When I said shit would happen, I wasn't expecting a damaged laptop. Good thing these chapters were saved on a flash drive else I'd be bawling my eyes out by now. And luckily I'm borrowing the other computer.

...Never thought I'd be typing in this monster again...

Moving on...

I got myself a distraction! It's called Tales of Innocence! :D Go play it. I won't spoil it for anybody except those at the forum. You know who you are. XD Also, reviews are reviews, doesn't matter if you can type a good one or not (a certain person I know just put an emoticon review to another story once). It matters to the author or authoress that people are loving the story they write. :)

For some reason, I can't center the title on Document Manager. *shakes fist at Doc Manager*

And so I thank my beta, Mieu, for editing this. I wouldn't do so well if it wasn't for her.

Disclaimer: I don't own ToA.

Chapter 7: Enter the Amazing Guy!

"...Ugh..."

"...ar...! ...s movi...!"

Go away you high-pitched squeaky voice. My ears were ringing.

Something or someone shook me. I instinctively swatted away whatever it was and rolled over to the other side. That high-pitched voice made some noise when I rolled over. It didn't matter, I was tired and as long as nothing bothered me, I won't bother them. However, that didn't stopped the shaking to come back, a firm hand grasped my shoulder, shaking me lightly as someone called my name.

"…Anh…!"

I came into realization that someone was trying to rouse me from my sleep. Ugh…my head. It felt like something extremely heavy banged my head against the wall or a hard object. I opened my eyes only to find out that a blaring light was shown right in front of my face, forcing me to shut my eyes tight while tears dropped from my face. I aimlessly flailed my hand towards the source to block the light and either it worked or someone moved it away from my face. After lying there and covering my eyes with my arm, I got onto my side before opening my eyes. I had to blink twice to find that my surroundings were a bit blurry.

Had someone taken those contacts off?

"Anh!" the voice repeated again. There was a grip on my shoulder, allowing me to face the person who was talking to me. I had to squint a little bit only to find a mass of brown blob. God dammit, there was tears in my line of vision.

"Tear…?" I asked, blinking once more. I rubbed my eyes to get rid of the tears that had dried on my face and wiped away the ones that was clinging to the edges of my eyes. Once the tears were gone from my face, I looked back at Tear. She was still blurry around the edges but at least I can see her better. I looked around just to see if it was just Tear that was blurry. Turns out that everything else was blurry around the edges as well. "Who…? Where? My contacts…"

"Take it easy now. We're in a cabin in the Tartarus. Your contacts were taken out by the Colonel." Tear explained. "Thank goodness. When we saw you unconscious with us, we were worried that something had happened. Luckily, you just fainted."

"It was rather unfortunate to know that there were two other God-Generals were aboard the Tartarus," a new voice spoke up. Jade's. "They captured Ion."

"But they did not get the letter." I said, determined. "Ion gave it to Anise."

"And what happened to Anise?"

I opened my mouth to give an answer but paused a bit. Let's see...Anise was thrown out of the window after bashing an Oracle Knight on the helmet. Her being thrown out and shouting her threat was the parts I remember very clearly. Should she be fine...? She should be. After all, it was Anise we were talking about.

"…Alive… Hopefully." I answered. "It's Anise, after all." Something small tugged on my sleeve before it scurried up it. Soft fur brushed my cheek as the thing rubbed its head against me.

"Mieu did a good job taking care of your…your…Myuu…"

"They are called contacts, Mieu." Tear corrected the young cheagle. I didn't know what was going on, since Mieu was right on my shoulder, I couldn't exactly turn my head to see what he was doing, but Mieu's ear basically flew up and smacked my chin. Lightly, I might add.

"Myuu! Your contacts~!"

"Thanks, Mieu, you did a good job."

I heard someone come near me, probably Jade, I hadn't heard a single word being uttered by Luke. My palm was opened and something light fell onto my hand. From the feel of it, I had to assume that it was my contacts. Though…how did he remove them without my noticing…? Questions aside, I turned away from the two of them to put the contacts on. I never really liked the idea of putting something in my eye, which was why I usually wear glasses instead. If I remember correctly, people without 20/20 vision couldn't enter the military. Well…maybe this military…

I missed my glasses.

"You were covered in blood when we saw you," I heard Tear said. "Mieu and I did our best to clear the blood from your uniform and skin."

"Thanks, Tear," I thanked her, turning around once I got those contacts in. "You didn't have to. I could have done it myself when I woke up."

Tear's gaze went to a sleeping figure, my gaze followed hers. There was Luke lying on the bed, face up, completely unconscious and looking rather innocent. "Luke is unconscious and the Colonel volunteered to watched over him so I thought I should watch over you just to be fair. The both of you were unconscious for some time so I thought I could wipe away the blood to save you some trouble when you wake up."

"If you were a man, Tear, I would seriously fall for you." I grinned at her. She cast a side glance but returning her gaze at me.

"However..."

I raised a eyebrow. "However...?"

Tear leaned in an whispered into my ear. "There's some blood on your hair."

There was a long pause until the information sank right in. I remembered a large pool of blood, a mixture between humans and monsters. I recalled a large piles of bodies, dead, people who would never see their families again. I saw dismembered parts. And most of all, I saw that eye that was pleading for me to help the dead before I collapsed. I began to fan myself with both of my hands and started to look frantically to the sides to find some water.

"Ew ew ewewewew! Get it off! Get it off!" I cried.

"Calm down, Anh." Tear said to me. But I couldn't calm down, blood was stuck in my hair. If I forgot now then I would have another freak out much later on when I run a hand through my hair.

"I need to get it off, Tear! Badly!"

"Freaking out won't solve anything."

"But I never asked to be here!" I cried out. My arms splayed in front of me. I felt tears welling up. "I never asked to witness a blood bath! I never asked to watch Anise thrown out of a window falling to her doom! I never asked to be a part of anything of this...!" The last few words came out as a whisper or a choke as tears fell down my face. My hands were clutching my head as my legs were brought up to my chest. I wrapped my arms around my legs as I covered my face with my knees and let the tears flow down my face. I felt Tear sitting right beside me and...just sat there.

"Where would you be if the Colonel didn't come to help you?" she asked. "What would happen if you were still left in Daath? Would you make any friends just like you did now? This might not be the best choice you made in your life but, personally, I think it would be better than being left in Daath. At least being with the Colonel gives you more opportunities than when you were stuck in Daath. You need to calm down. Take a deep breath... Good, now let it all out. Do it one more time."

I inhaled and exhaled a few times, allowing me to somewhat calm down. Tear had a point, if I didn't agree to Jade, what would have happened to me? Would I just be some odd girl still in attempt to find her way home? Or would I be damned for the rest of my life, regretting the decision I had made.

Agh, I was thinking way too hard. I guess I chose the easy way out and just follow the storyline of the game. At least it was something I know pretty well.

I rested my chin on my knees. I stared blankly at the ground. "You really are blunt, Tear."

"It's not the first time I heard that," Tear admitted, "but I'm glad that you are feeling better."

"Who's feeling better? From what I can see, she's still being gloomy." Jade.

"Who's gloomy, you cold hearted four-eyed freak? " I snapped at him, in a loud voice. I was giving him my best glare though all I received was the usual: Jade's glasses had a gleam on them and he held an amused smirk.

"Come now, keep that tone up and you'll wake up Master Luke."

I paused as I tried to think of something as a comeback, but the only thing that was keeping me occupied was Jade called Luke 'Master' when he was still unconscious. "Calling him that behind his back is pure evil." I heard Tear sighed behind me.

"Toue rei zue kuroa ryuo toue zue..."

"That's a fonic hymn, isn't it?" I asked her, interrupting her. Tear stopped and looked at me. She nodded, slowly.

"My brother used to sing it to me when I was young whenever I was upset," she explained, "so I thought I would sing it now to calm you down."

"I am calm, Tear."

"No, you are not. You can listen to it while we wait for Luke to wake up."

"With that loud shout earlier, I would expect him to be up sometime soon." Jade shrugged, looking at Luke over his shoulder. "But do continue, Tear. I am quite intrigued by your fonic hymns."

Tear sighed before complying. I took a seat beside her when she got past the second verse of the hymn. Hearing them from the game was one thing, but hearing her live was much more beautiful than I imagined. The smoothness of her voice, the way she put her emotions into her singing, the hymn itself. All of that was beautiful. I closed my eyes and just focused on the hymn.

"...Nngh..."

Tear stopped singing immediately and ran to the one that made that noise: Luke. "Luke!"

I ran over there with Mieu still clinging onto my shoulders. Once I was standing next to Tear, Mieu jumped off my shoulders and clutched Luke's sleeve in a worried fashion. Luke's head moved from left to right.

"Get... my head..." he moaned.

"Luke!" Tear repeated his name again. He still didn't opened his eyes as he began to thrash about.

"Get out of my head!" he shouted, more clearly. His arm flew up to the side, clutching his head and knocking Mieu off of the bed. It didn't stop the cheagle from climbing back up in attempt to wake Luke up. Tear grabbed his shoulders, pushing him back down so that he wasn't rolling all over the place. She gave me an order that said to take hold of his wrists and pin them down. Easier said than done. Luke was a lot stronger than I expected, it took nearly everything I had to make sure he didn't hit Tear or Mieu again.

"Wake up, Luke!" Tear shouted, more forcefully. This time, Luke relaxed so Tear and I released our grip on him, our hands hovering slightly above their former places. We didn't know if Luke would thrash like he did before.

After a painstakingly long period of time, Luke slowly opened his eyes. Tear and I immediately relaxed. I heard Tear sighed as Luke sat up, looking a bit dazed. "...Thank goodness. You were moaning in your sleep. It looks like the nightmare has past."

"Myuu... We were all worried!" Mieu looked like he was about to cry and fill an entire fountain.

Luke looked around him and frowned. "Where am I?"

I would be confused as well. The cabin we were in doesn't look as appealing as the cabin rooms the soldiers would use. This one looks like a dirty prison cell. Jade took a step closer to us, the gleam was gone and his eyes were very serious.

"In a cabin, onboard the Tartarus." He answered Luke's question. Luke took another good look around the cabin.

"That's right... Monsters attacked then..." His eyes widened in horror. He leaned forward, clutching his head. He was shivering as he was lost in thought.

That's right. Before all of us were here, Luke had killed someone. He really hated the thought of killing another person. He hated to know that he was going to be hated for killing someone. It must be a large mental shock for him. But what about me? I hadn't killed anyone yet, would I face the same traumatic experience as Luke? Or...

"All right, we need to get out of here and rescue Ion." Jade said, moving on to our next topic.

Tear turned her attention to Jade and nodded. "It looked like they took Ion away..." she explained to Luke in simplest terms.

"From what we overheard the Oracle Knights saying, it sounds like they'll be returning this to the Tartarus." Jade continued. Now I was the one that was confused.

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait, when did this happened?" I asked. Tear lightly nudged my side.

"You were still asleep when they said that."

"And, yet you know about it?"

"I was up way before we were thrown here." Tear told me. "I woke up halfway and they had me walk here alongside with the Colonel."

"Oh."

"Moving on," Jade sighed, pushing his glasses up. "We'll ambush them and save Ion."

"W-Wait!" Luke spoke up. Now it was his turn to interrupt. "If you do that, there will be more fighting!"

Tear's shoulders sagged. "Yes, what about it?"

"We might end up killing people again!" Luke snapped, standing up. There was a pained look in Tear's eyes but she closed them before Luke noticed them. I was pretty sure Jade caught the look in her eyes before she closed them.

"...That can't be helped." She said, finally. She opened her eyes again, this time with her usual defined sharpness. "They'll kill us if we don't kill them."

"Wh-what are you saying?" Luke asked her, enraged. "We're talking about human lives here!"

"Yes. Human life is a valuable thing." Jade nodded. "But if we sit here and do nothing, a war will start and even more people will die."

"'Kill or be killed'." I said, remembering someone or something else had said that. But that was how things work, if you don't kill, you will be killed eventually.

Tear nodded. "Right now, this is our battlefield. There's no good or evil here. Just life and death." Luke just made a sound before she continued. "There's danger even in normal life. One could be attacked by monsters or bandits... Those who lack strength do things like hire mercenaries, band together and travel by coach. Those with the strength to fight, do. Sometimes even children. They do what they must in order to survive."

"That's got nothing to do with me!" Luke splayed his hands in front of him. "I didn't know anything about that, and I didn't come here because I wanted to!"

"Join the party," I muttered, crossing my arms. Tear had cast me a look, it was a look that said 'haven't I heard this before?'.

"Astonishing." Jade spoke up. He pushed his glasses up and the gleam returned. "What kind of environment must one grow up in to be this ignorant of the situation...?"

Luke cast an irritated look towards Jade and opened his mouth to say something nasty. However, Tear spoke up for him. Minus the nasty part. "Ever since the Malkuth attempt to kidnap him, he's been forbidden to leave his manor for his own safety."

"I see... Then I suppose it's natural for him to not know anything about the world..."

"I can't help it!" Luke huffed, looking down at the ground. "I don't have memories of my childhood! I don't know anything!"

"It's my responsibility that all of this happened, so I promise I'm going to get you back home." Tear told him. I believed that was an attempt to reassure him. Luke lifted his gaze to Tear. If I were Luke, I would give her a doubtful look, but that would be me. Tear opened her mouth to say more. "In return, don't get in our way. If you're not willing to fight, you're only going to be a burden."

Luke hesitated before giving her an answer. "...I didn't say I wouldn't fight! I just don't want to kill anyone..."

"It means the same thing," Tear gave him a sharp look. "Right now, fighting means fighting against the human beings who took the Tartarus. If you don't want to kill the enemy, then stay hidden behind us."

"I'm just saying, let's not fight any more than we have to. I don't want to die, either," was Luke's response.

Tear gave him a shocked look. "It's not like I...! It's not like I'm killing people because I want to."

"So, are you going to fight?" Jade asked. "I'll be counting on you as a part of our force."

After a moment's hesitation, Luke answered, "I said, I will."

"Perfect." Jade nodded at the answer. He proceeded to walk towards the gate and did something funky to the glowing bars. No seriously, it was funky. The game showed that he thrown something at the wall across from him and the bars disappeared; the anime showed him doing an arm movement and the bar disappeared. In real life...It was something really funky. There was no levers or keys to unlock this cabin. So one would assume that the bars were made from some fonic device. Jade whipped out his spear and messed around with the edges of the exit.

Next thing I knew, the bars disappeared and Jade was charging towards the...uh...insert object's name here. "By my name as Necromancer, heed my command! Initiate emergency plan, 'Corpse Hunt.'"

The alarms started blaring again, followed by the loud sound of metal doors closing and the lights dimmed. Luke looked around the halls, completely amazed. Jade turned around as we all walked up to him. "It's an emergency shutdown system I set up in advance. It should take them some time to recover."

I faintly heard Luke breathed a 'wow' before Tear asked Jade. "Where should we head from here?"

"The port hatch," Jade answered, pushing his glasses up. "During an emergency shutdown, that's the only one that will open. The Oracle Knights holding Ion should try to enter from there as well."

"But they took away our weapons." Luke pointed out. Well...they took everybody's weapon except Jade's. If they were to take his weapon away, they had to amputate his right arm. As if that was an easy task to accomplish.

"They're probably still nearby." Tear said. "Let's look for them in pairs."

"I call Luke." I said, suddenly. Tear looked at me and shook her head.

"No, you'll come with me. Luke can go with Jade. That way, there is one experienced fighter in both parties. Colonel, you and Luke can search the rooms down that hall." She pointed to the hall behind them. "Anh and I will go the opposite way."

I pouted slightly. At least it's better than me being paired up with Jade. Jade nodded at Tear's suggestion. "Very well then. We should move quickly. As soon as either group finds the weapons, come find the other pair quickly."

We all nodded and departed in our own ways. I followed slightly behind Tear since she had a better sense of direction than I did.

It didn't take very long. Apparently, Luke and Jade had better luck than Tear and I did. Although, I did snagged a few pouches of Gald, some gels and bottles, and some untested bullets. I don't think Jade would mind when he finds out about it.

During the time Tear and I were searching in a room, Luke slammed the door opened, panting heavily and looking rather grumpy. He was mumbling something along the lines of 'why do I have to carry everyone's weapons and bags?', 'Anh's bag is too heavy', 'lousy four-eyed devil' and 'it would have been better if we searched all together instead of pairs'. Jade, on the other hand, was taking his sweet time...walking. Now who was it that said to move quickly? By the time, Jade entered the room, Luke had already handed, roughly, Tear's staff and our bags to their respective owners. I took that opportunity to take the bullets Jade had given me when he first gave me the rifle into the pocket where the other, new found bullets was being kept. I think I saw Jade eyeing my pouch with a questioning look. Luckily, he decided not to question me now, but I would guess that he would probably do that later.

Once Tear and I got our things organized, Jade was the one who took the lead, said that he would lead us to the room where we will find 'something fun'. Tear and Luke gave him questionable and dubious looks. I would, too, if I didn't know that he was referring to a large box of gunpowder!

"Ah, here we are." Jade said with a happy business smile on his face as he opened the door to the room. He walked right in and placed both of his hands behind his back. "We'll find our something fun in the back, behind these boxes."

I walked in and looked past him to see a lot of boxes. The room with similar looking boxes in Engeve's storehouse came to mind. The damn back-breaking task of doom.

Tear walked past me. "So we move these boxes, then?" She walked past Jade and pushed at one of the boxes that looked like it was too heavy for someone like Tear. It budged...a little bit. I sighed and went over there to help her but with our combined strength, it didn't do too much either.

Jade and Luke was just standing there watching two girls push a heavy box. I heard Jade clearing his throat, probably getting Luke's attention. "By the way, Luke, I can't say I think much of you forcing women to do the heavy lifting."

"We're fine, Colonel." Tear objected.

No, Tear, we're not fine. It would be better to let Luke do the moving. He got more muscles than the both of us combined.

That, of course, didn't convince Jade. He let out a sigh. "Or do rich aristocratic boys lack any muscles? And here I thought even your brain was made of muscle."

"What did you say?" Luke asked him.

I sighed, still pushing the box. At least we made it halfway in. "Luke, learn to know when a diss is being said to you instead of having someone repeat it just to be dissed again."

"That does it!" Luke huffed. I heard him storm up to Tear and I, shoved the both of us out of the way as we watched Luke take over. He made more progress than Tear and I as he shoved that box. Once he shoved it, he turned around with a frown on his face. He pointed a finger at Jade. "Wait a minute. You're a guy, too! You help out!"

"No, I'd rather not." Jade said, smoothly. "You're younger than I am, after all. At my age, all my joints ache..."

"Using your old age as an excuse..." I mumbled.

Luke tsked and grumbled, "Fine, whatever. Out of the way, I'll do it."

Tear and I pulled back as Luke moved onto the next box. I heard Mieu cheering him on, only to make Luke more frustrated than he already is. Well, at least I'm not doing the pushing and pulling this time.

There weren't many boxes, so the task was finished in a few minutes. Luke, however, was sitting on the floor grumbling. Moving on, behind those boxes was another set of boxes lined up to keep something behind. That something was just a crate. Jade walked up to it and nodded at the crate.

"Here it is." He said to the group. Luke looked up and gave the crate a really large frown.

"This is your something fun..." Luke gave Jade a weird look. I giggled to myself.

"Basically, you light this thing in the middle of the wall and then watch it go BOOM!" I said, quoting a certain male character from another Tales game. Tear gave me a confused look before she decided to check what's in the crate. She was standing in front of the crate, inspecting every inch of it.

"It looks like you can open it up from the top," she said, after inspecting it. She dug her staff into the crate, lifting the top up. She pulled out a gray bag, and checked its contents. "This is... Colonel, is this gunpowder?"

Luke took many steps back until he hit the wall. "Gunpowder? Why is that here?"

"A group of soldiers have been pilfering supplies to sell on their own," Jade answered, pushing his glasses up. Tear set the bag back into the crate and closed it. "I discovered that they'd been hiding gunpowder here. Though this commotion has made my investigation pointless."

"I see." Tear said, thoughtfully. "So we just ignite this and destroy the wall."

"Are you serious?" Luke asked, astonished. "You sure that's going to be okay?"

"We'll be fine as long as we're not caught in the explosion. Now, let's hurry." Jade answered. I took that opportunity to hide behind Jade as Tear looked at him.

"Do we light it with a fonic arte?" she asked him. Jade shook his head.

"No, we light it with Mieu." Jade looked at the young cheagle standing beside Luke's foot. "You're on, Mieu."

Mieu's ears flew up into the air, happily as he gave Jade a nod. "Yes, sir!"

I covered my ears the moment Mieu said that, there was no way I was going to make myself partially deaf from the blast. Luke had also covered his ears since it was a bit too late to find shelter. During the blast, several pieces of wood flew past us, most of them were swatted away from Jade and Tear's weapons. Once the blast subsided, Luke kicked Mieu to the wall.

"You could've waited half a second!"

"Myuu... I'm sorry, Master." Mieu apologized, his ears drooped.

"No, that was perfect, Mieu." Jade objected to Luke's earlier sentence. "Now if the person behind me doesn't mind removing herself, let us be going."

I didn't realized that I was pushing myself up against Jade's back. Then again, I still heard the blast even with my ears blocked by my hands. That must be the reason why I stuck really close to him. Regardless, I peeled myself off of Jade, letting him and Tear leave through the hole that was made from the explosion. Luke tsked behind me.

"Must be lucky to use your commanding officer as a meat shield."

"I can't help it," I whined. "It's not like I want to watch the explosion."

"Who was it that said 'watch it go boom'?" Luke asked me with a grin on his face. I stuck a tongue out at him before moving on.

"Shut up." I told him. The both of us walked towards the hole where Jade and Tear were waaay ahead of us.

Beyond the hole, there was a nice walkway that gave us access to a ladder right behind a large golden gun. It was rather odd since there was a ladder there, but who was complaining? I should be thanking whoever thought of the idea to put the ladder there even though it was suppose to lead to the gun. Anybody that wanted to handle the huge ass gun over there must have high stamina or something.

We reached to the top where both Luke and I paled at the site of the massacred bodies before us. Although, Luke might be staring at his own nightmare. It was the area where he made his first kill. I swallowed whatever was rising from my throat, it wasn't bile since I would have tasted it, but it felt like my throat was being squeezed by an invisible force. Swallowing had never been a more difficult task than it was now. I focused my attention on Jade, grabbed Luke's hand, and hastily caught up with the two soldiers in front of us.

"This had never happened if..." I heard Luke muttered. He ended up repeating that line a few times to himself. I, on the other hand, kept looking forward.

I can't let the sight of corpses deter me. Right now, Luke was the one that needed someone strong to stand for him. We're both in the same situation but Luke was more sheltered than I was. I should stay strong for him and fret about it later.

God, I was such a wuss.

"It looks like we made it in time." Jade announced as he looked out of the window from the port hatch. "There they are."

I was sitting on the ground with my knees up to my chest. My rifle was out of its bag and in my hand, my finger on the trigger, ready to pull it any time. Tear stood to my left where she, like Jade, was looking out of the window. Luke stood near the door, clutching Mieu (by the Sorcerer's Ring) in one hand, while the other held onto the hilt of his sword.

Ion...

I could imagine Ion, returning with Legretta, in a very tired state. He was forced to unlock a Daathic seal. It would be a great toll on him being a replica.

"Have they realized the Tartarus did an emergency shutdown?" Luke whispered to Jade.

"I'd be rather surprised if they haven't," was Jade's response. Luke made a face before peering out of a window near him. Jade continued, "More importantly, we can't use fonic artes. There's no time for casting."

Luke tore his eyes away from the window and back at Jade. He set a fist on his waist and another hand in the air. "Hmph. It's not like you can use any decent fonic artes, anyway, with that fon slot seal."

Tear jabbed Luke's sides with her elbow, causing the red-head to give her an upset look. "How can you say things like that? The Colonel's been working hard to undo the fon slot seal."

Working hard? I don't see a sweat drop coming down from his face. I don't see a look where he was 'working hard'. Oh wait, it was Jade.

"I don't mind. It's the truth." Jade said to Tear. He peered out of the window. "Here they come. Everyone, get into position."

The door slowly opened as the stairs descended to the ground, the bars affixing themselves to the stair. Each of us was giving each other eye signals, most of the time, though, we were focusing on the problem at hand. Tear held out what looked like three fingers. I was glad I knew sign signals because the sign that Tear held out was actually read as the number six instead of three. Tear was indicating to the group that there were four others outside of the Tartarus with Ion. Jade nodded and motioned Luke, who burnt the first Oracle Knight that had opened the door.

"Fire! Now!" Luke ordered.

"Fire~!" Mieu shouted, a large flame came out of his mouth and right on the soldier's face. The Oracle Knight flew down the flight of stairs in attempt to douse the flame out. Jade had jumped down from the port hatch to confront Legretta who already readied her weapons. Luke and I ran down the stairs just when Jade 'kindly' asked her and the soldiers to thrown down their weapons. Each of the soldiers complied, dropping their swords when Legretta dropped her weapons.

Luke used Mieu as a weapon and smacked an Oracle Knight down to the ground. I ran to Ion to pull him away from the two soldiers that was guarding him.

"Anh!" Ion cried happily.

"Save it for later, Ion!" I hissed at him. "Let's get away from them as fast as we ca-"

The entrance where the port hatch was burst open and Tear fell. A large monster appeared on the stairs with a girl in black Oracle Knight uniform and pink hair. She hopped off of her monster and onto the stairs, all of that still hugging the weird looking voodoo doll in her arms. Tear was on the ground, struggling to get back up from the fall. Luke was right beside her as two Oracle Knights brandished their weapons at them. Jade, having lost his weapon, retreated. He stayed relatively close to Luke and Tear when a soldier had his blade at Jade. I also had an Oracle Knight soldier with his sword near my neck, while Ion had his two Oracle Knight bodyguards again. Legretta, after she retrieved her guns, shot three warning shots at the ground in front of Jade, Luke and Tear.

"Master, we're surrounded." Mieu squeaked from his place in Luke's hand. The cheagle was still being held by Luke even as he raised his arms in the air.

"Thank you for stating the obvious, Thing," Luke snapped at the cheagle.

Yes, Mieu. Thank you for stating the obvious.

"Arietta! What happened to the Tartarus?" Legretta asked the girl that was descending on the stairs.

"It's still inoperable..." the girl called Arietta replied when she set foot on the ground. She clutched the doll closer to her as she buried her chin into the head of the doll. "I was only able to get this far because my friend tore open the wall."

"Good work. Restrain them and-" Legretta paused and cast a quick glance to the top of the Tartarus. She returned her attention back to us, opening her mouth to continue her order.

Well, she was about to, until a obvious figure jumped down from the Tartarus, landed in front of Legretta making her falter a bit, and continued to move away from her by doing a wicked somersault. Legretta fired two shots at him once she had recovered but they were quickly deflected by his partially unsheathed sword. Legretta tsked, allowing him to make his way to Ion and taking down two Oracle Knights in two quick swipes. The next thing he said was the best of all.

"Enter the amazing Guy!"

I never get tired of that line. Ever.

I nearly said Flynn instead of Guy. If anybody hasn't noticed, I quoted Yuri Lowel from Tales of Vesperia. 'Light it in the middle of the monsters and then watch it go boom!'

Gotta love Yuri.

Anyway, Guuuy~ I'm happy I got to this part. I'm going to have fun in the next chapter.

See you all in the next chapter! And please review! The more reviews I get, the more teasing and torture I will do to Guy! :D