Chapter 9: Renegade Assault I: Infiltration
The group began to leave the Temple of Lightning now that Volt was dealt with. Sheena was glancing at the purple seal she had acquired to help summon him and Corrine's bell at the same time. She quietly sighed and then put the seal away, looking up at the area ahead of her with a little more confidence on her face than she had before entering the temple.
In the middle of most of the group, Riku glances down at his right hand and spreads the fingers, crackling electricity between them with a half-smile on his face. "Now I got electricity back. Really wish I could have gone for Light or Darkness first, but that's just not in the cards…" Riku whispers the last part of his sentence to himself.
As the group crosses the electric conductors that turn on and off and impede their progress by a few seconds, Riku just simply shuts them down with a few pointer finger gestures just to test out his powers again. With a little bolt of electricity shooting out with each movement he manages to grab the attention of Raine, who walks up beside him and observes his actions for a bit before commenting "Interesting, so you don't need to wear a protective substance before creating electricity."
"Huh?" Riku glances over at Raine as he shuts off the last two conductors and says to her "None of my elements cause harm to my body. I could create flames as hot as the sun and I wouldn't even sweat."
"But you can't stop the detrimental effects from affecting your allies, can you?" Raine asks in an inquisitor-like tone. Riku shakes his head and compliments the professor with "How perceptive of you Raine. Yeah, unlike yours and Genis' magic, I can't make my elements distinguish between friend or foe. But honestly, I've gotten used to fighting alongside others, so you shouldn't have to worry about being singed by a stray lightning bolt."
"I was never worried about that, but thank you for bringing attention to that anyways." Raine drops the conversation after that sentence, since as the group left the temple they were intercepted by Orochi, as expected.
The ninja looked over the group, seeing that everyone was still alive and that Sheena seemed to have a more relaxed expression on her face. With this, he is able to safely says "I guess you succeeded in forming the pact with Volt. Congratulations, Sheena."
"…Thank you, Orochi." Sheena comments quietly. Orochi senses a bit of melancholy in Sheena's voice, but doesn't pursue the matter and gets down to business with "Now, the whereabouts of the Rheairds."
The ninja pulls out a scroll and hands it over to Sheena. She opens the scroll up to reveal a map of Tethe'alla with a small red "X" on the eastern edge near a large frozen mass. "The signal from Sheena's guardian was detected under the sea southeast of here. A fjord-like area covered in ice is located there. That must be the entrance to the Renegade base."
"If it's underwater, does that mean we'll have to dive into the sea?" Raine asks. Orochi shakes his head and reassures her with "Don't worry about that. I'll go on ahead and make preparations. You guys shall meet up with me later." Orochi then turns around and departs from the temple.
Lloyd enthusiastically states "Okay, let's get going!" He pumps his fist in front of his body at the end of his sentence, while Presea quietly says behind him "…Yes, to rescue Colette as well."
"Yeah. I hope Colette is all right." Zelos says in a concerned voice, and once Presea nods her head in agreement the group departs from the Temple of Lightning for good. At the dock they use their EC to head-off for the Renegade base with the help of the map Orochi gave them. Consider the distance it would take them though, they wouldn't arrive there until the next morning.
It had already been a long enough day as is, since they started with a trip to Sybak and ended with Volt's defeat and subsequent pact with Sheena. Everyone started to quiet down for the night, but not before having a few more conversations.
In particular, Genis approached a sitting Riku and said to him nervously "U-Umm…Riku, can I speak to you for a moment?" The teenage Overlord pats the metal ground beside himself and says "Sit down Genis, I'm willing to talk."
The half-elf boy sits down beside the boy and glances at him after stretching his legs out to get comfortable, asking him quietly "R-Riku, are you in love with my sister?"
Riku flinches in surprise and nervously stutters out "H-Huh? What gave you that idea?" His composure was lost a little bit thanks to this, but he tries to calm himself as Genis mentions after glancing away from the boy "I saw you and her talking in the Temple of Lightning, and Zelos told me that you two did something early in the morning together…"
Riku glances over at the Chosen of Tethe'alla in a rather piercing manner, and though Zelos notices this he nonchalantly brushes it off with a whistle. Looking back at Genis, the teenage Overlord comments "Well you made a mistake by listening to Zelos of all people. Raine and I just put some books away. But can I ask why our conversation just earlier concern you?"
"Well I just think she's really interested in you." Genis makes his concerns obvious, but Riku laughs slightly and leans his head back against the wall while saying to the half-elf "She's interested in my powers, Genis. I'm pretty certain she doesn't want to have a relationship with me. We have about an eight year age gap between us, after all."
"You're 15?" Genis turns at the boy and asks him with a look of surprise on his face. "But you look about as old as Lloyd and Colette." He then brings up. "Lloyd and Colette are 17, right? There's not really THAT big of a difference in age between us, honestly, so our statures are naturally similar." Riku explains.
"…Though since you've brought this up now, I have to ask…Why would you have a problem with me and Raine having a relationship?" Riku asks. Genis sinks his head a bit and explains quietly to Riku "Truth be told, I'd have a problem if anyone got into a relationship with my sister. She's my sister, so I know what she's like…And I just can't imagine her ever falling in love with another man."
"At least you're telling me your concerns. When something's bothering you, sometimes it's better to talk about it with someone." Riku says before he turns his head back straight, thinking that his conversation with Genis was over with. But the half-elf hangs his head down and proceeds to ask him "…Riku, s-speaking of that…H-How do you get the confidence to talk to someone you l-l-…like?"
"Hmm? This actually feels a little more personal, shouldn't you be talking to Lloyd about this?" Riku asks. Genis shakes his head and chuckles before admitting "Lloyd's my best friend, but he can be really, REALLY clueless sometimes. You seem to know a lot though, and unlike Zelos I don't think you'd mock me for asking."
Riku sadly shrugs his shoulders and says to the half-elf "Love is something I know little about. Sorry, but I can't help you with Presea." Genis stutters out awkwardly "I-I d-didn't say anything about P-P-P-"
"Relax Genis, everyone here can tell you have a crush on her…Except Presea herself, ironically enough." Riku explains to try and make the boy feel a little more comfortable, but inevitably all that does is make the half-elf sigh and say "…Figures…" in a dejected tone.
Riku feels guilty about how he handled the situation and says to him truthfully "Sorry Genis, I wish I could help you more."
About a half-hour after that conversation, everyone sans Riku went to sleep. The teenage Overlord decided to keep a watch out in case the tides suddenly shifted against their favor, especially considering that Sheena and him were the only two who could calm the tides, but of the two only he was able to stay up without detriment to his body.
The hours passed on by without much incident, and it was only once the sun rose a fifth of the way up until the sky that Riku clapped his hands together to try and wake some of the group up. Zelos is the first to awaken, and he enthusiastically lifted himself up while stretching his arms and saying "Awwwww yeah! Time to go find us some Rheairds today!"
"Do you have to be so obnoxious?" Lloyd mumbles out in an annoyed tone as he smacks his lips and sits himself upright. Zelos grins brightly at his buddy and says to him "Oh come on Lloyd, you know you couldn't live without a little Zelos in your mornings!"
"…I think I'd be fine with a Zelos free diet for a month or two." Lloyd dryly replies with, which causes Zelos to flinch backwards with a fake look of distress on his face.
Once everyone has gotten up, Sheena pulls out the map and walks to the front of the EC, watching the outside of the ship for anything that may look similar to the area near the red X Orochi marked. "Looks like we're going to have to go through some rocks. Anyone want to take control of the ship?"
Zelos stretches his arms in front of his body and says "Stand aside my lovely Sheena, I have a little expertise with this thing." With a crack of his knuckles, the suave Chosen heads to the wheel of the ship after Sheena places the map in front of it before turning around and shrugging her shoulders as she walks off.
Surprising everyone, Zelos actually competently swerves the EC through the icy rocks until he manages to land the vessel in front of the lone dock in the area. As the group exits the vessel and puts it in the wing pack, Zelos looks at Lloyd and Genis' disbelieving expressions while he folds his arms behind his head. He then walks off and merrily whistles, while Genis says to his friend "Great, he's going to let this go to his head."
"Don't mind him Genis, he's in his own little world…Like always." Lloyd says with the utmost nonchalance in his voice. "Anyways, let's go meet up with Orochi."
The group walks across the ground towards the metallic gateway that was very well concealed within the side of the rocky wall in the area. Along the way, Presea walks beside Genis, which triggers the half-elf's awkward blush almost immediately. The girl looks down at the lower part of his body, causing his heart to beat a couple times in rapid succession before she comments "…Genis. Your shirt is hanging out."
"Uh? Wh…where?" Genis nervously asks, pausing in place as the girl kneels down and takes the loose part of his shirt, neatly tucking it back in without saying a word. "Th…Thanks." Genis looks away and rubs the back of his head.
Presea nods her head and says as she stands upright "…You're…still a child, it seems." This remark freaks Genis out, and without any thought he looks at Presea and exclaims "What?! I…I'm not a child! I'm grown up, too!"
Presea flinches in response and says to the half-elf afterwards "…Ah? Oh…right. You're an adult. Okay, Genis. We can call you that." With both parties not realizing how wrong their words sounded, Genis once again yells at Presea by saying "Hey, you're treating me like a kid again! It's not like you're any older than I am!"
But it was at that point that both of them realize how they are acting, with Presea snapping back into reality and glancing down at her small, young body before commenting in a melancholy tone "Ah…right…" Genis tries to muster up the courage to apologize to the girl, but before he can say a single word Lloyd proclaims to them both "Genis, Presea, quit holding us up! We need you!"
Presea turns towards Lloyd and says to him "Sorry…" She then goes back to the group, while Genis at first angrily shakes his fist at Lloyd before lowering his tension and saying to himself quietly "…Why am I so stupid…?"
When the group has gathered again, they head back towards the gate and find a half-elf wearing green and black armor much like the ones the two soldiers following Yuan wore earlier. Lloyd immediately draws out one sword and says "Shoot, someone's on guard duty!"
But before Lloyd can attack the 'Renegage', Orochi appears beside the green-armored warrior and says "Relax. He's on of our people who's infiltrated the Renegades. It's the easiest way to investigate the declining world of Sylvarant."
Lloyd blinks his eyes a couple times in surprise before sheathing his sword and saying in surprise "Wow! So you guys even keep tabs on Sylvarant!" The disguised Mizuho citizen folds his hand in front of his chest and says "But you weren't wrong. I am the man on duty at the moment. Please go in through the entrance now."
The guy stands aside, and Orochi guides the group through the large doors behind him. But when no one was looking, Zelos slipped off to the left side of the base. Inside the base, Orochi guides the group to a room detached from contact with most of the Renegades, which was filled to the brim with multiple monitors that kept track of every single room in the base. There was also an altar similar to the ones for the Sorcerer's Ring off to the left. As expected of the Renegades and Tethe'alla in general, the base had a very cybernetic feel to it.
"Heh, reminds me of the Egg Continent." Riku whispers to himself as he reminisces about past travels. While everyone stood in place in front of Orochi, Lloyd looked around and finally notices "Huh? Hey, Zelos is gone."
His words grab everyone else's attention, with Presea commenting "You're right. I wonder what happened to him." Right as she says that, Zelos comes walking in through the nearby doors, nonchalantly stating "Ah, hey, sorry to keep you waiting, my cute hunnies. Were you lonely?"
Regal is naturally suspicious of Zelos' disappearance and asks "What were you doing? Everyone was worried about you." Zelos quickly snatches Regal's question in his mind and replies "I was just taking a quick look around the area. We wouldn't want to walk into a trap, now would we? Well, now it's time to the start the adventure of the Great Zelos and his cute hunnies!"
The shift into another one of his suave antics makes most of the group drop the subject as Zelos walks over, but Riku glares at him suspiciously until Orochi says "There's no time. I'm going to explain this quickly. The Rheaird Hangar is in the deepest part of this facility. There's only one passage to the hangar."
Zelos nonchalantly comments "Sounds like a piece of cake." Orochi glares at him momentarily and then turns back to the group before continuing "Even if you get to the hangar, the door will be shut. In order to open that lock, you must enter a pass code."
"So do you have the pass code?" Lloyd asks. Orochi shakes his head and then explains "I'm sorry. We did our best, but we weren't able to get the pass code. But we did find out that there are three pass codes, and each code is in the possession of a different Renegade."
"In other words, we need to catch those three and get them to tell us the pass codes?" Lloyd asks. "Yes. I'll remain here and support you by watching the monitors and stopping anyone who tries to enter this room. Before you go though, know that even if you get the Rheairds, it's highly unlikely they'll be able to make the transfer to Sylvarant in their current condition."
Everyone looks at Orochi in puzzlement, leading him to explain "The Rheairds dimensional transfer system functions by procuring energy from the Renegade bases in the two worlds. Flying is not a problem as long as you have Volt, but without the energy charge from the base…"
"Then the reason we were able to go from Sylvarant to Tethe'alla was pure luck?" Sheena points out, leading to Lloyd noting in turn "That doesn't matter yet. Right now, we just need to fly."
"But before we head off, can I suggest something?" Riku says to the group, leading to Lloyd turning around and asking him "What's up Riku?"
"If we have to grab a few passwords, then that means we need to be stealthy. Having eight guys running around the base at the same time would lead to us getting caught and possibly captured since we don't know what our enemies are capable of here." Riku explains.
"Are you suggesting splitting the group up?" Regal asks in a curious tone, which leads to Riku looking at him and nodding his head while saying "One group tackles the Rheairds, and the other group stays in front of the base just in case Yuan is currently out. If he comes back, we'll hold him off to buy you time."
"That's not a bad idea." Raine says, following up by mentioning "But Lloyd and Sheena should be with the infiltration group, since Lloyd has had experience with the Renegades while Sheena has Volt on her side."
"That's fine with me. I'll stick with the outside defense group, but all I ask is that Zelos comes along with me." Riku's request causes the Chosen to say "Huh? Why me?"
"Well I need at least one person adept with magic, but Genis and Lloyd have better synergy and Raine has more defensive spells." Riku explains, but in his head he thinks back to how suspicious Zelos' sudden departure was.
"So Genis, Sheena and Raine should come with me, while Presea, Regal and Zelos goes with you?" Lloyd pieces together what Riku wants to do, and the teenage Overlord nods his head before asking "Is that ok with you?
"Sure, but how are you going to get on the Rheairds once we're done?" Lloyd inquires. Riku gestures upward with his thumb and says "All the Rheairds seem to run on the same wavelength judging by how one of Yuan's guys managed to get all four of them off of the mountain. Just bring three extra Rheairds out and I'll carry Presea, Zelos and Regal up to them with wind spheres."
"Wait, three? Don't you mean four?" Lloyd says, leading to Riku chuckling slightly and saying in a rather nonchalant tone "Oh yeah, did I mention before that I can fly?"
Most of the group looks at Riku with surprised expressions, with Genis pointing out sarcastically "No, I think we'd remember an important detail like that!" To which Riku replies with "Well to be fair, there wasn't really a need to bring it up before."
"Then again, I really just opened a can of worms for later…" Riku thinks before looking back over at Lloyd and saying "Anyways, so are we fine with this plan?"
Everyone but Zelos nods their head in agreement, and after splitting the group up in two they began to head off to accomplish their goals. Lloyd, Genis, Raine and Sheena head north of the entrance to infiltrate the base further, and find themselves close to a Sorcerer's Ring altar.
"Huh, so they have one at this base too." Lloyd moves his hand towards the light and changes the ring's function. He tests it out immediately, and has a rather dull reaction when a ball of lightning shoots out. "Awww, again? That's disappointing, I'm just going to change it back…"
Lloyd is about to turn it back to normal when Raine grabs him by the wrist gently and says "Wait a minute Lloyd. We can use that to stun the Renegade soldiers and drag them off to a solitary location so we can interrogate the passwords out of them."
"That's my sis, always coming up with plans when Lloyd doesn't think things through." Genis jokingly comments, leading to Lloyd stating after pulling his arm back into his body "Shut up Genis."
The four head through the next door to try and seek out any Renegade soldiers. The area is surprisingly empty though, with barely a soul in sight. "Huh, this is weird…I thought the Renegades would have more soldiers." Sheena comments.
"If Yuan is still after Lloyd, he might have sent out Renegade scouts across Tethe'alla to find him. That would explain the vacancy of the base, but if so I hope this won't stop us from finding the pass codes." Raine says with her usually intellectual tone.
The group walks quietly through the base to avoid attracting attention until they run across two Renegade soldiers in red and green garb standing around talking to each other. The four quickly hide behind a large stack of crates with Raine glancing past the side since she's the likeliest to not ruin things with a clumsy action.
"So did you hear about Lloyd Irving? I heard he and his friends might have infiltrated our base." One of the Renegades says. The other one points out "The boss is looking for him because of his Exsphere, right? I wonder how he'll reward the one who brings him in."
"I hope he gives them a trip to Altamira. I'm surprised that the humans could make such a nice looking resort." "He's not that generous. He'll probably just give us a massive Gald bonus." "Well we could just go to Altamira anyways in that case."
One of the Renegades look back, but Raine retracts her head before she's caught. "Anyways, we should probably get back to our posts. Try and stay on guard, you have one of the parts of the password to the Rheairds Hangar." The other Renegade's info drop causes Raine to flinch in surprise.
When the two Renegades split off from each other, Raine immediately goes for Lloyd's right hand and pulls it out beside her body, using the Sorcerer's Ring to send out a bolt of electricity that zaps the Renegade with the code and causes him to fall into Sheena's arms unconscious after a few seconds. The ninja pulls her body back behind the crates and hauls the soldier over her shoulders, letting out a couple drops of sweat while commenting "These guys are heavy…So now what?"
Raine lets go of Lloyd's hand and looks around her, finding a single door off behind where they stand. "That looks secluded, lets try that out." After she says that, the four of them walk over to the door and open it, finding themselves in a small square room that appears to have once been used for storage. After Sheena lays the Renegade against the wall, the man wakes up and finds himself being stared down by all four people.
"Y-You're Lloyd Irving and his friends! What are you doing with me?!" The Renegade stutters out. Lloyd confidently says to the man "We want your part of the pass code. You'd better just give it to us, it's four against one."
The Renegade starts to reach for his arm gauntlet while composing himself and saying "You think I'm alone? Our boss is going to give me a promotion for cornering you four!"
Before the Renegade can set off the base's alarm with a single button, Raine whips out her staff and smashes the man in the side of the head to give him a mild concussion and knock him unconscious. When the man limps onto the side of his body, Raine puts his staff away and whispers out "…Ok, so much for interrogation…"
"Well…Maybe he has the passcode in his clothes?" Lloyd suggests. After taking that into consideration, Raine kneels down and quickly undresses the man, leaving him in his undergarments as she stands up and looks over the clothes, finding a small little plate on the inside that says "THE LIFE OF MANA".
"Hmm, this must be the first part of the code." Raine puts the plate away in one of her pockets for further use, but now that they've got these clothes in their possession the half-elf professor whipped up an idea.
"We obviously won't get the codes out of the Renegades with our current plan. So one of us should dress up like the Renegades and try to pry the information out of the other two." Raine looks up after detailing this plan, glaring at Lloyd with a sly expression as the boy blinks a couple times in confusion.
"Wait, why me?" Lloyd states in disbelief. "Genis is too small, Sheena is too well-endowed, and I am your professor and am telling you to put this on."
"Hey wait, that last one isn't a valid reason!" Lloyd protests and tries to back off, but since he didn't want to blow their cover he didn't go out the door. After a brief scuffle, Lloyd is dressed up as a Renegade soldier. His swords are kept with the others to keep up the masquerade, which leads to Lloyd sighing as he holds his right hand down and immediately feels the lack of a sword handle to lean on.
"Don't worry Lloyd, I know you can do it. Just speak like a Renegade would and you'll get the other two pass codes in no time." Genis says, but it's clear by his tone of voice that he not only has little faith in Lloyd's abilities but he is also humored by this event.
"Ugh…Fine. Just stay here until I return…" Lloyd turns around and walks out of the room. He is not even gone five minutes before the door swings open and Lloyd is seen ripping the Renegade suit off of his body to show his regular red clothes underneath. He picks his swords up and attaches them to his belt, turning around and drawing his weapons out as about a dozen Renegade soldiers run at the door.
"What did you do Lloyd?!" Sheena exclaims as she pulls out two of her seals for battle. "The Professor put those clothes on backwards! I was discovered instantly!" Lloyd explains, leading to Raine nervously blinking her eyes and commenting "…Well, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I made a mistake."
As the Renegades swarm the area, one of them says "Capture them alive for Master Yuan!" …But his bravado doesn't matter as about ten minutes later the four have cleared out all the Renegades and acquired the last two pass codes from their unconscious bodies.
Lloyd sheathes his swords and says "Whew…That was a little annoying. I can't believe we didn't just do this in the first place."
As Raine looks over the three pass code chips, she mentions to Lloyd in response "I was just trying to not grab Yuan's attention, but he doesn't appear to be around…Just like Riku said he'd likely not be…" The last part of her sentence is spoken only to herself, and her suspicion of the boy grows.
"Anyways, the pass code is 'THE LIFE OF MANA IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD'. The Rheaird Hangar shouldn't be too far away, let's go find it." Raine says. Like she said, the four don't have to go far to find the locked door, and after inputting the code the doors swing open to reveal a very wide open room with an elongated metallic tunnel and a ton of Rheairds hanging around pointed towards the tunnel itself.
As the four enter the room, they are ambushed by a voice from a familiar face "So you've come, like moths to the flame."
Lloyd immediately swings to the left and finds the enigmatic Yuan leaning against a wall off to the side with his arms folded against his chest. As the man pulls away and starts to walk towards them, the rest of the group looks to the right to find another man with pulled up black hair, a goatee, and a set of grey archaic clothes. He also had spiked-ears, signifying that he was a half-elf.
Lloyd says in an unimpressed tone of voice as he pulls out both of his swords "Do you EVER say anything original?" Yuan brushes the bang of his hair with one hand and comments "I see time hasn't changed your attitude! But your impudence ends here!"
Yuan grabs the side of his cloak and throws it right off, revealing a set of ancient looking red and black armor. The man then holds his right hand in front of his body and uses magic to summon forth a large, double-bladed sword with ridged edges and a design similar to his armor on both sides. "Prepare to die!" Yuan exclaims as he swings his weapon behind his body and holds the other hand out in front.
The half-elf man draws out a triangular shaped crystal blue sword and looks at Genis, Raine and Sheena, saying in a respectful tone of voice "Forgive me my half-elf brethren, but you have chosen the wrong side."
Raine, Genis and Sheena pulls out their weapons, with the professor saying to the man's words calmly "That has yet to be seen."
Meanwhile, on the outside of the base, Zelos can be seen leaning against the wall off to the left of the gate. His eyelids were closed as he lets out a bored yawn and comments to his three companions "Man, why did we have to do this? We're missing out on all the fun inside."
Riku, who was standing against the opposite wall with a more serious look on his face, glances at Zelos and says to him "Well, I got an idea to make things more interesting, Zelos."
The Chosen opens his eyelids and says "Heh, you have an idea? After your suggestion to drag me out into this snore fest of a job, I kind of doubt that."
Riku brushes off Zelos' joking attitude and with Regal staring at the Chosen as though they were on the same wavelength, the teenage Overlord states bluntly "What were you doing while we were entering the base?"
Zelos looks over at Riku with a more serious expression and says "I was just examining the outside of the base just in case the Renegades had any traps set up to blow up the Rheairds as we left"
"I checked the outside of the base already, there's no way you could have seen the Rheaird exit chute." Riku bluntly replies.
Regal joins in at that point as Zelos looks a little more distraught, commenting in a firm tone of voice "Zelos, be honest with us. What were you doing outside the base?"
Before Zelos is forced to explain himself, Presea interrupts the three by pulling out her axe and dropping the head against the ground, creating a light tremor before commenting "Someone is approaching."
Considering Presea's reaction, Zelos, Regal and Riku drop the matter of what the Chosen was up to for the time being and looks past the base. Much to everyone's surprise, the Mizuho citizen in the Renegade's guard outfit falls to the ground with a diagonal spray of blood coming from his chest. Standing in front of the man's body is Kratos Aurion, who was someone Riku was definitely not expecting to see at this moment.
"K-Kratos?!" Riku immediately pulls away from the wall and draws out his sword, his urgency in this matter causing Regal to wonder "What is he doing here?"
Kratos walks around the guy he just cut down, taking a few steps past him with a cold stride before he ends up close enough to the group of four to raise his right hand up slightly in front of his handle and comment "Elemental Overlord, it has been decided by Lord Yggdrasill that your travels with the Chosen's group are over. I have come to bring you to him."
Next Time: Two Fronts of Battle