A/N: Here's the first chapter! The chapters will probably get longer in the future, but this one is just setting things up. Please review, and I hope you like it! If you have any questions, feel free to pose them in a review.

Chapter One: Trouble Begins

"By the way, Rai, where were you last night?"

Rai stiffened at his brother's cheerful query. How was it possible that Genis had noticed he was gone? He must have botched the sleeping spell somehow. Silently, he cursed his own ineptitude with magic. Although he could perform strong spells with enough practice, they had never come to him as effortlessly as they had to Genis, even though the other boy was a full two years younger than he was.

"…Rai? Hellllooo? Don't tell me you're off in your own little dream world again," Genis teased. Rai blinked and looked at him, remembering the question.

"Ah…nowhere," he said evasively. "Just needed some fresh air."

"If you say so," Genis said skeptically, but didn't press further. Rai massaged his temples. The younger boy knew him far too well.

Before the conversation could continue any further, Raine stood and rapped on her desk sharply with her fist. "It's time for class to start," she said sharply. "Now, has everyone –"

The rest of her words were drowned out as a gangly teenager dressed in red skidded around the corner, tripped head over heels, rolled spectacularly across the room, and crashed straight into Rai's desk, sending the small half-elf plummeting to the ground. Next to him, Genis snickered.

Rai scowled as he picked himself off the floor, dusting off his black clothes. The boy – Lloyd Irving, one of the most annoying people to grace the planet – got up as well, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah, Rai. Sorry about that. Are you alright?"

"No, I am certainly not all right," Rai said coldly. "I had a headache and you made it about ten times worse, not to mention completely derailing my train of thought –"

He was cut off by the sound of Raine clearing her throat sharply. "Rai," she said, her voice cracking like a whip, "There is no need to be rude. Lloyd has apologized, and you should accept the apology." Rai flinched at her tone, then looked back at Lloyd. Already the anger was starting to drain out of him. Why had he, a person who prided himself on his self-control, lost his temper so easily? Due to someone like Lloyd, no less.

"Apology accepted," he said stiffly. "I'm sorry for being rude, but I'd appreciate it if next time you didn't make an entrance by knocking me into the floorboards."

"Ah, yeah," Lloyd said, looking embarrassed. "I –"

"Yes, don't think you're off the hook either, Lloyd Irving," Raine interrupted, a steely glint in her eye as she thwacked the ruler she was holding into her left hand. "To the back. I thought I told you I don't tolerate lateness?"

Lloyd slumped his shoulders. "Yes, professor," he said, still sounding embarrassed as he trudged to the back. Rai almost snorted derisively, but managed to control himself at the last second. Why was Lloyd able to rile him up so? Surely the mere fact that he was…no. Quickly, Rai cut off the dangerous line of thinking. He'd sworn to push that to the back of his mind.

He focused on Raine's lecture, refusing to think any more about Lloyd or…that. The older half-elf was waxing eloquent about the wonders of the Triet Ruins, the location of the first seal Colette would have to visit. He committed himself to taking notes on the properties of polycarbonate and its possible usages in magitechnology, which had long been lost to the world…

That was another thing. He had once lived in a world where there was magitechnology everywhere. It wasn't called magitechnology then, of course. He had a couple of theories about what his memories could mean, but none of them were very believable...

Not to mention the fact that this world was…but…no. He shook his head. He was getting distracted again. He growled softly in frustration. Lloyd always did this to him. That useless idiot. The mere fact that he might possibly have such a relation with a buffoon like that made him irritable.

Rai pushed his unsettling thoughts to the back of his mind and directed his attention to the lecture.

...

Genis glanced up from his notes at his older brother. Rai was taking notes seemingly attentively, but his jaw was clenched and his leg was bouncing up and down rapidly in the way it always did when he was restless. He was obviously agitated about something – and Genis was pretty sure he knew what it was, too.

Ever since they'd moved to Iselia about five years ago – since Rai had first encountered Lloyd – he'd hated the other boy. Genis still couldn't fathom exactly why. It couldn't just be the fact that Lloyd acted like an idiot sometimes and didn't do well in school, although that was the reason Rai usually gave; Rai's dislike of Lloyd had started ever since he'd first met him. Genis supposed his being best friends with Lloyd didn't much help either. Rai was probably somewhat jealous, since he'd been Genis's only friend before that. But still, it wasn't enough to justify…

Well, puzzling over it wouldn't do any good. After all, he'd only thought about this like a million times before this, Genis thought in annoyance. If only Rai would just tell him the truth. Obviously he knew something about Lloyd, or maybe Lloyd reminded him of someone…either way, it definitely wasn't as simple as he'd like people to believe.

He sighed. Despite that, he liked Rai. He looked up to his older brother – Rai was always sure of himself and could handle himself like an adult, almost like Raine. And he was really smart, too – so was Genis, but Rai was smart in a different way. Genis picked up concepts really fast and he could remember things really easily – and he read a lot – but Rai could just…think really well. He could reason things out and come up with plans and just…he always seemed to make the most logical decision. Even though his magic had taken a little longer to take hold than Genis's had, Genis was still a little jealous.

He realized Raine must have asked him a question, because everyone was now staring at him. "Sorry, could you repeat the question?" he asked quickly. Raine looked at him in concern, and he sighed inwardly. She was probably thinking it was unlike him to be so distracted and now she'd be worrying about him and nagging at him all day. Raine could just be so…Raine sometimes.

"I asked who Mithos was," she said. Genis smirked a little as he stood up. History was just so easy.

"Mithos, the hero, brought about the end of the Ancient War in the Holy Ground of Kharlan," he recited easily. Raine looked a little mollified.

"Correct. Afterwards, the hero formed a pact with the Goddess Martel to seal away the Desians who caused the war."

Genis heard Rai snort under his breath and glanced at his brother curiously. What was so funny about the history lesson?

Raine paused. "We'll end the history here for today, and finish up this lesson in a few days. After all, coming up is…"

"The Day of Prophecy," the class chorused before she could finish. Genis rolled his eyes. Yeah, she'd mentioned that only about a thousand times…

"Yes," Raine said, satisfied. "Time for a math lesson. Genis, would you care to recite the quadratic equation?"

"Yes, Raine."

...

Lloyd yawned as the Professor worked some complicated math stuff on the blackboard. Math was just one thing he didn't see the point of. Even history was a bit better…after all, the Desians who caused the Ancient War were back, so knowing what happened in the past could be helpful.

Except, they didn't really know what happened, Lloyd reminded himself. At least, they knew Mithos the Hero ended the war, but there weren't really any details as to how he did that, or as to why the Desians were back now and causing everyone to suffer again. He had almost asked that question earlier, but had held back. He knew Rai and Genis would have poked fun at him. Genis he didn't mind so much, because he knew the elf didn't mean it. But Rai was a different story…

Lloyd sighed. He didn't want to think about Rai. He'd tried everything to be nice to him – he liked to get along with everyone – but the annoying guy just wouldn't go along with it! He wasn't sure what he could've done to make that kid hate him so much.

"Ow!" He awoke with a jolt, and realized that most of the classroom was empty. He must have dozed off. He looked up and saw that the Professor was standing in front of him. She probably slapped me again, Lloyd thought ruefully. Damn, she hits hard!

"That was for sleeping through my class," she said sternly. "Now run along!"

He grinned sheepishly, running a finger through his hair. "Yes, Professor!"

Some things never changed.

...

"Lloyd!"

Colette ran up to her best friend. "So you finally woke up, huh?" she joked, giggling a little to cheer him up in case the Professor had hit him a little too hard.

"Yup," he replied, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Man, the Professor can really pack a punch!" He made a face.

Colette's expression fell. "Oh no! I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

Lloyd sighed. "You dork. Stop apologizing, I told you already!"

"Oh, yeah! I'm sorry!" She smiled and grabbed his hand. "Come on, let's go see where Genis is!" She knew mentioning Rai would put Lloyd in a bad mood. She didn't know why the two of them weren't friends, but she was sure it wasn't Lloyd's fault. Lloyd was the friendliest person she knew!

"Hey, Colette…" He sounded serious. Colette's heart sank a little. He was going to ask about…

"So you'll be starting off on your journey in just a few days, huh? Regenerating the world!"

"Y-yeah," she said quickly, trying to keep her voice even and happy-sounding. She didn't want to worry Lloyd. "I'm looking forward to it!" She giggled.

"I want to come, too," Lloyd said seriously. "To protect you!"

"Lloyd…" She just couldn't bring herself to say no and watch his face fall. But the journey was just too dangerous! And then there was what would happen at the end…

"I want you to come too! But I don't think Grandmother will allow it," she said apologetically. "So let's make every day count!" She smiled at him and continued walking.

Lloyd…He didn't know anything that would happen, or what the world regeneration really meant. I'm so sorry.

...

Genis glared at Rai. "I can't believe you could be so heartless! She'll die if I don't help her!"

Rai looked back at him steadily. He felt bad that he was hurting Genis, but his little brother had to learn that life wasn't always fair or easy. "Genis, I told you not to go to the ranch in the first place. If you had just listened to me, this – "

"If I had listened to you, I would never have known how horribly they were treating Marble and everyone else!" Genis trembled and his eyes were filling with tears. Rai felt a pang.

"Look, Genis…" he said gently, trying to calm his brother. "I know how you feel. The people at the ranch are suffering. But there's really nothing we can –"

"No, you don't know how I feel!" Genis burst out, knocking Rai's hand away from him. "How can you be so…so cold? They're suffering and being treated horribly and being killed – and it's all because of half-elves like u-" He was muffled as Rai put a hand over his mouth.

"Quiet," Rai hissed. "Did you forget where we are? Were you really about to blurt it out in the middle of the village?! Who knows who might be listening?" He paused and took a breath. "Look," he snapped. "I'm not letting go of you until you've calmed down enough to stop blurting random things out at the top of your lungs! Calmed down yet?"

Genis nodded, still glaring at him. As soon as Rai let him go he took off running in the opposite direction. Rai sighed and slumped to the ground. That had gone completely awry. He had hoped to explain to Genis that if he were caught breaking the peace treaty, then even more people would suffer, to try to get him to see reason, but the boy just wouldn't listen! He put his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. He knew Genis was upset because fellow half-elves were the ones doing this, but that was irrelevant to the matter at hand. There was no point in risking their lives and the lives of the whole village for the sake of a handful of people at the ranch!

"Rai? What are you doing on the ground?" Colette's innocent voice floated up to him. He felt a flash of annoyance. Sometimes he thought the Chosen didn't have any sense whatsoever. Or maybe it was all just an act? …No, that was ridiculous.

"I'm fine," he said, getting to his feet slowly. "Why don't you go find your boyfriend? I would've thought you'd be with him exclusively today, seeing as you'll be leaving soon." Colette looked hurt and immediately he felt bad, but before he could say anything she burst into tears and dashed away. He stared after her, stunned. Had he really said something that bad? Why was everyone all sensitive today, anyway?

Lloyd's voice sounded in the distance, rising in volume. "Rai! What did you do to Colette, you bastard?!"

Somehow, he had a feeling that things weren't going to get any better from here on out.

...

Late that night, Raine's blood ran cold as she realized she couldn't feel her brother's presence anywhere in the village.

Genis was gone.