POLL RESULTS

Girl – 6

Boy - 8

Boys are ahead by two points! Ooh, I'm excited! But please, people, only vote once. It's confusing me, and I have to double check posts to make sure a person hasn't already voted. Yeesh… oh, and this is just the vote for the first born. They are probably going to have a lot more, since they strike me as the type to have a huge happy family. And by the way, Sylvi? When you make that notebook, make sure to mention Zelos/Everyone.

Sadly no Matias this chapter. He seems to be pretty popular… and I really didn't expect that. I thought everyone would hate him! So this is a pleasant surprise. Sorry for the long wait but I've been extremely busy with my tae kwan do lessons and school and plus my internet DIED so that was trouble for a while…And forgive me if my geography sucks. I have no idea how the combined worlds look like so I just mashed together the locations.

Anyway…enjoy!

OoOoOoOoOo

Lloyd knocked on the door to Colette's room. At least the maids said this was the room she had locked herself in…. in any case, she didn't answer. Normally he wouldn't have knocked since they always shared a room anyway, but this time he felt the need to tread softer. After a few moments of silence from the other side of the door he frowned and pushed it open, looking around for some sign of his wife. There were none, except for her discarded white jacket and a wide open window.

The Eternal Swordsman cursed and ran to the window, craning his neck to look up at the far off golden flapping of blond hair in the wind. Putting one leg out, he tumbled out of the room and willed his wings to flicker to life. Lloyd made a strangled noise as his fall was cut abruptly short, feeling as though his wings would be ripped right out of his back. Awkwardly, he flapped them a few times and cut through the air, reminding himself to take a few more flying lessons from Kratos one of these days.

"Colette!" he said, but they were so high up he wasn't sure she heard him over the winds, even with her uncanny hearing. She floated with her arms crossed and her head bowed against the chilly autumn winds. "Colette!" he said again, flying over and putting a hand on her shoulder. If she hadn't already been in the air she would have jumped; instead she flinched and turned around, floating a few feet back with one arm crossed defensively across her belly. Transparent gossamer wings fluttered a few times and she calmed down once she recognized him. He moved after her, bending down to yell in her ear.

"Let's go back down!"

Colette nodded and they spiraled downwards, Lloyd wishing he had thought of bringing her jacket up with him. She was shivering still, so he wrapped one arm around her shoulder. "Are you OK?" he asked once they were safely perched on the roof to Zelos's house.

She shook her head no, and Lloyd felt an eerie wave of déjà vu, of the days when Colette wouldn't ever speak a word and she didn't feel the cold any more than she felt the burning sands of the Triet desert. The sudden irrational fear clenching his heart tightly in his chest faded as soon as she spoke, though.

"I'm sorry…"

Lloyd clapped a hand to his forehead. Of all the things to say, she had to say that hated phrase. "For what?" he demanded. "Kratos was being too harsh with you. It's his fault, OK? It's not your fault. I went and I had a talk with him after you left."

"What?" her eyes widened. "But he- He's your father."

"Uhuh." Lloyd placed his hand on his hips, looking down at her. "And you're my wife. What, did you forget that?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Never. I've never forgotten."

"Good. Then you know if he ever yells at you the way he did I'm gonna turn around and yell right back, right in his face." His right hand was resting on the pommel of his sword, like it always was, and he hopped back a few steps and drew it, slashing at the air. "I can kick his butt if I need to, too, and he knows it!" he grinned and sheathed the sword with a decisive thrust.

"Lloyd…" she rubbed her temple. "You don't have to do that. Kratos probably thought he was… defending you against me."

"Defen- what?" His mouth opened, but no sound came out. The wind on the mansion rooftop howled around them, making Colette's hair dance joyfully despite her somber mood. After a few moments of working his jaw Lloyd shook his head. "What?"

"Think about it," she said. "His only son got married and his wife his pregnant. And…" Colette flushed furiously, looking almost ready to cry. "And it- it- Well, you know. We've never… and I never… You know." She turned around and went to the very edge of the roof, letting the wind hit her even though she had begun to lose the feeling in her fingers and she was shivering worse than ever. "And I guess that makes him pretty mad. It won't be his grandson. Or granddaughter. And I know it makes you mad too."

No it doesn't, he tried to lie, but instead he bit his lip.

Colette smiled at the Meltokio ground under her feet. "See?"

"But I'm not mad at you!" Lloyd insisted. "I'm mad at whoever did this to you, and-!"

"And that's it!" Colette hunched over again, feeling her face heat up. "That's the problem, don't you see? No one did this to me! I know what you think, OK? I know what all of you think. I know you think I'm stupid, and naïve, and gullible, and you think someone took advantage of me when you weren't looking, and you think it's your fault for not protecting me." The tiny angel clenched her fist to keep from punching it through the roof as she sat down, her legs dangling over the side. "But I'm telling the truth, Lloyd. No one touched me. I don't need anyone to protect me anymore. I'm not the Chosen anymore, but I'm not a normal girl anymore, either. And I- I've been faithful to you."

Her shoulders shook harder, but not from the cold. Lloyd walked over and sat next to her, putting a gloved hand on her lap.

"I believe you," he said.

She looked up with a start, the tears streaming down her face. Her eyelids were a bright red that stood out starkly against her pale face and blue eyes.

"You do?"

"Yeah. How can I not?" Taking her frigid hand, he tried to warm it. "I think we've both seen enough to know anything can happen." He cupped her cheek and kissed her. "I brought your soul back, didn't I?"

Kratos stood at the doorway to the roof, watching them. He'd been standing there unnoticed for practically the entire time, but he finally decided to break in. "That you did," he agreed with Lloyd, causing them both to jump like startled sparrows. "And I think I might have a solution to your problem."

"Kr-Kratos?" Colette asked, gripping Lloyd's hand tightly.

Kratos sighed and looked away from her. "…."

"It's OK," Colette said, unable to tear her gaze from the floor. "I understand where you were coming from, Kratos."

"Thank you." Clearly feeling awkward in the current situation, he cleared his throat and coughed before continuing. "When I was an angel of Cruxis, one of my duties was to keep track of the mana lineage. Through lesser angels I would send messages to the families to let them know who their sons and daughters should marry in order to produce a Chosen most likely to be a proper vessel for Martel. But if a girl refused to be married or have children, I would… I would be forced to…" he struggled with the last bit. "Have my soldiers abduct her. We would take her to one of Yuan or Rodyle's labs, and there he would…. Artificially inseminate her." He pursed his lips. "The girl would be returned the same night with no memory of what happened, and remain a virgin since unnatural means were used to impregnate her. Mithos was particularly fond of that method," Kratos added bitterly, "He thought it would improve the people's faith if we had a miracle or two every so often."

There was a shocked silence on the roof, with only the howling wind to break it.

"So in the Holy Scriptures of Martel, when it would say that a Chosen was born without a father… All of the immaculate conceptions were faked?" Colette swallowed nervously as yet another pillar of her false faith was knocked to the ground.

"I'm afraid so, Colette." The seraphim crossed his arms, waiting for the accusation to come piling in. To his surprise, they didn't. He was grateful; he was only a simple man without answers to complicated questions.

"Was it magic?" Lloyd wanted to know.

"No. Just Cruxis technology. You should know by now how little magic had to do with Cruxis. It's always technology… and Cruxis Crystals."

Lloyd frowned, rubbing Colette's hand between his own to keep it from freezing again. He didn't want her to get sick- even though he didn't know if angels could get sick, besides the obvious Angel Toxicosis. "And you think this is what happened to Colette."

"It's a possibility, and the only one I can think of that fits with the way she says things happened." Kratos walked over to them, holding out his hands in a gesture of hopelessness. "I just want to help, and I think taking you to Yuan is the only way I can. He has ways to find out what's going on."

Lloyd looked down at Colette. "You wanna?" he asked.

She nodded.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"There you are…"

Raine looked up with narrowed eyes as Alex entered the second story bedroom of Aisha's house. The human lost his smile and glanced away, crossing his arms defensively. "Are you upset with me still, Rainebow? I have a gift for you." He pulled out the same odd weapon she had seen earlier in the day. Grinning widely, Alex spun it in his hands. "The name is uncertain but most people are calling it the Balacruf Spade."

"How original."

Alex continued as if she had not spoken. "When the Asgard researchers excavated that new cavern, they found the graves of a few dozen Balacruf monks and records detailing how they used the spade for planting food and as a weapon as well."

Raine tried not to show that she had been pining for the staff ever since she had first set eyes on it; she failed miserably. Alex tossed it to her with a chuckle and she caught it, testing her finger on the edge of the shovel-like blade at the end while running her other hand along the smooth wooden shaft. The whole spade was easily bigger than she was.

"You must think you're so clever…" Raine sighed, too tired to put on an angry show. She shook her head, setting the spade aside and doing her best not to look at Alex. The half-elf was sitting at Linar's desk, an open book in front of her though she hadn't been reading it. Every time she tried she couldn't get past the first paragraph.

"I know I'm clever," said Alex. "But that's not why I came up here." His boots were heavy and clunked against the floor as he moved towards her, standing behind her chair and putting one hand on her shoulder and one on the side of her head, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"I could have sworn I told Harley to keep an eye on you," she said.

He chuckled. "Your friends are easy to charm, I'm afraid. Do you want to know what they think of you?"

"No."

"Ahh, I thought so. Mesha is more than a little fond of you, you know. She notices the way you're so protective of her and she can't help but wonder why."

"I told you, I don't want to know what my friends think of me!" Raine snapped, turning in her seat to glare up at him. It was still a shock to see the grey in his hair, but she shoved the feelings to the back of her mind. It wasn't any concern of hers if Alex had begun to grow old while she stayed young.

"But she's not your friend," Alex insisted, his grip on her shoulder tightening. "You didn't take her on as your student out of pity or because of her talent. She's your lover, isn't she?"

Raine couldn't answer at first. The silence in the room was deafening as they stared each other down, eyes searching each other for some weakness. Then she burst into a violent fit of laughter, doubling over with her arms wrapped around her waist. Startled, Alex took a few steps back as Raine cried tears of mirth. His ears reddened after a moment and he looked away. She continued to laugh, unable to do anything else as all the years of hoarding up resentment towards him were washed away. Why was it so hard to stay mad at him?

"Fine, fine," he said, "I guess I was wrong this time."

"You guess? You guess?" Raine took a few deep breaths, resting her forehead against the desk. "Oh Alex, you know they say the mind is the first thing to go."

That seemed to strike a nerve in him. He'd always been vain. "There's nothing wrong with my mind. I just make mistakes, same as any other man."

"It was a mistake to tell them we were married," Raine said, her smile gone when she turned to look at him again. The shock wasn't so great, now, and she could bear to see his grey hair without guilt. "Why did you?"

"Because lies always get a person farther than the truth ever can," he said, smiling. "And because it provides a handy excuse to why we have the same last name. And because people believe it."

"Well, my students certainly seem to believe it," Raine muttered.

"Yes," Alex said, "And I already tried it on your friend Regal, and the lie makes so much sense."

"How do you know Regal?" Raine sat up straight, her eyebrows shooting up, incredulous.

"That's another story to tell. But the point it, this lie works well. It ties together all the little strings, the questions you leave unanswered. He's always suspected someone spurned your love, and now he thinks it was me." Alex laughed, softly. "And because I'm such a jealous husband I found out about your affair with the ninja…. Sheen? Sean? Is his name Sean?"

Raine matched his smile. "You couldn't find out the name?"

"Sadly, no. Maybe now that we're together again you can tell me?" He pressed his middle and index finger against her forehead. "Or…Do you want me to take the pain away again, Rainebow, and we can forget all of this?"

"I can forget all of this, you mean…" she said, pushing his hand away. "You did a sloppy job last time, you know. I had recollections of the Otherworldly Gate, and of Tethe'alla. I caused Genis quite a bit of grief."

"Genis…" Alex's face softened at the name. "I noticed he isn't attached to you by the hip."

"He grew up. He didn't want to be dependant on his 'older sister' anymore."

"Is he doing all right on his own? He's sixteen now, right?"

"He's in school now, and practically seventeen. His birthday is next month. And…" she lowered her voice. "And Kloitz. Kloitz will be seventeen, too."

"Rainebow…" Alex said, his tone changing. "Kloitz is.."

"I know what you're going to say," she interrupted, "You're going to say I need to let him go, that he's dead, and Mother is dead too. Well… your mother, maybe, but my mother is alive, and so is Kloitz." She leaned forward, her lilac eyes glowing softly. "I saw him, Alex. I saw him, and I touched him, and he was real. Goddess help me, I almost killed him too, to keep him from killing me."

Alex was silent for what felt like eternity, then: "Are you cer-"

"Of course I'm certain!" she broke in, holding his hands so tightly her nails left crescent moons on his skin. "He made me remember. His eyes were purple. He had dyed his hair silver to be like Genis and me, but later on it grew out and I saw that his hair was really black as midnight." She could see the doubt still on his face. "You don't believe me? Fine. Go to Meltokio, he's-"

She broke off abruptly, letting him go and turning away. "He's in jail," she realized with a sinking feeling. "He's rotting in the dungeons for murder, and for conspiring with Cruxis."

Alex bristled. "Kloitz? My Kloitz?" he shook his head, "You have to be wrong, Raine. It's some cruel trick this boy is pulling on you. Mother died when our boat crashed onto the shores of the Otherworldly Gates, and Kloitz-"

"Your mother was not my mother, Alex!" she snapped again, slamming one fist into her palm to drive the point home. "And is it so hard to believe that when someone else raised him, he turned out bad?" Raine asked. "He would have turned bad anyway. Just like us. This is a Sage we're talking about. There's not a good one from the bunch, they're a whole orchard of bad apple trees, they married elves and Goddess knows what else, they-"

The side Alex's mouth twitched. "You don't have to remind me, Raine. But…your story contradicts something I thought to be the truth." He shook his head. "I won't believe this until I see it with my own eyes."

"You know as well as I do that it's not good to see the truth."

Alex turned and left as if she had not spoken. "Let's head out to Altamira first, though. Your friend Regal still needs to pay me for working with his brat."

"Wait- his brat? You mean Presea is sick?" Raine stood up and pushed the chair back, but he had already closed the door behind him. "Damn it, Alex…"

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Hey, Harley?" Mesha whispered as they walked out of Asgard, a few steps behind the Professor and the man who claimed to be her husband. "I'm not sure what to think of this guy."

"Whaddaya mean?" Harley asked, peeling an orange with his fingers. He handed her a slice since the Professor had rushed them all out of Aisha's house before they could eat breakfast.

"Well… I never met any other half-elves before you and the Professor. Mom was an elf, and Daddy was a human, so I knew what they felt like. But when I saw you two it…" Mesha spat out a seed and ate her orange to stall for time. "It was like someone slapped me in the face, and I knew," she finished finally, swallowing her orange. "It's the same way when I saw Kate for the first time. There's no way not to know, you know?"

"Uhuh." Mesha could tell Harley was getting bored by the way he kept on glancing around him, but she kept on talking anyway.

"But this guy, he's different." She slowed down some and lowered her voice, in case he was listening. "It's kind of scary."

"It's nothing to be scared of, Mesha," Harley said. "He's probably a human with a half-elfin grandparent, or something. I can feel it too."

Mesha breathed a sigh of relief. "So it's not just me?" she asked hopefully.

"Naw. It's him. He's got it good, though." Harley spat out three seeds in rapid succession, managing to pin Alex in the back of the head with all of them. The older man winced and whirled around, and Harley waved at him with the biggest grin he could manage without retching up his orange. When Alex grumbled and turned back around, Harley snickered and continued. "With him it's hard to notice. It's not like us half-elves. And he can probably use magic while looking just like a normal freaking human. He's one lucky bastard, yeah."

Mesha decided to let his curse word slide for today. "I guess so," she said, stopping when she saw that the Professor and Alex had stopped. Professor Raine pulled out her Wing Pack and pressed a button. It caused the Rheiards to appear from thin air with a huge gust of smoke to herald their arrival. They caught Alex completely by surprise and he almost fell back onto his butt when he jumped to avoid the flying machines. Finding his balance last minute, he managed not to appear like a total fool.

"Wow, Raine," he said, running a hand over the sleek painted hull of Harley's Rheiard. "You've come a long way from when I first saw you teetering along on a bicycle." He threw one leg over the Rheiard, sitting himself comfortably with his hands running over the handlebars. "But they do look a bit like bicycles, don't they?" he mused, turning the handles right and left to get a feel for them.

"Bicycles that can fly into the ionosphere," Raine said, leaning over his shoulder and putting her hands over his, showing him how to turn the Rheiard on. She gave him a crash course on how to control the flying machine and then they were off, Raine sharing her Rheiard with Harley while Mesha rode alone, wondering how her life would have different if the tables were turned and it was the half-elves who were in power.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Are you two really going to get married?" Mithos made a face at his sister and her new fiancé. "That's gross. I don't want to be related to Yuan."

"You're already related to me, twerp." Yuan clenched his fist and shook it threateningly at the boy. "We have the same last name, remember?"

Martel chuckled and Kratos rolled his eyes, pulling out his sword to sharpen it. "Really, really distantly related!" Mithos spread his arms out wide to show them how distant they were. "If you guys go through with this, you'll be like my brother or something." Mithos's pale face paled even further. "No, wait. You'll be like my dad since Martel's practically my mom."

"Trust me, kid. I don't intend on being your dad. Ow!" Yuan grumbled as Martel elbowed him in the ribs and crossed his arms, huffing angrily.

"You two behave," Martel said, sternly. Kratos threw another log onto the fire, trying not to smile at his three half-elfin friends. After a while Martel got the two men in her life to reconcile by playing a song on her pipe flute and made them sing the lyrics to 'The Bear and the Maiden Fair.'

"There once was a bear, a bear, a BEAR! All black and brown and covered in hair…."

Kratos excused himself to go feed Noishe. The auburn soldier moved away from the warm glow of the camp fire into the nearby woods where Noishe was busy rolling in the mud. He chuckled. "Charming…" he said as the creature panted at him.

"…from Here to There! Three boys a goat and a dancing bear…"

He could only hear bits and pieces of the song when he was so far out, but Kratos knew it by heart anyway. It was one of Mithos's favorite songs, and he always had Martel sing it to him. Not minding the mud, he grabbed Noishe's head and played with him, letting him pretend to snip at his fingers. Noishe would never really bite him.

"…will not dance with a hairy bear, said the maiden fair, the maid with honey in her hair…"

"What are you doing so far from the fire, boy?" Kratos asked him, feeding him strips of dried meat. Noishe whined and slobbered all over his hand, but didn't eat the food. He had been on edge for the past few nights, and it was starting to disturb Kratos. Yuan dismissed it, Mithos didn't realize it, and Martel was sympathetic but ultimately didn't know how to calm the dog either.

"…licked the honey from her hair! My bear! she squealed, My bear so fair!..."

Kratos would remember that night. It was the night before Martel died, and Mithos went insane.

oOoOoOoOoOo

"Yuan…?" Colette walked around the seraphim's office, her wings fluttering anxiously. Kratos stood in the doorway, his arms crossed as move his gaze across the room, looking for something, anything. He could feel a sense of wrongness in the room even though the papers were stacked up neatly on top of the desk, and a fresh mug of coffee was steaming on a corner of the wooden surface. It was as though Yuan had set down the work and just got up to stretch his legs- only he never came back. Lloyd was double-checking the base for him right now, and Kratos was alone with Colette.

Colette… When he had first read her letter, he didn't know how to react. More than once, the idea that it might be some kind of sick joke from Zelos popped into his mind, but he was pretty sure Zelos didn't know there was a way to contact him. He just didn't understand. He hadn't known what to do. And now he was confused again.

Kratos sighed loudly and paced around the room, running his fingers over statues and the shelf full of Yuan's books, searching for something to let him know he wasn't being paranoid and that Yuan was actually in danger. Or better yet, that he was being paranoid and Yuan wasn't in danger.

Kratos was one of the finest swordsmen in the world. But, as Yuan was fond of pointing out, a sword was only good for one thing. But he had never really needed anything else- Yuan was the diplomat, Martel was the mage, Mithos… Mithos was everything. There was nothing the boy couldn't do if he truly wanted to learn. He had been a prodigy, and once he had control of all the summon spirits and the Eternal Sword, his talents were only limited to his imagination. And the boy had never lacked in that.

Kratos stopped when he came to a familiar red book in Yuan's bookshelf. The spine of the book, where the author's name should have been, was empty. The book had no words, not on the pages or on the cover. He knew this by experience. If Yuan is really in danger, he'll forgive me for going into his lab Kratos thought as he opened the book and used his angelic vision to zoom in on the thread-like lock combination. Being as careful as he could, he shifted the threads with his thumbnail until they were aligned in the correct pattern for the shelf to slide back and a dark staircase to be revealed. Colette made a girlish, squeaky gasping noise and took a few steps back. Kratos didn't wait for her, making his way down the staircase, his heart pounding out a strong rhythm in his chest.

"Yuan?" he called out, flicking on light switches as he passed them, filling the narrow stair case with yellow light. "Yuan, are you here?" There was no response so he kept on searching until he reached the end of the staircase to look into the dark lab, feeling suddenly naked without his armor on. Dimly, he remembered leaving it in Zelos's mansion, forgetting to don it all in his haste to reach Yuan and get this confusion with Colette's baby all sorted out. At least he still had his sword at his waist and his shield strapped to his back. That was all a real man needed to protect himself.

He kept on, running a hand along various steel tables with grooves for the blood to stream through and leather straps to hold a subject down. It was surprisingly neat for being the lab of a mad scientist like Yuan was prone to be- neater than the rest of his office and base, at least. Mithos and Yuan had often sat together, poring over notes that Kratos couldn't make heads or tails out of. From those notes, monsters began to spring up in the declining world, and whenever that world would begin to ascend in power the monsters would inevitably die out. Then the two would have to start all over again, modifying them, making them stronger or weaker, or based on elements. Kratos picked one of Yuan's notebooks up and looked over it, trying to make sense of the mad scribbles. They still didn't make sense to the swordsman.

"Yuan?" he called out again, putting down the notebook and walking through the door to the Creature Incubation Lab. Here and there he could still see half-finished projects floating in some unnamable fluid in a test chamber. Here, he had once seen Rodyle and Pronyma, Kvar and Mithos… and yes, Yuan too. But never Kratos. His only talent was with a sword, and they had all known it. Kratos never needed a monster to be created. But Yuan…Yuan, his best friend… Yuan….

"Yuan's not here," someone whispered behind him, someone standing at his elbow in the gloom.

Kratos whirled around, pulling out his sword as he did so in a single, effortless, graceful movement. He swung his sword in one wide arc without any real target, seeking only to drive the intruder back. Steel screeched out against steel and he shifted his shield from his shoulder onto his arm, unfurling his wings as he pressed down with his sword, forcing the intruder on her knees. Hopping back a step, he thrust forward again and let his sword arm loose on whoever dared to try and sneak up on Kratos Aurion.

"Kratos, stop it!"

Kratos blinked, the swear words dying in his throat as he saw it was Colette who had snuck up on him, Colette flying along soundlessly on her tiny angel wings, Colette, his son's wife and practically Martel reborn. Had he truly forgotten that he wasn't working alone? Why didn't he consider that she might follow him down the stairs? She took a few steps back from him, a chakram held in one hand with her other arm hanging uselessly by her side as she bled onto the floor. The vermilion spill oozed along until it gurgled out of sight down the drains in the floor.

"Colette," he said, wiping his sword on his pant leg, hating himself for sounding so composed while she scattered her precious Chosen blood all over the floor. "Colette, I…"

"I'm not hurt bad," she lied, sinking to her knees and letting her chakram clatter to the floor as she cradled her arm, her face growing pale. "I'm not- I'm not."

He sheathed his sword quickly and moved towards her, trying to ignore how she flinched at the sudden movement. He held out her arm so that he could heal it to the best of his abilities. "Forgive me," he said, putting a glowing hand on her wound. "Please. I didn't know, but my mind shouldn't have been so clouded. I should have seen. First Aid."

"Oh no, this is nothing," Colette said, still smiling gamely. "You didn't hurt the baby so everything is fine. It's dark here. It was an accident. I should have known better than to sneak up on you like thwha- wha- what?" she flushed as he encircled her thin shoulders in a quick embrace before letting go and standing back.

"I truly need to apologize," he said, bowing his head to let his hair hang down over his face so that he didn't need to meet her prying eyes. "Not only for this. For many things. I've treated you…" he grasped at words, wishing for half of Yuan's verbosity. "…Unfairly."

"Oh, no!" Colette said as he used more magic on her arm. Nearly all the pain was gone by now. "No, no. Not at all. Well. I mean, you have, but I understand where you're coming from. I know you just love Lloyd a lot. Am I right?" She mustered up a small smile, acting as though he hadn't just tried to kill her.

He nodded, hesitant.

"And I love him too," she said, crossing her arms though the wound made her movements stiff. "And that's really all there is to it. Do you understand?"

Kratos did not, but he nodded anyway since that seemed to please her. "As my… daughter… I think I should show you a little more trust. And it would help me get over this if we could start over again with a fresh slate. So please…" he held out his hands. "I need your forgiveness."

Giving him a start, Colette laughed. He looked up from under his bangs, bewildered, until she flushed again and stammered an apology. "But there's nothing to forgive…" she said, smiling shyly again.

And for some reason, Kratos believed her. He managed a weak smile in return and wondered if perhaps he should say something else, but then turned around and began to search through the labs again, muttering something about how they should keep looking for Yuan.

"Well," Colette said, making sure her wings were buzzing loud enough so that he wouldn't get surprised again, "I don't think he's here. I can't hear anything, and I'm trying really hard."

"Nothing?" he asked, his lips pursed in an upset line. "Nothing at all?"

"Humming in the walls," she said softly, lowering her eyelids and cocking her head to the side as she concentrated. "Electricity. But there's nothing alive in here. Unless those things floating in the tubes…" Colette did her best not to grimace at a bloated dwarf-sized Cyclops to her right and quickly stepped away from it towards the tubes that were empty. Or, it might have been empty. The glass was fogged up for some reason, beads of water sometimes gathering and blazing new paths against the surface.

"Yuan cut the power to this place a long time ago," Kratos said, moving after Colette. "Mithos forced him to after he saw how Rodyle was more willing to use human subjects and was ultimately more useful in that branch of research. They were partners before he went groveling to Pronyma to try and worm his way into Lord Yggdrasil's favor." Kratos frowned for a moment, turning to Colette. "Rodyle went groveling, of course. Not Yuan." He shook his head, putting a hand to his face to hide a smile before he began to move back to the staircase.

Colette blinked and spoke up after him. "But if he cut off the power, then how come all this stuff is working?"

Kratos stopped at that, half-turning his head to look at her over his shoulder. He didn't say anything for a moment, the realization slowly dawning on his face as he moved to another test tube, one also covered up in fog. He roughly wiped his hand against the glass, his face unreadable as he peered inside….

"Colette," he said, "What is in that tube next to you?"

Colette bit her lip and did as he had just done, lifting up her arm and smudging her sleeve against the glass and pressed her face against the glass, her eyes narrowed to see better. She gave a sharp cry and then took a few steps back, her wings rigid with fear as she toppled over her own two feet and landed in some controls, causing all of the tubes to open with a hiss and dump their contents on the lab floor. The blue liquid evaporated as soon as they opened, sending up a thick blue steam that gathered in the ceiling before drifting away.

Kratos moved silently, stooping to catch Yuan as he slid from the tube, wires and tubes disconnecting from various points on his body. His shoulder-length silver hair was clinging to his face and neck with the thick blue substance the tube had been filled with, but it dried almost as soon as he was exposed to the environment outside the tube. Kratos lifted up Yuan's right hand- or what was left of it. Up until the wrist it was still the same as it had been before, only where he had once had a palm and five fingers he now had a smooth, round stump.

"Oh, Goddess," Colette whimpered, clambering over to kneel next to the two seraphim. She took Yuan's other hand, feeling for a pulse. Touching any part of him was like brushing your fingers against a block of solid ice. "Oh, Yuan. Oh, Yuan…" her hand moved to hover over his mouth, hoping to feel a breath. "Kratos, I think he's dead."

"He's not dead," Kratos said dutifully, his jaw working as he clenched his teeth tight and pressed glowing hands over Yuan. "Healing Stream!" he barked, and Yuan's skin warmed. But nothing else happened- much less a steady thrum of a heartbeat. Kratos's made a fist and struck Yuan's chest sharply. "Healing Stream!" he said again, pressing down with both fists.

There was a silence in the room, punctuated only by the steady hum of electricity running through the walls.

OoOoOoOoOo

Mesha gripped the handlebars to her Rheiard tightly as she caught a speck of blue in the distance. For a while she tried to convince herself that it was just another large lake, but as they flew closer and the blue expanse never stopped growing, she couldn't contain herself any longer. She flipped on her headset to let everyone hear.

"The ocean!" she said, speeding up to zoom ahead of Harley, Raine, and Alex. "The ocean! That's the ocean! Harley, Harley, look!"

"Your girl is disturbingly perceptive," came Alex's voice over her headset. Mesha looked over her shoulder to see Raine making a face and flipping hers to a mute setting before settling down and holding onto Alex's waist. Mesha was glad that her Rheiard had turned out too small for anyone but her. If she'd had a normal sized one, Professor Raine and Alex would have taken two and let her and Harley share one.

She almost grew a little airsick at the thought of sharing a Rheiard with Harley at the controls. The half-elf tended to take sudden and meaningless nose-dives, loop-de-loops, and barrel rolls when the mood struck him.

As if sensing her thoughts, Harley sped up to keep pace right next to her- while he was cruising along upside down on his flying machine, of course. "Keep your pants on, Mesha," he said. "Tomorrow we're going to be flying over it, and you won't think it's so fun then."

Mesha blinked. "You don't like the ocean? I don't see how come."

"I don't like flying for hours without stop," he grumbled. "And I don't like the way the Professor acts around big bodies of water. And you have to admit there's no body like the Altamira Ocean."

"Well, up until right about now I've never seen anything bigger than Lake Umacy!" Mesha told him, almost bouncing in her seat. "So this is really exciting. Mother sometimes went to Palmacosta for trade and things like that, and she would tell me about the ocean but this is just insane. It's so big."

"Ahhh…" Harley nodded, flipping his Rheiard around so that he was riding right side up again. "I wish I had seen Palmacosta," he said wistfully. Then he smiled. "I mean, they built up Neo in its place but it's not the same. I wish I had seen it before it was destroyed in the World Reunification Journey. So I take it you never went with your mother to Palmacosta?"

Mesha slowly shook her head, her smile dropping a few molars. "No," she said.

"…I bet you could ask Professor Raine to take you to Neo!" Harley said, grinning impishly. "When we're done with Altamira and Meltokio, I bet she'll go wherever we ask. She never makes any decisions like that anymore cause she's seen it all already. And since you're the new student…" he trailed off meaningfully, waggling his red eyebrows. But before Mesha could answer yes or no, Raine turned on the headset again and told them to land. Harley shrugged and spiraled downwards after the Professor and Alex, the ends of his sleeves flapping in the wind. Allowing herself one last look at the endless blue, Mesha soon followed, landing down on a patch of springy grass in the plains near the ruins of Ozette.

Ozette had been one of the cities destroyed three years ago along with Palmacosta, but unlike the sea port town, Ozette had never been rebuilt. Mesha had often heard ghost stories about dead humans and half-elves getting up in the night to walk through the ruins to look for innocent children to join them in their endless existence. Suddenly, Mesha became very concerned about Raine's choice in camping location (not that she was going to voice these concerns to anyone).

"We'll camp here tonight," Raine said, sitting sidesaddle on her Rheiard once it was landed safely on the ground. "Tomorrow morning we'll set off and by the afternoon we should be in Altamira."

Alex stood to the side, his arms crossed as he looked out at the haunted forest in the distance. Mesha glanced from him to Raine and back again, trying to puzzle out their secrets. When Alex caught her gazing at him with an intense expression he grinned and she looked away, embarrassed. Quickly, she made herself busy helping Harley set up tents while Raine pulled out a small notebook and began flipping through the pages until she came to a blank one. Pulling out a pencil, she began to write until the sun grew small in the sky.

Harley had pulled out flint and steel and was beginning to start up a fire when Raine stopped him with a hand to his shoulder. She put the notebook away and beckoned Mesha to her; the half-elf came with the expression of a man staggering to the gallows.

"It's that time again," Raine said, trying not to smile at Mesha's obvious angst.

Mesha sat cross-legged by the wood and kindling, her hands outstretched as she gave Raine one last pitiful look. "I really, really don't like fire Professor."

"Oh?" Raine smiled at that. "You don't think I've noticed that in the past few days? It's true you're better suited for Earth or Water-based magic, but it's always good to be well-rounded." She crossed her arms. "Start the fire, Mesha."

Alex chuckled from where he was preparing dinner for them under Harley's watchful eye, making sure this stranger didn't slip anything unhealthy into their food. "You're a cruel master, Raine."

Raine stood watching over Mesha, her entire posture imperious as Mesha made a few false starts, sending up tendrils of smoke but little else. "You're not putting enough effort into it," she said, ignoring Alex completely. "You have to feel it bubble up inside you, like boiling water." She bent down, holding Mesha's hands closer to the wood. "Channel it through your fingertips."

Mesha frowned deeper, closing her eyes and screwing up her face in concentration. There was a sudden gust of warm wind and the ground underneath her shimmered faintly. The breeze blew harder, coming in fits and starts and making Raine and Mesha's hair dance and twist, tangling together. Lapping orange tongues of flame began to spread without control, spilling out beyond the wood like a broken dam. Mesha's eye's popped open in fear and she shrank back, but Raine put a hand to the small of her back and pressed her forward gently.

"Use the incantation, Mesha," Raine said, "Control it."

"I…" Mesha closed her eyes again, wrenching her wrist free from Raine's grasp and jerking back from the fire. "I can't!"

There was a small explosion as the flames reared up high only to die out like a deranged birthday candle when a geyser of freezing cold water burst up to take it's place. Alex was chuckling happily while Harley scrambled over from the other side of the campsite, yelling his head off as he tried to find them among the ground made mucky from ash and water. He needn't have worried- Raine sent up a protective barrier over them both when she saw things get out of hand.

"Foolish girl…" she sighed.

"You said it was like water bubbling up, Professor…" Mesha mumbled, her arms crossed defensively.

Alex finished preparing four sandwiches for them. He assumed that it might be some time before a proper fire managed to get going and decided that sandwiches were just about the only thing he could cook. He handed two to Raine and Mesha. "What I want to know is why Raine is trying to teach black magic," he said. "You're a white mage, aren't you?"

Raine pursed her lips and pointed her staff at the wood. "Fireball!"

Alex stood with one hand on his hip while the other scratched his shaggy grey-black hair. The ground around the fire pit was still soaked from the water and tendrils of stream wafted up as the fire popped and hissed. Raine stood up, clapping her hands together once to get Harley's attention. He nodded and they moved to opposite sides of the fire, backs toward each other as they stretched out their arms, feet spread apart in a battle stance.

"Ground Dasher!"

"Stalagmite!"

The earth around the campsite buckled and bent, caving in and jutting out to form a formidable perimeter of solid rock. Alex threw up his hands in surrender, laughing harder. "So you've learned all the secrets of white magic, dabble in black magic, and still manage to give me bruises the size of Palmacosta. What does that make you?"

Raine shrugged.

"She's the Professor!"

The older party members turned to look at Mesha, the same blank expression on their faces. Harley was the first to react, smiling and tugging on the end of Mesha's pointy ear. "The midget speaks the truth!" he declared as she made a swipe at him, her face burning from embarrassment.

Alex shook his head, turning to knock a fist against the rock wall. "So," he said, changing the topic, "What do I do if I have to go pee?"

"That's why you go before we make the barrier."

"But I didn't know about the-"

"I know." Raine looked up at him. The flat of the blade on her new staff tapped against the toe of her boot. On the other side of the camp, Mesha was chasing Harley around with Raine's old staff in her hands, yelling something about midgets. "That's why I made the barrier."

"…You're a cruel master, Raine."

The half-elf smiled sweetly, scolded her students not to make so much noise, and left them to go to her tent.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Yuan began to spasm, his eyelids snapping open as he opened his mouth with a rasp, sucking in air like a dying fish. He began to cough violently, trying to push Kratos and Colette away with what was still remaining of his left hand. Kratos let him go readily, putting his palms in the air and moving back to let Yuan fall to the floor. Yuan tried to lift himself up, but he again made the mistake of trying to use his right hand. He stumbled again and shivered on the floor, coughing up gobs of the blue liquid that had filled his lungs.

Kratos took a deep, grateful breath, turning his head away respectfully from Yuan, from the pathetic state he was in. Colette could have cared less for his pride; she ran to him and cradled his head in her lap, saying soft soothing words to calm him down.

He tried to wriggle free from her, pushing at her feebly with his stump. "Ugh… leave me alone, damn you…" he said, his voice sounding as though he had swallowed a frog. He shook his head from side to side, closing his eyes. "Martel… Martel…" he said with every shake of his head. "Where are we, Martel?"

Kratos looked back at that. Colette gave him a confused look while Yuan kept on asking for Martel. Trying not to frown, Colette stroked his face gently. "It's OK, Yuan," the tiny angel said. "You're safe now. I'm here, and Kratos is here too, look."

His eyes still closed, Yuan heavily leaned into her, gripping at her shoulder tightly. "You need to get out of here," he said, "Before he-" the rest of Yuan's sentence was dissolved in a sudden fit of coughing. He spat up more of the blue gunk that instantly turned into a warm steam, wafting up into the ceiling. "Martel," he said after a few moments. "You need to- you need to-" he slowly opened his eyes again before jerking away from Colette, his stump raised up defensively in front of him.

"You're not-" he started, before biting his lip and looking away, the clarity coming back into his foggy blue eyes. "Yes… Martel is…" He swallowed once, a nervous reflex, searching the room until he spotted Kratos. The tenseness in his shoulders visibly relaxed when he spotted the warrior, and he clutched onto the nearby tube to help himself onto his feet. He suddenly began to shake and threw his head back. Alarmed, Kratos took a few steps towards him only to realize the silver haired seraph was laughing.

"Oh, oh…" Yuan said, tears streaming down his face as he lifted his stump to look at it. "What a fool." He shook his head, "Oh, what a fool. How could I have been so…" His mood shifted abruptly and he staggered over to Kratos. "Help me find some armor and a weapon," he said, a grim smile on his face. "I'm going on the warpath. That bastard. That bastard," he spat.

Kratos put a restraining hand on Yuan's shoulder to keep him from marching up the stairs. "You're in no condition to be fighting," he said firmly. Then, another idea struck him. "You know who did this to you?" he asked.

"No, but I'm certain to have security cameras in the-" Yuan paused to look at him, and then glanced over his shoulder at Colette. He was silent for a long while, before he asked in a voice so low it was almost a whisper:

"How did you know about this place?"

Kratos, insecure at the levels of fear he detected in his friend's eyes, pulled away and crossed his arms. "You showed it to me," he said warily.

"Um," Colette said, hovering over their shoulders with her bright pink wings fluttering, "Let's go find Lloyd and look at the cameras. We should get to the bottom of this."

Yuan turned on her, bristling with anger. "And who gave a low-class angel like you permission to speak?" he snapped. "Little bitch…"

Colette's eyes bugged out of her head. Her mouth opened in her a little 'o' of shock before she clapped both her hands to it, looking to Kratos for guidance.

Kratos didn't know what to say, but he felt he had to say something to end all this madness. "Yuan, perhaps you should-" Kratos began, but Yuan broke in.

"Don't even start!" he snarled, shoving past Kratos to stomp up the stairs. "I know what you're trying to do here, Kratos. But this proves nothing- and by the time you even get the chance to report to Yggdrasil the evidence will be long gone!"

Kratos grabbed him by the elbow, yanking him back. In his weakened state there was little he could do to resist besides glaring belligerently into Kratos's confused brown eyes. "Yuan," he said, "Yggdrasil is dead."

That took the fight out of him as surely as if Kratos had soundly smacked him. He could only clench his teeth, unbelieving. "You're full of-"

Kratos gripped his elbow tighter, shaking him. "Yggdrasil is dead," he repeated. "Mithos is dead."

Yuan winced. "You're hurting me," he said softly, still refusing to break the staring contest that had sprung up between them. If he had still had fingers on his right hand, he would have clenched them in anger as the two men stood there in the dim light of the labs, lights still flickering from the tubes surrounding them.

"The bastard took my Cruxis Crystal," he added, wrenching free of Kratos and leaving them there in the dark.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

A/N: It is SUCH a hassle to remember who has what! Kloitz and Yuan both have their right hands chopped off, Kloitz's left hand is red up to his shoulder and Genis's right hand is red up to his shoulder. There. Maybe now I won't get confused in the future. PLEASE, PEOPLE! If you see continuity errors, TELL ME! Seriously! I need to know if I want to fix it!

Next Chapter- Altamira! Genis is rapidly becoming my favorite character. And I fantasize about him and Yuan. Don't give me that look. I think it's a hawt pairing now that Genis is a teenager.

And as we delve deeper into Genis's relationship with Pandora as well as shed a little light on Presea's problem, the next chapter will also have… try not to scream… MATIAS! Boy oh boy, I can't wait to tell his story to you guys…