Well, here's the special chapter. =)

Um, these scenes are in between the main story and describing what Yuan and Raine did at some scenes. And of course their relationship is developing in these scenes as well. ;)

So, have fun reading it. ^^

Yuan x Raine Scenes

Chapter 2 (The traditional summer festival in Mizuho):

Raine watched Zelos and Sheena walking to the river. It was really strange how Zelos was acting today. Raine had the feeling that it wouldn't be that way only for today.

She sighed. Maybe she was also only paranoid. But still there was this … feeling. This feeling that something wasn't right.

"You're once again thinking too much, Raine," Yuan remarked.

"Yes, probably …" Raine sighed.

The fireworks started, and the colored lights managed to distract Raine for a while. Yuan was standing next to her and looking into the sky like her until he suddenly said: "We should keep an eye on Zelos. I have a bad feeling."

Raine nodded with surprise. "Yes, it's the same with me …"

"By the way, you're looking stunning in that yukata," Yuan suddenly uttered.

Raine blinked in surprise. She felt how she blushed. "T … Thanks …"

Yuan was just grinning.

:::

Chapter 4 (The gala of the Magy Corp):

Yuan led Raine to the dance floor, and they started to move in time with the music. Raine knew that Yuan hadn't only wanted to dance with her.

"It's gradually getting stranger …" she uttered.

"Yes." Yuan looked serious. "I somehow don't believe that Zelos knows Professor Elytis just because of Seles … I don't like it that he knows Professor Elytis anyway."

"Why?" Raine wanted to know while doing a turn.

"Well, the professor has always given me the creeps … But his company supports the Magy Corp and is one of the co-financers, that's why I didn't say anything yet. But now … I think I'll do some research."

Raine nodded. "I will ask around a little bit in Zelos' vicinity. I don't like his sudden change of personality at all."

"Sheena, however, all the more," Yuan uttered, pointing at the black haired kunoichi who was dancing with Zelos by now.

"Yes … And that's exactly what's worrying me."

"Then we should find out quickly what's wrong with Zelos so that we can warn Sheena."

Raine nodded. When the dance ended she already wanted to leave, but Yuan didn't let her go.

"Where are you going? Have you already enough from dancing?"

Raine looked at him with surprise. "I just thought …"

Yuan smiled, amused. "You thought I only asked you for a dance so that we can talk without interruption? Think again. I would never miss the chance to dance with such a beautiful woman."

Raine was blushing once again before they continued dancing.

:::

Chapter 5 (Base of the Renegades in Triet):

Raine entered the Base of the Renegades and headed to Yuan's office. He was looking up from some papers and smiled at her.

"Raine!"

"I found out some things regarding Zelos. In fact …"

Yuan had stood up by now and walked towards her. He lifted her chin slightly which left her speechless at first.

"Raine, you look as if you hadn't slept much the last night. You shouldn't overdo it," Yuan sighed.

"I just have much to do … A scroll doesn't translate itself on its own after all, and the scholars are just waiting …"

"Ah, the scholars can also continue waiting a little bit longer. It's important that you get your sleep," Yuan said, having placed his hand on her cheek by now.

With an effort, Raine suppressed the blush that wanted to appear on her face once again. Actually she hadn't been able to sleep last night because of a totally different reason … She had to think all the time about the gala at which she had danced with Yuan. Even now her heart was beating a little bit faster when she thought about that, though Yuan's hand on her cheek was adding to it as well.

She wanted to say something, but he interrupted her. "Shh. We shouldn't ruin this moment by unnecessary words." He let his thumb wander slowly over Raine's lips so that she shivered slightly. He was slowly getting closer to her; her heart started a marathon, but then the door was suddenly opened, and a Renegade entered. He brought Yuan new documents which he had seemingly wished for.

The spell was broken. Yuan took his hand from Raine's cheek with a sigh and took the documents the Renegade was handing him. The renegade then left the office and Yuan and Raine were alone again.

Yuan skipped shortly through the documents and then put them on his desk with a sigh while Raine was sitting down on the couch.

"Even more work, great … Documents I wished for, don't make me laugh … It's more like they're forced upon me," Yuan moaned. "Alright, where did we stop?"

Raine blushed.

Yuan grinned. "Ah, that's right." Then he got serious again. "You wanted to tell me what you found out about Zelos."

Raine nodded, serious again as well. "I probably know now when the change of Zelos' personality occurred. It must have been shortly after Zelos and Sheena came back from their longer stay in Palmacosta and made their report to the king. He disappeared and came back only in the late evening. But the interesting thing is that two men in dark blue cloaks with sunglasses apparently took him somewhere."

"Hmm … That's really very interesting …" Yuan murmured.

(After that it goes on with the conversation Sheena overhears. Sheena enters, talks to the two and eventually rushes out of the room angrily.)

Raine was following Sheena with her eyes gloomily. "I wished she hadn't learned of our suspicion yet …"

"But then again she's now warned. It's maybe better like that. She should finally accept that not everything is alright with Zelos."

"I can understand her a little bit … I mean, in the end we don't have any proofs yet that Zelos and Professor Elytis are really working together … We don't even know on what. And the matter with Infidelitas is really strange …"

Yuan nodded. "Yes. But maybe it was only supposed to be a diversion …"

"What do you mean?" Raine looked at him questioningly.

"Well … Maybe Zelos or Professor Elytis noticed that we don't fully trust them and wanted to confuse us with this assault."

"You mean it wasn't real? Hmm … That would certainly be imaginable …" Raine was pensive for a while. "I have an idea."

Yuan raised one eyebrow and looked at her expectantly.

"I'll just start working for Professor Elytis. That way I'll definitely find out something."

Yuan wasn't really thrilled by the idea. "What? No way! That's much too dangerous!"

"Nonsense. What should happen to me? Besides … Do you have a better idea?" Raine wanted to know.

Yuan was silent for a while. "I'll do it. I'll start working for him."

"Yuan, he knows you!" Raine objected.

"That's true … But he knows you, too!"

Raine shook her head. "But only by sight, if at all. And that I was at one of his lectures could be an advantage. That way he maybe trusts me more easily."

Yuan still didn't seem to be happy with that. "What if he saw us dancing together at the gala? Then he'll probably find out quickly that we know each other, and then the trust is gone."

Raine slightly blushed while thinking of the dance. "I could just claim that I only got to know you that evening …" She sighed. "Yuan, what else shall we do? It's momentarily our only possibility to unravel this whole mystery."

He seemed to search for new arguments forcefully, but eventually he sighed. "Alright … But I don't really like that. Promise me that you'll be careful."

Raine nodded. "I promise."

:::

Chapter 6 (In front of the castle in Meltokio):

"Yuan!" Raine ran towards the blue haired half-elf when he came out of the castle with some Renegades. "How does it look?"

Yuan sighed. "Bad. The king was probably stabbed with a sword from behind. However, the weapon wasn't found yet. Well, and Zelos has an alibi … Although I'll still chase it up a little more. Sebastian could've confirmed this alibi by mere courtesy after all."

"Or Zelos really doesn't have anything to do with the murder … I mean, I can imagine that he is involved in some dark deeds with Professor Elytis, but murder? I don't trust Zelos to do something like that …"

"But everything fits together so well. The king dead, the princess missing and Zelos in power … Maybe he didn't commit the murder himself, but he has something to do with it, I'm sure of it. What did he say in his speech?"

Raine took out her notes. "Nothing suspicious. After he had explained the situation he asked the people to keep eyes and ears open to find Princess Hilda as quickly as possible. Then there was a minute of silence for the king."

"Hmm … There's really nothing suspicious with it. However, I stick to my suspicion." Yuan frowned pensively. "But still I'll deal with this Gregory …"

"Gregory?" Raine asked.

"Apparently the closest consultant of the king. Zelos suspects him. And even if I'm still sure that Zelos has something to do with the murder of the king I'll investigate a little bit regarding this Gregory."

Raine nodded. "Alright. I have to leave for work now."

"Already found something out?" Yuan wanted to know.

"No."

"Did Professor Elytis become suspicious?"

Raine raised an eyebrow. "Yuan, do you think I would go to work calmly if he did?" She shook her head. "Don't worry." She already wanted to leave when Yuan called after her again.

"Raine!"

She turned around. "I'll take care of myself, don't worry."

"I know … That's not it."

Raine looked at him questioningly, but he shook his head. "It's not important. Be careful."

She nodded and walked away; however, she thought to hear something like 'I don't want to lose you', but she couldn't detect whether it had come from Yuan or from one of the many persons standing in front of the castle. When she turned around again she couldn't see Yuan anymore either because of the many persons.

:::

Chapter 7 (Raine's and Genis' house):

Yuan sighed and took a necklace out of his pocket, looking at it. Maybe today was the day … But maybe it wasn't. In any case he was here for another reason.

He knocked on the door which was opened some moments later. Raine let him come in; she looked pretty serious. Presumably she had found out something bad. So today probably wasn't the day …

"Did somebody follow you? Did somebody see you?" Raine wanted to know.

Yuan was a little bit surprised by the questions, but he could imagine that she didn't want somebody from Professor Elytis' people to find out that they knew each other. He shook his head whereupon she seemed to be relieved.

"Genis is already sleeping. I'm still wondering how I managed that … But it's better if he doesn't hear about this …"

"That bad?" Yuan asked.

"Bad maybe isn't the right word … Rather … astonishing … but still bad …" She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She was pacing up and down anxiously. "It's so incredible, I …"

Yuan hugged her. "Calm down, Raine. Tell me what you found out." He watched her blushing again with amusement.

They sat down on the couch, and Raine started to explain. "I found a report which describes a method of how to create a body artificially and to give him a personality."

Yuan raised an eyebrow; he couldn't quite follow.

Raine sighed. "It was written very elaborately so that even I had troubles, but … I think I know what's really meant by the creation of an artificial body … A clone."

Yuan looked at her with big eyes. "A clone? You mean … that's what they did with Zelos? They cloned him? Of course that would explain much … That's why he suddenly acted so differently …"

Raine nodded. "They probably gave the clone a personality according to their wishes. Actually pretty risky because everybody should've noticed this, but of course they couldn't use Zelos' personality for their aims."

"But why did they clone Zelos then? What did they want to accomplish by that?" Now it was Yuan who was pacing up and down anxiously. "We're assuming after all that it was Infidelitas. It's their aim to destroy the Church of Martel. Why are they then cloning Zelos instead of killing him? If they haven't already killed the real Zelos …"

"I'm sure that Zelos is still alive. It would be pretty stupid to kill him; they can still use his organs after all, if something happens to the clone. But I also wondered the whole time why they took Zelos of all persons … I think Infidelitas doesn't only have the aim to destroy the Church of Martel but also to seize power over Tethe'alla. Then it would've been of course the easiest thing to topple the king. But the people would've rejected the next ruler, and Infidelitas wants to avoid that. They want somebody in power whom the people love. The next possibility would then have been to clone the king. But he's already old, and his clone would've probably died quicker because of that. The next highest position has the princess, but I can imagine quite well that they didn't take her because she's a woman, and many people think that a woman shouldn't be in power. The next one was Zelos."

"Hmm … Plausible." Yuan sighed. "Infidelitas is not an organization to be trifled with." He rubbed his head. "Now it's also clear how they killed the king. Zelos was brought into his mansion and placed in his study. Only that he wasn't asleep but unconscious … And he had a bruise on his arm which Sebastian saw. So while the real Zelos was there his clone murdered the king … After that Zelos was brought away again, and his clone took his place whereupon he had an alibi. Clever."

"The only question is where the real Zelos is …"

Yuan nodded. "Yes, we have to find that out next." He launched himself on the couch and cocked his head, moaning. "Just what did we get into?"

Suddenly it was knocking on the door. Raine froze and threw a short, alarmed glance at Yuan. She slowly walked to the window and looked outside. She relaxed again, and Yuan realized that he had been fraught as well.

"It's Sheena. I'm wondering what she's doing here."

"I bet it has something to do with Zelos or rather his clone," Yuan uttered before Raine opened the door.

:::

Chapter 9 (Ruins of the Base of the Renegades in Triet; the following happenings from Yuan's point of view):

Yuan's sight was blurry. He saw only splashes of colors that slowly took contours. At the same time he heard an upset voice calling his name.

"What …" Yuan uttered dizzily when he realized that it was Sheena. What had happened anyway? His head was buzzing like a swarm of bees.

Sheena explained to him that Zelos' clone knew about them and that they had to warn Raine.

Yuan remembered everything again. He had just wanted to give the Renegades some communicators for testing when there suddenly had been a fierce explosion. It was a miracle that he had gotten away with only some scratches. When he then slowly realized what Sheena had just said he sat up with a flounce. "Raine is in the laboratories of Professor Elytis! We have to hurry!"

While they were flying to the mentioned laboratories Yuan cursed the Rheairds for not flying faster. If even one single finger had been laid on Raine …! That was the only thought that was able to cross his mind. Raine. She had to be fine. Otherwise he would never be able to forgive himself!

With drawn weapons they entered the building. Yuan was admittedly not really gentle when he asked one of the employees about Professor Elytis' whereabouts, but that was all the same to him. He just wanted to rescue Raine, even if it was the last thing he did.

They rushed into the room at which the employee had pointed. Professor Elytis was standing in front of a strange machine and typing on something, but Yuan lost interest in it when he found Raine lying in one of the glass cases. "Raine!" At the same moment Yuan attacked furiously the surprised Professor Elytis whom he hit unconscious with his weapon. Of course he would've liked to do some more things to him, but they still needed him. He left it to Sheena to shackle the professor and rather busied himself with typing on the keyboard of the glass case to somehow open it and free Raine.

However, he didn't have a clue how the machine was operated. Eventually his patience snapped. "Ah, damn it all!" He eventually destroyed the glass with his weapon to finally be able to get the unconscious Raine out of the machine. He laid her softly on the ground and brushed some strands of hair out of her face by what she eventually woke up.

She looked confusedly at Yuan. "Yuan …?" Then she seemed to notice the small cutting wounds he had gotten from the explosion of the base. "You're hurt!" She sat up and apparently wanted to heal him, but Yuan clutched her hands.

"That's not important now. Is everything alright with you? Did this guy do anything to you?" Vitriolic, he looked at Professor Elytis. As soon as they knew where Zelos was he would meet death.

"He injected me with some narcotic fluid … He wanted to clone me …" Raine uttered.

Nobody cloned his Raine. Nobody. Never. He was just glad that they had been able to prevent it in time.

After they had explained to Raine what had happened to Mizuho and the Bases of the Renegades and Raine had told them that Professor Elytis had remembered to have seen Raine and Yuan together at the gala, Zelos' clone appeared. Yuan attacked him, but he didn't stand a chance alone. However, he soon got help by Regal who appeared unexpectedly. Zelos' clone thereupon disappeared. Though Regal and Yuan ran after him, they lost him.

They activated the self-destruct mechanism, and after they had left the building with the tied Professor Elytis, it exploded.

Yuan wanted to go to the Magy Corp to get some things but learned from Regal that it had been blown up. Of course that was really great. Yuan was cursing again. Infidelitas always seemed to be a step ahead of them.

After they had explained to Regal what was going on and he had told them why he had suddenly appeared, they decided to get the others and then to meet at a place where they were still somewhat safe. Yuan was thinking of Exire. Sheena and Regal were supposed to take Professor Elytis along and to get Presea, and he and Raine would take care of Genis, Lloyd and Colette.

When he and Raine landed in Iselia Raine looked at him worriedly. "Let me heal you first of all."

Yuan shook his head. "We don't have time for that now."

"Yuan, please!" She almost looked at him pleadingly. "Otherwise it will prey on my mind …"

He smiled slightly. "Alright."

She put her hands on his face where he had many scratches, and Yuan felt almost immediately how they healed. The buzzing in his head faded away as well. After Raine had healed him he wished that her hands would still linger a little bit longer on his cheeks, but they didn't have time for that now. They ran through Iselia and got Genis, Lloyd and Colette to get to Exire as quickly as possible.

:::

Chapter 10 (Exire):

Yuan and Raine were walking outside to get some fresh air.

Raine sighed. "That way we'll never find out where Zelos is …"

"We'll somehow get the professor to talk. I'm sure of it. He probably doesn't say anything because he knows that if he has told us where Zelos is his time's up," Yuan replied.

"Yuan …"

"I will never forgive him for wanting to clone you!" he uttered in an upset tone.

"You were able to prevent it," Raine said softly.

"Yes, fortunately. It doesn't bear contemplating what would've happened if they managed to do so."

Raine looked pensive. "I'm wondering … whether my clone and I could've been told apart …"

"If they had given the clone another personality, definitively. But even if not … I would've still been able to tell you apart from your clone."

"Why?" Raine wanted to know. "You weren't able to do so with Zelos either."

Yuan brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. "I could do so because of my feelings for you." He felt that this was the right time. "Close your eyes, Raine."

"What?" she asked confusedly.

Yuan smiled. "Just do it."

She still hesitated for a moment, then she closed her eyes. In the meantime, Yuan took out the necklace he had already wanted to give her some time ago. He put it around Raine's neck while she was grasping the cold silver pendant.

"You can open your eyes again."

She glanced at the pendant. It was a silver heart with two carved swans forming with their heads and necks a heart themselves. Raine started smiling. "Thank you. It's beautiful."

Yuan hugged her. "But nothing compared to you." He was kissing her softly, but it got pretty soon more passionate.

:::

Chapter 11 (Zelos' mansion):

"Lloyd, Regal, you search down here. Raine and I will go upstairs," Yuan announced.

The two nodded and entered the first room while Yuan and Raine went upstairs.

"I have somehow a bad feeling …" Raine murmured.

"Don't worry, probably nothing bad will happen," Yuan tried to cheer her up.

They entered a room; Zelos' sleeping-room. No trace of the clone. The same with the guest room next.

"Don't you think everything's going a little bit too well?" Raine asked. "Zelos' clone isn't a fool. He would've certainly placed some guards … But nobody's here!"

The next room was empty as well. Yuan nodded. "It is indeed a little bit strange … Maybe he isn't here at all."

"But he can't have known that we would come, right? Besides, that would mean that Zelos isn't here either …" Raine uttered.

"We will still find that out. Let's go downstairs again."

"Yuan!" She nestled up against him. "Please hold me in your arms … Just for a moment …"

He ran a hand over her back. "I would like to hold you in my arms forever, if we had the time for that."

Raine detached from him and looked at him with a smile. They walked downstairs where they found Lloyd and Regal. Apparently the two hadn't found anybody either.

Yuan took out his communicator with a sigh and let Sheena know that Zelos' clone wasn't here. Moments later there was an explosion.

:::

Epilogue (At the Lezareno Company):

Yuan had put his arm around Raine while they were slowly moving in time to the music. He was just glad that everything was finally over. That the danger was averted for now.

"I told Genis about us. He just kept on and on," Raine uttered quietly.

Wasn't maybe every danger averted after all? "Oh, do I have to be seriously worried?"

"Yes." Raine looked at him seriously. "He'll bully you terribly the next weeks."

Yuan sighed. "Can't I just bribe him with a book or something like that?"

Raine laughed. "Just kidding, Yuan. He doesn't have any objections. He thinks you're alright. He just wanted to finally know about it."

"Well, then I'm relieved. Of course I wouldn't have been browbeaten." He kissed her softly. "I will protect you, Raine, no matter what happens."

Raine smiled and nestled up against him. "If you're protecting me I know that nothing can happen to me."

Yes. He would protect Raine. Even if it cost his life.

*sniff* Isn't it sweet? Ok, sometimes it's really sappy, but all in all ... xDD I like this pairing, though I still prefer Kraine ... ^^

So ... Now the story is really over ... =(

I really hope you enjoyed this story. ;)