Hey guys. Sorry if the thieves sound perfect, but as the story progresses, you'll see they really aren't. And schools starting, I don't know how good I'll be at updating. Next chapter for you guys. I made sure to try to make it long.
Chapter 4: In the Arena
Before she opened her eyes, Kristina tried to recall what had happened that put her here. She recognized the smell of rats and dry blood, the cold, hard floor, and the rising anxiety of not having her dual swords with her, not even her dagger in her boot was still there. She'd been in the Meltokio prison many times over, and each time she'd slipped out of there fingers and escaped. But most of the time it was just her, Faith, and Ricky. But she could hear the hushed whispers of Sammy, Seth, Rath, and Kyle here as well. Kristina also knew how they had gotten there, who put them there, and how bad the situation was. This time, though, she was clueless. Sighing, she opened her eyes and sat up. Although she kind of wishes she hadn't. Immediately six different voices bombarded her.
"Are you okay?"
"What happened?"
"Why'd you jump in the water?"
"Did anyone see your wings?"
"You flew in public?"
"Forget that, you jumped in the water?"
As Kyle and Sammy started an argument on which was more important, Kristina put a finger to her mouth and shushed him. They all stared and waited for her to say something. She looked around to survey the situation. They were the only ones in the dungeon, and they were each paired up, besides Ricky, who was alone in a magic proof cell. Faith was with Kristina, Seth with Sammy, and Rath with Kyle. Then she tried to remember exactly what happened. Leading the Knights away from Rath, Sammy, Kyle, and Seth in Meltokio (which obviously didn't work), the big fight with the Knights, hiding in Altamira and befriending the Heroes of Regeneration (something Kristina was beginning to think she shouldn't of done), then the fight with those soldiers, and then she jumped in the water to save that kid and now here everyone is.
"What happened while I was knocked out? How did we get here?"
Everyone looked to Ricky and Faith with curiosity. Their eyes hardened, telling them that it wasn't good.
"Well," Faith started. "I saw you go under, so we went to go get you. Right when we got you out, the monsters and soldiers retreated. I think it's because the Papal Knights showed up, and they didn't want to get blamed."
"So of course," Ricky interjected. "As soon as they saw us, we got the blame."
"And guess what? The heroes of regeneration were working with the Papal Knights to catch us!" Faith was starting to sound sad. "They…only became friends with us so that the Knights could catch us." Ricky stared at his feet.
The others were still staring. "You guys meet the heroes of regeneration? And became friends with them?"
"Shut up Seth. I need to think." Kristina rubbed her temples and sighed. She knew she shouldn't have trusted them. She wasn't going to. She let her guard down, and that was a stupid move. Now they're all in jail again. Also, Faith had really thought they could be trusted. But now they all know that they're not to be trusted.
I'm going away for a while
But I'll be back
Don't try to follow me
'Cause I'll return as soon as possible
They think they can do anything they want, and they can. The world loves them. They're the saviors, the heroes. They get no discrimination for their past, but as for everyone else? Well of course, they're not important, they're judged for every little thing they do. Going to run her hands through her hair, Kristina's long fingers hit the bobby pin keeping back her bangs. She grinned. They'll be out of this place in ten minutes tops.
Trust is everything to some. With Kristina if you lose her trust, you may never get it back. I hate that it has to be like that with her. But with the things she has to go through, who can blame her?
Lloyd walked past the Papal Knight guarding the jail along with the others. No one was saying a word. During the ambush the Papal Knights had showed up and hadn't gotten a chance to see the ambushers, instead they had blamed Ricky, Faith, and Kristina. Then they mentioned how they were helping them to catch the thieves. Ricky had looked like he wanted to murder them, and Faith looked like she wanted to cry. Then the Knights dragged them away kicking and screaming. All of them tried to reason with the Papal Knights, but they wouldn't listen. That's why they were here now, to try to talk to the runaways and get them out.
"What if they won't listen?" Colette asked, so silently that Lloyd wasn't sure if she really said it.
He put his arm around her shoulders comfortingly. "Then we'll make them listen."
"One problem." Sheena stopped in front of the group, causing the rest of them to stop. "They're not here."
"W-what?" Genis stuttered like he does when he's shocked.
"No ones been able to escape this place before!" Zelos yelled.
"I don't think we're dealing with ordinary convicts in this situation." Professor pointed out.
Not knowing what else to do, they all walked into the four different cells the kids were supposed to be in, seeing if they were hiding. Then out of nowhere, the rusty cells doors came crashing down. Seven dark figures fell from the ceiling and landed like cats. Lloyd's eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, but he didn't have to to know who they were. Kristina, Faith and Ricky were easy to pick out because he knew them. The others were harder. There was a rough looking boy with broad shoulders and a nasty scar from his temple down to his jaw, another boy with the same large build, but his silvery white hair and light blue eyes made him slightly less intimidating, a pretty petite girl that stood close to the rough one, and a tall, lean boy with copper hair that stood close to Kristina. They were obviously the others from their group.
Kristina completely ignored them in the cells. "Rath, Sammy, go see if you two can find our weapons." The rough one and the tiny one nodded and ran off.
"Why are you doing this?" Regal asked. "Why do you have to make it worse for yourselves? You need to just stick it out and serve your time like everyone us. Less resisting will lessen your punishment."
She threw her head back and laughed humorlessly. "Us? Get a lesser punishment? Yeah right."
See, I'm trying to find my place
But it might not be here where I feel safe
"Since the day we were thrown in this hell hole it's always been, 'they're not important. Just get rid of them.'" The boy with the silver hair snarled.
"The system has changed since then. You need to do what Regal says and just-" Kristina cut off the Professor sharply.
We all learn to make mistakes
And run from them, from them
With no direction
"The system has changed? No, what they tell people about the system has changed. The way they really do things, hasn't changed one bit. It's always the same. Discrimination against each other hasn't changed. No matter what you people say. And what do you know? You were criminals for what? Three months? Not even. And then you 'save' the world and everyone loves you. But everyone else is treated the same way. Nothing ever changes. No matter what we do, those bloodthirsty people out there won't stop until they see us unmoving, unblinking, blood dripping from us."
Lloyd wasn't going to let her get away with talking to the Professor. "Stop it! We're trying to help you! Just stop whining about your apparently messed up lives and listen to what we have to say! If you just try to reason with the king instead of running away then maybe you could get off. Okay?"
We'll run from them, from them
With no conviction
The copper haired boy shook his head. "Well, Lloyd the Great has spoken, so I guess we should bow down and do what he says, like everyone else, right?" Lloyd was shocked. No one ever listens to him! What are they talking about?
"No, Kyle, he's right. We should try to get everyone to listen to how we were shunned at a young age and were forced to become criminals because it's only way we could live, and then let them kill us in front of a crowd." When Kristina is angry, Lloyd noticed, her voice and face stays calm. Which really freaks him out. "Isn't that what you just said?"
'Cause I'm just one of those ghosts
Travelin' endlessly
Sheena stepped in. "Stop that! Stop twisting our words around and just hear us out!"
"Why should you even care?" The pain in Faith's voice hit him like a ton of bricks. "Didn't you want us here? You were helping the Papal Knights after all."
"N-no it wasn't like that! Please we just-" Rath and Sammy running in panting interrupted Colette.
The silver haired one stared. "Did you two get our weapons or sneak off for some alone time?"
Don't need no roads
In fact, they follow me
And we just go in circles
Sammy flipped back her long copper hair. "Excuse us Seth, if we were trying to save our weapons from being melted."
"We got most of them, except Kris's and Faith's." Rath said. As he turned his head, Lloyd noticed a scar that ran down the side of his face, from his temple to his jaw line.
Faith wasn't as concerned, but Kristina was heartbroken. "M-my swords? They melted my swords?"
And now I'm told that this is life
That pain is just a simple compromise
Sammy dragged a large black sword (which was about her size) over to the silver haired boy, and Rath gave Ricky his sword and Kyle a large axe.
So we can get what we want out of it
"But here." Sammy tossed a set of regular steel tonfas to Faith. "You should be able to use these." Faith grinned in awe at her new weapons. Kristina was complaining about losing her swords.
"So," Rath started, completely unaware of the conversation they had going on. "What's the plan?"
Would someone care to classify?
Our broken hearts and twisted minds
Kristina looked to the small window up right under the roof. "We break out of here and hide until nightfall, then sneak off to the hideout."
Lloyd thought it was a little sketchy, but her group seemed to go along with it. Kristina walked over to the window and he noticed the gleam off an exsphere on her hand. Looking over, he saw they all did. "You guys have exspheres?"
They all turned to blankly stare at him. Kristina stopped walking to turn and roll her eyes at him. "No, we have donuts." Her voice was full of venom and sarcasm. Faith seemed to be the only one not to catch that.
So I can find someone to rely on
Faith looked shocked and excited. "We have donuts?"
The leader of the thieves stared. "What? No…we don't have donuts…"
The tiny blonde started to get confused. "But you just told him-"
Ricky sounded like he was trying to break it to her gently. "She was being sarcastic, Faith."
"Oh…" The silver haired boy patted her on the shoulder. "Then can we get some donuts later?"
And run to them, to them
Full speed ahead
"Uh…sure." Kristina continued to walk to the window. Using her forearm, she shattered the glass to pieces, wincing as blood started to stain the sleeve of her white sweater. Everyone was appalled.
The others ran over to her. Kyle took her arm gently. "Kristina what the hell is wrong with you?" He started to pick out pieces of glass out of her arm.
"Halt!" A deep voice boomed. They all turned to see a group of Papal Knights standing in the hallway.
Lloyd heard Kristina groan. "Oh, great."
Some of them went over and restrained the thieves, who of course tried to resist. Others released Lloyd and everyone, who were a bit embarrassed.
"Perfect. Now we can speak to both of the groups." The leader said. "The king has said that to be fair, he will give the thieves one last chance of freedom." Lloyd could have sworn regal and the Professor looked over at them smugly.
"You thieves will have a public fight with the Heroes of Regeneration." The thieves stopped resisting from shock. "You win, you're set free. You lose," there seemed to by some joy in the Knights voice. "You're executed."
-Time Skip-
Kristina paced in her tiny cell she shared with Faith. They were only hours away from their fight with the Heroes of Regeneration. They were doing their best to calculate the weaknesses and strengths of the Heroes. Kristina was still wondering how she could fight without her beloved swords.
Oh, you are not useless
We are just
"So which ones are healers?" Sammy asked.
"Raine, Marta, Zelos, and maybe Colette." Faith answered.
"Genis is a spell caster like Ricky." Seth added.
"Marta and Emil are practically jointed at the hip." Kristina pointed out. "He'll most likely be protecting her so she can cast more spells."
Misguided ghosts
"Regal doesn't have a weapon does he?" Rath asked.
"No, he uses martial arts." Kyle answered.
Travelin' endlessly
Kristina leaned her head back and closed her eyes, calculating in her mind. So in order of strength, it was, Lloyd, Zelos, Regal, Sheena, Presea, Emil, Genis, Colette, Marta, and Raine. None of them really weak, just stronger than others.
"First things first, take out the healers." Kristina told them. "Then Genis and Emil, since he should try to get back at whoever got rid of Marta. By then it should just be Regal, Sheena, Presea, and Lloyd. Faith, you need to focus on healing by then. I take Lloyd, Rath gets Regal, Sammy gets Sheena, and Kyle you take Presea. Seth, guard Faith and Ricky."
The ones we trusted the most
Pushed us far away
If we're all still conscious by then, Kristina thought to herself bitterly.
The metal doors of the cells creaked open and the Papal Knights dragged them all out. "It's time." Kristina could have sworn the Knight was laughing. "And here." One of them shoved a pair of black and deadly looking dual swords. "Lloyd the Great wanted you to have these to fight with." The thieves shared confused glances as they were shoved into the blinding sunlight that shone on the arena.
And there's no one road
We should not be the same
On the other side, they saw the Heroes, with weapons drawn, in fighting positions. Anger and adrenaline started to course through each one of them, and they drew their weapons. (All except Rath, who just stood in fighting a position.)
"You all know the plan." Kristina muttered low under her breath. They nodded.
The announcer's voice rang throughout the arena over the crowd's cheers. "And now, let the fight begin!"
But I'm just a ghost
And still they echo me
They echo me in circles
The big fight's in the next chapter, cause I thought this one was a little long. And the song I put in there was Misguided Ghosts, by Paramore. It's probably going to be like a theme song for the thieves, so you'll see it in here some more. Till next time, byez!