Chapter Eleven:

Pain in Palmacosta

Yuan sigh, brushing several strands of brilliant, blue hair out of his face as he paced about his office. Things were not going as smoothly as he had hoped. No, far from it. It seemed that all of his plans were being foiled constantly. It certainly complicated matters, also, that Lloyd was going along on the Regeneration Journey. Not to mention the fact that the boy had seen him. He knew Kratos certainly would not care that Lloyd had seen him; but what if the boy let loose what he had seen to Yggdrasill? Not to mention the fact that it really made wiping the Chosen's group out much more difficult with Lloyd around. If he did kill them all, then Kratos would kill him, plain and simple. Not to mention he did not want the boy dead either.

Stepping out into the hallway of his Tethe'alla base, Yuan began hunting for Botta. He needed to have a message sent to Zelos as soon as possible. The Chosen was certainly proving to be a useful addition in his attempts to dispose of Sylvarant's Chosen. The poor boy was desperate to escape his own fate.

Spotting his old friend further down the corridor, Yuan waved to him and motioned him over.

"Botta, excellent timing, I've been looking fo—" he began, yet was cut off by aforementioned half-elf.

"Lord Yuan, Kratos is here," he announced, eyes flittering back slightly, as though in fear that the auburn-haired seraph would remove him of his head if he was not careful.

Gazing off down the hallway, Yuan ignored his companion's obvious nervousness. "Where is he?"

"In the front hall. Lord Kratos did not want to come in too far. He seems to be in a hurry."

"…hmm, probably has something to do with Lloyd," Yuan muttered softly before walking off in the direction Botta had come. "Very well, I'll go meet with him."

Lloyd walked down the streets of Palmacosta. He was glad that those darn doctors had finally deemed him well enough to travel once again, which meant a chance to resume the hunt for his father. He still could not see why the man had not shown up as of yet. The fierce seraph was almost never late, so why now? Nothing added up, his father had said that he would meet him in Palmacosta, not to mention that the group had taken their time in arriving there. Could Kratos have been and gone? No, that did not make sense either. Lloyd was certain that his father had been keeping tabs on the group so as to know when they would arrive.

Sighing, Lloyd leaned back against a building. All of this hypothesizing was only leading him back to where he started: where was his father? As he stood there, running back over everything in his mind, a sudden thought struck the brunet teen. Only now, as he stood recalling everything regarding his father's words, did the words of the fortuneteller return to mind: "great sadness awaits you in Palmacosta."

Blinking with the shock of the moment, Lloyd stood upright and made a beeline back the inn, The Skipper's Haven. There was something entirely too wrong with this situation. Somehow, somewhere, something must have gone wrong with…whatever it was that his father had been doing. Frowning slightly, the brunet teen realized that he did not know what it was his father had been up to. The man had seemed to get more and more distant over the years. Now that he really took the time to ponder it, Lloyd could see that there was something going on.

Shaking his head as he trotted along, Lloyd forced such thoughts from his mind. Whatever his father was up to, he trusted the older man, regardless of the ambiguity in his actions. Spotting the inn straight ahead, the brunet teen slowed his pace to a fast walk. It was not like getting back fast was going to solve all of his problems anyway.

Opening the door to the building, the half-angel stepped inside. Heading to the room he was sharing with Genis, Lloyd swung the door open and stepped inside to see his half-elven friend seated on one of the beds.

Leaping up, Genis pointed an accusatory finger at his friend.

"Where have you been? We've been looking all over for you! Raine wanted to leave an hour ago, but you just up and vanished!"

Ignoring the silver-haired boy, Lloyd glanced down at his feet and took a deep breath, preparing himself to speak.

"Hey, Genis," he finally asked, an almost forlorn tone touching his voice.

"Yeah? What is it Lloyd?" he asked, his rage quickly dissipating at Lloyd's tone.

"You haven't…well…um…never mind."

Shooting his friend a quizzical glance, Genis shrugged.

"Well, okay…but you need to get ready to go."

Nodding, Lloyd quickly grabbed his bag and shoved his few stray belongings into it. He was still so confused, yet he could not very well go 'hey we have to wait for my Dad' without arousing some degree of suspicion. Not only did his father look young enough to be Lloyd's older brother, it would also go completely against the story he had told the others.

One he had finished packing, the brunet shouldered his pack and smiled weakly over to where Genis stood waiting.

"Well, guess I'm ready."

"It's about time," grumbled Genis, before leading the way out the door.

Glancing back through the room, Lloyd sighed as Genis trotted back to where his sister and the Chosen were waiting for them. He had already given them enough of a hold-up. Even after four-thousand years, Lord Yggdrasill could hardly be called pleased by that. So, yet not without another poorly-concealed sigh, Lloyd retreated from the room, shutting the door behind himself.

Spotting his three companions waiting for him, Lloyd bowed slightly, eyes averted from theirs. "I'm sorry about disappearing…I just wanted to look around," he explained, still refusing to meet their eyes.

Frowning, Raine shook her head in evident disapproval. "You have to remember that we're not on a fieldtrip, Lloyd, and we mustn't delay too long, for the Salvation of Sylvarant."

Nodding his head, Lloyd glanced over to where Colette stood. It was certainly not difficult to tell that the blonde girl had flinched ever so slightly at the Professor's words. She knew what was in store for her, even if the others did not.

"I'm sorry, Professor, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."

"That's good, Lloyd, because you must remember that we allowed you to come along on the understanding that you would be a help—not a hold up."

Lloyd grimaced slightly at Raine's blunt statement. Clearly the silver-haired half-elf was not in the mood to compensate for any more hold ups.

Seeing that Lloyd was not going to cause them any more difficulties—at least for the moment—the half-elf shouldered her bag and made for the door, calling back over her shoulder as she walked, "well, I guess we should be off then."

Nodding meekly, Lloyd trailed along behind. They were leaving, yet still no Kratos.

"Why are you here?" the words cut through the silence that had prevailed between the two Seraphim for the past few moments, each seeking to read the other's thoughts.

"So your assassin failed," it was a cold statement, spoken by an even colder man.

"What's it to you? Aren't you supposed to be protecting her least Mithos blow a fuse?"

"You know I don't care what you do, so long as you don't get in my way."

"Kratos, Kratos, you know that that may not always be possible, especially since you sent Lloyd there to do your job for you."

Ignoring the half-elf's taunts, the redheaded man sighed. "You know what I'm here for."

"Yes, I do. And it seems that your own plans are going to have to be put on hold for now. At least until the time in which my own are successful."

Kratos narrowed his eyes at this, leering at his blue-haired companion. "I don't think so, Yuan. You know full well I need the status of the Chosen to get what I want here, without having to do it myself. Mithos would get too worked up if he knew I was running around Tethe'alla gathering those."

"Well, at the moment I still have need of him. Sheena has yet to complete her mission."

"So? That's just one more thing I don't understand, Yuan."

"And what is that?"

"Just what is it that you need the Chosen of Mana for? You want to kill one, and use the other?"

"Oh, that, I thought it was pretty obvious. Sylvarant only has a few charged Rheairds, which we cannot spare. Not only that but Rodyle's actions have caused the Dimensional Transfer System to destabilize and we don't have Volt's mana to recharge them with. Without those there is only one surefire way between the worlds—"

"—the Tower of Salvation," Kratos finished. "You're going to use him to open the way through it, getting her back without risking your own neck. A bold plan, going right under Mithos' nose like that. Yet it doesn't explain why you need him now. Retrieving her could wait, even after she succeeds.—if she succeeds."

"Well now, that would work, only I don't trust her any longer. She's too soft-hearted. I was going to have Zelos keep tabs on her for me. See to it she does her job right next time."

"And what's wrong with your precious troops? Are they so unreliable they cannot keep tabs on a single girl?"

"Or maybe they are needed for more important things. Not to mention that he's going to be travelling with her. I think sending someone that she doesn't know along might be an unwise decision, don't you?" Yuan's eyebrow had flickered visibly at the jab to his soldiers. He had never been quite as good as Kratos at keeping his temperament under control, and now he found himself unable to resist a slight taunt. "Or did you not think of that?"

"Very well, I will wait, but bear this in mind: I will not wait long." That being said, the auburn-haired seraph turned on his heel, unfurled his sapphire wings, and zoomed off into the clear, bright sky.
Chuckling, Yuan shook his head, speaking aloud to the departed seraph as he did so, "well, it's a good thing you gave me your permission, seeing as how I told Zelos to depart as soon as he took the message to you…"

'So far so good,' Zelos thought to himself as he crept across the floor of Welgaia, making for the transporter to Sylvarant. Leave it to that damned idiot Rodyle to mess up the Transfer System so he was forced to go the long, dangerous way around. Not to mention Sylvarant's Chosen going and sucking the mana up so the Rheairds were not working right anyway. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like fate wanted him to walk. Stupid fate.

As he walked along, the redhead Chosen kept a careful eye about. While he was not particularly worried about the lower angels of Derris-Kharlan, he did not fancy a chance meeting with one of the Grand Cardinals. Not to mention the ever-present chance of meeting with Yggdrasill. That he especially did not fancy happening.

Glancing cautiously down the domed hallway, Zelos stepped out onto the moving sidewalk once he was certain the coast was clear. Strolling idly across the floor, he successfully made it to the transporter which he immediately jumped on and allowed it to suck him downwards.

Once he had arrived, and the slight feeling of dizziness that was associated with those things, had passed, Zelos glanced about once again before walking confidently off towards the next transporter.

"Going somewhere?"

Oh. Crap.

Zelos froze up in shock as the suave voice reached his ears, right when he was about to teleport to freedom, too! Forcing his shock under control, the redhead plastered a goofy grin on his face and turned to the blond man who floated not ten feet from where he stood.

"Lord Yggdrasill, what a surprise! I didn't expect to see you here," he blurted out stupidly. Why on earth would he not expect to see Yggdrasill on his own planet? Oh well, it was too late to take it back now.

Yggdrasill simply responded to Zelos' babbling with a long, cold glare. For a smart-person-acting-idiot, Zelos could sure as hell be an idiot at times.

"Why are you here? You know better than to come to Derris-Kharlan without my summons."

Zelos shrugged lightly at this cold demand, trying his best to keep his voice from faltering. "Oh, I came to see Sylvarant. I've never even seen the place, not to mention my best bud is over there. I thought I'd like to check it out and visit with my bud."

"…you want to visit Lloyd? For that reason you would come into my tower without my permission? Just to see Lloyd?"

"Yeah, why not?" he asked, shrugging lightly despite the danger of the situation. He knew he was walking a tight line and that one wrong move could remove him of his head. "I can also help guard the Chosen while I'm there. She completes the trial, you get your vessel, and I get my life."

Yggdrasill chuckled humourlessely at this. "Very well Wilder. Just don't do anything that you might later regret."

Nodding, Zelos activated the transporter and finally made his way out onto Sylvarant for the first time.

And six years later, she updates! –sweatdrop- No really, sorry about the wait guys. Not long after I updated last time, something happened that could have ended up being really, really, REALLY BAD. It didn't, however it almost did, and it has really changed my life anyway. That event? The horse I was leasing got put up for sale. Now you're all like "lkgmnv wtf? Why does that matter?" Well, it does. He's my baby. I absolutely adoure him! And now I'm his owner! His very, very broke owner. So yeah, I've had to take more hours at work and all that to pay for him, so…I'm busy. Plus I started university. No fun.

Now on to better topics. I've finally sat down and really started plotting this story…that's like…a first. But it's going to be fun with lots of twists (providing I don't go with Mantarou's idea…). Speaking of which, she's started a story too! –is excited- Whenever she posts it you guys all have to read it…well providing you're eighteen or over.

I can imagine you guys might have found parts of this chapter rather confusing. That's good. It's all going to be explained soon (or eventually), so a little confusion is okay. Despite that aspect I hope you all enjoyed it (despite its shortness and its not having been beta'd yet) and review please! –heart-