Chapter 13: Ancient History

Raine was confused. They had just defeated Xylek, so she thought things would be calming down, but seeing the Radiant Warrior apparently have a connection to their enemies' past made her uneasy.

"What's going on?" asked Lloyd, also confused by these strange events.

"Who are you, and why does Xylek know you?" Genis added.

"She was the third member of their little group. Her, Xylek, and Xegros traveled together during the war," said Celsius, one of the few people who was old enough to understand the situation.

"What? You mean she's one of them?" Lloyd said, looking at the Radiant Warrior and gripping his swords.

"Yes… and no," said Kratos. "She's a bit different than the other two."

"I would like some answers," Regal said calmly. "She helped us, so I'm willing to trust her, for now. Perhaps we should all just sit down and clarify, as to prevent misunderstandings," he said, looking at Lloyd, who took his hands off his blades after getting the hint.

"I will explain things, but now, I need to go tend to his injuries," the Radiant Warrior said as she walked over to the fallen Xylek.

"Wait! We just defeated him! Why are you going to heal him?" Sheena asked, still not sure what was going on.

"I'm going to heal him so he doesn't die. I'm surprised that you were able to injure him this badly," she answered as she kneeled over Xylek and began chanting healing magic.

"Why do you need to save him?" asked Richter, deep in thought.

"Because, well, I'll explain later," she said, irritated at the constant barrage of questions.

Setsuna's healing magic began to take effect, and Xylek coughed as some of his injuries began to lessen. Raine walked over to observe, and then stopped Setsuna's magic.

"That should be enough for him to live. I don't want him to get up and attack us again," she said, looking heavily at the Radiant Warrior.

"He won't attack us, now that he's seen me," she retorted, and proceeded to continue healing him.

"When you said you were surprised we were able to injure him this badly, did that mean you expected us to lose?" Genis asked.

"No, not lose, but I thought that I would arrive before it got this bad. I'm especially shocked that one of you pierced his armor," she said, looking at the various blade users. "Which one of you did that?"

"That was me," Lloyd said, somewhat proudly. "We all focused our attacks, and I managed to pierce through his chest."

"I see…" she commented, looking at the hole in Xylek's armor. "Well, he's healed up enough now, so if some of you gentlemen would be so kind, could you lift him and carry him out?"

"What? You can't do that? But you're so strong…" Genis said.

"You would make a lady carry a big brute like that? How shameful," Zelos said. "Of course I'll help… Setsuna, was it?"

"Yes, my name is Setsuna," the Radiant Warrior answered. "It will take more than just you though."

"You doubt my strength? I'm the Chosen of Tethe'alla! I can handle this-" he stopped talking when he tried to lift Xylek. He continued to strain himself, and his face began turning various shades of blue. "Holy hell! How much does this guy weigh? I thought you were heavy, Regal, but this guy takes the cake."

Presea walked over to Xylek and, in one motion, lifted him over her head. To her surprise, though, he was still very heavy, and she had difficulty moving.

"Ah, here Presea, you get the head, and I'll get the feet," Colette said, running to help.

Together, they held Xylek in the air with somewhat ease and began walking out of the Ginnungagap.

"Men are useless, it seems," Raine said as she followed them.

"No, it's just that the women we have are freakin' insane," Zelos said, and Sheena promptly elbowed him in the ribs. "See what I mean?"

"Yes, quite insane," Emil said as he was dragged along by Marta, who refused to let go of his hand.

The rest of the group followed, and they all came to the exit.

"What happened here? It looks like there was a war," Lloyd said as he looked at the scorched ground outside the exit.

"That would be the results of my battle with Xegros," Setsuna answered as she looked around. "Hmm, it seems he managed to crawl off somewhere. That's a minor problem, though, so we should continue. We should find somewhere to camp for the night, as I'm sure none of you want Xylek to be in a city or village."

Much of the group wasn't paying attention as they looked at the area. All the ground was scorched and black, and there were craters of varying size that littered the ground. They were shocked at the intensity of the battle that had to have taken place to cause this sort of destruction. They looked at Setsuna with new eyes, and were glad she was on their side and not the side of her previous comrades. They knew they couldn't win if they had to fight all three ancient warriors. Though, why she helped them instead of Xylek and Xegros still remained to be a mystery. One that, hopefully, would be solved that night after they made camp.

Everyone sat around the fire, eating the dinner that Genis and Regal had prepared for them. Though it was delicious, nobody seemed to care as they all looked at Setsuna expectantly.

"I suppose you all deserve some answers. First, I'll explain why I helped you. It's was actually for his sake," she said as she pointed at Xylek. "Xylek cares too much for his friends, and Xegros was going to use that to make Xylek do things he'd rather not."

"But Xylek attacked us as soon as we unsealed him! He seems a bit violent," said Lloyd.

"Yes, because the summon spirit Shadow was present. I've gotten the gist of what happened before you all released me," Setsuna said. "Shadow knew Xylek would attempt to unseal Xegros, so he wanted to stop him. Xylek simply reacted in kind."

"And the reason he stole the powers of Shadow and Celsius?" Raine questioned, not willing to just trust Xylek without hearing more..

"He needed the power to match Xegros, who would have stolen the power even if Xylek hadn't. They have always been equals in power, which made them an even stronger pair when fighting together. Xylek needed to be strong enough to help Xegros. Like I said, he cares too much for his friends."

"Well, why didn't he unseal you, if you're his friend too?" Marta asked.

"Because he thought she was dead," Yuan answered before Setsuna could speak. "There was a reason we sealed Xylek in addition to Xegros."

"We?" asked Emil, confused yet again.

"Yes, 'we.' Myself, Kratos, and Mithos. At that time, Martel had already…" Yuan looked down, and Kratos put his hand on his shoulder.

"And that reason was?" Regal asked Kratos, as it seemed Yuan had gone into a state of brooding over his memories.

"When the world was split, Setsuna had ended up in Sylvarant while Xylek and Xegros were in Tethe'alla. When Mithos refused to allow either of them to go to the other world, Xylek went berserk. Flanoir used to be attached to the mainland, but Xylek destroyed much of the land there, leaving the island you all know of now," Kratos said.

"That sounds like Mithos was the bad guy in that situation," said Colette. "It wasn't very nice of him to keep them separated."

"His reason was-" Kratos started, but Setsuna interrupted.

"His reason was a load of crap. He said that if all three of us were together, we would surely try to overthrow the new world order he had established. It didn't help that Xegros was a human, either. After Martel was killed, Mithos went mad. I think he did it just to spite us," she said, getting worked up. "I learned that he sealed Xylek away, and Xegros too, so I asked him to do the same for me. Before I was sealed though, I made new pacts with both Aska and Luna in order to create this armor," she said, referencing the golden suit of armor she was still wearing.

"You're a summoner?" Sheena asked.

"Yes, I was a summoner. I held pacts with almost half of the summon spirits. Mithos claimed he needed the power of all the spirits to save the Great Kharlan Tree, so I willingly annulled my pacts for him. I also helped create the armor that both Xylek and Xegros wear. Kratos, I don't want to hear you try to defend Mithos' actions. If you try to again, I will kill you. Not because you helped him, but because you refused to stop him. You, of all people, should know what Xylek is going through" she said, turning a glare on the old warrior.

"Hey, if you plan to hurt Kratos I'll-" Lloyd began, but Kratos stopped him.

"Yes, I understand the situation he's in," Kratos said, looking at Xylek, seeing himself in the ancient warrior.

"What situation?" Zelos asked.

"He's helping Xegros, even though Xegros has lost his grasp on sanity. His dream wasn't a world that he ruled over forever, but a world that would be at peace forever," Setsuna said. "Unfortunately, after all the fighting and chaos of the war, his outlook changed, and he determined that in order to realize his dream, he would have to take control of everything. Xylek and I were going to try to bring his way of thinking back, but Mithos messed it all up. After 4000 years of solitude for him to brood, I doubt there's any way to save him now." She looked down, sad at the way events had played out all those years ago.

"But Xylek was also sealed for 4000 years. Isn't he insane from that, too?" Lloyd asked, thinking about the things that Setsuna had said.

"He's quite sane, thank you," Xylek said, sitting up.

Everyone jumped up and placed their hands on their weapons. Xylek simply laughed at the situation.

"Jumpy tonight, aren't we? You act as if I even have the strength to attack you all. I can't even stand up…" he said weakly.

Xylek sat there as everyone slowly sheathed their weapons and sat back down, still staring warily at the man who had not too long ago been trying to kill them. He looked around at everyone, and then seemed to fall back to the ground, and he was out again.

"He probably won't be able to stand before tomorrow morning," said Setsuna. "He's gone through a lot of mental shock recently, anyways. I can only imagine what went through his head when he saw me," she said, looking down.

"I know what went through my head when I saw you take off that helm," Zelos said with a grin. Shadow, who had been sitting on Sheena's shoulder, was suddenly next to Zelos. "Hey, what're you- OUCH!" Zelos yelled as Shadow bit down hard on his hand. In a poof, Shadow was once again perched on Sheena's shoulder.

"Thank you, Shadow," Setsuna said.

"I get the feeling that you and Xylek had a special connection?" Sheena asked.

"You could say that," Celsius said. "She was an assassin hired to kill him. It's funny how things turn out though. I mean, for you to-" Efreet held her mouth shut as he inserted himself into the conversation.

"I do believe, if anyone were to tell that story, Xylek would be the one to do it. Though, for a less detailed version, remember the look in Xylek's eyes when we encountered him in the forest outside Mizuho."

"Mizuho? There's a place named Mizuho?" Setsuna said, looking up with wide eyes.

"Yes, it's my village. I can take you there, if you'd like," Sheena said, curious why the name "Mizuho" had elicited such a response.

"Hmm, yes, I'd like that. I'm just surprised that after 4000 years it would still have that name," Setsuna commented. "Alright. I'm done telling stories of the past for the night. We can continue this in the morning," she said as she walked to her tent.

Everyone was disappointed, as they all still had questions, but they all went to their tents for the night as well.

Lloyd awoke to the sound of Genis yelling.

"He's gone! Xylek's gone!"

'Damn,' thought Lloyd. He knew they should have had someone watch him, but everyone had been so tired from the day they had all gone to sleep. He quickly got up, dressed, grabbed his swords, and ran out seeing all the panic. Everyone was in varied states of readiness, and he saw most of them had just woken up. Sheena's hair was a spectacular mess, and he pointed to it with a raised eyebrow. She realized this, and, red-faced, quickly ran into her tent to fix it.

"Setsuna's gone, too!"

Lloyd cursed. So she had betrayed them anyways. Everyone was still running around when someone yelled.

"What's all this running around for? Did you lose something?" Xylek asked as he walked out of the trees.

Everyone stopped and looked at him as he stood there, oblivious as to why they would be panicking at his disappearance. They noticed that, slung over his shoulder, was a large animal.

"I caught breakfast," he said. "What?" he asked as everyone looked at him with wide eyes.

Setsuna came running from the trees Xylek had just walked out from, carrying various plants and herbs in her arms. Nobody was sure what to say, though, so they continued to stare at the two.

"It's been 4000 years since I've even seen Setsuna, so I wanted to cook something. You are all welcome to it, as well, but I would much prefer it if you would stop staring at me," Xylek said as he made his way to the cooking supplies.

"This is… weird," said Emil.

Regal walked over to where Xylek had begun preparing the meat, and began helping. Raine walked over to Setsuna and asked what was going on.

"Oh, he's a bit weird like this. He likes to cook breakfast," she said.

"But, just yesterday we were trying to kill each other!" Lloyd yelled, not liking the current situation.

"Perhaps, but considering how I am now a 'prisoner' of sorts, I would like to be able to at least do this much," Xylek said. "I may even tell a story with breakfast, depending on the kind of mood I'm in, so if you'd stop treating me like a monster I'd greatly appreciate it."

Lloyd glared at Xylek, remembering the injuries he had given everyone. He then remembered the time Xylek had spared his life, and became less apprehensive. Perhaps they could hear him out. Setsuna walked over, nudging Regal away from Xylek as he prepared the food.

"Ah, I was watching. I wanted to see how he was going to mix those herbs!" Regal protested.

"He doesn't like to share cooking secrets. Go sit and wait," Setsuna said as she walked back to help Xylek cook the food.

Regal was rather disappointed as he walked over to his seat. Everyone laughed, not used to seeing this side of the duke.

Everyone sat around, looking at the meal before them. Regal and Genis were both examining the food, trying to discern the methods used to prepare it, but everyone else still felt ill at ease. In fact, the only ones who seemed to be at peace were Xylek and Setsuna, who were sitting together talking quietly. Lloyd looked at his food, and then took a bite.

"Whoa! This is… good," he said, surprised at the flavor of the food. Everyone else began eating, and the looks on their faces explained what they thought as well.

"It's almost better than Regal's cooking," Genis said, knowing he couldn't compete and simply choosing to enjoy the food. Regal, on the other hand, thought deeply as he chewed, and it seemed he had an epiphany as he ate.

"Ha! So that's what you did. Very creative… I'll try that next time," he said.

Xylek and Setsuna were oblivious to the various opinions to the food as they were still engaged in conversation. Xylek took off his helm to eat, and everyone saw the face of the man who they had defeated. Much to everyone's surprise, he looked quite young, appearing only a few years older than Lloyd, who was only nineteen years old. Setsuna also appeared to be of similar age. Xylek had somewhat short hair, and it was a deep, dark blue. In strike contrast to the armor he wore and the hair on his head, his eyes were a bright emerald green, so bright they almost seemed to glow.

Lloyd looked at these eyes, and they were not the eyes he had looked into in the clearing outside of Mizuho. Where they used to be full of sadness and loneliness, they were now filled with joy. It was as if they belonged to a new person, but Lloyd finally understood why Xylek had changed. He had gone from a man whose sole purpose was to help his friend, to someone who was filled with his own purpose again. And Lloyd got a sense that he understood that purpose as he looked at the person who had revived Xylek from his state of mourning. Setsuna sat there next to him, and Lloyd saw a connection that was deeper than simply friends. Perhaps Xylek would explain the history behind that connection.

Xylek: Real men can cook.

Tiger: When is the last time you cooked something that didn't involve a microwave?