Lloyd, Kratos, Raine, Genis, Zelos and Cesara were making their way to the King's castle, hoping he still wasn't holding a grudge on the group. The group got stalled by some of the guards, but all Zelos had to do was a little talking to convince the guards to let them into the castle.
For some reason, the castle didn't have the majestic sort of feel it had the first time the group entered it, but they had more important things to worry about than that.
Zelos led his friends through the king's castle and towards the throne room. He knew the king wouldn't be too pleased to see him, but Zelos couldn't care less what the king thought about him.
As they walked through, Zelos tried to ease some of the tension by just turning his head to one of the guards, giving them a quick wave and saying something like, "Hey, how ya doing?" or something casual like that.
"Leave this to me," Zelos said as he walked to the doors leading to the throne.
"That's a familiar line," Lloyd said coldly as he remembered what happened the last time Zelos said that as he went on ahead.
"Lloyd, you need to chill out," Zelos said in a criticizing, yet friendly way. "This isn't the way to the Hall of the Great Seed now, is it? Didn't think so."
Zelos turned his back to the group and started banging very loudly and rudely on the King's door.
The doors slowly opened, and Princess Hilda was standing there. Zelos immediately started smiling like an idiot.
"Why, hello there, my sweet little princess," Zelos said.
"Who is it?" everyone heard the King demand once Hilda opened the door.
"It's the group Zelos was with," Hilda nervously answered as she looked at her father.
"What!" the king yelled. The group heard him get up from his throne, and in a matter of seconds, he was standing right in front of them at the large wooden doors. "What do you want?"
"Hey, no need to be so edgy," Zelos said as if he were having a normal conversation with anybody.
"Just tell me why you came here," the king said coldly. He still had the same sour look with the long brown hair and beard.
"Fine, fine," Zelos said. "We've got a few friends who Lloyd likes to call 'Tiberians', and they just walked into Meltokio and tried to kill me and my buds for whatever reason."
"I thought you said they were your friends?" the king said, not seeing the huge deal about it.
"Anyway, these guys say those Tiberians came from a distant world called Tiberia. Trouble is, we don't know squat about that world. So, we were wondering if maybe you'd be so kind as to lend us some of the records in this castle and see what we can find in them," Zelos said, trying to talk as smoothly as possible. (and doing a fairly good job at it)
"No," the king said quickly and bluntly.
"Okay, let me rephrase that," Zelos said, crossing his arms. "Show us the records so we have some sort of lead on what those Tiberians want, or they'll come to Meltokio and burn the place down."
"That's what our military is for," the king said.
"Come on, don't be a bum," Zelos said. He sounded as if he were pleading but not sounding desperate at all.
"Good-bye," the king said as he closed the door on the group.
Lloyd, Genis and Raine all had looks of shock and anger on their face. Even though he didn't express it, you could tell that Kratos was fairly ticked off about what just happened as well.
Zelos was the only one who didn't seem to upset about it. He turned back towards his friends and gave them a confident look. "Don't worry, guys. We'll get information about Ti-whatchamacallit some other way."
The six of them were now walking away until they heard the doors open when they were just about out of ear shot. They turned around, and Princess Hilda was running towards them, looking fairly nervous.
"Please don't mind my father," she said sadly. "I'll get you those records."
"Why, thank you, my little princess," Zelos said in a low, but happy tone.
"I'll try to sneak them out later tonight," she said. "Where will I find you?"
"You can just drop them off at my mansion, and you can even hang around and have some fun there if you want," Zelos said.
Raine walked over to him and smacked him hard across the face. "We would be very appreciative if you bring them there," she said, answering for Zelos.
"Very well," Hilda said. "I will see you later tonight then."
Hilda walked back into the throne room while the rest of them walked out of the castle, hoping that the records that Hilda was going to get for them would be put to some use.
Hours passed. It was very dark out now as Meltokio was dying down for the night. But the lights remained on in Zelos's mansion as everyone waited for Hilda to come with the records. After waiting for a long time, she finally showed up at the door with a thick book in her hand.
"Here it is," she said as she passed the book to Lloyd.
"Thanks," Lloyd said. "Are you going to help us look for anything in here?"
"I'm sorry, but I have to get back to the castle before someone notices I'm gone," Hilda sorrowfully stated. "Good-bye."
"Thanks," Lloyd said, looking down at the book in his hand. "Bye."
Hilda walked away from the mansion and quickly made her way back to the castle to avoid being seen by any of the guards that were patrolling the streets of Meltokio at night.
Lloyd was about to open the book, but Kratos walked over to him and gave him a piercing look. "Lloyd, let me see the book."
"What?" Lloyd asked. "Why?"
"Let me see the book," Kratos repeated, sounding even more stern.
"All right, all right," Lloyd said in a tone that basically told Kratos to chill out.
The auburn haired Seraphim took the book and he started flipping through it. He proceeded to walking towards a chair. He sat down in it and started flipping through the book very quickly, almost like he was looking for something.
After studying the book for several minutes, Kratos groaned softly to himself and got up. He put the book down on the chair he was sitting in and walked outside without saying a word to anyone.
"What's his deal?" Genis asked after Kratos was out of earshot.
"Maybe he read something that was a bit overbearing for him," Raine calmly reasoned.
"No…it was something else," Lloyd said suspiciously as he stared out after Kratos.
"Did you say something, Lloyd?" Raine asked after Lloyd finished mumbling.
"It's nothing," Lloyd quickly said. He made haste out the door and went after Kratos. When he was outside, he saw that Kratos was about thirty feet from the mansion. Even though Lloyd couldn't see anything besides the back side of him, he was sure Kratos was deep in thought and maybe even worried.
"Kratos!" Lloyd yelled. "What was in that book?"
Kratos didn't say anything. He just continued to stare at nothing and didn't even act like he heard his son.
"Kratos!"
"No need to shout, Lloyd. I can hear you fine."
Lloyd walked over to Kratos and tried his best to get Kratos to respond to him. "Kratos, what was it? Was there something in that book? Do you know something?"
Kratos let a small patch of gritted teeth show as he turned away from Lloyd.
"You do know something!" Lloyd realized. "Kratos, you do know something about Tiberia, don't you?"
Kratos slowly turned towards Lloyd.
"Lloyd, believe it or not, I am very confused."
"Confused? Why?"
"I was reading information about Tiberia, but it seems strangely similar to a world I heard about at the end of the Kharlan War."
"Really?" Lloyd asked. "What do you mean?" The Eternal Swordsman was now brimming with excitement as the night air around them went disturbingly quiet.
"After the Kharlan War ended, an enemy of Mithos named lord Vice swore he would get revenge. He ran away to a distant world, and its history sounds strangely similar to that of Tiberia's," Kratos tried explaining.
"Revenge?" Lloyd asked. "What for?"
"He apparently was humiliated by Mithos after losing a battle to him and he swore that he would get revenge. I'm assuming he then told all the people who followed him back to his other world lies about Mithos and the world he created in an effort to make them hate Mithos and his allies even more."
"Wait, are you saying that just because this Vice guy lost to Mithos during the war, he ran away to another world and told lies to everybody to make them hate Mithos?" Lloyd asked, trying to make sure he had everything clear. (Something he was not normally good at)
"So it would seem," Kratos said. "But the world he escaped to was not called Tiberia."
"It wasn't?" Lloyd asked. "Then maybe it's another Vice that book was talking about?"
Kratos gave Lloyd a disappointed look. "How many Vices do you know? Besides, the history of the two worlds are way too similar to just be a coincidence. There's no doubt in my mind the world Vice fled to and Tiberia are the same."
"Then, what happened to Vice?"
"According to the records, he died a mysterious death a long time ago," Kratos answered. "The records have no indication as to who its current ruler is, but we can assume that whoever it is followed in Vices lies and has turned us into their enemy."
"So Stromm was right to have wanted to destroy Tiberia!" Lloyd yelled as he slammed his foot down on the ground. "Dammit!"
"Lloyd, can you really say that?" Kratos gently asked. "Not everyone on Tiberia can be spiteful of us. Would you really want them to die because of their leader's actions?"
"I…guess not," Lloyd said. "But what are we supposed to do to stop them from destroying us!"
"Obviously, we'll have to go to Tiberia ourselves," Kratos said. "It seems to be our only lead in learning anything useful."
"Really?" Lloyd said excitedly. "You mean we're going to get to actually go to that world!"
Kratos sighed. "Have I not mentioned enough how you are too excited and emotional before the mission actually starts?"
Lloyd groaned at Kratos's criticism, but soon shrugged it off.
"I say that's a splendid idea!" Raine exclaimed.
Lloyd and Kratos turned around and saw Raine and Genis standing in the doorway looking very excited. Cesara, although very nervous looking, also thought that going to Tiberia would put the group on the right track.
"Oh, boy!" Genis yelled excitedly as he jumped up and down. "We're going to Tiberia!"
Kratos looked at Raine, then cast his attention quickly back at Genis. "No, you won't," he quickly said in an assertive way.
Genis immediately looked like all the life was taken out of him. He gave Kratos an angry look. "Why not!" he demanded.
"You and Raine are the only ones who know about Tiberia and would be able to do anything. If anything were to happen to me or Lloyd in Tiberia, then at least we'd have you to tell everyone else and stop whatever it is they're planning.
Genis began sulking. He didn't want to admit it, but he knew Kratos was right.
"Hey, what about me?" Zelos asked excitedly as he walked out of his mansion. "Going to another world? Sounds like a pretty good time to me, especially if the honnies there are as beautiful as they are here."
"No," Kratos still insisted. "I think Lloyd and I would make for an acceptable infiltration team right now."
"Yeah. By the way, what's our objective?" Lloyd asked.
"Obviously, we must eliminate the problem," Kratos said. "That would be Kayne. He's probably the main source of information, and hopefully we won't be too late when we find him. We must eliminate him before he can tell anybody of our world."
"Don't forget the crystal," Lloyd said.
Kratos looked very taken back by this. "Yes. We must eliminate Kayne and take the crystal back."
"All right!" Lloyd said as he made a fist in front of himself. "It's off to Tiberia!"
"Lloyd, do you even know how to get to Tiberia?" Genis asked.
Lloyd suddenly looked very upset and the enthusiasm just drained from him. "No, we don't."
"I think I know the way," Cesara said, smiling at Lloyd and Kratos.
"Really?" Lloyd asked. Just like that, all the emotion he had lost just a moment before had returned to him as if nothing had ever happened.
"Yes," Cesara said, smiling. "I know how to get you and Kratos to Tiberia."
"All right!" Lloyd said, once again putting his hand in front of him and balling it into a tight fist. His eyes were now filled with determination and confidence. "Now it's off to Tiberia!"