Before I start, I want to thank my reviewers thus far-Leppers, Artus Gehn, Dragonwings, Starry and Christoph. Reviews to me are like days off from school in the sense that you can never have too many. Please keep the reviews coming, because they mean a lot!
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Lloyd and Colette rushed inside the academy excitedly, anxious to hear the news Kratos had found on the current situation. But when they rushed in, they were a little disappointed with the first words they heard.
"I have only managed to find out about Stromm," Kratos reported as Lloyd and Colette walked in. "But it seems as if he's had quite a bit of history."
"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.
"It seems he's had a bit of a rough journey to get to where he is now. According to my research, he should still be a low-ranked soldier still," Kratos answered.
"Really?" Colette asked.
"Yes. But it seems when he and some of his fellow soldiers were on a mission, his leader got killed and all the soldiers went into a panic. It seems Stromm decided to take a leadership role, but led the mission using completely different tactics. Somehow, he still won the battle for himself and for his troops. They unanimously decided after that to make Stromm a higher-ranked member of the army, and he's proven himself time and time again."
Lloyd crossed his arms. "So you're saying that just because Stromm led everyone to victory in that one fight after their soldier was killed led everyone to making him a General?"
"Not necessarily," Kratos said. "As far as I know, he was lower than a General after he got promoted, but quickly worked his way up."
"Wow, he must be really great!" Colette said with a smile.
"He's going to prove to be a difficult opponent if we have to stop him from destroying Tiberia, though," Kratos said. "If he's led his troops to victory that many times, he's going to have a lot of confidence and he'll be very stubborn should we have to confront him."
"Yeah, but that's not gonna happen, because we're going to stop this war from going on, right Colette?" Lloyd said brimming with confidence as he balled his hand into a fist in front of him.
"Right!" Colette said, trying to have the same confidence her friend did.
"So, when do we go looking for Stromm?" Lloyd asked.
"According to my research, Stromm resides in a secret base hidden somewhere in the world," Kratos said, the tone of his voice not once changing at all as if nothing was wrong.
"Where is it?" Lloyd asked.
Kratos sighed. "I regret to inform you I do not know. The book didn't state where it was."
"Dammit!" Lloyd whispered to himself. "So you're saying we're gonna have to look around the entire world for this one hidden base that could be anywhere?"
"So it would seem," Kratos said.
Lloyd grumbled angrily, definitely not in the mood to look around an entire world just for one certain spot that isn't supposed to be visible. He hoped that by the time they finally found it (if they did) that it wouldn't be too late.
"At any rate, we'd better rest," Kratos said. "We should get a good night's sleep if we're going to spend all day tomorrow looking for a hidden base."
"Yeah," Lloyd and Colette agreed.
The group walked into Sybak's inn and plopped down the money to spend the night. All of them headed into their beds and did their best to fall asleep.
Kratos didn't really need sleep, but he figured he could use the rest anyway. Colette fell asleep like a small puppy, but Lloyd lay awake for the longest time. He couldn't help but think he was about to embark on another journey. He remembered how the journey of regeneration started. It seemed so simple, and it exploded into something complicated. He couldn't help but think the same thing was going to happen again by finding Stromm's hideout.
That was why he wanted to fight Stromm's secret base as quickly as possible: so they could stop Stromm from destroying Tiberia before it was too late and people had lost their lives.
Morning finally came and as the sun rose, so did all the workers and busy students in the city. Colette awoke with a loud, rejuvenated yawn and looked particularly pleasant. Lloyd didn't get much sleep for most of the night, except for just an hour or so before dawn. Therefore, he slept in later than Colette and Kratos. (if Kratos actually had to sleep at all)
When Lloyd finally woke up after everyone else, he bolted out of his bed and ran down to the front door of the inn. There stood a relieved Colette and a very annoyed Kratos.
"Lloyd, you're awake!" Colette said, pushing her balled fists up and down in mid air.
"Yes," Kratos said, obviously ticked off that it took Lloyd a long time to wake up. "We must be on our way."
Just as the three of them turned away and were about to exit Sybak, they were stopped from behind. A kiddish voice shattered the stiff air with, "Hey guys!"
The trio froze and turned around. As they turned, they saw two people standing behind them. Both had white hair and looked pretty thin. One was a younger boy, but the other was an older woman. You'd think that it was the boy and his mom, but apparently it wasn't.
"…Genis?" Lloyd asked breathlessly. As soon as he said that, a large and delighted smile found its way onto his face.
It was indeed a friend of Lloyd and Colette's. Lloyd bolted over to his friend and gave him a solid high five that made a loud smacking sound. "How've ya been, Genis?" he said as if all his problems were suddenly gone.
"Not too bad," Genis said casually. "How have you and Colette been doing collecting exspheres?"
"Great!" Colette said excitedly as she ran over to both of them, obviously happy to see them as well.
Genis's clothes still remained the mix of blue and white, but his voice had grown a tad deeper. The reunion had become so touching between the three kids that Lloyd and Colette had forgotten there was another person there.
"Professor!" Lloyd said when he looked up and saw Raine smiling at the group of friends. She was standing there with her arms crossed, looking exactly the same as Lloyd remembered her.
"Good to see you again, Lloyd and Colette," Raine said pleasantly.
The celebration was going along great until Genis looked up and acted like he was surprised about something. "Whoa, is that Kratos over there!" he asked excitedly, pointing to Kratos as he still stood at the end of Sybak, waiting to leave.
"Yeah, that's him," Lloyd said normally. "He says he got here through some trans-watchamacallit."
Raine didn't seem too surprised to see Lloyd still wasn't too bright, but she took it as something humorous this time instead of something aggravating.
When Kratos truly realized that Raine was there and willing to talk to them, he suddenly walked over to her.
"Raine, perhaps you can help us with something," Kratos said. "We were doing research yesterday on someone and found nothing. Would you be of some assistance?"
"I could try," Raine said, sounding a little concerned by how serious Kratos was talking. "What is it?"
"Let me explain inside," Kratos said, walking back inside the research academy.
The two adults walked inside the academy, leaving Genis, Lloyd and Colette outside with nothing to do. Lloyd was the first one to speak.
"So, what exactly were you guys doing in Sybak?" Lloyd inquired.
"We were still on our way trying to make it easier for half-elves like us to live without being discriminated against," Genis said. "Raine and I just went back to Asgard, but you'd be surprised how rude those people can be when we tried to talk to them. So we decided to come here where we could talk to the more sensible people about what we're trying to do."
"Well, I hope you can find a way to do it," Lloyd tried to encourage but not really knowing what else to say.
"What are you two doing here?" Genis shot back.
Lloyd and Colette looked at each other for a while, a bit nervous about whether or not they should actually explain it. Before Colette could say anything, Lloyd spoke up.
"You see, Colette and I got sidetracked by some pirates when we were out at sea looking for exspheres, and because of it we got stranded on an island. A boat came by the very next day to save us, but it turned out to be a war ship. There was this guy on it named Kayne who said he was fighting a war against our world."
"Our world?" Genis said. "Does that mean he was from another world?"
"Yeah," Lloyd said. "He told me comes from a place called Tiberia, and that our world is trying to destroy it."
"Destroy it!" Genis said. "Why would we want to destroy their world? I've never even heard of a place called Tiberia until just now!"
"I know," Lloyd said. "It doesn't make much more sense to me, either. I don't even know why the new worlds are at war."
All three kids looked pretty confused by what was going on. None of them knew any details about the war except that it was happening and that Tiberia could be destroyed if they didn't do something about it.
"Well then…why's Kratos with you?" Genis asked.
"He's probably just trying to help us and thinks we're not capable of handling this on our own," Lloyd said.
"Which is really nice of him!" Colette said, trying her best to make a more positive note on what was going on.
"Yeah, but why'd he want Raine to go in with him?" Lloyd asked.
"Raine's pretty smart," Genis answered. "He probably just wanted to see if she could help him with research and if she knew anything."
Just for hearing that, something went off in Lloyd's mind. "Knew anything"…did they even know anything now? It was then that it struck Lloyd that they were completely in the dark.
None of them knew anything about what was going on. Lloyd had previously realized that all they knew was that there was a war going on, but how little did that mean? They had no idea why Stromm wanted to destroy Tiberia, or even how he was planning on it. And who was truly going to be their antagonist here? Did Stromm have a good reason for wanting to destroy Tiberia? He must have-after all, Kratos said that Stromm doesn't seem like someone who would destroy an entire world and not have a reason to do it.
Still, how was Stromm going to even destroy Tiberia, if he was going to destroy it at all? He'd obviously need some giant weapon to destroy an entire world. Did he even have that kind of weapon, or when Kayne said Stromm was going to destroy Tiberia, did he just mean Stromm was going to take his troops in and completely annihilate it?
And how was the one who the group should really be worried about? There could be no justifying Stromm wanting to destroy Tiberia and ending all those people's lives unless the Tiberians truly proved to be a great threat. And didn't Kayne seem a little suspicious when they first met him? There was just something about him…
Who was their real enemy? How could Stromm possibly destroy Tiberia without a great weapon? Where was Stromm's secret base? And was it really best for Lloyd, Colette and Kratos to get themselves involved in all of this? Maybe they should let Stromm just do as he pleases. After all, he should have a good reason for trying to destroy an entire world. But how was that fair to all the civilians? Maybe the trio should step in and defend Tiberia, because an entire world's destruction could not possibly lead to a good ending. But then, what would happen if Tiberia won? What would happen to their world? To Aselia?
After all these unanswered questions started racing through Lloyd's mind, he got very confused and annoyed about being oblivious to what was going on. Then, an obvious solution to the problem came to him, and it sounded surprisingly simple for what it could accomplish.
"Hey Colette," Lloyd said, breaking the awkward silence. "Don't you think we should be trying to find a way to stop the war altogether so that neither side has any people who die?"
"Yeah!" Colette said. "But…how are we going to stop a war that's between two whole worlds?"
"I…don't know," Lloyd said, looking down at the ground.
The mood in Sybak seemed very cheerful, but it was hard for Lloyd to find anything to smile or be cheerful about. This problem seemed to just explode out of nowhere. The worst part was that it wasn't even his problem, but he couldn't help but feel the need to think about it. After all, this was once again a problem that had the fate of an entire world at stake.
After a very long while, Kratos and Raine popped out of the academy.
"Lloyd, Colette, come in here," Kratos ordered sternly.
"What!" Genis said. "I want to come in, too!"
Kratos grunted. "Very well, but you realize you're not going to be getting involved in this like we are?"
"I know, just please let me hear what you've found out!" Genis pleaded, sounding more desperate than anyone had heard him sound in a while.
"He said it was all right," Raine said in a comforting tone. "All right, all of you come in here. Kratos and I have some information that might point us in the right direction in all of this."