To my readers,
Drawing from outlines and my sketchy memory here is the real chapter 19. I improvised on the monsters somewhat as I can't find a decent picture for them on the 'net, so if anything is glaringly wrong e-mail or review me and I will fix it. Thanks for all the helped and thanks for all the patience guys.
Side note I wrote this to the FF7: Advant Children soundtrack (I ordered it before the comp died, a friend played a piece called one winged angel and I turned instant fan-girl if you believe her story), I saw the previews for it via the internet and will defiantly be buying/seeing it even though I have yet to buy a PS or play a final fantasy besides the SNES ones and Crystal Chronicles. It just looks so amazing I have to see it! OK done with random rant to important stuff.
Some silliness before the seal, there's some rare Kratos Lloyd playfulness and knowing those two playing equals swords. Raine's still as crazy as ever. Some play, a serious chat about religion, oh and SEAFOOD(I was hungry when I started writing OK me plus hungry plus writing equals a bad combo)! I know Colette's supposed to get Holy Song after the fight but to help the story along I gave it to her during. I made a unique spin on the monster and I added a little here a little there. I love sword fights way too much, no spoilers, some implied but nothing that someone who isn't a fan-girl like me would catch. I hope this chapter is good and worth the wait I put you guys through. There's gunna be another wait as I need to finish the final draft of a short story for a writing class and I need to totally re-write the sucker. So I'm gunna be doing original fiction for a few days before I can work on some fan stuff. Hopefully I'll have some stuff come the weekend, I'll see if I can nag a friend into letting me use her comp.
Kasan Soulblade
Chapter 19
Untitled (will take suggestions)
Kratos watched as his sword slid into the scalding mess of writhing white water. He glared at the steam that made his eyes ache and his face feel tight, but he dared not turn away. For once he wore no shield, no armor, save leather gloves that shielded his all too vulnerable hands. He patiently waited on the banks of the steaming pool of water, holding the hilt in his steady hands while their meal cooked. Lloyd had sacrificed a belt for this endeavor, the last length of leather made several laps around the steel to hold their meal of fish in place, served as a kind of bump to keep the food from slipping off and becoming lost, it had earlier bound sword to shield so that they could cook the clams in a make shift pot. As their half of a fish cooked Kratos watched the meat turn from a pale red to a flaky red. The food might have just cooked had they held the sword over the tangled white vines of steam, but he wasn't going to risk his health or Lloyd's in a case of half cooked fish. Freeing a hand he pulled a water slicked wad of auburn hair from his eyes, and to all he looked ignorant of the heat, but was for once he was suffering due to the temperatures intensity, or rather the form that its intensity was taking. He was soaked with his own sweat, and not only was that making seeing difficult as water spray fell onto his body and left stinging lines down his visage it tangled his hair and made it all the more likely to obscure his vision.
Chattering merrily about ruins and history, oblivious to his pain, Raine, Genis, and Colette, were seated around Kratos' shield turned pot. Well it had been a pot, was now a plate after the food hand been fished out and it was turned over to the flat expanse was now facing up rather then the bowl like intended section. Regardless they were helping themselves to a dinner of fish, clams and lobster. Lloyd had slipped away from Kratos to save a few pieces of the lobster and clams for them; or rather he had once Kratos had ordered him to.
"The red thing looks like a bug." Lloyd grumbled. "And these look like snails."
"You'll like them, trust me, how's the table coming?"
"It's set."
The table was as make shift as the pot had been. Having not wood of course they made use of two of Lloyd's swords. They were dipped in the scalding hot waters to make sure of being clean, held in the fiery hot waters until Kratos was sure that every speck of filth had been washed away then left upon the shore while Lloyd went to look for four large rocks. No luck in that, there were scarce few loose stones, but Lloyd had found a substitute, had pulled out a few broken bricks from a ruined wall and had brought them back. It was a good idea and might have worked, except for Raine's mania. She had spotted Lloyd carrying bricks and seeing they were from some of the structures downstairs had descended on him like the wraith of the Gods. Kratos frowned at the fish, though it was more at the memory of Lloyd crying out in pain as he had been spanked.
The food was done, complete; nodding Kratos joined the red clad swordsman who was laying out the mess of clams and the pieces of tender lobster limbs on the twin blades. Twin slender rapiers lay side by side, providing the thinnest and lowest of tables imaginable. The tip of each blade and end of hilt rested on small rocks, offering some height, but it was by far the lowest table either of them had sat at. Kratos sat cross legged on one side, and Lloyd hesitantly joined him, setting his sore rump on the hard stones with only a slight hiss.
"Thanks, I don't know how you handled that, all the steam and stuff was making me light headed."
"You just pull a trick on yourself." Kratos reached for a clam, then pulled a knife from his belt and tried to pry it open. "You concentrate on something and the dizziness recedes."
"And if it doesn't?" Lloyd frowned. "What are you doing?"
"I am looking for a rock." Kratos growled, he offered the shell his best death glare, but the small animal inside was already dead so that wasn't helping. Much to the mercenary's chagrin he could not force the blasted thing open. "And if it doesn't you get away from the scalding hot water as fast as you can."
"Oh, hey can I try somethin'?"
"With what? Oh, the shell, be my guest but it's imposs-"
Lloyd dragged the stubborn specimen of sea food along the edge of his blade. The boy sheared through the thin span that served as a hinge for the shell, than with a grin he cracked it open and offered it to the older man.
"I retract that statement."
"Re-track-et?"
"Take back." Kratos noisily slurped up the contents of the shell and Lloyd made a gagging noise.
"Oh yuck, Kraaatos!" Genis wailed from a few feet away. "That's nasty!"
"Ewww…" Colette made a disgusted noise. "That doesn't look very good Mr. Kratos."
"Be polite children." Raine scolded, though she seemed a little put off by how the mercenary just calmly ate the clam whole. "We must respect other people's ways, even if it's in something as simple as how they eat."
Ignoring them the mercenary quietly chewed his meal; Lloyd rolled a clam over in his hands, then set it back on the blade table. He happily dug into the neglected fish, picked out the bones and cut away half with his dagger. Kratos just picked off the clams one by one till only one was left.
"Trying something new wouldn't kill you." Kratos scolded Lloyd, handing him the final clam.
"Don't do it Lloyd!" Genis gasped. "Don't eat a slimeball in a shell."
Kratos spared the small elf with his most vicious gaze and the silver haired boy cringed back from those cold brown eyes.
Shrugging Lloyd dragged the shell across his blade, hearing the soft crack of the hard cover give way the young swordsman pried open the thing and looked at the blob inside. He shook the shell and the thing inside jiggled.
"Do they always look like that?"
Kratos gave the thing in the shell a long look than nodded.
"And it's dead right?"
"Yes." Kratos' eyes flickered with some secret emotion that the younger swordsman couldn't read. Lloyd had the feeling the man was enjoying his discomfort somewhat.
"And it's not poisonous?"
"I am still here am I not?"
"What's it taste like?"
"Eat one to find out." Kratos said, "Or don't and give it to me and finish off the fish."
"You're a load of comfort." Genis chirped. "If you told me that I'd never eat it."
"It does look icky." Colette agreed.
Closing his eyes, trying not to imagine what it looked like Lloyd poured the limp thing into his mouth. It felt nasty. The shell fish was all sticky and gummy. It clung to his teeth and was like eating a bit of mush. But for mush it wasn't half bad.
"Eh, so-so." He said to Kratos' interested expression. "Not bad but not so good either."
"It's an acquired taste."
"Ack-wire-ud?"
Kratos rose an eyebrow, and Lloyd just looked up at the man in genuine confusion.
"How long has Lloyd been your pupil Ms. Sage?"
"A long long time…" Raine sighed, running a hand through her wild silver locks. "Lloyd, acquired means to pick up, to get."
"Picked up taste?" Lloyd stared at Kratos, even more confused.
"It's not something you get right away; it takes time to grow into liking it." Genis explained.
"I got it." Lloyd said and everyone sighed in relief. "But I don't got it."
"Why…" Raine massaged her temples. "Why sweet Martel, why?"
Lloyd shrugged and bit on the lobster leg, spitting out the shell with a disgusted look then picking out the meat. Behind him Raine was whispering more pleas to Martel to explain Lloyd's "thickness". Colette looked on confused and Genis quietly joined his sister in her prayers for an answer and some hints of enlightenment on Lloyd's part.
Kratos watched it all with a mix of disgust, amusement, and confusion on his face.
"Lloyd… does this not bother you?"
"Huh, oh," he looked at the Sage sibs and shrugged. "They do that all the time. Dad just said to tone them out when they do that. It's an elf thing."
Lloyd took another bite of food, back to being oblivious to the world around him and Kratos felt a bit of a headache coming on.
X
"I will take first watch." Kratos announced, his dark eyes scanning the almost equally dark cave. Patches of golden-green luminance from the fungi on the caverns ceiling and the side of the stairway were filtered through a mess of steam and spray. The tides lapped at one half of the room, the pools of scalding water boiled on the other. All the water above them, the mist and spray was gold, made for a gold tinted mist; there was no night, no day in the dark and the gold world they had invaded. But heavy eyelids and gapping mouths were common enough signs for them all to read.
"You always take first watch." Raine muttered sleepily, Genis was curled against her while she sat up, even as she spoke and yawned she stroked her brother's silver colored hair. "Are you up to it?"
"I'm more suited to living on my physical edge." Kratos explained calmly. "It's not like you care for my health anyways. I render you a service, protect those you care for, and when I grow faulty in that service it is in your power to dismiss me. That's all it is, so don't play niceties Ms. Sage and make it what it isn't."
"It's just a job?" Raine repeated Kratos' words to him and the mercenary smiled slightly.
"That's all it is."
Colette lay as close to her mentor as she could, was curled up into a small little ball as close to Raine as she could be and not intrude on the brother and sister elves closeness. Lloyd lay between them all, between the Raine's half of their sleeping space and the Kratos' half. Lloyd was facing Kratos, the boy looked like a red worm wrapped up in those crimson sleeping blankets. After being nagged and bothered about it for a good hour after the dinner Kratos had gone back to get their supplies, or rather had gone back for their blankets and a few odd and end jells and bandages.
"I think when you stop lying to yourself you might become a decent human being Mr. Aurion." Raine said, laying down and giving into the coaxing of her exhaustion and full belly.
He would have pushed the matter, made her clarify her meaning, but decided against it. Raine had fallen asleep the second her head hit the pillow of her crossed arms. There was little satisfaction in watching others sleep, little satisfaction in watching for monsters who would not come, yet there was little in life pleasant or satisfying. He leaned against on of the pillars and stared into the golden stained mists, and noted with a grim twist of his lips how swift the gold was obscured by the thick shadows that crouched amongst the corners and made a canvas above them that the cloaked stone sky.
X
Lloyd yawned, opened his eyes and stretched. The blankets about him bunched then went slack, kind of like a half hearted squirm from a caterpillar. He was oblivious to the effect, or maybe he wasn't. As if sensing Kratos' eyes upon him he squirmed, keeping the blankets wrapped about him, closer to the others. Letting his eyes slide open Kratos knew that his regard, his gaze, was intense enough to convey worlds of meaning to the young man. Lloyd froze, a few inches from Raine.
"What are you doing?" He whispered.
Lloyd looked to him his eyes far too wide, too innocent.
"Do you want to die? That's what'll happen if you wake her up, she will kill you in a slow painful fashion."
Lloyd considered it, mulled over it that took a bit of time. He eventually squirmed back to the general location of where he had started out and went still. Kratos watched the antics not quite understanding all that had occurred. But the playfulness was somewhat contagious.
"I have this string urge to put a hook in your jaw and just throw you into the water." Kratos murmured, staring at the young man with unblinking intense scrutiny.
Lloyd met his gaze and glared.
"I just can't understand where the urge is coming from." Kratos mused, staring at Lloyd, telling his lips to twitch some other time. "I just see this side of fish, lightly buttered with a dab of tarter…"
"Get away from me!" Lloyd hissed, scrunching back a bit from his mess of blankets he looked like a caterpillar ready to run.
Kratos lazily walked towards Lloyd, who was now looking from side to side panic building in his eyes.
"Hey, no!" Lloyd gasped, trying to now fight free from the tangle of fabric so he could run. "Don't!"
Lloyd was, much to his horror, snagged by his middle, his limbs pinned, and he was dragged blanket and all to the very cold pool of sea water. The tide was high, the pool almost filled to brimming, it would safe enough for a dunking, but it would be cold, freezing even. He tried to fight, but untrained, uncoordinated, he would not be getting free anytime soon. With an evil grin Kratos dragged him to the water, then cruelly tossed him blanket and all into the pool. The splash was spectacular by all means, and Lloyd sputtered, thrashed, and then dragged himself to the bank with little problems.
Sopping wet, blanket clinging to him like a red cloak, Lloyd glared at him and yet despite the glare through chattering teeth he broke into a huge smile.
"You've just declared war old man."
"Old man?" Kratos raised an eyebrow at the boys daring. "I hardly see you in any state to…"
Kratos was Noishe-tackled, and found himself in the water. While the cold hardly bothered him he had to fight a great deal with his cape to get out of the water. Panting out a string of curses the older swordsman managed to get to the sandy bank, pulled the hair out of his eyes and favored Lloyd with a vicious glare.
"You are going to be a corpse in five seconds." Kratos hissed, his blade joined in that hiss as he pulled the water slicked weapon from its sheath.
"You and what army Kratos?" Lloyd grinned, spared a glance for his swords that were nearby, if he ran…
Seeing the glance Kratos smirked, silver light flickered along the edge of his blade and Lloyd's swords were sent flying when Kratos let the power trapped in his sword roll across the ground and smash into Lloyd's sheathed swords. Hopping like offended creatures the weapons flew; they arched over the sleeping members of their party and clattered down the stone steps that lead to the pathway where the solver riddle lay. Seeing Kratos advance Lloyd cursed and made a wild run across the room to the stairs leading down. Lloyd jumped over Raine, who even in her sleep was seemingly a lone guard over the entrance of the inner labyrinth of the water temple.
Luckily for them all Raine slept right on through being treated as a hurdle, snorting at the boy's rashness Kratos quietly slipped past his sleeping companions, stepped over Raine, and went down into the inner recesses of the temple. Lloyd had abandoned the stair way, or rather had dashed down to the first landing and looked up at him expectantly. Spotting him Lloyd mouthed something uncomplimentary about Kratos' hair and made a comparison to a rat's nest, Kratos decided to rebuttal with a wave of silver power from his blade.
Nothing like a lively debate to start the morning, Lloyd dodged the attack, delivered a decent counter and when Kratos dodged that and it smashed into the wall behind making a number of the mosaic tiles break with a loud crack both swordsmen flinched. Kratos looked to the still sleeping Raine, she was going to kill them for this, it would be a slow painful death for them both for breaking relics of ages past. But then what of it, they had the pillars as a sanctuary if Raine proved to be too violent. Smirking the black caped mercenary slicked back his hair so it wouldn't get into his face and Lloyd seeing the advance turned tail and bolted knowing that he was beyond dead if he was caught.
X
Blade smashed against blade. Lloyd blocked the slash and the older man's sword stroke licked against the flats of his twin swords. Giving Kratos room he backed off; let the man pull off a counter slash that cut through little more then air but put the sword in perfect position for a thrust. Lloyd stepped back at a fast clip, never turning from the mercenary he swung his blades in as one great motion, held them so close the hilts nearly touched and entangled their weapons together. He wrenched his arms to the side in one sharp move, tried to wrench the man's weapon from his grasp. Lloyd was strong enough, barely, to make the move jerk Kratos' arm out of ideal attack position. Kratos went with the jerk, staggered, but still retained his grip on his weapon. The older man turned the forced step into a nasty opportunity. The stagger was totally fake, sword tangled; the mercenary abandoned that mode of attack and went to another. Lloyd ripped his blades free of the tangle; he'd compromised his footing with the move and crossed his blades defensively in front of him by reflex. Good thing he did, Kratos smashed his shield into the spot where both blades met, had the Iselian not done so he'd have been taken down with a punch that had Kratos' shield leading, but Lloyd blocked him. Pleased, because that was so like the move that Lych had disarmed him with last time, Lloyd felt his confidence sore. As if seeing that hint of arrogance and not approving Kratos smashed his shield against Lloyd's guard again and the younger swordsman felt his feet start to slide. He tried to lock his legs, tried to take the hit, and felt his equilibrium start to go due to the attack and the water slicked stone under his feet. Cursing Lloyd hopped to the side, abandoned his crossed blade guard and tried to dodge. Kratos spun on his heel and delivered a sharp kick to Lloyd's stomach sending the young swordsman off the small walkway and into the water with a startled cry. After a moment Lloyd's head emerged from the water.
"Co-cold…" Lloyd shivered, "Th-thanks a-l-l-lot Kratos I dropped my other sword! Hold this!" Lloyd tossed his remaining sword to the startled mercenary then went under before the older man could remind the younger of the sharks that habited the waters.
There was a long ominous span where Lloyd did not resurface. Worried Kratos went to the part of the path where Lloyd had gone down; he knelt by the very edge. So worried was the mercenary that he didn't see two red gloved hands grip the opposite edge, did not hear the young man pull himself. To give the man some credit Kratos did feel the foot smash into his butt and send him and did realize he'd been had when he hit the waters. Smirking Lloyd picked up the blade Kratos had left on the path and lifted the one he'd retrieved.
"Arches," Lloyd grinned at the startled man. "It's an arch underneath."
"The second I get on land…" Kratos rumbled.
"Is that a shark!" Lloyd gasped in mock horror, Kratos snarled and began to make his way back to the path, Lloyd decided to go up and see if there were any other places less slippery to fight.
X
"Morning Lloy-" Colette stopped breathing when her friend came running from the inner temple, the Hall of Liquid Radiance where the earthen vessel had been filled with holy water from the sorcerers ring. He was drenched, like he'd been swimming. With a loud whoop he jumped over the sleeping Raine, looked around the room then went up the stairs to the path that would lead out of the temple.
Behind him like an afterthought trailed the words.
"Hi Colette! Bye Colette!"
If Lloyd's sudden appearance surprised her the sopping wet Kratos behind him made her squeak in total shock. Sword drawn, eyes blazing like a fiends, the mercenary came from the chamber, stepped over Raine, and glared up the path they had traveled the day before.
"Good morning Kratos!" Colette chirped.
He didn't respond, spotting Lloyd making a break for the exit Kratos growled and stormed after red clad swordsman.
"Have fun!"
She called after them; since she was up she decided that now would be a good time to pray to Martel and humming a happy ditty fished through her blanket until she found a holy book. Figuring Kratos and Lloyd were going to be running up and down the stairs a lot Colette went to the pillars by a pile of really glowy mold and flipped through the book till she found the right prayers for the morning. Since she was supposed to face the sun but there was no sun she decided that that pile of exceptionally light shedding mold would just have to serve and she quietly began to sing the prayer of the morning.
Goddess Martel thank you
We raise out voices in thanks
That we have seen such a glorious dawn
"I'm going to kill you Lloyd Irving!" Kratos roared.
"What, the water cold Kratos? Poor Kratos-watos, the water was cold wasn't it? Well that's what you get for dunking me you…"
Colette firmly toned out some of the bad words Lloyd said, and went on with the next refrain.
Your Light banishes the darkness
On Sylvarant and on soul
Light sweeps away the sins
And makes us purer vessels for your glory
"Tell me how the Underworld is when you get there!" Kratos snarled
There was a clang of sword on sword, she spotted Lloyd running back down the stairs, he was coming this way. He darted past the pillars, as he went by Colette called out to him.
"Hi again Lloyd!"
"Hey Colette!"
Down he went back into the chamber, hopping over Professor Sage as he went.
"I'm going to kill that little runt!" Kratos snarled, storming down the stairs and saying a few not so nice words as he passed her.
"Hi again Kratos."
He didn't even look up to acknowledge her words.
She frowned at that, he wasn't being very nice… then her frown deepened as she realized something horrible.
"Uh oh… what line was I on?" She scanned the book but had what Genis would have called a Lloyd lapse, she couldn't recall what line she'd been on. "Opps… I'm so sorry Martel, I didn't mean to forget what line I was on… oh dear I'll have to start from the beginning…"
X
"Kratos watos?" The mercenary sputtered, swung his sword and Lloyd ducked behind the over hang left by the first set of stairs. The water temple was weird, really weird. There were a ton of steps going down, a few landings and turns, then this huge cavern opened up and you had a really long platform of marble. When you ran across it you found another flight of stairs heading down, and when you went down those stairs your found yet another long span of marble that was like a hall with no walls. Except there was one wall, where the first platform went down it turned from solid stone to an arch, it was like there was a holy wall room thing that you could dive into if you felt comfortable with the idea of having a marble roof over your head. Lloyd ducked under the marble over hang left by the previous platforms because Kratos could not swing his sword in that tight space.
Not that it stopped Kratos from thrusting with his blade, but Lloyd moved fast enough to avoid that.
"Kratos watos!" The mercenary was going red in fury.
"Ever hear of baby talk?" Lloyd panted.
They'd run up and down the temple once and the way it was looking it was going to be lap two. Darting out from the over hand, squirming between two tight pillars Lloyd popped out a bit ahead of the man. Grunting Kratos fought his way free from the mess of pillars and Lloyd was already going up the stairs again.
"You can't keep this up forever." Kratos hissed, eyes promising a few painful thwacks of the flat of the blade when he caught up to the younger man.
"I can try!" Lloyd chirped.
They both saved their breath for running, and fighting, as that's where they needed it most.
X
"Hey Colette!" Lloyd skidded to a stop, fished out his water pouch from his rest spot last night and took a long draw. "How were morning prayers?"
"Really good, thanks for asking!"
"L-Lloyd?" Genis was just waking up, he stared at his dripping wet friend; half of it now was sweat as he hadn't been dunked in a while. "What's going on?"
"Oh Kratos and Lloyd are playing tag!" Colette explained.
"With their swords out?" Genis sputtered, rubbing his eyes than pinching himself to see that this was a dream.
"Un huh!"
"Yep, she's got it… Uh oh… Kratos is coming, see you guys in a bit!" Putting the cap back on his water skin Lloyd tossed it onto his sopping wet blankets and then ran back up the path that led out.
Genis felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head.
"Colette how long has this been going on?"
"Hmmm about half an hour, why?"
"Tag with their swords drawn?"
"Yep." Colette smiled. "Why, what's wrong with that?"
Kratos stepped over the sleeping form of Raine, eyes blazing he picked Lloyd out with his eyes, his whole posture screaming that Lloyd was going to meet a painful death. Genis shrank back against his blankets as Kratos stormed past.
"Tag?"
"Yes, I said tag. What's wrong Genis, are you feeling OK?"
"I don't know. Hey, are you done with prayers, well if not could I join you…" Genis stared at the black capped swordsman who was snarling a few words in that weird language of his at Lloyd's retreating back. "I think I'd like to pray for a large dose of calm and stability right now."
"OK!" Colette fished out a tattered looking book with half faded print on the spine. "Here we go!"
Martel, Goddess grant me thy serenity
"It's the end of the world for you Lloyd."
There was a clatter of blade striking blade.
"Oh come on, you're having fun!" Lloyd crowed, "This is fun."
"It is not!"
"Is too!"
"Is not!"
Let your stillness and peace be as my own
May it flow from me to the world…
"If you aren't having fun then why are you acting like a kid?" Lloyd countered.
"Swing your blade as fast as you wag your tongue and you might develop some decent swordsmanship skills."
There was a ring of blade striking blade, a loud thud and Genis gasped in shock when he saw from all the way at the top of the stairs Lloyd tackled Kratos and they both tumbled down for a bit. Somewhere in the tumble Kratos lost his sword, Lloyd picked himself up and dashed down the stairs, a wide grin on his face while Kratos had to go up to hunt for his weapon.
"Who needs you as a teacher if I tackle you and you lose?"
"I'll find a way to block that boy."
"That'll be the da- Oh crap! Look out below!" Lloyd jumped to avoid the two waves of silver light that rolled off of Kratos' sword and smashed into the wall he'd been standing by.
Genis decided to focus on the prayer, just the prayer, and ignore the swordsmen as best he could.
He decided that Raine was right, swordsmen were crazy, he never loved his kendama before today, he'd never been proud of it, but now he really was.
X
"Ha eat this!" Lloyd sent two demon fang's Kratos' way, the man easily side stepped them and then countered with two of his own. They came impossibly fast, one right after the other. Lloyd barely dodged that one, and looked up at the older man in shock. "How'd you do that?"
"I forget how draining the first one is and that it's supposed to be impossible to string two of them together." Kratos panted, they both were getting tired and slowing.
"That makes no sense."
Lloyd ducked the over hand swing, stepped back and gave Kratos as much room as he needed to swing that sword of his.
"It'll make sense when it needs to." Kratos lashed out with a shield punch and Lloyd brought his blades around in an X guard position so that the brunt of the hit smashed into the crossed section of his blades.
Lloyd used his inner strength to push Kratos back, to shove the man a few steps back. That was enough, with the floor as slippery as it was the older swordsman lost his footing. Lloyd hopped over the sprawled man's form, went up the stairs again and hoped this was the last time cuz he was ready to drop.
X
"Good morning Professor!" Colette chirped at her mentor, the Chosen was already getting into some of the clams that someone had cooked. By the faint tingle in the air and the slight smell of cooked calcium Raine knew that Genis had used a fire spell to make the breakfast. Yawning Raine stretched, wished he pupils and brother good morning. When she wasn't answered with a sleepy grumble from Lloyd she looked about worried, and realized that Kratos wasn't with them either.
"Don't ask." Genis sighed, seeing his sister's expression. "Please, don't ask."
"Kratos and Lloyd are training." Colette chirped. "At least that's what Kratos said when they came in the room the third time."
"Came in the room?" Raine frowned, turned to her brother.
"You really really really don't want to know." Genis groaned. "I don't want to know and I found out."
That didn't sound good, she gave her brother the "tell me now" glare and he cringed and then after a five minuet impasse folded.
"Look in the hall that leads to the inner room of the temple and look to your right hand side."
Blinking Raine did so, stared at the destroyed mural.
"Where are they!" She roared fire flashing in her sky hued eyes.
"Upstairs." Colette chirped, pointing to the path the two men had traveled.
"And here they come…" Genis sighed.
Swinging his blade Kratos smashed his sword against Lloyd's own. The boy kept back peddling while he blocked blow after ringing blow, the red clad swordsman delivered a sharp kick to… well almost to a sensitive section. Kratos whipped back, blocked the clumsy hit with the flat of his sword.
"Give it up boy, you're wearing out."
"I'm not done yet!"
"Lloyd Irving and Kratos Aurion!" Raine screamed, all swordplay stopped immediately and both swordsmen turned to her.
"I don't see a monster do you?" Lloyd panted.
"No, we didn't break anything did we? Oh, wait the mural in the opening exchange."
"Oh crap… Do you think she…"
"How DARE you break that innocent little wall art from ages…"
"And we are dead…" Lloyd sighed.
"No, you are, you attacked me I merely ducked."
"The mayor's apple tree, remember? Genis tried that trick, or did I?"
"You did, well a least she can't spank me."
"She'll find a way, give her time."
Kratos spared Lloyd a humored look, highly doubting the woman could hurt him, it was the exact same look he'd worn when Raine had "Raine'd" him.
Lloyd decided to not tell the older swordsman about that however.
X
Fish again for breakfast, though it was by far lighter then dinner had been.
There was also an addition.
"Celery?" Genis picked up one of the long branches of the detested green stuff.
"Eating only meat can lead to sickness." Kratos explained, taking a few bites of his piece of celery. "It won't kill you to eat it."
"But we could cook it or…"
Kratos gave the child a long flat look.
"Just eat it, it's not like we have spices or garnishes, or anything else save bare necessities."
"If I'd gone back I could have brought back more then just some dumb medicine and greens."
Kratos ignored that, ate his food absently. He didn't eat all that much, certainly not as much as Lloyd did. Raine watched as the man toyed with his meal, spread it out before him, but did not eat more then a few mouthfuls. Certainly Colette didn't notice, nor did Genis. She was startled to see a small frown of worry on Lloyd's face; the gesture was swiftly hidden when Kratos lifted his head to scan the area with his black brown eyes. Lloyd did not point out what he saw, nor did Kratos push Lloyd into saying what was on his mind. Colette however while not attuned to Kratos, was very much in tune with Lloyd.
"Lloyd, what's the matter?"
"N… nothing…" Lloyd fiddled with one of the swords that rested on the ground besides him. "Nothing's wrong."
Genis lifted his head up from the meal, met the Iselian swordsman's eyes or rather tried. Lloyd would not meat his gaze and return it.
"Well that obviously means something's wrong." Genis crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Spit it out Lloyd, if Colette can't Noishe-eye it out of you we'll tickle you, and if that doesn't work there's always shock therapy."
Electricity crackled between Genis' fingers and Lloyd paled.
"It's nothing important OK, I'm just worried about the seal."
"Don't worry Lloyd, the angels will be there and though there will be a trial we won't get hurt."
Lloyd almost said something, doubt, hesitance, flashed in his eyes, but after a long pause he said nothing. He did not believe, it was hard to imagine what kind of world was there for someone who didn't believe, hard to imagine there not being a Martel, not being angels. She had been told of them since she was a child, Genis had been reared on the Martelian faith, and Colette's very life was immersed in the Martel prophecy. Yet to Lloyd it made no sense, it must seem shear madness to be going on this journey. They had all done him a great disservice not pushing him to accept the faith, that's what Phadria and the priests said, and in a way they were right. Lloyd did not understand; could not understand what was happening in front of him. He was not equipped to deal with the realities of the Regeneration. None of them really were.
"Raine, are you feeling alright?"
Raine caught her brother's eye and managed a smile form somewhere.
"Of course, it's just the monumental importance of what we are doing is catching up on me."
Kratos turned to her, his lips curled in one corner in a dark ironic smile.
"Really?" The mercenary whispered. "How important is it, I wonder?"
"To Regenerate the world is to save the world." Colette protested.
"Regenerate is not the same as save Ms. Brunel, regenerate does not mean save, they are two wildly different concepts." Kratos rubbed a wet strip of his blankets over his shield to clean off the bits of meat, oil, and bone from their breakfast. "Regenerate, in it's most basic definition is to… heal, but to do so in a way that something corrupt or flawed becomes bettered or purged. To save, well the definition is that you keep the saved object, person, as is. I've always wondered, which are you doing, regenerating or saving?"
"Both." Colette said simply. "Regeneration is a kind of saving; to complete this journey will be to save everyone."
"Do you always take things at face value because it comes from a supposed holy being?" Kratos mused, looking up from his cleaning to pin the golden haired girl with a somber gaze. "If Remial were to command you to jump off a building would you do so?"
"That's not a problem." Colette giggled. "I have wings remember?"
Genis snickered. "Really Kratos, you're supposed to be smart not dumb, unless being with Lloyd all the time is making you dumb-"
"Take that back!" Lloyd hopped to his feet.
"What that you can be dumb?" Genis grinned. "Or should I say dumber?"
That triggered a wrestling match, the adults sighed but did nothing to break it up as the rough and tumble nature of the boy's friendship would only express itself in another way. Keeping a weather eye on the children so they didn't stupidly tumble into a pool of boiling water Raine considered what Kratos had said then decided to take some of the strain of Kratos' prying questions off of Colette.
"The angels are holy. Even though you are a human certainly you can sense the power and magnificence that Colette's father radiates?"
"Power yes, the angel would be a formidable opponent... Magnificence, well that's how you look at it."
"They say that only those who've fallen from the light think angels are scary." Colette whispered. Her eyes were darkened with sadness and brimming with pity.
"What kind of people are those who have fallen from the light Chosen?"
"They aren't, those who don't follow Martel aren't people."
Kratos rose an eyebrow in a mute challenge to one of the foundations of the Martel faith. The mercenary let his gaze drift over to Lloyd who had pinned Genis and had the young elf's head in a lock and was running a knuckle over the boy's scalp. Colette followed his gaze and blushed, looked uncomfortable, she could not meet Kratos' dark brooding eyes.
"You should not question the faith of those around you Kratos. It's disrespectful, we have been polite about your heathen beliefs and this interrogation on your behalf is wrong."
"I only seek to understand."
"To convert?" Colette asked hope laced through her voice.
"No, your faith motivates you, compels you to act in ways I do not understand. My ignorance is a danger to you. I seek understanding, comprehension, because as alien as my ways are to you, yours are more so to me."
"That's all it is then, a job." Raine sighed.
Colette looked from one adult to another, could sense the serious nature of what was going on but was confused, lost in their game of subtlety and evasiveness. Seeing that confusion Kratos turned to the child, his expression was for one second filled with a kind of softness. There was a grief in those eyes, a softening in the frown lines around that cold distant face. It was gone, the grief, the pity, winked out like a candle to a gust of winter wind.
"Attachments are dangerous, necessary, but dangerous, and can be potentially crippling. I am very careful where I place my emotional attachments, and I will not do so to someone I know is going to their death." Kratos stared straight into Colette's eyes, ignored Raine and rammed his lesson home with the force of a sword thrust. "I know what you wish to say Chosen, yes I am friends with Lloyd, but I trust him because he is not blinded by faith. When you rely on one thing, and only one thing, to see the world you look through is limited. I find it akin to living with only one eye open."
"It's not." Colette protested.
"Of course not, to you what I say is wrong and what you say is truth. There is only one truth, so there should only be one eye to see through. That much I do understand, I know of arrogance and the blindness it entails." Kratos ignored Raine's offended protest, ignored how Lloyd yalped in pain as he was lightly shocked, he ignored the world and focused on Colette. "Know this, I will never convert. Do not dare to force your faith upon me. Do not feed me the lies your church spews as holy writ, as truth... It may be truth to you Chosen, but to me being blind, controlled, contained, those are the greatest of sins, and it is what your doctrine demands and shall never get from me so long as I draw breath. Do you understand me now, my purposes to the questions I put to you now?"
Colette nodded. "I'm sorry."
"For what, that I feel differently then you do about the nature of faith?"
Colette did not answer him, and he did not bother to ask again. Raine embraced Colette, sheltered her in a gentle embrace and the chill of Kratos' words were lost under that warm touch.
"In the future Kratos, keep your questions to yourself." Raine hissed, eyes blazing.
Lips curling on one corner, a horrible silent laugh, Kratos nodded. And if Remial radiated magnificence Kratos radiated scorn. There was no pity in him now, only a dark humor.
"As you will."
X
"Let the flame of passion, forsaken yet not forgotten, stand as mute guard. Let the heat ward off all foul, let them serve as twin guards to the Chosen One who shall be filled with purity. The empty vessel must be filled with tranquility and the world's life's blood sacrificed for the life of the world."
"Blood?" Lloyd squeaked. He looked up from the writing on the rooms marble wall then looked at the empty vase and twin unlit torches. For a long moment he considered the size of the vase, stared at the writing to see if it really said what he thought it did, and then looked at Colette with no little worry on his face. "That doesn't sound good."
"It's not literal." Kratos explained, Raine had been watching Kratos (yet again) like a hawk, and the fact that Kratos was hanging out with him seemed to be bothering her.
"Lit-or-all?"
Kratos gave him a long suffering look, than began to massage the side of his head.
"It's a riddle, a play on words."
"Oh," Lloyd nodded his comprehension, than frowned. "What's a riddle?"
"A riddle is… Please tell me you're joking."
"Umm I could say that, but it'd be lying and the dwarven vows are really..."
"Didn't you ever play riddles or word games growing up?" Lloyd just continued to look at Kratos, completely baffled by the question. "Just out of morbid curiosity… what did you do for fun as a child?"
"Tag, races, hide and go seek, truth or dare…" Lloyd shrugged.
"That explains it." Kratos sighed. "Didn't your father teach you anything intellectual, did he give you any mental stimulating activities to pursue as a child?"
"Huh?" Lloyd scratched the back of his head.
"Kratos," Raine sighed, her eyes looking upon distant times. "When Lloyd enrolled in my school he couldn't even read or write Common, he wrote a kind of pidgin dwarven/common hybrid, and that's what he spoke too."
"I spoke alright; I just used dwarven when I couldn't explain it in Human."
"In human?" Genis protested.
"Err Common…" Lloyd squirmed. "OK so I was dumb alright, I'm not all that much anymore."
Genis snickered and Lloyd glared at his short elven friend.
"I think it's nice that Lloyd knows Dwarf things." Colette said, looking up from her analyses of the vase. Raine had already gone nutty, had already analyzed and studied everything and while she was doing so the boys had struck up a card game, Colette had prayed, and Kratos had stared at the swirling hissing mists and lapped at the edge of the marble platform where the alter and artifacts lay. "It makes him special, and if everyone was the same I bet things would get boring."
Kratos rose an eyebrow at that one, and Lloyd was about ready to ask what was up, because something was up. Kratos didn't look all intent and serious with the raised eyebrow thing going on unless it was really serious. He never got his chance however.
"Lloyd," Raine frowned, looked confused, like this was going to be hard to explain. "A riddle is words that mean something but the meaning is secret."
"Well if it's secret are we supposed to find out?"
"If we weren't I don't think the angels would put it here." Colette said hesitantly.
"So it's a trial?"
"I guess so…" Colette giggled. "This will be easy, it'll be a lot better then the fire monster, see I told you no one would get hurt."
Kratos made a noise in his throat that sounded suspiciously like a muffled laugh. Hearing the sound Genis turned on him.
"What was that?"
"The mist is catching in my lungs." Kratos coughed again. "Go help your friends elf, and leave me to my thoughts."
"I swear, he thinks this whole thing is funny…" Genis grumbled to his sister as the elves joined their human friends at the alter to puzzle out the cryptic words.
"He doesn't believe, so we all must look like a group of sociologically challenged individuals scrambling inside various ruins, going place to place for no reason. From what little I do know of the man that type of humor is his favorite."
"So then that's proof that he's undeniably, indisputably, a jerk."
Raine's lips twitched. "That wasn't very nice Genis, but… yes it is."
X
It took an hour, but not because they couldn't figure the answer. Raine had it figured in ten minutes, what took so long was that she snatched up the vase to make comparisons between it and the other angelic runes in the lower temple. They went to the holy hall of water, or something like that, who remembered stuff like that anyways? Lloyd watched Genis and Raine go down the hall, Colette trailed after them. After their duel Kratos and Lloyd knew how safe the lower section was, having taken breaks in their earlier play to deal with the slimy lumps that rose out of the water and attacked them with tiny tentacles. There had been many smaller monsters that Kratos had called jelly fish. The whole area was as safe as could be, so Kratos for once didn't make any protest save to order them to stay on land.
He was ignored as Raine in fully ruin nuttiness ran off dragging Genis behind her.
"Third… or was it the forth time this had happened?" Kratos murmured.
"I lost count." Lloyd shuffled the cards; he couldn't feel the edges dig into his fingers as the thick gloves he wore were muffling his sense of touch. "I wanted to see the seal today…" Lloyd whined. "So we could leave but…"
"You want to go back on the washtubs?"
"No!" Lloyd shuddered. "But we have to, to go back…"
"Understood." Kratos smiled, leaned against on of the angel statues, his arms crossed in front of him, obscuring the gem imbedded in his chest.
"Hey I'll play you a game." Lloyd shuffled the cards again and gave Kratos a pleading look.
"I do not play children's games…"
"Stakes are who paddles Raine back to land, best two out of three."
"Not a word of this to the others."
"Me?"
Kratos joined the young man and facing each other, both cross legged. The wails of marvelous arched through the mist below, reached their ears, and confirmed the fact that the white block above the lower alter was actually the platform that they rested on now. Kratos cut the first hands and so began their game.
X
Kratos hissed, eyes blazing, as they made their way across the thin bridge that had shuttered out from the side of the platform. "You could not have beaten me eight times…"
"Hey, I told you not to add who's paddling Noishe into it, but just cuz you lost both bets doesn't mean you get to sulk-"Lloyd laughed. "Gods I'm sounding like Raine!"
Kratos snorted. "No you are justly rebuking me, that woman…" Kratos shuddered. "Rebukes with no cause."
"She doesn't need a staff, have the monsters break a vase from the Karlan war and she'd smack them to death."
Despite the immaturity of their banter Kratos allowed himself to smile, he seemed to be doing that more often then not when he was around Lloyd. The boy had a talent for sliding through his mental barriers and the walls around his soul. A dangerous talent that, dangerous for them both.
"Keep your guard up when we reach the chamber, I hope there are no surprises but I highly doubt my hopes will be answered."
They stepped on the dish… it was in interesting hybrid between a large dish and pedestal, and in response to their mana signatures the gem in the tan disk turned red. Silver light shot from the gem, expanded so that it held all of them in a circle of light. The thin ring of light flickered and there was a flash of agony as it ripped into them and folded time, distance, and space into nothingness and dragged them all through the nothingness it made. Dizzy, head ringing, Kratos staggered back a step and his foot went over the edge of the small platform and into the water. They stood on an island of white marble, pillars of smooth white rose from their engraved blocks. So fine was the carving it seemed as if the waves of the sea had been somehow contained by a balisk's gaze. Waves turned to stone, sere set to serve as feet to the pillars, those pillars went up a good seven feet and met a roof of smoothed down earth. Lloyd craned his neck, stared at the angelic carvings above and muttered "figures" it was all Kratos could do to not laugh. Their close proximity with the others allowed Raine to hear that whispered comment and delivered a firm smack.
"Ouch…"
"He felt that." Genis muttered, rubbing his head in sympathy pain.
There was, much to Kratos' distaste, little space to move. They all could stand shoulder to shoulder and those on the outer edges of the line would have their toes hanging over the water. Well if there wasn't a pillar in the way, if there was they'd be uncomfortably smashed together. Speaking of being smashed together… He firmly wrenched his arm from Raine's grasp. Water, a deep pool of onix hued water lay still as death at the feet of this marble island, from some distance away on the other side of the cavern that housed this small chapel sized alter was a wall of water. For lack of better words there was a huge waterfall, but its endless motion seemed lack luster. Instead of a great white froth at its base, there was scarcely a ripple. The swirling churned up waters little more then sighs that made the onyx ripple only a handful of feet in any direction from that wall. If the water was indeed the pulse of the world then the very heart of all must be shuttering to a stop. It was a chilling defiance of natural law, the waterfall's silence and tameness, considering hat he'd seen of lesser waterfalls in his life the noise from this one should have been deafening for its size and the fact that it was less then a mile away.
"Goddess Martel…" Kicking himself Kratos turned to the Chosen watched and waited. "I beseech thee grant thy humble servant, thy messenger…"
Lloyd shivered, looked around and something was unsettling the boy, a tension had fallen upon him. Whether from the mention of the Goddess or the break in nature's laws behind them, or both, it could very well be both. Whatever the cause the boy was tying himself up into knots.
"Easy." Kratos murmured, gripping the child's arm with a hand. At his touch Lloyd relaxed, questions boiled in him, a knowledge that something was wrong but what was wrong was unknown. "Wait, just wait."
Not being scolded for fussing or being restless, not being reprimanded for being a fool that must be quite a change for him. Lloyd relaxed at the words, at the touch, and Kratos let the younger man's arm go. Blue arched from the alter, a searing blue light that scorched it's way into his brain like daggers. He winced back from the light, cringed back from the marble pedestal. There was so much white around them, it blurred the senses, the contrast between the dark and light so extreme that you became numb with over exposure after a second, then to have another color just knife through it… Rubbing his aching eyes Kratos waited either for the swan winged angel to materialize or something much like the fire cat to appear. There was a long moment, a long moment of silence, that moment stretched into another, into a minute, into two minutes…
No angel, no monsters, it was silent save for the odd drip of that fell from some stalactite on the ceiling.
"Oh no, do you think I broken it!" Colette wailed, her wings were drawn and rubbing against each other in an open show of anxiety.
"Maybe the Angels forgot to put a monster with the light." Lloyd suggested thoughtfully, and was smacked by Raine for that.
"Lloyd Irving, you apologize right now! That was the worst thing I've ever heard anyone say…"
"Ummm I'm sorry winged feathered people I didn't mean…"
"Be sincere!"
There was another smack, but Kratos paid no heed to it. He felt, strangely disconnected from the world about him. As if he were floating and their conversation and antics were little more then insignificant mist. He stared unblinking at the world around him, seeing little, but hearing a soft voice. It was familiar, and its familiarity galvanized him even in this strange detached state.
"My head feels a little funny." Colette yawned and did a half hearted stretch; he brushed past her, uncaring. She was a voice, insignificant compared to her voice that called to him past the altar.
"Oww… Does anyone else here that?"
"Hear what?" Raine frowned, rubbed her head, she felt a small headache coming on.
"Marble!" Genis shot past them a look of glee on his face.
"What? Genis that's im-"
Lloyd stared into the air before him, his eyes empty of logic of reason. Joy twisted his lips into a smile, but it seemed absent, hollow, as the joy did not reach the boy's voice nor did it do anything to light those empty black eyes.
"Mom?"
"Lloyd, Kratos, Genis, stay away from the water, I have a bad feeling…" Colette called out.
She might as well command the tides to stop, or talk to a rock, because that's how intelligent the men were at that moment.
Kneeling by the black water Kratos seemed to shiver, almost have a concentrated seizure amongst his back muscles. That was disturbing, almost nauseating, he reached out with a hand for something that only he could see. There was a sigh, the water parted and a thin pale hand came from the depths.
"Beloved…" Kratos murmured.
The hand reached up, petted, and caressed the mercenary's face with soft gentle motions. Kratos shivered once, leaned forward and bent down so low he seemed ready to topple into the black waters.
"Kiss me." Came a soft sigh from the water, a rich throaty voice filled with passion, used to stoke lust. Kratos seemed to hesitate, as if the tone ill suited the person he had been calling to.
"Kratos, get away from there!" Colette shrieked, fear tightening her gentle voice till it came out as a tortured squeak.
Then Raine saw why the scream, the hands had left thin trails of red behind. Kratos' face was practically dripping blood and he seemed not to feel it. A scream of her own ripped from Raine's throat as the aged hands that had been ruffling Genis' hair shimmered, turned into a horrible hybrid of fingers, claws and teeth. Through some unholy mergence the creature sported thumb and pink, the rest of the creature's fingers were a disgusting lump of writhing twisting flesh. The motions betrayed the lumps as fish, for though pinned, or perhaps in truth, the bulk of the hand there was something of the desperation of a beached fish even as the "fish" nibbled and nipped the flesh.
"Genis!" Raine charged, luckily the platform was short, she was able to reach her brother and swat those hands aside with her staff before they ripped and tore into the flesh of her baby brother's neck.
Hands became fish fang hybrids, one of them had burrowed into Lloyd's shoulder and the young swordsman did not flinch in the slightest.
Colette was at Lloyd's side, trying to make him leave the water, but the young swordsman stared blankly ahead, a smile curling his lips he would not respond to the most frantic pleas.
Well Raine would have no such problems, her brother was small enough to carry if need be. He was in that same numbed and dazed state so Raine bent to wrap an arm around his waist. She cried out in pain, staggered back, and looked at him in shock.
Fire flicked across his fingers, he looked to wear twin gloves of smoldering red. Numbly she looked down at her arm; she had a pair of Genis' hand sized burns.
"Genis! Why did…"
He turned to her, looked at the water expectantly and there came the hands, and that voice calling for him to jump in.
"Mr. Kratos. Please you have to do something!" Colette shrieked in the man's ear. No response, he was as brain dead as the…
"Kratos!" Raine prayed she was right, she knew the mind not the heart so this was beyond her normal scope. "Kratos, Lloyd's in danger!"
That got a response, he shivered and looked around the room, seeing but not seeing.
"There look!" She pointed to Lloyd who was kneeling over the water and she hoped he could see the red marks that he wasn't that far gone…
He growled, staggered to his feet, and the look he gave that water, the hatred, as if he was seeing something within it that he absolutely loathed.
"They would not survive my hatred." Kratos had said that, had said that about them, Lloyd had told her of it some time during their travels.
Seeing the raw hate in Kratos' eyes there was no doubt in her mind that if it was directed at her she would have died, but luckily for her it was not.
"Lloyd!" Kratos barked, his voice a trumpet's cry, an order, and it went unheeded for a long moment. The hands withdrew, slithered under the inky blackness of the water, a song seemed to rise out of the water. Raine shivered, the unholy clammering would appease only the most deranged with it's discord. Not phased by the noise Genis and Lloyd turned to their companions, their eyes still empty, their expressions more suited wooden carvings then faces of living intelligent beings.
"Why are you getting in my way Kratos?" Lloyd whispered; his voice a dull monotone.
"Don't you want to see us happy Sis?" Genis spoke in the same tone, fire licked across his fingers.
Blood dripped down their faces, slid down like a red rain and though speaking should have been an agony for them both they appeared to be unaffected by the pain.
"What are you saying Lloyd?" Kratos whispered. "You make no sense."
"You understand." Came that breathless monotone. "You don't want to so you don't hear it. Isn't that how it always is with you Kratos? You're such a coward that you don't see, but you never see, so no shame to you, after all the blind can't see?"
"Lloyd, stop saying stuff like that!" Colette protested, tears making her voice quake.
"Why not, after all the strong rule and the weak suffer. It's the truth. Let us show you the truth Colette, the truth beyond your pathetic weak Martel. Like Goddess like Chosen eh?"
"You've only gotten in my way." Genis giggled. "No more now, now I'll go home where I belong."
Fire light stained Lloyd in even more blood, or made it look as if he were stained with more blood. That light illuminate his swords as he drew them, made them seeped in crimson. Lloyd grinned. Or maybe the monster in the water made Lloyd grin as well as speak.
"You're gunna pay, all the times you held me back, you're gunna pay for now!"
"No holding back this time." Lloyd admonished Kratos. "you always hold back but don't bother with it this time, unless you wanna be fish food."
Fish food? That was something Lloyd would not say, not part of his normal active vocabulary. Raine frowned, than looked to the still water, had the hands been a product of her imagination, a nightmare given off by a spell or a piece of her imagination? Or was it truth?
"Kratos, don't fight him, cast a lightning spell into the water." Raine whispered, then drew her staff and grimly stepped in front to the mercenary.
"Lloyd, I know you're in there, and that you wont hurt us if you can help it."
"Lloyd who?" The creature controlling Lloyd managed to inject some humor into his voice, like it was in on a joke. "Fry her runt!"
"Fireball!" Red arched through the air and Raine summoned a shield of mana with a thought to deflect the hit.
Colette made a tossing motion with a hand and a red hammer materialized in the air above her brother.
"I'm sorry Genis!"
The hammer hit with a comical squeaky noise and her brother staggered back.
Oblivious to Genis' peril the creature controlling Lloyd made the younger swordsman charged her. Raine caught the first double swing of the blades with her staff.
"Pathetic runt!" Lloyd snarled, "I've inhabit stronger bodies that this, what a weakling! Can't even kill a girl in one pass."
"What are you?" raine snapped, taking a step back and ramming the staff into her pupil's gut.
"I am. That's all you need to know!" The blades came again, this time as a twin thrust. Raine hopped back, summoned an org of light mana and knocked Lloyd from his feet by "throwing" the weak photon spell at Lloyd's legs.
"Crap, pathetic body!" Lloyd howled, crumpling in a heap at her feet.
"What are you?" Raine hissed, leveling her staff at his head so that the metal head was less then an inch from Lloyd's skull.
"What you are what you deny."
Raine mentally begged Lloyd's forgiveness and delivered a hard swing at Lloyd's head. The swordsman staggered, nursed his head and crawled to his feet. He looked at her and smiled. And she knew that this thing would not stop until Lloyd was dead, until she had beaten her pupil to death with her staff.
X
Rage, he'd never been so furious, so angry. It boiled in his blood, engulfed reason in a scarlet haze. Lifting a hand Kratos roared out the last lines of a spell and a sword of lighting roared down and shattered the black stillness with veins of yellow white light. The water level dropped and there came a chorus of animal and monster screams and the whole lake was engulfed in scalding electric fire.
Three sets of hands gripped the edge of the platform, three fish hand hybrids came out of the muck and crawled towards him, and with the hands came screams, unholy jibberings that pulled at his tried sanity and made him sink to his knees and scream in pain. His voice became one with the voices of child and adult alike, and it seemed the whole world screamed with him.
X
Discord is to what?
Harmony is to discord as light is to dark
One may not take the other away because without one comprehension of the other is lost.
So went the write of Martel.
So the will of her Goddess called forth that with light you battled dark and with harmony you battled discord.
Wings a scarlet blur touched with veins of pink Colette lifted her face to the heavens that the stone enshrouded dark kept from her eyes. And so she sang, she sang of light and joy and hope, and the discord fell before that army far mightier then any mortal mans.
X
They shrank back from the song as they shrank back from the light that flashed off of blade. Insane, furious, Kratos fell upon them like unholy judgment form some demonic gods, and he brought them death. They bled and writhed and begged and he cut into them, animal, less and more then animal in his brutal rage. His sword sheared through scale and bone and cut into vitals. He did not stop striking them until they were little more then mince meat. And that did not stop him, the lack of foe, a voice called him back.
"Kratos…"
The mercenary turned, looked to the younger swordsman in shame, red dripped from his sword, from his frame.
He was covered in blood.
Tears burned in Lloyd's eyes, horror danced in their depths, fear twisted the normally jovial expression.
"Kratos…"
The man let the blade fall from his fingers, let it clatter to the stone.
As if in a daze Kratos walked to Lloyd, knelt by the young man who was crying.
"I'm sorry, oh God I never meant to say that stuff… It wasn't me, please it wasn't me!"
"It's alright, I understand." Kratos reached out and with a bloody hand stroked Lloyd's face. "It wasn't you, I know that."
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" Lloyd curled into that grip, oblivious of the blood, he cried bitter tears into those strong arms.
"Shh..." Kratos fondly held Lloyd as he would have his own son. "It's over now, it's over, nothing like that will ever happen again. I'll keep you safe…" Kratos whispered into the adolescent's hair. "Nothing will hurt you like that ever again, I won't allow it."
From the other side of the miniature temple a similar scene played out. Genis cried into his sister's embrace. Cursed and kissed the wounds, his grief for hurting her had pushed him past all reason and so Raine could do nothing but hold him through the flood of pain.
It was in that moment the light came down from heaven, looked upon the suffering of mortals about it and became the Angelic guardian Remial. Only Colette saw him, heard his voice and his demands, and then he was gone with a rain of feathers. Still wreathed in light, gleaming with the halo of angelic mana, of the holy touch of her Goddess Colette drifted back to the earth and looked upon her friends. Surrounded by mortal grief the light seemed a lonely thing, a sad thing that did not understand this pain, and since the light did not understand it was Colette's duty as a vessel of that light to not understand it either. But she did, and she wanted to cry, she really did, but only one tear could squeak by around the wall behind her eyes.