A/N: Well, been a while hasn't it? I'm pretty bad at keeping track of time as it goes by. Sorry for the delay, enjoy the next chapter!

Where are all the champions? They used to come around. Where are all the champions? They're no where to be found..

OoOoOo

"I'm practically a prisoner here."

Sheena knelt at her knee-high table, a mug of untouched tea cooling in front of her. Zelos, Lloyd, and Colette sat around the same table, giving each other uncertain glances and struggling to find the right words to say. A pile of rags were in the corner, utterly still.

"Listen, Sheena..." Lloyd began. Of course Lloyd began. He was always the one who defended her, even way back when she was trying to kill Colette. Good old Lloyd.. "If Orochi found out about your affair, doesn't that give you both reason to break off the marriage?"

"It does," Sheena admitted, "But how could I do that to him?"

"Easily!" Zelos burst out, slamming an angry fist on the table. "I've been going around sleeping with anyone who'll put out trying to get Pandora to cancel the engagement, but you're a different case. This time, the unwanted party actually cares about the fiance!" Sitting back with a thoughtful expression, Zelos took a long sip from his mug. "I'm actually surprised you didn't take that angle of attack in the first place, Sheena."

Sheena could only shake her head in disgust.

"Because Sheena cares about Orochi, Zelos," Colette explained for her friend, placing one delicate hand over Sheena's and squeezing it lovingly. "But it's a different kind of love, like the love I have for you, or Genis, or even Kratos. Orochi is her friend and she doesn't want to hurt him."

"And," Sheena added, "I need to produce an heir for Mizuho."

"I could help with that," Zelos offered. "Maybe if we got married Pandora would finally give up."

A new voice joined the party before Sheena could violently attack Zelos's plan of action. "Well, if we're talking eligible bachelors, I'm quite eligible." Yuan swept into the room, partially hiding his robotic hand behind his back now that his cape was gone. "Who am I marrying?"

"No one," Kratos growled, stepping in after Yuan with the air of someone who has just been tailing their formerly angelic friend to be sure he didn't get into any trouble.

Zelos nodded decisively. "Yeah. I'm marrying Sheena."

"I'm marrying Orochi!" Sheena shouted, standing up with her face red and flushed. "And I'm not complaining about that! All I'm trying to say is I'm stuck here now, and I need someone to go to Meltokio now and kill Kloitz while he's still vulnerable."

"Nip the problem in the bud before it has a chance to take root and spread," Lloyd agreed, showing one of those rare bouts of wisdom. "I'll go, with Zelos. He has all the power of the kingdom behind him so getting into a high security area wouldn't be too difficult."

"If that's the case, then why don't I just kill him?" Zelos drawled, perhaps uncaring that they were talking about someone's life.

There was a stiff silence from Lloyd. He very pointedly looked only at his cup of tea, untouched and with swirls of steam rising off of it.

"He has a point," Colette said.

"I'm going to have to agree with Colette," Sheena said.

"It's only logical," Kratos muttered, half-heartedly.

Yuan was as silent as Lloyd for a moment, but then he smirked. His claw twitched involantarily as he spoke, running the fingers of his normal hand through his messy silver hair. "You want the satisfaction, don't you?" he guessed, expression shrewd.

"Yeah," Lloyd agreed, almost humbly. "Somehow I feel, whenever I see Genis these days he's so full of sadness. And I know it's his fault."

Sheena slowly sat back down, letting the information sink in. "Lloyd, I don't want to kill Kloitz out of revenge, even after all he's done," she said, trying to get him to look her in the eyes. She spoke clearly, making each word stand out. "We're only doing this because we don't have a choice. It may not be right, but if it will stop future suffering..."

Reaching into her robes, she pulled out a sparkling, silver needle. She placed it on the table, sliding it over to the Eternal Swordsman. "You can kill him if you feel it will avenge Genis somehow," she said, "But you're not going to hack him to pieces, all right? Remember this is Raine's brother we're talking about. Genis's own twin."

"I know," Lloyd said.

He took the needle.

There was a rustling of feathers from the corner of the room. Sheena shot the pile of rags- which was of course Matias- a dirty look. "No, you can't go with him. You're staying right here where I can keep an eye on you."

The rest were still a little alarmed to hear Sheena having her one-sided conversations with Matias, but eventually relented. Somehow Sheena could hear his voice. That was all there really was to it, in their opinion. They'd seen too many odd things in their life to really doubt this now.

Sheena, meanwhile, continued. "What does it matter, as long as he's dead? Why should you care either way?" she paused, her face growing angry. "Listen, the deal is when I know he's gone I'll cure you. I'm sticking to that. I have honor, you know. But maybe that's too much for a crime lord to understand."

Lloyd cleared his throat and Sheena jumped, shocked back into their reality. She flushed. "Was I speaking out loud?" she wanted to know. Lloyd nodded.

"So... do I go now?" he asked before she could apologize. "Is that all there really is to it?"

"The sooner he's gone, the better." Sheena stood up; so did Lloyd.

"Then let's go. Colette... please stay here. I'll only be gone a day."

Colette tried to get to her feet, mouth open to protest, but Lloyd had already left and took Zelos with him. She sat back down, visibly fighting tears, but Sheena pretended not to notice for the sake of her pride.

"So what do we do?" Yuan wanted to know, sharpening his metal claws on a dagger he kept in his belt. "Plan the wedding? I mean, should the bridesmaids wear matching dresses or-?"

"Yuan, be silent." Kratos's eyebrow twitched in irritation. "Your drabble is worse now than it was two thousand years ago."

Yuan smiled winningly. "What do you mean? This is me two thousand years ago. And judgeing by what everyone's been telling me I grew up to be, I like it much better with my memory gone. Less inhibitions. No secret resistance to Yggdrasil. No worries, except for this Kloitz bastard who took my hand. By the way, if he really is the heir to the Cardinal of Fire- Magnum, or Morrigan or whatever his name was- doesn't that mean we know him?" Yuan sheathed his knife, leaning against the door frame to Sheena's small hut. "I mean, we were of the Four Seraphim. Him and that mute runt over there must have crossed our paths once or twice." He nodded to Matias, who was of course silent.

Kratos shook his head. "I made it a point to avoid the Cardinals as much as I could, but it's not at all impossible that you might have known Matias. You were quite friendly with Rodyle for a time."

Yuan raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

"...No, not lovers." Kratos was forced to answer, the distaste apparant on his face. "At least, not as far as I knew. Must we go over this every time I say you had a friend?"

Yuan huffed. "Well, we were friends, weren't we?" he made finger quotations around the word 'friends', grinning evilly at Kratos. His claw glimmered.

"Whoa." Sheena couldn't help but let the word slip, staring incredulously at Kratos. Colette looked quite confused.

"No, we were not." Kratos said for Sheena and Colette's benefit as much as for his own. He looked dangerously close to drawing his sword the former angel. "And I'm sure you remember that very clearly, Yuan, so don't pretend otherwise."

"Oh, I don't know..." he sighed dramatically. "All my memory gets so fuzzy, sometimes the faces overlap, and names get switched around. I could have sworn it was us that one time in Vinheim with- gack!"

Yuan was forcibly dragged from the room. Kratos had one arm locked around the half-elf's neck, using his angelic strength to his advantage. Dumping him outside, Kratos quivered with rage.

"Do not ever try to tarnish my name like that again," Kratos said. "I know around this time in your life, you and I... we didn't... get along very well. But please try to remember, this is all two thousand years old for me. "

"God damn hypocrite. Why don't you try understanding that this is only a few months old for me!" he pointed at Kratos, eyes narrowed and tone accusing. "The fact of the matter is: I don't trust you, old man." He paused. "And I never will."

"You will. I mean, you do." Kratos said firmly, stepping to the side. Farther away from Yuan. "You do. You just don't remember."

Yuan's lips curled up in a sneer. "That's getting old."

"So am I." Kratos was curt. "Now stop this. You're acting like a child."

"Well, maybe if you didn't follow me everywhere-"

"Fine."

Yuan blinked. "What?"

The seraph stared him down, expression cool. "Leave. Your presence has worn down my last nerve, and I have more important things to worry about than your feelings, Yuan."

Yuan's forehead bunched together. He clenched his jaws in anger and spun around, marching away.

"You never change," he said. "If this really is my future, I'd rather be stuck in my past forever!"

OoOoOo

Raine Sage had locked herself up in Alexander Sage's office. Not even Mesha could drag her out of there now. It had started in the morning after they had first gotten here. Raine had jumped up from her bed, speaking as though there was another person in the room besides Mesha.

"And how many times do I have to tell you-!" she started, before awakening fully. She paused after that, her back turn on Mesha and a hand clapped against her mouth. Her face was pale.

"Raine?"

Mesha stumbled out of the bed, wiping sleep from her eyes. "Is everything all-?"

Without answering, Raine ran from the hotel room and went to Sage's office.

It was two days later that she staggered out, a travel worn book in her hands and an expression of tired triumph. She went to the hotel lobby and found Mesha and Harley, tossing the book down onto the table hard enough to make them jump. Ignoring their questions, she reached into her orange coat and pulled out Virginia's diary, tenderly laying it down next to the other book.

"I didn't die," she said, smiling softly. "Raine Sage did."

Harley and Mesha looked at each other, twin expressions of confusion apparant on their face. Finally, Mesha dared to venture her opinion. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Oh?" Raine wiped at the tired circles under her eyes. "Doesn't it? Your problem, my dear, is in assuming I'm Raine Sage."

Shocked silence. And then: "Of course you're Raine Sage!" Harley jumped from his seat. "You saved the world! You have the unicorn horn! What kinda crazy talk is this, Professor?"

"Yeah," Mesha agreed. "If you're not Raine Sage, who are you?"

"According to Alexander?" she opened up the book on the table. It was a diary. "I'm no one." Raine sat down, strangely calm for the revelation she was about to deliver. "The real Raine Sage died. Years ago."

OoOoOo

A stream of bubbles flowed from the subject's mouth into the blue, viscous substance it was immersed in. Urashima was somewhere behind him, typing something into the control panel that kept it alive.

The room was inconspicuous. It could have been a room anywhere in the world- or maybe not even in a world. The floors and the walls were all solid, stark white. Urashima, himself, and the creature in the tube stood out sharply against the harsh background.

Alex pressed his hand against the glass, looking into deep eyes purple as his own.

This has gotten out of control.

OoOoOo

A/N: Next Chapter, we go into the pages of the diary of Dr. Alexander Sage. This is just to let ya'll know I'm alive.