A/N: Ah well. The original chapter idea for this was going to be a total flashback, but I decided against it because I'm getting depressed with this story. There really is no excuse for the length of time I've abandoned this, so to all my faithful people who have stuck with it so far...

I just want to thank you for putting up with my bullshit. Review if you want, even if you don't this WILL get finished. Don't ever fear.

Peace.

And enjoy the chapter!

OoOoOo

I mean... who does she remind you of? Physically?

Kloitz looked down at the child. She sat on the kitchen floor, doodling on a piece of paper.

You can't pretend you haven't noticed.

Where are you trying to get with this, Alex?

A replacement.

A gasp, and then... Weak, pained coughs.

Are you fucking with me? Kloitz is kneeling, clutching at his chest with one hand. The other hand is on the kitchen table as he tries to get back to his feet. The sickness in him is deep now, rooted firmly in his chest. Alex stands, eerily calm, the child at his feet. You think calling her Raine will bring back my daughter? You think- you think it's like a watch? It gets broken, you can just fucking replace it?! IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK?

...Perhaps I chose the wrong words. Alex looks away, dead-pan.

Kloitz reaches further into the table, grabbing another plate and hurling it at his brother. It lands at his feet, terribly off mark. But the shards scratch the girl and she starts, beginning to cry, luminous purple eyes scrunched up, livid red mouth open and squalling. The door opens and the brothers look up as one. A silver haired elf stands in the doorway.

What's happened? What's...?

She stops, noticing the girl who had been shocked into silence by the sudden arrival. She gets to her feet, running to Alex and hiding behind his long legs, shyly peering out at Virginia.

Don't be bashful, Raine. Say hello to Virginia.

Raine shakes her head, hiding behind Alex's legs.

Alex gets down on one knee, putting a hand on top of her head. Don't be so silly, Virginia won't hurt you. Go say hello. You said hello to Kloitz.

Raine shakes her head even harder, her pale face turning red.

Well… he looks up at his brother, who's still coughing. Then how about you show Virginia what you can do, huh?

She takes this into consideration for a moment, and then runs up to Kloitz, putting her tiny hands on his chest.

"Heal," she says.

And the room was filled with a sudden draft of air, though the windows were all closed. Warm light radiated from the palms of the girl as she stepped back once, twice,a dn then turned around to run back to Alex, peering shyly at Kloitz, who's coughing fit had subsided.

Even if you don't want her as a daughter… I can't trust anyone else with her safety, Kloitz said, stroking her long silver hair. The research labs want her, bad. You guys are her only hope.

Still… why "Raine"? Why that name?

…well, it was available, wasn't it?

OoOoOo

"Finally!" Zelos exclaimed, stepping through the gates of Meltokio. "It's felt like ages since I last grace this place with my presence!" He strolled forward with his chest puffed out, Lloyd following him with considerable less flair.

"Let's just get this over with, Zelos," he said, putting a hand on the Ex-Chosen's shoulder to steer him away from the closest bar.

"Heh. Excited about your first assassination mission?" Zelos said cheekily.

Lloyd recoiled in shock. "Of course not!" he said, eyes wide with horror. "You think this is a game, Zelos? I'm going to… to kill someone."

"Having second thoughts, are we?" Zelos turned around with a solemn face, carefully scrutinizing Lloyd.

"…Yes." Lloyd looked away. "This goes against everything I stood for, three years ago. I'm still not sure why I volunteered." He looked down at his gloved hands, deep in thought. He knew not why he wanted to be the one to do the deed… but some part of him knew there was no other choice.

Zelos broke him out of his reverie, handsome voice vibrating in his head. "Then let me do it."

Lloyd glared at Zelos, taking a few steps back. "I'll do it. I gave my word!" Brushing past the red head, he moved towards the Meltokio prisons with grim determination. "And I'm not going to break that."

OoOoOo

Presea sat, her face pressed against the window of her room. Her ears were still ringing from the lecture Regal had given her, and her mind still raged from the unfairness of it all. Even though she was technically only like, fifteen, she was older than that and deserved more respect. Regal didn't realize how valuable she was to him, how she knew more about this stupid island than even he did, high in his tower.

She sat, fuming, in silence.

Tok tok tok tok!

"Might as well enter," she called out to whoever it was, unsticking her forehead from the window pane. "Unless you're Regal, in which case you'll get a healthy butt-whipping if you set one foot inside-"

The door opened to a tall, blue haired martial artist, but it wasn't Regal. "Genis!" Presea said, her bad mood evaporating instantly as he stepped in. She ran up to him and gave him a hug, and only then saw the dark figure standing behind him.

"And Pandora," she finished bleakly, glaring daggers at the half-elf.

"So nice to see you again, darling."

"Listen," Genis said, and if he noticed the sudden tension in the room he was ignoring it. "I just got a message from Sheena. She says something big is happening, and we're all needed."

"Big?" Presea blinked. She looked from face to face. "How big?"

"No idea but… I'm assuming the worst."

Her face grew grim as well. "I see," she said. "Regal's coming too, I guess? Never mind, of course he is. I…" She turned away, one hand pressed against her ex-sphere. It wasn't the one that had robbed her of her memories and life, of course. It wasn't even strong enough to keep her at the same level of fighting competence she had been only a few months ago when the last effects of the original Cruxis Crystal began to wear off. She began to think, her sharp mind quickly formulating a plan. "I'll see you all in half an hour, then. Where are we meeting?"

Genis blinked a few times. "Well, Regal thought you'd be ready, so we didn't really-"

"Maytag's Playhouse," Presea said firmly. "The new joint they put up by the bar. It's a comedy club, very entertaining. If I'm late, I'm sure you guys won't notice. Now shoo shoo shoo!" She shoved them out of the room, ignoring their protests. "I've gotta get ready. Buh-bye!"

She slammed the door shut behind her, thinking fast. She had thirty minutes, maybe an hour, until they would start to miss her. Pulling on her Palmacosta uniform, the one that made her look like a boy, she wrenched open the windows to her room and leaped out into the air, free-falling for a few seconds before snatching the frame of an open hotel window. What would have dislocated the arms of any normal person only jarred her for a moment as she hung there, swinging slightly over the ocean. Clambering down another few stories, the pink-haired girl lowered her sunglasses to peer out at two familiar figures making their way to the comedy club. She waited longer, patient until she saw the unmistakable blue blob that was Regal, the last man on Aselia she wanted to be her father. When he was gone, she fell three more stories, caught herself again, and then carefully climbed down onto a small boat hidden in the craggy side of the ocean-view hotel. Starting the motor, she zoomed over from the hotel to the Lezareno Company Building.

She looked up from the rocking boat, up at the top story window.

She had maybe an hour to do what she came to do.

Presea figured she'd be in and out in fifteen minutes. Pressing the ex-sphere on her chest, she felt the strength flood through her limbs and began to climb.

OoOoOo

"-And so the Druid said: "Don't forget your riding boots!"

The club erupted into laughter. Pandora soon had tears running down her cheeks, and even Regal managed to crack a smile at the pretty jester girl on stage. Genis, however, frowned, resting one elbow on the table as he pondered the joke. "I don't get it," the half-elf said, his silver eyebrows furrowed.

Pandora dabbed at her face with a napkin, still chuckling. Leaning over, she whispered into Genis's ear. "They're his wife's boots!"

The half-elf paused for a moment, digesting this new information. Then his face crumpled and he slammed his head down onto the table, laughing his ass off. "Oh my goddess!" he said, shaking all over from guffaws. "That is soooo wrong!"

"Isn't it?"

The three looked up to see Presea standing over their table, dressed like a girl for once. Her little yellow summer dress was flattering to her petite frame, the ruffles on the front hiding her unimpressive chest. She sat down next to them, her cheeks slightly red and her hair looking a little windswept. "She's not hard on the eyes, neither."

"I'm going to have to agree with Presea," Pandora said, her lips curling upward in a small smile. Genis huffed, suddenly not amused anymore.

"Well then," Regal said, standing up. He was all business, even though he wasn't wearing his normal suit-and-tie ensemble. Neither was he wearing his prisoner garb. Instead he wore loose-fitting, flowing white-and-tan clothes that made him seem almost as though he was a Triet tribesman. The martial-artist wanted to be free and ready at all times. He also carried his handcuffs in a shoulder bag… just in case. "If we've wasted enough time, we need to get to Mizuho, and fast."

"We're not staying to watch the knife-juggling act?" Presea asked, eyes wide with false innocence.

Genis perked up in spite of himself. "A knife-?" he started, but then shook his head. "Er- Regal's got a point. We've wasted enough time as it is. Maytag and her routine will have to wait for a day when the world isn't in danger."

"Isn't it always in danger?" Pandora asked no one in particular, looking up at the ceiling.

OoOoOo

Getting past the guards was easy.

Getting past his own guilt was another matter entirely.

Kloitz lay sleeping, sprawled out in his prison cell with his good arm tucked behind his head as a natural pillow. His forehead was creased in many lines formed by his frowning face, lips barely moving in half-intelligible mutterings. The end of his damaged hand no longer needed bandages of any type, ending in a round stump coated with scars. Lloyd stood over him, needle held firmly in one hand as he knelt next to the bed, readying it the way Sheena had told him.

"When I count to three…" Lloyd never looked away from the half-elf. "I need you to pin him down."

Zelos cracked his knuckles, nodding before realizing that Lloyd couldn't see him. "Yeah. Got it."

"One…"

Heart thundering. What was he doing? Not only was Kloitz unarmed (literally), he didn't even have an Ex-Sphere. No one should ever have to be sacrificed. Was this a sacrifice? Was this really what was best? Was Kloitz even the threat Martel warned them about?

His lips moved, tongue dry. "Two…"

There was no other choice…

There's always a choice.

There was no other choice…?

Kloitz's violet eyes snapped open, growing wide with sluggish shock. Luminous and purple, misguided and lost, he didn't even seem to be properly awake. "L-Lloyd…" he said with a heavy tongue, voice rough. Zelos moved, socking him square in the face so that he was knocked flat back onto the bed again. Grasping at his wrists, Zelos looked over his shoulder at Lloyd almost in a panic.

"Do it," he said.

Lloyd knew there was only one thing to say.

"I can't."

Zelos froze for a moment, but the struggled of Kloitz snapped him out of it quick enough. Letting go of the half-elf, he lifted one leg up and shot out at Lloyd's chest, knocking the seraph backwards- but not before Zelos could snatch the needle right out of his hands. "I knew you couldn't," he snarled angrily, "Not even when it's everything he deserves!"

"N-No!" Kloitz said, sitting up, pushing feebly at Zelos with his one good hand. Zelos grasped at his face, pushing his head back and baring his neck where he plunged the needle with such force it almost snapped before he could inject the lethal fluid.

"Zelos, no!"

Lloyd wrenched the Ex-chosen off the half-elf, but too late. The needle was still protruding from his neck, and Kloitz was utterly still. Even in death his eyes seemed to glow with their own demonic light, staring out into nothing. And before their very eyes, before either of them could say anything, the half-elf's face began to morph. Lumps formed, rolling along his flesh as though tiny mice had somehow burrowed their way into his body, rippling like the surface of a lake after a stone had been thrown inside. The stump that was once a hand began to grow and spread, a perfectly normal and healthy appendage sprouting from the wound. And Kloitz's horribly familiar features shifted into something even worse.

Orochi lay sprawled there in the prison cell, mouth agape, dark eyes flat and dull.