Hello all! Sorry this one took a bit longer than I planned, school decided to explode all at once, but I managed to finish it anyway!
I get to write Zelos…I forget how much fun that is! Until he shows up and starts flirting with everything in sight, you just forget how entertaining he is! And, at least for me, he writes himself. Excepting Kratos, he is my favorite character, the most complex, one of the most dynamic, and one of the funniest; I should do a character study for him sometime, because he's fantastic!
…I can't tell if I'm fangirling or studying him… That's not healthy. Anyway, on with the chapter!
…
"So you're going then?" Lloyd looked to Sheena, her brown eyes uncertain. Her marred face was still almost unrecognizable; marching into Mizuho would be one of the hardest moments of her life. "…you sure you don't want us to go with you?" As much as Lloyd advocated for the timeline, it was his fault this had happened to Sheena.
"No, you have to take care of Colette, and…to be honest, I'm not sure if I totally agree with what you're doing. I want to go home." Her voice quieted and she sighed softly, "For now, I think our best option is splitting up and making our next moves separately. I'm sure we'll meet again." She smiled, and Lloyd tried to pretend that the gesture brightened her face.
Raine nodded politely, "Then, Sheena, we wish you luck and a safe journey." Lloyd and Genis both chorused goodbyes, and Lloyd privately noted that Genis looked very sad about her going. He had never noticed their talking or bonding, but at the Tower and in the Renegade base, they had seemed to be on the same page. Perhaps Genis felt his sway in the group was leaving with the raven-haired ninja.
"I guess this is it…" Lloyd said as they turned back toward the open gates set into the high stone walls that surrounded Meltokio. "Should be fun, eh?" He attempted a smile, but it fell flat on the newly depressed Sage siblings and soulless Colette.
Despite his roots being in Sylvarant, in the tiny rural community of Iselia, Lloyd felt more at home in Meltokio than he had anywhere in his world. This was, he knew, due largely to the fact that he had spent most of his time since the completion of the Journey traveling both worlds to where he was needed to help with keeping the peace and making public appearances. It was a superficial life, and he had become more of a figurehead for peace between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, but at least he still got to travel. He had spent quite a bit of time in and around Meltokio, and more often than not staying with Zelos.
Yet it was something more than that that made Lloyd feel at home: Meltokio was completely untouched by Kvar's outreaching plans—whatever they were—and it was the same as Lloyd ever saw it. As Raine and Genis looked around a city bigger than any they had encountered before, it wasn't hard for excitement and wonder to shine in Lloyd's eyes as well. The capitol city's paths were paved with a bright stone that made a solid thunk sound and the air smelt of the urban life. The scents of a dozen different foods wafted down one street while the grimier factory smells that made Lloyd's eyes water blew from another.
The group took a set of stairs that led up toward the housing for the rich and powerful. A great shout let up from the coliseum that was carried to them on the wind. They walked out onto the public square; little vendors roamed around selling foods and novelties.
Lloyd was searching, but even without all of his acute senses focused on finding the Chosen of Tethe'alla he was difficult to miss. If Zelos' mane of rich, red hair didn't catch one's attention, the loud gaggle of girls laughing and flirting would have. He was leading a band of noble women, though Lloyd was quite sure he saw a few peasants in the straggle, backwards, like a tour guide. Lloyd paused and watched as the flamboyant Chosen leaned against a booth, careful not to stain his immaculate clothes, and made some small comment that sent the girls into a twitter of feminine laughter.
It was, he realized, nice to see his friend again. After their initial distrust when Zelos had joined the group, Lloyd had learned to appreciate his…interesting sense of humor. On a good day he could even laugh at a few of the Chosen's forced jokes. It had, however, been after Zelos' betrayal at the Tower of Salvation and then his attempts to save them that had brought the two men closer. The Chosen had been right: Lloyd had never felt the need to understand Zelos or his motives up until that point, and had vowed to change that.
At the last moment, Lloyd realized that he had made the same mistake twice: in being so overwhelmed with nostalgia and the sights and sounds of Meltokio, he had let Colette wander away from the group. Part of him had thought of awkward situation beforehand, but he felt no need to change it. As Colette's awkward marching continued, she walked right into the gaggle of women and her shoulder rammed gracelessly into the booth, sending bowls of some sort of spicy stew to the ground and splattering the skirts of the noblewomen around. Zelos stumbled slightly, catching himself, but the women rounded viciously on Colette, whose wings had erupted out of her back when she had stumbled.
"You little bi—horror!" growled one girl, checking her language in public. "You've completely ruined my dress! How dare you?" Her voice was high and insolent, but Colette only stared forward with blank eyes, her expression never shifting. "Well! Have you really nothing to say!"
Even as Zelos strolled forward and Raine, Genis, and Lloyd all raced to their friend's aid, three more girls, all of which had little brown splatters across the bright fabric of their skirts rounded on Colette, murder in their eyes. "Look at you!" another criticized. "You're a disaster waiting to happen! Do you honestly think you can pay for these dresses? Hmm?"
"Well, look at her, she's clearly completely dense, I mean, she's dressed up like an angel, and the festival isn't for another month!" The girl—she couldn't have been over fifteen—flipped her long hair over her shoulder and snorted sarcastically, "How tacky."
"Ladies, ladies, please! There's no need to fight, there's more than enough of me to go around. Besides, she makes such a cute little angel, it's no wonder she's already dressed up! Besides, who doesn't wish it festival all year 'round?" Flamboyant, cocky, dripping with confidence, Zelos Wilder strolled up to Colette and smiled strikingly. He was the closest thing Lloyd had even seen to a "prince charming" and it was absolutely disgusting. "Now, my pretty little angel, what can the great Zelos do for you?"
He put his hand on her shoulder, but in the same moment, Colette had already pulled it away and her arm jerked him away from her, sending him stumbling back into the booth she had tripped over the moment before. Zelos, however, was substantially more graceful than his Sylvaranti counterpart, and caught himself against the wooden booth, even managing to catch a bowl of stew that he sent tumbling off of the table. "Wow, someone's not very friendly!" he said jokingly, but Lloyd, practiced with Zelos, could see both unease and a calculating shrewdness in his eyes.
"We're very sorry, sir," Raine said politely, carefully taking Colette's hand and pulling her away from the still-angry female mob and the chuckling Chosen of Tethe'alla. "Our friend hasn't been feeling well lately, it's made her…moodier than usual. I apologize for her rash actions." As always, Raine was in complete control of herself, and even Zelos' companions seemed to shrink away from the power that was Professor Sage.
"Yeah," Lloyd added, breaking the tension and offering a hand to Zelos to help him up, "really sorry." Zelos took the offered hand, but his eyes stayed totally focused on Raine and Colette.
"Nah, it's all good! Who can stay mad at a pretty girl? Especially when such a lovely maiden comes to her rescue…" Completely ignoring Lloyd, to which the latter could only roll his eyes, Zelos swaggered with all the pompous confidence of a mating peacock over to Raine and grasped one of her tanned hands in his own Gloved fingers. "Oh beautiful lady, for a kiss, I promise I'll forgive you!"
Raine raised an eyebrow and took a step back, "I hardly this that is necessary…" Despite her words, she gave him a small smile. "Now, we had better be going, we've important business to attend to…" The Professor began collecting her students and Lloyd allowed himself to be shuffled away with Genis and Colette.
"Don't know why we offered to help that ass; he grinned the whole time, like it was some kinda joke! Bastard…" Genis grumbled, his eyes dark as he glanced over his shoulder at the backs of the girls.
"Genis, that's enough. We've come to Tethe'alla for help, the last thing we want to do is insult its populace as our first act upon arrival. Just because Yuan agreed to help us despite his animosity does not mean the repeat will occur. Besides, haven't I taught you anything? Manners are never bad form." Raine narrowed identical crystal eyes at her brother and her arms crossed, the staff she held bobbing threateningly in her right hand.
"Chill, guys, seriously…" Lloyd said, stepping between the siblings. "Okay, so the guy's an ass, it's not like we'll ever have to deal with him again, so let's just move on…" The irony may have slipped slightly into his words as both Sages have him a look that was more suspicion than anger. "Come on, we've got to focus on helping Colette, remember? We go to Tethe'alla Castle, see if they can help us?"
The plan was similar to what they had attempted the first time, the change being that instead of Sheena having written the letter, it was Yuan who had penned the request for assistance. Lloyd doubted that this would change how Tethe'alla received them. All the same, they had to begin somewhere.
"Shut up Lloyd," Genis growled, only to be smacked over the head by Raine's staff.
"Genis Sage," Raine snapped, "that is enough. What has gotten into you lately? You've been angry constantly since the Tower of Salvation, we're all worried about Colette, but you have not being helping anyone with your attitude!" She was angry, and Lloyd could relate. They were all suffering, but Genis had been channeling all of his fury into mean sarcasm and it was starting to get on his nerves.
"Hmm," Genis growled back, "maybe it's 'cause no one has been listening to me! I didn't want to come here, I don't trust Yuan or the Renegades, I think we should have tried something different, but nobody bothered to listen! You guys kept overruling Sheena and me, like you know any more than anyone else! Now we're in a new world, alone, trying to help Colette without a freaking idea how to start! Can you blame me?" The fury was evident in his voice, and Lloyd almost felt bad for having pushed his friend so far, but in the same breath, he felt irritated as well: he had worked hard to get them to this point.
"…Genis, this isn't something any of us want to do," Raine said quietly, her voice dropping to a soothing murmur. "But what other choice do we have if we want to save Colette's soul? Clearly, Tethe'alla has advances far beyond our own; we couldn't realistically have found help for Colette in Sylvarant. Besides, how do we explain Colette's plight and the true nature of the church to people as desperate as those back home?" She was trying so very hard to appeal to Genis, but the child only glared back.
"You didn't listen," he growled. "You never listen."
"Genis…" Raine murmured, "I'm sorry, but—"
"Let's just go," Genis snapped, "We've wasted enough time sitting around." He turned on his heel and stormed up another flight of stairs toward the gate that opened up to the castle grounds. Raine looked sadly after him.
"…" Lloyd took her hand, an action he thought slightly out of place for them, but she appeared to need it. "It's okay," he said softly and started walking again, Raine following behind. "He'll come around eventually, he's just scared, and I can't really blame him…"
"I…know," Raine admitted quietly, "it's just…I worry about him…" As if only then realizing that Lloyd was holding her hand, Raine pulled her fingers away from his and picked up her pace and quickly ascended the stairs behind her brother. Lloyd sighed and followed her, doubting they were going to like what they found in Tethe'alla castle.
The castle towered over them, it was made up of spiraling towers and intimidating walls of white stone. They ascended more steps to where two guards were blocking the doors, and were stopped by angry swords. "The King isn't seeing anyone right now," the bulkier of the men snapped. "I thought every idiot in the city knew that!"
"We are new," Raine said coolly, "and this is important. We have a letter—"
"Paper's not gonna do you a speck of good, or didn't you hear me? The King's not seeing anyone. Unless you're with the Church, you're not coming in." The guard crossed his arms and Lloyd sighed; knowing that argument was useless he pulled Raine and Genis away before the latter could start arguing with the guard and get them thrown in prison.
"Kay, the bastards aren't gonna let us in," Lloyd said as he pulled his friends around the corner of the castle, toward the entrance to the Church of Martel that was attached to the castle. "So what do we do? Try to sneak in a different entrance?"
"We don't need to make enemies by sneaking in," Raine sighed, "but I don't have any idea what to do now…" She walked around the wall to glance at the guards again. "…they've switched shifts," she said softly, "at least that works in our favor…"
At that moment, the church doors opened, just as Lloyd had hoped, and Presea walked out, slowly dragging a log many times her size behind her. She moved with almost robotic movements as she skirted Lloyd and Genis and continued toward the castle doors. From the quick glance Lloyd got of her eyes, they were as blank as Colette's. Genis' eyes widened and lightened as they followed the pink-haired girl. Some things never changed.
Lloyd tried to make his face brighten, as if an idea had just struck him, and he hopped over Presea's log to walk in front of her. "Hey, excuse me, are you taking that to the castle?" He was walking backwards, turning on, as Zelos had once called it, his "charm." It was disconcerting to try to talk to Presea while she was still an empty shell.
Her eyes were wide and blank and blue when they turned on him. "Yes." Her voice was like an echoing sigh. Her lips, her eyes, no part of her face twitched with any emotion and Lloyd felt a small shiver go down his spine as those empty eyes blinked at him.
"Well…look, this is going to sound like a weird request, but can we help you bring it in? We've got a letter we need to deliver to the King, but the guards won't let us in, they won't even hear us out. Please, help us?"
"Lloyd, don't be rude!" Raine hissed,Then she glanced to Presea,"…please miss…"
"Presea," the girl said, every syllable with the same nonexistent enthusiasm.
"Presea," Raine continued, "I understand that this seems like a bizarre request, but our friend is in danger, this is her only chance…"
He couldn't have been sure, but he thought he saw something like compassion flicker in the deepest depths of the girl's eyes. "…come…" She dropped the log and stepped away. "Please carry that."
Lloyd jumped to do as he was told and Genis tried to help, but Genis' fingers, still childish and soft despite their Journeys, slipped and his eyes watered. Lloyd silently debated how best to handle this situation. He could impress his friends by lugging the log up the stairs and through the Church, or he could play it out as it had happened the first time.
He lugged, tensing his shoulders and letting the log stay laying. "H-holy shit this th-thing is heavy! Wait up! Raine, Colette, wait!" he whined. He wouldn't have made friends had he picked the log up with one hand like he could have.
"Men are so useless these days…" Raine sighed and watched as Presea lugged the log across the perfectly tiled ground toward the new guards.
"Halt," growled the guard, then he recognized Presea. "Oh, it's you…but who are your friends, haven't seen them around before." He eyed the group suspiciously, but he was clearly not as hostile as the first guard had been.
"They are…new. Trainees…" Presea said dully, but her words and ton left no room for disagreement and the two guards exchanged a glance, but nodded and let the group through. As soon as they entered the palace, they were swept up in the flurry of activity that bustled around the castle. Maids rushed by, soldiers guarded every door, orders were shouted across several floors, but as Presea led the way toward the King's chambers, their voices seemed to die down to almost incessant whispers.
"Lloyd," Raine said softly, "you have the letter, yes?" When Lloyd nodded, her eyes focused forward again and their walking continued in silence until Presea stopped before a door guarded by two men.
"Who the hell are you?" the guard hissed under his breath.
Lloyd reached out quickly and pinched a nerve in the man's neck, his nimble craftsman's fingers slipping beneath the helmet just enough to reach the skin and he watched the shocked guard slump to the ground, his face hidden behind the metal helmet. "Sorry…" he muttered and threw open the doors.
Inside, the image that met his was almost exactly what he had expected, Zelos, the Pope, Hilda, and a handful of guards and priests all stood around the King's bed. The King himself, dressed in bedclothes more extravagant that Lloyd would wear to the fanciest party, lay in the middle of his massive bed, his cheeks pale and his eyes slightly watery from the poison that was slowly killing him.
The Pope and several of his personal guards rounded on them as the group filed awkwardly into the room. Around his ridiculously thick mustache he growled, "Who are you! How did you get in here?" His voice, as Lloyd remembered it, was explosive and rude. He rounded on his guards, "Who let them in here!"
"Uh…" Lloyd glanced at his friends, then back to the Pope, "We sort of let ourselves in. See, your guards wouldn't let us in and we've got a really important letter for the King, but no one would listen, so we pulled a few strings…" He attempted a smile, but it fell flat.
Finally, Zelos burst out laughing, "You're the lot from earlier! Who knew you were on your way here? Well, let's see this letter, if it's so important you run around breaking into castles!" He held out a black-gloved hand to accept the letter, but the Pope shoved himself between Lloyd and Zelos and tore the letter from Lloyd's fingers.
"Why should we be listening to you, you've just forced you way into the King's bedchambers!" He seemed about ready to rip the letter in two, his fingers were posed to tear it in two when Lloyd added quickly.
"It's from the Renegades, we're from Sylvarant, see?" He said it in one breath, trying to save the proof of their story.
Everyone in the room seemed to stop, all eyes focused on the group, several mouths dropped open, even Zelos and the Pope, caught mid-fight for the letter, paused and stared. "You…you are from the dying world of Sylvarant?" he gasped. "But how?"
"Everything is in the letter," Raine pointed to the slip of paper in the Pope's grubby, grasping fingers.
Zelos plucked the letter out of the Pope's hands and opened it up with the sound of rustling paper and began reading through it, his eyes going between wide and narrowed and the Pope hurried to his side to read over his shoulder and even Hilda jumped to try to catch sight of it.
"…so, this should be interesting…" the Pope said softly, his gray, watery eyes fixing on Lloyd, then traveling around to eye each of the four companions behind him. "…guards, remove them until we reach a decision…" he commanded, despite, Lloyd mused, it being the King's job to give orders. All the same, the group went quietly and made their way out of the room and down the hall, escorted by guards, to a scarlet room where they were securely locked inside.
"…well," Raine sighed, sitting heavily on the bed that took up much of the rather large room, "that could have gone better." Her pessimism was reflected in Genis' eyes, and though it must have been Lloyd's imagination, he thought that the blue depths of Presea and Colette's eyes both echoed with concern. All Lloyd could think was that this was going exactly as it had last time, but this was hardly a comfort that he could share with his friends. Yuan's writing was far different that Sheena's and their reception was going to be based off of the half-elf's suggestion, and Lloyd had not seen the letter before handing it over to the Pope and Zelos…
He buried his face in his hands, only to look up when Genis spoke. "What about Presea? We pulled her into this without even telling her what was going on! If they try to kill us, we can't let her get hurt too!" His hands were clenched into fists at his sides and Genis looked unusually passionate—unusual at least compared to recent weeks, anyway.
"Yes, of course," Raine nodded, "Presea has done nothing to deserve any sort of punishment; we'll have to explain to them her situation… We've very sorry Presea…"
The girl stared blankly them, then said in perfect monotone, "I want to go home…" Raine nodded again and watched as Genis went over to try to talk to Presea, who only stared as he stuttered apologies and compliments.
It was almost three hours later that the door finally opened again and a dozen guards, followed by the Pope and Zelos, made their way into the room. Zelos clasped his hands together, a slightly bitter smile worming its way across his face, "Well, we've got good news and bad news. The good news is, we think we know how to help your cute little Chosen; the bad news is, it doesn't matter 'cause we're going to kill you."
"Wait, but Presea—!" Genis began, but his words were swept away by the loud clanking of men's armor as the soldiers raced toward them, their weapons raised threateningly, and Zelos and the Pope backed away, intending to let the men do their job.
Adrenaline rushed through Lloyd as he ran to try to help Colette, all thought wiped itself away, his swords were pulled from their sheaths, he had the mana to use one of his more advanced techniques at his fingertips. A guard reached Colette first, his sword raised—only to have the arm grasped and broken before being flung across the room by an empty-eyed Colette. She stopped each of her foes with just as much ease and mindless grace as the first and the Pope was forced to call his men off as several gasped and backed away from the angel.
"Back, back, move back!" he shouted only after several men had pushed around him to flee the room. There were only three of the bravest—or most idiotic—men left besides a laughing Chosen of Tethe'alla and the Pope still remaining in the room with the group. Genis, Raine, and Lloyd, all of whom had jumped up to help Colette, were standing staring at their once clumsy and peace-loving friend. Colette had stopped acting offensively as soon as the soldiers had stopped attacking, and was standing quietly once again.
"Well!" Zelos giggled. "I guess I was right! Told you we couldn't just take 'em down like this! Guess we're going with my plan B!" He put his hands on his hips and smirked wildly at the Pope, thrilled with having one-upped the old man. "I win!"
The Pope ground his teeth together, absolute fury written across his face, but when he spoke it was with a painfully controlled tone that he managed to growl, "Fine. Yes. Take them then, Chosen One…" His was turning purple from holding his fury in. Without another word, the man quit the room, spinning on the heel of his decorated boot and strolling out.
It was with the same wide smile that Zelos turned back to the group, "Well, I guess we'll be spending a lot of time together, seeing as I'm your babysitter while you stay in Tethe'alla. This should be fun!"
Lloyd suddenly began to dread not reading Yuan's letter before handing it over.
…
Finally got it done! What with all the school work that suddenly took over my life, this chapter ended up being a bit harder to write than you'd imagine.
R&R
~Yoshi