Copyright: I own nothing.
"Dad?" An intruder yawned as a young man entered his home, worried that something had happened to his parent, "Dad!"
"Don't worry, your father sleeps." The intruder had nothing to fear, he had come to speak to this very child.
"And just who the hell are you!" The boy demanded as he drew out his twin swords.
"Nobody important." The intruder walked casually through the living room, he held his cape over the front of his body. He wasn't cold, but he did note that some people were further intimidated by him when he did so and therefore, more prone to listening. "But if you require a name Lloyd Irving, then you can call me Yuan."
"Yuan?" The boy didn't even notice that Yuan had just said his name. It was true, the boy was slow, "What do you want?"
"I'm merely a nameless renegade here with an important message." Yuan brushed hair out of his face while the boy kept his swords held up in an awkward guard, "You are a fool."
"What?" The boy seemed shocked, stunned at what Yuan had told him, "You broke into my home and knocked out my dad to tell me that!" Lloyd slashed out to send a wave of telekinetic mana towards Yuan who blocked it with his double-bladed sword and spun in a rapid dance as the boy charged in and attacked.
Yuan made short work of the boy's flimpsy guard and broke through one of his swords before forcing the boy back into a wall with unseen mana. Grumbling, the boy stood back up as Yuan sheathed his weapon, uninterested in a fight.
"Swift...reckless...bold..." Yuan stated as Lloyd paid little attention to his broken sword and still remained ready to fight, "Just like your father."
"You knew my father?"
"It doesn't matter, I am not here about him." Though he would have if he was going with the original plan, "I'm here to tell you about your friend, the Chosen."
"Colette..." The boy's narrowed as he held up his remaining sword and the broken blade of the other, "Oh no! If you're here to hurt her-"
"Me? Hurt the Chosen?" Yuan chuckled as he sat back in a chair behind him, "What nonsense you speak child...I am here to ensure that you learn a simple truth."
"And why should I believe anything that you say to me?"
"I never said that you had to believe me." Yuan clarified while the boy just growled, "Nor did I say that I would tell you."
"I'll give you a choice." Yuan said as he pulled out two items with each of his hands and held them out to the boy, "These swords? They're plain now but give me a moment..." Yuan focused and didn't blink as a burst of energy shot out along the blades.
"Mana..."
"The choice is presented by whichever sword you take."
"You...You're giving me the swords?"
"Only the one that you choose." Yuan answered as the boy cautiously regarded the weapons in his hands, "If you take the sword surrounded in white fire, you will experience a momentary nausia before you lose consciousness. Then you will wake up whenever you originally planed to with no memory of ever meeting me. Afterwards, you will follow your precious chosen in ignorance of the cycle you propel on."
"If you take the sword surrounded in blue fire." Yuan continued, surpressing a smirk because he now had the boy exactly where he wanted him, "You'll experience pain...physically and mentally. You will learn a truth that has been pulled over your eyes and it will shock you. But what you do with what this sword does, depends completely on you."
"That simple?" As Yuan expected, the boy was not very easy to put at ease. While entranced by the power emitting from the two weapons, Lloyd did not trust the man holding them.
Smart boy.
"Remember." Yuan stared straight into the child's eyes, there was something waking up. It needed only something to jump upon and devour, "This is neither salvation nor damnation, all I offer...is the truth."
The truth.
Something flared in the boy's eyes before it cooled, distorting the boy's trust. It told Lloyd that his distrust of the intruder was irrelevant compared to the truth that he promised.
Yuan had no need to guess, Lloyd's gaze fell upon the cold blue flame. Yuan smirked, this boy had been withheld from the truth and somehow he knew it. He was no presented with a chance, a chance to learn of his friend's burden.
The boy slowly dropped his broken sword, shifted his remaining one to the left hand and reached out with his right. His hand hesitated to grip the enflamed handle, of course it was. The handle was on fire, any sane person would avoid fire.
But the boy never once took his gaze from that handle, he had already made his choice.
"Kratos?"
"It's nothing..." Kratos Aurion breathed, he could have sworn that he had felt something...no, it wasn't possible. "Are you sure that this is wise?"
"What?" The restless blond girl asked while Kratos crossed his arms over his chest.
"Lying to Lloyd about when you would leave." Kratos said to the Chosen as he leaned against the wall, "It is none of my business, but why not just tell him the truth."
"Kratos...I..."
"It is awfully cruel to mislead him-"
"It would be more so to take him with us!" The girl burst out while Kratos nodded in agreement, "He doesn't need to know...he doesn't need to see..."
"See that you will die?"
"Yes..." The girl held her legs up to her chest as tears flowed out of her eyes, "I don't want him to see me...see me die..."
"Lloyd..." The boy was now curled into a fetal position, desperately clutching his shoulders while his right hand was glued around the sword he had chosen, "What did you learn?"
"I heard her...I heard it from her own mouth..." The boy muttered amidst mad drooling and his own tears, "She's going to die..."
"Yes." Yuan walked in a circle around Lloyd, watching his sobbing, shaking form as he sensed something rise inside of the human, "This path she is about to embark on...will lead to her death."
"But why?" Lloyd now sounded much more angry than he did sad. This was a positive change in Yuan's opinion, "It's just going to..."
"Shift back in a few generations?" The boy stopped shaking as Yuan smirked, "My boy...what you need to understand is that everything you know...is wrong."
"Cruxis...the goddess Martel...The Journey of-" Lloyd didn't seem able to say it, the word apparently infuriated him to where he shot to his feet, "It's all a joke? It's all a joke!"
"Yes, a big cosmic scam designed to play with lives." Yuan confirmed as the boy stayed with his arms curled at his side, "And your friend, is going to be this game's latest victim."
"Colette..." Lloyd's eyes were shut tight with frustration and rage, as well as sadness that only fueled the earlier emotions, "She lied to me...she doesn't want me to go..."
"No..." Yuan slipped around to Lloyd's back and whispered gently into his ear, "She cares too much for you. She believes it better for you to live happily knowing that she will not embark on this quest."
"A quest that will first take away her right to rest." Yuan felt the beast in this boy's heart stir, he had felt it once and still does even years after it had awoke, "Then, it will take her ability to eat and be filled." Tears still flowing, the boy's teeth began to grit against each other.
"She will then lose her sense of touch...to feel someone hold her hand." Lloyd's breathing quickened, Yuan could feel the air change around this child, "Her voice will be silenced by the cruelty of these false heavens."
"Finally, she will be led to the Alter of Salvation where her soul will-"
"No..." The exsphere started to glow as the boy clutched his fists, the beast was waking up.
"And what is left will be prepared for a possible match for the soul of-"
"NOOOO!" Yuan backed up when a mana flowed out from Lloyd and shook everything in his small house. The boy then cried fervently and pathetically as he fell to his knees. Yuan had been in the boy's shoes, he knew what it was like to have the world crash down on him.
"I know how you feel..." Yuan knelt down to the sobbing child and place an arm around the boy's shoulder, "I loved someone once...only to have the world take her away. For others to spit on her dream and her final wishes, pervert them into something...ugly."
"But you can save Colette." The boy slowly turned to face Yuan, "And find a satisfactory way to save Sylvar-"
"The hell with Sylvarant!" The boy spat on the ground as he stood up, "How could...How could they do this? How many past chosens have given their lives in vain?"
"Colette will be the 7th officially." Yuan answered, "But take into account the thousands of years that have passed-"
"Enough!" Yuan could already see the change happening, the darkening of his eyes, "I want to save Colette...if I can't save Sylvarant in the meantime...let it burn..."
"You would allow Sylvarant to die just for one girl?"
"She's not just a girl!" The boy shouted in fury, but stopped himself and slapped his tearful face, "She's Colette! She's kind, gentle, brave and way smarter than I'll ever be...and this world...it won't stop at one..."
"Say no more." Yuan stated as he gave the boy a cloth to wipe his face. "But I am afraid that without the right power, your words are just that...words."
"How do I become stronger?"
"You don't need to." Yuan stated as the boy looked on for a further explanation, "The power is already here."
"Mom's exsphere?"
"Exactly." Yuan answered, pointing the boy's attention to the exsphere embedded in his hand, "But unlike other's, this exsphere is very unique and already holds enough power to rival my own."
"But, you don't know how to access it, do you?" Yuan didn't need an answer, of course the boy didn't, "Not to the extent that you will need to. Otherwise, why did you grab the blue sword?" On que, the boy regarded the blue fire still surrounding the blade that was still in his hand.
"That is no ordinary sword." The fire jumped upon the boy's jacket and began to burn it away as the fire spread to cover his entire body, "It was forged long ago from a material known as Aeglos. It was fairly easy to mine, since it's native structure is much like ice. Once enough was melted together, you could mold it into a powerful weapon capable of absorbing mana and retaining it for close to a millenia."
"But, due to it's high demand. The resource soon ran out and Aeglos is now a thing of legend." Madly spinning in pain and panic, Lloyd was unable to keep the blue flame from flowing into his mouth and nose as he tried to scream but no sound came. "Furthermore, most who touched weapons forged of Aeglos were overwhelmed by the sheer raw mana flowing out from it."
"The fact that you are still alive and conscious places you in the minority Lloyd Irving." Lloyd's face was completely blank and etched with pain as he knelt on the floor, his exsphere taking on the same blue glare as the fire that had burned away his clothes, "That particular sword is yours to do with as you will. It was originally part of the project that placed that exsphere on your mother in the first place, so it is only fitting."
"The mana that is burning your skin, overwhelming your senses and turning your insides out? It's also yours." Despite appearances, Yuan knew that the boy was still listening, "It doesn't matter, it was only there to awaken the real power within you."
"You don't have to say it." Yuan assured the child as the flames ceased and left him kneeling in place, "But I know you love her. Why else are you so willing to forsake the world for her sake? Remember that once you awaken and let it drive you forward. Seek knowledge from those wiser and older than you, especially me, but never let anyone else stir your path."
"That power is active, but don't rely strictly on it. You'll have to work yourself into collapsing until you can fully use it," Yuan stated as the boy fell forward onto the floor, "And speaking of collapsing."
'Sleep well, Lloyd Irving." Yuan said to the child as he walked out of the ruined living room, "And forgive me..."
With this move, Martel's True Will would be done.
Author's Notes:
First, I'll make one thing clear.
This will not be an evil Lloyd.
Chaotic-Good? Yes. Darker? Yes. Stronger and Smarter? Within reason.
But what you will see is a Lloyd who is still assertive and bold; but he'll be more knowing, aware and most importantly, focused.
His focus? Saving Colette. Spoilers: It won't be pretty.
Note: First experiment into an M-rated dark fic so feedback is very much appreciated.