Chapter 5: A Haunting Scene in Ozette

Escaping from the forest with the Papal Knights held back by Riku's walls of fire, the group is quickly guided around by Sheena towards the hidden village of Mizuho. Colette keeps the blue-haired prisoner hauled over her right shoulder with little stress applied to her body, causing Lloyd to comment in a puzzled tone "Colette, are you sure you're ok?"

Colette glances past her left shoulder and says in a chipper tone "Of course Lloyd. Why do you ask?" Lloyd naturally exclaims "Because you're carrying a 200 lb. man!"

The girl happily says "Yeah, it's a lot of fun! Do you want to try it Lloyd?" Colette is almost ready to throw the man at her friend, but in a panic Lloyd rapidly states "No no no! That's not necessary!"

"Oh, ok Lloyd. So why are you so worried?" Colette calmly asks. After getting a grip on himself, Lloyd replies with "You've always had trouble lifting even a chair. Doesn't this sudden increase in strength worry you?"

"Of course not, it's just another perk of being an angel, and a fun one at that!" Colette…Surprisingly brings up a good point. Lloyd lets out a relieved sigh as he puts the facts together, and is glad to see Colette enjoying herself again. "You're right, I'm sorry for doubting anything." Lloyd says. Colette giggles, but as she turns her head back around her face looks a little distressed and she grimaces while glancing at her shoulder.

After traveling around for fifteen minutes, Zelos leans over Sheena's left shoulder and slyly asks "Soooo…Are we there yet?" Sheena glances at the man in an annoyed man and uses her left hand to brush him out of the way while saying "It's not called a 'hidden village' because it's easy to find. I know this is hard for you, but be patient."

Zelos grins and says "I'm saying, it feels like we've been passing by the same locations for the last few minutes." Sheena then groans and says to Zelos angrily "Ugh, you were paying attention to that?! Damn it Zelos, now we have to wander around a little longer before I take you all to Mizuho!"

The Chosen of Tethe'alla says in a puzzled yet suave tone "Hey hey, don't pin the blame on me, I didn't know you were up to something my voluptuous darling." Sheena replies with "Well of course I was! If I just went straight to Mizuho it would be easy for you to remember how to get there! And I honestly can't trust SOMEONE to not tell the world about where the village is."

"Why Sheena, I'm hurt. How can you not trust pretty ol' me?" Zelos suavely states. Sheena happily replies "I can think of five incidents in the last year alone, if you want me to list them." Zelos backs off slightly and says "Oh fine, if you want to be that way then I'll just be quiet."

Sheena doesn't believe that the guy will live up to his word, but for the remainder of the trip to Mizuho he doesn't let out a single word. "I can't believe it…" Sheena murmurs out as she looks at the entrance to her home village and says to everyone "Well, here we are…This is Mizuho." Her tone was quiet and a little worried sounding.

The village of Mizuho was self-contained in a ring of bamboo walls, and the houses were few and simple in design. Riku felt a little bit of nostalgia upon looking at this simple village, and after sniffing the clean air he folds his arms behind his head and says in a relaxed tone "Now this is more my element…"

As they pass under the gate, a blue-garbed ninja with a visible face and a katana on his back quickly crosses the bridge and looks at Sheena in disbelief, saying to her then and there "Sheena! What is the meaning of this? How could you bring outsiders into the village?!"

Sheena sighs, and seeing as she saw this event coming she quickly replies to the ninja "I'm prepared to accept my punishment later. But for now Orochi, please inform the Vice-Chief. I've brought the Chosen's group from Sylvarant."

"…Sylvarant? You mean the dying world Sylvarant?" Orochi nods upon recognizing the severity of the situation if these people were all gathered here. Zelos comments "Well, everyone expect me, the little girl, and the boy with the black hair."

"And my deal is kind of complicated…" Riku adds-on before Orochi nods his head and comments "I see. Sheena, come with me. The rest of you, wait in front of the Chief's house. It is just a few feet past the bridge."

Sheena complies with Orochi's request, and follows her fellow ninja across the small wooden bridge while her friends follow close behind. When they cross the bridge all the way, Colette hears a grumble coming from the prisoner. Looking straight at Sheena, the girl says "Ummm, we'll join you in a bit Sheena."

"Don't worry about it Colette, I won't be long." Sheena says after taking a glance back at the Chosen. Sheena and Orochi then walk into the Chief's house while Colette takes the man on her shoulder and lowers him slowly onto the ground. Recognizing that he's about to wake up, the group surrounds the prisoner.

Wiggling slightly, the prisoner groans as his eyelids creak open. His vision is fuzzy, but it doesn't take long for him to notice that he's surrounded by the people he ambushed in the forest. "Wh…Where am I?" The man says as he surprisingly rises to his feet despite just waking up. Lloyd firmly says as the man glances back at him "You're our prisoner. Don't try anything funny."

"I like to think that I'm smart enough not to start trouble when I don't understand the situation." The man says, and after he is done with Lloyd he turns to look at Presea with a melancholy look in his eyes. The girl cautiously steps back, but the prisoner does nothing more than look.

With the prisoner in tow, everyone walks through Mizuho to head for the Chief's house. Along the way, they hear the whispers of the village. "I can't believe Sheena brought outsiders into the village." "She's always causing trouble." "Why does she still live here?" There was not a single positive word to be spread towards the girl.

"Nobody seems to like Sheena…" Genis comments quietly to everyone. Zelos says in a surprisingly serious tone "It's best not to ask around about that. It'll be up to Sheena to tell us what happened here."

"You know, Zelos?" Lloyd asks in a tone of surprise. Zelos turns towards Lloyd and grins slyly while stating "Of course I do. I've known Sheena for a really long time. Her and I have a couple things in common, actually."

"The fact that you're both from Tethe'alla?" Genis sarcastically asks, but Zelos surprisingly replies with "Neither of us are wanted." This puzzles both Lloyd and Genis, and leaves the open-eared Raine murmuring to herself.

Everyone gathers in front of the Chief's House, where Orochi has come out to say to the group "The Vice-Chief is ready to see you. All of you, in fact." Extending the invite to the entire group, Orochi steps off to the side and lets the group enter the Chief's house. Lloyd extends a show of thanks to the ninja afterwards. The inside of the house has little in the way of light, with the brightest source belonging to a couple of lit steel torches inside the secluded room to the left of the entrance.

Lloyd enters first, and inside is a middle-aged man wearing baggy marsh-green pants, a yellow open sleeveless vest and a white undershirt. He had a pointed brown beard and a clean cut hairstyle. Sheena was to the left of him, both figures kneeled down and bathed in the light of the crackling flames. Out of respect, everyone bows at the man in front of them, and the man does the same in kindness.

Everyone save for Zelos and Riku then sit themselves down across the room in front of the man, with Lloyd sitting directly in front of the man as he begins to speak in a gravelly sounding tone "Our leader, Chief Igaguri, is ill. I, the Vice-Chief, Tiga, shall speak on his behalf."

Tiga gets right to the point of the matter by stating to the group "Because Sheena failed to kill you, we, the people of Mizuho, now faces persecution from the Tethe'alla Royal Family and the Church of Martel."

Lloyd blinks a few times in surprise at how suddenly the people of Mizuho were targeted and asks just to confirm "Is that true?"

Tiga nods his head and goes on to explain "Yes. At least from what I've heard. Now I have a question to ask. People of Sylvarant, what do you plan to do in Tethe'alla, the land of your enemies?"

Riku listened in closely, for he recalled that this was an important moment in Lloyd's journey. Lloyd thinks to himself for a few seconds and then gives an answer "I've been thinking about that for a long time. Someone asked me why I came all the way to Tethe'alla…what it is that I want to do."

Continuing on with the utmost confidence in his voice, Lloyd gives his answer to the question asked of him just a day ago "I want a world where everyone can have a normal life. I'm tired of people having to become sacrifices. I'm tired of discrimination. I'm tired of people becoming victims. I'm tired of it all."

Tiga gets a happy chuckle out of the answer, and with a smile on his face he says "You are an idealist. The worlds of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant flourish only by victimizing the others. So long as that structure remains the same, anything you say is mere sophistry."

Lloyd quickly rises to his feet and proclaims with even more confidence "Then we need to change that structure! This world was made by that Yggdrasill guy, right?! If a human or elf built this, then we should be able to change it as well!"

For a few seconds afterwards, there is nothing but silence, but then Tiga breaks into a joyous laugh that leads to him commenting "You speak like the hero, Mithos. He was a sublime idealist. He ended the Ancient War by insisting there was a way for the two warring countries to coexist in peace. Are you saying you can become the next Mithos?"

Lloyd humbly states afterwards "I'm not Mithos. I want to save the two worlds my way, with the help of my friends."

The Vice-Chief rubs the bottom of his beard and says "…I see. In other words, you aren't worried about following past methods. Well then, we shall search for a new path as well."

Sheena glances at Tiga and says to him in stunned disbelief "Vice-Chief, do you mean…" With a nod of his head at the woman, Tiga looks back at Lloyd and says "We will use our information network to aid you. In return, when the path of prosperity for both worlds has been found, we wish to move our people to Sylvarant."

"But I don't have any right to decide something like that." Lloyd remarks, but the Vice-Chief merely shakes his head and insists "All we need is for you to aid us in our move."

Now that a pause had been taken between the Vice-Chief and Lloyd's conversation, Lloyd turns to face his fellow friends and asks of them "…Is everyone okay with us joining forces with the people of Mizuho?"

"If it will change the relationship of the two worlds, of course!" "Well, it doesn't sound like a bad deal." "Let's hurry up and decide, so we can do rescue Presea." Colette, Raine and Genis say respectively. Zelos glances over at Lloyd and says "Hey, as long as Tethe'alla is safe, I don't care what you guys do."

Lloyd turns back to face Tiga and says "Okay then, it's settled. We're going to look for a way to change the two worlds. Let's work together." Tiga nods his head and replies with "Agreed. Then I hereby order Sheena to continue to accompany you. This time, however, not just as an observer, but as a representative. Make us proud."

Sheena nods her head and enthusiastically exclaims "Yes, sir!" Zelos then looks at the Vice-Chief and asks "But, Tiga, you sure you wanna turn the Royals and the Church against you like that?"

Tiga laughs quietly and replies with "Well then, how about if I ask you? Given a choice between the forces which wish to sacrifice one of the worlds, and the force that wishes to preserve both worlds, which would you side with?"

"I'd like to say, 'the one that's likely to win,' but I suppose I'd want to help the side that wants to preserve both worlds." Zelos' answer leads Tiga to nod his head, and then the Vice-Chief turns to face Riku to say to him "And what about you? From what Orochi told me, you are from neither Tethe'alla or Sylvarant. What side do you wish to take?"

The teenage Overlord looks at the Vice-Chief and respectfully answers "If I had chosen any other path, I wouldn't have had the honor of speaking to you now. I believe in Lloyd's plan, even if I somewhat disagree with the heavy idealism."

"That is what I wished to hear. Now, the first thing we shall do is devote all our resources to locating the Rheairds. Fortunately for you, it appears that Sheena attached a guardian to the Rheairds, so we should be able to locate them shortly." Tiga explains. Lloyd nods his head in an appreciative manner and says "Understood. Thank you for your help."

Everyone who was sitting gets on their feet, and Tiga walks to the doorway of his room and politely sees everyone off for now alongside Sheena. Zelos is the only one who stays behind for a moment, and he comments in a quiet, disbelieving tone "Is he for real?" Riku, who was the farthest back, pauses for a moment near the doorway as everyone was heading out so he could intercept Zelos and say to him "What do you mean by that?"

Zelos flinches for a moment as he rounds the corner and sees Riku speak to him. Brushing off the question in a suave manner expected of the man, Zelos says "Why Riku, I have no idea what you're talking about. Come on, lets join up with the others." Zelos wraps his arms around the back of Riku's neck and quickly guides him out of the house while smiling brightly.

Outside, everyone meets up at the center of the village, where Raine looks at Lloyd and says with the highest praise "I'm proud of the way you handled that Lloyd. I'm sure you had to think about that for a while." Lloyd chuckles and says "Of course Professor. This is something I want to really see through to the end. I don't want anyone to ever repeat what Iselia and Luin went through ever again."

With a proud smile on her face, Raine looks away from Lloyd and says to him as he walks "So long as you remember that, we'll always have your back." Lloyd then looks at the blue-haired prisoner walking with them and asks quietly "Say, what's your name?"

The man pauses for a moment and turns around to look at Lloyd, his imposing height causing the boy to step back as he glances up at his eyes. The man gently answers "…Regal." At this particular moment, Zelos and Riku had caught up with the group, and upon hearing the man's true name yet another spark simmered inside the Chosen's brain. Letting go of Riku, Zelos walks up beside Lloyd as the swordsman says "Regal, huh? I'm sorry, but we're gonna have to keep your prisoner for a bit longer."

Regal nods his head in an understanding manner, where Zelos then proceeds to rub the bottom of his chin and say after a moment of thought "Hey Lloyd, I know this is a crazy suggestion, but how about letting' pops her fight, too?"

Genis listens in on this suggestion and turns towards Zelos, stating in disbelief "Even though he might betray us?" Zelos confidently speaks on behalf on the prisoner by saying "He has business with Presea, right? Then he's not going to try anything before he gets a chance to speak with her, you know?"

Raine actually finds merit in this course of action, and comments "Actually, that's not a bad idea." Which causes Genis to exclaim in defensive outrage to his sister "Raine!"

Sheena comments "It sounds like a bad idea, but I don't make a fuss. I also started off as your enemy after all." Lloyd pauses and looks up at the man, seeing a little bit of a trustworthy gleam in his eyes before he hesitantly says "…Well? Will you fight alongside us for now?"

The prisoner nods his head and looks back and forth at the everyone gathered here, vowing to them "All alright. I swear upon my good name, and these shackles that bind me, I shall not betray you."

"Hey, as someone who had some doubts cast on him, you should know that you have my favor for being a part of this group, Regal." Riku politely says to the man. Genis groans at everyone's acceptance of the prisoner in the group, and after shrugging the shoulders he glares at Regal and says to the man harshly "If you do anything even the slightest bit suspicious, I'll burn you to a crisp, got it?"

"Haha, you don't need to remind me of that." Regal happily replies to Genis' little vow. "Well then, welcome to our group Regal!" Colette merrily proclaims.

With their business in Mizuho done for now, everyone began to head for the exit when Orochi suddenly leaps in front of their path and respectfully mentions "It seems the pursuers have left the forest. You should hurry."

Lloyd turns around and glances at everyone while stating "All right, let's head for Altessa's place right away…" A twitching Presea stutters out to Lloyd afterwards "…I…want to go home to my village."

Lloyd takes note of Presea's behavior and says in an apologetic tone "Ah, right…Ozette first, then." Raine comments afterwards "Yes, Presea's parents are probably worried about her. We should head to Ozette."

"Ummm, Orochi was it? Where is Ozette?" Lloyd asks. The ninja points towards the northeast and says "Seek out the largest tree in that direction. Ozette is directly underneath it."

"Thanks, we'll be off now." With that appreciative remark, Lloyd begins to lead the group out of Mizuho and heads northeast. Along the way, Regal walks beside a calmer Presea, asking her kindly "You're name is Presea, correct? About your family…"

Presea glances at Regal for a moment and then looks away with nothing but silence. Before Regal says anything else, Genis runs between the two of them and holds his arms out while proclaiming "H…Hey! Get away from her!" He was frightened by the man's stature, but tried to put on a courageous face for Presea's sake even though she doesn't care.

Regal steps away from Genis and bows his head before saying kindly "I apologize. I didn't realize she had a little knight protecting her." Genis takes the compliment the wrong way and says "Don't make fun of me! I've got magic, your hear me?!"

The little half-elf begins to reach for his kendama when Presea suddenly lifts her left hand up and grabs Genis around his wrist. The boy and Regal stop in place, with Genis glancing at Presea as the girl just stares forward and says "Genis." Genis embarrassingly replies as his heart pumps due to Presea coldly gripping his skin "Wh…What is it? Don't worry, I'll protect you!"

"He bears no hostility. There is no need for combat." Presea's calm assessment of Regal's disposition makes Genis limply state "Ah…oh…" Presea then lets go of Genis' arm and starts to walk away, saying "Also, I have no need for your protection." The cold words spoken leave Genis feeling absolutely devastated, his head hanging low in front of his chest as his arms limp on both sides of his body.

"…Oh." Genis states in a melancholic tone. Regal, feeling somewhat responsible for this event, places his right hand on the half-elf's left shoulder and looks down at him while saying "Don't take it personally Genis, she just isn't capable of understanding what you're doing for her."

Genis harshly brushes Regal off, saying to him quietly "What could you possibly know about this?" before he runs off to join back up with everyone else. Regal lets out a sigh, and then follows up close behind so no one gets suspicious.

Thankfully, the trek from Mizuho to Ozette doesn't take long, especially once the top of the massive tree Orochi mentioned comes into view, and by that point Genis has recovered from being rejected. The group enters from the left side of the village, which is a large moss covered incline made from the trunk of the massive tree. The village was small, perhaps even smaller than Mizuho, but it was filled with vibrant plant life from top to bottom.

The very moment they step down onto Ozette, Presea breaks into a run up the incline, leaving everyone's sight in a matter of seconds. Genis tries to run to catch up with the girl, but fails quickly and is forced to turn back at Lloyd and exclaim "Lloyd! We have to follow her!"

With all of his focus on Presea's departure, Lloyd doesn't hear his friend for a couple moments, and thus his response is a puzzled "Huh? Yeah…" The group then scales the trunk of the tree and try to find where Presea ran off to, but when they reach the main part of the village the citizens immediately start glaring their way in contempt.

Genis and Raine pick up on the glares instantly, for they were all directed at them. But unlike the usual stares they've received in Tethe'alla, these were far more unnatural. This made them feel incredibly uncomfortable, but to alleviate this problem Riku pauses for a moment and turns towards the people while gesturing to Raine and Genis before saying "These two people with us are regular old elves, so try and relax."

The people lessen the intensity of their glares, implying that there was another issue on their minds than just the type of elves that were in their village. As Riku feels satisfied for now and turns back to face the rest of the group, Raine looks at him and quietly says with a half-smile on her face "Thank you." To which the boy replies with a nod of the head.

The group is unable to find Presea anywhere up top, so they head down the trunk on the opposite side of the main village, since they see a little bit of smoke coming up from a chimney down below. Off to the left is a small, barely kept-up abode with vines growing out of the wooden ceiling and a small rickety fence spread around the porch. Presea stands on the porch with another figure in front of her.

He was a tall, lanky man with pulled back purple hair and small red glasses perched just above his pointed nose. He wore a grey robe split apart into six segments that covered his body save for the odd-looking green shoes down below. This strange man spoke to Presea in an even stranger voice as she handed him a few bright looking pieces of wood "…Thank you. Hmm? You brought guests along as well?"

The man glances to the right at the group gathered before Presea's house, and the girl monotonously replies "Porters…" Which makes the man say with the utmost intrigue "Oh, I see…" His eyes shift specifically towards Lloyd and Colette as he turns to face the group.

Genis tries to speak to Presea in a more kind and confident sounding voice after what happened earlier "Presea! We have to make a Key Crest for you!" But without even a moment's thought Presea responds like a robot servant would "My job awaits…goodbye…"

The girl turns around and creaks open the wooden door that's in here way, entering it as Genis watches on in disbelief. The man explains to the group "Only Presea can retrieve the sacred wood used in the ritual at the church. I'm quite pleased that she has finally returned. Hehehehe…"

The man then departs from the porch and heads towards the exit of Ozette, but with a creepy chill crawling down his spine Riku turns his head to glance at the man as he mouths the words "So that is the one Lord Yggdrasill desires…Fascinating…" Before he can be even the slightest bit disturbed by his choice of words, he hears Raine mention "That man…he's a half-elf."

Everyone then turns to face Raine, with Lloyd in particular stating "He is? Now that you mention it, didn't we see him in Meltokio too?" And Colette then shivers a bit while saying "He's creepy…"

Zelos waits a couple moments before saying to Colette "I agree. But…uh…I gotta say that I feel sorry for the guy." The man pulls back and laughs to himself before explaining his reasoning while everyone looks at him curiously "I mean he has to deal with the fact that there are magnificent specimens of males around like me. Hehe."

Genis swiftly deflates Zelos' ego by stating "Nah, I'd say you two are on the same level." The Chosen folds his arms in front of his chest and glares down at Genis while his right eyelid twitches and he states "…I heard that, you little twerp!"

Brushing off the childish bickering between Zelos and Genis, Regal looks at Lloyd and says "At any rate, we should have a talk with Presea." The swordsman points out "She hasn't been very talkative before, but it's worth a shot now that she's back home."

Though it detoured them from going to Altessa's house for the moment, the group approached Presea's home, slipping in through the still open door and immediately noticing the young girl hard at work around the house. Dedicating herself to cleaning and sorting what's around in a slow and precise manner, it looked as though nothing could stop her from doing her designated tasks.

Everyone examined the house, noticing that at the very least Presea did manage to keep the place clean. But there was still this gripping feeling that something was wrong here, that there was something Presea wasn't telling the group. The girl ran to the left as Regal examined the pictures on the wall to the right of the entrance, feeling some spark of realization and nostalgia as he seemingly recognizes the little girl standing next to Presea in one of the photos.

"…Could it be?" Regal whispers to himself, while in the meantime Lloyd catches a whiff of something in the direction Presea headed, a rancid odor that was unlike anything he had ever smelled before. "What is that smell…?" He questions as he glances towards the room Presea ran into.

Lloyd begins to walk towards the room himself, with everyone but Regal following him not long afterwards. Inside the room they find a completely different atmosphere than what was in the other room. Cobwebs were scattered all over the walls, the cabinet had open draws and a shattered vase on top of it, and there was a bed with a lumped up sheet just close by. Presea ran back and forth between the bed and the cabinet, this time pretending to clean and examine her surroundings without any control.

While most of the group observed Presea, Raine decided to investigate the source of the smell and headed towards the bed. Riku watched as she moved one step closer towards discovering the truth, cursing inside his head that he could say nothing to keep her away now that the events had been set in motion. Raine glances down at the head of the bed, and instantly her calm demeanor completely breaks. She stares down horrified and loses control of her motor functions as she falls to her knees and grasps onto the head of the bed with one hand while feeling the disturbance of fluids in her stomach.

It took every last inch of her willpower to not throw-up, and once she catches her breath she stutters out "…Oh my…how horrible…" Zelos, Sheena and Riku quickly run over to the bed to see what was going on and help Raine get back onto her feet respectively, providing enough of a wall so that no one else would have the horror of witnessing what was inside the bed.

There was a corpse so decayed in nature that it was both a miracle and a curse that you could still see it's flesh. The eyeballs were gone, and the hair had blown away from the skull. The bed was filled with juices that provided most of the smell in this room, but in spite of the corpse's appearance the most revolting thing about it was that Presea was allowing this thing to lay on the bed in the first place.

Zelos takes this matter seriously and comments "What the…this is not cool." While Sheena says "How could this have happened…" When Raine is back onto her feet she throws a pitying glance at Presea and whispers "This is most like the effect of the Exspheres' parasitism. Presea has no idea what's become of the person in that bed."

Genis glances horrifyingly at Presea and murmurs to himself "How could that…" But stop when he sees Regal try to approach Presea and ask her kindly "Presea. Are you not coming with us?"

Presea acknowledges Regal's presence and says while continuing to work "I must…do my job…" The answer makes Regal's glance at the girl in a melancholy manner, the reason for his pity being kept all to himself as he turns back to face the rest of the group.

Raine starts to walk back with Zelos and Sheena, commenting to everyone after getting her bearings "…Let's leave Presea here for now." This completely takes Lloyd off-guard and leads to him proclaiming "Professor, how can you say that?!"

Raine explains calmly to the understandably peeved Lloyd "If we try to move her, she will just fight back. All we can do for her now is see if Altessa will repair her Key Crest." After considering his professor's words for a moment, Lloyd says "…No, you're right. Lets get moving."

The group begins to depart from Presea's house sans Riku, who stands at the side of the bed and looks down at the corpse, speaking to himself "…Why is something like this allowed to happen? This whole mess could have been stopped by the original Elemental Overlord before it got to this sickening point, but it wasn't…In fact, why am I even here now? …My contributions are minor at best, and-"

"Hey gloomy gus, the corpse already has enough company. Come on, we need to get a move on to Altessa's, remember?" Zelos' cheery voice interrupts Riku's reflecting commentary, causing him to turn his head and see the Chosen gesture out the door he stands in the middle of. Nodding his head in agreement, Riku follows Zelos out the door, but not before glancing back one last time at Presea and thinking to himself "…Dwarven Vow #2: Never abandon someone in need…Thanks Lloyd, you've give me a reason to press on, even if the path of this world is set in stone."

Next Time: The Secluded Dwarf