; I'll remind you when you need reminding."

"Alright." Lloyd set up his side, picking form the basic selection, Kratos picked the side with the more resources but lesser number of troops where Lloyd was taking the side with the more powerful starting troops. They'd made a bored with a weird map Raine had gotten in Triet, and Lloyd had spent a bit of time making a hot skip board pattern along a large section. Kratos had put in a few sketchy drawings here and there and in a half hour they were ready to play. Despite the fact that Kratos was going easy, despite the fact that Kratos had the 'bad' side, he beat Lloyd every single game. He ducked behind the heavily woodland sections of his 'side' to nullify Lloyd's archers and then whittled Lloyd's army to pieces. By the fifth game Lloyd was dead tired, he was making so many mistakes in setting up Kratos ordered him to bed.

"You won't do any good half asleep tomorrow."

"I'm going…" Lloyd yawned. "prob'ly why I'm losin' sos much…" Lloyd mumbled, curling up on the bed while Kratos quietly picked up the pieces. A bit of an idea tugged on Lloyd's mind as he watched the man work through half closed lids. With a smile on his lips he decided it was a good one, and sometime after that thought he fell asleep the smile still on his face.

Xxx

The door was open; a door where one should not have been was there. They had gone down those stairs, clinging to the shadows like thieves, Kratos leading, Lloyd behind him, and the others taking the rear. They went down swords drawn, the mercenary spent some time to work his cloak over his blade to hide the tell tale flashes, since his ribbon wouldn't work for that Lloyd just held them close to him and cringed at every torch they passed. It couldn't have been long, but the dark, the gloom, and a reek of decay made it seem horribly long and scary.

Kratos gestured for Lloyd to stay back, and went around the last bend. He came back to them, anger flashing in his eyes, but he beckoned them to come in silence.

"When… when will sh- my wife be back to herself again?"

"The next payment will determine that." Came a sneering voice. "You've been giving us less, the Lord is not pleased with you for that."

"Now listen here!" Came a frusterated reply. "I can't give you more, I've been taking from the church, the taxes, every thing I dare take I have!"

"Become more daring then." The male voice growled. "After all aren't men of power supposed to be daring Governor General? Isn't that the mark of a true leader?"

"Shut up! Just… shut up and be gone from my home!" Came the choked voice of Dorr.

"You should treat me with more respect, General. Of would you like another lesson? Your child…"

There was a scream, a child's scream.

"No, please… not my daughter! I'm sorry my Lord, forgive me!"

"That's a little better, kneel next time you say it, as is proper form amongst you animals. Next time we want double Dorr, no excuses. No gald no medicine, it's that simple. Simple enough for a human to follow I imagine."

"Damn you…" Came a soft sob, a broken man's cry.

"Daddy?"

"The bad men are gone now sweetling…" Came the harsh voice made harsher with suppressed tears. "Everything will be alright."

"I seriously doubt that General." Kratos spat, storming out of the darkness, hate written on every line of him.

"What's the matter." Lloyd growled, torn between anger and pity, anger winning out for now. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Lloyd, that's a really over clichéd line." Genis sighed, cambering down the stairs, Raine and Colette behind him.

"You… So I was betrayed by Neil."

"You hardly have that right to be saying anything." Kratos hissed, his eyes blazing in hatred. "If Neil is a traitor I can not even imagine what it makes you."

"We need information on the Ranch," Raine said coldly. "After all, I think that discovering the coop and surviving it entitles something."

"I'll tell you nothing!" Dorr took a step back, fumbled with his robes of state and produced a slender thin blade. Call for them were rare as it was considered a weak weapon, a weapon of weaklings, but it was the norm of the elite. Lifting rapier's tip he shoved his daughter behind him and stared at Kratos. "You're the only threat I see here, I warn you once. I am a veteran of war. I hold nothing back."

"Then in that," Kratos shoved back his cloak, freed up his sword. "We are the same."

"No, don't hurt my Daddy, please don't!" Kilia's voice was an attack that none could defend, Kratos lowed the tip of his blade and Dorr did the same.

"Raine, take the girl and the other rest of the children out, now."

"You said you weren't going to hurt him!" Colette protested.

"Kratos, you promised us!" Lloyd exploded, shoving off Raine's insistence that he go with her. "You swore."

"My duty is to the Chosen." Kratos snarled. "This man has not only betrayed her but his whole race! He has no right to live!"

"What right do you have to say that?"

"More then you have to question me." Kratos snarled, staring at Dorr and the man returned the hate for equal hate.

"Kilia, go with the elf." Dorr whispered, staring at Kratos. "I'll be up in a bit."

"Child, obey your father, Lloyd, go with Raine."

"No," Lloyd shivered as those eyes flicked in his direction; he shivered at the dead look Kratos favored him with.

"You still have your child." Kratos hissed, lifting his blade and offering his foe a salute, beginning to walk around the tight basement, prowled the room's dark and filtered sunlight. "They took your wife but you still have your child, and you sell them all out."

"Silence! What right does a peasant have to criticize me? What can you know of it? Nothing! You're just some upstart peasant who got his hands on a blade and parades himself as a swordsman!" Dorr lifted his blade, shuffled his feet a slow crab like walk, his eyes fixated on the gleaming edge of Kratos' blade.

"Look, I'm sorry about your wife!" Lloyd croaked. "You think she's the only one who's died, who's been hurt?"

"Please." Colette fought off Raine's firm pulls to go up the stairs. "We are going to the Desian ranch even if you don't help us; if your wife's been captured we could free her like everyone else!"

"Free her?" Dorr laughed a bitter sound, "She's not some Desian captive!" He leapt forward, Kratos backed up from the dancing blade, his back to a length of wall covered in a thick wool blanket. Kratos caught the lighter blade against his own, wrenched his arm sharply and the lighter sword went flying. Kilia screamed as her father's sword smashed into the ground a few inches away.

"Kratos you are not going to kill this guy in front of his kid!" Lloyd flared drawing his blade.

Lloyd dashed in front of Dorr, blocked the mercenaries swing with his own blade. Kratos was not holding back, the strike was aimed to kill and by shear stupid luck he was able to get in time and bring his sword in line. He braced for the hit, and cursed in pain as both his hands, arms, shoulder, went dead numb from taking the hit. His feet skid back on the wooden floor even though he was braced. He sank to his knees, he could not block another hit like that, he hurt just from blocking the first one and his sword fell from limp fingers.

"You swore, you promised." Lloyd croaked weakly, could do nothing more then pant and wait for the next hit to come.

It didn't, he shivered, looked at the ground before him, could feel Kratos fury and disappointment pound on him, it was hotter then the sun in Triet.

"What… why did you…"

"Look." Raine said, the voice of reason, the only one in this room it seemed. "Those people need us to rescue them in the Ranch, and you are the only person who knows anything about…"

"I can't tell you anything, don't you understand that?" Dorr spat, frustration mixing with the rage. "I can't… they'll hurt my daughter!"

"If we beat them they won't hurt anyone." Genis pointed out.

"If." Dorr snarled. "I will not put the welfare of my family on a if."

"You are a fool." Kratos rumbled. "Life is based on if, death is the only certainty, and if you are such a coward as to not accept that… To trade your own soul for a few years with your daughter in this life of opulence, to do so at the cost of slandering your wife's memory…"

"Shut up!" Dorr exploded. "What right do you have mercenary to even assume that you can comprehend the situation I am in! None, that's what!"

"I comprehend Dorr; I never sunk as low as you…" The last was delivered at a hiss whisper, and where the words were lost to all but Dorr and Lloyd the tone and vehemence behind it echoed in the room and sent chills down everyone's back.

"Kratos!" Lloyd screamed, looking up to see something behind the curtain reach.

The mercenary turned, brought his blade around and it clashed against claws. Three sword length claws… Kratos brought his steel shield around; let it take the brunt of the claws slashes.

"What the... A monster!" Genis wailed, cringing in fear.

There came a gurgle, a gurgling screech, a scream. Lloyd clapped his hands over his ears, curled into a ball on the floor and howled in pain. He heard from far away Genis, Raine, Colette, scream in pain. Kilia's high pitched voice seemed shriller then the monster's cry. Kratos moaned, shuddered his sword falling to the ground, his shield strapped to his arm scraping the stone as he moved to cover his ears. Only Dorr was unaffected, he seemed to listen to the animal's cry with no pain for a few moments. He then walked forward, stroked a claw and muttered something and the cry died down.

"You want to see my wife?" Dorr's voice grew choked. "Then look! See what they did to her!"

He gripped the blanket now sporting three holes, ripped it aside.

"Oh Gods." Lloyd felt tears slide down his face, all of Iselia came back to him.

It was green, a sick puke green that turned into all the colors of a bruise around the bloated skew face. The neck jutted out sharply to the right, as a person miht in a pain thro but was some how locked. The bleeding puss hued eyes looked at them, no pupil, no anything, just empty expanses of yellow. The smell of decay, Lloyd gagged at that familiar smell, the gargled speech that was mad pained gibberings of an animal. Of a human turned into something worse then an animal. Rags covered it's waist, though little else, it looked upon them, focused on Dorr and a claw snaked through the bars. They watched as it brushed the man's face, drew a thin line of red. Dorr took the smooth upper part of the claw, gripped it and looked at them.

"This is the price of defiance. This was the price I paid for my fool of a father's bravery, this is the price I paid for idealism in my youth. They did this to my wife, my clara, no one can understand that pain." He stroked the flat of the claw tenderly, ignorant of the blood it seemed. "But we'll have the medicine as soon as I pay them they'll give me the medicine."

"As soon as you steel the money." Lloyd croaked. "As you steel the money from the people who trust you, as soon as you let the Desian's rip your army to shreds! You've sent hundreds of people to their deaths!"

"They died fighting the Desians." Dorr hissed, looking down at him. "They get what they wanted, better them then the whole city. And who's to care or know? If they hold to the delusion that their lives actually mean something, that they die for some greater cause, that's between them and their Goddess, isn't it?"

The mons- Clara moaned, and Dorr patted the claw.

"It's the last time, they promised me it would be the last."

Kratos' eyes burned.

"Why should it be? They hang a hope over your head and you'll do anything to see it fulfilled, they leach PalmaCosta of its money, you lose everything, it's all they'd ever want."

Dorr shrugged. "The people of PalmaCosta will be happy, not knowing the truth doesn't hurt them."

"If we…. Went to get the medicine… would you stop taking the money from PalmaCosta?" Colette asked, Dorr looked up at her in confusion as if she had spoken a weird language. "We're going to the Ranch, we can look for the medicine there."

"To go to the Ranch is suicide."

"We're going." Colette said softly. "Even if it's suicide, we are going."

Lloyd nodded, decided to try standing, seeing that his legs were working he tried his arms and picked up his sword. He was hurting, his hands and arms were a little bruised, but he was overall fine. He walked away from Dorr a little, found a pile of crates and took a seat. Wearily Kratos went with him, his eyes never leaving the cage, nor did his sword turn from Dorr's direction even as Dorr and Colette talked of faith.

"Then, I am forgiven?"

"Not by us, we don't have that right, but by the goddess, yes. By the people, that's their choice."

"We need your help Governor General," Raine said softly, if there is no better place to begin, then it is in helping us.

"Yes," Dorr nodded, "I… I know some of the layout of the Ranch and I have a device that will allow you to pass the main security gates without activating any of the alarms."

"See you can really help us out!" Colette chirped.

No one noticed Kilia bite her lip in thought. None saw as she pick herself up from the crate she had cowered behind when her father's sword landed by her. No one noticed the blade was picked up, or see it glow with black mana, then shrink under that un-light glow. Lloyd was too busy wallowing in his hurts; Kratos was focused on the creature. Colette too intent on talking to Dorr, Dorr was lost in the feverish re-telling of the Ranch's lay out, and Rain and Genis too intent on Dorr's words. No one thought anything of it when Kilia went behind her father. Lloyd felt something shake him, it was a mental shake, a dull tingle down his back, his eyes flared open and he stiffened. Kratos sensed, did not look at him, he just sensed Lloyd's tension and they both turned in time to see the altered blade slide into Dorr's back.

"Dorr!" Colette squeaked.

"Pathetic inferior being, do you think I'll allow you to speak anymore… I told Magnius he was a fool for trusting you as much as he did."

Both swordsman were on their feet, blades at the ready. Laughing shill laughter Kilia kicked the human, laughed even harder at the moan.

"What, he's your father!" Genis howled.

"My father…. No human is my father. I am beyond my pathetic human sire and beyond my elven dame."

"So, that would make you a half elf." Kratos murmured.

"A Desian, inferior filth, not just a half elf." The fake child cackled. The skin around her face her hands darkened the color of a bruised plum. She smiled at them baring fangs in steed of teeth, shook her head even as horns thrust out of her skull. She shivered as the transformation which seemed horribly painful brought a pleased smile to her lips. She laughed; a husky laugh and shivered as a tail slithered out of her back, mockingly stretched and leered at their expressions of disgust.

"Do you want to know what the most pathetic thing is?" The false Kilia purred, a scorpion like tail weaving in the air behind her. "He never even noticed his girl was dead. It was so easy going into her room at night, sliding in the closet. I stayed a few nights, scratched at the walls and how sweet it was listening to that fool comfort her and say 'there isn't a monster in the closet dear heart there aren't any monster's in the city' and then to be quiet a while, and to let her believe that… And then to watch that belief slid off her face as I came out, she knew her father was away, she always told her when he would be gone overnight." The tail difted over her shoulder and she stroked it fondly. "She knew he wasn't coming, there weren't any guards… It was so easy sliding this through her thin little skull, letting the acid go drop by drop into her brain."

"You bastard!" Lloyd trembled in rage. "You're not a half elf, you're a monster."

"I went under some… modification procedures." The child sized creature smiled. "I was… baptized I guess you'd call it, in a stream of pure dark mana. You can not imagine what it feels to be under the waves of the blood of the world, you can not imagine the pleasure of the power it gives you. But then you'll learn. The power part anyway."

A black orb appeared in her hands, the pointed it at Genis.

"Let's damp some of stubborn compassion and life out of you, shall we?" Genis screamed as the thin closed it's clawed hands and an orb of darkness engulfed him.

"Genis!" Raine cast a light spell, set the shadows fluttering around the room.

"Oh holy Martel…" Colette began to pray softly, her wings bathing her in soft pink light.

"No!" Lloyd smashed his blade across the things face, it caught the sword in it's hands and the bony protrusions blunted the strike. The things back twitched and eight bony things sprouted out and lashed at him. Lloyd brought his blade up, tangled them up with each other with his sole blade. He used the same trick Kratos used on him, tangled as many of the bone things he could and then holding his sword in two arms wrenched his weapon, and the extensions to the side. He didn't get all of them and those he missed dug into his sides, boring little holes in him. Gasping in pain the swordsman staggered back, clutched his stomach where two of them had really dug in deep, and stared dumbly at the blood seeping between his fingers. Kratos charged forward, swatted the tail aside that went after him and backed off from the bone things.

Lloyd pulled open a pouch, silted the skin of a red jell with the edge of his blade and rubbed it in as much as he could while keeping an eye on the fight. Genis set a wave of fireballs though the air, they smashed into the fake Kilia but she hardly winced. Raine and Colette ceased their chanting almost simultaneously and a orb of light so like the orb of dark serounded the monster. Kilia snatched the wall with her eight bone tentacle things, slithered up the side of the wall and then howled in pain as Colette's feathers streaked across the room and pinned her leg. Whimpering in pain the monster pulled out the feathers, but her slowness in doing so cost her. Kratos' sword smashed into her, they could all hear the crunch of it smash into the stone wall. The false Kilia howled, clawed at the blade as the mercenary grimly twisted.

"No… I won't…" Blood ran from the corners of it's lipless mouth. "Not to you…"

Kratos paid the amblings no heed, was not listening as he ripped the blade out and the creature fell to the ground a bloody mess at his feet. The tail spasomed erratically, but Lloyd saw it tense. Ignoring the pain from his half healed stomach the swordsman pulled out the knife Kratos had given him and threw. Steel arched through the air, smashed into the tail and the mercenary lifted his shield in time so it could take the spray of green liquid. He stepped back, over Dorr, ripped off his shield and threw it against a wall.

"I'll let… the monster… kill you…" It whispered, then pointed a claw a the door of the cell, the door slid open without a squeak even. It slumped forward, dead, it's last cackle hung in the air a final taunt as the dark took it.

"No!" Genis howled, knowing what was going to happen.

"Oh Gods, not again, please not again…" Lloyd whispered, lifting his blade. "Don't make me kill another innocent victim."

Colette surged past Raine, past Genis, was suddenly right in front of Kratos and Lloyd barring the monster's path from the two swordsmen.

"No!" Her wings flashed a blinding golden light that made Lloyd have to look away.

There was a howl. Something large barreled past him, there was a startled yell from the stairs, then nothing. The heavy footsteps thudded above them then they were gone.

Colette and Dorr, who had somehow survived this long, were talking. Lloyd closed his eyes, lips moving in silent prayers of thanks that he hadn't had to… Wiping his eyes he looked around, Colette was with Dorr praying, Raine was holding a crying Genis murmuring words of comfort. A hand closed over his shoulder, her jerked, then relaxed, recognizing Kratos' touch. He was gently wheeled to his feet, and the older man slung an arm under him because Lloyd's legs just didn't want to work.

He was sitting on some crates and the mercenary was working off the buttons, a roll of bandages tucked under his arm. He hissed in sympathy as he saw the stomach wounds and a nasty gash on the shoulder.

"Didn't even see that one." Lloyd muttered, looking at the gash in some surprise.

"I'll heal the stomach wounds, but the gash will just have to wait a while." Kratos pealed of the blood soaked gloves, sethis handson the twin puncture marks. Silver blue light engulfed the mercenary's hands as he held them over the injuries. Lloyd winced at the wrench he felt in his gut.

"Is it supposed to…"

"Yes, she got very deep, scratched the stomach wall, it's a damn miracle you got that throw in. If it hurts let me know, but besides that don't talk, this is very complicated work."

Lloyd meekly sat through, and ignored how his stomach twitched under the mercenary's power. Kratos' face was a scowl of concentration, remembering how Kratos could, and did, talk during his healing normally Lloyd felt a slight chill. That meant it was bad, a bad wound. Sighing, looking drained Kratos sat weekly at Lloyd's feet.

"I think that does it, there's a slight increase in the acid of your stomach so you might have some pains tonight and tomorrow, but that's all."

Lloyd muttered something, let Kratos bind the injury on his shoulder, not seeing how the older man's legs were twitching. He did notice though when Kratos almost passed out in front of him though. He slung his good arm under the man's arms and they both sat on the crates panting like worn out dogs.

"Never thought this was… going to be this hard," Kratos chuckled. "I must be getting old."

"Can't be…" Lloyd managed. "Not… too old… just ancient… when you're archaic at… fourty something… then… you'll… be too old…"

"Take that back…" Kratos tried to growl.

Raine came up to them, went past them at Colette's cries to heal Dorr. Wearily the elf joined her pupil; Lloyd just watched the exchange with half closed eyes.

A hand shook his shoulder, Raine, Colette, looked at him in concern. He must have blanked or nodded off or something…

"Dorr wants to talk to you."

Lloyd stood without thinking about it, or tried, Raine had to help him walk a little.

"My daughter?"

Lloyd gulped, feeling sick inside, and he spoke his first successful lies in years.

"She's alright."

"That's good.." Dorr smiled at him sadly. "Thank… you… My… wife medicine?"

"When we find it, we'll give it to her."

Dorr smiled, stroked his arm with shaking fingers.

"Save… them… Do what… I… could not…"

"I will," Lloyd met the dying man's eyes. "I promise."

Dorr smiled, though blood dripped from the edges of his mouth, and with a sigh he closed his eyes and died.

Xxx (end game spoilers ahead, do not continue if you haven't beat the game!)

"Why did you lie to Dorr?"

"It seemed wrong, to let him die thinking his daughter was dead, you know?"

"I think he already knew…"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because he's a father."

Lloyd ran the conversation over and over in his head. He should have been thinking of Dirk, he knew that. He should have been thinking about the man who had taken him in, nursed him while he was sick... Done everything and would have done anything for him. He couldn't, his mind was running circles about his human father. Sighing Lloyd leaned against Noishe's back, the dog padded on, spared him a look then seeing the expression slowed down just a little.

He joined Raine and Kratos who were talking in the back of the group.

"You heal fast Mr. Aurion." Raine was saying.

"I have some help."

"Ah, I see, you ex-sphere enhances your ability to absorb healing mana from the environment."

"Exactly, it's drawing from that mana which is the trick. It's hard, very hard, and that drains me more then any other mana manipulation."

"Then you can cast spells." Raine pounced on that tidbit of information like a cat on a mouse.

"I am not very powerful, and I haven't seen a reason to do so. I prefer to use my sword."

"Hmmm… you are a mystery Mr. Aurion, I can think of no human with your wide variety of talents."

"They certainly weren't easy to pick up." Kratos growled softly. "They weren't handed to me; I learned every one of them."

"There is a saying…"

"Really," Kratos cut the elf off. "How this one for you, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. My past, my business, stop prying."

"Really Mr. Aurion, do you want to go back to how things were before Lloyd shook our heads and rammed the idea of getting along down our throat…"

"Noishe, what are you doing bringing Lloyd back here?" Kratos snapped at the dog.

"Mr. Aurion, Noishe is a dog, he can not talk, he can not understand. Lloyd, are you awake?"

"Mmm…" Lloyd cracked open an eye, the road bobbed up and down under Noishe's gait, the swordsman told himself not to get sick, to help that he closed his eyes

"If you are a wonder of multiple skills then Lloyd's skill of sleeping anywhere is a wonder to me. Standing up two buckets in hand, halfway up a tree, in the branches of a tree, on a roof, next door to a smithy, on Noishe's back… One of these days I'm going to find him hanging upside down…"

"Ms. Sage, let him sleep. Why don't you go ahead and join the Chosen and keep her and your brother, company."

"Which is a nice way of saying go away."

Lloyd could almost see Kratos' indifferent shrug.

"Fine, call me if he's hurting, I can do a pain block without muddling his wits."

She walked off, went ahead, and Noishe whined a series of whines and baked once.

"I see."

Noishe purred in appreciation as Kratos stroked his ears.

"Lloyd, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Lloyd mumbled into Noishe's fur.

"Lloyd," Kratos scowled, Lloyd could feel it. He burrowed his face into Noishe's mane and Kratos' angry glare tapped against him as a warning. "Noishe wouldn't bring you to me if something wasn't wrong; we both know he's smart enough to take you to who you need."

"It's stupid." Lloyd huffed into the fur, acting even more childish then normal because his wounds were hurting.

"Let me be the judge of that, what's wrong?"

"You heard Colette, how we were talking earlier?"

"Yes," Kratos' sword belt rattled as he shifted his blade around. "About what you said to Dorr?"

"Mmm… yeah," Lloyd sighed into Noishe's neck. "After… I just started thinking about Dad."

"Homesick?" Kratos patted his whole shoulder. "It happens to the most seasoned of travelers."

"A little." Lloyd blushed, not having the nerve to lift his head, he wasn't aware of how his ears went red, which was how Kratos saw the embarrassment. "But… I was thinking about my human Dad a little… Sometimes… well it's bad to my dwarf Dad… but I wonder what happened to my human Dad."

"I can not answer that Lloyd, I wish I could, but I cannot."

Lloyd dredged up the energy to lift his head, and look at the man.

"You were a Dad, what was it like?"

Kratos stared at him, pain flashed in his eyes.

"I am a father; even though… they are dead nothing changes that." Kratos sighed, looked to the scenery which was just hills and junk, he wasn't interested at it, but uncomfortable. "Why do you want to know all of a sudden?"

"Well… Maybe if I know how a Dad feels I'll get to my Dad in a way… I'm sorry… it's stupid…" Lloyd went even redder. "I'll just go to sleep or something."

"It's… not stupid, you have a right to ask that, and I don't mind answering, it's just hard to figure where to begin." Kratos was blushing? Lloyd blinked, startled by the strange expression on the man's normally controlled face. Pleasure, a little pain, and something else Lloyd couldn't read. Lloyd could felt that need, that strange tie between them, almost as if it were a physical thread.

"T…" Lloyd took a deep breath; he had made a promise to himself to not let his old friend's death run away from every memory of him. "Tylor once told me a good place to start is the beginning."

Kratos raised an eyebrow at the mention to the priest, but nodded.

"Sound advice from a wise man. When… when I discovered I was going to be a father I was shocked. I imagine that's universal, my child's birth wasn't planed, but then my wife and I were in a situation… a very bad one… where neither of us were in a good place to plan any future."

"It must have been awful." Lloyd leaned against Noishe, giving Kratos every scrap of attention he had.

"Hellish," Kratos sighed. "We managed to flee, our child was not yet born, and we had little more then the clothes on our backs, he was born on the road. I'll admit, I dared not be there at the time of his birth, and the fact I was not I feel guilty though some ten years have passed. There were monsters, dangerous monsters about. I left my wife in the care of an old friend, and came not too long after his birth. My wife was sleeping, my son was awake, he saw me and I felt…" Kratos sighed, his eyes wistful. "There are no words to explain what I felt. I would have done anything for my child." Kratos sighed. "There is a love between a parent and a child, it's strong and in my mind nothing can sever it, no circumstance, no hardship. Protective, I was probably over protective, and I certainly drove everyone around me insane with my endless babbling about my son." Kratos smiled. "One person, who if we go to Luin I plan to visit, put a gag in my mouth because he couldn't take it after I would not let up about how he was walking."

"Wow," Lloyd smiled, "I just can't… I mean you're so quiet."

"Pride, I was very proud of my child no mater what he did, no matter what he wanted to be I would have given him anything to succeed. I was so unbearable when he started talking my wife hit me with a skillet on the head." Kratos chuckled.

"Whoa, she… with a skillet?" Lloyd laughed. "That's harsh."

"Well it was around midnight at the time and he had said his first partial word around noon so she was entitled."

Both swordsmen laughed, it was so loud that the others turned and gave them a strange look. Waging his tail Noishe barked, it was a cheerful sound, and he began a prance walk. He did so until Lloyd hissed something not too polite under his breath and the dog stopped with an apologetic whine.

"There is an enthusiasm, a joy, even watching my son breath, holding him while he slept, was wonderful. My wife constantly whined that he was going to starve to death if I didn't stop holding him." Kratos sighed. "Then they start to grow up on you, you turn around twice and they're nearly adults. My son, I never had the chance to watch him grow up. Those handful of years, I have forgotten nothing of them, and I never will."

"You miss them, your son and your wife, don't you?"

"When you think of home perhaps you think of a place, most do, but to me my home was with my family. The place was irrelevant, so long as they were with me everything was alright."

Lloyd gulped, feeling a tight lump in his throat, missed his human Dad his human Mom, it was like a knife the pain of not knowing.

"I wish I could have asked my Dad… If he felt like that about me, I wish I could have asked my Mom… I wish I could remember."

He lowered his face into Noishe' mane, gulped a few times and tried to pull himself together. What kind of baby would he be if Kratos, who knew and lived with the loss every day of his life, saw him bawling because he didn't remember? Slowly, absently, a hand wove through his hair and stroked. He hiccupped sharply, causing his stomach and shoulder to hurt. The hand gently stroked, caressed, soothed the pain, as did the soft spoken words.

"It is not wrong to cry, there is no shame in it. It is not wrong to grieve; we spend our whole lives with grief. We must live on for those who have fallen before us. We take what they have given us, and we live for them as well as ourselves."

"How come you're so smart?" Lloyd whipped at his eyes, looked around, no one had seen it, Raine was lecturing and Genis and Colette were paying attention to her, the whole world forgotten.

"Experience," Kratos withdrew his hand as if it had been doing something it wasn't supposed to.

"That's a horrible way to get smart like this."

"It's the only way." Kratos shrugged, looking uncomfortable once again.

There was a long silence between them, where the road slid by and bobbed in time with Noishe's easy gait.

"Is it wrong, not knowing?"

"No," Kratos answered quietly. "What is wrong is when you feel no guilt, no… anything about the not knowing. Because when you give up on remembering, you give up on those who you have fogotten."

"No one wanted me to remember." Lloyd said, his eyes sliding shut. "They wanted me to forget. The mayor wanted me to forget so I'd be like everyone else and live with him because that would have made people like him. Phadria wanted me to forget so that I'd become a Martel worshiper, even Colette wanted me to forget and be like everyone else. I don't think Genis understands it at all… And Raine wanted me to forget because when I remembered I got sick. Tylor was angry with everyone when they made me try to forget, or when they'd laugh at me for remembering a little and telling people about it. Sometimes they called me crazy, moon touched."

Lloyd's eyes were closed, so he did not see the anger in Kratos' eyes, he could not feel it for it wasn't directed at him.

"I think even Dad wanted me to forget. Because when I remembered, I would look. I think that's why I ran away, because I was looking for them."

"Perhaps you were."

"Do you think, someday I'll meet my human Dad?" Lloyd mumbled, his voice becoming slurred. "Someday… I'd like too."

Kratos was quiet for a long moment after Lloyd had fallen asleep, he then stroked Lloyd's hair. No one noticed, as Raine was starting another lecture, no one noticed them for they were shadows of the group for a time. Kratos took advantage of that time to smooth Lloyd's wild hair down and blink back a few tears.

"Someday, when everything is at peace, I hope you do as well." Kratos muttered, "And when you meet him, I hope you can accept what he is."

Noishe looked at him, wagged his tail and winked, as if to say.

I know him, he will.