I wanted to get this chapter out a earlier, but my lazy bug ways were stronger. Anyway, thank you all for the feedback. It is you that keep me writing and I am happy you are enjoying my work so far.

Now, to the chapter.

Chapter 10: Great Escape

The path to the Ranch was all too slow for Kratos. He had to fight the urge to rush ahead and leave the Chosen's group to fend for themselves. He was tempted to leave them back at the camp, but he knew that wouldn't go over well. Genis and the Chosen were good friends of Lloyd and they would never just wait for a complete stranger to save him.

Plus, he was supposed to be playing the part of an indifferent mercenary. He was not supposed to care about Lloyd. His only concern was ensuring the Chosen's safety and making certain that she completed her journey. Lloyd was just an annoyance and a setback to everything. That was his role in all of this.

How did all this happen? Lloyd was supposed to stay in Iselia and stay away from Cruxis. Why did he had to fool with the Ranch now and get himself banished? Even if it was the boy Genis doing, it all came at a bad time. It was like fate itself was against him and wanted to remind him of his past failures.

He briefly wondered if the Desians knew Lloyd was his Lloyd. There was a high chance that they did since they knew Lloyd had the Angelus Project when he fell. If that was the case, Lloyd could be on his way to Derris-Kharlan by now. Which meant, every second counted.

"There it is!" Genis exclaimed as the steel dome came into view. They all stopped short to make certain the guards didn't see them.

Kratos used his superior sight to look over the guards. They appeared to be Desians, but their uniforms were outdated. They also had the mark and colors of Forcystus' Ranch. If this was a new Ranch, it would be run by a different Grand Cardinal. Which meant that these people were not Desians at all.

He felt slightly better, but only a little. The Renegades were not to be trusted either as far as he was concern. They may not harm Lloyd, but they would used him for their own ends. He wasn't going to allow Lloyd to be used as pawn in this twisted game.

"I never seen a Ranch like this," Raine noted. "But it doesn't appear to be new construction."

"Subtlety will not be out best option," Kratos said. "The longer we wait, the more harm they may do towards Lloyd."

He actually wanted to hurry because he didn't want to run the risk of the Renegades telling Lloyd things he shouldn't know.

"Are you sure that is wise?" Raine asked. "Who knows what kind of security they have."

"Who cares," Genis said impatiently. "Lloyd's in trouble."

Colette nodded. "We have to hurry."

"Then, let's move," Kratos said as they moved forward.

They were all soon within eyesight of the front door and Kratos prepared to take out the guards with a lightning spell, when an alarm went off out side.

"What's going on!?" the first guard exclaimed.

The second guard checked some device on his wrist and paled when he read the data. "That kid escaped from his cell!"

"How the hell did he pull that off?" the first guard asked in disbelief.

"Who the hell cares," the other guard said in frustration. "We're to go inside and search for him."

The first guard looked uncomfortable. "Are you sure it's safe to leave the entrance unguarded?"

"Who's going to come here in the middle of the night?" the second guard said. "Come on, let's get moving."

They began to open the door and Kratos saw his opportunity to attack. He released his spell and struck one of the guards down instantly.

"What the hell!?" the other guard exclaimed.

Genis finished his own spell and several fireballs rushed towards the last guard. He was hit, but not too badly injured.

"That kid!?" he muttered. He didn't have time to think too long before a chakram hit him across the head and knocked him out.

"Well done," Kratos said.

"Looks like Lloyd couldn't remain still," Raine sighed, but she had a slight smile on her face.

"It will make things more difficult since he will be moving around," Kratos said. "In either case, we should move." He then turned to Noishe. "Please, stay here."

Noishe whined softly, but did as he was told. The rest of the group ran inside to save their friend.

Lloyd stood frozen as he walked right into a room where two Desians were standing guard.

"How did you get out!?" one of the Desians demanded.

"Uh-oh," Lloyd muttered as he backed away. He really had no luck today.

"Prison Break!" the other Desian exclaimed as he ran across the room and pressed a red button. To Lloyd's surprise, no loud alarm or anything like that went off.

Before he could think about why, a Desian charged him and nearly impaled him with his sword.

"Fool, don't kill him!" the first Desian yelled.

The Desians slacked his attack a little and Lloyd quickly took advantage of that. He pushed the sword off of his and slashed at the Desian's midsection, taken him down.

Once he was disable, he ran towards the last Desian in the room and attempted to do the same. He parried Lloyd's thrust and they went back and forward trading sword attacks. They were actually about even.

During their battle, the Desian saw that Lloyd was in a poor stance and used it to pushed Lloyd off balance. Before Lloyd could recover, he thrust his sword into Lloyd's upper arm.

Lloyd hissed in pain as he managed to righted himself and hit the Desian in the face with the hilt of his sword. It stunned him long enough for Lloyd to finished the Desian by cutting his throat. The man gave one last grasped as he fell in a pool of his own blood.

Lloyd didn't have time to rest, however, as several more Desians came rushing into the room.

"There he is!" one of them yelled.

Lloyd knew he was out match and took his only other option. He turned around and ran out the door. He could hear the Desians chasing after him, but he was able to stay ahead of them. Every now and then he stopped long enough to throw a Demon Fang to slow them down, but he still couldn't shake them.

His opportunity finally came when he got out of sight long enough to jumped into some type of storage room. He stood at the side of the door with his heart beating quickly.

"Where he go?" he heard one of them asked.

"He couldn't have gone far," another one said. "Lock all the sensitive areas."

"Yes, sir!" they yelled as he heard them run off.

Lloyd didn't move until the foot falls had completely disappeared. After almost ten minutes had passed, he allowed himself to move. That was way too close.

These Desians were much tougher than the ones he had dealt with in the past. Desians didn't seemed to be well trained from what he had experience. He met guards in the village that were tougher. These Desians, however, were good. Maybe the Desians in the Ranches were better prepared than the ones in the field.

It didn't matter. He was trapped in a building filled with these people. Even worst, he had only a few gels with him. One wrong move and he was dead. Wait, didn't that one Desian say they wanted him alive? Knowing how the Desians treat their prisoners, he may prefer to be killed.

Lloyd shook his head. He couldn't think about that now. The only thing he needed to be concern about right now was getting out of here. Then, he could worry about all the small details.

He gradually stepped out of the storage room and looked around. The hallway was clear. Finally, some luck.

Being much more careful, he walked through each of the long steel hallways. It was tough to know where he was going since many of the rooms looked alike. They all were filled with machines that he had never seen before. What was all of this stuff?

"Unidentified personal," a strange voice said.

Lloyd turned around to see a strange floating piece of metal. It had a circular body and hovered off the ground. It had a large red like eye in the center of its body and appeared to be glaring at him.

"Bio scan and mana signature matches escape prisoner, Lloyd Irving," the thing continued. "Restraining mode is activated."

That last part didn't sound good. Lloyd barely had time to dodged a bolt of lightning that nearly struck him. Getting hit once in a day was enough for Lloyd. He quickly removed his swords and ran towards the strange enemy.

He attempted to slashed it with his blades, but he didn't even dent its hard metal shell. The thing lit up and a strong shock knocked Lloyd back. Well, that didn't go well. Several more bolts of lightning were shot at Lloyd, who managed to dodged all of it.

"Demon Fang!" Lloyd yelled as he released a wave of mana.

The metal enemy buckled under the assault, but managed to hold itself together. Lloyd ran in again and performed Tiger Blade, slamming it into the floor. He was shock again, but it wasn't nearly as bad as last time. He finished it by thrusting his sword through its red eye.

It stuttered for a second before it finally fell down. Smoke rose from its remains. Lloyd took several deep breathes as he stared down at it. What exactly was that thing?

"Just what kind of technology are they using in this building? I've never seen anything like this before," Lloyd muttered. Just who were these Desian guys?

"The alert came from here!" someone yelled.

Lloyd knew that was his cue to run again. He didn't stop until he was several doors and hallways away from that creature's remains. He barely managed to dodged several search parties for him. He felt like a coward for ducking and hiding, but he couldn't fight an entire group of Desians by himself. They were just too tough.

Strangely, despite all their strength, these Desians seemed different from the ones who attacked Iselia. They didn't have the aura of malice like all the Desians Lloyd had met in the past. These Desians felt more indifferent than anything else.

Now that he thought about it, where were the other prisoners at this Ranch? In his prison cell, he was the only one there. There also weren't any screams of suffering and pain. Was this even a Ranch?

"Where is he?" one of the Desians growled in annoyance, stopping Lloyd in his tracks. "That kid in red couldn't just have just disappeared!"

Lloyd felt his heart stop for a moment as he ducked behind a tower of crates just as the Desians walked into the room. He stood as still as possible as the Desians looked over the crates, but missed him since he stood in the shadows.

"He isn't over here," the Desian said as he moved away from Lloyd. He sighed in relief.

"That's strange," the other Desian muttered. "How could we've miss him when there's only one passage here?"

A Desians let out a short growl of frustration. "Let's head back."

"That kid in red is a real pain in the ass," the other Desian muttered.

Their footsteps echoed across the halls as they slowly disappeared. Lloyd waited several minutes before he moved a way from his hiding place.

"Red, red, red. Does my outfit stand out that much?" Lloyd griped. What was wrong with red anyway? It was a cool color.

Deciding it was not a good idea to stand in the middle of the hallway complaining about his clothes, he began to move again. It was getting tiring ducking and weaving all the time. He just wanted to find the exit already. The problem was, he wasn't sure where he was going. He could be going in circles as far as he knew.

Why did these hallways all have to look the same anyway? Why couldn't there be some kind of placeholder like a picture, a rug, or even just a number on the wall? How did the people here keep from getting lost?

He was so lost in his complaining that he failed to see a Desian walked into the room from a parallel door.

Lloyd jumped back in surprise when he saw him. "Whoa!"

The Desian looked up in equal surprise. "What are you doing here?!"

Dammit, he really screwed up. Lloyd didn't have time to think as he ran towards the nearest door. He didn't stop until he was certain he was safe again. This was really becoming an annoying pattern.

"Phew, that was close," Lloyd muttered.

"And just who the hell are you?" a voice behind him asked.

Lloyd turned around to see a man with blue hair and eyes staring down at him. He had a looked on his face that was a mixed of annoyance and curiosity.

Once the shock had worn off on both of them, the blue haired man held up a hand and began to gathered energy into it.

Lloyd knew he was in trouble, but he couldn't help glaring at the strange man. He was not going to show fear to him. "Give me your name, and I shall give you mine!"

The man smirked and gave a short laugh. "You certainly have guts, but I'm afraid I don't see the need to introduce myself to a miserable little creature like you."

Lloyd felt the heat raised in his body. Did this man just snub him? "What a coincidence, cause I don't see a need to introduce myself either to a moron who doesn't realize how pathetic he is," he said before the full impact of his own words reached his mind.

The man was anything but amused as his eyes narrowed. Lloyd could tell that he went a little too far. "Why you little!" The ball in his hand got bigger.

Lloyd went into a defensive stance, knowing that this man was ready to kill him. He really needed to learn to control his mouth. Dad always said that his tongue would put him in the ground one day.

"That exsphere!" the man grasped in shock as the ball of energy dissipated. His face and eyes softened. "You're Lloyd!"

Lloyd put down his hands and looked at the man in shock. "What if I am?"

The man walked closer to him and eyed him like he was some type of interesting artwork. Lloyd found himself shifting under his glaze. It reminded him too much on how Kratos looked at him that first time at the temple.

"I see the resemblance," the man said in a knowing voice. His expression had changed to amusement for some reason.

What the hell was so amusing about him? Lloyd quickly took out his swords, ready to take this guy down. The man saw the action, but made no move to stop him. He actually seemed even more amused.

He began to chuckle. "I also see the resemblance to another person."

Before Lloyd could ask what he was talking about, someone ran into the room. Lloyd looked up and recognized him as the one from the temple who attempted to kill Colette.

"Sir, the Chosen's group has infiltrated the facility!" Botta exclaimed. "He is heading in this directions as we speak."

The other man frowned. "How many men have we lost?"

Botta shook his head. "It's impossible to say, but we lost contact with one part of the base."

He cursed in a language that Lloyd had never heard before. "I should have figure he would come. I thought we would have more time."

"You're the Desian that attacked Iselia!" Lloyd growled, ignoring everything they were saying.

Botta looked towards Lloyd and smirked. "So, you're Lloyd." He began to chuckle lightly. "Now this is amusing."

"Botta, I'm leaving for now," the other man suddenly said. "Our plans will be ruined if he sees me now."

"What of the Chosen?" Botta asked.

The man gave him a knowing look. "I'll leave her to you. He shouldn't be able to use his full power."

Botta nodded. "Understood."

The man then looked at Lloyd and gave him a hard stare. "Lloyd, the next time we meet, you're mine." He then took a back door and left.

Lloyd stared at him the entire time as he went out the door. That guy was like some classic villain or something. He had all the cliché lines down pack. All he needed was the twirling mustard and hat to complete the image. He already had the cape.

His attention turned back to his current situation as Botta and his men surrounded him. Yeah, this was really bad.

Just before they could attack him, Kratos and the others came running into the room. Lloyd never felt such relief.

"Lloyd, are you alright?" Colette asked in worry.

"He looks fine," Kratos said in a neutral tone. Lloyd, however, thought he saw a flash of relief in his eyes.

"Man, I happy to see you guys," Lloyd said cheerfully.

Botta sneered at all of them. "Perfect timing. I'll take care of everyone at once!" He then took a giant sword and charged at Colette.

"Colette, look out!" Genis exclaimed as he hurried to cast a spell.

Botta was cut short, however, when Kratos intercepted him and locked blades with the half-elf.

"You will deal with me," Kratos hissed

Botta narrowed his eyes. "Very well." They broke apart and began a series of sword parries and blocks.

Botta's men took the time to charge both Lloyd and Genis. Lloyd was able to parry his attacker and Genis finished his spell just in time to shot a blade of water at the Desian. He hissed in pain as Colette moved in on the Desian.

"Pow Hammer!" Colette yelled as a toy like hammer appeared out of nowhere and hit him upside the head. The Desian stood their stun for a moment. Not because the attack actually hurt him, but because the attack was so stupid and unexpected.

This gave Genis enough cast time to complete another spell. "Lightning!"

A bolt of lightning hit the Desian, causing him to back off, but he wasn't down yet. He ran forward and nearly gutted Genis. The boy cried in surprise as he fell over, landing hard on his butt.

Colette threw her chakram at the Desian, hitting him hard in the back. The impact was so great, that his spin snapped in two and he fell over like a broken puppet.

He shifted in both anger and frustration. "Damn you kids."

"Sorry," Colette said in a small voice. "But if you didn't do bad things, this wouldn't have happen."

Lloyd had his own problems holding off his Desian. Having his friends here made him more confident and a little more reckless than before, but the Desian still refused to go down. Lloyd attempted to hit him with a Sonic Thrust, but the Desian quickly dodged the attack and nearly cut off Lloyd's hand.

Lloyd backed away and did a Demon Fang, tripping the Desian. He saw his chance to rush in and finished the man. Before the Desian could get back on guard, Lloyd cut him across his neck, nearly taking off the man entire head. It wasn't quite strong enough to do that, but the man was clearly dead nonetheless.

Only Botta remained and he was barely holding his own against Kratos. Although Kratos couldn't use his full godlike powers against Botta, he was more than a match against the half-elf. However, Botta had gotten stronger since the first time he fought him.

Botta saw Lloyd and the others running to join the fight and he knew this was his chance to at least kill the Chosen. He didn't have to beat Kratos to do that. He began to chant a spell as he held up Kratos a moment longer.

"Engulf these pathetic land-based souls, Ground Dasher!" Botta yelled as a huge triangular chasm opened up under Colette.

"Colette!" Lloyd screamed as he rushed to save her.

"Dammit," Kratos muttered, he couldn't break his stance with Botta to save the Chosen.

Wave of stalagmites rose and fell through the ground, charging right towards Colette who had no time to get out of the way. Thankfully, Lloyd pushed her out of the way just time and got hit by the spell on his legs.

"Lloyd, are you alright!?" Colette yelled in dismay.

Lloyd looked down to see blood spilling from several wounds in his legs, but he was in too much shock to feel it. "Yeah...fine."

Genis glared at the man who had hurt his friend. "You won't get away with that!" He concentrated his mana into a spell as light blue ruins appeared under him. "Icicle!"

This caused icicles to form from the ground and surround Botta. He was unable to escape as the ice shattered around him, cutting him all over his body.

Kratos moved in for the kill. "Fierce Demon Fang!" he yelled as he moved to slam his sword into Botta's head.

Botta was able to regain himself enough to put his sword up and blocked the furious attacked. A wave of mana so powerful came out of the blade that it went right through the steel walls, but just barely missed Botta. His sword, however, shattered on impact and Botta was knocked backwards.

They all grasped in awe at Kratos' strength as he pulled his sword back. Lloyd looked especially dumbfounded as he stared at Kratos.

"He...he cut through steel," Lloyd muttered. He could barely dent it with his attacks. How did this guy get so strong?

Botta stood up slowly as he examined his now ruin blade. "I underestimated your abilities." He then stood up and threw the broken blade at Kratos.

Kratos casually knocked it aside, but Botta used the distraction to escape.

"He's getting away!" Genis exclaimed.

"He's no threat to us now," Kratos said as he slid his sheathed his sword.

"No threat, he tried to kill Colette and nearly killed Lloyd!" Genis yelled.

"It's okay," Colette said. "I don't want to see anyone else die."

Before Genis could say anything more, Raine walked into the room.

"Did everything go according to plan?" Kratos asked.

"Most of the Desians are currently locked into one section of this base. This gives us a clear path to escape, but we must hurry before they break my code," Raine stated. She trailed off a little when she saw something shiny on the floor. She leaned over to picked the object up. "Isn't this..."

"Professor, please heal Lloyd!" Colette yelled.

Raine looked up and saw Lloyd's injures. "Those cuts are deep. How did this happen?"

"Lloyd jumped in front of a spell to save my life," Colette said.

Raine nodded. "I see." She gave a short chant. "First Aid!"

Lloyd felt a strong warmth sweep over him as his legs mended themselves. They were not completely healed, however, since some scarring was left over.

"That's the best I can do for now," Raine said. "I can do more once we reach Triet."

Lloyd suddenly looked down. "Professor Raine...I..."

"Genis told us what happened," Raine said as she glanced at Genis, who also put his head down in shame. "I apologize for the trouble he's caused you."

"No, I'm the one that dragged Genis into all this." Lloyd said as he looked into Raine's face. "I'm sorry."

"Save the chitchat for later," Kratos said in a harsh tone. "We shouldn't stay here long."

"You're right, we should get moving," Raine said as Colette helped Lloyd up. He gave her a warm smile as they made their way outside.

Lloyd was glad to be finally leaving this metal maze. He hoped he never had to come back here again, but who exactly was that man with the blue hair. He didn't seem to be a Desian. What did he mean he could see the resemblance? Man, things were just getting more confusing.

The cool night air hit Lloyd and he immediately felt cold. Genis wasn't kidding when he said the temperature dropped at night.

A howl caught his attention and he looked to see Noishe running towards him. He wasted no time welcoming Lloyd back with several licks to the face.

"Noishe, you came, too?" Lloyd asked happily.

Noishe bark before he continued to lick Lloyd's face.

"Yeah, Noishe really came through," Genis said. "He was the one who found Colette."

Colette gently patted Noishe. "He's a very good dog."

Noishe nuzzled Colette's hand.

"I have a question," Raine said, breaking the mood. "This crystalline object attached to that weapon, is this one of the exspheres that Genis spoke of?"

Kratos looked at Raine's hand as she held out the crystal. "It would seem so."

"Oh yeah, you used an exsphere too," Lloyd said, remembering that day at the temple.

Kratos looked at Lloyd, slightly impress. Lloyd didn't strike him as being that observant. "So, you noticed."

Lloyd rolled his eyes at the older man. "Well, duh!"

Kratos narrowed his eyes at the smug remark. Lloyd still had a lot of growing to do.

"What are they exactly?" Raine asked, ignoring the exchanged.

"It will take awhile to explain," Kratos stated. "We can talk about it when we reach

Triet."

"Yeah," Lloyd said. It had been more then a long day and he wanted to get his legs fully fix.

They began the track back to Triet as the desert wind blew in their faces.

Well there is not much to say here. Writing this was kind of hard since I found the Renegade Base escape to be fairly boring in the game. Not to mention the puzzle system did not make sense from a story writing point-of-view.

Kiomori, thanks once again for your review. Sadly, Yuan won't be appearing in my story regularly until much later. Which is a shame since he is one of my favorite characters to write. The tool around the wrist idea was inspired by the Jet Lee movie 'Kiss of the Dragon'. Lee's character had a woven band around his wrist were he carries all his needles and I though the idea would be great for Lloyd. Especially it would explain how exactly he picked the lock when all his equipment was gone.

Anonymous Girl, thank you for your review and I am happy you liked the chapter. I try my best not to follow the script too much, but I also want to stay true to the source material. It had been kind of tough trying to find the right balance and I am please that I have been successful so far. Also, sorry about the grammar mistake.

As for your question regarding Dawn of the New World, I do have plans but it won't necessarily be a novelization like this story. I would tell more, but I don't want to ruin the surprise. Plus, that story is a long way off since I will probably be posting this story for the next two years. lol

Until next time, take care.