Sorry about the long wait, I found out that I had to rewrite my book (and I was half-way done too!) and finals had kept me busy. I've reread this story and I really only made grammar corrections. I still don't know when I get the next chapter done, I have to get my book straighten out, shouldn't take too long though. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: On the Sea Again

After their jail break, five of the six prisoners decided to stay and help protect the princess. So now they have reached their destination, Port Toha. Here, they hope to seek passage on a ship that will take them to Begnion. But they certainly didn't expect what they saw.

Toha was just as lively as any other port town at any other time. It was as if all the fighting going on in Crimea didn't exist. The people of Toha were in their own little world it seemed.

"Wow! This town is so…lively," Colette said with much surprise in her voice.

"Yeah but shouldn't they…I don't know be more worry or something?" Lloyd asked.

Ranulf came up, wearing a cloak to hide his laguz features, "It's because this area is fairly isolated. Daein's army hasn't come this far, and so life goes on as before."

"But don't these people realize what's going? I mean their king was just killed," Ike questioned.

"I doesn't concern them so why should they care what happens to the rest of the country, right?" Zelos speculated.

Titania looked at him and said, "That's a harsh way of putting it but he's right."

"Ignorance is a form of bliss, is it not?" Soren asked and then said in disgust, "Humans are shameless creatures that carelessly ignore any misfortune which does not befall them directly. They can turn a blind eye to all manner of wickedness so long as it does not touch them or their kin. They will bow their heads, condemning those victims for bringing calamity upon themselves, and then they will cast their eyes toward heaven in thanks while their neighbors lay dying around them."

As Soren began to walk away he said, "Perhaps they will understand when their sons and daughters are being slaughtered… they will comprehend the misfortunes they so long pretended not to see. I have no sympathy for them."

No one spoke but Ranulf broke that silence, "My goodness, the nastier the truth, the blunter he gets…Quite a delightful staff officer you have there." Ranulf said as he patted Ike's back.

"He, um…he has an undeniable streak of severity in him but...this? Something's bothering him, that's for sure."

"What's wrong, Genis?" Presea asked after seeing very white faced half-elf.

"It's…it's just…What Soren said right now…is exactly what I was thinking. Because I don't fell the least bit sorry for these people either," Genis confessed.

"You and Soren must both be very sensitive to emotions. This town may have proven to be too much for you two," Titania explained to him.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much if I was you," Lloyd reassured his friend. Genis nodded at him.

"All right everyone, I'm going to see a man about a ship. The rest of you get the supplies together," Ranulf announced to the rest of the group.

"You sure you need to be going by yourself? From what I understand, you laguz aren't too popular with the rest of the world," Zelos told him.

"Yes, I would feel better if someone went with you," Colette pleaded with the cat.

Ranulf was a little taken aback by this but just shook his head. "Thanks, but it's not like I'll be wondering around asking for passage. I've got connections here."

Lloyd turned his head toward the town. He couldn't believe that their laguz companions had to hide themselves from a town of people who didn't want to understand them. It almost made him sick to his stomach. This was just as bad as how humans and elves treated half-elves.

As Lloyd glanced at some of the villagers, he noticed a familiar swordsman in purple in the crowd. Suddenly the man ran away so Lloyd took off after him.

Ike was the first to see him take off and shouted at him, "Lloyd where are you going?"

"I'll be back soon!" Lloyd yelled back and continued his pursuit of who he thought was Kratos.

The swordsman was moving gracefully through a thick crowd of people, while Lloyd was trying his best to keep up with the occasional bumping into somebody. Suddenly the man turned into an alley, so Lloyd went down the alley too. But when he did, all he found was a dead end.

"Dad?" He whispered into the empty alley. He could have sworn that he saw Kratos. Was it just my imagination?

Ike, Titania, Zelos, Colette, Mia, Oscar, and Rhys were on their way to restock their equipment while everyone else went to get supplies for the long journey ahead. As they walked through the lively town, they could her a few skirmishes taking place. Suddenly there came a small explosion, not far from where the group was. All the towns people went quiet and looked at the direction. They could see a small smoke stack coming from behind a building.

Ike got worried that it might be the Daein, so he told the rest of them to get back to the inn they were using as a meeting place without any noticed. But Colette could hear the voices from where the explosion took place and smiled. So she quickly ran toward the source. Titania tried to stop her but to no avail. So they did what the mercenaries had been accustomed to; they followed her.

They followed her all the way behind an item shop to find an unconscious man lying on top of a broken crate and a woman with black hair holding pieces of paper. She was mumbling, "I think I over did it a bit."

"Sheena!" Colette cried happily.

The woman turned around to see both Colette and Zelos, "What are you two doing?" She sounded both shocked and relived.

"We could say the same thing, honey," Zelos said.

Colette then noticed Lloyd running toward them and said, "Lloyd your back."

"Lloyd, where did you take off to?" Ike asked him.

"I just went to check out something, and then I heard this commotion and came to see what it was." He then noticed Sheena and smiled, "Sheena you're all right!"

"Wait," Oscar put his hand up to stop all the other conversations, "you mean the same Sheena that tried to kill Colette?"

"The very same," Colette smiled causing the mercenaries to be even more confused.

"We can discuss that later. Right now we have to go and help Regal or he might be killed," Sheena urged them.

"Wait, what happened to Regal?" Lloyd asked.

Sheena answerd, "A few days ago these people from this Begnion place came here to Toha. Apparently, some high class person was killed. So they put the blame on him even though I told them that he was with me the entire time we've been here."

A smile crept over Zelos' face and he said, "So when you say you with Regal, does-" But he was cut off because Sheena threw one of her spell card to cover his mouth. He gave her a blank look while the mercenaries backed away a little.

"Idiot," she murmured then brought her attention back to the rest. "Anyway, they left last night so I started looking for the real culprit. I just found him and as you can see...I went a little over board," she gestured toward the unconscious man who was now moaning.

Ike walked toward her and said, "Luckily, we're heading to Begnion. You're more than welcome to join us if you're willing to help us."

Sheena looked at Lloyd who nodded. She sighed, "I guess I've got no choice."

So as they walked back to the inn, carrying the unconscious culprit with them, they explained to her what it was they were doing. Once they tied the man up: Lloyd, Colette, Presea, Genis, and Zelos (now with the seal removed) filled her in that the mercenaries had no idea where they were from or what they are. Only Ranulf, Caineghis, and another laguz knew that they were from a different world.

Not long after, Titania came in followed by a young girl with short pink hair and red armor.

"Um…Ike, this girl said she knew you," she said not sure about the girl.

"Huh… Marcia? What are you doing here?" Ike asked looking rather surprised.

The girl he called Marcia ran up to him and began shaking his hand eagerly. "Boy, I'm sure glad I found you. I've been flying all over Crimea looking for you so I could pay you back for your help and I know exactly how."

Ike was a little scared by her forwardness, but managed to say, "That's…great Marcia. How do you plan on doing that?"

She smiled, "Word is that you're protecting the princess, I want to help out too."

"Sure, we could use all the help we could get."

Suddenly, Zelos came up and put his arm around Ike. "You're quite the man, Ike. You keep getting all these honeys to join you! They must just flock to you!" he exclaimed with a big grin on his face.

Sheena then pulled Zelos away and hissed at him, "Behave you stupid Chosen."

They were all still waiting for Ranulf to return when they saw a small brigade of Daein appear at the village entrance. Everyone was worried but they tried to stay calm so they wouldn't arouse suspicion. But to make the matter more stressful, the soldiers informed everyone that no one was allowed to leave without their approval.

Out of nowhere Ranulf ran up to them and said, "Things are certainly heating up."

"How did things go on your end?" Ike asked him.

Ranulf nodded, "Everything is set. You all just need to get down to the docks and find a man by the name of Nasir; he'll take you to Begnion."

Colette asked, "Aren't you coming with us Ranulf?"

"I was but…Daein's movements have concerned me. I'm staying here to see what's going on," he answered.

Ike put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Well, good luck to you."

"I should be the one to say that."

Suddenly, a young girl came running toward them and accidently ran into Ranulf. "Oh sorry, I wasn't watching-,"she started but gave a horrified look at him.

"No, pardon me-," he tried to apologize but stoped when he saw the look on her face.

"Eeeeeek! Su-sub-human!" She screamed and ran toward the crowed of people that was coming to see what all the commotion was.

Ranulf reached up for his hood but realized that it fell, exposing his cat ears. He cursed as an angry mob surrounded him.

Just then a big man came and shoved Ranulf a few feet away from the group, making him stumble to the ground.

"How dare you come prowling in this nice town, you filthy sub-human!" A man spat at him as he kicked him in the gut. More and more people came and continued to beat him.

The group watched in horror as they watched Ranulf lay motionless on the ground. Colette had covered her mouth to keep from crying out.

Lloyd clenched his fist and said, "We have to do something!"

"I'm ending this," Ike began to run toward the crowd but Mordecai pulled him back.

"We must leave!" he urged.

Ike gave his a disbelieved look, "No, we have to help Ranulf…"

Mordecai cut him off, "All this noise will attract the attention of the Daein troops," he argued.

"That's why we have to hurry up and help-"

Lethe came up and said, "He'll be fine! Leave him."

"Yes, Ranulf is strong, even stronger than me. It's all right," Mordecai explained.

"But he's not even defending himelf, he's just letting them attack him!" Lloyd shouted.

"Idiot!" Lethe hissed, "Gallia and Crimea are allies now, if he attacks those people then it would be the same as us being enemies."

"But still…"

"Lloyd, I don't like this anymore than you do. But…our job is to get the princess to Begnion. Runalf would be distracting the Daein, we can't let his sacrifice go in vain." Ike said with much distaste.

Lloyd looked at his friends and Genis, who seemed to read his mind, said, "No more sacrifices, right?"

Lloyd nodded and said, "Sorry, but you can't expect me to just turn a blind eye to this."

So he took off toward Ranulf with Genis right behind him. They didn't get too close to him because they didn't want their Exsheres to cause Ranulf to transform, which would not help their cause.

"All of you stop!" Lloyd shouted. The villagers did stop to look at the two kids.

"What do you boys want? Can't you see that we need to get rid of this monster?" One of them said.

"All I see are a bunch of monsters attacking a defenseless person!" Lloyd yelled.

Another one of the villagers came forward and told them, "You're just a bunch of kids; you wouldn't understand how evil these things are."

"No, you all don't understand," Genis rebuked. "It's not Ranulf's fault that he's a laguz. No one can control what spices they are."

Colette then ran up next to them and cried, "That's right. They're not evil; it's just that none of you will take the time to get to know them. You're king saw the good in them."

Some of the villagers gasped at this and gave worried glances at each other. But then someone shouted, "They're the ones the Daein guys are after!"

"Hey, you're right," another man agreed. He then waved his arms to get the Daein's attention. "Over here! There are some suspicious folk over here!"

"Hold up, what the hell are you guys doing? Wasn't your king killed by these guys?" Zelos asked them.

Some of the villagers looked down in shame while other stood tall. One of the younger ones cried out, "I heard the king was teamin' up with those sub-humans! That's what killed him!"

A woman nodded and said, "If we need allies, I'll take flesh-and-blood Daein humans over some fanged sub-human freak!"

"Trust your own kind!" Others cheered.

"You bunch of cowards!" Sheena hissed.

"I can't believe that they would do such a thing," Presea said astounded.

Just then some of the vigilantes came and all of them ran behind them. With the villagers out of the way, Ike ran to help Ranulf. He was horribly bruised and bloody. "You guys are idiots," he managed to breath.

Lloyd walked closer and said, "That might be true. But I made a vowel; I'm not letting anyone else become a sacrifice,"

Ranulf looked him for a minuet then smirked. But just then the Daein were nearing, so Runalf made his decision. "Good luck guys, you'll be fine. As for me…I think I'll play a little game of cat and mouse with these Daein fools," he anounced as he threw off his cloak.

"But Ranulf, you hurt badly," Ike objected to it.

"Don't worry, I'm tougher than that. Besides I have no intention on being a sacrifice," he said as he looked at Lloyd. "Lloyd, Genis, Colette, thank you." He then transformed to his cat form and ran away from the Toha which half of the Daein soldiers followed.

Presea ran to them and urged them to come on because the vigilantes and Daein troops were nearing. So very reluctantly everyone quickly made their way to the ship.

Zihark stood a few yards away from the riot that just took place. He couldn't believe what he just saw; a group of humans were defending a laguz. It did his heart good to see that he wasn't the only one who valued laguz life. Growing up in Daein he was used to prejudice against the laguz, not this.

So Zihark made his choice; he was going to help them escape, at all cost.

He quickly began looking for them, but they had blended into the crowd really well. Suddenly, he heard a familiar cry of a cat laguz. So he ran in the direction of the sound to see a female cat laguz, two young girls, and a boy using a bow. Zihark stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that the younger girl was wielding an axe that was bigger than her. He wondered how she was able to do that but he let it pass because there were other pressing matters at hand. They were surrounded by Daein troops!

The young archer tried to shoot one of the soldiers but he missed. So the Daein took his opportunity to attack the archer but the blond woman defended him with her chakrams. The cat laguz took her chance and killed him with her claws.

But another one was about to attack the laguz, so Zihark lunged forward and cut him down. He turned around and brought down two more. With the Daein taken care of, the laguz turned her attention to him now and lunged at him. Zihark jumped back just in time to see her claw come within an inch of his face.

"I'm not your enemy!" He shouted, but that didn't stop her.

Suddenly, the blond girl ran up and pleaded with the laguz, "Lethe! Please stop!"

The cat jumped back and transformed into her humanoid form. She gave the blond girl a questioning look. "How can we trust him? We don't even know him," she hissed.

"Then we'll ask him what he wants," Presea said.

Zihark sighed in relief, glad not to be fighting them. "My name is Zihark. All I want to do is help you all escape."

"How exactly do you plan on that?" Lethe hissed.

"I can distract the townspeople while you all make your escape."

"Unacceptable," Presea said.

"That's right; we're not going to leave you behind. So you'll just have to settle with coming us," The blond girl smiled.

Lethe and Zihark both couldn't believe that she said that. But Lethe yelled at her, "We just met him, Colette! How can we trust him?"

"Lethe, he saved us when he didn't have to. So I trust him," Colette explained.

So without further delay they all made their way to the ship.

Ike, Soren, Genis, and Sheena arrived first at the docks to find 3 Daein soldiers guarding the ship they needed to board. They glanced over some crates to see what they were up against; just two guys with lances and a knight.

"Only three, it seems they're underestimating us," Soren observed. "Genis and I can take care of the lance men, then Ike and Sheena will charge at the knight."

Ike nodded and so did Sheena, but Genis seemed to have his mind in the gutter. "Genis?" Ike said as he gently shook him.

Genis snapped back into reality. "Yeah, I'm okay."

Ike knew that he wasn't but it wasn't the time to ask.

Soren and Genis made their first move; Soren attacked one with his wind spell while Genis attaked the other with Fireball. With the two lance men down Sheena charged first and threw one of her spell cards at the knight. With a few hand signs she yelled, "Serpent Seal!" The knight made a muffled sound as a snake like cloud constricted him. "Now Ike!"

Ike was surprised at her power but continued his advance. When he got there he sliced through the knight's waist and watched as he fell in to the ocean.

"Get everyone on board, now!"

Everybody finally got on board shortly after (they even had the criminal safely secured) and was now making their slow journey to Begnion. On their way they met a stowaway named Sothe. He was a little kid who was rude to everyone. But he didn't mean any harm and he said he was looking for someone in Begnion, so Ike allowed him to stay.

Thing were going well until they reached the islands that the bird laguz lived. That was when Nasir got worried.

They reached the halfway point when the ship got stuck in reef amd a bunch of laguz pirates were pursuing them! So they were left with no choice but to stand and fight.

Mist, Mordecai Zihark, and Boyd stayed down below to protect the princess will everyone else was stayed on the deck to fend off the crow laguz.

So Soren, Genis, and Zelos would cast wind spells (although Genis and Zelos couldn't cast as much as Soren, Zelos at least used physical attacks to make up for it.) Rolf shot his bow as his brother Oscar and Mia guarded him. Everyone else was on their own.

Lloyd was having a difficult time fighting them because they moved so much. Of course he wasn't having as much trouble as Presea; her attacks were so slow that the crows would wait at the last minute to dodge. But a few times one of them would get cocky and be met with Presea's axe.

But there was another reason for Lloyd; a few weeks ago he had stood up against the townspeople about attacking Ranulf, now he was doing the same thing almost. They attacked us first! It's only self-defense! He kept telling himself that.

He then noticed that a crow was going to attack Ike from behind. So quickly ran and jumped on top of its back and stabbed it.

Ike turned around in astonishment as he saw Lloyd land on the deck. "Thanks," he breathed.

Lloyd nodded but they both quickly noticed that Rhys, Sheena, and Colette were getting swarmed by them. The two swordsmen ran toward the front of the ship to help but one of the crows got its talons into Colette's shoulder and dropped her into the ocean.

"Colette!" Lloyd shouted.

Sheena quickly threw a paper bomb at the giant bird and made it explode.

Suddenly, Colette came flying back onto the deck. Lloyd and the others sighed in relief. But the mercenaries and the crows all stood with wide eyes and jaws open. Some of the crow forgot that they had to flap their wings and fell into the ocean; while others were flying away in fright at the sight of a human with wings.

A few miles away from the ship, three hawk laguz (in their humanoid form) were watching the scene until they had to catch the one who stopped flying.

"Janaff, what the blazes is wrong with you?" The larger one of the three called Tibarn asked him.

Janaff was hyperventilating and began to point at the direction of the ship, "A-a-a girl! Wi-wi-with w-wings!" He stuttered between breathes.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure there might be a few female crows out there," the other one called Ulki told him.

"No!" Janaff shouted. "She's not a laguz! She's a beorc with wings!"

Both looked at him with concern until Tibarn said, "Okay, you've been in the sun to long. Let's just get you home before you really start to really lose it." He and Ulki then began to drag him.

"King Tibarn! I'm telling you I'm not crazy, I know what I saw!" he protested as they flew back.

The battle was over and everyone was safe, all thanks to Colette scaring the crap out of the crows. No one spoke for the longest time until Colette apologized to Lloyd.

"I'm sorry, Lloyd. You told me not to use my angle powers but I did anyway."

Lloyd began to chuckle and said, "You dork. Everyone is safe because of you. You did well."

Genis walked up and pointed out that they were still stuck. So Presea suggested that Sheena try to summon a spirit.

"Alright," she said, "I'll give it a shot. I haven't tried summoning since we got here." She pulled out one of her spell cards and did a few hand signs as she began to chant. "I call upon the maiden of the mist! I summon the! Come forth Undine!"

Suddenly, water began to raise and a mermaid like being appeared before them. With a few movements with her hand a giant wave came and swept them over the reef. Once they began to sail again, Undine disappeared. As soon as she did Sheena passed out, luckily Zelos caught her.

Ike was the first to regain his self and waked toward them. "Do you all care to explain what just happened?" He asked.

Lloyd looked at his friends to see what he should do. Zelos answered his unasked question, "We might as well tell them Lloyd, we're going to be stuck with them for a while on this ship."

So everyone went below deck and the group told the mercenaries everything. Their world, the Journey of Regeneration, fighting Cruxis, Exspheres, Desians, everything. Although Zelos lost his speaking privileges after Sheena regain conciseness. The most difficult thing for them to believe was that Zelos was also a Chosen like Colette.

"This is a lot to take in," Ike said after they finished their meal.

"Now I understand why you didn't know anything about laguz. They must not exist in your world," Rhys said to Colette.

Colette nodded and Genis explained, "Yeah, in our world, there are humans, elves and dwarves. And I'm…what's known as a half-elf." Genis was still trying to be comfortable with admitting he was a half-elf.

That night Lloyd couldn't sleep, a lot had happened that day. So he decided to get some fresh ocean air. When he walked up to the deck he saw Genis leaning over the edge.

"Genis? You're not sea sick are you?"

Genis jumped at his voice but went back to his position. "No, I feel find," he said but his face said different.

Guessing what was bothering him Lloyd tried to comfort him by saying, "It's a good thing that the Professor isn't here, she definitely wouldn't like being on this ship for this long."

"Huh? Oh…yeah, Raine. I hope she's okay."

Lloyd was confused, sure Genis was worried about Raine but that wasn't what was bothering him right now. "What's got you like this?"

He could tell Genis was debating whether or not to tell him. But he finally said, "It's Soren."

"Sure Soren's a little rude, but he seems trustworthy."

Genis gave a frustrated sigh and said, "I knew that you wouldn't understand."

"Well Genis, tell me what I don't understand."

"He's like me Lloyd. He's caught in between just like me."

Lloyd thought about that for a little bit, and then said, "Do you mean that he's like…half-laguz…or something?"

Genis nodded, "Yeah. The things he says and the way he looks at others…it's exactly how I was when I hated everybody. When I look at him, I see myself before I met you Lloyd. But I had Raine with me, Soren has been alone all his life until now."

Now Lloyd understood, Genis was worried that Soren might be like Mithos. "If you're feeling like this you should talk to him. Maybe you'll both feel better about who you are."

"Geez Lloyd, I can't believe I was expecting some great wisdom from you," he sighed.

"Hey, if want my advice take it; if you don't, don't."

"At least you're here for me Lloyd, even if you do give crappy advice."

Back in the desert, Raine had been staying with a group of laguz that were trying to fight back against Begnion because they still were using them as slaves. Some of them weren't happy when Tormod and Muarim brought her back to their hideout, but they quickly got over it when she began to heal them. They also began to trust her when she tried to explain that she wasn't a beorcs but a half-elf; she was able to relate to them.

So now they were trying to persuade her to join them, but really she had no interest in fighting a battle that did not concern her. But she couldn't really abandon them either.

Right now she was outside studying the pillar structure when she realized she wasn't alone. She could tell that someone was following her.

So she walked behind some sand dunes and called out, "You can come out now."

Shortly, a hermit with green hair came out from behind a sand dune. "You quite perspective, aren't you?"

Raine noticed that he was carrying a sword so she raised her staff in defense. This made the hermit laugh, "Oh I have no intention of harming you miss. I was only curious about how it was the laguz here were able to tolerate you. But now that I've gotten this close I realize you're not human."

She looked him over and then said, "Neither are you. Let me guess; in you flows both laguz and human blood, correct?"

He sighed, "Yes, but what about you? You and I are not the same."

So Raine tried her best to give him the short version of her story; not everything, just her being a half-elf and coming from another world.

After she was done the hermit rubbed his brow. "Amazing," he said, "to think that in other worlds prejudice exist as it does in this one. Is this the fate for all those who are stuck in-between?"

"I don't know. But a student of mine had an idea of have a world in which everyone that is born has the right to live. That is what inspired my brother and I to travel the world and help those like us. It may take years but I believe that people can change."

"I'll have to ponder on that one as I wonder the desert miss."

"Call me Raine," she told him.

He nodded, "I'm Stefan. So Raine, what are you going to do, join the laguz's rebellion?"

"I'm more interested to find my brother and friends," she admitted.

Stefan began to walk away and he said, "Well good luck to you, Raine. Hope you find what you're looking for."

Raine kept on watching him until he was out of sight. What a strange person, she thought, perhaps being in this desert for a long time will do that to a person.

I'm just going to say this, I'm not going to be talking about every fire emblem character in this, there is just too many! I'll be focesing more on the mercenaries and the playable laguz. If you all want to see another character on here, tell me and I'll put them in the story. It's not a big deal to talk about them; I just don't want to include people that people don't like and have no real purpose in the story except to just fight the battles. As you may have already known I skip a few battles and in this chapter I changed the story line some, this may happen a little. One more chapter before the skit chapter, I now have 5 z-skit in my head now.