Originally, this story was just going to be about one of Tethe'alla's Chosens, something that I haven't seen explored too much. But then I decided to make it more Yuan-centric, and do something regarding his decision to form the Renegades in the first place. This story won't really include the Renegades, just the events that lead up to their formation. As well as a grand old Tethe'allan Journey of World Regeneration.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that Namco has created - just my own original characters. And I also borrowed the general idea for this first chapter from Nightfoot's story First Steps, so I feel I should give her some credit too.
Chapter One
The door whirred, the gears almost snatching away the screwdriver, and Yuan quickly jerked his hand away with a curse. He glared at the stationary piece of metal and dealt it a solid blow with his boot. While kicking the door actually did nothing to make it stop attempting to move, it made the Seraph feel better. Yuan looked at it warily for a moment before going back to fiddling with the mechanics. Automatic doors took a lot more effort than he'd been expecting when he came up with the idea. Computer systems were easy, since they could be as big as necessary in order to hold all the components. Doors, however, were a lot more compact and had smaller spaces in which to work. They also seemed to enjoy stealing tools out of Yuan's hands, something the computers had never done.
After a moment, the door whirred again and, despite the lock Yuan had engaged, slid open a couple of inches. Yuan cursed again and tugged on the screwdriver, which was now lodged between the door and the frame. It refused to budge, even with his strength, and the angel gave up, letting it stay where it was for the time being. He gave the door a dark look before pulling in his wings and dropping the couple of feet back to the ground. With a huff, he flopping in his rolling chair, pushing himself over to one of the monitors that were set up along the walls. Lines and lines of text filled the screen, white on the blue background, and his eyes flicked over the letters with a frown.
Just as Yuan was putting in a command to direct a burst of mana into the door's mechanism so it would close again and release his screwdriver, another of his monitors started beeping quickly, loudly, and annoyingly. He growled to himself and abandoned the issue of the automatic door, rolling over to face the newest crisis. As he had expected, it was a warning system from one of the Desian ranches, warning him that someone was trying to access the system without permission. It was a more common problem than most people would have believed.
With one button, Yuan silenced the alarm, though the screen was still flashing an urgent red, repeatedly warning him that someone had used the wrong password more than three times. He hit a few keys and a side box popped up, holding a log of the Desian computer's recent activity. The last four passwords were recorded, each one written the exact same way. Clearly, whoever was using the computer wasn't all that bright, if they thought putting in the same wrong password again would do something different the second or third time around.
A moment later, another screen popped up, this one holding video from the same computer. Yuan was rather proud of his idea of adding a camera to every monitor, so that they could see who was using it and when. He rewound the video a few seconds and sighed. Not surprisingly, it was simply one of the Desians - a side program he created ran the mana signature to ensure it wasn't an imposter, though he paid the screen little mind, as it still had quite a few bugs - and most likely a new recruit. Yuan took a moment to rub the bridge of his nose and grumble about the Desians' stupidity before he turned to the keyboard, closing down the first two small windows and pulling up a third.
With a few quick commands, Yuan made the main screen stop flashing and return to its normal, neutral blue. That done, he ordered the password to reset in an hour and for the new password to be messaged to the ranch's Grand Cardinal as soon as it finished. That crisis averted, Yuan leaned back in his chair with a sigh, closing his eyes. He didn't see how the system was so difficult for everyone else to grasp. Sure, he had designed it and was supposed to think it was simple, but it had been in operation for a little over a hundred years now. Surely someone could have figured it out. He was getting tired of playing angelic tech support, solving the Grand Cardinals' problems from on high. He had enough of his own technical problems to deal with.
As if to remind him of his own mechanical issues, the door made a strange, strangled sound. It was accompanied with the grating and crunching of the screwdriver being bent out of shape by the gears. Yuan snapped out of his mental grumblings to slide over to the first monitor and finish the string of virtual commands he'd left abandoned.
"Yuan?" The blue-haired half-elf just barely kept from jumping, turning quickly toward the speaker. Looking through the gap created by the door, Kratos gave his friend a confused glance, which mostly consisted of an upturned eyebrow. "Trouble with your toys again?" Yuan frowned, turning back to the screen and glancing over the text once more.
"Of course not. It's supposed to do that," he said right as the door further tore apart the tool it held hostage. He didn't have to look back around to see his friend's skeptical look or eye roll.
"Well, troubles or not, Mithos is waiting for you," Kratos informed him. "He seems to be rather impatient today, too." If Yuan hadn't spent almost the last two hundred years with the auburn-haired angel, he would never have caught the well-hidden hint of annoyance in Kratos's tone. Clearly, he still hadn't quite adjusted to listening to the child who, at one point, had been unable to even really hold his own in a fight without Yuan and Kratos there to back him up.
Yuan sighed, tugging absently at his ponytail. "Fine. Just give me a minute. And move away from the door," he advised. He heard Kratos shuffle away and quickly finished his line of text. Immediately, the door slammed shut with a bang and the screwdriver fell to the ground, the sound it made lost amidst the door's protests. Another few lines of writing and the lock disengaged, the door opening with a rather sickly-sounding whirr of gears.
The door finally cooperating, Yuan got up to join Kratos, kicking the bent and twisted screwdriver off to the corner of the room. The door refused to close like it should have when Yuan stepped out of the room and he smacked the doorframe with the palm of his hand. The sheet of metal jolted and jerkily slid closed again, sealing off the room.
"I hope you didn't lock yourself out again," Kratos said, a touch of amusement in his words, and Yuan blinked at the door. He hadn't even considered the possibility and now wished he'd just let the door sit open. It wasn't like anything was going to be stolen or broken - he, Kratos, and Mithos were the only ones with enough thought processes to do anything of the sort.
"I'll be able to get back in," Yuan said confidently. Kratos snorted but didn't comment, instead starting down the hall with Yuan keeping pace beside him. "Did Mithos say what exactly he's so impatient about?"
Kratos shrugged and said, "Not really. He just said it was important and to fetch you as quickly as possible. Says he has a job for you." Yuan frowned, considering just what kind of job the younger half-elf had in mind. He wasn't often called upon to do work, at least now that the World Regeneration journey was all laid out. Recently, he'd just been asked to "mess with his technical things" for one reason or another, or to lead the Tethe'allan Chosen on the journey. Yuan rather hoped it was the former.
The room the two Seraphim found themselves in a few minutes later was really quite small. There were a couple of windows that looked out to the swirling nothingness that surrounded Derris-Kharlan and a square table took up most of the floor space. A couple bookshelves sat against the walls, looking as untouched as always. Otherwise, the room was fairly empty, save for Mithos.
The blond Seraph was currently in his older form, the one he preferred when he was being leaderly and demanding. He sat in a chair much too large for any living being, one that looked more like an overgrown throne than anything else. It seemed to be trying to swallow Mithos whole, an image that Yuan entertained for one amusing second. It would definitely pop Mithos's high-and-mighty bubble if a chair ate him.
Mithos smiled when his two older friends entered and took seats on either side of the table. At least Yuan didn't feel like if he sat back in his chair he would never be found again. "Glad you could make it," the head angel said, and Yuan couldn't quite tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "I've decided it's time for another attempt at World Regeneration." Yuan gaped, glancing over at Kratos, whose eyebrows had come together as he tried to make out whether or not Mithos was being serious.
"But it really hasn't been that long since the last Chosen went and got herself killed." Yuan got a slightly accusing look from Mithos but ignored it, plowing on. "Do we really need to start another journey so soon?"
"If you hadn't let the last Chosen get killed by some random group of bandits, this wouldn't even be an issue," Mithos pointed out and Yuan frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. It was hardly his fault. He'd turned his back for one minute, she'd run off, and then she'd been found dead! He felt that he could hardly be blamed for that. "And this boy's mana signature is even closer to Martel's than the last two. I'm not going to drop it on the assumption that this could fail or that someone better may come along."
Both Yuan and Kratos barely heard the last sentence and a half of what Mithos was talking about. They'd both gotten caught up in the 'this boy' part of Mithos's explanation. "Wait, you're wanting to bring Martel back as a boy?" Yuan blurted, a shudder running down his spine. Sure, Mithos's ideas usually weren't the most sane, but this one was just ridiculous. Martel couldn't be a boy! Not only would she probably not be too enthused, Yuan was also still technically engaged to her, and that was more than just simply creepy.
"It's not ideal, and it would be rather strange, but he's the only one with a close enough mana signature to pull it off," Mithos said, shaking his head. He frowned slightly, clasping his hands in front of him. "I think it shouldn't really matter, as long as Martel comes back somehow, right?" For a moment, he looked like the lost little kid that Kratos had found all those years ago, waiting for some reassurance that it would all work out. He quickly snapped out of it, though, and the brief moment disappeared as quickly as it had come. "Whether or not the Chosen is a boy, we should still go through with it. If it works, we'll have to adjust, but I'm sure Martel wouldn't mind too much and then we'd just have to worry about getting someone to reverse the mana flow every century or so."
There was silence for a moment before Kratos spoke up, his mouth turned down in a small frown. "Perhaps we should wait for a girl to be born with the same mana signature. Matches seem to be becoming easier to find in Tethe'alla than in Sylvarant, considering that this would be the third journey for Tethe'alla in the past seventy-five years. It may be prudent to wait it out, on the chance that Martel may not be as accepting as you may believe."
Mithos stood up, resting his hands on the table, and glared at his two friends. "No. We're not waiting. It may be a while before there's another girl, and so we need to take what we can get. I know that no matter what, we won't get anyone who looks just like like Martel, but she'll still be her no matter the body. That shouldn't matter," he said firmly, and Yuan set his jaw, forcing back an argument that would only trigger a shouting match. "Yuan, I expect you to leave as soon as possible to get him. His name is Aiden Norfel, and you'll find him in Flanoir. Just don't screw it up again."
The sentence was a clear dismissal, and as much as Yuan wanted to sit there and yell at Mithos to stop being such a spoiled brat and to just be patient, he knew it would be a poor idea. There was no chance of swaying the boy from his path, and all it would accomplish would be to make Kratos's time in Welgaia difficult while Yuan was gone. So instead the blue-haired half-elf got up and stormed angrily from the room, his cloak billowing behind him, and without a single word to either of the other two Seraphim. Kratos followed close behind, walking silently beside his friend as Yuan seethed.
"I wish I could smack some sense into him still. He's such a demanding brat," Yuan growled, shoving his hands into his pockets a little more forcefully than was necessary. "I'd like to see Martel back as much as him, boy would I like that, but he's too damn impatient. Even if we wait a little while, Tethe'alla isn't going anywhere for another century at least, and someone else is bound to turn up. And there's not even a chance this will work! Having Spiritua didn't help in the slightest, what makes him think this boy is going to be any different?"
"Mithos simply wishes to see his sister again. You know that he preferred her company over ours a majority of the time," Kratos tried to reason. "Despite his age, he's still a child. I'm not condoning his behavior, but it is at least understandable."
Yuan suddenly stopped and rounded on his friend, his face set into a scowl. "I miss Martel, too. Mithos wasn't the only one who was close to her, Kratos. I loved her, I was going to marry her, before she was killed. You don't think I wouldn't give anything to have her back? But this is ridiculous. He's just grasping at straws by now. This would work better if he just slowed down and thought about what he was doing. Rushing into things is only going to delay us and I, for one, don't want to spent the next thousand or so years looking for someone who may or may not be enough like Martel for this to work."
"He never was very patient," Kratos pointed out. Yuan huffed and continued down the hall, though he looked less like he was going to rip someone's throat out. Ranting in the middle of the hallway had calmed his temper to some degree.
The two walked for a minute in silence, Kratos letting his friend seethe, and Yuan mentally grumbling about this entire adventure he was supposed to set out on. When they got to Yuan's room, the door refused to budge despite its programming, and he ended up just simply using Lightning on it. There was a crack, a flash of bright light, and then the door slid soundlessly open, apparently fixed. It did nothing to better his mood. "I'll see you in a few days, Kratos," he grumbled over his shoulder, going to pack up a few provisions. There was no response, but he heard Kratos leave.
Yuan sighed, slumping against the wall and running his fingers through his ponytail. At the very least, he hoped this journey would go smoothly and that it would be over with soon. He also hoped it would actually work, but couldn't bring himself to believe that it would. But as long as he finished this time, Mithos would be happy and then the next Chosen would be Kratos's problem. "That kid better not cause troubles," he muttered to himself before pushing off from the wall and packing his things, with the occasional grumble punctuating his work.