Thank you everyone who reviewed. I am so glad you liked our story, {hugs reviewers}
Ehciroun: You have made me the happiest girl in the world! {Cries}
Ebos: {Rolls his eyes} Women.
Ehci' and Lionel: What did you says?! {Glare}
Ebos: Uh-oh, RETREAT! {Runs off}
Ehciroun: COME BACK HERE YOU- Censor: The following has been censored due to the lack of funds needed to support the long string of curses and blasphemies that Ehciroun has said and is continuing to say. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you and have a nice day.
{Sweat drop} Well that was unexpected. Anyway, everyone thanks for the review we really do appreciate them. The third chapter is done now all I need to work on is the fourth. This could take a while…
Chapter 2: Bandages and Explanations
Raine sat quietly over a sleeping Kratos. It had been a real pain getting him into her house then almost dragging him to the living room where the couch was then almost having to rip off his shirt so she could actually dress his wounds, but seeing as it is unrelated to the story we shall not go into details.
She looked down at his chest that was slowly rising and falling in tune with his breath. White bandages lightly dyed red were wrapped carefully around his upper torso. Her healing arts could only stop the bleeding and disinfect the wounds. Broken bones were harder to deal with; if things don't go according to plan then bones could be permanently misshapen or out of place. This is why Kratos was currently wearing feather-soft bindings so that it wouldn't restrict his breathing patterns, a few cracked ribs was no small deal.
She looked at the clock on the mantel to her left; he had been out for a few hours now so she figured it was about time to check his blood pressure. She barely touched his wrist when she was jerked forward towards the now no longer asleep Kratos.
It took him half a second to realize who she was and that he was currently unarmed so he let go of her hands, "You're lucky I didn't have my sword on me, otherwise you'd be dead."
"I can see why you don't have many friends," she got up from her current position, "Now; give me your hand so I can check your pulse."
"I'm fine." He winced. The surge of pain from sitting upright too quickly finally registered with his brain.
She rolled her eyes, "You have a few cracked ribs, a gash running down your leg and across your chest," she nodded towards the bandages, "Plus you nearly bled to death on my front porch. I don't think that constitutes as fine."
"Humph," he crossed his arms over his chest. Raine saw him twitch a little as the anxiety in the ribs increased with every swift movement he might make.
She watched as his eyes roomed across the room then back at her. He looked her up and down for a second then finally said, "You haven't changed much since I was last here."
He was right, she really hadn't. She maybe, just maybe, grew half an inch. But as Genis so bluntly put out, that was nearly impossible, and crashed her dreams in a second. She should probably go back to hitting him on the head if he didn't watch his tongue from now on, just because he was taller than her doesn't mean he was taller than her staff.
Raine shook her head, "Being a half-elf, we tend to age a little more slowly until we reach are twenties. Then we stop altogether. Once we start to hit around the eight-hundred mark we continue our progression."
He cocked his head at her, "So how old are you really?"
She almost jumped in her chair at the sudden question, "I beg your pardon?"
He gave a light chuckle that sounded more like too much air escaping than anything, "How old are you?"
She huffed, "I truly don't see any need for me to tell you something as personal as that. Besides, there are more important matters at hand that don't revolve around my age." She glared at him that said 'Look buddy, it's my way or the highway.'
Sighing he gave up with his earlier question, he should have known better than to ask any woman their age. "I suppose you would like to know why I was outside a little while ago."
"If it's not an inconvenience."
He took a deep breath and was about to open his mouth to speak when he saw Raine get up out of the corner of his eye and grab something. He cleared his throat.
She turned around, "Hold on one moment if you would." She grabbed something else off her desk then walked back to the seat right next to the couch. She was holding a pad of paper and a pen.
He raised an eyebrow but didn't push the issue; she was obviously going to take notes on everything he said even if it meant recording the entire conversation, word for word, from the very beginning.
Anything for research.
"It all began years ago when I first started launching all of the remaining Cruxis Crystals into the very regions of space. I suppose I should have paid more attention to where they were going for it seems some made it into the gravitational pull of a nearby planet and survived the crash through the rough atmosphere. An entity, the only one of its kind I presume, came onto Derris-Kharlan and demanded I made more Cruxis Crystals."
"What kind of entity?"
He did a cross between a shrug and a slouch, "I don't know. I would assume something with the basic structure of a phantom. From the information I gathered it requires the crystals to support a permanent, durable, body."
"Hmmm," she tapped the end of her pen to the tip of her chin in thought, "I should probably come up with a name for this new life force seeing as it is probably going to come up again anyway. Let's see, basic structure of a phantom…"
"Raine," He rubbed his temples softly.
"What," She looked up, "do you have a suggestion for a plausible term?"
"No, I would like to continue my story without being interrupted right now."
"Oh, y-yes of course," she scribbled something down on her pad, "Please continue."
"I was able to delete many of the files on the Exspheres before it hacked into the terminal system," he looked up at her to make sure she knew what he was talking about. She gave him a gesture to go on. "But, I wasn't able to get rid of them all in time. It knows how to create more Crystals and where to find the most abundant source, otherwise known as here. It doesn't know the solar system this planet is located in so we are safe… for now."
Raines eyes gleamed in excitement; this was very educational for her seeing as she had never been in space even though she thought it was one of the most amazing places to be. The way it worked, the stars, the many different planets, the cosmos, the zero gravity state, she was just eating every word of Kratos' story up. He was worried that she wasn't quite grasping the seriousness of the current situation.
"I narrowly got away in one of the escape pods Mithos designed a long time ago and came here originally looking for Lloyd. The data on his Exsphere from the Angelus Project was still in the computer files so I wanted to make sure he was somewhere fairly safe, regrettably he couldn't be located at the time. I then tried to contact Yuan to see if he could give me any information at all. But, as we both know, Renegades aren't exactly the easiest people in the world to keep track of."
Raine nodded in understanding. She had tried to contact Yuan only once before to confirm one of her research suspicions but failed miserably.
"So that left me to come to you and Genis. I was indeed lucky that you weren't out on some excavation somewhere."
She blinked and looked up sharply from her notepad, "That still doesn't explain your wounds."
Kratos stared down at his chest for a moment, "It is irrelevant as of now."
"No it's not!" Raine stood up and towered over the couch Kratos was sitting in, "I would like to know how one of the strongest members of the four Seraphim got in such a condition that would cause them to almost bleed to death!" She calmed down a little, "I would also like to know any technological innovations or physical advantages this Cauhlis Entity may have."
"Cauhlis Entity?"
"Yes, that is what I decided to call it for now." She sat back down in her chair, "Well? I'm waiting for an explanation."
Trying to avoid getting into details about this with Raine was going to be like trying to fight a losing battle. Sometimes you just need to know when to give up so he closed his eyes and leaned back into the cushions of the couch.
"I acted carelessly. The pods that Mithos had designed weren't tested properly for such a long voyage to a planet such as the one we are on, everything was going fine until I actually tried landing. The system overloaded and nearly exploded when I went through the atmosphere because of the quick change of pressure. Luckily, I crashed somewhat close to your home or I might not have made it. Unfortunately it is going to self-destruct, for security reasons, if I don't log into the mainframe within a few hours upon landing."
He looked up at her, "How long was I out for?"
Raine took a quick glance over at the clock, "Oh I'd say somewhere around four hours and fifty-five minutes."
Kratos' face blanched slightly. He quickly, but calmly, rolled off the couch and landed not too comfortably on the floor. "You might want to take cover," he said, pulling his arms over his head.
"Why may I ask-" Suddenly a bright red and white light flashed outside a nearby window as the whole house shook violently. The sudden earthquake caught Raine off-guard as she promptly fell out of her chair and landed on the hard, wooden, floor with a rather loud 'thump.' Her stacks of research papers and old documents went flying, soon followed by the desk they were once positioned on. A couple of her ancient artifacts fell off the banister above the fire place along with almost all the books and the bookcase. And nearly as quickly as the abrupt tremor started, it stopped.
Kratos looked up from his spot on the floor and gave Raine somewhat of an amused glance, "That's why."
End Chapter Two
Ehciroun: Is that really how half-elves age?
Errmmm, I actually have no idea. I never got the scene with Raine and Genis' mom's diary, but I'm trying in my new game.
Ebos: In other words, it's not going to happen.
Ehciroun: No comments from you! {Whacks him with HWJ}
Ebos: Xx
It was hard for me to think up something for that, I think the ages in the character bios on the official Namco ToS pages for those two are just apparent ages. Because, as my sister pointed out, the age gap between Genis and Raine is too great for Genis not to remember anything and Raine to barely recall it. So my idea was that they age slower until the reach the twenties, then they stop for a while, and then start up again. So Raine is actually older/younger or Genis is. Or maybe, perhaps, both are.
Ehciroun: …..You think too much. Did you know that?
Sigh Yeah, I kind of figured I did. Well, please remember to review.
Ehciroun: It would make all of us very happy! We love you all! Especially the ones that put us on their favorite lists. {Wink}