Chapter 18: Meeting Up

They instinctively knew that the others would be at the hotel so as soon as they arrived in Asgard, they made a beeline for the place. The twins spotted Zelos first and they rushed over to him with great eagerness. Leona was a bit surprised at their exuberance then again he could have turned out to be just like Lloyd and Regal.

"Geez, it hasn't been that long, has it," Zelos said to the two of them

"After what we've seen…we expected the worst," Zeph informed the other.

"I suppose I was a bit lucky. By the time I got here, Lucas had already come and gone. Of course, I didn't know it at the time. Everyone just appeared to be acting strange."

"How's…everyone else doing?" Leona asked, approaching the trio.

"Genis and Presea, well, we haven't heard from them—it's too early to assume the worst though; they were the furthest away after all. Lloyd, however, well you've seen him. Colette tells me Ludovic was able to fend him off quite well. Then afterwards, she basically talked him out of following through with his initial orders. Man, I just can't get over the fact that Lucas is actually behind any of it. This is Lucas we're talking about. I've known him for all his life—he'd never resort to something like this—

"Yes, it is odd," Leona said interrupting him, "But tell me, is Mr. Lloyd doing alright now?"

She knew Cecil and Cathe would want to know first and foremost so she interrupted the other before he truly got off track.

"It seems," Zelos said gathering his thoughts, "being placed under that spell of his isn't good for one's health. Colette's with him, you can see for yourself."

Cecil and Cathe had already begun to head inside.

"And Dad?" Leona asked.

"Much the same as when Raine first brought him here—unconscious," Zelos answered.

Soon Leona followed Cecil and Cathe inside. She went past the front desk and found the right room eventually—there weren't many in the first place. She found her mother sitting there next to the bed, at the present lost in thought. Leona supposed she must have been there a long while. She didn't even notice when she stepped in.

"Mom," Leona said getting her attention.

Raine was slow to look towards her and she wore a despondent mask.

"How is he doing?"

"I've never felt so inadequate than as I do now. I don't know. He doesn't move, he doesn't speak—he's simply unconscious. Looking at Lloyd's condition, I'm sure Regal is not too far behind."

Leona silently wondered what exactly was Llolyd's condition, but she was sure she'd figure out soon enough. She stepped closer to the bed in which her father laid. He seemed to be breathing normally. He'd been cleaned; he was no longer covered with dirt and blood splattering. His periwinkle hair fell down over his shoulders in cascades obviously brushed, no longer bedraggled with sweat and grit. But what struck her the most was that he seemed peaceful belying the fact that if he were to wake at this moment he would most likely resume his fevered rampage.

Much like her mother had been, she too was unaware when another presence entered the room. It was her mother who noticed Felix's intrusion.

"Well?" her mother asked to the silent Felix.

His seemed rather somber at the moment, but then a look of confusion came to his face as her mother looked at him expectantly.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," her mother said with subtle haughtiness, "What's his condition? Will he be alright?"

"I have no idea," he replied automatically.

Raine stood up from her chair and approached him until she was face to face. "How much of a fool do you think I am? After all that bragging, you haven't the slightest clue?" Her tone sounded threatening.

"If you really must know…," he said looking away from her.

"Yes. Now just tell me. I don't have time for all this stalling."

"I've looked in on them both and they do seem to be following the same trail of symptoms. I won't bore you with the details—they are both dying. The consequence of not following a given order is death."

"I see," Raine said finally stepping away from him. Leona could see her expression now, she was greatly troubled. "And you could simply bring them back to life, right? If that were to happen."

"In certain cases, it is possible to bring back a person who has died of a sickness rather than by something purely physical—this is not one of those cases. Their demise is being caused by supernatural means, an odd mix of sickness and magic. It is not something any healer could resurrect."

"So if they die, then it is final," Raine said at a near whisper.

"But why are we talking about death? I'm certain there is a way to break them free of whatever spell was placed on them. As you can see, there are already weaknesses in it. They can be talked out of following orders. I've never run into a spell that has no cure. This should not be an exception."

"Then we must go to Heimdall," Raine said grudgingly. "And will they let us in?"

"The Heros of Reunification? Even the elves couldn't be that prejudice."

"You said you were exiled—

"Even if they wanted to stop my entry, they'd be hard-pressed to do it. They wouldn't dare start a fight with me."

"Whatever it takes," Raine said shaking her head, "I'm sure it won't come to a fight."

"We have ample time. Though they may be dying, it is not something that happens quickly. It is slow and somewhat agonizing. In that time, they could resume following orders and stop the entire process."

Leona had never been to Heimdall, then again she could probably say that about a lot of places, and she wondered at its exclusivity. It was probably a beautiful paradise filled with beautiful looking elves all as eye-catching as Felix, all with their noses in the air. She supposed it would be fascinating to see how the other side of her heritage lived.

After being in the room for some time, she left to finally check on Lloyd, the one who was supposedly in worse conditions. She supposed it was because he'd been exposed for the longest. He certainly did not look as peaceful as her father had. In fact, he seemed in pain, his breathing shallow and quick, but he was awake and Colette seemed to hold his full attention. Ludovic was there as well looking on at the scene. Cecil with her arms crossed stood beside Cathe who looked as if she was about to cry. None of them had noticed her looking, but she felt as if she should not get involved. It truly did seem like a family affair.

"I swear," Cecil said as Leona was closing the door, "If you die on me, I'll kill you myself."

Despite herself, Leona grinned—it was a very "Cecil" thing to say. With nothing better to do, she made her way outside again where she thought she'd find Zelos. In the process, she past the twins who seemed to be having a conversation of their own in the front room. Zelos only moments before began to walk down the path away from the hotel. Leona decided to catch up with the red head as she saw him in the distance.

"So," Leona said when she was right behind him, visibly startling him, "Hotel's not your cup of tea?"

"No," he said his head turning to look at her, "Watching people dying was never a pastime of mine."

"Oh," she said caught off guard by his response. She supposed there wasn't much for one to do there at the time.

"If even Raine can't do anything…" he said shaking his head, "I'm just taking up space."

Leona could sense that the other was in a rather dreary mood. She was never good at cheering people up so she did not even begin to try.

"And who's the tall, dark, and handsome that was tagging along with you guys earlier?"

Just like that a blush came across her cheeks and she could not possibly hide it from the now clearly amused Zelos. Well, at least he seemed in better spirits when he chuckled.

"Leona, I had no idea you were into older guys," he said teasingly.

"Oh, stop," Leona said. He was doing nothing for her blush that probably burned even brighter than before. "He's an elf that me and the others ran into when we were looking for Lucas—he's a very proficient healer, even better than my mom."

"So an older elf guy who's a healer and Leona has a crush on—I think I know everything I need to about him."

"Zelos—

"Wait, does he know? I bet he doesn't know—maybe I should tell him—

"Zelos!" Leona shouted, her embarrassment driving her on. "I don't like him like that! So, please don't go around saying things like that—especially not to him." Without her knowing, her eyebrows had furrowed in a mix of anger and embarrassment.

"I won't, I won't," he said putting his hands up in surrender. "If looks could kill…Relax, I was only joking. But, you know, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Your father," he said eyes going a bit distant, "once upon a time, had fallen head over hills for a woman who was practically a little girl to him. Age difference be damned."

"But it didn't work out because of it, right?"

"Oh, no, that's not the reason why. But seeing as you've never heard the story, I don't think it's my place to say."

"Alright," Leona said a bit disappointed. It was obvious that the relationship hadn't worked out, but she wondered why. "How do you even know if you really like a person? I mean…does it feel different? Like…warm and peaceful…"

"Hmm…" Zelos said thoughtfully, "I'm not sure I would associate those words with love, but…your parents seem to be the very personification of them."

"I suppose you're right. I never thought of it like that before."

"Is that how you feel when you're around him?" Zelos asked.

Leona looked away, "Not exactly." And she left it at that. She thought the other would push for more explanation, but he did not. She wasn't sure if she was grateful or not. He'd left the ball in her court whether she wanted to speak further.

There was silence for a little while. She felt as if he was waiting for her to speak, but it could have been her imagination. Still, her true question remained unanswered. It wasn't so long ago that she finally understood friendship. Now she had to figure out something that was said to be even stronger still. What if, she thought as she sighed to herself, that it was completely one-sided.

"Hey," Zelos said breaking the silence, "Chin-up. You have nothing to worry about when it comes to something like love. You know what it looks like, you've been surrounded by it since birth. You're a beautiful, intelligent woman who could have anyone she pleases."

"You flatter me too much," she said unable to stop her mouth from curving upward.

"Perhaps. But it did bring a smile to your face."

Funny, how she had initially been concerned about Zelos and she wound up being the one who needed to be cheered up. He'd brought up something that she had not wanted to dwell too long on. Her father and Mr. Lloyd were on the verge of death and all she seemed to be capable of thinking about was herself. It felt like a selfish thing to do, but it was difficult to curb. She wondered if it was normal. Then again, Zelos seemed all too happy to humor her.

They'd made it through the front gate of the city and Leona wondered when they would return, but Zelos showed no sign of slowing.

"I know a great place to watch the sunset," Zelos said as they moved further beyond the gate limits.

"And you were planning to go there all by yourself?"

"I was," Zelos admitted, "But I do enjoy the company."

There was in fact a good place to watch the sunset nearby. It was nearly an hour's worth of walking, but Leona was glad to have been shown the spot. There was a piece of earth that jutted up from the ground in a way that made a miniature cliff overlooking a good portion of the unsettled land beyond. It sloped up gently from behind so that it was easy for them to climb. It was adorned with grass and wild flowers that grew on the earthen platform. The sun was just beginning to lower itself so they had a good span of time before the sun actually set, but Leona wasn't put off by this.

She began to relax as she laid down on her back to peer up at the clear skies. She glanced up to see Zelos sitting down at the very edge of the cliff leaning back as he did on his two arms behind him. She silently wished she had a book to read at the moment, it would have been the perfect time. For a good amount of time, there was only silence between them, not of the awkward kind, both far too engrossed in their own thoughts.

"Hey, Zelos," Leona said breaking the quietness.

"Hm?" he responded softly.

"You think Mr. Lloyd and my dad will be alright?"

"I'd be surprised if they weren't going to be. After all that we went through, it'd be a shame for it to end so…easily. There's a solution to every problem—isn't that what you would say?"

"I would."

"And who better to find that solution than the one who said it?"

"Me?"

"When we first discovered that you'd run off with Cecil and Cathe, the very first thing your parents did was panic. Of course, Raine tried to hide it, but it was obvious to me. I've never known you to do anything without first thinking about the consequences and if for some reason you decided it best to trek out on your own then I believed you had good reason for it. Without you, Leona, we'd still not have the slightest idea what's been happening, we would have never met that healer, and we would be no closer to finding a solution. Whatever guilt you might have for going out on your own—I just want to let you know that I'm quite thankful for your actions."

"Zelos…"

"And so is everyone else."

"But I didn't do it alone. In fact, I don't think I would have been able to do it alone."

"Isn't that always the case? And yet there's always that one person who first plants the idea and then that idea, that dream, becomes reality."

Leona let his words hang in the air as she slowly digested them. She imagined her mother would find them to be silly. A mere idea wouldn't make much impact on reality until a plan was formed, concrete and tangible. Then it must be executed with accuracy. Planting an idea simply wasn't enough, but the words themselves were poetic in a way.

"I think I see someone coming this way," Zelos commented almost to himself, but Leona heard.

She didn't pay it any mind. The day was ending and the stray traveler could be making their way to the closest inn they could find. She instead continued to look upward towards the sky returning to her blissful solitude

"Wait a minute…" he muttered.

Leona had dismissed his voice almost entirely as she closed her eyes. She vaguely heard the sounds of him climbing to his feet. A few moments later, there were more voices but they were background noise. The only thing that jolted her out her reverie was Zelos yelling her name. Her heart skipped a beat and she struggled a little to sit up. She turned to the ruckus now and saw that he was surrounded by two very familiar people.

"Uncle Genis, Aunt Presea?" Leona said in surprise.

"No time for pleasantries," Zelos said quickly. She noticed his sword was out defensively.

Before she could even decipher the scene before her, Presea started running towards her with an ax hoisted in both hands. Now Leona was on her feet ready to evade the ensuing attack which she did with ease considering how slow the woman was. When the ax struck the ground missing her completely, the ground cracked right where it had struck down. Taking a direct hit would not feel very pleasant. Presea continued to go after her relentlessly and Leona knew she had to start fighting back or else they would continue in the same way indefinitely. When Leona sidestepped to avoid another attack, she twirled on her heels and gave the other a nice, hefty roundhouse kick to her back and sent her flying. She felt guilty when her aunt crashed into the ground with an audible grunt. Leona ran over to her so that she could extract the weapon, but Presea gripped it with surprising fervor. She held it with one hand so she could not possibly attack her. Leona finally moved back so that the other could stand again. As soon as she had a good angle, Leona punched the other squarely in the guts before the other could even raise her arms for another strike. Needless to say, Presea fell to the ground after losing consciousness.

"Sorry, Aunt Presea," Leona said as she took the ax from her.

"Hey—a little help here!" Zelos said.

Zelos was practically getting chased around the field, Genis constantly firing small balls of energy towards him. Genis made it look easy as he appeared to only simply be playing with his kendama. She couldn't admire his technique for too long especially since Zelos was already on the ropes. Leona took advantage of the fact that Genis was concentrated on Zelos. She grabbed him from behind. He flailed and then relaxed as she fully engaged in the sleeper hold. In much the same way as Presea, she took the kendama from him so that he was relatively harmless.

She'd taken them down without even breaking a sweat. Despite the situation, she couldn't help but feel a bit proud of herself. Presea and Genis would be out for a while. Realizing she hadn't heard from Zelos in a while, she turned to look back at him and found him sitting on his knees, obviously finding it difficult to catch his breath. It was then that she remembered what she'd been told before about his condition. She scrambled to her feet and reached him within seconds.

He was bent down so his ample hair covered his face, he was heaving so badly that she felt she had to do something, but what? One hand held his chest, the other gripped the ground. Then the hand which gripped the ground curled into a fist and hit the ground with feeble force.

"I'm…fine…" he said between breaths. "Go take care…of the other two…" he managed to say.

Leona watched the other continue to take great breaths and then shook her head. She couldn't possibly leave the other alone. "What do you mean? I won't leave you."

"Just…bring them together…don't leave them…out there like that."

Leona nodded. "Alright, but I'm not leaving you."

She set about taking the other two, setting them on the bottom of the cliff they'd be lounging on. As she did so, Zelos made his way there as well. She could finally see his face which was now pallid.

"Zelos, your nose," Leona said noticing a trail of blood coming down from it.

"Oh…" he said after a moment, "That happens sometimes."

"Are you really going to be alright?" Leona asked alarmed.

"Didn't I already tell you?" he said back as he sat down on the ground a few paces away from her.

Leona sighed and then looked away from him. "At least we know what's happened with those two. Lucas could be nearby and we have no idea where he is." She looked out into the horizon and found nothing. She half expected to find Lucas. "When will this all end? And why, oh why is Arcangela doing all this? To what end? And Lucas…what sort of things could she have told him to convince him that doing this to his friends was justified?"

She waited for the other to respond but he never did. Concerned, she looked towards him and found him lying down with his eyes closed.

"Zelos," she said anxiously. She moved over instantly to check his pulse and then after a moment realized that he was merely resting. "You like scaring me half the death, don't you?"

But he seemed to pay her no mind. At the very least, his breathing was relaxed and she could rest easy. It was as if an alarm went off in her head when the daylight began to dim—the sunset. They'd travelled there to see it. In the end, she was the only one to witness it that day. Slowly, the bright world around her darkened into night. When she checked on Zelos once again, she found him even more deeply asleep than before. She decided she'd stay there for the night in the open air. She couldn't sleep anyway and did not feel like returning to Asgard. She kept the kendama and ax nearby and waited the night out.

Author's Note: So, after thinking for a long while and noticing those annoying comments about X and Y pairing should be X and Z, I began to think of an entirely different next generation story. Also, my roommate had some influence as well. I think after I finish this story, I'll probably do a version 2 of this story with different pairings. I did have a sequel planned for this story as well since the conclusion to this story would be loose at best. Although I hesitate to do two stories at once, namely the sequel to this and a different next generation story altogether.

(Also, this chapter was rather short, but the next one probably won't be)

Jinseigami'Fell: Are you good at drawing? Wouldn't it be cool if I managed to have the characters drawn by someone with some talent. I myself can only manage stick figures. I mean, I've tried to draw anime, but it takes me a while to get it just right and now that it's been so long that I've tried, I've pretty much lost all skill. But thanks for reading. Already writing the next chapter which will probably be a bit more involved than this one.

Keko-the-Hybrid: I guess I didn't make it clear, but she was going on the Rhieaird to Asgard with Regal. Raine has already gotten used to the fact that Leona is more than capable of looking out for herself and she has the others with her as well as Felix. I didn't think she needed to say anything more. I suppose, though, she could have said something along the lines of "Be careful, kids"...