A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates... School and stuff... Not that anyone will have noticed
Kratos stood perfectly still beside Grendel, his eyes glowing fiercely. "Your father was a perfect specimen to test the first batch of my Exspheres... That reminds me... I need a name for them. How about 'Control spheres'?" Grendel asked enthusiastically, stroking his chin.
"Sounds terrible," snapped Sheena.
"Why thank you! Anyway, as I was saying, Kratos' already decayed soul made him an easy target and Presea too to a slightly lesser extent. We did have a bit of trouble with him actually. I believe he managed to fight it momentarily the last time you met, but there's no chance of that happening now," he smirked.
"So... What? You're gonna just make everyone on the planet your mindless slaves!" Lloyd shouted, gritting his teeth as Presea's axe dug further into his neck.
"Oh no, of course not. What a waste that would be! No I think once I have control over most of the population I'll set them to work with the mining... You see before I came to this world I had a number of mining operations going on across this solar system. That also reminds me, I need to check on a few planets once I'm done here... That one that began with an R... Sorry I'm getting side-tracked."
"Don't worry, we don't have anywhere else to be right now," called Raine, dripping with sarcasm.
"You people are so hostile... But I digress… You see this planet appears to have conditions perfect for growing a certain type of very valuable crystal, which can emanate radiant light for… Well… As far as we know, for eternity. I believe you already came across one of them earlier, and they're what's keeping my beautiful face in clear view right now," he said smugly, pointing up to the ceiling where several of the bright white crystals they had seen earlier were jutting out.
"But-! Why do you need to take over people's minds?" Lloyd demanded. "Surely you could just hire people!"
"Ah yes, well… This way I don't have to pay anyone, plus if I wish I can just move workers to another planet. And then there's the small matter that to get the crystals out of the planet's crust efficiently we have to pretty much strip the planet bare. Most people aren't too keen on that bit…"
"What do you mean strip the planet bare?" asked Lloyd, fearing the worst and trying not to move too much as the axe brushed against his neck.
"Think of it like peeling the skin from a potato, only far more of the planet is peeled off I suppose," he responded matter-of-factly. "You see they only really form in the areas far into the planet's crust so we have to get rid of a lot of the planet to find them. Unfortunately all attempts to make them in a controlled environment have failed. Kinda sucks for you really huh?"
"You can't do this! You can't just destroy an entire planet for your own gain! People here have lives, and some of them even have happy ones! How can you joke about destroying the lives of thousands of innocent people?" Lloyd screamed, loosing his temper. He bent back from Presea's axe, ducking under it as she swung it towards her and hitting her hard in the stomach. As he stood up Grendel was already right in front of him however, and he was caught off-guard, taking a blow to his own stomach and dropping to his knees.
"I wasn't joking about anything. I'm completely serious. I'm just mad that's all. Or evil maybe… I've been called evil a few times. The point is, when you're this powerful you can do whatever you like, and no-one can stop you. Why should I care if I crush a few measly peasants on the way? At least they'll be a part of something spectacular; My rise to power I suppose you could say."
With Presea's blade no longer at Lloyd's neck Sheena rushed towards Grendel, her cards drawn, Regal and Collette doing the same. Genis and Raine began to chant their incantations as they gathered the necessary energies to cast their spells and Zelos rolled around on the floor desperately trying to free his hands from the solid stone that bound them.
But the second Sheena was within arms reach of the cloaked madman she was sent flying, seemingly for no reason, before Regal and Collette followed her. In a split-second Raine's staff was snapped in half and Grendel stood right in front of her face, grinning madly. He spun around, taking her legs from beneath her with a kick, catching her as she fell back, only to throw her towards the nearest wall.
Genis, clearly angered by the sight of his sister being so brutally attacked, lashed out at the man with his kendama, but the chain was cut almost as soon as it had left Genis' hand, and Grendel hit him hard on the side of the head with the flat of his blade, knocking him far across the enormous hall to roll in the dirt.
"I hadn't wanted to hurt you like this, but you're all just so stubborn… I really wanted one of you to ask why I was telling you all this too," he sighed, carefully sliding his sword back into it's sheath. "Go on! One of you ask me. Please!"
Lloyd coughed from his position on the floor. "Fine… Why?"
He gave a ridiculously wide grin. "Because I'm going to kill you all," he laughed. He spun round suddenly. "Aaaw no… That didn't sound right… How about- O.k wait… Ask me again."
Lloyd sighed and placed a hand on head forehead. "Why?" he growled, clenching his fists violently.
Grendel was silent for a moment. He crossed his arms and calmly said "Because I intend to kill you."
He added a small laugh at the end for effect.
"How was that? Good? I thought it was pretty dramatic," he smiled.
Raine raised her head from the floor groggily, placing a hand on her forehead. "You're pathetic," she snapped through gritted teeth. "You act just like a child, ordering other around while you toy with people's lives!"
"I'm just trying to have a little fun!" he cried, laughing hysterically. "Besides, how can you of all people call me pathetic? Running around trying to save the world? You should know you can't make a difference! You're completely insignificant."
"Can't make a difference?" screamed Lloyd. "We beat an entire army of Desians, Cruxis, whatever you want to call them, we fought loads of summon spirits, we united two whole… Worlds? Or something… I'm not sure what they are…"
"Dimensions?" Sheena suggested.
"Yeah, those. We re-joined two of them! How can you say we're insignificant? That we've done nothing?"
"Well whatever. You can't stop this. You're boring me now. I think I'll just let these three take care of you," mumbled Grendel, spinning around on the spot and walking slowly back towards his throne, where he sunk down lazily and rested his chin on a hand. He drew his sword and twirled it playfully, staring coolly at the faint green tint of the blade for a while before pointing it towards Lloyd. "Do what you like with them," he sneered.
Kratos and Garm hopped down from beside the throne, walking casually towards them to stand beside Presea. She brushed some dirt from her clothes and stared back at them blankly as she lifted her head, matching the faces of the other two almost perfectly.
Sheena and the rest of the group had gathered around Lloyd, each of them drawing their weapons and standing ready to face the three mindless slaves that stood before them, as they did the same.
"Think we can beat them?" asked Sheena.
Lloyd stayed silent for a few seconds before returning "Yeah… Yeah we can…"
She sighed, agreeing with his new-found pessimism, but raised her cards despite herself. She certainly wasn't going down without a fight.
As the three puppets drew closer pain seemed to rip through Kratos's body, causing him to cry out and drop to one knee, putting a hand to his head. Garm stopped instantly and turned around to look at his master, whose face looked just as puzzled. Stepping over to Kratos he could see that his glowing eyes seemed to be flickering on and off, changing rapidly between a deep green and their natural brown.
He slashed suddenly at Garm, who jumped back just in time, the sword cutting a thin line into his chest. Garm ran at Kratos with a twisted snarl on his face and kicked him hard in the head, knocking him across the hall, unconscious.
The two remaining puppets ran at the group now, who looked even more confused that Grendel, but they were forced to stop again as sharp knives whizzed past both of their heads. A flurry of keen blades and stars rushed at Garm as a blue-clad ninja dropped from the ceiling, and over a dozen more followed.
Zelos had somehow managed to get onto his knees and, noticing that Presea was distracted by this turn of events, threw his rock-encrusted hands at her as hard as he could, knocking her aside and collapsing onto the floor once again.
"Mmmff bffmch!"
Garm took a few steps back as he managed to deflect most of the knives with his sword, but he was soon forced to duck away and dodge them as several of them cut into his arm and legs.
Grendel punched a hand through the arm-rest of his throne as he stood up, his eyes blazing with fury and his sword already drawn.
The shinobi in blue raised his hand as a signal to the rest, and they quickly surrounded Lloyd and the others. One of them quickly grabbed Zelos from the floor and got back into position, and then with a flick of the wrist they were all devoured by an enormous veil of smoke.
Grendel growled loudly and swung his sword down in the direction of the massive cloud, the force of it blowing away most of the smoke, but there was nothing there. He spun round and kicked the throne, shattering it completely and sending silvery rubble scattering across the ground.
"I-" Garm began.
"I don't want your excuses you fool! Get a party searching for them now, and I want to know how the hell he managed to break free again!" he screamed, pointing towards Kratos' limp body.
"Y- Yes..." he murmured, and rushed off down the nearest corridor.
There was silence for a moment as Grendel slowly walked towards Kratos, lying unconscious on the floor, an expression of pain still on his face. He roared loudly once again and threw his sword straight into the nearest wall, embedding it deep in the rock.
"I will make you submit... Bastard," he added, kicking him firmly in the stomach.
A bit short, but it would have been a bit awkward to end it later I think...
Thanks to Jana-Yggdrasil for reviewing!