Mesha- "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra (covered by Reel Big Fish).

Genis- "Epiphany" by Bad Religion.

Raine- "November Rain" by Guns N Roses.

Regal- "Selfless, Cold, and Composed" by Ben Folds Five.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

Genis stood in Yuan's plush Triet office, his arms crossed as he looked at the daunting pile of paperwork on Yuan's desk. He let his eyes trail from the mountain, along the wall until he met the seraphim's aqua eyes, unreadable to most. But Genis saw the smug smile hiding behind the surface.

"No way," he said. "This was not a part of the agreement."

"Oh reeeeeeeeally?"

Genis's eyebrow twitched and he glanced away, his mouth set in a straight, angry line. "If I wanted to do desk work I would have stayed in school," he said.

"There's more to my teaching than beating people up," Yuan said, gliding past Genis, his shoulder-length hair held back by a silver clasp. It was nowhere near as long as it had been during the journey of World Reunification, but habits were hard to break. He perched in his chair, clasping his hands together on top of his desk.

"I think there's not much you can teach me academically, Yuan," Genis said dryly. "I'm Genis the Genius, remember?"

"This is money business, boy," Yuan said, taking a pencil and tapping it against the desk sharply. "Do you know how to run a company effectively? What experience do you have? Unlike your dear friends Bryant and Wilder, you have none, which is why I'm going to teach you." He leaned back, balancing on the rear legs of his chair. "You'll need to for what I have in mind."

Genis sighed a long-suffering sigh before slowly setting himself down on a chair, staring at Yuan over the desk and piles of paperwork. "Let me guess- you're not gonna tell me what it is until I go with the script you have planned. The one where I say "What do you have in mind, Yuan?" and then you get to have a long-winded explanation on your master plan." He sat back in his chair, making a face.

There was a long pause as Yuan coughed, shuffling and ordering the papers on his desk before he sharpened the pencil and began to work, the only sound in the room the steady skrritch skrritch skrritch of the lead.

Genis sighed again. "What do you have in mind, Yuan?"

Yuan looked up from his paperwork, a smile slowly spreading across his face. "I'm going to revive the Renegades," he said, grinning viciously before returning to his paperwork. "Scoot closer. I want you to watch me as I do this so I can explain what this all means."

Raine stood on the rooftop, mindlessly running her finger through her hair as the wind howled around her. Zelos approached her as silently as he could, but she noticed him at once and turned around, her arms crossed and her face set cold as stone.

"Um… Professor, baby," Zelos said, scratching his chin awkwardly. "I think you should go talk to Sheena."

She stared him down, her lilac eyes burning. Eventually he had to look away. "I tried already," she said. "It's up to her if she wants to talk to me. She's the one who's always running away." Shrugging, she put a hand on a small black Rheiard. "I trust this one is able to keep up with the bigger models?" she asked, effortlessly changing the subject.

"…Yeah," Zelos said. "Only the best for Baby Doll." He grinned. "That's my pet name for-"

"I had figured as much," Raine said, coldly. She shrunk Mesha's new Rheiard. "This is all I need for now, Zelos. I'll be seeing you." She pulled out her Rheiard and hopped on, revving up the engine until the steady purr took up all her hearing. But as she flew away, she tossed a small brown package to Zelos, who fumbled it in his hands a bit, trying not to drop it. When she was only a small speck heading towards the outskirts of the city, he stood and stared after her, frowning.

He looked down at the package. Scrawled on top was:

"Please give this to Sheena."

"Oh Goddess, why does it have to be so expensive?"

Mesha pressed her face against the store glass at the deceptively dainty necklace on display, all but moaning in desire. Harley laughed, tugging at her ear to get her attention. "Hey poor girl," he said, "Maybe you should try looking through shops that aren't meant for the richest people in the world."

"But this is gorgeous," she said, her emerald eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "It reminds me of the necklace Mommy- err…!" She glanced at Harley, laughing. "Err, I mean, the necklace Mother used to wear."

Harley adjusted his bandanna before shrugging. "The label thing says this was handcrafted by elves, so that figures." Checking his watch, he added, "And it's about time we cut this shopping spree short. Let's beat it, Mesha." Not waiting for a response, he tugged at her ear, pulling her along.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Mesha followed, stepping quickly to keep up. "Harley! You're being mean again!"

"Too bad. The Professor isn't going to wait indefinitely."

"But you don't have to pull on my ear! Let go!"

He deftly ignored her, weaving his way through the crowd with a small smile on his face. "Nope. Sorry."

"Harley-! Harley! Stop!" she finally snapped, slapping at his wrist until he let her go. She brought herself to her full height of four feet and ten inches, glaring up at him. "You don't have to treat me like I'm a kid! Because I'm not! I'm just…small!" She flushed, feeling foolish as she realized that reminding him of her height was not the best way to intimidate him.

"Yeah, but we're gonna be late, Mesha, so hurry up if you don't want me to drag you along," he said, rolling his eyes and shoving his hands into his pockets, continuing on through the mid-day shoppers. She did her best to keep up, trying to keep in his wake as he carelessly pushed people aside to make way. They didn't seem to mind, not even turning their heads to acknowledge him. Meltokio was a strange place…

They reached the city gates without incident, walking past the Law Enforcement Knights stationed there. "I remember a time when half-elves would be stopped at the gate and searched for no reason at all," he said, but with a large, cheerful grin on his face. He noticed the Professor a little way out into the outskirts of the city, floating a few feet above the ground on her bright red Rheiard and scribbling something down into a notebook. He yelled and waved to her, breaking out into a trot with Mesha hot on his heels.

She snapped the notebook shut as they approached, putting it away in one of her endless pockets. "I've got your Rheiard, Mesha," she said. Pushing a button on her Wing Pack, she made the child-sized Rheiard spring up from nowhere.

"So cool!" she said. "Now I'm really your student, Professor!"

"Not in the traditional sense, though," Raine corrected, though she couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. "Where do we go first?"

Mesha stopped. "Uh, don't you decide that, Professor?"

Raine shook her head. "Not really." She leaned forward, draping her arms over the handlebars to the Rheiards and resting her cheek against the controls. "There's no set schedule or anything like that. I teach as I travel."

"If that's the case… uh…" Mesha looked to Harley for guidance.

"Asgard!" he said.

"Yes, Asgard!" she leapt up into the air. "I've always read about it! Let's go to Asgard next!"

Raine managed to smile at her. "Before I start teaching you how to fly, though, I need to set down some rules."

"Oh yes. Absolutely." Mesha nodded, glancing at her Rheiard every so often.

"First off, you should always do as I say," Raine said. "We might go into dangerous places where not following my orders can mean your life." She was silent for a moment before sitting back in the rider's seat, smiling again. "And that's it."

"What?"

"That's the only rule."

Mesha blinked. Then she smiled back at Raine, hopping onto her Rheiard and bouncing in the seat. "All right then! Teach me everything you know, Professor. I won't let you down."

"Heh." She tossed her silver hair back out of her face. "Failure isn't an option with me as your teacher, Mesha. Start up your Rheiard."

"Ohhhh my Goooooooodddessss this is so booooooriinnnnng!" Genis moaned, grabbing at his spiky blue hair and tugging at it, slamming his head against Yuan's desk. Tunk. "Yuan," he said. Tunk. "Yuan." Tunk. "Yuan." Tunk. "Yuan!" TUNK!

Yuan put his pencil down slowly, trying to concentrate on not losing his temper. Finally gaining some control over his emotions, he glared up at the younger half-elf. "What."

"Fight me."

"No. We're working with papers today."'

"That's what we've been doing all week! My legs are dying! Dying! Look-" he reached down and grabbed at his ankle, hefting it up and slamming his foot down onto the table. "For the past few minutes I've been trying not to shriek because the feeling went out of my leg only to come back just this very moment!" He paused, his eyebrow twitching as he bit his lip. "Oh, screw it. Heeeeyaaaargh!"

Yuan grimaced, rolling up a few papers and smacking Genis upside the head. "Will you stop being so melodramatic?" he demanded. "You're a half-elf! What's a few days learning how to do something productive? I swear, you're turning into Lloyd. You've got the ridiculous hair and everything."

"In a few days I could be learning how to fight with a sword," Genis muttered, his face pressed against the wood. "I could be in Meltokio."

Yuan's eyebrow rose. "Meltokio? You're not one for high society, Genis." He unrolled the papers he had been abusing Genis with, straightening them out on his desk and trying to find where he had left off.

"Yeah but I have a friend in Meltokio and I really wanna go visit her!" Genis said. "It was different before 'cause I was still in school, but now that I'm out I just wanna run up to her and go 'Hey! Guess what! We don't have to wait until summer vacation now!'" He jumped out of his seat, assuming a boxing position. "And then we could pick up where we left off, because she was teaching me how to-"

Genis paused, flushing as he noticed Yuan watching him, eyes narrowed yet unblinking. He quickly sat back down, his hands resting on his lap and his attention trained on the papers. "Uh, yeah. I've been taking monthly lessons from her how to fight and things."

"…I see," Yuan said, gnawing at the end of his pencil as he rocked back in his chair, his eyebrows still risen. "Pandora Epiphany, she's the one, isn't she?" He bared his teeth in a mocking grin. "Little Miss Princess. I remember her from when we were hunting down Kloitz."

"Yeah. She's amazing," Genis said, nodding. "I mean, not only is she super-rich and intelligent, but she's spent most of her life just trying to be a knight like her dad. Adoptive dad." He corrected himself. "She was adopted."

"Oho!" Yuan grinned wider, the papers completely forgotten. "Little Miss Princess is more than she seems. So she's the one who's got you all fired up about being stronger, this little princess friend of yours?"

"Yes. It's embarrassing that I'm always getting my ass handed to me by a girl who's half my size," Genis said. Quickly, he added, "She always makes me take my Ex-sphere off before we spar, so I can't use that to my advantage."

"I was about to say…" Yuan shook his head. "So… what? You want me to give you a break so you can go visit your friend?"

Genis sat back, waiting for the trap. He watched Yuan, trying to think of how he could turn Genis's answer into an insult. After a few moments, he said, "Well, don't you ever miss your friends?"

His Inner Genis did a victory dance at the look on Yuan's face, no matter how quickly the seraphim wiped it away. He busily turned back to his paperwork. "I don't have any friends," he said.

"But you've got me!" Genis said, his eyes wide and innocent. "Aren't we buddies?"

"Why would I ever befriend a miscreant like you?" Yuan muttered.

"Oho, I can tell you're getting angry!" Genis said, tugging at Yuan's silver hair. He shifted in his chair until he was resting on his knees so he could reach over the desk to grab Yuan's head and tilt it from side to side. "I can tell, you're reaching deep, deep into your vocabulary for the words to describe your anger! Don't try to hide it now."

"Sit down, Genis." Yuan slapped his hands away.

"You know I'm your hero."

"Ugh. I get it now. You're feeling antsy because you need to go visit your girlfriend." Yuan snorted, sneering at Genis. "You teenagers and your hormones."

"Hey! Pandora's just my friend, ok? Plus she's engaged to Zelos. Plus she's a year older than me, which disturbs me to no end."

"Plus," Yuan grinned, "She's a she."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means."

"Hey, I thought this was a clean fight. No hitting below the belt."

"Heh heh heh heh, but you like it below the belt, don't you Genis?"

"You want me to rip that Cruxis Crystal right out of your wrist, Homo Sera-feme?"

"Boy, you cannot even lay a finger on me. And does long hair automatically make me femin-? Oof!" Yuan's chair was knocked back as Genis lunged at him, getting them both tangled in his flowing blue cape. Genis grinned, remembering moves both Yuan and Pandora had taught him when fighting hand-to-hand. Catching Yuan by surprise like he did gave him an advantage- but a small one. Four thousand years of training kicked in and soon Genis found his face smooshed against the tiles- as he almost always ended up when they fought. Yuan pinned him down, twisting his arms behind his back and locking their legs together, keeping him from being able to so much as wriggle.

"I daid a finga aun joo," Genis said as best as he could with his mouth pressed against the floor.

"Ugh," Yuan said. "I wasn't talking literally." He got off of Genis, sitting on the floor and blowing a strand of silver hair out of his face. "You want to go to Meltokio that badly?"

"Uh, duh," Genis said. "I'm sure you wish you could go to Derris-Kharlan to go see Kratos, too! Didn't you miss him when he left?"

Yuan tilted his head from side to side, sighing. "Not particularly. Now get up and get out of here before I change my mind."

"Oh… so you do miss him…" Genis's eyes became moist with false emotion. "How tragic."

"Get the hell out of here!" Yuan snapped, kicking out with one foot. Genis nimbly dodged it, scrabbling to his feet and zipping away, the sound of his chuckles following him through the hallways of the Triet Base. Yuan sighed, getting to his knees and picking up the papers Genis had knocked over when he had slid across the desk to tackle Yuan. He allowed his stern features to relax, now that he was alone, and sat back down at his desk. Leaning back and closing his eyes, he let the silence of the Triet Base sink into him. He placed the papers on his lap, pressing a slender finger against his cheek, prodding at where Genis had punched him. Only the faintest of feelings, a bare twinge of pain. Now that his Cruxis Crystal was partially broken, Yuan could sometimes feel things like the cold, and… pain. And emotions.

"Ugh," he slapped at his forehead, leaning forward. This pressure in his chest. And the silence of the Triet Base, once full of his soldiers, seemed to make it worse. He had thought the silence from Genis's neverending chatter would be a relief.

And ugh! He glanced over at his faintly glowing Crystal, pulsing with its own light. The brother of that fool. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have these feelings.

Tunk tunk tunk tunk. Yuan's head snapped up at the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. His heart sank. Goddess, no! He didn't mean it! He liked Genis being gone! Now he would never shut up!

"Yuan!" Genis said. The blue-haired seraphim twitched. "Yuan, about Kratos-"

Oh, that just tears it. Yuan stood up, slamming the flat of his palms down on the desk. "Yes!" He yelled. "Yes, it's true!" He grabbed up the papers that had been in his lap, tossing them into the air. "I'll admit it, if it just means you'll leave me in peace! I miss him! I miss him and I don't care who hears it!" He whirled around to tackle Genis to the ground again, but froze mid-step, clapping a hand to his mouth so fast he almost felt the pain.

Kratos watched him from behind the rain of cascading papers, his eyebrows gently raised in a mildly surprised expression. "Yuan," he said, smiling. "It's good to see you too."

A/N: THE RETURN OF KRATOS! But why? Are things not going well? Is there DANGER? Is there a THREAT from Derris-Kharlan? Oh my! And by the way if anyone could suggest a theme song for Presea gimme a link to the lyrics, please. This chapter wasn't very long... but eh. Pretty soon I'll be introducing one of the major plot lines- and the next poll! Remember I promised you guys a poll? I think you'll like this one...

Next Chapter- "Talented"