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Anna

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(A tale by Sealeena)

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Chapter One: Fall and Spring

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Fall is here. The leaves on the trees are dying and they gently drop onto the ground, one by one. It is beautiful, as beautiful as one could expect from Mother Nature. It is so brilliant that a girl walking along stops and looks up to admire the cascading waterfall of leaves. She lifts her hands up and the foliage grazes her soft flesh as they come down to meet the earth. She smiles and grabs one of the fragile leaves, admiring its feather like weight. She turns it over and over again, memorizing the structure, the texture, and the color. She is amazed.

Suddenly, there is a shout to the north, her hometown; the village she's lived in her whole life. She is broken from her peaceful trance and looks to see a great plume of black smoke that breaks the purity of the blue sky. The raging fire that creates this smoke is in the center of town. The only structure that is big enough to produce that much smoke is the chapel that honors the great goddess Martel. It is strange that the invaders would desecrate such a holy place. But then again, maybe not, for destroying the precious religion of the people in this particular village would cause many of its inhabitants to surrender without any bloodshed.

A basket full of herbs seems to hit the ground in slow motion. They spill all over the ground, a myriad of greens, yellows, and some browns. The girl does not notice this, for her eyes widen in shock at the realization that something terrible is happening in her village. Her basket is completely forgotten. Cold beads of sweat trickle down the side of her face as she finds that she cannot move because of fear. She stands and watches as the sounds of death and fighting increase. Mothers cry for their children, young boys scream because they are incapable of defending those they love, men are tortured, and young women are brutally raped in front of families. The little girl can't stand it anymore and covers her ears, unable to cope with the horrible noises.

There is a shadow that falls over her, not caused by the tree that is shedding its leaves nor the smoke from the church that is steadily burning. The shadow is made from a person; slowly, she looks up. At first she is scared, but the presence of this person, a man, actually calms her. He stands tall, at least six feet, muscular from his natural ability with the sword that is strapped at his side. He looks as if he is in his early to mid twenties. His hair is captured by the sunlight, as auburn as the leaves that she was playing with a little bit before. His eyes are deep, brown, and cold. She knows that they see all and yet they look completely emotionless; however, a small spark can be seen as well, some small part that says there is humanity within the man. All it needs is something or someone to hold it, nurture it, and it is possible he can be kind and compassionate. Hopeful, the girl holds up a leaf, a sign that she is peaceful, not threatening in any way whatsoever.

He leans down and gingerly takes it from her.

She tilts her head and gives a small smile.

A woman and a small boy come running down the road that leads to the village. The woman is covered in blood, the little boy as well. They both carry haunted looks in their eyes. They stop as they see the little girl standing with the man. The woman's face holds a look of surprise and she comes running over, taking the small girl a few feet away from the man holding the leaf. The blood from her clothes seeps over to the little girl's and she is sullied. This, for some reason, scares her, and she starts to cry; the woman tries to soothe her, but her efforts are futile. The woman looks to the man, horrified, as if he were a god of death.

He speaks. His cold voice matches his cold eyes, and it holds in unnaturally deep boom that shakes the bones. "You are under arrest. Resistance will be taken as hostility and you will be executed on the spot." He draws his long sword and points in menacingly at the threesome. The little girl, for some reason unknown to her, cannot be fearful of him. The young boy also does not fear this man, but he runs to the little girl, taking her from the woman and holding her close to him, protecting her. "Please, do not fight me." He seems to truly feel for these people. They look like family. The two children look very much alike. They must be twins. The little girl has long, flowing brown hair and striking green eyes that remind you of lush, rolling fields. The boy has similar hair, unruly, and pulled into a ponytail to try and calm some of its wildness. His eyes are the same as hers. The woman has blond hair, but the same remarkable eyes. She must be the mother. "Do you yield?"

The woman looks at him, defiant now. She lifts her head as she softly pushes the girl away from her, away from the man. "I will never bow down to monsters like you. You are scum." She emphasizes the last word by spitting at his feet. "Kill me if you wish. At least I will die with honor and freedom, not humiliation and slavery."

His eyes harden and he lifts his sword high, the steel gleaming under the sunlight. The woman does not cringe, but looks on, confident, accepting her fate. The blade falls, hard and fast. The woman's eyes widen as the sharp edge cuts into the left side of her body, from the collarbone deep into her heart. The blow comes so fast that all she sees is a small slice of air and then sees the sword being pulled from her body that is already becoming cold with death. She stands there for just a moment, not doing anything: breathing, thinking, truly living. And then, she falls to the ground, her knees hitting the earth first, followed by the rest of her. The light of life fades from her, and her eyes lose their luster, becoming a dull mossy green.

The children look at the brown-eyed man, their faces holding no emotion. They look at their fallen mother and sit down by her. The boy holds his mother's hand while the little girl plays with her mother's hair that hasn't been desecrated by the crimson mess. They do not cry. Maybe it is from the shock of losing someone so close, or maybe they are too young to know the importance of it. No glimmering tears come to their eyes. They merely look up at the man who killed their mother, slightly confused.

"Do we have to come with you?" the little girl asks.

The man nods. "Yes. You will be taken to the Asgard Human Ranch." He sheaths his sword and offers his hand to the children. They look up at him, hesitant. And then, the little girl gets up and tentatively takes his right hand with both of hers. The boy takes his left hand. He squeezes their hands reassuringly. For some reason, he feels as if he should be responsible for them and have to take care of them. The little girl looks up at him and gives him another one of her precious smiles. He feels compelled to smile back and does so. He looks to the boy, and the boy nods his head in acknowledgement, but does not smile like his sweet sister. He does the same. "Do not worry. I won't hurt you." They start to walk away from the village, away from all the carnage, the horrors, and away from all nightmares they'll have in the years to come. "What are your names?"

The boy points to himself. "My name is Ace Lexington."

"And you?" the man asks, turning his attention to the little girl. "You are a beautiful thing indeed. I must know your name."

He looks into her green eyes. He thinks of the forest, gardens, and springtime at its peak. He is enthralled. "I am Anna, Anna Lexington. What is your name sir, you who took our lives, you who took our family?"

Such vocabulary and thought for one so young; he looks back one last time to see the fallen body of the children's mother. His face softens somewhat, even though he does not regret slaying her. He doesn't know why, but he regrets causing Ace and Anna some pain in their lives. That is why he allows a small bit of emotion to cross his face. "I…my name…" He slows down for a moment, staring ahead into space. "My name…my name is Kratos. I am Kratos Aurion."

No one speaks another word. They merely continue to walk down the road, into the sunset. They do not look back, only ahead, to the horizon…and to the future.

The leaves from the tree continue to silently fall. They cover the body that lies beneath them, bit by bit in a flurry of red, brown, and yellow.

The day resumes its peacefulness.

Fall is here. The leaves on the trees are dying and they gently drop onto the ground, one by one. It is beautiful, as beautiful as one could expect from Mother Nature.

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Anna

I sit in the shade of the building, my back resting against the stone wall that holds me prisoner. A breeze comes from the outside world and it slowly rushes past me, playing with my hair and clothes as it goes by. I gradually open my eyes at this small interruption in my rest. I shift my position, one of my two swords pressing against me as I do so. I sigh and move the sword so that it is more comfortable, although my body still feels discomfort of some kind. I slowly lift up my right hand so that I have better access to my Exsphere that is imbedded into my skin, and surrounded by one of the strangest Key Crests I've ever seen. I guess it's that way because I am the main test subject in an experiment called the Angelus Project.

Yippee.

In fact, I just finished another torturous session with the creator of the project, Kvar. The bastard strapped me down on the examining today because I've been a little troublesome lately. At first, he did the usual, accessing my Exsphere's program and checking all my vital signs: strength, mana, any illnesses, and about ten or more other odd things that include evasion rate and accuracy. This part is an every day thing and isn't painful in any way. The other part of the procedure wasn't normal, though, and now I'm sitting in the shade because of it: Kvar injected some substance into me that looked like silver but burned like fire. I honestly though I was going to die. I tossed and turned so much that the legs of the table started to buckle and several Desians had to hold me down by hand.

That was fun.

Not.

Kvar did the same thing to my twin brother, Ace. Ace is only a couple of feet away from me, recuperating as well. I look at him: long, curly brown hair pulled into a ponytail and a fantastic build for a guy who's been tortured since we were Goddess Martel knows how old. Four? Five? Six? Seven? He also has some of the most beautiful green eyes that instantly remind you of a forest, life itself. I love to look at his eyes. They make me feel calm, safe. Of course, Ace makes me feel calm and safe whenever I'm with him, and that's almost all the time. He's been great in taming my temper. I wish I could be like him when it comes to thinking, too.

I'm an idiot. Too bad I can't do anything about it.

I press down on one of the runes inscribed in my Key Crest. A holographic menu that is about seven and a half inches long and four inches wide pops up above my Exsphere. There's a menu and status bars. I take my index finger and select a small bar that says Health. A sub screen pops up that shows how decreased my health is. I have quite a bit of stamina, thanks to the Exsphere, but after today's experiment, I'm feeling really weak. My health is divided into "hit points" on a scale of about eight hundred and fifty of these "points". When I'm at full health, the entire bar matches the highest possible number of points, but when I'm injured, the bar decreases. At zero, I'm either unconscious or dead, but today it said that I had six hundred and thirty two points out of the possible eight hundred and fifty. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Resting for a few hours would bring it back up. Hell, I remember when six hundred was the highest possible number I could have. With each experiment, my bar, my stamina, increases.

I am so damn lucky: I get to have ultimate power at the mere price of insanity.

"How you doing, Annie?" my brother gently calls out. My real name is Anna, but Ace has some idea that he's got to call me Annie and will do so as long as he lives. It's one of the few flaws I can live with. "I feel like I've had the shit beat out of me. I can't believe Kvar thought that would be a good idea. Of course, that fucking asshole never had any sense in the first place."

I exit out of the menus and the holographic images disappear, as if they were sucked back into the Exsphere. I sit back against the wall and close my eyes. The stone feels nice and cool on such a warm day. "I feel shitty too, but hey, we don't have to do anything else today. Those lazy bastards aren't even watching us."

He gives a low chuckle. My stomach does somersaults and I can't figure out why. I mean, after all, Ace is my brother. It's got to be this weather we've been having lately. The heat must've gone to my head and my hormones are all out of whack. That can't be too much of an excuse. I'm nineteen. My hormones have had plenty of time to balance out. "They're not watching us because we're not strong enough to defeat them. Well, we're not strong enough…yet." He sidles over to me and puts his arm around me so that my head rests on his chest and I can hear the b-bump, b-bump of his heart. "But we'll get out of her Annie. I swear it." He lifts my head up so that our faces are merely inches apart. His green eyes are dark with sincerity. "I love you."

He kisses my forehead and his lips linger there for a moment before he pulls back. I tumble into his lap and we stay that way for a long time.

The silence is nice.

"Ace?" I question, breaking the nice silence.

I've always been clueless when it comes to "moments."

"Hmm?"

"I love you too."

Ace

I love Anna Lexington more than anything in the world, and I know I'll burn for it, too. But I don't really care. After all, it was about twelve years ago that she and I only had each other. It's all thanks to that man: Kratos Aurion. Annie gets stars in her eyes every time she sees him walking through the gates, but she never runs to greet him. She usually avoids him, as if she were some little girl. I avoid him too, but for other reasons. While Annie may see him as some kind of God, I loathe him because he took one of the most precious peoples in our lives away from us. That was our mother, but he didn't give a damn. After all, she was just resisting, and that was seen as hostility, and hostile people had to be punished.

I stroke her hair. It's beautiful, a deep, earthy brown that feels like silk to my touch. I know it smells like vanilla and just a hint of something that's a little musky. I think that's just her, but it's the most intoxicating thing my nose has ever experienced. I love to lie beside her so that I can have her scent. She's the only person who will let me be myself. I like it that while she doesn't like to think or dwell on things, she'll listen to me and let me voice opinions, problems, and thoughts; anything that makes you sit for a moment or two. Even though she hates it, she'll listen to me. That's what's so great about her. She never puts herself before others.

We may look a lot alike, but our ways of looking at the world are a little different. Annie's all instinct and passion, while I take my time, I ponder. We can be opposites on some matters, but we always get along, never really clash, because we both bring something into our lives that the other one couldn't see before. We benefit each other.

Maybe that's why I'll burn when I die, because all those traits of Annie: her looks, her smell, her voice, her laughter, and so much more, have made me love her. Unfortunately, I don't mean a brotherly love, although I do love her like that, it's a secondary sort of feeling. No, I love for Annie that way a man would love his wife. I lust for her while I comfort her after a painful experimental session. I help her hone her fighting skills while I bask in the glorious feel of her body as she lies in my lap at this very moment. Everything she does with me is so innocent, but to me, it's as if she does it all for me, only me; and, since I share a housing block with her, she usually winds up in my bed at night because she gets nightmares when she's alone, and it takes everything I have not to touch her, to show her how I really feel.

I wish once that I could confess my feelings for her and she would return them. I've thought many times to tell her that one crucial thing and see how she reacts, but if she didn't take action in any favorable way, I could not live with myself. I think it is better to be loved as a brother than to be hated as a man.

Her body fully falling into mine jerks me out of my foolish dreaming. I look down to see that she has fallen asleep. Her gorgeous green eyes do not see me, but some other person, maybe even another man in her world of dreams. Her delicate features curve as she smiles at something in her dream world. I lean down and inhale her scent. She gives a small smile. I softly kiss her cheek, relishing at how soft, how smooth her skin is. I sit back up, catching my breath. I opt to grab her left hand instead, still thankful for the bit of closeness it provides, and run my fingers over the calluses that have been made from years of swordplay. That's probably the only real rough spot on her body, but it's not a flaw. In fact, it's a beautiful part of her character, that while she might look fragile, she's one of the toughest people I've ever known.

I look up and see a few of the slaves of this ranch wander by. The guards must be switching shifts or they're too lazy to look after them. I don't mind. It's nice to see these people having a little rest, especially in this hot, sticky weather. Annie and I have been dressing in the lightest cotton clothes we can find, but the best thing to do would be to find a lake or something of the sort and dive in. It'd be nice, but that would mean having to have security and Kvar is a stickler when it comes to possibly endangering his people. So, until someone else comes along that could accompany us, we're stuck here until we get heat stroke.

At least I get to lie down in the shade her with Annie. With the breeze, I'm finding it is a little pleasant. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to take a nap for a few moments.

My eyes start to close and blackness starts to take over. Everything is quiet.

That's when I hear the creak of the heavy, ten-foot tall steel doors opening. They're the main gates, and someone important just arrived. Either that, or there's more prisoners about. I'm hoping it's just one person and not people being led to their deaths. I carefully shift Annie to the side so that I can get up and peer around the corner to see whom it is. But then again, when I see who…I wish I would have just stayed put and been satisfied with a beautiful woman in my lap. I'm just too damn curious.

Speak of the devils. It's Kratos. My question is: what's he doing here today? Kratos doesn't have any known ties to this ranch, but he's been visiting it quite a bit lately In fact, he's been running into me quite a bit lately too. I think he'd run into Annie a hell of a lot more too is she wasn't so shy. Maybe I'm happy she did that, though. I don't really want Kratos finding out about her. He seems to have taken a great interest in our fighting abilities lately. It makes me wonder what's in it for him.

"Mmm…Ace?" Annie sits up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She looks like a goddess with her hair mussed and her eyes half closed. She gives a small smile. "What's happening? Why'd you move?" She stands up and stretches, walking over to me. She affectionately pokes me in the back. "Is Kvar looking for us?" I shake my head. "Then, what is it?"

"Hello Ace, Anna." I turn to see Kratos standing before us.

"Dammit it all," I mutter. "Kratos. What a pleasant surprise. Why have you decided to grace us with your presence?"

I feel Annie shiver behind me. I scowl.

Just my lucky day, I guess.

Anna

I don't know why it happened, but my body started to shiver uncontrollably. I hid behind Ace, afraid that Kratos would see me and talk to me. I couldn't, I just couldn't. Maybe that's because of the dream I've been having about him lately. It goes back to when I was just a little girl at the age of five. I dream that I'm standing under a tree and the leaves are falling, but they're all blood red. I catch one and it turns to liquid, running down my hand, falling to the ground. I know that it's symbolizing some sort of violence, but I don't pull away. The blood actually comforts me. I then realize that there's someone behind me. I turn around to see Kratos watching me. He smiles at me. I look down to see that I'm nineteen again, and when I look back up, Kratos is still smiling at me. He reaches out and strokes my cheek. I grab his hand, but he tenderly cups my face with his other hand and he kisses me. I hear this sound, like something was stabbed. I look down and see his sword sticking into my flesh. I look at him and there are tears in his eyes. That's the last thing I see before I wake up.

Damn nightmares.

Now that I see him, my heart won't stop pounding. I feel the blood rushing to my face as I blush. I hide my face in Ace's hair so that no one can see my embarrassment. The last thing I want is for two full grown men to find out that I'm acting like a kid.

"I have a mission for you." I peek around Ace's body. I see that Kratos glances at me. There's a flash of something in his eyes, but I hide behind Ace again. "It's not much. There's been something that's harassing Desian caravans lately. Kvar's asked higher powers for help. I figured this would be a perfect opportunity for you two to get out and see some real action."

"What's in it for us?" Ace asks. His voice his hostile. I softly yank on his hair and his posture relaxes a little. "Why not send out some more reliable people?"

"Because I've kept track of you two since Yuan started training you." I peek around Ace again and this time he looks right into my eyes. I bite my lip. He raises an eyebrow. "I thought you might want to spend some time out of the ranch. It's been hot lately, hasn't it?" He does have a point. Does he read minds or something, because Ace and I have been dying to see a waterfall. "I know of a place, Lake Umacy. It's a ways from here, but I've requested to take you away from Asgard Ranch for two months to improve your skills, after taking care of the problem around here, of course."

"That's it?" I step out from behind Ace. I can't keep the smile off of my face. This is it! This is what we've been waiting for! "There's no question about it! Of course we'll do it."

"Annie!" Ace protests. "What are you—"

"We leave tomorrow," Kratos interrupts. He looks at me, and me at him. I feel something jolt through my body. "I'm looking forward to this."

The wind blows through the ranch.

Ace protectively grabs a hold of me.

I still hear the beating of my heart.

Today is just full of surprises. Wonderful, wonderful surprises…

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End Chapter

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Author's Notes: Ok, so it's sort of an anticlimactic beginning, but I promise it'll get better. I hope no one minds the first person aspect. I thought I'd try it out. I'd love to have reviews aplenty! Any questions I ask to be sent in the form of a PM and please tell me if you guys want this to keep going or not. I'd like to know if this is a worthy investment or a waste of my time. Well, I should get going and work on some other fanfics. I hope everyone liked this little preview. Love you all. Ciao.

To Be Continued Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own Tales of Symphonia or related works. I am not making any profit from this and I beg that you do not sue me. Thank you.