Legends: Diversion

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is related, remotely related, or is in the game, Illusion of Gaia. It is owned by Enix and all related companies. All Original Characters, Stories, and anything that is not in, related to, or remotely related to the game, was solely created for creative and entertainment purposes. Thank you for your time.

Author's Note: Well here it goes again in the way of a new Legends story. The same applies as before: taking some liberty here and there with canon if/when it applies, Freedan and Shadow are separate characters, and so on and so forth. Again while the first chapter is told in the first person POV, the rest will be done in a different POV (Kat's, Freedan's, etc.). I will say that there will be some jumping around from different perspectives here and there but generally I'll be sticking to Kat's POV – any readers of this story will know when there is another character's POV.

The only difference between Beginnings and Diversion is the fact that I'm interjecting a LOT MORE of original stuff in this one. Like Beginnings, this story is meant as another stepping stone into a larger world. Eventually I will put more characters from the game into the stories, if only by name for the moment, but for now I need to set the stage for everything else first. Again, if you don't like anything about these stories the back button is your friend. I won't be offended by it, pinky promise.

I am also sorry that it took me such a long time to get this story out. I am still not completely done with it but am ahead far enough where I feel comfortable somewhat to start putting chapters up.

Prologue – Passing Of Time

Whatever begins, also ends - Seneca

It's strange that two years have passed since I was on Kara's Keep, when it seems like only yesterday I had stepped off of the boat from the main island back onto the port dock. I was still in shock over what had happened, even when I was back in my mother's home not even three days later. It did not hit me until that moment that I would not see the main island again for a long period of time, if my mother could help it. My brother, even now, still does not believe my father is gone; he still is in complete denial about it. For the first few weeks I let it slide then as the first half of my senior year at school ended, I no longer had the patience for him. Once the New Year began I found myself walking away from him, trying to keep my cool and not using the dark nature of the ring. Even our mother became frustrated with him and smacked him on the head several times to get him out of his stupor. Our father wasn't coming back and, if he did, it wouldn't be in the same form I once knew him as.

They cannot know the full truth of what had happened on Kara's Keep. Even with this journal I take care of what I write, knowing that anyone can just pick it up and read it. Unlike the journals I kept as a child, however, this one is locked up tightly in a folder somewhere in my small apartment. The physiologist said that it would help me by writing what really happened on that island and give her pages of it to better understand what I had gone through. Writing it out won't help; no one would really believe that I spent several days with an immortal knight while meeting Mother Nature and taking on a snake-woman. No, what I have really wrote and what I gave to the damn physiologist was two different things. I only went to her eight sessions so that the lawyers, police departments, and other such persons would see that I was not insane and they would get off my back.

The 'head doctor' labeled me as perfectly sane, lawyers spent hours arguing with the police in that I had nothing to do with my father's 'death', and my mother willingly told authorities that would listen to go away and look for the real criminals. This is the same woman who, years ago, had prodded me to a point where I had pulled a knife on her. I think she knew that I had seen something so vile, so horrible, that I had clammed up and still refuse to talk about it because of the nature of these events. What the police can't do, is actually go to Kara's Keep to look for their evidence, the tribal council won't let them step foot on there. Its sacred ground and besides, outside government bodies don't have the authority to do any such investigating without their consent. They also told them, in nicer words I would've used, to get lost.

The council never gave them consent, told these visiting authorizes that there had already been an investigation, and that the person behind the vile events was already taken care of. There had to be a level head amongst the visitors as I was cleared of anything that may have happened. Apparently the authorities were appeased but they couldn't do anything more: nothing was committed on State soil therefore they had no authority to do anything more then ask questions. They couldn't even serve papers to the council, they again told everyone to leave and that I was still welcome on the island regardless. Although the case in which my father's so-called 'death' is officially closed, I cannot believe for a second that we won't have any future trouble from those that still believe I had something to do with my father's disappearance. Eventually the authorities were charitable enough to release the contents of my father's Last Will and Testament, of which my mother is the Executor of even after their divorce.

My father's Will made no mention of his island home but rather what he had in value in the States, the UK, and France, which was more then what any of us knew of. I knew because of the nature of his work, my father had plenty invested in museums, bank accounts, and other such assets; most of this went to me and my brother. My father, in his wisdom, had left a sizable bank account to my mother should he ever find his way to the other side of death, I guess in retribution for not having to pay a lot in the way of child support all those years. My mother found this acceptable, who wouldn't say no to nearly ten million in pure money for just herself? Besides, she knew that even if I and my brother never worked a single day for the rest of our lives with what our father left us, we'd still have enough left over for another life. She also did not dispute my claim to my father's home and belongings on the main island; she despised the island but wouldn't not get in my way of my second home.

What my mother or brother don't know, and won't ever, is that what Michael Porter left me will need to last me a lot longer than the next seventy or so years. I have already shown signs of the aging process slowing down, all thanks to the Ring of Two Souls; I already look as though I've barely aged a day since I left for the main island two years ago. Spirits, those who have died and made their choice to follow the Gods like Gaia as their afterlife, have already been training me with the ring and there is temptation involved with using it. Freedan was right; the temptation was great to use the darker abilities of the ring. But I had to use the pull sparingly, or suffer what Crystal had become.

I found the Spirits to be helpful in guiding me through what they knew as dark abilities that I could use but not corrupt as Crystal or others had. I've come to find out that while there are dark abilities, not all of them are the kind that will turn me into a mutant she-snake; in fact, I have learned that these dark abilities are not as bad as I had previously thought. Still, I do not jump into the powers that the Ring of Two Souls has given me lightly, it still is warm to my touch and it knows I am not one to use it like the last master had done even if I don't know it. I am not completely innocent, the ring knows this but it also has a way to know that I am not about to take a chance like that. Only if there is a dire need to, of which I hope to never use.

Will I ever use the Ring of Two Souls outside of my ring-given abilities? Who knows, maybe my fate is tied tighter to it than I know it is.

Until Next Time