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Cain walked over and lend against the wall near Cinkel's chair, "I liked how I was pushed aside."

Cinkel smiled at this comment, "Leave them be. This is a rather awkward reunion. So much as it is. Once they get their 'hello's' and 'how are you's' out of the way, I'll see if Sheena can send a scout to Flanoir. Last I heard, Genis was there."

Cain smiled as he looked about the faces of the Heroes of Regeneration, "So, that's Colette, huh? Not at all what Grandpa described her." During the silence, his smile disappeared, "You've been acting rather strange lately. Is something on your mind?" Cinkel just shook his head and gave a reassuring smile.

Azriel blinked in confusion. "Huh? Wh...why does that have to be a secret?"

Oscuro tapped her foot and rubbed her chin. "Hm. That flashback that wasn't yours..."

"What?"

Chiaro nodded. "Ah, I understand. Azriel, I think we are about to find out."

~

Noticing what Cinkel said, Sheena spoke up, "Oh, that won't be a problem. I was already considering it, since I thought he would be with Raine. I think I'll send them out later tonight."

"Oh, he's certainly been doing well the last time I saw him! ^_^ He's still his same old self. But...umm...once I started my stay with my grandparents, I...uh, kinda lost track of where he went..." sweatdrop

"Aw. That's okay, Colette, these things happen. Maybe I can send out some other scouts to go look for him."

"Oh...thank you Sheena. To tell you the truth, I'm beginning to feel a little concerned. Let's see...it's been about four days since we split up, and I haven't heard from him since..."

"Hmm." Kratos held his chin in thought and furrowed his brow. He didn't quite show it, but he was beginning to feel this concern too.

Azriel listened intently with wide eyes, not blinking throughout Rhone's story. She finally did at the end of it, only because a couple of tears slid from her eyes. A slight blush spread across her face when he mentioned that she reminded him of his sister.

"Though I really am an only child, I understand how t-terrible you must feel. I'm sorry I had b-brought up such a bad memory and that you had to go through s-such." There was a stutter in her voice because she continued crying.

Chiaro and Oscuro's feelings were synchronized with Azriel's. Thus, they too felt sadness. The latter, always trying to keep up a tough image, hid it by biting her lip after a sigh. Then she patted Rhone on the back. "Yeah, we hear you, buddy."

Chiaro closed her eyes, placing a hand over her heart and bowing her head. "May their souls rest in peace."

Azriel sniffled a bit, then lifted her right arm to wipe her eyes with her sleeve. Realizing she could move her arms, she joked, "H-hey. My arms are working again."

Back downstairs, Colette's ears twitched. She couldn't make out the words, but she was sure she heard another voice. And sniffling. She turned her head toward the stairs and blinked. "I-is somebody...crying?" sad

"...Huh?" Sheena was confused for a moment, then remembered that Colette must have her heightened Angelic senses intact. "Oh! That might be Azriel!"

"Azriel?"

"She's another friend of ours, but she wasn't able to come down with us because she's badly injured. Augh...someone should go check if she needs anything. Something might be wrong." She began to step briskly toward the stairs.

"Um...may I come see her too? You guys seem to have made a lot of new friends lately! I'd like to meet them all."

Sheena smiled softly. "...Heh. Of course you may."

At her approval, Colette nodded and followed behind the young chief.

"I'm sorry to hear that too, Rhone." Schwarz put his tail between his legs and hung his head low, "I'm also sorry my feral brethren took something so precious."


~

Raine had just started to wake up, "What's with all the noise?" she asked drowsily.

Oro looked at her, "Awake are we? Sheena and Zelos are back along with a... powerful looking figure, I think they called him Regal. And a Blond girl named Colette just showed up."

"I see." She got up and started for the stairs. "Guess I should say hi."

"Now that I think of it. Why didn't you heal Azriel?"

Raine stopped at the base of the stairs, "Now that I think of it, why didn't I?" She started to walked up the stairs.

"Oh, sure, it's all right...though, how do you tell when you're all rested enough to go back? ...Do you know how to go back at all?"

Oscuro snorted and grinned mischievously once more. "All I have to do is give 'im another good kick upside the head again."

"...'Again'?" 0.o;;

Kratos was the last one left and was about to follow behind, if only for the least bit of concern for the girl. But before he headed up the stairs, he turned to look at Cain and Cinkel, whom he noticed had not yet gone up to see Azriel even once yet. Were they really a couple more allies, or just strangers in this house? With slight curiosity, he asked, "Do you not want to see how she is faring, at least? She is your friend...right?"

Cain shrugged, sighed, and shifted his weight from foot to foot, "Well, I would have earlier, but Cinkel said, well, and she was okay so, and he said that, well, I didn't want to over crowd her and, um." He stopped and frowned at Cinkel then turned his attention back to Kratos, "Yes. I do." He then headed for the stairs himself.

Cinkel just smirked and shrugged, "She's okay. That's all that really matters. Right? As long as she's safe."

On their way to Azriel and Rhone's room, Cain tried to start up a conversation with Kratos, "So, you're Kratos Aurion. Right? I've heard a good bit about you from Grandpa. Too bad I wasn't in the village at the time you and Lloyd had it out in the forest."

Back in the main room, Cinkel just smirked at Kratos's comment, Things are getting risky. Perhaps I should be more like him

"That is correct," Kratos replied. "...Cain, is it? The next Elder of Heimdall?" he mentioned, indicating he was paying attention even though it seemed like he wasn't. Remembering his impression of the Elven race as mostly reclusive, it began to strike him as odd that one with such a title had ventured out. "Have you any business outside of the village?" he asked.

Oscuro cracked her knuckles again, her expression going from mischievous to more...enthusiastic. "Oh yeah! I'll definitely take you up on that! Just name the time...only not in daylight. My strength is weaker at those hours..."

Azriel blinked, her face in a mixture of sheer puzzlement and astonishment. "Heh. You don't say..." O.o;;

Sheena and the others were finally at the doorway.

"Azriel...is something the matter? Colette here heard someone crying..."

Azriel paused for a second, remembering that Rhone wanted to keep his story a secret. Respecting his wishes, she went on to reply, "Oh, no. Something just got in my eye and gave it a bad itch. On a side note, my arms can move again. Ahaha!"

Colette blinked in astonishment, staring at the bedridden girl with curious eyes. "So this is Azriel? Wow...are those wings real?" O.O

Azriel took a moment to push herself up to a seated position, propping her back against the headboard. "Ah...Miss Colette...we haven't personally met, but I've heard of you. I'm a Sylvaranti myself. It's nice to meet you. Heehee...yes, my name is Azriel Serafina, and yeah...these wings are real. It's a long story." ^_^;;

Colette walked up to her bedside, extending her hand to offer a friendly handshake. "Please, just call me Colette. It's nice to meet you too." ^_^ As Azriel placed her hand in hers, she looked into her eyes in silence for a second, subconsciously reading her being. She could sense...darkness...but it wasn't an evil darkness. It was the same kind of darkness she could feel by being around the summon spirit Shadow. It told her there was nothing to fear. As she grasped Azriel's hand more firmly, she could feel the hole in her palm. She lifted it up to get a closer look, finding the wound to be relatively fresh, the bleeding probably stopped by a healing arte. "Wow, this looks serious," she commented, frowning with concern. Looking around for the professor and seeing that she was close by, she asked, "Raine, could any of your healing spells close this up?"

"Ah! Speaking of healing...er, this is gonna sound a little funny, but Rhone says he can heal faster if someone throws a bucket full of water on him." lol

"...Who's Rhone?"

"...Um. He's in the next bed over." sweatdrop

Colette looked over at the other bed and blinked at the elf's sleeping form. It somehow didn't strike her as too odd at the moment that his skin was an unnatural-looking shade of dark gray, perhaps because she was more confused as to why Azriel said what she did. "But...how did he tell you that if he's not awake?" O.o

"Azriel, you said something about him being in your mind right now, right? Uh...think of it as him sending messages to her mind, Colette," Sheena tried to explain with a shrug. She wasn't very familiar with these kinds of powers.