Gah this has been sitting on my desktop for way too long, and finally I have summoned up the courage to post it.

Last Night is the "sequel" to Mantra of Trust, although I think there are some plot discontinuity errors still there. It could still be seen as a separate piece on its own, though. (And it is also my opinion that this piece is much better oops.)

And I apologize ahead of time for any Mithos/Yggdrasil fail: I might have pushed the "insane" aspect a little too much.

Standard disclaimers apply.

Last Night

"…in the wake of the incident last night, and Lord Kvar seeks your counsel as to what he should—"

"Show me her face."

The angel tilted his head in confusion. "Excuse me, sir?"

"I said, show me her face. I want to look at her."

"AO12's, sir?"

"Yes, of course; whom else would I have asked for at the moment?"

A more spiteful being would have muttered Martel's name at that moment, but angels were emotionless and therefore incapable of thinking up that notion.

"A moment, Lord Yggdrasil." The angel left, presumably to confer with some other authority that had access to these sorts of things.

Yggdrasil waited, daring himself to remain calm and patient. This girl, whoever she was, irked him deeply. She pained him in a way that only Martel would know about. After all, Martel had been the only one he had ever talked completely honestly to.

"Sister, do you think I'm being too nice?" The question hung in the air, unanswered, for there was no one else to possibly answer it. "Do you think I need to be more assertive?"

Silence responded, but it suited Yggdrasil just fine.

"Yes? I thought so too. We don't need internal strife." His fingers began drumming a beat on the chair's arm. "I don't need internal strife."

Here the leader of Cruxis paused. "…but I have it."

The return of the angel messenger meant the end to his moment of insanity. Floating over to the nearby computer, the angel quickly typed in some symbols. "I have the data you requested, sir. The image can be recalled from the ranch's archives whenever you wish, sir."

"Dismissed." Yggdrasil waved a hand towards the doorway, and the angel- his creation- floated mechanically toward it. When was the last time something had not followed his orders?

Only last night…

His fingers tightened around the chair's arm, and a satisfying crack signaled its feeble compliance to his will. "Yes, this girl is…very irking, sister. But I'll fix that, don't worry. My life- and yours- will be complete once again."

He walked over to the computer screen and pressed the prescribed button. "Now show me my enemy," Yggdrasil whispered.

The computer hummed briefly before a projector lit up with the image of a young woman, slowly revolving.

"AO12…Anna…what did he see in you anyway? What did my Kratos see in you? Why did you have to take my Kratos?" Yggdrasil stared hungrily at the screen, willing it to reveal something beyond pixels and light.

"Brown is such a filthy common color," he said in disgust, "the color of dirt, which humans like you dig around in." As he said this, Yggdrasil's fingers unconsciously began feeling the ends of his own blond strands, spinning them agitatedly back and forth through his fingertips. "How did my Kratos find delight in that? How can he like dirt over gold?"

Spun gold stopped its progress as he came to a realization.

"Oh that's right: he was human once upon a time. That's all long gone now, Anna. Stop making him want to be weak and powerless, like humans are: arrogant beings, too concerned with their own beliefs to even care about those lower than them- no, those stronger than them. I don't want him to be that, fool. I want him to be perfect. He was perfect, until you tainted him. Do you understand how much I'll have to work at cleaning your dirt, your influence off of him?"

To look into the chambers of Lord Yggdrasil right now would be like seeing the image of obsession itself. If the view of the angel lord staring at a woman's hologram with an intensity that could sear a hole in the wall didn't put the observer off at once, his one-sided conversation with it would do the trick.

"Why does he like you? Why does he want you? What about me? Don't I matter?" Yggdrasil continued his scrutiny of AO12, finally ending at her chest.

"I hope it isn't because you have boobs," he said scornfully, saying the last word as if it were an expletive. "That's an idiotic reason for love. Kratos should know better than that." Here he paused and stroked his chin.

"After all, he taught me of love- at least, love beyond my sister." Yggdrasil smiled wistfully. "Not that my love for him would ever exceed my love for you, beloved sister. No, it will always remain second. Always and forever, sister- this I promise you.

"But I do enjoy it." The angel added as an afterthought. "I enjoy it very much."

And then his smile changed to a dark frown. "…although, that should be 'enjoyed', because Kratos left, sister. Left because of you" –he pointed a finger at the screen- "and he even promised me that he wouldn't. He loved me. He said I could trust him."

Yggdrasil let out a scream of fury and launched a ferocious punch at the computer. The machine shattered under the force of Cruxis's best, the image flickering briefly before disappearing completely.

"He said I could trust him."

And the pent-up rage and anger that had been lingering since last night suddenly erupted into a tantrum of enormous proportions. Angels floating by outside the chamber looked in to see what the commotion was and quickly fled in the midst of their leader's tempestuous rage. Rays of light streamed out, smashing through whatever opposed them as Yggdrasil whirled about, suddenly feeling a violent loathing for everything around him: the beeping machines who merely showed him all that was wrong; the twin worlds and the horrible memories they represented; the lifeless beings who, for all their obedience, could not comfort him; and most of all the man who had left him to wallow in the cold of Derris-Kharlan.

Several minutes later, a still-seething Mithos stood in the center of his ruined chamber, having sufficiently destroyed his surroundings. In the midst of his fury, his form had slipped back to the little boy he once was. No angels had dared to come close since, and they certainly would not now. If a lifeless being retained any emotion it would be fear and awe for their omnipotent leader. The youth looked at his hands. "You taught me how to use power, Kratos Aurion. These hands…you showed them how to master steel for the sake of destroying all that opposed me. I worshiped you for that." He let out a crazed chuckle.

"I hope you enjoy pain, Aurion, because now these hands will show their teacher just how far they've come." Love was gone now. His sister was the only one deserving of that affection; she was the only one now truly pure-a true goddess. And he would devote all of his adoration to her now. The void left by his love's departure would now be filled with his love for his goddess, and for his teacher he would now hold only contempt. A master swordsman was the master of his emotions as well, wasn't he? Kratos Aurion had failed in that respect; it would be up to his pupil, Mithos Yggdrasil to bring him back to the light and the true path.

"These hands, Kratos…they will scrub her off of you, and you will forget that you even loved her. I will bring you back to what you once were, this I promise you. It's for your own good, anyway." Mithos spread his arms wide, laughing.

"Trust me, teacher; trust me. This is your last night."

…oh how funny. I used the word "boobs" in a fic.

Also, the italicized nature of "last night" throughout this fic was purposely done. I'm experimenting with repetition, yup.