This is the chapter from HELL. HELL I TELL YOU!

I literally redid this thing three times. I went through two different sets of Renegade guards, two explanations to Yuan, and a highly edited break-out scene. Everything kept turning out like either crack or crap and that just DOESN'T CUT IT. So, finally, after what I will honestly say was two weeks of lack-of-inspiration and blood, sweat, and tears (okay, I don't cry, I admit it, but I'm telling you I pulled out a lot of hair over this one) you have this. I hope it doesn't suck as badly as I fear it might.

But please, enjoy Lloyd at his best and worst…

….

Lloyd's head was pounding and he felt bile rise in this throat. What the hell hit me…? He thought, trying to muster enough energy to lift his eyelids. His stomach churned, as if he'd eaten a hundred jelly sandwiches, and the pounding only seemed to get worse as he attempted to focus. He wanted to groan, but the self-preserving part of him wouldn't let him make a sound.

A numb finger twitched and Lloyd realized he was laying, though, he supposed that was kinda obvious, considering he doubted he had the ability to sit at this point, let alone stand. He tried to shift, even a bit, and a burning pain shot up his spine when he tried to do anything. He bit his tongue so as not to cry out in pain. His stomach clenched and refused to move again. His head pounded even more.

Okay, moving and thinking not going so well, he'd just have to sit through it; normally it wasn't too hard for Lloyd to let his mind wander so he didn't have to think, but as he remembered the circumstances he was in…or hoped he was in, he couldn't seem to find that nice, dark place in his head where he usually retreated during, say, one of Raine's lectures.

"You think he'll wake up soon?" growled a harsh voice outside Lloyd's head.

"Not a clue, besides, the longer he's out, the less work for us," the reply came from closer. There were at least two men—hopefully Renegades and not Desians—in the room with him. Lloyd held his breath, wanting them to continue to believe that he was still unconscious so they would keep talking.

"Who the hell is this kid, anyway?"

"How am I supposed to know?" the second voice growled, "But he's got a wanted poster and that Desian bitch went after him big time, so he's gotta be worth something."

"Huh, you never seen him before then? If he's on the Desian most wanted list, why haven't we seen him before?"

"No clue, he's just a kid, so he's probably a recent addition, got in trouble at a Ranch or broke out or something."

Lloyd was relieved; he really was safely—okay, bad word use –in the Renegade base; he hadn't been knocked out and dragged back to the Iselia Ranch. Of course, were that the case, he probably wouldn't have been in a single cell or anything either. He probably would have been strapped on a dissection table.

At that moment, the door opened again and the sound of hurried feet met Lloyd's ears. "Sirs," this Renegade was a female, "Lord Botta wants you."

One of Lloyd's guards growled softly, "Damn, Botta's got horrible timing. We've got to watch the brat…"

"The brat," that's nice, Lloyd mentally rolled his eyes. Was an unconscious teenager really that hard to watch? Apparently.

"Don't suppose Lord Botta remembered to call for replacements…" grumbled the other.

"If he did, he didn't say anything to me." The girl sounded as if she'd rolled her eyes.

"Don't suppose you have any jobs that you have to do?" the first Renegade asked, obviously hinting at what he wanted.

"Well, actually—"

"Excellent! We'll be back later." The sounds of the two men's retreating feet echoed around and out the door.

"…bastards…" growled the woman and Lloyd heard her sit heavily on something outside his cell. "Whatever, the kid's asleep, s'not like I have to do anything…"

And that, thought Lloyd, is where you're wrong. He felt a little bad taking advantage of the girl, but really, it was to save the world, after all.

Lloyd opened his eyes after he heard the telltale sounds of the woman pacing to and fro in front of his cell. The ceiling above him came into sharp view; the metal plates that encased it were solid, and they covered the floor and walls besides. The only furnishing, and Lloyd would hardly consider it this, in the cell was a single hard-looking cot that was chained to the wall beside him. That was it; everything else was made of painful-looking metal. Of course, this was only his bad vantage point, from memory he recalled that just outside his cell was the button to release his cell door. Bad planning? No shit. Convenient? Sure as hell!

Lloyd groaned loudly and sat, making the half-elf think that he was still groggy. His father had drilled the expression never underestimate your enemy into Lloyd's head during their training sessions, now it was time to play it up, make his enemy underestimate him. It couldn't be too hard; she thought he was an injured human.

Of course, being a swiftly healing angel wasn't what she would expect.

"Stay down, don't talk," she commanded, her tone sharp enough to cut.

"W-where am I…?" Lloyd groaned, rubbing his head. "Ow…I hurt all over…" He blinked blearily at her, keeping his eyes half-shut so she couldn't see how awake he really was. "W-wait…you're a Desian…?" He tried to push as much childish fault he could into the statement.

She snorted, "Something like that."

"G-Genis…and Noshy? What'd you do with them! Why'd you kidnap me?"

"That's not something you need to know, brat. Now shut up."

"Let me out of here."

"Ha-ha, yeah right. Or what? You're gonna make scary faces at me from behind the bars?" She rolled her eyes. "You're not that frightening."

Lloyd kept his hand surreptitiously out of the Renegade's line of sight while he made sure that the Sorcerer's Ring was still on the middle finger of his right hand. He didn't want to, but he had a feeling that his guard wasn't about to kindly open the door for him; this meant that he'd end up having to make his own way out. Therefore, he'd need to get her out of the way. Although he'd only just met her, he had the feeling that she wouldn't go down without a fight.

The half-elf, conveniently, strolled toward the bars of his cage and planted her hands on her hips, her face just inches from the bars. Lloyd stood, silently thanking his lucky stars that she was helping him get out. "…please?" Lloyd kept his voice whiny and childish, but she was unimpressed.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Then I'll do it myself." Lloyd brought his hand around and, with a thought, blasted the woman with a small ball of fire directly in her stomach. She gasped and stumbled back, crying out in shock and pain. Lloyd took his chance, reaching out between the bars to start pushing buttons.

His fingers floundered over the keys for a second before he found the button to open the cell, then tugged his hand back to keep it from getting caught in the rising bars. Lloyd strolled out of his cell and raced around the side to grab his swords while his half-elf guard was still down. By the time he rounded back to face her, the Renegade was back on her feet, her stomach covered by one of her hands while the other grasped her short sword.

"Y-you're not getting away from me!" she gasped, but Lloyd knew that there was no way that she could stop him, except, maybe, if she alerted the rest of the base. Lloyd darted forward and slammed the hilt of his sword into her helmet. She gasped and stumbled back, collapsing.

Lloyd knelt beside her and removed the helmet, blue hair spilled out and Lloyd brushed it aside and smacked his hilt into her head again. She slumped onto the metal floor and Lloyd hoisted her up and dragged her over to the cell that had, up until a moment ago, been his. He laid her out on the cot and locked the door behind him.

"Okay…" muttered Lloyd aloud, "Get out of here before the return of the other guards…come on Botta, for once in your life, be long-winded!"

He hurried down the hallway toward the door and actually managed to slip out unnoticed. He hurried down the left passage, toward the chamber that opened into the rest of the base. He turned a sharp right and slid into a group of Renegade guards.

"Excuse me!" he burst through the group and began to sprint as fast as his feet could carry him down the hall and away from the momentarily shocked Renegades.

"…holy shit, that's the prisoner!" echoed down the hall behind him along with the sound of running feet. Seconds later, the alarms began, the halls were lighted with red and the screaming alarms were hell on his ears. Lloyd got to the room with the electric lock; he slid down between two open floor panels just as the Renegades entered.

"Damn, that brat just ran off…"

"He's wearing bright red, how do we miss that?"

From under their feet, Lloyd smirked and slipped around behind them while they dragged the security bots into place and opened the door.

One thing that could not be said about Lloyd was that he was particularly stealthy. Actually, as he was wearing bright red and carrying around his swords, Lloyd could do little-to-no actual sneaking, luckily for him, he was slightly better at strategy. Therefore, while the Renegades were unlocking the door, Lloyd positioned himself directly under the door that was to open, waiting. Much to his wonder, there was another break in the floor panels that went through the middle of the door so that, when the Renegades gathered to progress onto the next room, Lloyd grabbed their ankles and pulled them down beneath the floor with him. They were dazed, and not about to make a sound, so Lloyd left them as such.

He hopped up and through the door, shutting it securely behind him.

The room that met him was larger than the last, and in the center was a large, gray box and seated in the farthest corner was the control panel. Lloyd recalled the last time he'd done this, and the pain he'd gone through trying to electrocute his way through. Then, of course, on their next trip through, Genis had pointed out that the control panel for the whole place was sitting not ten feet away from where he'd suffered trying to get through.

Because his life just sucked like that.

It didn't take Lloyd long to open the right door, the one that led deeper into the base and toward Yuan's office.

Of course, things never went so smoothly for Lloyd Irving, as, ten minutes later, he found himself face-to-face with yet another group of Renegades searching for him.

"There he is! The kid in red!"

Lloyd mentally groaned at the nickname; yes, he liked red, but what did these people have against using his name, seriously? He sprinted down the nearest hall and slipped into a storage closet when he got a moment. As the sounds of the Renegades' feet faded into the distance and Lloyd snuck out of the closet and back around the corner. A moment later, he stood in front of a rather plain looking door, a small smirk upturning his lips: this was Yuan's office.

Huh…I'm awfully lucky, Lloyd realized, Yuan's gotta have guards most of the time, but they're probably out looking for me right now…

Lucky: the story of his life.

Lloyd opened the door and walked in, one hand on his sword, just in case Yuan decided to attack instead of threaten this time. Yuan's office was large and luxurious; there were large pillars and comfy-looking chairs about the room and at the center was a large desk made of some rich wood, behind it sat a huge chair. But, for once, there was no blue-haired half-elf sitting in it.

Lloyd was completely alone in Yuan's office.

Lloyd looked around, double- and triple-checking to make sure the man he called uncle wasn't simply hiding in a corner waiting to take him down. When Lloyd was sure he was safe, he, unsure of what to do exactly, wandered toward Yuan's desk and, slipping behind it, sat down in the Renegade leader's chair.

As soon as Lloyd was seated, he realized just how exhausted he was. His body had yet to fully recover after the shock that he'd received back in Triet and he had been either running or fighting constantly over the past hour. He leaned back into the softness the chair offered and yawned, tentatively stretching but this action stopped quickly when he felt a stinging twinge in his shoulder, where the mana that had knocked him unconscious had hit.

Lloyd was very glad for a few minutes to himself, unlike in the past, when he'd worried about meeting a deadline of sorts, he knew that he'd made it though the base in record time and that he had simply arrived early to Yuan's office. However, with downtime, came time to think, and, for the first time, Lloyd realized that he had no idea what to say to Yuan.

Because he wasn't just going to play his part, no, he was actually planning on telling Yuan everything.

Lloyd needed help, and he knew it. Unfortunately, his dad, along with the rest of the group, were too vital to everything that happened, too vital to saving the world—he couldn't risk something being changed. And some of the choices that Lloyd would have to make would be difficult for them to understand. He would have to let towns be destroyed, he would have to let people die. None of his friends would understand.

But Yuan…Yuan could understand the details, like how nothing could be changed or everything would be thrown off. He wouldn't be sentimental.

Lloyd and Yuan, much to both of their shock, would become…close. When Kratos chooses to leave for Derris-Kharlan, Yuan is Lloyd's closest tie to his father, and he becomes the guardian of the Yggdrasill Tree with Martel. With Lloyd the name-giver for the Tree, he, also, spent much of his time at the Tree's location, so he and Yuan would…bond.

Of course, that hadn't happened yet, so Lloyd would have to be careful with what he said.

Lloyd leaned back in Yuan's chair, he could tell it was comfortable, his body appreciated the down-time after all the work it had taken to get this far. And the stress the looming meeting was causing was making him tired. Automatically, Lloyd put his feet up on the man's desk; in retrospect, this was probably not the most intelligent course of action.

Then the door opened.

Lloyd's eyes flashed open, his head jolted up to see Yuan Kafei strolling through the door into his office, his nose buried in papers, then he looked up. For a moment, the half-elf took in his surroundings, then his hand darted into the folds of the cape that he always wore and pulled out a dagger that he held with practiced hands.

"And just who the hell are you?"

Some things never changed.

Lloyd sighed and sat up, "…Lloyd Irving. Or, actually, Irving-Aurion. Kratos' son." He had to convince Yuan, not make him think this was some sort of prank.

"…Lloyd Aurion is dead," growled his uncle softly.

"No, Lloyd Aurion was in Iselia, raised by the dwarf, Dirk. My dad just came to the village to help Colette receive the Oracle. Then Genis and I got kicked out and I came to join with the Chosen. Now I'm wanted by the Desians, which is why I got picked up by your men. I've come because I need your help." It was, he figured, best to just out and say everything. He could only convince Yuan if Yuan didn't think that Lloyd was withholding information.

"…" From the look in his uncle's eyes, Lloyd's explanation was checking out with what Yuan had heard from his spies. "…wait, Iselia…then you'd be…the boy with the Angelus project!" This caused Yuan's eyes to widen slightly; Lloyd was hoping he'd at least convinced Yuan of who he was. "Then perhaps…the exsphere…" Yuan's eyes flashed to Lloyd's hand; he didn't bother to react, Yuan could see his hand—and exsphere—just fine.

"Kvar—" Lloyd's eyes darkened, "—and Forcystus attacked Iselia because of it." Lloyd held up his left hand. The blue gem glittered in the light of the office. It twinkled like as if Lloyd's mother was encouraging him, but the sight of it still sent shivers down Lloyd's spine.

"…so it's true then, Kvar was on the continent…" Yuan muttered almost too softly for Lloyd to hear, then, louder, "So, you said you wanted my help. With what exactly, Aurion?" From the sound of Yuan's voice, he wasn't planning on helping Lloyd, but that was where he was wrong.

"…Yuan…one, please just call me Lloyd, all this Aurion stuff is really weird, and two, I'm sorta from the future." Yuan went from slightly amused, if not annoyed, to disbelieving in less than a second and Lloyd knew that he'd have to work fast. He interrupted Yuan when the Seraph looked as if he was going to speak. "I know it seems impossible, but, see, in the future we actually manage to stop Mithos and save the world—by we I mean Colette, Kratos, you, Zelos, Raine, Genis, Sheena, Presea, and Regal. Along with a lot of other people. We get the Eternal sword using the Ring of the Pact and we germinated the Great Seed and saved the world."

Yuan, obviously disbelieving, spoke, "…if you saved the world then to what purpose did you come back?"

"Because I'm following Kvar," Lloyd spoke, keeping his voice even and his face open, "because he's killed by Dad and I in a couple months: we storm the Ranch and get revenge. But somehow he's come back and then he'll go—cept that's now—back in time to try to change the future…and get revenge. I found out and followed him back to try to stop him."

"…out of my chair," Yuan growled, but he seemed…almost ready to listen. Lloyd hoped it wasn't because Yuan was stalling while he brought the guards there. Lloyd rose out of the chair, walked around the desk to seat himself on one of the harder chairs in front of Yuan's desk while Yuan took his seat, and leaned forward to listen to the rest of Lloyd's tale. "And just why do you think you need my help?" Yuan asked, his green eyes glittering with…well, honestly Lloyd couldn't tell if he was actually curious or scheming, as usual.

"Because, everything has to happen like it did the first time or it'll change the future and we might not be able to save the world."

"Then why," Yuan asked, eyeing Lloyd as if he was stupid, "would you increase the risk of changing something by adding another factor?"

"Because, Kvar is more dangerous than even Yggdrasill, and I need some way to counter him directly while I keep track of the group. And, as long as you just keep an eye on him and call me when something's going on, you can do basically the same things that you normally would, including try to assassinate Colette and Dad."

This seemed to throw Yuan off for a moment and the Renegade Leader watched Lloyd for a moment before saying slowly, "…what made you think I would believe a word of this?"

That was a good question and Lloyd felt himself grow jumpy and he was suddenly waiting for the sounds of the guards coming to get him. "…because, for one thing, in the future you're a really close friend, and, for another, I don't have a lot of other choices. I came here without very many options in the first place and I need someone on the inside."

"…and you couldn't just ask your father why?"

"Dad is still on Yggdrasill's side right now, and he…he wouldn't understand. Lots and lots of people died last time, and I know that I can't change that. I-I don't want to sacrifice them, but I don't have any other choice, that's the way it's supposed to be, and if it changes, everything could change in the future, just one person saved that wasn't supposed to be… None of my friends, not even Dad, would understand that. But…I think you can."

Suddenly, amongst the chaos, already happening around them, another alarm sounded along with footsteps from outside and Botta ran in, "Sir! The Chosen's group has infiltrated the facility! We're under the impression that they're after the prisoner—the hell?"

Botta must have been struck by the sight of Yuan and the missing prisoner sitting talking calmly to one another amidst all the chaos outside.

"Crap!" groaned Lloyd, "That's Dad and the others…and I thought we had more time than this…" He swore softly under his breath. "Look, Yuan, I know you don't believe me, but here." Lloyd pulled out his secret weapon from the disguised wing pack on his belt: a small letter. The letter had been written by the future Yuan to himself in hopes that he may be able to convince himself where Lloyd could not. "Please, trust me, and keep an eye on Kvar. I'll see you…soonish, I think."

"…" Yuan stared for a moment at the envelope that now rested in his hands, "…Botta," and then he was giving orders, "I should be going, our plans will be ruined if he sees me. Take care of the problem. Oh, and Lloyd," he growled softly, "don't expect to leave the Base, we'll continue this conversation when you're behind bars once again."

"You won't get me that far." Lloyd tried not to sound too smug.

And with that, Yuan took the letter and slipped through the door into his back room. From there, Lloyd did not know where Yuan went, but he hoped desperately that, wherever he'd gone, he'd believe what Lloyd had said.

"So you're Lloyd, you've certainly caused us enough trouble…we'll be going back to your cell now…" Botta chuckled, "Honestly, you've put us all for a turn."

"My friends will be here to save me in a moment, so I'm not going anywhere."

And just as he spoke the words, they came true: Kratos, Colette, and Genis all ran into the room, though how they'd found the room he was in was beyond Lloyd.

….

Well…does it make any more sense now? Anyone? You now know about as much as Lloyd does, proving just how hard this is gonna be.

R&R

~Yoshi