Disclaimer: Oh for crying out loud are you still taking the time to read this? Well then your wasting your time because there is never anything new here. If you want to read a good disclaimer there are approximately 6838 disclaimers in the Ranma section and about 115 in the Misc. section. You can read those if you really have to read a disclaimer. Why are you still reading this? The story is much more interesting, read that!
Ranma- You're really lazy you know that?
ClanCrusher- Yeah and if I had a dollar for every brain you didn't have, I'd have one whole dollar.
Ranma- Huh?
ClanCrusher- Never mind. On with the adventure!
Forcystus looked over the cliff near the ranch with an apprising eye. He wondered to himself just how a mere human could have made that kind of jump, "Analyze the data from the gate surveillance system." He commanded one of his officers.
"Sir," he responded hesitantly, "The gate system has been damaged beyond repair."
So they had noticed the cameras installed on the gate, how observant, "Did you interrogate the prisoner?"
"Yes sir. She has remained silent about the incident."
This was getting to be an annoyance. First they had let that valuable prisoner escape. He had gotten quite a tongue lashing from his superiors about that. Apparently he was supposed to be involved in a classified project.
He should have known something was up when he found the holding cell where Ranma had been imprisoned damaged but he wrote it off as damages due to time. It was a real blow to his pride. He could still remember having to show the video to his superiors (See ya, suckers!) who threatened to remove him from his position.
Examining the bodies of the three soldiers dead outside his ranch he saw that two of them were dead by an instrument of blunt trauma. He slowly formulated a theory in his head, if Ranma was powerful enough to damage the floors of the ranch then he could also be behind this attack, the tools were the same after all. And if he was still around then the only place he could be…
"Inform the captain that we will be conducting a raid on Iselia Village. Make sure you both gather your squad of troops."
"Yes sir." He responded before running off to find the other captain.
Ranma was awake and getting ready to leave quietly. He still didn't like lying to Lloyd but he followed the wishes of Kratos and Colette and did not tell Lloyd the real time the chosen's group was leaving. Since there was no school, Lloyd was making a good impression of Ranma sleeping.
Equipping his gauntlets, Ranma headed quietly downstairs so as not to wake anyone, but was brought up short by Dirk who was wide awake and waiting for him, "She gave him the wrong time didn't she." It wasn't really a question.
Ranma didn't know quite how to respond to this question but Dirk held up his hand, "I'll tell him when he wakes up. You should be gone by then, good luck on the journey."
Ranma nodded his silent thanks to Dirk and as an afterthought left the rest of the money Kratos gave him on the table before leaving the house. It was still about 9:00 by estimate of the sun so Ranma took his time going through the woods. When he passed the path to the human ranch he heard some activity going on there. He decided not to worry about it for now.
Ranma reached Iselia Village with 10 minutes to spare. Kratos, Raine, and Colette were already there waiting for him.
"Are you ready to leave?" asked Raine.
"We must be going quickly. The desians might try something before we leave," Said Kratos.
"I'm ready," assured Ranma.
Without further ado, the party of four walked out of the village. Some of the villagers who were watching the proceeding waved to Colette one last time before going back to their daily lives. No one noticed Genis slip away from the crowd.
It wasn't until a half hour later that Ranma learned one of the important truths about the journey of regeneration, it was going to involve a lot of walking. Aside from occasional battles with brave (or very foolish) fiends there was hardly any excitement involved. The only upside was that Kratos was continually critiquing Ranma's fights.
"Don't shout out the name of your attacks! It gives the enemy time to prepare for it!" he said in one battle when Ranma released a Demon Blast at a worm like creature.
In another fight when Ranma started using his confidence to project his ki Kratos said, "Don't use emotion based ki, if you do then you will start projecting that emotion in all things including your attitude."
Ranma was starting to get bored with these fights but when he started to relax Kratos told him, "Don't slack off, your being GRADED for these fights you know."
This statement brought Ranma up short, "Graded, by who?"
Kratos thought about that for a moment then responded, "Hmm, not quite sure but that's no reason to slack off."
(Sorry, I couldn't resist)
Kratos was making him battle every set of fiends they found on the way. They always seemed to be in groups of two or three at a time and Kratos was making Ranma fight them all.
"There will be times on this journey when you will be facing hordes of fiends. You need to pace yourself so that you don't run out of energy fighting the first few groups." He explained.
Occasionally some of the fiends would get through Kratos and Ranma to attack Colette and Raine. Kratos had told Ranma that Colette and Raine would be near useless in a fight and he was right up to a point.
Raine was the moral equivalent of a cleric, she was a good spell caster and had a much better aim then Genis but her offense was near zero. Apparently like Genis, her weapon was used more as a focus rather than a weapon.
Colette was a bit different, her weapons were good at a distance but they did minimal damage to the enemy. She also had a slight problem of falling over all the time in battle, coincidently this also helped her avoid most of the enemies attacks. One time she tripped and thrust her hands out to break her fall, but there was an enemy in front of her. Her weapons that were still in her hand cut into the wolf's head and killed it.
After a couple hours walking, the chosen's group came upon a single house, "That," explained Kratos, "Is one of the many Houses of Salvation scattered across Sylvarant. They provide a place to rest, a haven from fiends, and supplies for travelers."
The House of Salvation was of a simple design. It had two stories to it, the first held the shrine and the single shop while the second story had several beds which could be rented for cheap rates.
Despite the cheep rates, Raine and Kratos wanted to make Triet by nightfall so they decided to press on. Eventually the grasslands and forests gave way to a huge desert. The fiends also started to change and the party had to watch out for various enemies like snakes and scorpions which could inflict fast acting poison. Fortunately Kratos had brought along several antidotes called 'Panacea' to counteract the poison.
During the hike Ranma noticed that Colette didn't talk much, she seemed to be slipping into a depression of sorts so Ranma decided to talk to her.
"What's wrong Colette?" asked Ranma
Colette immediately tried to look happy, "Oh nothing," she said smiling.
"It's about Lloyd isn't it?"
Colette's smile faded from her face, "I just feel bad about lying to him, he seemed so eager to come along too."
Ranma figured it would be something like this, "Don't worry about him."
"Why not?"
"Just like he said back at the temple, 'I'll just follow you on my own then,'" said Ranma. He knew it was true too. There was no way that the mayor, Kratos or anyone would stop him from coming along.
Colette whispered so quietly that Ranma had to strain to hear her say, "I hope your right."
It was then that they finally reached Triet, the desert village.
Lloyd awoke an hour before noon to an empty room. He wasn't concerned though, Ranma had a morning ritual where he trained in the morning and probably wouldn't be back until breakfast. Lloyd took the time to finish the necklace that he was making for Colette.
He went downstairs and after eating a quickly made breakfast of fried rice and eggs, went outside. He found Dirk out by his mothers grave.
"I packed a few things for you that you can use on your journey, I also made the key crest that you wanted, do what you want with it. Just remember that I tried to stop you."
"Thanks dad," said Lloyd. He remembered back to the night where he made his request for Marble.
FLASHBACK
"I'm back dad!"
"Welcome home, Lloyd and Ranma."
Lloyd immediately got to the point, "Say dad is there any chance that you could make a key crest? I saw someone today who had an exsphere without a mount."
Dirk was a little suspicious, "And who had this exsphere?" he asked.
"It was… a traveling merchant." He invented
"Baloney!" exclaimed Dirk, "Exspheres are generally used only by desians. If he stole one from a desian it should already have a mount on it."
He walked out from behind his anvil and continued, "Dwarven vow #11, lying is the first step towards the path of thievery. Tell me the truth now, who had the exsphere."
Lloyd sighed and hung his head in defeat, "It was someone who was at the human ranch."
"You went to the ranch?" shouted Dirk, "You didn't let them see your exsphere right?"
"It's ok dad," said Lloyd quickly trying to defuse his dad's temper, "I didn't even let any of them see my face, besides why do I have to keep this hidden anyway? The mercenary that I met today wore his right out in the open."
"Your exsphere is special, it was your mothers keepsake. She died defending it from the desians."
This shocked Lloyd to the core, he had always thought that his mother had died in an accident, "All this time and you didn't tell me? Why?" He demanded.
"Because I knew that if I told you then you would try and get revenge on the desians. Your mother protected you with her life, don't go throwing that away."
"So will you make me the key crest?"
"Have you been listening to a word that I've been saying?"
"Yes but now that I know the truth you cant expect me to sit here and do nothing!" With that Lloyd stomped off to his room. Ranma followed him.
Ranma found Lloyd out on the terrace overlooking the house. He began speaking without looking at Ranma, "All this time I thought she had died in an accident when she was really slaughtered by desians."
Ranma sighed. He was never really good at these kind of talks but he had to try, "Lloyd, don't you think that what Dirk said had some fact to it?"
"He did but I wish that he told me the truth from the beginning."
"If you had known that could you honestly say that you would do nothing? You said it yourself that you wouldn't."
Lloyd grumbled, he got trapped by his own words, "Your right, I really cant hold that against him," he seemed to brighten a bit when he said, "I guess that I'll just have to complete the journey with Colette, that will get rid of the desians once and for all."
Ranma felt another pang of guilt about the journey, "One last thing I think you should know, in one of his more serious moments my pop said to never let revenge control my life, cause if you ever succeed then you will have nothing left."
Lloyd sighed in acceptance, "Your right Ranma. I'll help Colette to the end and if any desians cross my path it will be worse for them."
END FLASHBACK
"Dwarven vow #2, never abandon someone in need, I'm just following the teachings. And Lloyd," he stopped for a minute then said, "I am honored that you call a dwarf like me your father. If you ever get tired, you have a home here."
Lloyd tried to find the right words to say to his father but he was saved the trouble when he spoke again, "I know you were never one for sentimentality, you don't need to worry just get to the village."
Putting two fingers to his mouth Lloyd whistled and Noishe came running up to him, surprisingly followed by Genis, "Lloyd where have you been?" he practically shouted.
"Genis, great news! I got dad to make Marble's key crest.
"That's great and all but what about going with Colette?"
"You mean she already left?"
"Ranma, Kratos, Raine and Colette left two hours ago!"
"Lloyd, quickly! Get to the village." Said Dirk
"Right." Lloyd jumped on Noishe's back and pulled Genis up behind him.
They left Noishe at the front gate and hurried to the village. The village militia informed Lloyd that Frank and Phaidra wanted to talk to them so they hurried towards Colette's house.
Lloyd didn't bother to knock, he opened the door and asked Frank, "Is it true? Did Colette leave already?"
"Yes, Colette left some time ago. She asked me to give you this letter." Lloyd took the letter and read out loud.
Dear Lloyd,
By the time you read this I will have already have left on my journey. I'm sorry for lying to you. The world regeneration journey is full of peril and many chosens have failed.
I care about you too deeply to get involved. I'm going to do my best to stop the monsters and the desians so I want you to live a happy and peaceful life in the regenerated world.
Thank you so much for your friendship and kindness all these years. I'm really lucky to have met you.
Farwell,
Colette
"What is this?" asked Lloyd, "This sounds like a will!""You could call it that." Said Frank.
"What do you mean?" asked Genis.
Frank sighed and said, "There is something that we have hid from you and everyone in the village. Colette's journey is-"
All of a sudden a loud explosion sounded from outside, "Quickly! Go see what's happening!" exclaimed Phaidra
Lloyd and Genis ran out of the house and were greeted with red skies. Several houses in the village were on fire and small fires were starting in other places. Several desians were in the town square while some others were starting fires on the other untouched buildings. Two desians had cornered one of the militia in front of the schoolhouse.
Lloyd blindly charged at the two desians catching them by surprise. Before they could even turn around Lloyd had stuck both swords into one of the desians back killing him instantly. Three balls of fire hit the other desian right in the face blinding him. He stumbled backwards towards the human guard, tripped and fell backwards right onto the man's pitchfork.
Lloyd ignored the man struggling to remove the desian from the end of his weapon, "Is everyone in the school?" he asked.
The man finally kicked the corpse from his weapon, "There are still some people in center of town."
Genis and Lloyd ran off to the center of town where the highest concentration of desians were. The mayor was there and so were a couple of village guards.
"Ranma Saotome come forth!" The speaker was uniquely dressed. He had an eye patch and a long gold colored cylinder in place of an arm which looked to be a gun. His clothes were not of the regular desian make so he was apparently higher ranked.
At that moment, the red clad warrior and the magic user ran in front of the mayor. The man spoke again, "Listen up inferior beings! I am Forcystus, one of the five grand cardinals of the human ranches where we cultivate you pathetic humans. You have been charged with harboring prisoner F197 Ranma Saotome and communicating with prisoner F192. We find this to be in violation of the non aggression treaty and I hereby bring judgment upon this village."
"You have the nerve to attack the chosen at the temple and claim that we have violated the non-aggression treaty?" shouted Lloyd.
"What are you talking about?" asked one of the captains. He was easy to identify because he had a full helm and a staff which was decorated by gold ornaments.
"You mean you weren't the ones to attack the temple?" asked Lloyd confused.
"I see. They must have been after the chosen." Said the captain.
"They?"
"I have no need to explain myself to the likes of you. We have prepared a fitting punishment for your crimes."
A loud thumping was heard and then a green monster approached the village. It was twice as tall as a normal human and had arms that reached the ground. Its face was comprised of a single gem and it was wearing the outfit that was worn by the prisoners of the ranch.
"What the hell is that!" shouted Lloyd but he didn't have time to respond as he put up his arms to ward of a strike from the monster. It didn't hurt that much but it knocked of the bandage that covered his exsphere. Lloyd and Genis drew their respective weapons and battle was joined.
Genis immediately retreated to the back and chanted a spell while Lloyd ran to confront the enemy. Fortunately it was slow, unfortunately when it did hit, it hit hard. Lloyd dodged the creatures downward strike and proceeded to slash it's midsection. He did not see the follow up strike that sent him airborne.
Lloyd flipped over in midair and landed on his feet right as Genis cast lightning. The thing didn't seem to have any ranged attacks so Lloyd and Genis unloaded spells and Demon Fangs respectively. After a few seconds of this the thing grabbed its head and twitched as though it were in agony. Lloyd moved in to finish the thing off.
This proved to be a mistake. Just as Lloyd was about to land his first strike a black aura surrounded the beast, burning to the touch (this is the move Insane Cell for those of you who are confused). He was in range however and was in terrible pain for a while, fortunately it only lasted a few seconds.
Trying his best to ignore the pain Lloyd charged his blade with chi and drove it straight into the monsters chest so hard that it protruded from the other side. He then took his second sword and drove it straight into the monsters neck. At that minute Genis shouted, "Lightning" and hit the metal part of both Lloyd's swords.
The creature fell over, presumably dead and Lloyd retrieved his swords from the monster. He noticed there was an exsphere in the head of the creature.
"Lord Forcystus it's just as you thought! That boy has an exsphere!" exclaimed the desian captain.
Forcystus eye widened in shock, "That's the exsphere from the angelus project, give it to me!" The other desians started to close in around Lloyd and Genis.
"No!" shouted Lloyd, "This belongs to my mom which you desians murdered!"
Forcystus looked genuinely confused at this, "What are you talking about? Your mother…"
He was cut off by the monster gaining it's second wind. It stood up behind Forcystus and wrapped it's arms around him. And then a voice sounded from it, like it was in agony and it took all of it's effort to say it, "Run… away… Genis. Lloyd…"
"Th…that sounds like Marble!" exclaimed Genis.
"No, it cant be."
The thing, or Marble, spoke again, "Get…away. Hurry. You… were always like a grandson to me… Genis."
The creature was briefly surrounded by a white light and then an explosion knocked everyone in the immediate area off their feet. Forcystus caught the worst of it and fell to the ground in pain. The creature was gone, and all that remained was the exsphere that had been in its head. Genis picked it up.
"Lloyd," Forcystus struggled to get the words out, "As long as you and Ranma hold your exspheres we will always come after you." He was immediately surrounded by his guards who made a hasty retreat out of the village.
Lloyd saw that Genis was still holding the exsphere. Withdrawing the key crest his dad made him he handed it to Genis, "Why don't you wear it in memory of Marble?"
A few tears fell from Genis eyes as he accepted it, "Thanks Lloyd. I will."
It was about this time that the mayor received his second wind, "Look what you did to the village! How many times have we told you not to go to the ranch? Now look what you have done!"
"I'm sorry." It was the only thing that he could think to say.
"You think that you can fix this by apologizing?"
"Your not going to exile him are you?" interrupted Genis, "It was my fault in the first place for taking him to the ranch."
"The desians have made Lloyd their sworn enemy. He cannot be allowed to remain."
"Fine if your going to exile him then your going to have to do it to me too."
The mayor seemed taken aback for a second but then firmed in his resolve, "Fine. By the rights vested in me as mayor I herby sentence Lloyd, Genis, and Ranma to exile from this village."
The villagers gradually walked off to help put out the fires until only Frank and Phaidra remained, "I'm sorry that I caused this," said Lloyd sadly to them.
"If you truly feel that way then catch up with Colette and help her regenerate the world. I am sure that the villagers will surely forgive you if you do that." Said Phaidra.
"I will. Come on Genis lets go," and with that the Drifting Swordsman and the Magic User walked away from the village.
Genis told Lloyd that the first leg of the journey was to the north which was Triet. They decided to head there tomorrow for it was getting to be pretty late. They found a caravan where a girl was happy to give them a place to rest for the night. In the morning they would head to Triet.
A/N: Well this scene was pretty much taken from the game, sue me. Since Ranma already left I didn't really expect it to change that much. In other news I finally got 3000 grade points to help with my writing of the story. Those of you that completed the game know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I still love to hear your reviews, flames, comments, criticism, whatever. It's food for my writing spirit. In other news…
Lloyd- You know I'm never going to understand why you keep doing these author's notes. It's not like it's building the story or anything.
Ranma- Seriously. The longer you keep writing these things the more likely it is to have some un-cute, un-sexy, violent manic tomboy come in here.
Akane- Ranma no BAKA! (Hammer time)
ClanCrusher looks and sees several anime characters entering the studio
ClanCrusher- Not again. (Ducks under the moon tiara) Anyway, I plan to update soon if these guys don't kill me first (Tilts his head forward and dodges a bolt from starfire) Oh well, at least these guys will keep away any lawyers.
The camera pans to the outside where a lawyer is looking in shock at the computer that imbedded itself in the front window of his car.
ClanCrusher- Tune in next time for Chapter 8- Captured!
