I Would Die for You
Chapter One: Truth and Trust
Lloyd woke up with a start. "My body…" he said. "I can't…move…" He opened his eyes and looked up. Yuan was standing over him using binding magic.
"Do you want to meet your father?" Yuan asked.
"What have you done with my dad?" Lloyd exclaimed. Yuan teleported out. Meet his father? Lloyd couldn't believe it. Yuan found his real father! Lloyd got out of bed.
"Where'd he go?" he asked himself. He looked around. Despite Yuan coming in the middle of the night, everyone was still asleep, and Tabatha was nowhere to be found.
Lloyd went into the main hall. Yuan wasn't here either. The front door was opened. Lloyd went outside.
"Whoa!" he screamed. There was a blade just in front of his neck. A Renegade was keeping him in place. Lloyd also saw Yuan and…Kratos? Why was Kratos here? It made no sense! "Kratos? Cruxis and the Renegades are enemies, aren't they?" he said.
"Quiet!" Yuan snapped. "Although, the drug should have everyone sleeping soundly.
"Drug?" Lloyd repeated. Then he realized something. He saw Yuan, Kratos, a few Renegades, and no one else. "Where's my dad? If you've done anything to my dad, I'll tear every last one of you to pieces!"
"Now, now." Yuan said in a calm voice. "Is that the way to act when you're about to meet your father for the first time?"
Kratos spoke up. "So it was you. You were the assassin who tried to kill me at Hima."
"Kratos," Yuan began. "if you value your son's life at all, you'll do as we say."
Kratos' son? Lloyd thought. "What are you…talking about…?" Yuan's crazy! Unless…
"Release Origin's seal." Yuan said. "Otherwise, Lloyd will die right here." There was no mistaking what Yuan was saying. Kratos was Lloyd's father.
"No…" Lloyd said. "Kratos can't be my dad. I c…I can't believe that…I won't believe that!"
"How does it feel to have your own son reject you like that?" Yuan asked Kratos. Kratos didn't answer. "I'd guess from your attitude, you don't plan on releasing Origin." He turned to Lloyd. "If that's the way it's going to be, then you'll just have to die!" The Renegade next to Lloyd moved his blade closer to Lloyd's neck.
"One move, and your son dies!" the soldier said.
Yuan turned back to Kratos. "You changed when you got a family. Just like that time fifteen years ago. When Anna was transformed into a monster, you lost your ability to fight back."
Lost his ability…to fight…back? Lloyd thought. "What?"
Yuan ignored Lloyd. "If she hadn't been together with you, she would never have turned out like that. Such an unfortunate woman."
Lloyd was suddenly angry. He moved towards Yuan, but the soldier knocked him down. Lloyd got back up. "Don't mock my mom!" Lloyd took out his swords and slashed at Yuan. Yuan dodged it. Yuan suddenly fired a spell at Lloyd.
There was no way Lloyd would be able to dodge this. He closed his eyes and waited for the spell to hit. But it never did.
"Ugh!" Lloyd looked up.
"Kratos?" he said. Kratos took the hit.
"Are you all right…" Kratos asked. He looked at Lloyd, making sure he wasn't injured. "Good." Kratos collapsed. Lloyd screamed out of confusion and anger. Altessa's front door opened, and Colette came outside.
"Lloyd? What's wrong?" she asked. The Renegades around her readied their blades. "What's going on?"
Lloyd didn't answer her. He said "What am I…what am I supposed to believe?" He was on his knees, holding his head.
"Lloyd, Calm down!" Colette told him.
"It's not true!" Lloyd yelled. "Kratos can't be…no…The man who betrayed us and made you suffer…he couldn't possibly be…my dad."
"Lloyd!" Colette said, trying to get through to him. "Don't lose sight of who you are! No matter who your parents are, no matter your background, you're still you! You're the one who told me that no matter what I look like, even if I become an angel, I'm still me…and don't forget, Kratos saved you."
A/N: I think it's gay how in the game, Lloyd says "I'm…me?" So I took it out.
"Yeah…" Lloyd admitted. "You're right." He walked over to Kratos. "Thanks. But I still can't call you Dad. I hate what you…what Cruxis does. Too many people have died. People from Sylvarant, people from Tethe'alla…Desians and Renegades and members of Cruxis…They're all victims. I refuse to accept the idea that it's okay to sacrifice people for a cause. It's not okay to lose your life. No life should be born for the sole purpose of dying. I won't sacrifice the world to save Colette. I won't give up until I find away for everyone to live."
"Wow." a familiar voice said. "That was an amazingly corny speech. Congratulations." Lloyd looked towards the direction of the voice.
"Mithos?" Mithos held his hand up to the two Renegades in front of him and blasted them with a spell. He did the same to Yuan. After Yuan fell over, Mithos walked over to him.
"Dud you think I didn't notice what was going on?" Mithos asked him. "How pathetic. I had Pronyma keep tabs on Kratos, since it seemed he was leaking information to Lloyd's group."
"Dammit!" Yuan swore. "Yggdrasil! How the hell did you find out?"
Yggdrasil? Lloyd thought. "What?"
"That was a pretty amusing scheme you had going." Mithos said to Yuan. "Hard to believe those filthy Renegades that were always getting in my way…were actually led by you. If it weren't for my sister's wishes to spare your life, I'd kill you right now." Mithos started to kick Yuan. "Ahahahaha, haha…Ahahahahahahahahaha!"
"Stop it!" Lloyd yelled. "Wh…What are you…?" The door opened, and Genis, Raine, Presea, Altessa, and Tabatha came outside.
"What's going on?" Altessa asked.
"Mithos…" Genis said. "So it's true."
"So it's true"? What does that mean? Lloyd thought.
"What's true, Genis?" Mithos asked. "That you shouldn't have trusted me? Good guess! 'cause I didn't trust you either!" Mithos held his hand up in the direction of Presea, and fired a spell.
"Ahh!" Presea screamed. But Altessa jumped in and took the hit.
"MITHOS…SAVED ME…" Tabatha said.
"Shut up!" Mithos yelled. He fired another spell at Tabatha, who was knocked to the ground.
"MITHOS…SAVED…ME…MITHOS…"
"How could you do that?" Raine asked. "You even risked your life to save her!"
"Mithos, why?" Genis asked. "Why are you doing this? How could you hurt Tabatha and Altessa! You got along so well with them!"
"Tabatha." Mithos said, disgusted. "That doll looks so disturbingly like my sister. I never could stand her. She's a failed vessel who couldn't accept my sister's soul! Just looking at her makes me sick!"
"You little bastard!" Lloyd yelled. "How dare you betray my best friend?" Lloyd started to attack Mithos, but Genis stopped him.
"Lloyd, stop! Please!" Genis pleaded. "You're both my friends!"
Suddenly, Pronyma warped in. "Lord Yggdrasil, your wounds are not yet healed. Please, leave this to the angels."
In a flash of light, Mithos transformed into Yggdrasil.
"All right." He said. Yggdrasil and Pronyma warped out, taking Kratos with them. As they did, Lloyd heard Mithos' voice.
"No life should be born for the sole purpose of dying? What do you think those exspheres are that you're using?"
So much had happened in the past hour. Lloyd had learned the truth about Kratos, and they found out that Mithos was really Yggdrasil. And Altessa and Tabatha…
There was a knock at the door. "Come in." Lloyd said. Zelos walked into the room.
"Hey man, you awake?" he asked.
"I just got sleepy right now." Lloyd said. "G'night."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Zelos said quickly. "Don't be like that. Come one, let's go talk outside for a bit."
"Sure." Lloyd said.
Lloyd and Zelos went outside to a terrace in front of the Church of Martel.
Zelos looked out at the snow and said to himself "On that day, Meltokio had a record snowfall. It looked just like this city."
That day? Lloyd thought. "What are you talking about all of a sudden?" he asked.
"Ah, just a story about the past." Zelos answered. "I suddenly felt like talking about it."
"Well, if you wanna talk, I'm all ears." Lloyd told him.
"I was so excited when I saw snow for the first time, and I made a snowman in the garden with my mother." Zelos said. "Then suddenly, the snowman fell apart. Before I knew what was going on, red snow began to fall."
"Red snow?" Lloyd repeated questioningly.
"It was my mother's blood." Zelos told him. "She was murdered. As she fell, she grabbed my arm and told me 'You should never have been born.'"
"That's…That's horrible!" Lloyd said.
"My mother probably loved somebody else." Zelos said. "But because of the oracle from Cruxis, she had to marry the Chosen at the time: My father. And the old man had another woman as well."
"But none of that was your fault!" Lloyd argued.
After a pause, Zelos said "The magic that killed my mother was meant for me."
"What?" Lloyd said.
"They targeted me because I was the next Chosen." Zelos explained. "My mother was caught in the crossfire. The one who tried to kill me was Seles' mother. They executed her and Seles was placed under house arrest in the abbey."
"So that's what happened…" Lloyd said. He was having flashbacks from Iselia, how much Zelos' story sounded like Iselia. How Lloyd attacked the Desians, how Seles' mother attacked Zelos. How the people of the village were executed, how Seles' mother was executed. How Lloyd and Genis were banished, how Seles was placed under house arrest. How Zelos' mother was killed in the crossfire, how…Marble…was killed in the crossfire.
"I never wanted to be the Chosen." Zelos told Lloyd. "I spend every moment of my life wishing I could just run away."
"Chosen's lead really difficult lives." Lloyd said. "I can only imagine what it's like. But I can still understand how hard it must be."
"Sorry." Zelos apologized. "Kinda hard to think of anything to say to a story like that, right?"
"Don't worry about it." Lloyd said. "But why did you suddenly decide to tell me?"
"I should've never been born." Zelos explained.
"Wh…Why do you say that?" Lloyd asked.
"I'm not saying I still think that way now." Zelos answered. "But all my life, I've rejected by my parents, shunned by the Church, and viewed as a threat by the royal family…I just wanted to run away."
"But you're here with us now, right?" Lloyd asked.
"I dunno." Zelos answered. "Even now, to tell the truth, I get tired of all the problems. Sometimes I think it'd be easier if everyone and everything were just destroyed."
"Zelos!" Lloyd half-yelled. "How can you say that?"
"Did I piss you off?" Zelos asked.
"Hell yes!" Lloyd yelled. "Of course! It'd be a huge problem for me if everything was destroyed."
"But think about it." Zelos reasoned. "If everything was destroyed, you'd vanish too."
"I refuse to vanish." Lloyd said. "And so I don't want anyone else to be destroyed…I want you to live, too, Zelos." A/N: I also think it's stupid how Zelos jokes around. I'm also leaving out some stuff in this scene to prepare for the next chapter. "Once the world is at peace, you can run away all you like."
"All right, all right." Zelos said. "I'm in. I'll give this thing a shot." He sighed. "This isn't like me at all…Let's get back. It's way too cold out here."
"Zelos." Lloyd said. "I trust you."
"What?" Zelos asked. "Of course you trust me! Place your faith in me!"
"Alright." Lloyd said.
to be continued…
End of chapter monologue: Nice to be back writing fics. If I'm not mistaken, this is the longest chapter I've ever written. Five whole pages. I'd like to say to everyone that remembers my work that Eternal Fate is gone and it's not coming back. Just remember, LIII wuz heer.