Well, just going to take a moment to say that this wooouuuld have been posted months ago, however my laptop decided to die, and I'm not really comfortable writing on most other computers—yes, I'm picky. Sue me. ;n;

Anyway, as always…this story is still going, and I am hoping to finish it in the near future…you know, sometime between working three jobs and going to university full time. Yeah, I have this…don't even worry.

Maybe I'll finish it this century…

I love you all dearly for sticking with this story, and just…please, don't give up on me. Your reviews are appreciated, and I hope that you'll all put up with me for a little longer. You rock.

Chapter Nineteen:

Curses

In all of his years, Noishe had never been happier to be so, unconditionally…right. In was barely two days after his lone expedition and…and Kratos had come. Perhaps he was looking something the worse for wear, yet he was there, plain as the nose on one's face.

…well, perhaps plain as the nose on Noishe's face. For whatever reason, his partner had come dressed somewhat…differently than normal, even his hair was cut unusually short. Still, it was Kratos, and that was what mattered.

When the man arrived in town, it just so happened that Noishe was there with the dwarf and Lloyd. Well, as 'there' as he could be while denied entrance to Iselia. Still, he had smelt his old friend coming, and thus the doglike creature had leapt up from where we was laying not far from the gate and raced to the man's side. The guards had glanced at one another in unconcealed surprise, only to gain knowing looks as the man returned to town, leaping and barking protozoan in tow.

With one glance at Kratos, who gestured absently to Noishe who immediately fell silent, the guards had waved the man in. "You're…he's here with the dwarf, Dirk."

"Thank you." Even Kratos was unable to keep something of…breathless relief out of his tone, to Noishe's ears anyway, at the verbal assurance that his son was nearby. Certainly, he had to have known from Noishe's own behaviour, but there was something of communication with one another that humans tended to take more comfort in. Well, he could not blame them.

"Go on ahead, but the do—"

"—Noishe will be accompanying me," was all Kratos said, but the cool words cut off anything else the guards had been going to say and they allowed the two entry without another word.

Knowing that he was not strictly…welcome in the town, Noishe stayed close to Kratos' heels, trying his best to appear unobtrusive while at the same time leading his partner toward where he could smell Lloyd the strongest. It seemed that Dirk and the toddler had crisscrossed around the town square several time, visiting a few shops along the way. Despite that, however, he had little difficulty in locating the store that currently housed the two. Iselia was a small town, and his nose did not lie.

"In there, Noishe?" Yet it seemed that the seraph did not need even the bark of approval that followed the question to quicken his stride toward the door. Almost as Kratos' hand reached for the door, it seemed, it swung open, assisted by the foot of an overly rambunctious toddler. It was a measure of his partner's focus that Kratos actually jumped at that, his attention having clearly…been elsewhere. It did not last, however, as those red-brown eyes landed on the mussed up brown mop of none other than Lloyd.

"Lloyd…" The affection in Kratos' tone was clear to anyone, and a moment later the child's head bobbed up, eyes growing wide in time with his smile.

"Daddy!" And then the child was launching himself up, into his father's more than welcoming arms. Seated back a few feet, Noishe watched the scene with head slightly tilted and tongue lolling from his mouth. He was…unspeakably happy to see what was left of his partner's family reunite. Now, perhaps, life could get back to normal. Well, as normal as normal could ever be with them.

"Ah see, so you're Lloyd's father, then…" Dirk finally spoke up, bringing two sets of eyes to him. The remaining pair remained glued on Kratos' features.

Tightening his hold around Lloyd, Kratos rose from the half-crouch he had been in, taking the boy with him in a tight grip.

"…yes. I must thank you for taking care of him when I was…unable to do so."

"Ach, ya need not mention it. He's…Lloyd is ah real treasure."

At that, Kratos' eyes shifted down, a fond smile playing at his lips. "Yes, he is indeed."

"Well, Ah s'ppose the least Ah kin do ya for is invite ya for lunch."

"Thank you for the offer, but we must reluctantly decline." In contrast to the polite words, Kratos' tone invited no further questioning.

"Ah, well then. May Ah say farewell to the wee tyke?" Noishe did not pretend himself any sort of expert on dwarves—he had enough trouble grasping humans sometimes!—yet he thought that there was a definite note of regret in the reluctant words.

Noishe watched with something approaching amusement as Kratos gently pried the boy off of himself so he could look Lloyd in the eyes before speaking. "Lloyd, we are going to have to leave here now." The youngster nodded solemnly. "Will you say goodbye to—Dirk, was it?" he asked, glancing back at the dwarf who nodded.

Without any further encouragement, the brunet boy launched his arms around the dwarf's neck. "Thank you for helping me'n'Noishey, Mister Dirk."

"Ach, don't ya mention it, Lloyd. Ya're a good kid, so keep yaself outta trouble an' listen to what yur papa tells ya."

Stepping back, Lloyd nodded, his tiny hand seeking Kratos'.

"Thank you, for everything that you have done for my family. Perhaps...we will be able to stop in some day and I will be able to thank you properly. Until then, please just accept my sincerest gratitude." Kratos paused there, clearly fighting to get his emotions under control. It was a foreign happenstance with the ancient seraph, but Noishe rather fancied that even his partner deserved a moment to break down sometimes. "Thank you. Truly. You do not know what this means to me."

"Ach, don'tcha mention it! Just take care of the wee tyke, do ya kin?"

Kratos nodded, an almost stubborn look on his face. "Of course. I would never dream of doing anything less."

It was with that the small family made its way from town, Lloyd clinging tightly to Kratos' neck and Noishe trotting at his heels as they slipped out of town. With Lloyd having virtually no belongings at Dirk's, and nothing from before...that night, there was no reason at all for them to return to where Lloyd and Noishe had been staying with Dirk.

Well...nothing save a poor dwarf who might never get the answers he likely wanted. Still, Noishe understood why Kratos had not left behind so much as a name. It was sad, but the man just did what he had to do. There was just no telling what fragment of knowledge from four thousand years gone might decide to pop up at the most inopportune time.

"Daddy, why were you gone so long?" At long last, Lloyd's voice broke the stifling silence, drawing a halt to the small party.

"Lloyd," Kratos began, setting his son down, "do you remember the time when you fell and twisted your ankle?" Gosh, that had barely been a month before. It felt like a year to Noishe, despite his being used to barely acknowledging the passage of time. "What happened when you were injured?"

The boy pondered the question for a moment before announcing, "It hurt!"

"Yes, Lloyd, I am certain that it hurt very much. What else?"

"You carried me everywhere!" That with a bright grin that seemed to say that a sore ankle was not so bad at all.

"I did, Lloyd. Why?"

"Hm...because it hurt to walk."

"Exactly, Lloyd; I could not come because I was unable to. I got hurt, too."

"Daddy! Are you okay? Where's the owie? Mommy...Daddy, will Mommy take care of it? Dirk said...that she couldn't come back, but you...you can get her back, right?"

There was no missing the way Kratos sucked in a too-sharp breath, or the tears welling in Lloyd's eyes as he gazed at his father in confusion...and hope.

"No, Lloyd. I am sorry, but that I cannot do."

"But why, Daddy?"

"Lloyd, this may be difficult for you to understand, but sometimes people go away and they...cannot return."

"Where do they go?"

"They go to the stars, Lloyd."

"The stars? Daddy! I want to go, too!" Kratos' grimace was plain to Noishe's eyes. Some things, it seemed, were not meant for a three-year-old to understand.

"Perhaps someday, Lloyd, but not now. For now, Mommy would want you to stay here."

"Stay here with Daddy?"

"Yes, Lloyd, stay here with me."

Watching the tight hug Kratos gave Lloyd almost made Noishe wish he had arms like a human or elf so that he might join in.

Dark was fully settled before Kratos addressed his old companion, bringing Noishe's ears forward and his head up. "It was bad, Noishe. Yggdrasill was not best-pleased with…my fallout with Kvar. I am…lucky that he allowed me to return and retrieve Lloyd at all." Kratos paused there, adjusting the sleeping boy in his arms before carrying on. "Though perhaps it is not luck at all. Perhaps I truly should have left him there. He…could have had a normal life, free from all of this." Kratos' tone was dry and humourless, his eyes tight.

Noishe answered that sentiment with a low, heated growl of disapproval. Honestly, what was Kratos thinking? The best place for Lloyd was with his father, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

"No, Noishe, it is true. It is merely my inability to let go that brought me back here." A dry chuckle that carried no humour, only self-loathing. "He could have been free from my sins."

What kind of life would that have been for your son? What kind of father would abandon his son intentionally? What kind of son would not wish to be with his father? Oh how Noishe wished he could give voice to such questions. Instead, he was forced to settle with a level look, a slight curling of the lips, to portray his displeasure with the words.

"Be that as it may, Noishe," Kratos continued after a moment, frowning in response to the protozoan's reaction to his words, "this life is no place for a child, yet if I run again...we may both end up dead."

At that, Noishe stood. He might not be able to vocalise himself, but Kratos had become pretty adept at reading him over the past four thousand or so years.

Stepping forward, Noishe met Kratos' eyes, all but looming over the seated seraph. Growling deep in his throat—yet softly, so as not to disturb Lloyd—Noishe pawed impatiently as the ground with one paw. A flick of his snout took in Kratos himself, and yet another tap of his paw hit the man's leg.

Backing off, he turned and gazed straight at the Tower of Salvation—visible or not it was still there—and then turned back to glare at Kratos once more.

After a long moment, Kratos chuckled. The sound was still dry, yet it held a bit less...resignation than it had earlier.

"If I want change, then I should do it myself." It was not a question.

A soft bark of confirmation, and the auburn-haired man nodded.

"Very well." Then, with strengthened resolve. "You are right, Noishe. It is time to stop hiding in the past and running from the present," he paused, "the future. Yggdrasill can make all of the promises he chooses, yet Yuan figured out long ago that he would not keep them because he...he will never succeed, and the people of this world do not deserve that."

This world. Kratos was speaking of the two worlds as one again. It had truly been too long since everything had been normal, yet perhaps now...

"Will you help me?"

An eager bark of confirmation, and an almost-smile crept onto the seraph's lips.

"Very well. We shall have a lot of work ahead of us."

Well, that was fine, because Noishe knew that they could handle it. He had, after all, been created to fight evil. What could be more evil than the power that had torn the world apart; that had shattered lives and created a lie for all to live; that had forced so many into poverty and sufferance?

Not many protozoa still lived, if any did other than Noishe himself, but may he be damned if he gave up the fight.

Zelos regained coherency slowly, the harsh ringing in his ears and the curdling of his stomach making thought of anything else difficult, yet he eventually managed it. Taking a tight hold of himself, the redheaded Chosen forced himself to sit up and take a good, long look at the two bedraggled bodies that he had dragged from the ocean. The sullen glare of Genis met his gaze evenly, yet Zelos scarcely even noticed as his cornflower eyes locked on Lloyd's prone form.

"What the hell happened, Brat?" There was no malice in the words, only uncertainty that was more than a little tinged with fear. "Just...what the hell?"

"You—" Genis cut off sharply, hacking and vomiting up a pile of seawater. Leaning over, the kid retched for a moment longer, his thin frame heaving with the effort of cleansing his stomach.

Sitting up, the half-elf coughed for a moment longer, only to double up again, dry-retching violently. Cursing to himself for being so blind to Genis' condition, Zelos shifted his attention from Lloyd for a moment to rub and pat the youth's back.

"You gonna live?"

After a moment, the half-elf regained control of himself, nodding firmly as one hand moved up to wipe his mouth.

"Y-yeah. How's Lloyd?"

Zelos, his attention already back on the brunet, frowned. "Unconscious and looking like he was dropped in the ocean and almost drowned. Now, mind telling me what happened?"

"Why don't you tell me?" the kid had the audacity to snap back, defensively. "You sure seem to know more about this 'Lloyd has wings' thing than I do!"

"You can fight with me about this," Zelos snapped back, his worry for Lloyd and the nausea he was feeling combining to make for a fine bad mood, "or you can tell me what happened so I can help him. Unless you wanna sit there until he dies. Be my guest, but I won't be coming back for you."

"I'd tell you if I knew!" Genis snapped back, his own worry showing clearly in the frantic tone he was speaking with. "One minute he was flying along, and the next his wings started turning purple and then we were falling—well, actually, I guess they were turning red. It was the blue and red that made them look purple."

Red? Red mana? Where...? Something about that touched on Zelos' memories, but he knew that he was not going to be able to help his best friend by sitting around thinking about it.

Growling a bit to himself, Zelos scooped the brunet up into his arms, motioning Genis over to him. "Grab on. We're going to have to leave Noishe here for now, but there's really nothing we can do about it." He really could only carry so much and still fly. Noishe would manage.

"Can you meet me a Sybak, Noishe?" he asked after a moment's thought. The library there might prove useful, and he was confident the creature could get there on his own.

A quick bark to the affirmative, and the huge creature was loping away, oversized ears flapping awkwardly.

"Where are we going?"

"Flanoir. Sheena mentioned to me that there's a good doctor there, so we're going to have to trust—" pausing, Zelos launched himself into the sky, both of his burdens clenched tightly to him "—that he can keep Lloyd alive until we can figure something else out." And how that grated. Still, it was a chance he had to take, or just let Lloyd die, which was not even an option. Lloyd would live, he had to.

"Sheena, that looks bad," Colette remarked, a slight frown marring her normally-smiling features as she stood at the ship's stern, gazing at the dark clouds roiling up fast behind them. From off to the side, her friend glanced back, one hand moving to strike a lock of hair out of her face as she did so.

"...hopefully the Captain can outrun it," came the reply. "I don't want to get caught in that."

"Me either. It looks scary."

Frowning, the ninja nodded slowly. "Yeah, it does."

Unfortunately, Colette soon learned all too well just how right she had been. On the deck, Sheena put everything she had into assisting the crew with lashing down rigging on the madly-pitching deck.

Unable to leave her friend out in this alone, yet also aware that she was too clumsy to be anything but a hindrance in this, Colette clung tightly the rope securing her to the mainmast, crying instructions to the crew whenever she saw a chance. She might not know much about sailing, but she could sure as heck spot a snapped line. Watching Sheena dance around the slippery deck, however, Colette could not help but feel just a bit envious of the other's grace and balance. She could never do what Sheena wa—

An extraordinarily violent lurch sent the blonde's thoughts and body reeling. Catching herself with an arm-wrenching jolt, the young Chosen's blue eyes scanned the deck frantically for Sheena, only to feel her stomach drop to her feet as one of the other people on deck jerked back an empty line, its end frayed as though it had snapped.

"Leave over, men! She's gone," the captain shouted, calling his men back before anyone else fell overboard. At the callous words, Colette threw all caution to the wind.

Yanking herself free of the knot around her waist with an almost violent fury, the blonde Chosen threw herself at the guardrail and out, over the side.

"Wait! Idi—!"

The words were lost to her as she plunged into the almost-black froth. The rest was a blur to Colette. Somehow she managed to find Sheena, which in and of itself was a miracle considering the conditions she was searching in, and upon doing so knew that she was never going to get them back the ship without cheating. She also knew that the sailors were not likely to accept her flying them back over, so instead she did the only thing she could.

Launching out of the water, Colette was relieved to find that being wet did not affect her mana-made wings and so she set off in what she prayed was the direction of land.

Choosing to wait out the storm was a no-brainer for Noishe, who had sought shelter in a thick copse of trees the moment he had smelt the storm approaching. Hunkering down, he prepared to wait it out in the relative shelter of the trees. It was far from perfect shelter, but it was better than trying to move around in the sheeting rain that was fast turning the dirt to mud.

Pressing close into one of the trees, the dog-like creature curled up, tail covering his head as he attempted to doze off. His plan was quickly called off, however, as a sudden peak in mana hit his senses. Freezing, his huge ears flicked forward, body tense and poised. This was not a signature he knew, but he knew that he had to investigate it.

Rising, he trotted off into the rain, his thick coat immediately winding up soaked through. Still, he persevered, even as the cold wind plastered his ears to his body, the driving rain quickly numbing his skin.

It was not long before he was able to catch the sight of a faint, pink glow that was fast approaching him—or, rather, land, as it might be. It was another angel, but one he had never seen before. Regardless, he would help as best he could, because it was the right thing to do.

All of these unusual mana signatures, strange people appearing, his partner's tension and Lloyd's behaviour…just what was going on?