A/N: This was supposed to be Genis's fight chapter but I just felt it was more important to let people know this story is not dead…. So there will be a fight in the next chapter, I promise.

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Presea took a moment to distance herself from the world and assess the situation.

The sensitive skin around Zev's muzzle twitched as strands of her soft pink hair were blown against it. A long, serpentine tongue lashed out, wrapping around her arm and dragging it up into his waiting jaws, foggy yellow eyes staring blankly at the space of ground behind her. His ridiculously elongated ears were up and alert, like radar dishes, picking up anything that his suddenly blind eyes would miss.

She pushed back feelings of revulsion as he slavered over her arm like a hideous child with a lollypop. One thing she had always found was that when she needed to, she could go back. She could go back to the way she had been for those long sixteen years, a complete robot. When he transforms, he loses the powers of sight, she thought dully, What else does he lose? Pain receptors? Nothing was impossible with this creature. Sharp teeth nicked at her elbow, drawing blood.

The creature Zev has inhuman strength far beyond what I have with my Ex-sphere. To fight against him would be unwise.

This is not going to stop me. I will not fall, meek and helpless.

Regal had been teaching her martial arts, escape tactics and ways to bend and move to get away from the clutching hands of an enemy. She twisted her little arm free and reached out, grabbing at one of Zev's huge flappy ears and twisting as hard as she could, her face blank as she kicked out against his chest. Fighting, wriggling, but not screaming out or thrashing in a panic. His claws dug into her; she punched him in the face, ripping at his sensitive nose with her fingernails (-letting them grow longer instead of biting them to the quick turned out not to be so bad-) jamming her thumb into weak, watery eyes. Then she felt the pressure of his huge hands squeezing her breathless; she ignored him and snarled, lashing out again, twisting in his grip to shove his muzzle away with her boot. He chomped down on it, ripping the leather away and leaving her bare foot pink and exposed. He was going to bite it, he was going to bite it!

"No!"

She didn't dare close her eyes, it was too late, and he was too quick.

And then suddenly a solid steel shaft sprouted from where his eye had been. Zev howled; Somehow she got loose from him, falling to the ground with a girlish squeak of pain as her head knocked against the earth. Heart pounding, she got to her feet again and lunged back into the jaws of the beast, pulling out her dagger from where it had been embedded in his abdomen and jamming it straight into his ear, twisting and rooting for the fragile inner parts, finding a malicious pleasure in his pain.

There was a rough shout from far off and another bolt came flying, but this time Zev's other ear twitched and he caught it in time, swiping it out of the air with one hairy paw. Regal, she thought irrationally. He came to save me at last. Feeling the tide of the battle shifting, she tightened her grip on her dagger and brought it slashing across every exposed patch of mangy skin she found. He reached out but she slipped away again, realizing he had the reflexes of a deranged walrus while in this shape. Her Jet Boots- or Jet Boot, now, since the other one was currently being digested- proved their worth, letting her reverse the dance they had been dancing earlier. Another crossbow bolt, strong enough to pierce armor, sank into his chest and he screeched, throwing his head back to howl at the sky. Presea saw her chance and lunged, heedless, past the range of his arms and grabbed onto the fur of his chest and pulled herself up to eye level with him, slashing her knife against his bared throat.

He went down but he didn't die, grabbing at her with fingers that were rapidly losing their strength, his jaws snapping open and shut faster than a hummingbird's wings. She pushed away, her bare hands ravaged by his sharp teeth as she grabbed his muzzle with both hands, trying in vain to keep him away from her own throat. With one snap she wrenched his head in a way nature never intended, letting his own weight help her. Finally he lay still, the blood pooling in the emerald green grass of the forest.

The gold gates of Altamira sparkled prettily in the sun, the sandy beaches soft and white in her eyes as she climbed off of Zev, getting to her feet only to stumble again as she tried to walk for the gates. A pair of strong arms made her sit up straight, concerned blue eyes filling her vision. A woman, a little younger than Regal, was helping her. She slung her crossbow over her back and gently tried to examine Presea for any injuries.

"Jeez, you're just a kid!" The voice was so thick with an unfamiliar accent that Presea had a hard time understanding it. Jeezum, yer just a kee-yid.

Presea's whole body trembled, even though she tried to still herself. The adrenaline was slowly leaking from her system and she became aware of every ache and scrape on her body. Vainly trying to slide her torn sleeve up her shoulder, she gasped in pain when where her fingers should have been there were only bloody stumps that bumped against the fabric of her dress. She shifted away from Zev's corpse, taking shallow breaths before her resolve finally cracked and she whimpered.

"Muh…" Presea croaked. "Muh...my…."

"Shh, don't worry," the stranger said, futilely trying to calm the girl down. "We'll find a healer and you can get your hand fixed." Presea tried to go back to being a robot, but failed. She began to shake harder. Never had she been wounded like this, not with her big axe to hide behind. The index, thumb, and middle finger of her hand had been sawed off, her thumb still dangling a few scarlet strands as she began to make her own bloody pool in the grass.

"What's your name?" the woman asked, taking a bandanna from around her neck and wrapping it tightly around Presea's hand, trying to stem the bleeding.

Presea took a few deep breaths. "F-fingers," she stammered, looking over at Zev's cooling body. "I- I don't think he sw-swa-" she gulped down feelings of sickness. "Swallowed them." She paused again, bracing herself for this next show of humility. "…Please."

"Don't worry, kiddo," the stranger said, pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket. "I'll get your fingers back." Zev's body had slowly been shrinking back to that of a barely pubescent boy and she grimaced as she pried his mouth open to scoop out the digits. When she turned, her eyes widened at the sight of Presea stumbling to her feet. "Whoa, shouldn't you-" she started, but Presea shook her head.

"No… I'm… fine," Presea insisted, her pale face saying otherwise. She lifted her left hand to show the blood red crystal embedded on the back of her hand. "Ex-sphere," she said. "Let's go. Professor Raine Sage will… fix my... n-no!" Presea squeaked as the stranger stooped down and picked her up, setting off at a brisk pace towards the Altamira gates. Presea struggled feebly, her mind equal parts pride and relief. "I'm not a baby…!" I'm thirty. "I'm fourteen."

"We're all children in the eyes of the Goddess, don't you know that?" the stranger said cheerfully, noticing the way Presea's head began to nod. Blood loss and shock were taking its toll on the once battle-hardened girl. Two years of peace had made her soft again. "I'm Elizabeth."

"Thank you for…"

Presea was aware of a winged shape blotting out the sun, and voices, and then she was flying away, back to Regal.

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Genis cracked his knuckles anxiously as he paced back and forth in the luxury suite of the Altamira hotel room, back and forth so often Elizabeth was certain he would soon beat a trail into the plush carpet. In the room next door, his sister Raine was with Presea.

"Kid, quit it," she finally complained. "You're making me dizzy."

"Well ex-cyoose me if ah'm a might ank-shus," he said, mocking her thick accent as his head snapped over to glare at her, silver-grey eyes daring her to reply. "One of my best friends got her fingers chewed off while you were doing what, lady?"

Elizabeth smiled winningly. "My name is Elizabeth, but you'll be calling me Miss Greve. I was using poisoned crossbow bolts while you were…. What? Flying around in your fancy Rheaird, Mr. Sage."

The half-elf flushed, but never got a chance to say anything else because a blue explosion made its way through the doorway, storming through the room looking for Presea. "Where is she?" Regal demanded, yanking off a constricting tie around his throat, blue eyes brimming with rage. Elizabeth looked up with interest at the president of the Lezareno company, since he didn't often make public appearances. She was promptly ignored as Regal found that Presea wasn't anywhere in sight. He rounded on Genis instead, pulling himself up to his full height of six-feet-three-inches. "Where?" he said again, towering over the teen, his unshackled hands twitching as though he could still have a chance to strangle the life out of Zev.

"Wrong room, darlin'," Elizabeth said, pointing over at the adjoining door room. "Professor Sage is with the girl right now, you don't have to worry."

Genis and Regal shot her identical glares and said: "This doesn't concern you!"

After a moment, Regal said: "Oh."

He finally seemed to realize there was a stranger in the room. He managed to compose himself enough to smooth his long blue hair back and clear his throat, extending a hand towards her and they shook. "I must apologize for my rudeness," he said, kissing the back of her hand like he was taught. "You're the one who saved Presea?"

"I didn't do much," said Elizabeth, resisting the urge to wipe the back of her hand on her shirt. "Your daughter's…"

"Amazing!" Genis piped up, forgetting his animosity for a moment.

"That's the one."

"But you helped, all the same," Regal said, reaching into his pocket for his check book. "If there's any way I could repay you…"

Elizabeth smiled. "That's not necessary, Mr. Bryant, but I think three thousand Gald is in order for my services. A discount because your daughter is so cute."

Regal's pen hand slipped and the pen went sliding across the check for a moment before he regained his composure and wrote out the check. "Duke Bryant," he said, ripping it out and handing it to her without another word. Daintily, she plucked it from his fingers and scanned over it once before putting it away.

"Yeah, I'm a stickler for titles too," Elizabeth agreed. "So tell me honestly, who really runs the Lezareno Company? You're just the face, right?" she stood on her tip toes, craning her neck from side to side as she examined him.

Regal looked away, setting his jaw firmly. "You have your payment. Perhaps it would be best if you saw yourself out."

Elizabeth threw her hands up for peace, backing away. "S'all right with me," she said, picking up her bag where she had left it on the floor and making her way to the door. "I'll be back later to see how my sweetling is doing, though. Tell her that."

Regal was silent as she left the room. When she was gone he sighed and turned to Genis. "Perhaps I should have been less harsh…" he said. "She did help Presea, after all. And she did it before she realized who she was… and who she was to me."

"Well there's nothing you can do about it now," Genis reminded him, before snickering. "She thinks Presea's your daughter, though…"

Regal sweat-dropped. "The truth is even less believable. Do you think your sister will allow us in now?" He moved towards the door, placing a palm against the wood, his face unreadable again. The fingers clenched. "I just can't forgive myself for allowing this to happen."

"You're telling me. If I hadn't spotted them while we were flying overhead…" Genis resumed pacing. "If I had been a little too late…"

The door creaked open and Raine's pale, slender frame filled the doorway. She smiled thinly at them, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. Regal unconsciously ran his fingers along the scars on his wrist, trying his best to remain silent.

"She'll be asleep for the next four hours…" Raine said, crossing her arms. After a moment, she spoke up again, pointing at the door. "Genis, out. I need to speak to Regal. Privately."

"Huh? But-"

"Out!"

"Jeesh, fine!" Genis threw his hands up in surrender, giving Presea's door one meaningful glance before leaving to go to one of the lower levels. Raine sighed and turned to Regal.

"I have a favor I need to ask of you," she said. "Concerning Presea's hand."