Sheena was suddenly blasted with an unwelcome wave of consciousness. She felt cold and damp, and not unlike she'd been strapped to the underside of a boot owned by someone who enjoyed running twenty four-seven. She slowly opened her eyes, letting the dark blur turn into a small room as her eyes were forcefully woken from a nice relaxing nap. She noticed bars on one side of the room… This was a cell.
Hang on… Is that Collette… Sitting on a wall?
She began to take a step forward in an attempt to check on Collette, but stopped when she realised her own face was pressed against the cool, slightly moist floor. She pushed herself up from the ground, but soon found herself slumped back onto the floor when her legs were too weak to support her.
Looking around the cell she could see Collette sitting with her back to the wall, her knees up against her chest, and Presea curled up in a corner. Nothing that could be used to break or bend the bars, unless you counted Collette's seemingly indestructible body... Outside there was nothing but a barren rocky wall and the bars were far too close together for her to stick her head through and look around. She would usually carry a mirror, or at least something pointed that was shiny enough to use for looking round a corner, but it seemed the only things that hadn't been taken were her dress and her hairpin. Quite considerate now that she thought about it...
She sat there for a while listening for any footsteps, voices or the distinguished sound of food that one can somehow hear after just waking up to an empty stomach, when suddenly Collette stirred and seemed to mumble something about curry sauce and ice-cream.
Sheena dragged herself over to the wall alongside Collette, whispered her name quietly, and then proceeded to roughly poke her in the shoulder.
"Mmmnnehcabbag- Whu... Uuh..." She opened her eyes groggily and raised her head from her knees.
"Are you awake?" asked Sheena.
"Nnn- I don't think so..." she replied, sliding onto the floor and resting her head on her hands like a pillow. She suddenly shot up. "Where's my bed? Sheena? What- ... Are we in prison?" blurted out Collette, now more hyperactive than Zelos in a room full of lingerie.
"Calm down... I know just as much as you do. Last thing I can remember is being hit on the head, and now we're here."
"Where's everyone else?"
"No idea... I assume they wanted to keep us split up in case we tried anything."
Collette sighed. "... Lloyd..." She suddenly realised her mistake, covering her mouth with one hand. "I- I mean- I was just... concerned about him. I... I saw him fighting that man so I was worried." She exclaimed cheerily, waving her hand out in front of herself. Sheena wasn't convinced...
"Aren't you worried about Zelos too?"
"Oh! Of course! I-… I love Zelos… I just- I don't think I ever really got over Lloyd… Sorry, I know you two are together. You're just so lucky to have him…" she sighed.
"I- Err… Yeah…" …Together...
"AAAAGH!"
Collette and Sheena jumped up from the floor instinctively. "What the hell was that?" cried Sheena.
"Watch where you're going!"
"That… Sounded like Zelos!" squeaked Collette.
"Collette? Oh hunny are you o.k?" they heard Zelos shout.
"Yes, yes I'm fine… Where are you? You sound far away."
"I'm in a cel- Lloyd get off me!"
"Err… What's going on in there?" called Sheena.
"I dunno, Lloyd just jumped on me! You obviously haven't been satisfying him have you Sheena?"
"I didn't jump on you, idiot! Collette, Sheena, don't touch the bars o.k? There's some kind of barrier there… THAT'S why I was thrown on top off you!" Lloyd shouted, and from the sounds of things elbowed Zelos.
"Oh suuuuuure Lloyd, the cell just threw you at me… I noticed Sheena didn't deny it either," Zelos said, adding by far the most evil cackle any of them had ever heard.
"Zelos do you really think I'm never going to see you again?" called Sheena.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well I just assumed you wouldn't want to die so early in your life, but… Apparently you don't mind being brutally slaughtered," she replied.
"… I'm sorry…" he called back with a whimper.
"Sheena is there anyone else in there with you?" called Lloyd. "We've got Genis in here."
"It's just us and Presea… No sign of Raine or Regal though."
"We're both in here," Raine shouted, sounding further away than Lloyd and Zelos.
"Nice of you to join the conversation babe," Zelos called.
"… I'll pretend I didn't hear you say that…"
"What? It's a compliment!"
"… Anyway… What's the plan then? As far as I can tell these barriers will repel anything we throw at them, including magic," Raine continued, ignoring Zelos.
"I have no idea… I doubt any of you have your weapons, and we certainly don't, so there's no way we can even try attacking it…" replied Lloyd.
"So we're just gonna sit here and wait?" Sheena cried.
"To be honest it looks like that's the only choice we have," called Raine. "Even if we did manage to get out we have no idea where we are. It's unlikely that we could escape."
"Regal, can't you do that crazy hand thingy you did last time we were stuck in cells?" asked Zelos.
"If I wanted a flaming ball of energy to bounce off these barriers into my face, then yes I could." Regal replied, without even a hint of sarcasm.
"Man… I hate waiting…"
Zzzzap
"Aaagh!"
Thud
"… Zelos I said not to touch it," Lloyd sighed.
"I was just testing it," he groaned in reply.
Suddenly a soft humming began somewhere above them. It rose in pitch before lowering again and eventually stopping completely. There was an ear-piercing screech of metal-on-metal and then a loud metallic creak as the cell doors slowly opened.
"… Sweet, I broke it! It obviously couldn't handle how awesome I am," Zelos boomed proudly.
"Or it just couldn't comprehend your stupidity," shot back Sheena.
"Whatever… The point is I saved the day, again," he called walking towards the open cell door.
"Are you completely stupid? Don't leave the cell!" Raine cried.
"Raine I wouldn't think you the kind of person to ask such an obvious question," Sheena laughed.
"Well it was more of a rhetorical question to be honest… That's not the point! Zelos do you really think the door just magically opened itself?" asked Raine.
"Well… certain females have told me I have the 'magic touch', if you know what I mean?"
"I hope for the sake of the world that you don't mean what I think you mean…"
"You know you want it."
"Zelos!" Collette cried, sounding like she'd just received the harshest insult of her life.
"Aaaw hunny you know I was just joking," he said softly, his voice suddenly sounding smooth and creamy.
"Aawww… One day I'm gonna figure out how you do that and I'm gonna use it on you!" she replied, trying to resist the urge to giggle and failing miserably.
"Wh-… Please tell me I'm not the only one who is slightly frightened by this," Raine called.
"Oh yeah… We didn't get a chance to mention before did we? Zelos and Collette are getting married. Don't worry it still scares the hell out of me," Sheena replied matter-of-factly.
"Sheena! You have NO idea how to announce an engagement do you?" Zelos cried.
"Well it's not like it's an important thing. After all it's only you…"
"Don't you realise what this means Sheena? We're finally safe! Of course it's important!" Raine cried, sounding absolutely overjoyed. "Of course it's a shame Collette had to be sacrificed…"
"You people give me a bad name… I'm not that bad," sighed Zelos.
"Yes… Of course… But getting back to the matter at hand, it's clear these cells weren't opened accidentally. We're being watched. If we go out there we have no idea what might happen. There may be a highly sophisticated security system just outside waiting to remove our heads if we take even one step outside. At the very least they're trying to herd us somewhere else like cattle."
"Moo! I'd rather be anywhere but here!" Zelos cried.
"It's far too dangerous, and even though I hate to admit it, even I don't want you to die…"
"Woah, woah… Hang on a minute… I think the question we all want to ask here is… Did Zelos just say 'Moo'?" said Genis sleepily.
"When did you wake up? … And yes I did say 'Moo'…"
"A while ago… Weirdo…"
"ANYWAY! … We get distracted far too easily," Raine sighed. "Like I said, we can't just go aimlessly wandering around this place. We don't know what kind of traps might be strewn about the place."
"Why don't I just make a Stalagmite outside? If it doesn't get blown up then it's obviously not motion sensitive," suggested Genis.
"… Well I suppose that is a good idea…" she replied.
"O.k people stand back… You don't wanna get hit with a bunch of rock if it does explode." They did as he suggested and he walked closer to the bars of the cell. He closed his eyes, mumbling some incantations too quietly for the rest of them to hear. The gentle magical winds played with his clothes, and pebbles darted around the floor of the cell. "Stalagmite!"
As the words rang out through the hallway, and the rest of the cells within it, a large pointed shaft of rock was thrust through the ground, shooting upwards until it was deeply embedded in the ceiling, making a loud crashing and causing several other large chunks of rock to fall from it.
When the dust had finally cleared Genis shrugged his shoulders guiltily, adding "Whoops… I guess I kinda overdid it! … Well at least now we know that nothing's gonna try and kill us if we walk out…"
They each carefully walked out of their cells, looking around for any sign of something that might pose a threat. When Raine was finally satisfied she walked slowly towards Genis and smacked him on the head as hard as she could.
"What are you trying to do, bring the entire room down on top of us?" screamed Raine.
"Oooow… It was an accident! Besides, it worked didn't it?" he replied, rubbing his head.
"I guess..."
"Woah! Hey, guys, all our weapons are here!" called Lloyd as he turned into a small alcove at the end of the corridor.
"Lloyd, don't- Hang on... You're going to take them no matter what I say aren't you?" Raine asked, despite already knowing the answer.
"Yep."
"Fine then! Just do what you like... Don't come crying to me when you get yourselves killed..."
"Raine, if we were dead we wouldn't be crying, or going anywhere near you now would we?" asked Zelos in the most demeaning tone he could muster.
"Doesn't anybody understand the concept of figures of speech?" she sighed again.
"I don't get it though... Why wouldn't we take them? They're our weapons!" Lloyd asked in the confused tone that seemed to accompany most of his speech when talking to Raine.
"Well for a start they could have been booby trapped. Clearly they want us to have them, otherwise they wouldn't have just left them here, or opened the cell doors for us. I don't like the idea of playing by their rules... Whoever they might be."
"Well... Surely if something does happen it would be better if we could defend ourselves?"
"Geez Raine, thought you'd be smart enough to figure that one out," chuckled Zelos.
She raised her hand above his head and he leapt behind Collette, cowering in fear.
"Geez Zelos, I didn't think you'd be scared of a girl," Sheena called imitating his voice to perfection.
"But... When she hits it really hurts!"
Lloyd began to pass everyone their weapons, handing Sheena her cards, Zelos his sword, Raine her staff, suddenly stopping when he reached a large axe.
"Err... Guys? Where's Presea?"
Collette's face was rapidly painted scarlet as she realised. "Oh! Whoops... I guess we forgot to wake her up!"
"I'll go get her!" Genis cried, before Collette had even stopped talking, and rushed into the cell that she had emerged from. He stepped gingerly up to Presea's small curled up form and bent down to wake her. He put his hand on her shoulder and shook her gently, calling her name.
"Uuugh..." She sat up against the earthy wall. "Genis? What's going on?"
He simply sat there staring at her face for a while, before realising he had actually been asked a question. "Oh! Err... Umm... Well we were stuck in these cells see? And then they opened and Raine said we shouldn't go outside but I did a Stalagmite and it was o.k so we left and then we found our weapons and Lloyd found your axe so I came to get you because Sheena and Collette forgot to wake you up! Err... Yeah..." He was now blushing fiercely.
"O.k... Umm... Would you mind if I got up?" she asked.
"Huh? Oh! Right... Err... Yeah," he said, noticing that he had been leaning on her and quickly standing up.
They both walked out of the cell and took their weapons from Lloyd. The group now made up a small semi-circle around Lloyd and they stood there staring at him.
"What? Don't look at me! I don't know what to do," cried Lloyd, raising his hands in front of himself defensively.
"Maybe we should start looking for a way out?" said Raine. "It seems like the obvious suggestion to me."
"Yeah, let's go with that..."
They left through the only available exit, a narrow corridor leading away from the prison cells. They soon arrived at the end of a slightly larger hallway, which contained 4 more corridors branching off on the sides and another that continued forwards, stretching deep into the rocky walls, the end not visible to them.
"Ah... Damn... Which way are we gonna go now?" Lloyd sighed.
"Ooh, ooh! I know!" cried Zelos, who barged past the rest of them and stood in the centre of the 4 branching corridors.
"What-"
He closed his eyes and began to spin around as fast as he could with one arm out, his finger pointed to each of them as he spun. After about a minute he stopped spinning and stumbled around a bit. He then fell on his back so that his finger was pointing towards the ceiling, and shouted "THAT ONE!"
"Great idea Zelos! Let's just fly up through the rock!" replied Sheena, her hands clasped together and her face a mask of absolute amazement.
"What are you talking about? I meant that one!" he said, sitting up and pointing to the corridor on the far right.
"Very good idea Zelos, but I think we'll pass thank you…" sighed Raine yet again.
Regal stepped forward from the back of the group. "Perhaps we should just humour him this once. We don't have any idea where we are, so any way we choose is going to be almost completely random."
Raine deliberated for a few seconds, apparently torn between the most sensible option and not allowing Zelos to be right. "… O.k fine, we'll take that path… But I bet it doesn't lead anywhere…"
She walked over to the entrance of the corridor, took a small brown bag from her pocket and poured what looked like large ruby beads into her hand. She noticed the puzzled expressions on everyone's faces and quickly said, "Before you ask, I'm making sure I've marked off this corridor… In case we get lost?"
Lloyd's expression still suggested he understood as much about this as he did about complicated algebra.
"So we don't go down the same hallway twice?" Raine finally sighed, triggering a loud "Oooooooooh!" from Lloyd. "Anyway, come on. I want to get out of here as soon as possible," she called back to them and strode off down the dark corridor.
Though there were small torches set on the walls in places, they were few in number and did almost nothing to illuminate the long stretching corridor. After a while Sheena got fed up and summoned Luna to help shed some light on where exactly they were going, but after what felt like hours of walking, hundreds of twists and turns and several hills and sharp drops that they couldn't see despite Luna's help, she felt far too tired to continue the summon and they were forced to walk in almost complete darkness once again.
After about another hour or so they noticed the torches becoming far more frequent, and a small rectangle of light could be seen in the distance. They quickened their pace; wanting nothing more than to be out of the gloom of this corridor.
When they were finally out there was no sigh of relief, no rejoicing, because they now found themselves in another hallway similar to the one they were in earlier. 4 corridors branching off at the sides, one of which they had entered from, and 2 more at each end.
"Ugh… Which way now then?" mumbled Lloyd.
"I don't know!" cried Raine, who looked completely dishevelled. "… We need to take a break…"
They all sat down against the hard stone walls, willing their legs and feet to stop aching. After a few minutes something red caught Zelos' eye, and he crawled over to investigate.
"… Raine…"
"What is it now?"
"… Is this one of your red thingies?" he asked, holding up one of the large round beads above his head.
She slid further down the wall and buried her head in her knees. "Damnit! … Ugh…. The two corridors on the right must have been joined… We've just gone in a big circle!"
"Brilliant… Trust Zelos to get us lost!" Sheena shouted.
"Hey! It's not my fault you decided to trust my stupid plan!" he shot back.
"Hey! Look it's too late now, it's already happened. Which way are we gonna go next?" Lloyd cried, attempting to keep the peace.
Raine thought for a moment, before raising her head from her knees. "Well… We can only assume that the left side will be the same as the right… I think our best bet would be to just go straight on."
"O.k… Anyone else got any better ideas?" asked Lloyd, but he was met with nothing but silence. "Alright then, let's get going." And with that he turned and walked off down the seemingly endless hallway. The rest of them got up and began to follow, Sheena running ahead to catch up with Lloyd.
"I-… I'm sorry… I just…" muttered Sheena.
"No, it's fine… We're all just a bit tired," he replied, smiling back at her.
"Heh… Yeah…" Thankfully the darkness helped to hide the fact that she was blushing, and they walked onwards into the blackness in almost complete silence.
"Ha ha ha ha! You should have seen the look on the smart one's face when she realised! Priceless!"
"I'm sure it was hilarious sir."
"Garm?"
"Yes?"
"Are all the traps in place?"
"Of course sir."
"Good… I must admit I'd like them to all make it here alive but… It'll be fun to watch!" He laughed again. A cold, deep, malicious laugh.
"Hey Garm? You think my laugh's alright?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well I mean… It doesn't sound too insane does it? I don't sound crazy do I?"
"Well… I suppose there may be a hint of madness in it, sir."
The man stroked his chin for a moment. "… Excellent!"
A/N: Well it took a while but it's here. Curse writer's block!
Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed