Well it's been a while but I've resurfaced! And it's a collaboration fiction with my dear companion Kingdomonkey! Read her stuff for it truly rocks sock off of their respective feet! So no further a due, this chapter is written by me in Kratos' POV. Disclaimer!!! Obviously we don't own Tales of Symphonia, though we've had many discussions on what would happen if we did. Mumble mumble. The plot however is our brain child... And an insolent one at that. Enjoy.

Kratos' POV

Red. Warmth. Red. It's... All over my... Hands.

...Anna?

Argh! ANNA! ...She ...It hits me again, its large claw like arm striking my ribs and sending me into a nearby tree. That's three ribs gone, my mana is drained. I can't... concentrate. The world has slowed down, the only thing my angelic senses can pick up is the sound of my own blood, flowing, flooding, and POUNDING in my head. But its not all mine, someone else is hurt... WHO ELSE IS HURT? I can't remember anything, its like I've been fighting the creature for an eternity, I'm not using my full strength. Of course I'm not. That THING is my wife, my Anna, my heart. Thank Goddess Noishe took the child and ran, I can hear screaming... The sounds of pain and death and heartbreak, sounds so terrible I haven't heard them since the war.

The pain suddenly explodes within my head as I recognise the voice, the cries of pain and of pity. It's... me.

But that's not the only sound, I kick the monster off with a firm blow to the expansive chest, it lands three feet away from me, giving me precious seconds to identify the other sounds. Harsh breathing and the repulsively weak cries of the desians I dispatched down the cliff to the forest below, nothing can be done for them, they are going to die, alone and crying. Children, not soldiers. I throw the thoughts of their pathetic souls aside. The next sound is far more... disturbing. Its laughter... A nauseatingly sweet sound, I don't recognise it but I realise where its coming from and I cannot even begin to control the rage that pools and wells within me. Him. That bastard Kvar, he did this, he kept Anna... MY Anna, in a cage, upon her escape he tracked us mercilessly, ruthlessly hunting us day and night. And now, finding our dear, beautiful child and us... My heart contracts with a new swell of pain, Lloyd—

I hear myself scream again as I am lifted far above the ground and slammed back down with tremendous force, I can't breath; I stagger to my feet and raise my shield weakly only to be hit to the ground again. This cannot be happening. This should not be happening. I found the woman that I loved, such a wonderful woman that found it in her magnanimous heart to love such a thing as I with unrestrained passion and grace. To nurture me and to help me out grow the pain that my sins had born within me, to save me in everyway I could have imagined and further grant me with the astonishing gift of a son. My life is being ripped apart at the seems and I can do nothing, nothing but watch as everything we worked for, strived so hard for, is taken from us. Is there no peace? Is there no happiness?

"Come along now my LORD Aurion, you can do better than that. I've seen you do better than that."

Kvar interrupts my thoughts, that contemptuous; mocking voice I would know anywhere. How dare he? But still, this is my wife, the mother of my child, the woman I LOVE. I cannot hurt her, I cannot. The creature raises its horrid, deformed hands above its head, ready to finally finish me, I cannot think anymore, not of Anna, not of Lloyd, not of Noishe. WAIT!

The scream I hear now is not my own, I watch with a mixture of terror and relief as Noishe launches himself at the creature, my infant son placed safely on the ground away from the battle. The child's large, wholly innocent, chocolate brown eyes, boring into my own, so similar orbs. I can't see fear in those eyes, I can only see confusion, and in a brief flash I see Lloyd's life becoming a mess of complication.

A high-pitched whimpering breaks through my thoughts and I watch the limp form of my faithful pet sail over the same cliffs that claimed the desians. Seeing this my child bursts into sobs, loud sobs, they ricochet around my head and heart. In that moment I almost feel like crying with him but my damnable crystal will not allow it. Time seems to halt at that little boy's desperate call of denial.

"Noooooo! Noishe!"

The creature, the monster, the mother, freezes where it stands and turns to look its son. It regards me also. It is deciding whom to kill first. Assessing the threat levels. Just as I was trained to do.

"Kra-tos?" A broken sound, a pain filled sound. I cannot stop my eyes from staring at the monstrous form before me.

"Anna?" I have to ask, it is impossible, I know it is impossible. But I have to have her back, trade her place with mine.

"My... Love. Kill. Me."

"No." The decsion is absolute, I will not do this.

"I... Love you. But you must... Argggggggggh!" The creature, Anna, lurches forward towards our child.

"Nooo," I whisper brokenly, "Anna I can't, I won't let you die! I love you!"

"KRATOS you must, if you do not that child, my…child, will DIE!" With a cry of rage, of war, of desperation and with bitter, unrestrained defeat. The creature, no longer my wife in any way, moves with superior speed towards Lloyd. It is with cry of equal emotion that I rush to meet her, thrusting my sword through her chest and dragging the blade down to ensure a quick death. She turns with the grace of a predator and swipes at me, I stumble back and can only watch as the reactions of the monster result in my boy being knocked over the cliffs behind it.

"Nooooo!" I hear myself shrieking, I can't control the pain and I can't move. I cannot move.

The monster strikes me again with its failing limbs and I hear several more ribs shatter. I don't care. I can hear the creature dying behind me but I don't stop to watch, I must get to Lloyd. With my mana completely depleted I have no wings and no choice but to jump and run and fall down to the bottom of the cliff, at the bottom my heart is ripped apart never to be re-formed. Lloyd is gone. The desians are half eaten by monsters.

My baby son is gone. MY BABY SON IS DEAD.

My vision grows blurry and I hope and pray that death is what awaits me. I can hear shouting at the top of the cliff, I recognise the voices. I will have revenge on the human Kvar, and the half-elf Yuan. The one soul who knew of our whereabouts. A single sobbing word passes my lips as the world rushes away from me.

"Lloyd."

So thats how it went, Reviews are always appriecated but flames will be used to fuel a pot for a Mithos roast. Stay tuned for the next installment because Kingdomonkey is writing it!