A/N: Alright! We're Chapter 6 is here and we're already at 60 reviews. Thank you all so very much! Time for the intro…

Heh, as Fan Fan Girl said, the young and the old are wise in their own ways. While it now seems to be apparent that Regal and Raine do feel a certain something for each other, the other side does not know it and neither believes that this is the time or place for such things. Regal has also made an interesting observation about Myra: unlike the other feather-winged (key word: feather-winged) angels of Cruxis, Myra does not have pointy ears. While it is true that not all half-elves have pointy-ears (Yuan being a prime example), this does cast some doubt as to whether or not she really is an angel of Cruxis or not.

And now, time for "Respond to the Readers"! Squee!

FullofYami – Yes, please draw Myra! I think I speak for everyone when I say that we would like to see a picture of everyone's favorite little angel!

Rock Raider – Don't worry. I'm sure Kate and/or Ozette will make an appearance eventually.

Fan Fan Girl – Indeed. It would've been nice if the game further elaborated on Raine's motherly side.

J.A.Phillips and WhitterZ – See intro for details concerning your comments. More answers will be provided somewhere down the line. Thanks for your reviews!

God all Mighty – I'm working as fast as I can. Thanks for reading!

Crow13 – It's a shame that Regal isn't paired up with more people. I can't wait to see your SheenaXRegal story. I'll eventually write a one-shot of that pairing as a part of "Hearts of Symphonia" (see my profile for details), but I hope I can learn something about this 'ship from your story. On my site, I have listings set aside for every possible couple in the game. Here's the excerpt I wrote for SheenaXRegal…

Sheena and Regal - Hmm... this one's interesting. The first obvious negative about this 'ship is the 14-year age difference. Also, Regal is no where near as light-hearted as Sheena. However, they both share a very strong sense of justice. Regal would obviously let his past get in the way with the relationship, but, if everyone remembers correctly, Sheena feels that she killed many people as well. The two can relate with each other. This couple would be very serious and would be no wear near as light-hearted as Sheloyd or Colloyd. Despite this, this oddball couple has a real shot of doing fairly well.

With that aside, we're ready to get started on the next chapter. Without further ado…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 6 Tragedy

Smoke clouded Regal's vision as he looked around his unfamiliar surroundings. He knew little other than that he was in a building: a building that was burning down around him. He knew not why he was here, nor did he know why he was surrounded by flames. All he knew was that somewhere very close to him, he could hear a woman's voice calling to him.

"Who are you! Where are you!" he cried.

"Here…" said the woman weakly. "Not far…"

He looked around, trying to discern where the voice was coming from while trying to avoid the sounds of fire-based destruction that surrounded him. He jogged forward, thinking he had heard figured out where the voice had come from.

"Regal… here…"

He came to a door, its hinges partially melted by the intense heat generated by the fire. He called out again. "Where are you!"

"In here…"

Not wasting any time, he used one well-placed kick to knock down the door and walked inside. Just as it was outside the room, flames burned unchecked all around him. Doing the best he could to ignore the inhumanly intense heat of the flames, he squinted his eyes and searched around the room. "I-I can't see you! Where-"

A small section of the flames dissipated, revealing a young woman bound in chains. She looked up at Regal with eyes filled with sorrow. His heart skipped a beat when he realized who it was: Alicia.

"A-Alicia!" said Regal breathlessly. "What's going on!"

She smiled weakly. "Regal…"

"Regal!" yelled another woman's voice from behind him.

He spun around quickly and saw that another section of the flames, revealing the woman that had become particularly close to his heart as of late: Raine. Like Alicia, she too was bound by chains.

"What the-… Raine!"

"Regal!" she cried. "Please help me!"

"Regal…" said Alicia again.

"Heh… ehehe…" laughed someone from the direction of the only wall that had not been checked so far.

Regal turned to this voice as well. Before him stood the man that had ruined so many years of his life, had killed Alicia, and had put Presea in a state of soullessness for so many years: Vharley. He was covered in flames and held a similarly burning torch in his hands. However, he seemed to be unaffected by what was not only happening around him but what was happening to him.

"Well well Regal, time to make a choice, he said coldly. He pointed to Alicia and then to Raine. "Choose, but choose wisely. Heh… hehe…"

"W-what!" said Regal unbelievingly as he looked from woman to woman. Flames began to grow gradually closer and closer to the two. Now he knew what Vharley meant. He would only have enough time to save one of the two from the flames… but which one should he save? "I…I don't know what to do!"

"Please Regal…" said Alicia with an eerily calm voice.

Raine, on the other hand, sounded quite frantic. "Regal! Please help me!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The acrid smell of burning wood filled Regal's nostrils as sat up on the couch. Fire was all around him, just like in the dream… or was it a dream?

"What? What the hell is happening!" he said as he quickly stood up. Not far off, he thought he could head Myra screaming. "Myra!"

"Regal!" yelled Raine from an unknown location.

He turned to where he thought he heard Raine. "Raine? Where are you!"

"Don't worry about Myra!" she yelled in response. "I think I can get to her from here! Try to find her grandmother!"

"R-right! I'll be back soon!" He was now overly glad that he had not taken off his grieves before he went to sleep as they came in handy when he started kicking away fallen pieces of the house away while trying to make his way to what he thought was Ms. Selias' room. "Damn this fire. How did this happen?" Busting his way through what appeared to be part of a bathroom, Regal finally found himself in what looked like the grandmother's room. Looking around, he saw her lying on the ground underneath a pile of burning rubble. "Ms. Selias!"

He began to move toward her but she held up her hand as if to say "stop". "Mr. Bryant, you can't. It's too dangerous and time is short…"

"Don't say that!" he yelled as he moved towards her. Before he could even complete his first step, a large piece of rubble fell between him and the grandmother, separating the two and obstructing their views of each other. "Oh no!"

"Mr. Bryant, there's no time. Can you grant an old woman one last favor before she passes on?"

Regal closed his eyes, knowing there was nothing he could do without endangering himself and quite possibly Raine and Myra as well. All he could now was hear out the woman's last request and do his best to act upon it. "…of course. Anything you want."

She coughed. "Please… take care of Myra for me. She deserves a good family to look after her."

He took a step back when he heard her request. "What? But I-"

"Please Mr. Bryant. I beg of you."

He closed his eyes again. "Alright. I'll… we will look after Myra for you."

Another cough. "Thank you Mr. Bryant. May the goddess watch after all of you." As soon as she finished her sentence, another piece of rubble fell where she was lying.

Regal sadly bowed his head and said a silent prayer. Once done, he turned around and made his way out of the room. "I have to hurry." He quickly reached the doorway of Myra's room but it too was covered in burning rubble. "Raine! Myra! Are you in there!"

"Mr. Regal!" cried Myra. "Please help us! A piece of wood hit Lady Raine in the head and she won't wake up!"

"Raine!" he said to himself. "Please don't be hurt…" He took two steps backs, lowered his shoulder, and threw his entire body into the pile of rubble, allowing him to plow through the burning debris. That aside, he made his way over to Raine and Myra. He kneeled down next to Raine and examined her head, discovering a small trickle of blood where she was supposedly hit. "This isn't good. She needs medical attention."

"Is Lady Raine going to be okay?" asked Myra worriedly.

He nodded. "She'll be fine if we can get her out of here."

"But how Mr. Regal? The fire is getting closer!"

He bowed his head and closed his eyes. For a brief moment, he thought he could see Alicia. He knew how to get out of here and was prepared to accept any guilt that came with his method of doing so.

"Myra, stand back," said Regal. She did as she was told and stepped away from Regal. He stood back up and placed his cuffed hands together palm-to-palm and aimed them at the wall furthest from them. Blue energy welled up in his hands grew steadily larger until he yelled "Spirit Wave" and let the energy fly at the wall. A section of the wall exploded, leaving just enough room for them to escape outside.

He picked up Raine's unconscious body and made his way outside. "Myra, let's go!" She did as she was told.

They went around to the front of the burning house where several of the townsfolk had gathered. Everyone gasped in awe when they saw regal, Myra, and the comatose Raine emerge from the side of the building. Regal set Raine down on the ground and kneeled next to her.

"Lady Raine! Is she okay?" asked one of the bystanders.

Regal did not reply as he placed his tightly cuffed hands palms down on Raine's stomach. He closed his eyes and a soft white light began to illuminate his hands. Myra kneeled on the other side of Raine and placed her tiny hands opposite Regal's massive hands in a similar fashion. "I'll help too."

Regal opened his eyes and looked up at the tiny angel. "Myra?"

She didn't reply as her hands also glowed with the same white light as Regals' hands did. Everyone was already surprised enough at Regal's attempt to heal Raine but when they saw that Myra too had the ability to heal, they were absolutely dumbfounded. Regal closed his eyes and continued his chi-based healing on Raine. Everyone watched and waited, hoping that their "messiah" would get up. They didn't have long to wait.

Raine coughed, bringing a sigh of relief to everyone that surrounded her. Her eyes slowly opened, pupils moving from left to right as she tried to analyze her surroundings. "Regal? Myra? What happened?"

Myra immediately threw her arms around Raine and hugged her hero. "You're okay! You're okay!"

Regal smiled weakly. "You should thank Myra. She healed you."

Raine sat up and looked at the happy angel. "Myra? You healed me?"

Her cheeks turned red. "Um, um, Mr. Regal did most of the work. I just helped."

Raine smiled. "Even so, thank you Myra. You really are an amazing girl."

The martial artist watched as the two hugged. It seemed so strange to him that Raine didn't act the least bit surprised that Myra could use healing arts. Rather than being fascinated by what the tiny angel could do, she seemed much happier with the fact that not only Myra was okay but that Myra actually tried helping her as well. Although the two had just met yesterday, they seemed to have already developed a strong bond between, almost as if…

Myra pulled away from Raine and looked up at Regal. She bowed courteously. "Thank you for saving us Mr. Regal!" She looked at the crowd of people and scanned them from left to right. "Has anyone seen grandma?" she asked.

Regal's heart nearly failed when he heard her ask this. Raine looked up at him. From the expression on his face, she could tell what had become of poor Myra's grandmother. She wanted to be able to tell Myra what happened without having to force Regal to do such a thing but she just couldn't find the words.

After finding out from everybody that they didn't know where her grandmother was, she ran over to Regal and asked, "Mr. Regal, have you seen my grandma?"

He swallowed a lump in his throat. "I… I..."

"Heh, don't worry Bryant, I'll save you the trouble," said a voice from above them.

Everyone looked up at once. On the roof of the building next to the burning home stood the cloaked man that had destroyed Raine's statue the day before-hand. He held a lit torch in his hand which illuminated the diabolical smirk on his face.

"You!" cried Raine. "Did you do this?"

He waved his hand at her. "Yes but it looks like I failed in completing my task thus far."

"What?"

"Heh. You and Mr. Bryant over there are supposed to be dead."

Myra stomped her little foot and yelled, "What did you do to my grandma?"

He laughed. "It's not what I did to her. It's what Mr. Bryant didn't do for her."

"Huh?" she asked, confused.

Although Regal wouldn't say anything to defend himself, Raine wasn't about to let the man tell a lie. "Don't you dare!"

He pitched his torch into the burning remains of the house. "Little one, your friend "Mr. Regal" could've saved your grandmother… but he didn't."

Everyone gasped when they heard this. The devastated Myra turned to Regal, a heart-breaking look on her face. "M-Mr. Regal?"

Regal lowered his head and said nothing. Not fully knowing what was going on, Raine leapt to Regal's aid. "Don't believe him Myra. I'm sure Regal did everything in his power to help her. He wouldn't just let her die. Right Regal?"

Nothing.

"Regal?"

The man laughed. "See? Guilty as charged!"

"Myra…" said Regal quietly.

"Hmm? What's this Mr. Bryant? Trying to make excuses? Heh." He laughed again and spit on the burning house.

"Myra… your grandmother…" He opened his eyes and kneeled down in front of Myra, looking straight into her eyes. "Your grandmother asked as to take care of you. She asked me to save you instead of her."

Tears filled Myra's eye as she fell to her fragile knees. "G-grandma…"

"Hmph. Whatever," said the man as he drew a blade. "Just gotta finish what I started!"

Seeing the sadness in Myra's eyes filled Regal with an instant desire to fight the man that had caused her so much pain. "Raine, protect her!" he yelled as he made an amazing leap that landed him on the same roof that the man was standing on. He looked the man in his cold, stone-like eyes. "You'll pay for your crimes!"

"Ha! Unlikely, Master Bryant!" he replied back in a very eerily upbeat way. Wasting no time, he immediately lunged for Regal who just barely managed to dodge in time. With an immediate counter-attack, Regal tried to deliver a swift kick to the man's head but his attack was halted when his right greave connected with the man's blade. The two stood nearly motionless as they struggled to overpower the other person. "Heh, is that all you've got Bryant? Without your hands, you're nothing!"

Regal gritted his teeth as he struggled. "Don't be so sure!" With that, he brought his left leg up and delivered a powerful kick to the man's side, sending Regal to the "ground" and the man tumbling off the roof. Wasting no time, Regal quickly stood up and crossed his arms across his chest and moved to the edge of the roof. "It's over!" He placed his feet together and jumped off the roof toward the fallen man, trying to implement his body in a fashion similar to that of a drill.

Thinking quickly, the man rolled out of the way, causing Regal to crash into the ground. Before he could fully recover, the man slashed at Regal, luckily leaving only a shallow cut across his chest. "Ha!"

Regal stumbled backwards. "Damnit. It appears that he has at least some level of skill."

The man smiled. "Mr. Bryant, I'm disappointed. Are cheap tricks the only thing you have to offer me?"

"Regal!" yelled Raine.

The man turned to Raine and pointed his blade. "Hush woman. You're next."

A small beam of light crashed into his side shortly after he finished speaking, sending him to the ground. It wasn't that the beam had done so much damage to the man, rather, he was just taken by surprise and had lowered his guard, thus allowing the opportunistic attack that sent him to the ground. "Ahh, what the hell?" He got up and saw that Myra was standing not far from him. "What?"

She tightly clenched her little fists, tears still streaming down her face. "That was for grandma! And you better not hurt Mr. Regal!"

The man took a step back and dropped his sword. "W-what? How can she do that? She's nothing more than a spawn of Cruxis!" His eyes opened to their fullest when an idea came to him. "Unless… she is- gah!"
He clutched his pain stricken shoulder a mere split-second after two crossbow bolts struck him. Snapping out his slight daze, he could see that a number of half-elven militia-men armed with crossbows were positioned just behind the angel. He spat and pulled the bolts out of his shoulder. He hated to admit it but there was no way he could win this battle. "Hmph. Looks like you get to live another day, Miss Sage." He leapt back up to the rooftop, narrowly dodging another volley of crossbow bolts as he did so. He turned back to everyone below and waved. "The name is Janus. Don't forget it! Half-elves, your time on Symphonia grows ever shorter! Enjoy it while you can!" Having said that, he leapt into the air and a bright light emitted from him. When everyone could see again, they gasped in near horror when they saw a pair of gray spectral wings carrying him into the sky. The militia-men took a few more shots at him but nothing connected with the man known as Janus.

Raine stood up and ran over to Regal. "Are you okay?" she said as she gingerly placed her left hand on Regal's cut.

"He had pointed ears," said Regal calmly.

Not letting her glowing hand leave his cut, she looked up at him with astonishment. "W-what?"

"When we tried to overpower each other, I managed to catch a glimpse of what was under his hood. He had pointed ears."

"But…" She paused and thought for a moment. "…if he's out to kill the half-elves, then…"

He nodded. "He must be a full-blooded elf then."

Raine closed her eyes and shook her head. "I don't believe this. I know that the elves never liked half-elves but they've never actually sought to destroy us like the humans have. What is going on?"

Tears still in her eyes, Myra ran over to Regal and hugged his leg. "Mr. Regal, are you okay?"

He nodded. "I'm fine, but Myra…how did you make that beam of light?"

She looked up at him and shook her head. "I… I don't know."

"I see…" Regal turned to the burning ruins of the house and joined everybody in watching helplessly as the fires continued to burn.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Are you sure you should go Lady Raine?" asked one of the half-elves.

She nodded. "No matter where we go, we won't be safe. If we leave Luin, perhaps this Janus will leave all of you alone."

"But Lady Raine-"

"No buts," she said with a smile. "Don't worry. We'll be fine, especially with Regal protecting us."

Regal said nothing but Myra hugged his leg again. "Yeah! Mr. Regal is so brave!"

Raine laughed. "Besides, we're going to head back to Altamira. We lost all of our supplies in the fire except for Regal's greaves and our wing pack. Also, we're going to see if we can find out anything about Janus."

The half-elf nodded. "I see… and what of little Myra?"

She looked down at the smiling angel. "According to Regal, her grandmother asked us to care for her. I'm not sure how we'll go about doing this, but perhaps we'll figure out something once we reach Altamira."

The half-elf nodded. "Well, I guess we can't stop you then. All we can do is wish you good luck, right?"

She nodded. "Right."

He nodded and began to walk away. "Farewell Lady Raine, Master Regal, Myra! May the goddess watch over all of you!"

The group turned to the open fields surrounding Luin. "Well, if we're going to use the Rheiards, we should find a fairly open spot to do so. Let's go you two," said Raine.

Regal and Myra nodded and followed Raine. Myra stopped at one point to look back at Luin. She smiled. "Watch over us grandma."

"Myra!" yelled Raine.

"C-coming!" said the tiny angel as she dashed towards her new family.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Alright, a little over 3,000 words! Longest chapter yet for CtB. More mysteries, huh? The cloaked man is actually an elf named Janus? Little Myra can use both healing and holy magic? What the heck is going on here? O.o

Hope you enjoyed this chapter as it may be the last for a while. Why? See my profile o.o' Don't worry, I'm not giving up. Just taking a month long "break" to enter a competition. I'm not sure if I'll write another chapter before the competition but if you stay tuned to my profile, I'll let y'all know what's going on. Anyway, that's all for now. Thank you in advance for any and all reviews!