Tales of a Journey

By: Rogue White Dragon (aka Dragoness)

Disclaimer: I don't own TOS

Chapter 17 - Arthur

It was just over twenty-four hours later while our group was in the middle of having lunch, when Kratos and Yuan stepped into the room, casually. You'd think that everything was perfectly fine in the world for all the care they seemed to show. I stood up immediately, about to tell them what had happened with Colette and Mattrim, when I saw a young man follow behind the pair. My jaw dropped, and I nearly had a heart attack. The young man at the door seemed to draw a similar reaction from each of my companions. We had only seen him once, for a very short time, and he was the last person we expected to see here.

"Dad…?"

I started, the words just wouldn't come out. How had they…?

"Yes, Lloyd?"

I could see Kratos visibly restraining a grin. Was it me, or did hell just freeze over?

"Isn't that…"

I was pointing to the young man, still shocked beyond relief. Picking my jaw back up from the floor, I waiting patiently for my father to explain.

"Kratos, what's going on here?"

Raine spoke before Kratos could respond, and he gave an indifferent shrug.

"Nothing's going on, we simply brought back Yuan's spy."

Spy? This guy was a spy? How the heck did that work? Well, maybe we could make this work.

"Hey, aren't you Arkus's son?"

Lan looked a little puzzled. We all stared intently at him, and the young man gave a resigned sigh

"My name's Arthur, and yes, Arkus is my father."

He didn't sound too pleased about it.

"Then why would you be a spy for an organization trying to stop your own father?"

Lan questioned with a frown. I looked over at him, thinking that it probably wasn't a great thing to ask the guy. Siena cuffed my son on the back of his head, and he gave her an indignant look

"Think before you speak, idiot. Not everyone gets a long with their dad."

The room was silent for a moment. How true that was. Siena didn't get along with her father, and merely days ago, Lan wouldn't even talk to me. I sighed, and said

"Dad, Colette and Mattrim are-"

"I know, Lloyd."

Kratos cut me off in the middle of my sentence, and I frowned in reply.

"That's why we're here. Arthur is going to help you get them back. At the same time, we're going to get rid of Arkus."

Get rid of Arkus, like kill him? That was defiantly a way to go about doing it. Had the guy not taken my family, I might have asked if there was another way to go about doing it. If a single hair on either Colette or Mattrim, I'd kill the guy myself.

"You're ok with this?"

Lan was staring at Arthur as if the young man had grown a second head. Arthur's face darkened slightly, and he replied

"He killed my mother. I don't exactly care."

Yikes, problems at home.

"Can we get going? I don't want Colette or Mattrim to stay there longer than necessary."

I had no idea where Arkus's men had taken them, but there was chance that Arthur would know.

"We just need to split into two groups. One to find Colette and Mattrim, the other to find Arkus."

That made sense. If Yuan and Kratos came along, our group would be just a little too big.

"In that case, Kratos, Lloyd, Lan, Sheena, Zelos and I will be the group that goes searching for Lloyd's family."

Siena smirked slightly at the others, then saying sweetly

"If that's ok with the rest of you."

She didn't sound like she was asking. I gave a shrug, and no one argued. So, we split up.

(Siena's POV)

"Arthur said that they were brought to an invisible base near Asgard. I have the location, so it should be fairly easy to find."

Kratos had a map in his hands, and was, for the most part, talking to Lloyd. I glanced around at our small group. It was past dinner time, and we were currently at an Inn inside of Asgard. I stretched, feeling a little bored, and stood up. We weren't going to go to the Invisible fortress until tomorrow. Kratos and Lloyd were trying to plan exactly what we would be doing. I highly doubted they'd be able to come up with anything good, but oh well, they're only human.

"Hey, Siena, want to go outside?"

Lan asked, grinning at me. Why was he so happy all of a sudden? Wierdo.

"Meh, sure."

I shrug, and stand up. Not like I had anything else to do.

"So, what's your problem this time?"

I asked once we left the Inn. He blinked at me in confusion, and gave me a weird look

"Nothing. It's just kind of…quiet in there."

Lan replied with a sigh. Quiet? Would he rather everyone be yelling? I cuffed him across the back of his head, and he glared at me

"Why do you keep doing that?"

"Because it's either that, or slap you."

He gave me a blank look, and said

"That's not exactly comforting."

"It wasn't meant to be."

I snapped back. We both glared at each other, before I let out a bark of laughter.

"What?"

Lan was giving me that weird look again, so I draped one arm across his shoulders, and said with a grin

"It's just that, isn't Kratos your grandfather? He doesn't look old enough to be."

I started laughing again, and Lan smiled. Hmm, he wasn't that bad looking when he stopped scowling. I hit my forehead with the palm of my hand, before banging my head against a stone pillar-like-thing.

"Siena?"

Lan gave me a puzzled look.

"What?"

"Why are you doing that?"

I hit my head again, and replied

"Cause it's one of my favorite pass times. Why do you think?"
I hit my head again, and heard him sigh.

"Here I was beginning to think you were almost normal, then you go and do that."

He grabbed one of my shoulders, and pulled me away from the pillar. He pointed near some stairs, saying

"Lloyd said that there was a platform up there. Want to check it out?"

I shrugged, and replied

"Sure."

My head was throbbing, and I cursed Lan loudly. He looked back at me, and asked

"What's wrong?"

"This is your fault, you know."

I said pointing towards my head. That weird look came back, and I sighed. If he thought I was so weird, why did he bother talking to me?

"I don't recall forcing you to do it."

"Be quiet and let me blame you."

I shook my finger in his face, and he suddenly grinned at me

"If that's what makes you happy…"

He turned around, and strolled towards to stone stairs. He thinks I'm weird? I'm not the one nearly skipping up some ancient stair case. I ran after him to catch up.

"You were gonna leave me? All alone?"

I asked, sniffling slightly. He looked at me in surprise, before I cuffed him again on the side of his head. Ha! Take that. He scowled at me, and said

"Would you stop being so childish?"

Hmm, why did that sound familiar?

"Hey, that's my line, jerk."

I said, before running up the remainder steps. He sighed again, and muttered

"If anyone ever understands her, it'll be the day I-"

"Lan?"

I said sweetly, he looked up, curious and asked

"What?"

"Can I see one of your daggers?"

He blinked at me, and shrugged. He handed over the one on his belt, and asked

"Why?"

"Because I'm going spider killing."

I gave a small cackle, before running off towards some trees.

(Lan's POV)

Was it me, or was it the happier she got, the more she lost her sanity? Spider killing, what the heck? Made sense though, girls hated spiders, didn't they? I followed her, with the intent of keeping her out of trouble, when she suddenly screamed.

"Siena?"

I called, trying to find her.

"I'm up here!"

She yelled. I looked up in the tree, wondering how she could have gotten up there. What a weird elf.

"What's your problem?"

I asked, sighing. She was pointing the dagger at something in the tree I couldn't see, and said

"I found this gigantic mother of a spider. You've got to see it before I kill it."

"What did the spider ever do to you?"

I asked, reaching up and grabbing a branch. I pulled myself onto it, and looked at the soon-to-be-dead-spider. I had to admit, the thing was kind of big.

"If I kill it, does that make me a bad person?"

She sounded a little thoughtful as she spoke, and I gave her a weird look. She grinned at me, and then picked up the spider with one hand.

"I mean, it didn't do anything to me, so doesn't that make me a bad person for killing it?"

Why was she so serious all of a sudden? She put the spider up on a higher branch, and said, staring at me intently, while waving my dagger in front of my face

"Killing anything is wrong, Lan. Life is to be protected, not killed without a reason."

"And you point is..?"

I was giving her a weird look again. She just went from annoyed, to crazy, to serious, all within the pan of fifteen minutes.

"My point? I don't think we should kill Arkus."

She said it bluntly, and I frowned at her. Not kill Arkus? There kind of was a reason for doing that, wasn't there? Save people from an upcoming war? Save my dad's family? Revenge for the few people from Mizuho who died when his men attacked?

"So we just let him take over Symphonia, then?"

She glared at me, and said

"I just think that there could be a different way to go about doing it."

A different way? The guy was the king of Tetha'alla, what other way was there?

"Siena, can we just drop it?"

I really didn't feel like arguing with her about this. She was staring at me intently for a moment, before that crazy grin took over her face, and she lunged at me. We fell out of the tree, with a painful thud. I broke her fall, and she just grinned at me, saying

"That's for knocking me over while Raine was healing Lloyd."

Wha..? I did that so she wouldn't kill herself.

"You could have died at the rate you were going."

Giving that much mana away wasn't exactly a bright idea, but it saved my dad, so I wasn't going to argue.

"That's beside the point. You could have done it differently."

My jaw dropped, and I gawked at her. She stood up, and helped me to my feet. My back was sore, and I wouldn't be surprised if I sprained something.

"Lan? I've got a question for you."

I watched her quietly, waiting for her to speak again. She was staring at the sky while she spoke

"Are you my friend? Or do you hang out with me because I'm the only one here aroundyour age?"

I gave her a blank look. What kind of a question was that?

"You're my friend, Siena."

I told her, she smiled slightly, and said almost sadly

"The elves back home only tolerated me because of who my father was."

I don't think she realized she was talking out loud. She grinned at me again, and said

"Then I'm happy you're my friend. It's getting late, we should go back."

Talk about mood swings. I kind of wish she'd make up her mind. But then again, she wouldn't be Siena if she did, would she?

"Let's go then."

The walk back to the Inn was done mostly in silence. I opened the door for her when we finally reached it, and found myself looking in the direction where the entrance to Asgard was. I blinked slightly, and wondered if I was seeing right.

"Siena, why's your dad here?"

She turned her head slightly, following my gaze.

"Get inside, Lan."

She said while quickly ducking into the Inn. I followed her, wondering what was going on.

"Siena?"

I asked, still a little confused.

"Why are they still wearing those colors?"

She sounded a little angry, and glared through a window at them. My eyes widened when I realized the elves with her father were wearing the same uniforms that Arkus's men wore. What the heck?

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Oo…sorry, most of this chapter was just a lot of babbling. There'll be more action in the next chapter, though. Well, hope you liked it, and please review .

Thanks to reviews:

Hemila-Rose: thanks., and thanks for reviewing!

Luigi III: hands over pain killers that help? . thanks for reviewing, though, I've got to admit, I'm a little puzzled by it…

Sieg15: Sheena will tell her side of the story pretty soon, just be a little patient for me to get there. . thanks for reviewing!