- Fighting for Acceptance -
Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia, or its characters, if I did, I wouldn't be so insecure about my writing.
- Chapter One - Prologue -
- Why is it, we keep fighting what's to be, when already, the world around us has accepted what is? -
Skimming the snowy rooftops of Flanoir, Sheena tried to regain her focus, but had already failed multiple times as she noiselessly made her way over the slanted patches of snow. She didn't mean to make him feel like he was a burden, but the truth of the matter was that she couldn't handle being around him with such an important decision demanding her attention, especially since he was, in a way, indirectly involved with her decision. And his presence would more than likely shift her better judgment to favor one option over the others.
She couldn't help but think of how stubborn she must have seemed to him just then, and, as she leaped from one house to the next, she felt as though she was running away from the problem. Why did she have to be so indecisive? Dammit, why couldn't she just make a decision already!? And then, all at once, releasing a little too much anger from her enclosed reservoir of patience and making a jump, that normally, in her right state of mind, wouldn't have made without a bit more calculating, she soon found that the end result of such unbridled emotion wasn't very pretty, and anyone from her village probably would have shook their heads in shame and dishonor towards her recklessness. But before her collision, she found a bit of comfort in the fact that pain wasn't anything new to her.
"I'm so stupid. Stubborn to the very end... I really need to start acting more feminine at times like this and let him rescue me. ...Heh, that wouldn't be my style, now, would it?" the ninja scoffed when her grip on the ledge gave out, and the sensation of gravity quickly overtook her as she kept in expectation of the imminent impact she would soon share with the ground, but it never came. It was a curious thing really, when she opened her eyes she could only wonder two things: Was she already dead? And, why did that angel resemble Zelos so much? It angered her really, it seemed as though she couldn't escape his company even in death!
It wasn't until she felt his arms supporting her weight in mid air that this whole "going to heaven" thing seemed to be a complete sham to her. And hearing his voice only confirmed her suspicions all the more so.
"Hey Sheena! You know I'd be MORE than happy to see your feminine side, right?" Zelos asked her with a sly edge lining his voice.
Her amazement quickly dissipated along with the Chosen's wings as he landed and had no intention of putting her down any time soon. That is, until a glare of a thousand knives set itself on her face as realization of previous events remained fresh in her mind.
His grin fell away almost instantly as he knew exactly what was to follow. "N-now Sheena, hold on, let me expl- Ow! Ow! Hey, OW!" Now he was forced to put her down in order to rub his aching head.
"You Bastard!" Sheena growled, her fists at the ready and prepared to give him more of what he deserved. "Where do you get off saving me after you betrayed us like that!? You know how much I hate traitors, Zelos!"
"But Sheena, I got this special ring that'll let Lloyd use the Eternal Sword, and the only way I could get my hands on it was to play along with Cruxis," he explained quickly, and flinched while holding his throbbing head in expectancy of another round of whacks; didn't she know he couldn't afford to lose any more good sense so carelessly?
Sheena blinked in a bit of blank amazement, leading Zelos into a comfortable sense of false hope, but like most good things, it blew up in his face. "You IDIOT! Why did you have to play the hero for?! You had us all worried, and angry, and confused!" She suddenly glared at him as though she were about to strangle him. "And we were even starting to regret ignoring you!" At this point the ninja looked as though she was about to bite his head off, that or break down in tears, Zelos decided he wasn't much in favor of either.
This was definitely not the desired response he had been expecting. "But I don't- Wait, really?" He seemed to brighten up at her last statement and his guard began to drop. "You were," now it was gone completely as he moved closer to her, "worried about me?"
"No," she hissed in regard to his body language, stopping him in his tracks as she turned away to wipe any tears from her eyes that may have disobediently accumulated. "I'm not letting you get away with that tricky, comforting tactic, because I'm not falling for it, you stupid Chosen."
Zelos smiled wryly and, ignoring her warning, came up beside her to touch her elbow, hopeful. "Sheena, I know you're mad, but don't I deserve a reward of some kind for saving you? I at least get points for that, don't I?"
"No," she said stubbornly, "you break even."
Zelos allowed himself to pout and sigh before his mind was finally out of the gutter and back on track of the more important issues at present. "Ok, well, I'm pretty sure the rest of our merry little band will need our help from similar traps, so we should be off."
"Well then, on second thought," Sheena hesitantly drawled with a finger on her chin in contemplation. "I'm feeling kinda weak, so you can carry me."
Zelos perked up at the sound of that. "What? Really?"
Sheena's sudden scrutiny was promptly coupled with a malevolent grin. "Piggyback."
"What?" Zelos gaped, crestfallen. "Oh, that was really low, you know that?" he grumbled darkly before turning around and kneeling in preparation for her to board. "All aboard Wing Zelos!"
"Hey-hey, not too fast ok?" she requested, and gripped the cloth of his uniform tightly. Zelos simply flashed her a mischievous grin before lifting off the floor with a sudden lunge, leaving Sheena with a familiar curse on her mouth. "You stupid Chosen!"
They must have seemed crazy to anyone passing by, after all, no normal Flanoir residents would be out at this time of night in the icy weather, at least, not for as long as they had been sitting there, on that big stupid statue dubbed Bigfoot.
By now Sheena's silence made it obvious that Zelos wasn't about to get anything out of her without hitting a nerve or two, and this was something he was never usually afraid to do, now being no different. "Sheena, you remember the final battle right?" His tone and facial features were sober as he continued, not waiting for her response. "Well, ever since then, I've wondered why you opened up to me the way you did, and right now," he paused with the start of a chuckle. "I sure would like to know what I did to get that kind of action," the seriousness in his voice sliding back into his usual brimming humor by the end of his statement.
"That's because you almost died you Idiot!" the ninja growled, almost furious that he could have forgotten something quite so important as that. Because she would never forget anything that happened on the day of both world's salvation.
The sky above was clouding, and the sun itself seemed to go into hiding over a soon-to-be battlefield. The area opened up to be a large, metal platform, with little to nothing to keep one from falling off. It wasn't at all a comforting thought for the party members without the ability to fly, which consisted of more than half of the group. As everyone emerged from the stairs with rushed, clanking footfalls, one lone angel could be seen standing on the opposite side of the platform, his back to them as he waited expectantly. His underlings rising threateningly on their wings from beyond him.
Upon turning to inspect his opponents, he was not at all happy to see the Eternal Sword in a human's hands, the boy that had vowed to stop him, no less. And then adding insult to injury, his spy was among them, grinning like mad as though he had accomplished some great feat. "What is the meaning of this!? That sword is not meant to be tainted by the hands of a filthy human!"
"This filthy human is going to cut you down!" Lloyd retorted, sporting his new blade with both hands menacingly, albeit a bit awkwardly.
"Yeah, you tell him Lloyd!" Zelos whooped agreeably with little regard for the seriousness of the situation.
"Worthless Chosen! You said you wanted to be on the winning side!" Yggdrasill boomed, indignant.
Zelos scoffed with a casual charm that was his own. "Maybe you didn't notice with all those legions of angels you've been hiding behind, but I AM on the winning side."
The rest of the party stepped forward and they all nodded approvingly as Yggdrasill snarled with contempt. "You're far from sanity if you think you can beat me, I have more power than all of you put together!"
No one seemed to be listening to him as Lloyd and Zelos quickly formed a strategy, Raine adding her advice on the formula. Their determination set, with high chances of failure, but success being their only option, and they were ready, the group scattered on Lloyd's command. "Now!"
Explosions, screams, yelps, shouts of unpleasant language, it all seemed to be present in the usual activity of battle for the party. Heads were nearly lopped, arms were nearly pierced, other limbs were nearly broken in multiple areas that were better left unspecified.
The members appointed to the job of distraction and being that of the first line of defense consisted of Lloyd, Regal, and Presea, while Zelos and Sheena held their places in the middle, casting when they had the chance, and slashing when any angels got through the front lines. Raine, Genis, and Collete brought up the rear as they focused all their energies on casting.
Of course, the front lines were taking the brunt of the damage and relied heavily on Raine's constant healing. And they would often need to switch places with Sheena and Zelos for a short time.
"Oi Sheena, how about we heat this place up?" Zelos offered with a smirk as they retook their places in the middle.
The ninja spared a roll of her eyes in reply to his insinuation, though she nodded, understanding his meaning as she prepared the summoning with the proper stance and seals.
"Oh yeah, Burn Baby!" Zelos laughed with a mixture of adrenaline and excitement, prepping himself as well.
The casting circles around them glowed a fiery red when the spells came to a blazing climax as the gates of hellfire released its lord and element. "Eruption! - Efreet!" the duo shouted at once.
The bombardment of flames did little to slow the seraph's movements, and although it did short work of his minions, it only seemed to anger him the more so, and no one better noticed this than Regal as he ducked a kick, or was that a beam? No that was the next move, it was all starting to blur together after awhile and he was surprised that he was keeping up as well as he was. He spoke too soon, as he was knocked a good ten feet away, unmoving and unconscious.
Lloyd cursed, but did not lose himself to the distraction, as he leaped backward and slashed, neatly dodging a beam and scoring a hit, though the impact resulted in little damage due to the curious shield Yggdrasill seemed to have surrounding his entire body, which was only weekended when hit by magic, meaning the close range combatants needed to time their strikes in symmetry with the support fire of their mages.
Until Raine could revive the unconscious Regal, it was left to Lloyd and Presea to fend off the monstrously overpowered angel, though his reinforcements were now in short supply, thus making it easier on the party to concentrate all their fire on him. The downside, however, was that because of that exact reason, Yggdrasill was getting desperate, and his movements radical, almost unreadable.
When switching positions for roughly the fifth time, Zelos and Sheena swarmed in, relieving the two fighters as they retreated a ways. That was when the leader of Cruxis made it his main focus to target a most annoying red-haired Chosen.
During his attack, Zelos sidestepped to dodge, but what was thought to be a thrust turned out to be a feign and, with a well aimed and powerful energy blast from Yggdrasill, the pink clad man was thrown to meet the ground.
The angel of Cruxis grunted with disgust and disinterest alike as the ninja cried the Chosen's name, as well as leaving her post and rushing to him worriedly. Luckily for the group, Regal had regained consciousness, thanks to Raine, and took up his place once more, though the angel hadn't been concerned with the muscular man, and was thus taken by surprise when a swallow kick came from the side.
The former front lines were quickly retaken when the restored Lloyd and Presea returned to the fray, though Zelos and Sheena's casting support were sorely missed for the short time they were absent.
"Can you get up?" Sheena's inquiry was one of concern rather than urgency, though her tone implicated both as she gave Zelos an apple gel to swallow.
He flinched as Sheena helped him sit up. "Y-yeah, I'll be fine. I think." Upon examining his strained features, Sheena remained skeptical and quickly waved to Raine for help, but the healer's reply was not what she expected.
Over the shouts and crashes of battle, and the distance that they were now separated by, Raine could thus not explain, but rather made an attempt to cast revitalize, but her mana was all but depleted by now, the spell's range did little more than reach Collete and Genis, both standing not too far from her.
Sheena sighed in defeat and was surprised when the wounded man stood up, gripping his aching shoulder. "Heh, so fire didn't work eh? let's see if he likes a thunder storm then!"
The summoner smiled at his tough guy act and joined him in standing as she thought little of his bravery and more on his carelessness. "Are you sure you're body can handle it?" she questioned in a rushed concern.
"What, are you kidding? This is cake!" Zelos quipped with a crooked smirk. It was forced, Sheena noted but could not spare the time it took to worry about it.
As the couple's chanting began, it did not go unnoticed, far from it, because the lord of Cruxis quickly spun to glare at them. "I don't think so!" Their combined spells were lethal, he knew this now and assumed that the blasted Chosen's spells fed off of the summons power and if they kept at it, he feared his shield would be down for good, and then the rest of these filthy worms would be able to take him down piece by piece. Well he wasn't about to allow that!
Shooting an energy blast at the plated flooring, Yggdrasill sent a shock wave along the ground, forcing back the three fighters as they all leaped to avoid it, this gave him enough time to choose, and focus, on a specific target.
"I call upon the hammer of-" Sheena's words echoed but were abruptly silenced as her voice caught when she seen him loose a beam of light directly at her and she braced herself for the deadly impalement, but just as with the endless pit before, the impact never came. And it was much to her horror when she realized why she had not been knocked to the ground with a gaping hole in her torso. "NO!" she howled with such a terrible intensity that it drowned out any of other's shouts of anguish as Zelos lay in her place on the floor and bleeding profusely at both wounds, the crash seemed to have made his shoulder wound much worse, and Sheena couldn't even bring herself to inspect the damage of his mangled torso.
She let loose a furious snarl and turned away, fixing her stare fiercely on the enemy as she flicked cards to her hands in an instant. "Source of Heaven!" Her eyes blazed with a rage that she had never known her body withheld as it boiled up from her being. "Earth, and everything in between!" She lashed through multiple seals with such a speed and fervor that the rest of the party was half watching in aw and half attempting to draw Yggdrasill's fire, as they did not want to attract any of the summoner's wrath upon themselves. "Ruler of all!" Sheena roared hotly, the force of the summoning pulsed around and beneath her as it seemed to feed off of her anger. "I summon thee! Origin!"
The blond angel had been expecting the summoning, and had already accepted not being able to stop it due to the rest of the pests that seemed to come from every angle, but what he was not expecting was how much damage it would do, because he thought that, after disposing of the Chosen, he wouldn't need to concern himself with the summoner. Oh how wrong he was, and it was a good thing the summoner was out of commission shortly after Origin was through with him because he would have had to focus all his attacks on her until she died, regardless of any distractions; Origin had nearly crippled him!
As it was, Sheena used the last of her strength to drop to her knees near the mortally wounded Chosen. She wasn't sure what had caused it, due to fatigue, stress, or trauma, perhaps a combination of all of them, but all she really knew was that the tears were coming, hard and fast as Zelos spent the last of his precious dying moments to smile and touch her face tenderly. He didn't need to say anything, he had said plenty throughout their journey and he also knew what Sheena needed most right now was silence, silence to just cry, because he assumed she hadn't really been able to for a long time. And it was a selfish thing, he knew, but he was happy to see that she had cared about him enough to mourn him, to waste tears on someone as worthless as himself.
"Sheena! We need your help!" Raine shouted with a hardened tone while fending off one of Yggdrasill's recent reinforcements due to the major lack of a defensive line.
The ninja remained completely frozen, as though she hadn't heard anything, all her attention was aimed at the dying man in front of her, with one big twisted knot of anguish wedged in her throat.
"Leave her alone, we're fine!" Lloyd called, overruling Raine's order of protests as he went head-to-head with Yggdrasill, since somewhere along the line, Presea and Regal had been knocked away, both panting from exhaustion.
"You should get back- out there- th-they need you, go get em, m-my Violent Demonic Bansh-shee," Zelos weakly joked, forcing another smile and choking back blood as his body seemed to be mutineering against itself, and although he tried to hide it, he now had little to say in the matter.
At this, Sheena's body convulsed with agony and heavy sobbing as she bent over him, her head pressed against his chest as wet tears soaked and mixed among the blood on his shirt, gripping it and his hand desperately. Zelos used the last of his strength to stroke her hair once before he closed his eyes with a smile, satisfied with this sort of death.
His hand grew cold in her grasp and she raised her head to look at him, her eyes afflicted with internal agony. "No, you can't die Zelos, this isn't how things were suppose to go."
When he didn't respond is when panic began to set in for the ninja. She was taught to have detachment from others, to be stony with emotion, to be steady in any situation, so then why couldn't she pull herself together? As she thought more and more about the reality of the situation, terrible memories returned to her, the people of her village, Corrine's sacrifice, now Zelos? She didn't think she would be able to even function without him in the world, making debased comments and having him to smack around whenever she felt it necessary. Laughing inwardly towards all of his misplaced folly, though she wouldn't admit that to anyone. She had found more comfort from him than anyone else when reminded of her mistakes and losses, now who was she to turn to?
As if answering her silent plea a presence made itself known among the chaos of the battle. "Denying one's ability to die is quite a bold accusation." It was then that Sheena thought she seen a ghost approaching when she heard its powerful voice echo through her mind. "You humans are so unpredictable," the voice added.
"Wh-" a sob and Sheena swallowed to gain her voice again. "What? Who- who are you?" she managed through blurred vision.
When the entity finally took form, it tilted its head curiously at her. "So soon you have forgotten Sheena?"
Sheena gasped at the sight of the transparent fox before her. "Verius?" she whispered, but didn't bother wiping the moisture from her cheeks. When the large fox nodded, his approach only stole her attention for mere seconds before she sadly locked her sorrowful gaze to the lifeless Chosen in front of her and she stroked the hair away from his forehead in a lost hope of showing him the affecting she harbored for him for so long.
Verius observed the gesture of affection with soft interest before speaking in a strong, demanding tone. "Do you love this man?" Love being his jurisdiction, he was inclined to ask.
Fresh tears and new sobs had found their way to her again before she registered his echoing words and she nodded as she clenched her teeth, preparing herself for a another swarm of internal agony to surge through her. But her silent reply didn't seem to satisfy the summon spirit. "You must say it, Summoner!" he growled to her urgently.
"Yes, I love him!" Sheena cried, her voice cracking with a sob as her body shuddered. She hated to be in such a vulnerable state, but there was nothing she could do to change it, and she simply didn't care what others thought anymore.
"Very well." Verius nodded purposefully and stepped even closer, and, with one paw aglow with many hues, placed it over the inflicted area of the Chosen's torso.
As Sheena watched in amazement, the wound closed up and the curious glow spread from the spirit's fore paw throughout Zelos' body, returning the healthy coloring and warmth to his skin, before long, he was breathing again. Sheena gasped and looked from Zelos to Verius and back again, she also found that she was unable to speak. When Zelos opened his eyes to behold the woman at his side, he smiled that familiar smile and was not expecting the effect it would have on the summoner as he soon found himself enveloped in her arms with a cry of happiness. "Uh Sheena, do you mind filling me in? I can't remember anything," Zelos wondered, absently stroking her back soothingly in hopes of comforting her as tears of joy erupted from her eyes.
Sheena didn't bother to reply as she lifted her head from his shoulder to see that Verius was already fading into an unreadable image. "Thank you, Corrine," she called after him, nearly whispering his name, the one he had abandoned.
Verius was walking away, his back to them in his fading light as he turned his head, and Sheena thought she seen him smile with his parting words. "I'll aways be watching over you Sheena, observing your heart. Do not let my gift fade to a vain love."
Sheena nodded as he finally disappeared altogether and she looked back down to the said gift and smiled; at this point it could be said she was outrightly laying on top of the man, her arms propping her up at his shoulders and her face directly above his, and, Zelos Wilder being who he was, smiled slyly back up at her. The thought simultaneously struck the both of them and everything that had previously been running through Sheena's mind had ultimately dissolved as they shared in a mutual collaboration, kissing away each other's anxieties, for Zelos it was simple confusion, which was promptly forgotten, but for Sheena it was much more complex than that, but they too were forgotten as happiness was replaced and swelled all around her, the couple's obligations didn't occur to either of them as the climactic battle of Symphonia continued to wage on beyond them.
o-o-o