A/N: Cookies for reviewers! They're home-baked by Genis, and still warm. To DMG, weird and fresh describes my life. To Meowzy, I don't know either. And Mishka, you demand more Sheena/Raine? ….Well, I'm sorry, you're going to have to wait a few more chapters before they so much as talk to each other again. But there will be plenty of flashbacks, so don't worry.
Did you know that when it snows my eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen?
…..Should Colette have a freak of nature for a baby that grows seven mouths and sings the song that will end the world Lovecraft style? Should I make Matias a vampire? Should I make Sheena a vampire-ninja? I need to make someone a vampire. My life lacks vampires. And aliens. And Unicorns would be a change of pace. But how would I introduce vampires? Why did ToS have ghosts and dragons and zombies and elves and unicorns and angels and gigantic purple bears but it didn't have vampires, for chrissakes?
Possible Plots Ideas: Moon-girls come from Tethe'alla and offer immortality in return for Colette's freakish hermaphrodite baby.
Yuan becomes a vampire. Sucks Genis's…blood.
Little old ladies take over the world and must be terminated through ventilation shafts.
Sheena and Raine make sweet love in zero gravity, thank you Sylph for providing air. Voyeur aliens, ooh-la-la. Hell, let's have the aliens join in.
Kratos rides off into the sunset on Noishe's back, screaming "Hi-ho, SILVER!"
Pandora: No way can I be what I'm not. But hey… don't you want your girl hot?
Genis is Colette's baby's father.
Sheena becomes a sharpshooter thanks to Cruxis technology providing her with laser guns.
Kloitz unleashes the T-virus and Mesha becomes infected. Harley has to kill her or be killed. The sequel is all about how the main characters must survive in a world plagued with the undead.
KRSSSSSH-HAAAH. KRSSSSH-HAAAAH. "Lloyd, I am your father." KRSSSHHH-HAAH. KRSSSSH-HAAAH.
Raine starts wearing a leather jacket and a fedora; suddenly her phobia of water is turned into a phobia of snakes. She has a whip, but only uses it on Sheena.
Presea is Colette's baby's father.
Zelos insists people start calling him "Zelda" and wears frilly maid uniforms.
I can't think of any more ridiculous ideas. You're all welcome to give me suggestions!
5,280 words. Enjoy!
OoOoOoOoOoOo
The Renegade Base's kitchen used to be fully stocked to feed some thousand mouths, complete with the means to cook these ingredients. But over the past three years the larders dwindled until there was only enough for Yuan- that is to say, there were a few dozen vats of coffee grounds stacked up neatly in a corner since the seraph had no need for food. Ever since the Kloitz incident he had marginally regained some of his mortal qualities other than unrestrained emotions, but he still didn't require the three meals a day a human or a half-elf would. Luckily for Lloyd, in the short time that Genis had been with Yuan the angel had thought it wise to store enough food for one person.
Trying to keep himself occupied by doing something with his hands, the Eternal Swordsman got busy preparing two sandwiches with all the works- ham, sweet honey chicken, turkey, and two healthy slabs of yellow cheese- and tossed them into an oven to toast. Then he funneled his energy into pulling out a knife and deftly chopping a helpless tomato into thin, manageable slices. This kept his mind occupied to avoid thinking of the recent, disturbing turn of event.
"I hope that isn't for me," Kratos said, making him jump in surprise. He hadn't heard his father enter the room. "I can't stand tomatoes."
Lloyd chuckled, pulling out some lettuce from Yuan's cool-box that ran on electricity and could keep meat and milk and other things from spoiling in the heat. "Yeah, I know," he said. "But you can't really eat food, can you?"
"That doesn't change the fact that I have always loathed tomatoes." Kratos leaned against the counter, tracking Lloyd's every move with expressionless eyes. The younger swordsman pulled the toasted sandwiches out of the oven to load them with heaps of tomatoes and lettuce.
"Who is the other sandwich for?" Kratos asked as Lloyd sawed one sandwich in half.
"Colette," Lloyd answered, grabbing the other sandwich. "I figured she might be hungry by now."
"Ah…" the seraph ran a hand through his auburn hair. "I've already taken care of that. She ate lunch with Yuan in his office while they went over the video files from his security system."
Lloyd narrowly avoided shortening his middle finger. Carelessly tossing the knife into the sink, he ran cold water over the shallow cut. "Could have told me that," he muttered. "So are all the videos the same one from earlier?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Damn. Well…is Yuan convinced that he's actually 4,000 years old yet? He didn't suddenly remember over dinner or something, right?"
"If only it were that simple." Kratos took one of the sandwiches. Hesitating at the last moment, he peeled the top bun off and scraped the tomatoes into a waste bin before eating. He chewed thoughtfully and methodically, having no real hunger, but enjoying the simple pleasure of it anyway. "Are you feeling all right?"
"Yeah," Lloyd said, "Just a little uneasy." He glanced down at his Cruxis Crystal, wondering what it would be like to have no hand. He flexed his fingers once or twice, decided that they weren't about to fall off any time soon, and relaxed slightly. "You don't think this- this whole thing with Yuan losing his memory just as we get here to ask him questions- has anything to do with Colette, do you?" he asked his father.
"I can't be certain until I learn more."
"And when will that be?"
"When Yuan decides he'll talk to someone- someone other than Colette," he added. "Though I can understand why he'd rather be with her than us."
Lloyd nodded, frowning. "Yeah. Having his hand chopped off must've been tough, and Colette's always been good with people. If anyone can help him, she can."
OoOoOoOoOo
Raine woke up when a hand clamped over her mouth and she was lifted up and dragged to the perimeter of the supposedly safe campground. Ignoring the panic that threatened to flood her system, (Thrash! Flail! Scream! No! What's happening? Someone help me!) she calmly began to ready a spell before Alex's familiar face filled her vision, one finger pressed to his lip for silence. When she realized it was him some of the urgency left her, but she refused to cancel her spell until he let her go.
What? She mouthed to him, clutching her staff tightly against her chest to try and still her beating heart. But the half-elf tried to keep an unbiased mind once she saw that Alex seemed genuinely upset. For all she knew he had heard enemies outside and hadn't thought her perimeter would be enough to keep the monsters away.
He pointed to the perimeter, his face a mask of barely concealed anxiety. Checking to make sure Mesha and Harley were both sound asleep, he pointed again to the perimeter. Then he pointed to Raine and himself, and then snapped his fingers.
Outside. You and me. Now.
Raine shrugged, a quick jerky movement that belied the anger bubbling under the surface. Holding one hand palm out at the perimeter, she spoke two harsh words: "God's Hand!" and then punched once.
It was almost as if the hand of an angry deity really had knocked the earth away- and it was silent, too. Alex was unnerved, but proceeded through the perimeter anyway. He wasn't about to show Raine that her newly acquired black magic made him nervous.
"Stalagmite."
A sharp spike reared up towards the sky, covering the entrance to the campsite and locking Raine's students safely inside. Alex beckoned again and they moved into the forest, a good distance from the camp. Only then did Alex speak out loud.
"I know what happened eight months ago," he said to the ground near his foot. "Or sort of what happened."
Raine sighed, running a hand along the smooth surface of the unicorn horn. "Is that what this is about?" she asked. "It could have waited until morning, you know." Alex didn't respond, so she looked up from the unicorn horn to raise her eyebrow at him. It was bright outside- the moon turned her face down to peer at the two scholars standing in her light.
"It can't," Alex said after a moment, shaking his head and taking two quick steps to envelop her in a tight embrace, trapping her hands against his chest as he pulled her close with need. "I need to know I'm doing the right thing. Rainebow, help me. I'm confused."
Clouds moved; thick black hands covering the eyes on the face of the moon.
"Alex-" Raine said, stopping short and tensing when he crushed her mouth against his with his hands sliding along her back down the rough wool of her orange traveling coat. She jerked her head away, her ears suddenly filled with the soft rustling sound of the fresh snow falling down in waves to cover the floor. Or no- that was just her imagination. When she slapped him it made a resounding crack that broke the serenity of the night and left a throbbing red print on his face. Five crescent moons were present on his cheek; a few of the marks were bleeding.
"Do not," Raine said, her hand frozen in the air, "-Ever- touch me again, Alex."
The bloody tips of her short nails were illuminated in a stray moonbeam breaking through the clouds. In the light, she suddenly saw him standing only a few yards behind Alex. At first she didn't believe her eyes, and then she remembered that the only things she could believe in her life were her own senses. Fear almost made her hands shake, but she was in better control of her emotions than mot people.
"I'm sorry, I'm…" Alex said, oblivious to the danger lurking in the shadows.
"Get out of the way, you fool!" Raine said, forgetting that she never wanted to touch him again and shoving him out of the way. She held her staff out defensively. "Holy So-!"
Alex grabbed at her elbow from behind, giving it a sharp twist as he hooked one foot around her leg and forced her to the floor, one hand clamped tightly around her neck. Kuchinawa stepped out of the shadows and joined them in the moonlight.
"I'm so sorry," Alex finished.
"You were supposed to come alone," Kuchinawa said with his expressionless black eyes regarding Raine like a lab specimen. "This changes the plan."
"Alex, no," Raine breathed.
"I didn't like Kloitz's plan," Alex said. "And you can tell him that. I don't want Raine to get hurt. Or her students," he added.
Kuchinawa regarded him for a moment. "Kloitz will not-"
"Kloitz isn't my master," Alex said, his violet eyes narrowed. "There's only so much I'm willing to do if he's not going to tell me the whole story! So until I start getting answers, you're going to do things my way, understand?"
"Kloitz?" Raine demanded, trying to sound intimidating while pinned to the ground. "You're working with Kloitz? You really are going senile!"
"Don't talk, Raine. This will all be over soon."
"This will all be over now! Let me go! Photon!"
Two beams of light shot out; one blasted Alex off of Raine and slammed him into a tree while the other was easily dodged by Kuchinawa. He leapt and ricocheted off of the trunk of one of the trees, landing a safe distance away from where the spell had struck. Raine pointed her staff at where he had landed. "Indign-!"
Once more Raine's spell was halted. Forgoing any fancy martial arts moves, Alex barreled into her and knocked her staff out of her hands. But this time, Raine was ready. She sprung free of him, pulling a few poisoned needles out of her endless pockets and plunging them into his arm. He yelled in pain, stumbling back and ripping them out, feeling the burn of the poison enter his system. Kuchinawa rushed in with his dagger; Raine hooked a toe under her staff and kicked it up. Steel sang out against steel as she blocked his attack with the crescent moon end of her staff. She grinned up at him when their weapons were locked together, and said: "Fireball."
Fire burst out from the end of her staff with explosive force, knocking Kuchinawa three yards back into the foliage. Seeing her chance, Raine tore off in the direction of the perimeter, intent on warning her students of the danger.
Ultimately, Raine was done in by a trick she had seen countless times, done by countless schoolboys to their unsuspecting victim. One foot was put out in her path, tripping her up and sending her sprawling. The Professor moved with the fall and rolled to the side, holding out her staff at Kuchinawa. Half of his mask had been burnt away and little tongues of flames still danced along the ends of his sleeves and pant legs. He was fast, able to knock her staff to the side like a toy and clap thin steel shackles around her wrists. Somehow he also managed to slap her, and she hadn't even seen his hands move.
Raine struggled to one knee, thinking that if Regal could fight with his feet than so could she. "Why didn't you burn?" she said, her voice an angry hiss.
Kuchinawa kicked her in the ribs, knocking her down again. Rolling onto her back, she raised her shackled hands up to him, her palms crackling with energy. "Lightning!" she said.
Nothing happened. Raine tried to get up, her hands still pointed at Kuchinawa.
"Light-!"
Kuchinawa slapped her again, a backhanded slap. Infuriated, Raine lunged at him, cracking her shackled hands against his head in a wild swing. He pulled one fist back and punched her stomach, and then when she doubled over in pain he hop-stepped back and crack! The flat of his foot caught her under the chin, making her vision erupt into stars. Raine fell down on her side, and Raine stayed down. Alex burst through the foliage, his hair and clothes hopelessly tangled with leaves and twigs. "Raine!" he said, shoving Kuchinawa aside and putting a hand under Raine's neck, trying to lift her limp body with one arm. His other arm, the poisoned one, was hanging uselessly by his side. He shook her. "Raine! Raine! No!"
"She saw me," Kuchinawa said, half of his face awash with blood from where Raine's shackles had cut him. "The mission was jeopardized. I did what I had to."
"Kloitz said he didn't want to hurt her!"
"The master says many things." Kuchinawa took a few steps back into the shadows. "Take care of the other two."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"Get out of here," Mithos said. His voice was thick and slobbery.
"Mithos…" Yuan said again, moving closer. "I…"
Mithos flew to his feet, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I said get out of here!" He ran up to Yuan, shoving him with enough force to make the bluenette take a few steps back. When the boy tried to do it again, Yuan grabbed him by the wrist and held him back. There was a brilliant flash of purple light and suddenly the Eternal Sword was in Mithos's hands and he was brandishing it threateningly at the older half-elf.
Yuan held up his hands for peace, backing away from the Eternal Swordsman. "Mithos, you've been in here for days. Martel is…"
"Don't you dare say her name!" Mithos said, bringing his sword down. Yuan drew his own blade and deflected the attack, pulling off his cape and tossing it into Mithos's face. The boy sliced through it and lunged point first at Yuan's chest.
Yuan's blade had somehow disappeared. He was left only to watch helplessly as he was skewered by the boy who would have been his brother and almost a son, who now was holding a strange double bladed sword. Mithos lifted him up like a bug pinned on the end of a needle, a manic grin plastered on his face.
"M-Mithos…" Yuan said, clutching at the blade until his hands began to bleed. "Mithos, no…"
Mithos's eyes began to glow a deep, dark violet.
OoOoOoOoOo
Yuan almost fell off of his chair when he woke up with a start, still feeling a deep ache in his chest from where Mithos had stabbed him in the dream. He reached up and ran a few fingers though his blue- no, silver- hair, trying to smooth it back as Colette turned to him, her eyebrows raised in confusion. She had been looking through his modest library, not having the heart to wake him up from his nap.
"I fell asleep?" he said, shaking his head and looking at where his Cruxis Crystal ought to be. Mithos had said that he wouldn't need things like sleep, or food, or emotions. He could finally forget the pain…
"According to Genis, you do that sometimes," Colette chirped, her pink wings buzzing happily. She tended to keep them out for balance, even when she wasn't fighting. Now that she was no longer the Chosen, they didn't have the weight of the world on them and she used them freely. "Even when you had your Cruxis Crystal. Cause his brother Kloitz messed around with it when he stole Mithos's Crystal."
"Genis," Yuan said, tasting the name on his tongue. Not familiar at all. The former Seraph shrugged and kicked his feet up on his desk. "Who is he, my lover?"
Colette's eyes widened. "NO," she said. "He's your best- he's your friend," she corrected herself, not knowing what ideas Yuan might get from saying best friend. Even if it was true nowadays, since Kratos was always on Derris-Kharlan. She noticed a muddy pawprint on her white coat and began to swipe at it, agitated. "Aw, Noishe got me dirty again…" she muttered.
"All right, so assuming you aren't spouting complete bull-" he stopped, controlling his tongue in the presence of a young lady. "According to you, it's been four-thousand years after the events if the Great Kharlan War and Noishe is still alive?"
"That's right," Colette said, smiling to herself as she went over Yuan's book case, looking at the titles he had. "Kratos gave him to us after he left for Derris-Kharlan."
"That's a big hole in your story, young lady…" the former seraph grumbled, crossing his arm over the stump that had once been his right hand. He made himself comfortable, edging his feet farther onto the desk. "Noishe ran away after Martel died… How can a dog live four-thousand years?"
Colette turned to face him, still smiling. "I dunno, how can a human like Kratos live four-thousand years? Besides, Noishe isn't a dog. We talked to some elves and they said he's an Arshish."
"Those are extinct."
"Not anymore!"
Yuan opened his mouth, but then closed it and stared at her in disbelief. Then he made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat and glared at his desk. "I still don't see what Kratos is trying to gain by telling such a ridiculous story. Is he trying to catch me off guard?"
"You know, just 'cause you don't remember the last few thousand years doesn't mean they didn't happen."
The seraph sighed, and then tried to give her a weak, fake smile. "All right then. Let's continue assuming your story is the truth," he said amiably, wishing he still had all his fingers so he could form a steeple with them on the desk. His phantom hand twitched, and even ached. It was so hard to remember it wasn't there anymore. "According to your story, I've lost all my memories up to the point where Mithos gave me a Cruxis Crystal. So I've lost roughly three thousand five hundred years of memory. In the last three years you and your eight companions found a way to outsmart Mithos and the Desian Grand Cardinals, destroy all the Human Ranches, collect most of the ex-spheres, and…"
"And revived the Great Tree, and reunited the worlds." Colette paused to smile and laugh softly, though Yuan couldn't find anything amusing about the situation.
"So you're the murderer of my best friend and brother-in-law," he concluded.
It was as if he had punched her. She stiffened and the smile was wiped off her face, and suddenly the angel was on the verge of tears. "He was my friend, too," she said to the book in her hand.
"You killed the Cardinals as well, no?" Yuan asked. "Leonard and Artemis, Pronyma, Dafyyd, Stephan? They were friends of mine."
The electric doors slid open. "Actually, everyone except Pronyma died a long time ago, Yuan." Kratos was in his armor again, though not his usual purple and white mercenary plate mail. He had gone through Yuan's armory and found a fitting replacement. White foreign sigils decorated his green surcoat while thin, light chainmail could be heard clinking underneath. His boots were silent against the cushy carpet, no longer metal but supple brown leather. "And it was Mithos who wound up killing Pronyma in the end."
Yuan sat back in his chair, his frosty blue eyes trained on Kratos's every move.
"You're going to talk to me eventually," Kratos said as Colette used this opportunity to leave the room, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve. "I know you."
Yuan rolled his eyes heavenward and waved his stump in a small circle. So what?
Kratos set his jaw. "And you're not leaving this room until you do talk, so you'd best find your tongue, unless they cut it out when they made you a cripple." He turned back around and was about to leave Yuan's study when the former seraph finally spoke.
"Why is it," he said, getting up and pointing his stump at Kratos, "That whenever I see your human friend, his face fills me with an inexorable rage?" He smiled, his silver bangs falling down into his face as he tilted his head in a questioning expression.
Kratos sighed and rested his head against the door frame. He should have known Yuan would have broken his silence with something like this. "He's my son," the seraph said.
That caught Yuan by surprise. He sat back down, looking less smug as he considered this. "Lloyd Irving Aurion…" he said, pulling up a mental picture of the boy and comparing it to Kratos standing in front of him. "Yes, I see the resemblance, now that you mention it. He looks like you when you were young."
Yuan's hair was in his face again. His newly acquired fringe annoyed Yuan to no end, especially the fact that it was a different color. Yuan had been there when Mithos split the worlds, so he knew that certain things that seemed impossible could happen, no matter how hard they were to believe. But he didn't see anything that would ever convince him to change his hair. It was barely long enough to brush the top of his shoulders.
"Well then, I suppose I'll just have to believe you for now," Yuan said, crossing his legs at the knees as he smiled at Kratos.
Kratos blinked. "You will?"
"Of course. I am a scientist at heart, so until I receive proof there's no way for me to say that what you're telling me is not true." He waved a hand at the controls to his security system on his desk, disgusted. "But those weren't much help, so you'd better find some solid evidence fast, or you'll find it hard to convince me."
Kratos looked over at the monitors that had sprung up from the desk. When they had gone over the video files, every single one had been deleted and replaced with one file, ripped from the security system of the Renegade Base in Flanoir. Kratos tapped at the screen, picking a file at random.
For the first half hour it would be a screen showing the empty Rest Area in the Flanoir Base. Kratos fast-forwarded a moment and then stopped, watching as an explosion of smoke filled up the camera screen. When it cleared, it showed a figure in red dragging a silver-haired man to the Refresher. The man was bleeding like a stuck pig, leaving bright scarlet smears on the floor. Kratos fast-forwarded again, watching the man in red tend to the wounded man at super-speed until he paused at a single frame.
Kuchinawa was kneeling on one knee before his master as Kloitz leaned over, cupping the back of his neck with one hand and kissing him on the forehead. The scene was reminiscent of an old man bestowing his blessing on some young knight-errant.
Kratos pressed 'play'.
Kuchinawa stepped back and disappeared in another puff of smoke, already gone by the time a diminutive Kratos stepped into the camera's line of vision. There was a silent exchange between the two, silent because the camera's had no sound recording devices on them. Kratos pulled out his sword, stepping forward as the screen faded to black. When the picture was restored, it was of a freeze-frame of Yuan, still with his blue hair, standing to the side with his arms crossed. This eventually faded to black as well, with bold white letters springing up to take its place.
Does this look familiar?
The letters scrambled and were erased, to be swapped for another line of bold white letters:
Perhaps now you will know his pain.
The letters faded and were replaced of an image of Kloitz, half-dead and attached to the Refresher. A red circle was drawn over the stump of his right hand. For a half a second, a strange insignia flashed before their eyes and the screen dissolved into static and snow.
And that's where it ended.
"Peh," Yuan snorted when Kratos turned the monitor off. "If what Colette tells me is true, it should be you without a hand. You're the one who cut his off."
The seraph crossed his arms, closing his eyes. "You would have done the same."
Yuan grunted something, feeling his phantom fingers twitch. "Still, it's your fault he stole my hand."
"He didn't steal it," Kratos muttered, sounding uncomfortable. "It was in another one of those tubes. I burned it while you were in here."
"What!" Yuan yelped. "I could have reattached it, you fool!"
"No, you couldn't," Kratos said.
"And why not?"
Kratos was silent for a while. "They did things to it," he said, his voice gruff. "It was mutilated."
The former seraph slammed his remaining fist down onto his desk. "Damn you, Kratos…" he said. "Damn you. Damn you for dragging me into your problems!"
The mercenary's eyes snapped open, glaring angrily at Yuan. "You're the one who mercilessly hunted him down across the earth!" he said. "You're the one who dragged me into this struggle! You gave aid to his brother and then gave him Mithos's Cruxis Crystal. You-" Kratos took a few steps back as Yuan surged to his feet, knocking one of the monitors clear off his desk onto the floor. His face was an angry scarlet, his left hand clenched tightly onto the edge of his desk.
"I would have never- I never-" he said, still quivering. He pointed his stump at Kratos, "You are lying! I'm leaving now, and you are not going to stand in my path." He stalked past Kratos, pulling his cape off of where it hung from a peg on the wall and twirling it around his shoulders. Kratos tried to put a restraining hand on his shoulder but Yuan angrily shrugged him off, moving down the hallway towards the Rheiard hanger.
"Yuan!" Kratos said, jogging after his friend and unsure of what he should do. He still didn't know how frail Yuan might be after his recent ordeal, and was afraid of touching him to try and stop him. Instead, he moved and barred the way, holding his arms out on either side in front of the door to the hanger. "Yuan, what's wrong?"
Yuan stomped his foot, acting angry to hide his distress. "What's wrong is I would never do such a thing," he said. "Why would I give a Cruxis Crystal to some brat?" He waved his arm emphatically. "And where is he now, if he's so important to me? Where is he?"
"…Meltokio, I believe," Kratos said.
"Take me to him," Yuan said, trying to shove Kratos out of the way again. He paused, his entire demeanor suddenly changing. "No," he said, his blue eyes bright with emotion. "Take me to the Tree."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
A section of the perimeter crashed to the ground and Alex stepped over the rubble, one hand awash with the distinct glow of magic being used. Harley sprang to his feet and ran out of his tent, instantly awake as he dodged flying stones. He shifted into a fighting position, his rigid stance not reassured when he saw Alex walking towards him with a shadow over his eyes and the glow in his hand intensifying.
"What the heck, Alex?" Harley demanded, readying a spell of his own. He looked around the camp, seeing Mesha struggling to her feet, the canvas of her tent tangling her limbs up. A sudden lack of the familiar sight of silver and orange filled him with an immediate, unexplainable dread. "Where's Raine?" he said.
"You'll see her soon," Alex said, rushing forward and stooping low, dodging a wild punch from Harley and reaching up, grabbing his face with one glowing hand. His thumb and pinky finger rested on either of his cheeks, index and ring boring holes into his temples and finally his middle finger was squarely pressed into the exact center of Harley's forehead. From the spaces between his fingers he could see Harley's brown eyes widen as they locked gazes.
"Fall," Alex said, and Harley's eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed in a heap onto the ground, utterly still.
"No!!"
Alex jerked to the side as a razor sharp icicle whizzed by his head, snipping off a few strands of his graying hair. Mesha stood all the way on the other side of the camp, tears streaming down her face. "What did you do to him?" she said, her voice wavering with fear. She lifted one hand, pulling boulders out of the earth and making the ground blaze with arcane symbols. "What did you do, you- you- you human! Ram!" The earth surged up, flowing towards Alex in a distinct, goat-like shape. The human had no hope of avoiding it, managing only to pull up a meager guardian spell in the last second before the spell hit, sending him and his protective bubble crashing back into what was left of the perimeter. Mesha bent down, swiping up Raine's staff as she ran to Harley, frantically checking for a pulse or any sign that he was still alive.
The last thing she felt was someone yanking her head back by her long green hair, and a large hand smothering her mouth.
There was a sharp pain in the center of her forehead.
"Fall," Alex said, and she fell.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
A/N: Neener neener nee-ner! :P
Oh dear. Well, I warned you there would be incest. Next Chapter: "Paper Wings." See you then… and Review!