Hello again, and welcome to chapter tres! As per usual, a shout-out to my awesome, darling reviewers: Marina Ka-Fai and Mapo99! Thanks so much to the two of you for your reviews.

The vision of Kratos will be reviewed in times to come, and yes...Kratos does really care about the kids. You'll especially see that in...the next chapter! And our Renegade adventure will be coming up in chapter five, which is all typed and ready to go.

I assume most of you will realize this first part is not at all like the game, but as I said, there are some minor changes going around. But without further ado, here we go!

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Chapter Three_The Charade

Scarlett left through the front doors of the Renegade base and saw a young boy with silver hair and nearly identical blue eyes to the woman that she had seen with the Chosen earlier come running, the look of relief on his face quickly replaced by confusion. "Oh, umm…you're not my sister. Who are you?" He tensed up visibly. "You aren't a Desian, are you?"

"No, I'm not. I was being held captive by them as well. I met with Lloyd; are you another of his friends?"

"You saw Lloyd?! He was okay?!" The boy's eyes widened and he began to smile.

"Yes, he was alright. The others that I met inside were on their way to help him." Scarlett glanced over her shoulder and added, "But perhaps this isn't the best place to wait for them, you think? Let's move out of sight in case someone else comes out."

"Oh, yeah, you're right." The boy moved back to behind the dune that he had been behind. Scarlett followed behind him and was shocked when her eyes caught a glance of a large figure with the colors of white and green. A closer inspection made her think at first that it was a monster, but the young boy seemed completely accustomed to his presence. When he saw her discomfort, he said, "Oh, don't worry. This is Noishe – he's Lloyd's dog."

Deciding that for the moment, she shouldn't make a comment on this beast being a dog, she just accepted it. When the boy sat, Scarlett inquired, "Do you mind if I sit next to you?" His blue eyes flickered to see the small trace of blood still upon Koikage's blade, but he nodded silently. Scarlett set Koikage off to the side so that it wouldn't be in her hands any longer. Looking at him, she gave him a small smile of reassurance. "It's okay. I won't hurt you. My name is Scarlett. What's yours?"

"…Genis." This small exchange seemed to help settle the boy's nerves as he returned her smile. "Why were you being held captive?"

"I was on my way to visit a friend and for whatever reason, they captured me."

With another glance to her scythe, Genis asked, "What do you do?"

"Recently, I've been doing some mercenary work. I'm usually just travelling, doing small odd jobs, though." An idea clicked into Scarlett's head to help her lie along. She had already fought and helped protect Lloyd, a companion of the Chosen, and Genis must be part of their group, too. Now, she could help earn his trust some more, too. He didn't know that she knew that the blonde girl inside was the Chosen. "I was just going to visit this friend before I set out on my next mission."

"What is it?"

Scarlett chuckled and gave him a sideways look. "You really want to know?" The tone she chose to use made it sound as though it were some big secret. When he nodded enthusiastically, she said, "Well, I was in Palmacosta when I was visiting the Church of Martel. Inside, I met some people that I had saved from a monster attack, and they said that they thought I was skilled enough to help the Chosen in her journey to salvation. So, I was setting out to look for her, especially since the Tower has appeared in the sky. After being captured, though…I don't think I'm qualified."

Genis' eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he pulled his knees up to his chest. "The Chosen, huh? That's a pretty big job, don't you think?"

"Hmm…yeah, I guess so. But I'm just a common person compared to the Chosen, so I would happily lay down my life if it meant peace from the Desians."

The determination in her voice made Genis look at her, almost analytically, just as his sister had done not too long ago. He looked as though he were trying to decide whether or not if she was telling the truth. She gave him a puzzled look, seeming as though she were trying to act dumb. Genis shook his head. "No, it's nothing. That's a very bold statement, I thought. It's admirable that you want to help save the world like that. It almost sounds like Lloyd…but he would say something like he would find a way to do it without having to sacrifice anyone."

Scarlett raised her eyebrow at the boy. "You're a lot smarter than others your age, aren't you? And Lloyd…he sounds like he's a good person, as well as a good friend. Is he close to you?" If he is…how close? Does he understand that you are a half-elf? It's obvious that you aren't an elf, judging by your mana trace and even your ears. Lloyd is pure human. This may be Sylvarant and not Tethe'alla, but half-elves are still not welcome just anywhere in either world.

Genis grinned and rubbed the back of his head as he chuckled. "Well, Lloyd and I are best friends! That's why I'm worried about him… I would've gone in to help them, but my sister, Raine, told me to stay here and wait for them with Noishe…"

"I see… Well, I'll protect you while they're inside. They shouldn't be much longer."

"I don't need protecting!" Genis insisted, to which he received a laugh from Scarlett.

The two then sat quietly, not saying too much more. Scarlett could sense that Genis wasn't entirely in a mood for conversation since he had been left behind and was having to wait and worry about the safe arrival of his sister and friends. That was okay, though, because she didn't have much else to say, either. Noishe whined and kept pushing her shoulder with his nose, so she submitted and began to pet him, which he seemed to thoroughly enjoy.

It was probably fifteen minutes later when alarms began to go off, and Genis stood up alertly. "What is it?!"

"Look, here they come!" Scarlett took hold of her scythe and stood beside of him.

The group, now consisting of four people, was rushing out of the building. Lloyd caught sight of Genis, and his worried expression brightened almost instantly. "Genis! You brought them here?!"

"Duh!" the young boy narrowed his eyes at the obvious answer to Lloyd's obvious question.

"We don't have the time for this. We need to get away from here," the silver haired woman, which Scarlett assumed was Raine, snapped with authority.

"Oh, but what about-?" Lloyd began, his eyes set on Scarlett.

"She'll come with us, too. Now, let's hurry!"

Scarlett didn't argue as she followed the others as they fled the base, where the activity had begun to pick up, searching for the intruders.

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As Lloyd finished his tale of how he and Genis came to be in Triet, which was where the group had escaped to, Scarlett almost felt sorry for the duo. Because of a single meeting with an innocent woman at a Desian human ranch, they caused an attack on their village of Iselia, where the Desian leader, Forcystus, had discovered that Lloyd possessed a "special" type of Exsphere. Scarlett had heard from Lord Yggdrasill that one of the five Desian Grand Cardinals had made a special Exsphere years ago, but it had been stolen. Something told her this wasn't the last time they would discuss Lloyd's Exsphere. Now, the two had been banished from Iselia so that the villagers wouldn't have to live in fear of another attack from the ranch.

Once that tale had been told, Lloyd and Kratos both began to tell Raine about Exspheres and how they worked along with a Key Crest. Scarlett zoned in and out, not particularly listening to their conversation since she knew all about it. Kratos had more practice in sounding knowledgeable, but not too knowledgeable, so she would leave that to him. That is, until she was brought into it.

"How about you, Scarlett? Where did your Exsphere come from?" Raine inquired.

Her insides felt like ice for a moment as she tried to think of an excuse. "My friend - the one I was going to visit - he said he had found one on a dead Desian, so he gave it to me. He said that I would need it more than him." She added a small huff, hoping to display irritation. "But...I guess he was right."

While there was a pause, Raine seemed to accept this answer. "Where will you go from here? Will the Desians be after you any further?"

"I hadn't thought of that... I'm not sure if they will be or not," Scarlett admitted. "I was just...going to find some way to get to Palmacosta again."

"I thought you just came from Palmacosta?" Genis voiced slightly accusingly.

"I-It's just, after this whole ordeal, I... I don't feel like I should be one protecting the Chosen, even if she were to want me to." Scarlett averted her gaze. "If there were some other way I could help, I would..."

Colette finally spoke up. "No, Scarlett. You are a very brave person, I think, to have come out here and face this and still be able to try and think of others. If you ever felt ready to be with us, I would happily welcome you."

"You would...?" Scarlett's eyes widened. "Wait a minute! Colette, you're-?!"

"Yep!" Colette chirped, smiling as she always did.

"Umm... Wow." Scarlett flushed lightly. "I certainly feel dumb now, after all that..."

"You have no reason to at all," the Chosen assured her.

"Well, no matter your plans, you did help Lloyd out, by the sounds of it." Raine moved away from the wall she had been leaning on to approach her belongings. "So you can at least stay here for the evening with us while you figure everything out. Lloyd, if I may ask, can a Key Crest be made of any of these items?" She began to rummage through her items that she pulled out of her bag, naming each one and where it came from.

"Sis, did you...bring those all from our house?" Genis inquired, taken aback.

"Of course! They're valuable research materials!"

As Raine pulled out a vase, something else tumbled out with it and rolled across the floor. Kratos caught this and went to pick it up with curiosity. "Hmm? This is..."

Lloyd walked over to examine it. "Professor! This is a Key Crest!"

"The crest is half worn off, though," Kratos pointed out sagely as he handed it over.

Lloyd eyed it and set it carefully in his pocket. "Don't worry, I can fix that. You'll be able to equip your Exsphere by tomorrow, Professor."

"Really?! Thank you, Lloyd! I really appreciate it!"

Scarlett could've sworn that she had seen a glimmer in Raine's eyes, but when she quickly shooed everyone out of the room so that she and Genis could prepare for bed, she decided that maybe she had imagined it. The only room that they had rented out for the evening that had an extra bed to sleep in was Kratos' and Lloyd's room. She followed the duo downstairs and into the room. As soon as they entered, Lloyd sat his bag down and immediately pulled the Key Crest back out to begin repairing it. Kratos observed for only a few moments before he also set down his small bag and sat on a bed, collecting his thoughts.

Scarlett felt slightly awkward in the room with the two of them, especially with it being so quiet. She hesitantly set Koikage down, leaning against the wall, and claimed a bed. Sitting down on it, she released a soft sigh and ran a hand down her face. It had been an unusually long day, even for her. As she sat there, recalling the day's events, she remembered the vision that she had that contained Kratos. She reached into her satchel and withdrew her journal that held all of the visions she'd ever had - one for every day since it began. Flipping it open, she propped it on her legs and quickly wrote it all down, trying to remember the details as best she could. Once she finished, she turned her gaze up to Kratos, who was giving her a mildly quizzical glance. Understanding from the look in Scarlett's eyes, Kratos nodded. He knew she needed to talk to him.

It was quickly growing dark outside, and it got to the point where they had to light the candles in the room. It was around that same time that Lloyd stood victoriously and held up the finished Key Crest. "It's finished! I guess I'll go give this to the Professor now."

"It's getting late, and we need our strength for tomorrow. You need to hurry up and get some rest," Kratos advised him.

"I know. I'll be back in a minute," Lloyd assured him on his way out the door, admiring his work.

Once the door firmly shut and they heard Lloyd's footsteps retreat, Kratos shifted his gaze to Scarlett. "Now might be an appropriate time to tell me why you were in the Renegade Base...and why you had been captured."

Scarlett flinched from the last part of his sentence, which contained a stricter tone. "I was with Yuan, under Lord Yggdrasill's order, to see if we could track down the Renegade leader, but...I got hit with a booby trap when I disarmed the alarms on the outside of the building..." She gave a weak chuckle before adding, "But I guess Yuan escaped? He wasn't in the base with me, and I couldn't sense his mana signature anywhere."

Kratos maintained his straight face as he absorbed this. "Yes, I imagine Yuan escaped. Now...what did you have to talk to me about?"

"It...was one of my visions. It was...about you." At this, Kratos stiffened noticeably. "There was you, a monster, a child, and-..." Realization struck Scarlett. Noishe! The creature she had seen in her vision was Noishe! He was the same color and build as what she had seen. "...and Noishe."

Scarlett could see how Kratos was barely shaking, his hands clenched into tight fists, his eyes dark and dangerous. She immediately regretted bringing it up. "I-I'm sorry, Kratos! I... You know that I hate when this happens... I have no control over what I see..."

"What names were spoken?" he demanded shortly.

Scarlett quickly read through her notes she had written. "...Just Anna."

This seemed to give Kratos a slight relief, but not much. "...Drop it. Forget you saw it. It has nothing to do with you." Without another word, he made his way from the room, closing the door rather noisily behind him.

Scarlett allowed her tension to leave her body with a heavy release of breath. Kratos was the most intimidating person she knew, other than Lord Yggdrasill. She had only ever seen him that way perhaps two other times, where he was truly emotional. At the same time, it wasn't a single emotion he was displaying. Shaking her head, she tried to not think of it any further. It wasn't her business. She was just happy that Kratos wouldn't hold a grudge to her for it, since he knew her words were true. Her visions were extremely random as far as content, and most of the time, they were completely meaningless. Once in a while, though, she saw things that she really shouldn't have. The very first vision she had was of a beautiful half-elf woman with flowing green hair and the most gentle green eyes she'd ever seen. When she asked Yuan who she was, he grew very distant and told her not to speak of this woman to him again. When the curious, younger Scarlett went to Kratos, he told her the same thing, though he didn't look near as devastated as Yuan had.

She went and sprawled out on her bed, gazing at the ceiling absentmindedly. She wondered what Celeste was up to - and Priya! Priya had been another strange orphan child that Lord Yggdrasill had allowed to live there, but she was a half-elf and Lord Yggdrasill himself had been the one to find her. She, too, had been changed into an angel and had been forced to work under Pronyma, which was where Scarlett sympathized with her for. Now that Scarlett was older, she couldn't help but feel that Lord Yggdrasill had ulterior motives for bringing them all under the roof of Cruxis. Naturally, she never voiced this concerns aloud, because she knew what the consequences would bring her.

Suddenly, the door open and Kratos came through, Lloyd trailing behind him a few steps back. Instantly, Scarlett could see that Kratos' gaze was gentler, and Lloyd appeared to be grumbling about something, but neither said what had happened to her.

Just as Scarlett was getting ready to lay down for the evening and "sleep", Lloyd walked over to her. "By the way, Scarlett...do you want me to fix your Key Crest, too?"

She frowned deeply. "What do you mean? My Key Crest works fine..."

"It does for now, but," Lloyd narrowed his eyes to get a better look at it in the dim light, "the crests are wearing down. If it isn't fixed soon, it'll... Well, it won't work. You helped me out - fixing your Key Crest is the least I can do."

Scarlett didn't risk a glance towards Kratos, who had been listening but was going about his own business. Why would the Key Crest that Lord Yggdrasill given her not work for long? Did that mean that Celeste's and Priya's were the same way? Still, this piqued her interest, so she gave a smile of relief to Lloyd. "That would be great. I didn't think anything was wrong with it. But since you know more about these than me, I'll trust you on it."

Lloyd grinned back at her. "Great. I'll get on that tomorrow when we go to the Fire Seal."

"Lloyd," Kratos voiced, "she hasn't said if she was accompanying us or not."

The teen flushed to his ears. "O-oh, right. Umm, well..."

"I'll...at least go with you, I think. I can guard the entrance while you're all taking care of the rest."

This seemed to lift Lloyd's spirits. "Alright then! I'll get it done for you tomorrow at some point."

"...Thanks, Lloyd."

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Dun-dun-dun-dunnn! Why isn't Scarlett's Key Crest working like it should? Will Scarlett continue her journey with the Chosen into the Fire Seal? Do Celeste's and Priya's (even though you haven't met her yet) Key Crests work or not? Stay tuned!

...Okay, that was really lame, but seriously! Let's have a little review party down below! Just type-y in the little box-y and do a little dance-y...

See you next chapter!