A/N I hate hate hate Magnius' Ranch, it's -in my mind- an annoying running back and forth pointless drizzle ranch that did I say I hate? anyways I skimp on some of it because I just want to get it over with and I don't have time to replay the area for all the details. Sorry if that disappoints, I'll try not to make the story suffer for my skipping but... I only have so much patience and time after all. I meat-ed Magnius' character out somewhat –you'll get the joke if you read the chapter- added in the fight to make up for the suckiness of the ranch. Mainly Magnius has been a roadblock, I totally forgot about him in my notes and have everything after him to the tower outlined (mostly) so things should get better here on out. (One may hope) Kinda enjoy… and hopefully I wont get flames from Magnius lovers? (Hint hint…) Oh and the mystery of incoming teleporting minions solved!
Till next time Kasan (who is hiding under a rock now wearing flame retardant garments…) out:)
Crimson path
Chapter 16
"Tell me of the sky." She snuggled in his arms, looked at the thin slit windows where they could see a glimmer of that sky. She had seen it before, but never as he had seen it. Smiling his kissed her cheek and she relaxed as his words lapped over her. Took away the terror of the world for just a moment.
"It leads to eternity. It changes, shifts, from the hue of pale sapphire to the ebony night nicked with silver, it forever changes and goes beyond that which we can see. Our world is a speck in the eyes of eternity, our lives a glint on that speck. It is a constant, a certainty, in a world that will forever change hands and ways the sky is eternity, infinity, and a certainty."
"You almost sound as if you worship it."
"In a way... I guess I do… Not seeing it as much, it's almost as holy as Martel Herself."
"There's so little sky here... I wish I could see the whole sky again."
"You will, someday soon, you will I promise, like they promised me that we would be saved I promise you the same thing."
Xxx
There was no sky, no light save the Hellish glowing orbs embedded in the ceiling. Lloyd looked to Kratos who was leading them into the steel maze. They had slipped through the door, Dorr's words having served as thier faithful guild so far. He was there and not there, as Tylor had been for him during that long night after the attack. Neil clung in their shadows, seemed to hide amongst them, but he clearly wasn't one of them. When Kratos put a hand up to order a halt and prowl ahead Lloyd had to snag the aide's arm, to keep him from going ahead.
When they fought against the Desian patrol he rushed ahead, Gods knew he tried but he was noisy and... well rash. Kratos nudged him once, pointed to Neil as he swung and posed while swinging. They needed no words. Lloyd flushed despite himself.
"I was not that bad!"
The mercenary only chuckled in good humored mockery at Neil and at Lloyd's old skill. Grumbling under his breath Lloyd went to save the man, as Kratos was making him look after the man. Looking after him was proving to be a handful. He had to keep an eye on Niel and eye on Colette, an eye on Genis and an eye on Raine, plus an eye on the enemy in front of him. Basically he needed three more eyes. They entered a large box like room, Desian's standing, talking, gossiping, there was the hiss of a sword being drawn. Lloyd grabbed Niel's arm, three other rooms had taught him that this was the only way to make him stop, and dragged the PalmaCosta assistant general behind him as Kratos spotted another side hall and made them run for it.
Xxx
"They took Horus into the crimson halls..." Came a soft sigh, a mothers sigh as this had happened to her other two sons, now that the last was one was gone there was nothing left. "They take all the strong ones there."
"So he wills is." Murmured an old man's voice, "We may not defy his will... it must be left to the hands of the militia. They will come.. They will come..."
It was a chant, a chant in all the cells, a promise that echoed in every heart, and so those with heart looked through the glass wall with hope, while those without looked at nothing at all.
Xxx
"Here, Dorr said they should be down and look, stairs heading down." Lloyd heard Raine mutter. The elf woman was not phased by the mass number of Desian's, not at all disturbed by the patrols, and he understood why. You could think that this was just some military base, with the steels walls and guards. But he had seen, as had Genis, the truth of the Ranches. It was a horror, a building horror for them, it built with each step, each remembrance of what they had glimpsed behind the steel fence in the Iselia ranch. Genis shivered, stayed by his side, Kratos was keeping an eye on Neil and Colette. Raine was oblivious, or to them it seemed, with Raine you could never be too sure though.
A wall sighed, the steel slid apart like a mouth and two Desian's stepped out. They were talking in some strange musical language and Colette gasped. They turned at the sound, stared at the humans as the humans in turn stared at them.
"Gathsuun, uru'sava gathsunn!"
"He's going to call the guards!" Colette yelled.
Lloyd drew his sword, Niel blinked at how fast it was, perhaps startled that the easy going simple kid did so with a professional air.
"ENEMY SCANNED..." They turned and saw a floating glow nose metal monster.
"Oh what a fascinating specimen of tech-"
"Not now Ms. Sage!" Kratos growled. "I have the machine, Lloyd, Neil, take the guards!"
Neil needed no encouragement on that score; he had his blade in hand in a blink. He was all of two steps behind Lloyd, the righteous fury of his people's suffering guiding his blade, fueling his viciousness. Lloyd swatted the enemies sword aside in the small hall there wasn't enough room to get a good swing in, so Lloyd dropped his blade and drew the new knife Kratos had given him. The guard croaked at the steel in his throat, clawed at the hilt and slumped against the wall in his death. Warm, wet, red, spilled across his hands, he shuddered whipped his hands violently on the front of his tunic. Neil was having no problems, just cut into the Desian and was going to keep at it long after the guy was dead. It wasn't so bad with a sword, you had some distance but the knife the man had died for all intents and purposes in his arms…
Lloyd kicked himself, now was not the time for that either.
"Kid, you alright?" Neil walked up to him, ignorant of the bloody sword in his hands and the mangled corpse a few feet away.
No not ignorant, indifferent.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"You hold a blade you deal death, if you can't deal with that then stay behind in PalmaCosta."
"I'll be fine."
He couldn't stay behind, no where because no where was safe. Magnius' attack on PalmaCosta was proof of that. There was no safe place anywhere anymore, he had to make himself safe and protect everyone else.
Sometimes protect means kill…
He was just going to have to get used to it.
"Lloyd you look awful pale." Colette whispered.
Lloyd turned to Colette, she looked horrified, but was comforted by her faith that had all the answers. Genis looked sick too, but Raine was there, and Raine was strong enough to not break or look scared in front of her brother. They held on for faith and family, he didn't have that. They could be horrified, could cringe back from the killing, but he couldn't, not if he wanted to keep them safe.
"I'll be alright." Lloyd cracked a slight smile though all he wanted to really do was get sick. "Let's get out of here as fast as we can alright?"
Raine nodded, looked at the bodies with a disgusted horror, she put herself between it and her brother and Colette.
"Yes, this facility is not a place I'd like to linger in over long."
Kratos brushed past them, eyes cold, indifferent as they brushed past the corpses, he looked to Neil then at last Lloyd. Kratos saw, understood and nodded. He put his hand on Lloyd's shoulder, offered support for a few seconds then jerked his head. The Raine, Genis and Colette, were going on ahead, they were falling behind. Had they walked past, said something to him on passing? He wasn't sure and that blank scared him.
"It gets easier." Neil muttered, then went to catch up with the others.
"Does it?" Lloyd muttered, falling in step behind the Assistant of the Governor-General.
"Yes, and no." Came Kratos' voice, he'd totally forgotten about the man.
There was no assurance, no promises, Kratos' words were contradiction and should have been unsettling.
But they weren't, like the man himself they were cryptic, vague, but a comfort.
Well they gave him something to think about while running through the halls of the ranch at least, and for once as long as anyone had ever known him, though the spans of hiding and waiting he did not say one word about being bored.
Xxx
"Assistant Governer General Neil is here!" One of the prisoners gasped. A hubbub of hope rang out, over lapped the litany of despair that came as soft whispers from the walls itself it seemed. "He's brought the Militia with him!"
Cell doors were opened, one stubborn one pried open with Raine's staff. Prisoners, only a hundred humans in all, boiled out of the glass cages, smiles cutting across skeletal faces, tears streaking pure paths down soiled faces. There were only a hundred, in the attack fifty of the people of PalmaCosta had been declared missing, there had been thirty in the pilgrimage group, yet there were only one hundred, and not all of them hailed from PalmaCosta, some had the growling accents of the Trietians, others had the strange bouncy gait and talk of those from Izoold. Only twenty of them were from Palma Cost. Out of that twenty was Chocolat. Genis hugged her; the small elf and human seemed to be fused together. Not knowing Genis the girl was surprised but by no means unresponsive to the elf child's cheer. Lloyd and Neil wandered amongst the prisoners, passing out food, water, all of it having been brought from Palma Costa's army, for on his days of lone watch the Assistant had dared abandon his post to hunt down the scattered army and get supplies from the wandering bands of survivors. They waited, the survivors, a few ragged handful he had found, in the wilds to spirit away these prisoners back to the city. Grimly, some distance away from them all Kratos watched, watched as Raine healed the wounded, watched as Genis energized those who had seemed to have lost all hope, and watched as the soon to be General Neil offered hope and instructions aplenty.
"We'll split up." Lloyd said to the questions on what to do next. "I think that'd be best. Neil, Colette and Genis can make sure everyone gets out safe, me Raine and Kratos can I dunno… Make them focus on us instead?"
"Offer a decoy?" Raine's lips quirked into an ironic smile. "Someone had us do that once before, remember."
"It'll be different, because we'll be doing it not… someone else."
"I agree let us keep the children out of this as much as possible." Kratos nodded.
"Whoa wait!" Genis put his hands on his hips. "Children, we went over this in the first temple, we aren't children!"
"Lloyd went with me so I'm going with Lloyd!" Colette protested, and looked surprised when Lloyd didn't back her up.
"No Chosen, you will remain with the human refugees." Kratos said in a chilly voice that made everyone, ex-captives and all, cringe away from him.
"Lloyd, you can't be agreeing with him!" Genis sputtered. "Not with this, not when it's important!"
Lloyd stared at the floor, fiddled around with his sword.
"I… you'd leave me your best friend…" Genis blinked a few times real fast.
"It's not like that. I need you to keep Colette safe for me, and all these other people too." Lloyd moved to put a hand on Genis' shoulder but the small elf shrugged him of.
"You're lying! You're just siding with Kratos because he's a human!" Genis flared then lost his rage and sulked. "You humans are all the same…"
Lloyd took a deep breath, did not turn this into a fight. He wasn't going to let it end like this because he knew -like Genis knew but didn't want to know- how dangerous this was.
"It's not like that Genis, just keep Colette safe for me OK?"
Genis didn't respond, stared at his boots and said nothing, even when they said they were leaving. From far away he heard Chocolat say she was going with them. When they left he lifted a tear streaked face and gulped a few times. No one judged him, no one thought what he had said or done was bad, maybe they felt safer with him about, who knew. All he knew that once, in a lifetime of having all the right answers and knowing it all… he didn't know. Except now he had this pit in his gut, a sick pit that told him that maybe, just this once, he had messed up. He had just messed up bad. It wasn't like a test where you can study for it and retake it, you couldn't retake it, couldn't retake anything in life. Meekly he followed behind the prisoners; his only company amongst so many was that sick feeling that was getting worse with every step he took.
Xxx
An arrow hissed in the air, he blocked it with the flat of his sword, rolled the hilt around in his hands, no longer did the flat point at the man before him, the edge faced his foe. Less then a heartbeat's time, the edge caught the light and gleamed with a malicious humor that only the inanimate can have. He took a step forward, determination filling him. There was no room or sweeping strokes, no room for elegance, for dodging, or disarming. It was slaughter, a butchers' work. He stabbed, used his sword like a knife and did a two handed stab and the man before him crumpled. The blade had hit, a perfect shot, and now what others may have dubbed a heartless monster now was truly heartless. He ripped his blade out, the Desian crumpled like a broken child's toy in the hall. He stepped over it, ignoring the growing crimson pool, Raine hopped over the body with a nervous gulp and he led them, his blade trailing a red path behind him.
"Lloyd, are you alright?"
"Professor… stop asking…" Lloyd whispered around the thick feeling in his throat, he looked ahead, dared not look back. "Just stop asking…"
He dully walked forward, deeper in, his blade leaving a widening trail of crimson behind him. Slowly he was turning the crimson hall from a title used by the Desian's who took humans through this hall to the teleport pad leading deeper into the ranch into a grim reality.
"How much farther?"
"Not much…" Chocolat clung to Raine, who was taking to the young woman as she warmly as Genis had. She held the younger woman's hand in her own, and by that they helped each other go forward.
"The first is the most bitter, the taste either sticks or fouls in the mouth, and that first taste it never changes and stays until the end of life." Kratos murmured.
Raine paused, turned to him, out of all of them only she understood the horror he was alluding to.
"My Goddess Kratos, are you not at all concerned! It's your job to do this, not him."
"As I have, it was his decision to take my post for a while. He has made his decision; he must now live with it."
"He did it out of concern for you." Raine hissed.
"I am aware of that." Kratos stared at Lloyd who had halted, but was adamant about not turning around. "As is he." There was for a second a haunted look in the man's eyes. "Do not think I don't grieve this Ms. Sage, or that I am not concerned. I will keep an eye on the situation and step in as I see fit." He brushed past the two women, loosening up his blade from its sheath. "As it is keep your nose out of a matter you can not even hope to comprehend." Kratos growled softly as he passed. "Lloyden, joua mer yal!"
"What?" Lloyd turned looked to Kratos in confusion.
"Sorry… habit." The surprise had been intentional, the strange second language had been used to shock Lloyd out of his morbid thoughts, or so Raine hoped. "You've done enough for now." The mercenary said calmly, "I will take point."
Lloyd nodded, allowed the older man to take over for him, he no longer protested about splitting the task fifty-fifty.
In sharing this… burden, Riane knew, her pupil would never protest again.
Xxx
"I have to go."
"Kid, this isn't the time to be needing to go to the privy." Neil protested. "Just hold out a little…"
"No! Ung you stupid human, not that!" Genis stomped a foot, a comical if somewhat Desian like out burst coming from his lips. "I need to go back, to my friends, I can't stay here!"
"You'll leave us undefended?" Neil asked coldly.
"N… I don't want to but…" Genis squirmed, his inner turmoil making him writhe physically with indecision.
"Go ahead; I was just going to ask you why you hadn't gone already." Neil cracked a smile. "I can't say I like you pointy ears too much, as you're half Desian, but then I am too so I don't have a right to say anything." Neil shifted his bloody sword. "It's a clean two bare rooms from here and then we're out, go, if you run you might be able to catch them in time."
"Thanks…" Genis considered, and then made up his mind. "Don't tell Colette, please, she…" Genis considered that, considered that what he'd be if he did the exact same thing everyone else was doing to Colette, trying to keep her out of danger even if she didn't want to be kept out of it. "No, scratch that. Hey, Colette, I'm heading back, wanna come?"
"What!" Colette ran to him. "You're going, but the Professor and Mr. Kratos and Lloyd said…"
Grinning from ear to pointed ear, not feeling all that sick anymore, Genis laughed.
"Like that stopped Lloyd when the Mayor, your Dad, Raine, Kratos, and his Dad, told him not to go to the temple, or not to go on this journey!"
"Alright!" Colette chirped, his enthusiasm bouncing off of her, "let's go! I've always wanted to say that it sounds all Lloydish!"
Without another word the two raced back deeper into the Ranch, Neil watched them go with a chuckle, and went back to doing what he had been before, leading his people to their salvation. As the Chosen would lead her friends to theirs.
Xxx
"Well well…" A emerald hued couch hovered over nothing, it spun lazily to reveal the speaker. "What do we have, a bunch of vermin running around my ranch? Animals are so thoughtful when they come to the slaughtering shed all by themselves." The man with fire hued eyes and hair smiled at them with his jagged looking teeth. He lazed on the couch, a bored sprawl that strained his skin tight clothes and highlighted every one of his muscles and made a mockery of the pure repute of the white fabric that clung to him. An ax was slung over his shoulder, it was so much a part of him it seemed a part of the predator's lazy sprawl. That brought, much to her discomfort, an image of Kratos to her mind. The human mercenary too sprawled lazily when he thought nothing of the topic being brought before him, his weapon so much a part of him that he never parted with them even in slumber. Magnius was such a man, was a warrior.
"A snowy white sheep and a pair of wolves. One," Magnius drew a dagger filed his nails. "Is some old ragged decrepit piece of shit fallen hunter who's guiding the unbloodied pup around by his nose, both are escorting a sheep that pales at a bit of crimson, kind of funny that."
Magnius leered at her, telling her without words what would become of the 'sheep' if she survived the coming fight. She had accepted it however, known and accepted even as she had agreed with Kratos' mad scheme to attack the Cardinal. There was no greater distraction then the destruction of a leader, a corrupt body would fail when the mind behind it was deceased. Chocolat shivered as those blood hued eyes slid over her, but she stood on her own, brave girl, braver then so many humans. How many would justifiably cringe away in terror when that gaze settled on them? All of Iselia she would bet.
"And along in their shadows comes a rat… But I don't have time for rats, I'm more akin to wolves." Magnius let his gaze flick over to Lloyd.
"How was it boy, your first blood, did it catch in your craw or was it sweet going down?"
"Shut up!" Lloyd snarled, drawing his sword, Magnius laughed richly at that.
"Sweet as sin, like crimson velvet hmmm? Fight makes the blood just roar in you, everything else…" Magnius tossed the knife aside lazily and it clattered on the steel floor behind him. "Becomes nothing, don't worry it gets a Hell of a lot easier as time goes on. The taste it's a bit harsh the first few times but you get used to it fast enough. Course you wont have that time…"
"So you are little more then a voyeur?" Kratos sneered, his hand gripping the hilt of his blade.
The Desian smirked, drew another dagger and lined it up with Lloyd's chest, tension rippled those muscles. Lloyd snapped his blade up in a defensive stance and Magnius relaxed, tossed the dagger so it spun end over end and caught the hilt easily enough. Raine had seen Lloyd do similar tricks with knives as a child when he got bored at a dinner table. Seeing it the first time had made dinner at the Irving's a rather alarming affair during the first visit. Chocolat gritted her teeth, looked ready to attack the Desian with tooth and nail. Firmly Raine snatched the girls arm, bravery was well and good, but such an attack could only be suicidal. Not one to push odds Raine forced the girl behind her, and found the dagger pointing at her.
"You think protecting her makes you strong, you don't know strength. All that is is this little sheep…" He turned the blade over in his hands, drew a line on his palm with a wide smile on his face, his eyes gleamed in the mana fueled lights as the red dripped along the edges of his palm and fell to the floor. "Everything else, that's a lie." The man all but purred at the sight of his own blood, his voice going husky, thick with lust. He licked his lips, took a mocking sip off the edge of the blade in a manner a Palma Costa elite would sip the edge of their cup in a toast. He threw the dagger aside, stood and pulled his axe from it's straps along his back.
"Why don't you do the world a favor," Raine snapped, pulling her staff from it's straps over her back and bringing it in front of her, even as Kratos drew his blade. "Take up that knife again and practice more self mutilation say, around your throat."
Magnius laughed. "Do yourself a favor vermin, think before you let my words snare you." He smashed a button that protruded from the of the chair and the air shivered, from either side of the large cylinder shaped room materialized Desians all armored and armed to the teeth. Confident that he could at least watch a good slaughter, a bit disappointed none of them had challenged him directly, Magnius snapped his fingers and one of the guards came up to him a bottle of PalmaCosta's finest and a haunch of rare meet on a plate. Reclining back into his hovering couch the Desian took a draw from the bottle, a mouthful from the meat and made himself comfortable for the upcoming spectacle.
Xxx
"Genis, why are there Desian's disappearing in this room?"
"Wha?" Genis paused, tuned and poked into the room that Colette had paused by. There was a plate, a glowing plate and Desians armed like no one's business were stepping on it and disappearing. Actually there were two plates, one reading "left" and the other proclaiming "right" and they strolled out of the armory fully geared up, stepped on a disk and disappeared.
"It looks kinda important you think?" Colette frowned, baffled by the scene, as was Genis. Five more soldiers went on the disk, responding to the beeping red light on the wall. Right by the door was a switch, a tiny hand sized switch, and a thin wire ran from it to the flashing red light.
"I'm going to do something Colette, and if it works you have to promise me to never tell Raine." He whispered.
"Alright!" Colette whispered back, eyeing the guards wearily.
Genis then broke the one rule Raine had threatened to beat him senseless if he ever did break. He reached out and with a trembling hand pulled the switch, effectively breaking his oath not to play with anything that even looked like magi-technology. The lights went dead and the soldiers looked baffled.
"I guess their dead already…" One of them rumbled from under his armor.
"Now what?" Queered another.
"You know technically it is my lunch break." Came a surly voice, from the back.
There came an annoyed grumble from the assembled guards, guess Magnius wasn't all that nice when he ordered them to go fight someone. Colette muffled her giggle with a hand and Genis restrained his with a knuckle. They all went out a side door, only one of them went to the pads and frowned.
"What the Hell… something's wrong here…" He tapped his helmet, his back turned to the door and he did not see how it opened.
Xxx
"What the Hell! Damn you worthless vermin!" Magnius howled, smashing the button.
Raine set off a light spell at the man, knocked him from his chair while Lloyd and Kratos dueled the last of the swordsmen. He picked himself up from the floor and snarled at her.
"How dare you, you double crossing bitch!" His ax seemed to materialize in his hands and Raine leveled her staff at him.
"Has it ever crossed your mind you broke I yourself in your juvenile… excuse me... infantile fit of rage?"
He snarled, "You'll be the first to die!"
"How predictable, you are little more then a child, a bully, just as I expected…" She quipped in her 'teacher' voice. Despite her air of confidence she prayed Lloyd or Kratos would get done with the Cardinal's fodder fast and help her. Infantile mindset aside, she was grossly over matched by this man's strength.
Xxx
"Hi!" Colette skipped out from behind the door and the guard hopped.
"Hu… Human!" He snarled, going for his sword.
"Oh no, we're Desians!" Colette chirped, and Genis nearly lost his jaw as Colette lied to the man. "We're in training! See I'm human and he's an elf so as a pair that makes us a half elf right?" She smiled at him and the guard was sputtering. "Anyway our teacher said we were supposed to see what all the fancy ummm glowing whatchmacallit-ology?"
"Magi-technology does" Genis added forcefully. "This was the last room in the tour but then the alarms went off and he left us so we thought we'd finish it ourselves!"
The guard gapped, blinked and muttered something about never touching a drop of spirits again.
"What's it do?" Genis asked in his best 'I'm going to whine like no tomorrow if I'm not told' tone.
"What?" The guard sputtered.
"Is your maladjusted social skills a by product of your berserk pupitary gland or is it the brain cell choking qualities in the food supplement they pass off as food here?" Genis chirped, this was kind of funny. "I asked, what's it do?"
"It's a teleporter to Lor- urm…. Why the hell am I telling you that?" The sword came out and humor factor went to zero at that point. The sword was longer then Colette was tall.
"Oh wow, it teleports, just like the temple…" Colette went to the one marked "left" and tripped, she rolled off of it fast enough to avoid the consequences of her fall but the disk was shattered and spiting electricity. "Opps…"
"You just… broke…" The guard squeaked.
You know having a brain under that helmet might help you talk." Genis suggested brightly, grabbing and half dragging Colette to the remaining disk. As the spell went off to take them away he dropped a fireball spell and cook the disk what he didn't plan was that he'd cook their toes in the bargain.
xxx
"Oww oww oww!" Magnius looked to see his newest guards had either shrunk or mere children had broken his teleport disk and had brought themselves over after. Hopping from foot to foot the small wizard stomped out the small lickets of flame around his now bare feet. "Oww that was really stupid!"
"Genis!" Raine howled. "How? What?"
"Owie, that hurt!" Colette hopped from foot to foot, forgetting yet again that she had wings that she could draw them out and hover to spare her feet. She wasn't as cooked as Genis but did have a few nasty looking blisters.
Magnius snarled, his eyes slid over Colette and they narrowed. He bulled past on of his guard, killing one of his own men that didn't get out of the way fast enough, and suddenly was right in front of the children. Axe prepped to swing, to cut through them both like they were fuel for the fire.
"Genis, Colette, run!" Raine yelled, ducking behind her staff to block the overhand swing of the swordsman who had taken Magnius' place in being her assailant.
"We aren't running!" Colette drew her wings and her throwing rings, she used one of them a futile looking attack. The weapons skimmed on the edge of the desian's chain mail armor leaving a trail of sparks and a small gash in the chains. Magnius merely flinched, swung.
"No!" Lloyd howled, forsook all forms of swordsmanship and shoved his opponent back. The attack should have done little more then make the man take a step back. Even in the throes of fury driven strength it should have been as nothing. the desian swordsman was larger and by far more experienced then Lloyd, the half elf was wearing a shell of enchanted armor that the steel blade was only scratching on contact, and all Lloyd had been doing was to stall and hold the guards off until Kratos could free himself up to make a kill. Lloyd shoved, physically bulled his way into his armored foe, a thin trail of silver blue mana trailed behind him, rushed in front of him, smashed into the desian and was so strong it seemed to pick the man up and cast him into room's far wall. There was an audible 'crunch' as the armor caved in on contact and the man in it went still. Lloyd did not watch the desian fall, gripping his blade like a spear Lloyd thrust into the desian's back, just as Genis' spell went off.
The steel split with a heart stopping crack, stones were spit out of the ground, smashed into the weapon and while Magnius was stronger then most men he was no match for the pressure of the very earth. His ax rose, was pushed up by the attack, and he cursed as it sheared deep into the ground scant inches from the pair of children. The blade was barely impeded by the chain mail, for the material was naturally holey and designed to take the edge off of slashes, not the force behind a thrust. The sword sank home and the man whirled, smashed his massive fist into the young man and literally sent Lloyd flying back. Dazed the swordsman tried to get up but he stopped clutching his side gasping in pain.
Raine smashed her staff into the armored skull of her last foe and the half elf crumpled at her feet. Years of practice smacking Genis and Lloyd when they got in trouble seemed to have accumulated to make her develop a perfect aim when striking down her enemies. By the Goddess they better pray they didn't make it through this, she'd make this barbarian's wraith into nothing compared to her own. They'd know not to do anything remotely dangerous ever again!
"Photon!" The Desian rolled off her attack of stinging light, ripped the sword from his back, and threw that aside.
"Filthy unclean Chosen…" He rasped his blood hued eyes wide in fury. "The desecration of my ranch has come at your hands and you'll pay for it!"
"Your ranch," Chocolat crowed, considering Kratos was all but sacrificing them all to keep her safe she wasn't in a position to honestly crow anything. "Is a desecration to life itself you bastard!"
"Guard her!" Kratos barked at Raine, slamming his blade into the last swordsman and kicking the twitching corpse off of his blade.
From what? Raine wondered looking at all the dead Desian's pooled around them, their expressions contorted with surprise, pain, their limbs a pool of limp fallen guards, their blood a red sea. She did not see the glowing flickers of light from the right hand side of the room. Muttering the words of a spell Raine tossed a handful of healing mana at Lloyd and the boy managed to stand with that help. Lloyd cast her a thankful look, then limped over to where his sword had landed and stood up.
"Stay back!" Kratos barked, seeing Lloyd was going to go after Magnius again. "You're in no conditi-"
"Like Hell I'm sitting this out!" Lloyd flared before the man could even finish his sentence.
Kratos considered Lloyd's weakened condition; a familiar steel hard glint came into his eyes. The long sword smacked into the young man's un protected head, Lloyd sprawled out on the floor with a moan.
"That is for the incident at Efreet's temple." Kratos said to the dazed boy, stepped over the red clad child, then went after Magnius who was trying to now get his ax through Genis and Colette's combined mana shield. He whirled hearing Kratos' approach, brought his weapon about and Kratos blocked the behomith weapon with his own, turned aside the swing and stabbed with his own weapon. Magnius stepped back out of the range of the attack, lifted his blade to deliver a chop that would shear through a boulder. The sides of the room were tight, caged in glass with an opening that moved when the chair's front swerved Kratos was trapped. He could not side step or even pull back enough to fully dodge the strike…
Raine called on the light spell, and though tears sprung to his eyes in response to Raine's spell Magnius brought the blade down. A line of crackling light took the ax, ran across the steel. The force of the spell element hitting its opposite natural element set off an explosion that threw Kratos back -out of range of the attack thank the Goddess- and set the desian's already spiky hair to dancing on edge. Roaring Magnius dropped his weapon, nursed his singed hand and reached out grabbing the small wizard who dared attack him.
Squeaking in terror Genis was held in one of those hands, and the clenching of those think fingers would lead to a broken neck, the exact same death that had taken Tylor in PalmaCosta. They all froze, Kratos trembled at the sight of a child in those blood stained hands. Raine wailed out in despair, seeing how she had failed the priest and could do nothing save watch her little brother die if the same man again clenched his hands. Colette whimpered in terror, prayers to her Goddess her last shield against the horrors about her. Groaning Lloyd rubbed his head, was coming too.
Magnius looked at them and smiled.
"No one moves or I crush this runt's skull to pulp!" Even Lloyd half out of it went still at that threat. "Boys, come right on in!" The slight flashes of light on the other half of the room flared and five Desian's stepped out of the very air it seemed. "Take the girl, and one of you be good and turn on the projector would you?" Magnius grinned around the pain of his wounds. "It's time for a little lesson so these animals can learn their proper place. Don't move woman, don't even breath on hint of mana on my men, or your kid dies."
There was a scream, Raine watched only her brother who was squirming in that huge hand. She was unable to even find the heart to bring her staff around to defend Chocolat, not with that threat before her. Shaking, she only watched her brother stubbornly bite at Magnius' hand and try to squirm free.
"Don't let them take her Raine, please don't!" Genis wailed, clawing at the arm, fighting with what little he had. He was too scared to even call on his mana, or too drained, so he was fighting tooth and nail.
"Be a good little rat," Magnius shook Genis till his head spun and his brains felt all rattled. "Shut up! You know what I'll do to him sheep." He spat at her, his red eyes burning. "Make him stop struggling!"
"Genis, stop!" Raine gasped around her tears. "You have to stop. This isn't doing anything to help."
And her voice, loved, filled with a calm authority, it made him go still.
"Hold it." Magnius barked at his men who had the struggling Chocolat a mere handful of steps away from the teleporting pad. "I know this runt and you…" Magnius grinned at the kneeling Iselian swordsman. "You're the Angelous Project! This is rich. A murderer and a runaway experiment both wanted and at my very feet writhing in their defeat!"
"Experiment…" Lloyd muttered to himself, a need in his eyes mixed with a repugnance for the being before him that could answer that need. Anger chased those things away; he sprung to his feet, sword drawn. "We aren't murderers! You are!"
"Going to kill me boy? I'm quite a step up from that old woman you bumped off. I don't think you could take it."
Chocolat stiffened, looked at them all in horror.
"I almost forgot. You have killed before haven't you? Oh yes in Iselia, you killed Forcystus' guards then you killed the vessel of the demon seed. That poor unfortunate woman, she just didn't deserve what she got from you, she's nice to you and what do you do slide a sword in her guts? But then that's how humans are, that's how hunters are aren't they Lloyd A- ah I almost said something I wasn't supposed to now didn't I?" Magnius laughed, shook Genis just for the sake of causing pain.
"Put him down!" Lloyd roared, so furious his sword arm was shaking.
"What's the matter boy, do I have to say it? Fine, I will." Magnius looked to Chocolat. "Ms. Chocolat Wyrth," He sneered in a mocking version of PalmaCosta's elite class introduction, "if I may introduce you to the human that killed your grandmother, Lloyd Irving." Magnius laughed at the human woman's pain, at Lloyd's false last name, he laughed at all the animals before him that looked at him with such pale bloodless faces only suited to animals on the slaughter house.
"It wasn't like that!" Genis wailed, and was silenced when Magnius smashed him into the wall.
"No, you can't… I…"
Magnius dropped the comatose elf to the floor with a smirk, kicked him aside.
"You killed my grandma?"
"Tell her boy, how soft aged flesh is when the blade passes through, how sweet the blood..."
"Yes," Lloyd looked at the ground. "I did, but it's not like how he said it... she was turned…"
"Get me out of here; get me away from these monsters!" Chocolat snapped at the guards.
"Raine do something!" Lloyd wailed, seeing she was closest, that she was the only one who could do something.
Chocolat's glare was like a slap in the face, her hatred; her passion was too strong to be reasoned against. Seeing that all too familiar hate in the human girl's eyes Raine could do nothing against it, she was as frozen as she had been when Genis lay in the murderous barbarian's arms. They dragged Chocolat to the disk and were gone in a heartbeat.
"All those human's you rescued, they'll all be like that old hag you tried to save, I'll rip out their ex-spheres, then I'll set them lose on PalmaCosta. Right after I'm done with you…"
Xxx
Neil paced the room that had suddenly become a cage. The walls over the open looking doors had been up for a while. Stupid humans, the trap seemed to say, Caught like a batch of rabbits seeing the light and running for it thinking it's safe... Those around him screamed and smashed into them with fist and body and the walls did not come down. Steel was not the softest of materials, did not relent easily to the fists of the desperate.
"Damn it, what are we doing wrong?" Neil snarled to himself on his fifth or sixth rotation around the room.
"Ya be holdin' yer line oh thought at the ready yer Generalship." The sailor, a massive man with thick flowing beard smirked, despite his duration at the Ranches he was still a massive man and still bore signs of managing ship and crew on the most rugged of seas. "If the damn thin' be goin' out of the floor ups-like then why in Hell aren't we pushin' it down?"
Neil slapped his forehead, feeling the prime ass for not even thinking that.
"You heard the man!" Neil called to his people, those on this side of the inside of the door and those soldiers who had been pounding on it with a battering ram on the outside. "Get a handhold and bring lets bring this bastard down!"
Xxx
"Security breached, main gates breached!" Howled the dead voice from the ceiling. Angels had pure voices, voices of softness and peace, the silken underbelly of summer day clouds could not rival the pure white hue or softness of an angel's voice. None here could mistake that dull grating monotone for any angel. They all knew that cry even if they didn't understand it; it was the dead call that called the equally dead soul-ed desians.
It wasn't down; all of them pushing down on both ends had gotten it to go down a fourth of the way. Well that wasn't a problem, well too much of one. Neil crouched, ordered those with strength left in them to climb over him. Luckily most of the people weren't so far gone as to not be able to go for the chance to get away when it lay before them, to those who couldn't he pushed them up with his own hands, the Izoold sailor helping him as well.
"Neil!" A hand snaked through the pure white light of the sun, ready to pull it up. Armored it was a soldiers.
"I don' be thinkin' I'll be for fittin' through that wee little hole." The Izoold said to Neil's desperate look. "You best be goin' up now lad, leave the points ta me."
Neil smiled, thinking of the small elf child going back, of the passionate swordsman who after losing his closest friend had stood by the man's name even as when the ex-priests' reputation was ripped to tatters. Neil found he could smile for the first time in days.
"Like Hell I am… Soldiers, get those Civ's back to the city proper! Goddess grant you speed and watch over you!" Neil drew his sword, barked out a few more orders and listened to the soldiers walk off with the protesting civilians. "I don't leave anyone behind, not even someone who's not from my city. Not the human way."
"Stubborn little bastard." The sailor grinned, his teeth a slash of white against the golden beard. The statement was accurate as the man before him towered as high as the Desian Cardinal of this ranch. He easily caught the knife that Neil tossed to him. "Hear all you PalmaCosters are crazy as those eattin' spin fish quills."
"Never argued it master sailor," Neil grinned, "never doubted it."
"Name's Varn Yarvn," the man said conversationally as the wall leading back into the ranch hissed and began to lower.
"Neil Brightblade," the PalmaCosta guild-master's son chuckled.
"Jus' fiv' o' them," Varn cricked his knuckles. "Weirder then salted pickled eel pie."
"I imagine the others are busy." Neil thought of the Chosen and her friends. "Very very busy."
Xxx
The air seemed to ripple, then split and for one second there was a world within a world that all could see. For a heartbeat like some eerie halo around the blood stained desian they could glimpse a world of crimson and orange, of ever writhing flames that looked back with silted hot blue eyes. Then it twisted from window to spear that arched down from heaven and landed amongst them, setting the floor a flame. Snatching Genis up Lloyd ran, Kratos scrambled back and the fires herded them to the more open spaces. To where an ax could cut through the air unimpeded by wall and run red. Walking through the fires, he was unhurt by the fire, or if he was used it to fuel his rage and tone out his pain Magnius stalked after them.
The Chosen, where was Colette? In the mocking revelations and drama with Chocolat, the child he was to protect had been forgotten. She was in the back, in the hall, forgotten by them and by the desian. Smart girl, Kratos smiled ignoring the distracting power that Magnius was flexing at them like a bravo would their muscles; she was helping him forget by keeping silent and staying down. Suddenly she stood; wings fanned out before her and through the air arched three glittering feathers. Anger, pain, sadness, gave the holy spell even more strength then it normally would have. Magnius staggered as three glittering feathers went into him and sank in all the way. He whirled and nearly lost his nose at the following up thrown churcin. Raine crouched in the far corner of the room, took her brother in her arms and began to work on the horrendous damage that the desian had brought on the child. She was out of the fighting save for the occasional healing spell their way at best. As for the elf child, if he wasn't concussed from that hit Kratos would eat his sword un garnished.
"Wait…" Kratos whispered, "He has to step out of the fire first…"
Lloyd relaxed at his words, calmed, and held his nicked, battered sword at the ready
Definitely time to get Lloyd a new pair of swords, for someone unused to single sword style he had held his own. He had done good today. Pride mingled and mixed with affection, it had been a Hellish day, but it was almost over now.
"How you holding up?" He murmured as Magnius took another barrage of razor sharp feathers this time in the chest, the fires were fading, it was all waiting now.
"I'm holding." Lloyd answered in a quiet strained voice. "Breathing kinda hurts though."
"She's pissed." Kratos chuckled, admiring how the feathers left a nasty gash that cut through armor and desian cardinal equally. "Look at the way her feathers are flared out at the top."
"Wha?" Lloyd caught on after a moment. "I thought only birds did that… Well I mean she saw everyone she cares for get hurt, plus all the people in the cells, of course she's mad."
"Do you remember how I told you when we spared about not locking your arm when you thrust?" The floor once sporting almost waist high fires was now only covered with embers, they could go anytime now. "I'm taking that back, just this once. The second your sword is in let go and pull back, then he's mine."
Once, before he'd seen all the death, done all this fighting he might have protested, insisted that Magnius was his to kill. Now he was just tired, he wanted to rest somewhere… quiet. That was strange for him to want quiet, but it's what he wanted. All he wanted. He lifted his sword, it seemed heavy, heavier then anything he'd ever lifted before in his life. If he had tied a hundred bricks to the hilt it couldn't be heavier and yet it was dreadfully light for all that weight.
Everything Kratos had said in Izoold now made a lot of sense. Unthinking, it was glory, sweetness, when unthinking the one truth would be the crimson flow from a fallen enemy. But he had forsaken that before it had become a real option, and now the weight of the steel blade was now his.
"For vengeance?" Kratos asked him once when he'd cried on his shoulder after Tylor's death. "Will you kill them all for vengeance? Will it be revenge for you then that you use the blade?"
"N…no… I don't want to be like that…"
"For glory then?"
The mercenary nodded and silent twin shadows of death, one red one black they ghosted across the floor until they blended with the large shadow of the desian who was wildly swatting aside the stinging arrows of light, the shards of holy truth, the shards offered in anger at the disruption of serenity, that came in the forms of flying feathers.
Steel turned in his hands, the flat of his blade fell away so that the edge. He shifted his grip so that he held the hilt in both hands, his arms, shoulders, tensed, locked…
"No… I don't think it can be that either… I'd be a show off if I did it for that…"
"There are worse sins to be guilty of."
"Yeah I know… I don't know how or why only that I need to when someone's in trouble."
"Is not that a reason?" Kratos had asked. A hint of a smile appeared in his eyes and tone as he set his hand to stroking Lloyd's hair. "Is that not reason enough, do you need more?"
Lloyd had laughed, wiped his eyes and looked up at the man feeling just a little better now.
"I guess I don't need anymore then that huh? Man I'm pretty dumb not seeing it when it's right there in front of me."
"It's a common mistake," Kratos had looked for one second pained, but that faded into strange proud look he was favoring him with a lot now. "Do not be too concerned about it."
He took one step back, braced himself then with every ounce of strength thrust with his sword so far in that it went all the way up to the hilt. Magnius stiffened, then whirled ax leading. Kratos grabbed him, shoved him back and blocked the attack with his sword. Impossible as it was he held back the swing, shoved the attack aside.
"Colette, that's enough." Kratos said softly. "Go back to Raine and Genis now, help Lloyd go with you."
Magnius snarled, stepped back and touched the tip of the sword that was sticking out of his stomach. Every movement must have been agony that blade in his vitals. Still he fought on, Kratos blocked two more swings with the flat of his blade, then doing a lesser version of the mana shove attack Lloyd had pulled off earlier knocked the desian off of his feet. Croaking up blood, drooling his own blood, Magnius looked into those dead black eyes of the mercenary. A mortal man before him seemed a demon, he cringed back as he died, yet could not look away for his fear was too great.
"Sadusa ust askan-iun yer cuo kharlan ill." Kratos swung his sword and to the man who's only truth was the crimson flow found his ultimate truth as Kratos' blade passed through his throat and sent a crimson arch to the heavens only to have it fall and mingle and mix with the other blood about the room. One man's truth, his crimson truth, looked no different from any others in the blood seeped room. The matter of truth settled, the following moment the head, the mind of the corrupted ranch fell, it rolled across the floor, and the heart of that ranch that had a crimson path now looked like a gouged out heart.
Kratos tapped the flat of his blade on Magnius' cheeks, then whipped his blade on the back of the man's shirt and sheathed his blade.
xxx
"That was… I don't know what it was… It almost seemed ceremonial." Raine was staring at Kratos while the man slept, his arms were bandaged, bruised, sore, from taking the brunt of Magnius' ax swings. Colette stood over the fire, watching a pasty green –not green pepper stew though it did look like dinner had!- substance begin to bubble, it would go over the bandages that would sheath Genis' scorched feet. Genis was blissfully awake but not thinking straight because of the pain medicines Raine had given him, it had been all Raine could do to keep the blunt trama and shaking from doing irreparable harm to her brother while he mended. She had burrowed herself in her brother's mind, used Kratos' tactic, and that had allowed her to fix all the small but potentially serious internal bleeding under her brother's scalp.
"It was… it was a corrupted version of the warrior's final prayer. It's supposed to free your soul to go to heaven, to let the glory, honor, behind the darkest of your deeds take you to heaven… but Kratos changed it. He denied Magnius the right to go to heaven. He barred it, the bars were glory, honor, and blood, the same things that make you go to heaven when you're a warrior."
"It seemed familiar; they gave it at the service didn't they?"
No need to clarify what service it was, there was only one that they'd all been too.
"Yes Professor, they do."
"What's strange is that a mercenary knows it." Neil added, sipping his medicinal tea that Riane had made him. "But then it might not be. Even the most lacking in piety cutthroat chants it when they die so that they don't go to Hell."
The Izoold man that had fought alongside the soon to be replacement Governor General (until vote amongst the guilds announcing the new Governor-General) had fallen asleep; he would be sharing watch with Lloyd later that night. All were asleep save Raine, Colette, and Neil, and Genis. Though Genis in his current state barely counted.
"He gives me the chills, no offense, both of them do." Neil finished his cup. "They're both good people I imagine, but there is something a little eerie about them.
"Kratos is a little eerie all around, but Lloyd's a good child." Raine took a sip of her own tea, that was little more then warmed water and a mixed in orange jell with a generous spoonful or three of sugar.
"Ms. Sage, a person who calmly rams a sword into another man's back, I don't care if it's half-elf, elf, or human, isn't a child. Not anymore they aren't." Neil shivered. "I know I hate the desian's but doing that goes beyond what I could do to another person."
Noishe growled, glared at them all and growled once more. He curled up besides Lloyd as if to say nothing was different in his mind. Riane smiled at her thoughts about Noishe acting intelligent. It did not reach her eyes that smile, it was a blank glassy smile of someone who needed desperately to sleep.
"I'm done for the night, Colette, Neil, pleasant watch to you both." She downed her drink in a gulp and went to her blankets, and if she wasn't as tired as she was she would have probably mulled over Niel's observations much longer.
As it was she had no choice, nature beat her stubbornness and she fell asleep the second her head touched the blankets.
Xxx
"We're going back to PalmaCosta, again?" Lloyd grumbled.
"We are to escort Neil back then we can continue with the journey from their, anyways you and I both need new swords." Kratos pointed out and to the man's logic Lloyd folded.
"Back and forth back and forth… I feel like we're a child's top going around and around the same area over and over again." Lloyd whined.
"This will be the last time." Kratos promised.
"I hope so, I can't stand it anymore, I used to like it but now I just can't…"
Kratos nodded and Lloyd fell silent, both men went quieter then a graveyard as Neil rode up to them on his horse.
"Hoy mercenary," He bowed stiffly to Kratos from atop his horse, many a horse owner in the house of salvation were now filth rich as Neil had all but emptied his formidable wallet and gotten them all horses. He looked to Lloyd who looked grimmer then Kratos for once. "Young swordsman, you seem uncomfortable a-saddle."
"We don't have horses in Iseila." Lloyd admitted, wishing a little selfishly that he could have ridden Noishe, but Raine was not trusting her little brother to a stupid animal, she may not like Noishe all that much but she trusted him more then a horse any day. So Lloyd was getting his first saddle sores. "I didn't think it hurt this much…"
"You'll get used to it." Neil patted him on the shoulder with a mocking smile. "You seem quite comfortable a saddle, most mercenaries don't normally have the wherewithal to own a horse."
"I've done a few… high pay jobs in my life of the less honorable ilk." Kratos said smoothly, and both swordsmen watched as Neil grew uncomfortable at the mix of evasive answer and intense stare and excused himself with a few graceful words. The second he was out of hearing range Lloyd chuckled, it made his wounds and butt hurt but it had been funny.
"Are you gunna ever tell him the truth?" Lloyd and Kratos had been talking of the subject of the black clad man's ridding skills as a way to pass the time and Lloyd knew that one of his clients had bought a horse for them both to ride and that was the man's one and only encounter with the animals. It had happened years ago, had lasted about a month. Kratos was just acting skilled and almost in as much pain as the rest of them. They'd both been griping about it before Neil had come in with the idea of teasing Lloyd.
"No, I do not think so." Kratos hissed in pain, shifted, and muttered a few words at the animal that probably weren't polite. "I swear to Origin I'm going to have you in a stew or something!" Kratos hissed as the horse equally not liking Kratos decided to buck once then settle down and trot down the road with a mocking whicker. "The second we get to PalmaCosta we are selling or I am butchering these…"
"I like it's tail, it's fluffy…" Colette chirped. "Can we keep it Professor?"
"Hmm…"
Raine honestly looked like she was considering it! Go figure the girls liked the things and they couldn't stand it! It wasn't fair!
"No!" Kratos barked. "Absolutely not, I swear I'll quit if you keep these things!" Kratos snapped.
"I be thinkin' someone's sadda sores 'r impedin' thar judgment eh?" The Izoold sailor chuckled.
Genis looked at them, eyes not as sharp as normal because Raine kept dosing him with medicines for his burns, unfortunately the medicines also loosened his tongue.
Genis smirked. "You two just don't like animals… it's a swordsman thing… I like them, especially if they drive Kratos nuts!"
Kratos' eye twitched and Raine gave him a long look.
"He's sick."
"Not that sick!" The mercenary growled.
"The medicine I gave him was very strong, he's bound to blather on and say what he doesn't mean."
Genis' smirk told them that he had meant it, meant every word. And that he was going to milk this and say quite a bit.
Gritting his teeth Kratos kept a rejoinder behind his teeth and rode on, hissing under his breath a few curses at the animals and at the elf.
Xxx
"Their a lot faster aren't they?" Colette chirped, helping Raine down from her saddle.
"Yes dear they are." Raine smiled thinly, rubbed her rear as she was in pain.
Kratos all but fell from his saddle, staggered away from the animal and it was a god thing the groom took it or it might have died, exspeically when it tried to step on the mercenary's toes.
"I hate horses." Kratos snarled.
"Help…" Lloyd whimpered from his perch, unable to even get down. Neil snickered, as did the elf sibs and Colette. "Damn it guys this isn't funny!"
The grooms finally had to pry him from his saddle and he cringed in pain every step.
"I feel like I've been Raine'd five or six times in a row…" He moaned, not daring to rub his butt and sooth the pain.
"Try to ditch my lessons by doubling up on Kratos' in one day and you might have that experience." Raine said coldly, still annoyed that even in a journey where they had to camp and travel together every second of the day Lloyd was still trying to ditch.
"But he's giving me even more stuff to learn now!" Lloyd whined, a wasted effort as Raine was not listening to him. "It's not fair, he's drilling me in history, hunting, sword work, astronomy, and mythology and I still have to go to her classes…"
"You could drop a class or two I guess…" Kratos offered. Helping to support the limping young man as Raine was helping Genis walk.
"Both of your history classes would be nice to drop." Lloyd said hopefully.
Kratos' eyes turned to black slits and Lloyd gulped.
"Or not…"
"Or not indeed." Kratos growled.
He looked to the others, Neil was talking to Raine, Colette and the temporary governor general smiled, nodded, and Colette laughed at something he said.
"Wonderful, tomorrow come in any time to tend to that matter. As for your finances I'll personally cover everything you purchase in PalmaCosta, just come to the office with a list of what you need after you browse and it'll be sent to you. Until tomorrow then?" Neil rode off down the street, already the cries that the town's hero had returned sounding out.
"He's become as much a hero as Dorr was." Kratos smiled, it was a very unpleasant smile. "He's everything that they wanted Dorr to be in truth, that they made Dorr into, I wonder if they'll realize what the difference between the outcomes of their leadership means."
"Huh?" Lloyd was in waaay too much pain to follow Kratos right now.
"Never mind, just my cynical rambling." Kratos favored him with a concerned look. "Since the General is being so generous, let's take advantage of it."
"I could sleep for a week…" Lloyd mumbled, the days of fast paced travel, the trials of the ranch and helping tend to Genis even though he wasn't fully healed himself pounced on him like an enthused Noishe and sapped him of his energy.
"We all need our rest." Kratos agreed. He looked at them, maybe seeing how Raine was ultra pale from having to wear herself to a thread keeping them all in travel worthy condition while they fled the ranch and crossed the roads. Maybe he was looking at Genis seeing the bandaged up legs that hid sever burns and cuts. Maybe he was seeing an exhausted Colette who was playing as aide to Raine and healing from her injuries and suffering under nightmares from what she'd seen. Who knew, just looking at one of us you can tell how beat we are.
Kratos slung an arm around his shoulders and Lloyd leaned weakly into that offered strength, as Genis nestled into Raine's arms, and Colette clung to Noishe. They were all on their last legs, they all needed to rest, and those last few with strength knew what needed to be done. Matters were tended, Raine took Genis to a shared room. Noishe escorted Colette to hers and shared a room with the weary girl as he was an expert at soothing bad dreams with a well placed lick or bark.
Kratos helped Lloyd up the stairs, then on the first landing picked the swordsman up like he was the youngest of children and carried him the rest of the way to their room. Lloyd tended, packs thrown in the far corner of the room and the said room being locked, the mercenary lay down and nodded off the hilt of a knife resting in his hand.
Xxx
"Raine's acting weird around me." Lloyd muttered to himself over breakfast, so's Colette."
That explained Lloyd's glum spirits then. Kratos hadn't seen much of the others, save to check on the Chosen had not honestly cared all that much. Still they were close to Lloyd and as he wanted to become closer to the younger swordsman he would have to learn to care again. He considered all that had happened of late and came to what he hopped was the best answer.
"It could be," Kratos answered, as he snatched the syrup from Lloyd before the young man emptied the bottle and there was none left for him. "They have some thinking of there own to do. A lot happened, things changed, most graphic in there mind was that they saw you kill other living beings. It's not so much a change of yourself that this causes, but a change in how other perceive you."
"Huh, so until they think it out…"
"My company will be all you have for a span, pass the butter."
Lloyd did so; there was a change in Kratos. A stronger understanding, but that had been building and wasn't all of it. Kratos seemed, well, openly cheerful, as much as Kratos could be anyways. Lloyd had a faint hint of why that was and considered bringing it up. He decided to go for it.
"So are you happy that their all gone or is it the breakfast?"
Kratos twitched, then went back to smoothing the yellow butter over his pancake, that ever so slight motion told Lloyd just how hard he hit the mark.
"Kratos, you still can't be hating them!" Lloyd protested, hurt. "They're my family!"
"I know that." Kratos, whipped the knife clean over the edge of his plate. "And it is not hate. They would not survive that Lloyd. I just do not trust them; they are unskilled in combat and..."
Lloyd groaned, not this again, they'd been going over this on and off the whole trip and he wasn't going to quietly sit through it again.
"Not everyone's meant to fight." He snapped. "My Dad isn't, he's a craftsman."
"Really?" Kratos rose an eyebrow, looked him over a hint of a challenge in his gaze, but then if mentioning Raine got Kratos in a bad mood talking about Dirk was even worse. "He's not your blood father."
"He's still my Dad, he didn't teach me to be a swordsman, I didn't really want to be a swordsman, it just happened and I got lucky that I could fight OK? It doesn't seem right…" the rest of Lloyd's speech turned into a mumble as he tried to eat and talk at the same time.
"Lloyd, there is a glass of milk, take a drink and then talk when you're mouth is empty."
"Mumph!" Lloyd laughed, nearly choked, than took a long drink. "I swear you have a "Dad mode" hidden in you somewhere that jumps up randomly and makes you say Dad-like things."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Kratos took a bite, but was waiting for Lloyd to finish what he was saying earlier, he didn't have to say it he just radiated it.
"What I said was not everyone's supposed to fight, well I don't think, so it seems kinda unfair to think that someone who can't fight isn't any good."
"Where I came from everyone fought, we all had a trade but we all had to know how to fight." Kratos skewered another slice that he had cut. "Even the women."
"What!" Lloyd gapped at Kratos. "That's crazy, I mean it's cool too but…"
"The idea is alien to what you were brought up as, as is the idea that others can not fight alien to were I was born. We carry that our whole lives, and while I am more tolerant then I was those who can't fight in my mind can't live. They can't be trusted to live in a dangerous situation, and if you can't give them that trust then any other bond is worthless."
"That's really… unfair." Lloyd pointed out. "Not everyone learns sword stuff."
"Yes, well surviving is not just sword skills." Kratos took a sip of milk, his eyes focused on something else far away. "The woman I fell in love with was not a skilled swordswoman, she was apt though with two very dangerous weapons that I had no defense against."
Lloyd looked to the mercenary his expression curious.
"She was very adept at hitting her foes over the head with the skillet, as I learned on one occasion when she mistook me for a desian." Lloyd chuckled as Kratos had hoped he would. "The second weapon was that she was capable of seeing me for what I am truly without flinching away. She accepted that I have done things that are vile, I've walked alongside some very dangerous people in my life, and she knew the full extent of that and accepted me despite and because of that."
"She loved you." Lloyd summed it all up easily enough.
"Yes," Kratos took a sip, and it might have been Lloyd's imagination but Kratos looked just a bit nervous. "She did, does, I hope." The mercenary spared a glance at the ceiling as if expecting some response. "Regardless she may have been uncomfortable with what I could do but she took me despite that." Kratos sighed. "What I'm trying to say is that it is my deepest hope that your friends will prove themselves worthy of the faith you put in them. That they can be your family for you, and that they never betray that trust you've put in them."
Lloyd didn't even hesitate. "They won't, I know them, and they won't."
"Once they prove that to me," Kratos said, pausing to wolf down his next bite. "It will only be then that I accept them, not a second before."
"You don't take things lightly do you?"
"Not when those I care for are involved, no I do not." There was a pause after his statement a look in Lloyd's expression that he couldn't read. "What is the matter Lloyd?"
"It means a ton to me that you care for me." Lloyd cracked a grin, "but does that mean you have to be such a syrup hog?"
Kratos threw the syrup pitcher at him and instead of catching it Lloyd ducked. It bounced off the table once, rolled and then toppled over the side. The mess they made caused the kitchen staff to fall on them like the vengeance of the god of thunder. Lloyd then showed the many skills he'd picked up from his older friend's primarily Genis. He pointed at Kratos and with wide puppy eyes that would have done Noishe proud pinned the whole thing on the mercenary. Kratos' glare promised death, his lips promised an extra hard sparing match, and he was stuck with the mop and bucket cleaning up the mess. Lloyd just speared the half of the man's remaining pancake and helped himself to another table's syrup pitcher.
"You are an immature brat sometimes, you know that?" Kratos snarled, watching half of his food was lost.
Lloyd only stuck out his tongue and the amount of syrup that coated that pancake made Kratos shudder. When Kratos caught Lloyd "accidentally" spilling a bit of syrup on the area he'd just cleaned the Iselain was firmly smacked with the wet end of the mop and shoed out of the common room. He received several sopping wet smacks as Kratos turned the boy's flight into impromptu lesson on how to retreat without lowering your guard. As it was, Lloyd came out of it sopping wet and the mercenary had the staff after his head on a pike. He spent a good hour scrubbing tables for that one, but it was worth it.
Well worth it.