*Sigh* okay, reality really won on this one. To think it's only been a month since my last update. A lot has happened in that month, so that's my excuse; this month has been packed with blood, sweat, and tears. School started up, I had a few personal issues, and I've had to completely rewrite my summer, but what can you do?

My initial intent on this chapter was to break it into two parts, the breaking-and-entering part of the Ranch, and then the actual big final battle. I got about half-way done with the chapter and realized that the only way I was going to get this thing to any sort of length was to just out and stick the whole thing into one. Palmacosta was always one of my least favorite Ranches, actually, that's got to be my least favorite part of the game as a whole, so inspiration (beyond the blowing of things up) was scarce. All the same, try to sit with me through this and, fingers crossed, we'll all come out alive.

….

Lloyd crouched in the bushes outside the Palmacosta Ranch; Raine and Genis were behind, waiting for a signal to move. It had been but days since the attack on Palmacosta, but Lloyd, Colette, and Kratos had done their job thoroughly enough that the Sage siblings had no choice but to go along with the attack plan. Yet Lloyd was not comfortable; he knew that none of the others were either. There were far too many questions left unanswered.

Like, for example, who was running this Ranch. Lloyd had a sinking feeling that it might be Kvar, or perhaps Rodyle that had taken control of the Palmacosta Ranch, but they also had their own Ranches to take care of, and, if Lloyd's theory was correct, probably accusations from Cruxis to dodge as well. And as Lloyd was learning, that was a task easier said than done.

He had stepped as lightly as possible, yet questions came from every direction. Colette and Genis were both convinced Lloyd was sick or something ridiculous like that, and always had the most concerned expressions plastered to their faces when they watched him. Raine and Kratos weren't so innocent. Kratos watched him like a hawk when they weren't drawing up battle plans in the dust or practicing combat skills, and Raine seemed to be growing more and more suspicious of him. Whenever he thought he had a moment alone, he was ambushed by his friends, each with a different question for him.

Kratos' were always the same, how did he know Kvar? Why was Rodyle so familiar with him? Raine's were more subtle always dropping hints and setting traps that Lloyd did his best not to stumble into. One night, while they were eating, Lloyd finally snapped when Raine set another trap.

"That's it!" He'd glared around the table at his friends. "You all think I did something or I'm doing something or some shit like that! I'm—…" His voice dropped and so too did his eyes, "…and you have every right to, but right now isn't the time not to trust each other. If we're going to take down this Ranch, we can't not trust each other or we're all dead."

"Then why not answer our questions honestly, Lloyd?" Lloyd didn't have to look up to know that Raine was glaring at him. "How can we trust you when we know you're hiding secrets?"

"…" Lloyd forced himself to look up and meet her eyes, face the mistrust in them. "…you've known me since I was twelve years old, you were my teacher, have you ever known me to do anything untrustworthy? Pranks maybe, but nothing like this."

"That…" Raine's eyes darkened, "is not entirely accurate. Iselia was destroyed by the Desians the day after you approached the Ranch. If what Genis says is true and that that was the only day you accompanied him, why was it that it was then that they chose to attack? That strikes me as suspicious."

Lloyd felt shock and pain course through him, but, while her argument was painfully inaccurate, he almost saw her point. Almost. "My exsphere," he said simply, "It was my fault we stumbled that day, my fault that Genis attacked a Desian that was trying to hurt Marble. I tried to cover for Genis while he ran away, but the Desians saw my exsphere, and apparently it's "special," whatever that means, and that's why the Desians attacked Iselia."

"And Kvar and Rodyle?" Kratos snapped. "I have yet to hear a suitable response to how you are familiar with them."

"Dammit, I don't know! I don't know how they know me, I don't get what's going on with them and it's freaking me out just as much as it's freaking you out!" Perhaps "freaking out" wasn't the best way to describe Kratos, but Lloyd's point was gotten across. "I know Rodyle and Kvar 'cause Kvar freaking killed my mom and—" How was he going to explain this? "…and once Rodyle came to Dad for a special key crest." He hung his head again, his hands clenching into fists like this was some huge secret instead of a moment of brilliance. The declaration was met with shocked silence until finally, Raine spoke.

"I…thought that Dirk didn't do those kinds of jobs…"

"He doesn't…not normally, but he hadn't had a job in months and money was getting low. This Desian with purple hair came to the door and offered us a job. I was really little at the time, but from what I got he was sneaking around behind somebody's back and couldn't have this job done back at the Ranch anyway. It worked out best for everybody secretly like that… Dad made me promise not to ever tell anyone. Rodyle never came back, no Desians ever did and we thought the whole thing was buried."

"It has been that long, how did Rodyle recognize you?"

"I'm a kid that only wears red dwarf-clothes and has spiky hair and fights with two swords. I'm not exactly inconspicuous!"

"…did you just say "inconspicuous"?" Genis stared at Lloyd in shock.

"Shut up, Genis!"

While they had hardly been his best, his fabrications had set the minds of his friends to rest for the time being. But lying was going to get he and his friends in and out of the Ranch alive. He snuck a few steps closer to the Ranch, staying low to the ground so as not to be seen by patrols.

"What do you think Her Ladyship was thinking sending out all these extra patrols?" A female Desian asked her companion as they walked toward Lloyd's hiding place. Lloyd pressed himself against the ground, checking his swords so they didn't stick up through the bushes.

"Hell if I know. Palmacosta's destroyed, and s'not like the damn House of Salvation's gonna construct an uprising."

She? Lloyd pondered this, the only she he could think of was Pronyma, and of all the Grand Cardinals, she was the least likely to be corrupted by Kvar. Of course, there was always an option of a new player, but Lloyd shuddered to think what else he would have to deal with.

As the two Desians moved closer, Lloyd waited and, when they were a few steps in front of him, he slipped out of the bushes and slipped one sword through the lower spine of the man. The Desian gasped and collapsed, the severing of his spine destroying use of his legs. He let out a startled cry and Lloyd swooped in to silence him. He refused to think about what he was doing as he moved. The man would have died after they'd blown up the Ranch anyway, this made his death far less painful, and swifter. He finished off the made just in time to swing his other sword 'round and intercept a blow the short sword of the woman that would have sliced through his shoulder.

He moved, again without thought, and disarmed her, then slammed the hilt of his sword against her head. He held his breath, ready to kill her like he had the man…but he couldn't bring himself to. His shoulders slumped and he stooped and picked her up. His actions would put them behind, but he couldn't just leave her there to be killed by the blast. The area around the Ranch was not nearly as full of hills as the Iselia Ranch, but there was a dip in the land where she would be safe. He spent a minute moving her, then slipped around to rejoin Raine and Genis who had been hidden a ways away and were yet ignorant of what he'd done.

"Come on, let's go." He tried to inject any emotion into his voice, but it still came out monotone. Genis, already afraid of what was to come, did not appear to notice, but Raine shot him a long look. As they passed the body of the fallen man, both half-elves stared in shock. That Lloyd would be killing had apparently not yet crossed either of their minds. They still saw him as a child; Lloyd's heart sunk when he realized he was about to destroy that image.

They keypad was set by the door and it took Raine only a few minutes of tinkering to break the code. The code that they should have gotten from Dorr as his last act of redemption, his gift to them as they moved to save Chocolat. There was so much wrong with this, so much wrong that it hurt, and Lloyd felt his hand tighten around his blade.

They slipped through the door, Lloyd and the two half-elves, and walked into the Palmacosta Ranch.

Going was slow and the pile of bodies, some still breathing and others not, grew behind them. Planning had been limited by their lack of knowledge, resources, and that Raine, Genis, and Colette were all liabilities. Lloyd was as well, at least from Kratos' vantage point. It had been Lloyd's idea to split up, although he would have liked to have sent Raine with the angels, he knew that neither Kratos nor Raine would have allowed Genis and Lloyd to go alone. Raine would also not send Genis with Kratos because, while she and the elder man had found each other in their distrust of Lloyd, their dislike of each other far outweighed any companionship they might have developed.

So Kratos and Colette had been sent to sneak in the Northern entrance, a direction that Lloyd had last time been ignorant of. He and Kratos had discovered it on one of their two surveillances of the Ranch before the attack. Lloyd allowed himself a moment of distraction as he searched the mana for any sign of Kratos or Colette. There was nothing, but really, what did he expect? The Ranch was filled with half-elves and magi-technology, finding them would be impossible.

"L-Lloyd, are we almost there…?" Genis was holding up surprisingly well. Lloyd felt bad, but since restarting the Journey, he had thought of Genis as…such a child, but he realized now just how strong the twelve-year-old really was. He could watch his friend slaughter his own kind and still stand strong.

"I hope so; don't think I can take much more of this…"

"Lloyd, you are doing admirably." The praise was hollow, but Lloyd was rather touched by Raine's comment. She could see how much this was taking out of him. "We must be getting close—" The Professor was interrupted by a blaring siren, and all three jumped wildly. "Perhaps they found Colette…" Raine murmured.

"Or one of 'em woke up…" Lloyd's gloved hands clenched the hilts of his swords tighter, they were long out of their sheathes.

"W-what do you mean?" Genis' eyes were wide and reflected the blinding red lights.

"We have to keep moving!" Lloyd spoke over the blaring alarm. "And I mean, I've been knocking most of them out!"

"Lloyd, that was foolish of you." Raine chastised him, her voice low but distinguishable under the siren. "You could have put this entire operation at risk."

"I know. But I'm not about to kill in cold blood either." Lloyd's words were curt, and he pushed his friends harder. His ears began to hurt from the sound and he found that his hearing was, for once, a great hindrance. He could only hear the echoes of the siren and none of the presumed clanking armor and clashing blades that would most likely be coming toward them.

"Raine…" Lloyd was only a few steps in front of the Sages and could hear their conversation if he focused. "…when we get out of here, don't yell at Lloyd."

"…what are you talking about, Genis?" Though he didn't turn, Lloyd could picture the look that Raine was giving her younger sibling. Her eyes would narrow, not dangerously—not yet—and her lips would tighten.

"Don't yell at Lloyd for not killing all those people. T-they're us Raine…"

"Genis…they are not us. What you did back in Iselia proves that much. Don't think about it like that, we are different." Their footsteps halted for a moment and Lloyd snuck a glance over his shoulder to find that Raine was hugging her brother. "And I wasn't going to yell at him." When she said this, she caught Lloyd's eye. Her icy blue gaze spoke legions. She approved of his not killing all of them, she had also known for some time. She would not have yelled at him. But this exchange between Raine and her brother had turned from a moment of comfort for Genis into a threat for Lloyd. Genis trusted Lloyd, and if Lloyd broke that trust, Raine wouldn't be so forgiving.

…

What seemed like hours, though it could only have been minutes, later, Lloyd and his friends were still, strangely, alone. Lloyd feared the worst, that Kratos and Colette had been the ones to set off the alarms. If the whole Ranch was up in arms, not even Kratos could save them.

No more had Lloyd completed the thought than Kratos and Colette rounded the corner. "Lloyd! Genis, Raine, what are all of you doing here?" Colette's blue eyes were wide and she ran toward them, throwing her arms around Lloyd's middle and hugging him tightly.

"Colette, Kratos, what are you doing here? We assumed that you had set off the alarms." Raine looked between the two.

"And I had assumed the opposite."

"But if it wasn't any of us…who was it?" While Lloyd was glad that his friends were alright, he was perhaps more concerned about this new development. If neither of them had done it, than who had? "You don't think someone else was planning another attack on the same day…?"

"Impossible." Kratos stated simply. "Unless they planned their attack using the main entrance, we would have seen them come in. And, unless they are extremely skilled, they would have been dead long ago. No, this is something else."

"A drill, perhaps?" Raine raised an eyebrow at Kratos' assessment.

"Unlikely, but more viable than another attack. All the same, we would have seen more Desians if that were the case."

"Argh! We're wasting time sitting here and thinking about it! It's doing us no good. We move on with the plan, get to the control room and figure out how to blow it up. If we turn back now, we're screwed as it is. We're already this far in."

"Lloyd's right! And think about all those people in Palmacosta that died…" Colette's blue eyes were wide and her hands clasped in front of her. "We have to keep moving!"

"We do not have a choice otherwise," Kratos growled and glowered at the children as if they were the ones holding the party up. "Let us continue on."

Kratos took the lead and Lloyd dropped to the back to cover their tail. The alarms continued to wail and the lights flashed, but they found their way cleared. Lloyd knew, as too did the others, that while this was good for the moment, it was too suspicious for comfort.

Lloyd remembered Palmacosta's Ranch as being a maze of almost indistinguishable warp pads and a mess of complicated floors and doorways, stairs and passages, but Kratos led them swiftly through the passages. If anyone else were questioning his movements, they did not voice their concerns. Despite Kratos' expert maneuvers, it took them what must have been another hour to make their way through the Ranch.

They saw no one. Lloyd had assumed that the body count he had left behind him in the outskirts of the Ranch would persist. This was worse. And then the sirens ceased. The group froze; Lloyd, his ears still echoing with the alarm, could now distinctly hear each of their hearts pounding in their chests and the labored breathing of Raine, Genis, and Colette.

Kratos swore under his breath and then growled "Keep moving." They went through a warp pad and down a narrow hall. At the end was another pad. Kratos, again, broke the silence. "…if I am not mistaken, this should be the way to the main control room. Ready yourselves, even if all of the other men are behind us, this is sure to be guarded."

Kratos didn't sound nervous, he sounded determined, if not a little too calm.

They stepped onto the warp.

When Lloyd opened his eyes, he was met with a sight that he would not have pictured in his wildest dreams about what was to come. While he was prepared for Kvar, Rodyle, or even Pronyma, after the rumors he had heard outside, but not this, though he should have seen it coming. He hadn't given her a single thought since seeing Palmacosta destroyed.

She was sprawled out on Magnius' couch, her hideously thin body twisted at odd angles and between her what could only be called claws sat a glass of Palmacosta's best potion.

"K-Kilia?" Lloyd stared up at the misshapen half-elf who had been masquerading as Dorr's daughter.

"Oh how cute! The little human thinks that's my real name!" Kilia's voice was high and sharp, the kind of sound that made Lloyd's ears want to bleed. "I am Myrrh, former servant of Pronyma and that fool Magnius' replacement of head of this Ranch."

"…scary thought." Lloyd only managed a faint line of comeback. He had given no thought to the Desian's whereabouts after the destruction of Palmacosta, but now that she was here, his mind was racing. She had no legacy, unlike Magnius or Kvar, but if she had worked for Pronyma, she was bad news. And she had been enough of a pain to fight in Dorr's basement. She was clever and scheming, unlike Magnius who had simply gained his place with brute force.

"I know why you're here, you know, little human." Her grin widened to reveal sharp teeth behind her dark purple lips. They, like the rest of her skin, had been scarred and twisted. Most half-elves could appear human, or at least elf. She was neither; her appearance was more akin to something Lloyd had seen in his brief stay in Neflheim. Her ears were more like horns, spinning off her bald head and hanging bizarrely around her face. "We were warned that you'd try something like this…"

"By whom?" Raine snapped from behind Lloyd. She didn't question him, but he knew that his time would come too soon for his preference.

"Lloydie here knows who, don't you?" Her cruel smile widened. "Oh yes, he knows very well by whom… But he's not telling! Oh, look at your face!" she cackled, "Poor Lloydie! Am I saying things I shouldn't?"

"Don't know what you're talking about…" Lloyd muttered, well-aware of the stares of his friends, and glare from his father and Raine.

"Whatever you say, sweetie!"

"Just get down here so we can kick your ass!" Lloyd knew that his friends wanted to join in their dialogue, but he wasn't about to risk Kilia—Myrrh—giving away more of his already badly-kept secrets.

"Oh no, Lloydie, I'm not foolish enough to play your games. I've spent the last year playing child to that idiot Dorr. Besides, there's five of you and only one of me, I don't like those odds, and I'm not stupid enough to try to take them on. You're going to play with my soldiers, since I pulled them out of your way, they've been ever so anxious to get their turn with you, you know. And you really should be more careful about where you put the bodies. Ta-ta, I'm off to see Lord Kvar, play nicely."

Myrrh warped away, never moving from her spot on the couch, and the doors around them opened allowing dozens of soldiers to flood in.

"Lloyd, to the left, I'll take the right. Mr. Sage, offensive magic, Ms. Sage, heal. Chosen, keep yourself alive," Kratos barked the orders which were followed instantly.

Lloyd's metal blade, already covered in blood, slashed through the arm of one man, then the torso of another. He let his own angelic powers and the powers that his mother's exsphere gave him off in small bursts, hoping that none of his friends were paying enough attention to him at the moment that they would notice. He glanced over his shoulder to see a Desian break through the ranks that he and Kratos were trying to hold up and run toward Genis. The half-elven mage was too caught up in a spell to see the enemy coming, so too was Raine, and Colette was locked in battle with another female Desian. Kratos had his hands full on the other side. Lloyd raced to his friend's side, stabbing the man through the stomach before he could touch Genis.

Part of Lloyd was screaming at him to stop and try to find another way out of this, but Lloyd was on auto, the pain of Palmacosta and the long battle this far into the Ranch had left him hollow and Myrrh's appearance and near destruction of his cover had pushed him to the edge.

I want this to stop… Instead of lashing out with his sword, he kicked the next Desian running at him as he tried to regain the distance between the Sages and Colette and the line of Desians. The Desian who had the unlucky chance of meeting the bottom of Lloyd's boot staggered back and fell against an oncoming group of his cohorts. The three of them tumbled backward only to be trampled underfoot as more came on.

"Angel Feathers!" Colette cried and it was only the oncoming mana of her attack that gave Lloyd the chance to duck as hundreds of little pink feathers, sharp as knives, sliced through the Desians, creating bloody gashes on exposed faces and hands and even slicing through weaker armor. Lloyd would have to compliment her on that maneuver later, he thought to himself.

The Desian's number had been cut in half between Kratos, Colette, and himself, and a moment later, Genis let off a Wind Blade, the air felt as though it was being sucked from Lloyd's lungs as it gathered and sliced through more of the men. Lloyd's world began to fade from red as he regained control of himself. The sight before him was gruesome, his side perhaps more so than Kratos', but as long as he didn't look down…

The remaining Desians seemed now to be hesitating, looking at each other and wondering if facing a Grand Cardinal were as bad as facing down these human swordsmen. One man dropped his blade and began to back away from Lloyd, as soon as he broke rank; he turned and fled for the warp pad. His move encouraged others and many joined their comrade.

Those who didn't run met their fate at the end of Kratos' or Lloyd's blades.

"…w-what do we do now…?" Genis asked after the last Desian met his end.

"…we destroy it, that was the plan, after all, find the main control room and do our best to destroy the Ranch so it cannot be used again." Lloyd was glad that Raine said it and not him.

"Indeed." Kratos did not seem to be having any response to the bloody sight around them, but he was Kratos after all. He'd been doing this for a lot longer than Lloyd.

"H-how exactly do we do that?" Lloyd realized he was panting.

"The control panel seems to be over here. Give me a few moments, why don't you stand guard at the warp pads, Genis, give me a hand here."

Lloyd and Kratos each took up their positions and Colette stood in the middle of the room, looking anywhere but around their feet and clasping her hands nervously. Raine and Genis huddled together over the keyboards and examined screens until Raine finally looked up.

"Run."

….

Ahh! My goodness, I'm so sorry that took so long to get up, you know what they say, when it rains, it pours. Anyway, I'll try to have the next chapter up before another month has passed.

R&R

~Yoshi