Tatsu: Alright, here comes the next chapter of this fic. It's still hard to come up with good ideas, and it's even more difficult considering I have absolutely no idea where I hid Norma. Oo Well, I had intended this to be a one-shot, if you all don't remember. Anyways, this chapter needs to see some more action, and maybe an attempt at being a little longer. Here we go!

Chapter 5: Information

The three stared up at the remains of the ever light. There was nothing else within a mile radius. None of them wanted to admit it, but this was a solid dead end. "She's not here." Shirley finally spoke up. All three slumped to the floor in defeat.

Moses pounded his fist on the floor. "Damn, and I really wanted this to go easier than I thought it would." He sighed. Both were looking surprised. "I ain't as stupid as you think I am."

Jay sighed, and nodded. "If something truly happened, Norma wouldn't go to places we know she usually goes to. She'll go to some place we've barely explored to the full."

Shirley sighed as well. "So then where is she?"

Jay looked up at the ever light. "Only Senel might know. Or no one does. I say we head back to town."

The other two nodded, and they stood, walking back towards Weritas Beacon.

Will let out a long sigh. He knew that by now Senel and Chloe must be at the bandit's layer. They wouldn't use the pipe system, for two reasons. Norma could be anywhere, so it only makes sense that they would check everywhere they could and have been.

Two, the pipes had a record system that kept track of who used them and where they went. Norma didn't use it when she left, and to ensure that they weren't followed, Senel wouldn't risk using them either. He could only hope they would be alright.

Norma chomped on her apple, her mood slightly improved by the fact she had finally eaten something. By her guess, people would have started looking for her. More specifically, the fun bunch would be. She felt quite secure in her hiding space, but it had been found by others before. Maybe she should risk moving around a little.

To a more secure location. Senel wouldn't find her there. He was the last person she wanted to see.

"So… this is the infamous place where you two fought this Moses guy, right?" Wil asked, looking up at the hideout.

"Well, at the time we also had Will's help, and since he's a crystal eren it helped. He had some healing spells too, so that also helped a ton." Senel explained, as Wil and Hailey listened.

"Sanders eventually came back to aid us, and since then we've realized he never was a bad person." Chloe finished.

"I see… though I do have one question…" He jabbed his thumb behind him. "If you guys are stronger from back then, that means the monsters here have gotten stronger. Or is that just my imagination?"

Looking, the other three spotted a giant creature with huge arms and a dangerous looking axe. It swung, but Wil had his lance parry the blow to the side, as Hailey began chanting and Chloe and Senel rushed in. "Yes… that is strange." Senel managed to comment.

Grune looked down from her place, paying special attention to her seeds, which had now grown to full creatures of the elements. She was glad they had. "Oh my… seems like trouble is brewing on the Legacy once again. I hope they're up for another long battle…" There was no black mist. No, this was something that was far more dangerous. Something was happening in the core of the planet. The Legacy was only the start of the trouble. Soon, the problems would spread to everywhere, including Gadoria.
"Swallow Fury!" Senel unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks against the monster, but he wasn't alone. At the same time, Chloe used her "Sword Rain!" and Wil, who apparently had a few tricks of his own, hit the enemy with his "White tiger strike!"

The monster staggered, but it didn't get a chance to recover. Hailey finished her chant, and called out "Negative Gate!" Instantly a ball of dark energy appeared and the monster was blasted several times in the upper section where the ball was encompassed. It fell to the ground with a final thud.

"That was a lot harder than it should have been." Chloe noted. "Although that may have been because we've only been fighting sparingly recently, for monster control. And any continuous fights we've always had the others for back up."

Wil shook his head. "Something isn't right. Their have been problems on the mainland as well, not just the legacy. I think something big is starting to happen." The others looked at him, until he shrugged. "Well, let's go inside!"

Jay, Moses, and Shirley were sitting in Will's living room, absolutely astounded at what they had just heard. Moses slammed his fist on the table. "But why didn't you stop them?"

Will shrugged. "You really think they would have listened? In any case, I have more troubling news than that." He put down a series of paper. "Look at this."

Jay picked it up, ruffling through it in half the time a normal person would, explaining it to the other two as he did so. "Interesting. It says here that a special agent hired by all the states on the mainland has been researching the monsters. This agent is reporting to the legacy, and should already be here. This report states that something is happening in the world, because the monsters are grower stronger."

Shirley gasped. "All of them? How is this person so sure?"

Jay put down the report. "She hired an ex-soldier who once committed a mass genocide on orders from his state. Since then he never killed anyone except monsters. However, that area was not full of weak people. Apparently, it was a mixed village. Ferines and Orerenes lived there together, and at the time peace between the two was undesirable. The states used this to set off a mass relocation of all Ferines to the Legacy."

Will nodded. "He was cleared of war crimes because his guilt was so obvious that he stopped following anyone's orders. He only kills monsters for meager sums now, and the ghosts of the pass have caused him a small case of insomnia."

Moses sighed. "An' this guy has trouble killin' the monsters too, eh? Well ain't that a darn shame. Looks like we gotta save the world again, huh?"

Jay folded his hands together. "There's more. A report from the man theorizes that the planet's core has somehow been affected by the black mist that infected the legacy a while ago. Continued exposure has wiped out several towns on the mainland. He's named it 'Miasma.'"

Shirley still looked confused. "Why come to the legacy?"

Will continued where Jay had left off. "There's one way to stop it. To gain support and power from all the elemental spirits, which were planted by Grune on the Legacy. Then that person can cast the planetary eren, which should completely destroy the Miasma and restore the world to its previous state. Only an accomplished Crystal eren can do this."

Everyone spoke the same name at the same time, because it was obvious that the strangers would have reported to one of them otherwise, as they had apparently arrived half a day ago. "Norma."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you had an ulterior motive for coming with us, Wil." Chloe asked, as they took a break at the top of the bandit's tower. Norma had been nowhere there, and not even in the hidden passages were there any signs of her. Senel aside, Wil had intently examined every place possible, pointing out places even Senel had missed.

"Well, maybe I do, and maybe I don't. Following Coolidge and Valens may not hold up forever, but that's holding up for now, isn't it?" He smiled, which made her grimace. It was completely obvious he was hiding something, but now she knew he wasn't going to tell them about it until he had too. Hailey too. She was still quite silent, sitting and making their meal as Senel's made notes on the map.

They had now covered five locations. Crystal Forest was out of the picture, as were the quiet lands, Weritas beacon, port-on-range, and the bandit's layer. And yet there were so many more places they needed to check. "I'd cross off the wings of light if I were you." Wil called.

"Why is that?" Senel raised a curious brow.

"Miasma." It was one of the first times she had spoken out of battle.

Chloe looked curious. "What is that?"

"The reason the monsters are getting stronger. It stems from the core of the planet, but it expels from certain points in the world. The Ferines Ancient machinery." His voice had gotten much more serious, and both Chloe and Senel knew what that meant. "The Wings of Light are the core of the Legacy, and therefore the Miasma stems from there. It's poisonous if inhaled over long periods of time, so Norma wouldn't stay there. After all, at present she hasn't the power to stop it."

"What does that mean?" Both Senel and Chloe asked demandingly.

"It means she can have that power. But it's a long process, and the first step to that, is her not hiding like a coward because she couldn't say something simple like 'I love you' to Coolidge. The only reason she has the power in the first place, is because Miss Grune entrusted her with that power when she left this realm."

The room was silent for a few more moments, before Senel tucked the map away. "Sounds like there's a lot of trouble brewing, and that's means we have to stop it. And the first step to that is finding Norma."

"Not quite." Hailey spoke again. "There is another thing that can be done." Both looked curious. "The elements planted by Miss Grune on the Legacy. Each must grant its aid to one person. Then those people must pass the power onto Norma for her to cast the eren needed to stop the Miasma."

"So not trying to ruin the plan, Coolidge, but it's your choice what to do from here." Wil said that, and again the room was filled in silence.

Tatsu: Wow, didn't originally intend this to become something like this, but now that it has, I suppose I'll roll with it. The Miasma is not my Idea, I got that from Tales of the Abyss. And of course Norma needed to be the caster in order to keep this interesting.

Now I need some things to continue. First, the names of a lot more dungeons and things. I don't remember them too well, and I don't have the time to play through the whole game to find out…

Second, I need to know where Grune planted each seed and which element it was. If I don't know that, I have to again play through the game to find out, which will again take a long time to do…

I hope you don't mind my changing the Hailey character a bit. This way it's more interesting, and don't worry, the other members of the fun bunch will have a much more active role soon. Until next time, RRR everybody!