Eternal Machinations

Two figures sat in a circle in the Great Seed's chamber, Martel's body overlooking from above. A young blond preteen was sitting laxly, legs folded and a bored expression on his face while an adult redheaded man was reclining on his elbows, legs spread before him.

Kratos twirled his foot in a circle, secretly relishing in the "crack" that sounded as the joint popped. Mithos grimaced, and looked longingly at the door. "What is keeping him?" he muttered, just as said door opened.

A blue haired half elf strode through the entryway, a stack of folders in his arms. "Sorry I'm late, but the printer jammed." Yuan stated nonchalantly, before plopping to the ground himself.

Mithos leaned forward eagerly, reaching for the folders. Kratos quickly slapped the half-elf's hand, and grabbed them for himself. "You know we do this fairly." He stated, separating them into different stacks.

Mithos pouted and looked over at his brother in law. "Can you start explaining while Kratos' disorder dies down?"

Yuan smiled and brushed his hair out of his face, grabbing the first folder, ignoring Kratos' frown. He opened it to show a picture of a young blond girl. "Alright, this is Sylvarant's Chosen of Regeneration. Her name's Colette Brunel; her sixteenth birthday is in a few weeks, so that's when were sending down the oracle."

Kratos abandoned his organizing to look over Yuan's shoulder, raising an eyebrow at the other two in the picture. "Friends?"

The half-elf nodded, "Half elf Genis Sage and human Lloyd Irving."

"Lloyd?" Kratos asked quietly, looking at the out of focused boy in the picture.

Mithos grabbed it before Kratos could, looking at it intently. "Oh yeah, definitely looks like a Lloyd. Look Kratos, he has your stupid expression."

Yuan cleared his throat before Kratos could lunge and snatched the picture back. "If we can continue without poking at old wounds, please?"

"Sorry Yuan." Mithos muttered, slouching again.

"…" Kratos looked at Yuan, who sighed and continued.

"She's a bit… dumb."

The moment the word came out of Yuan's mouth, both Seraph groaned. There was nothing worse than a Chosen who couldn't compete. Kratos flipped open the Tethe'alla folder, and jabbed a finger at the red headed Chosen from there. "What about in comparison to him?"

Yuan thought for a moment, going over the information he'd gathered from his stake out at Forcystus' ranch. "Better than him."

Both nodded, and Mithos spoke up. He was idly flipping through the technical logistics folder, frowning at the Mana levels. "This one's going to be tricky. We have to give Sylvarant Mana, otherwise it'll die, and I don't like giving handouts. Remember what happened when Spiritua failed?"

Both men shuddered. Spiritua hadn't been clever but had gotten to the final transformation. Then decided to go off and fly on her own to the Tower of Salvation and got eaten by a Wyvern. But Sylvarant needed Mana, so they gave it a go and she became the new "Martel" because her companions survived when she abandoned them.

Seven centuries later and all that false praise still hadn't died down.

Then, Yuan scoffed. "I don't care if it's tricky; we're doing it the fair way."

Kratos reluctantly nodded, and after a moment Mithos did as well. "Alright then" Kratos murmured, and put his hand out. "Since you're so "fair," Yuan, you first."

"One"

"Two"

"Three"

Yuan groaned, looking at his straw pitifully. "I wanted to be the bad guy!" He complained, looking at the red tipped end.

Mithos and Kratos heaved out a huge sigh of relief and grinned at each other. The last three centuries, Yuan had gotten the role of guiding the Chosen. Each time he did it to their death. This time, at least, he was the double sided plotter. Mithos and Kratos could take his outrageous scheming, but not his overbearing stupidity.

Yuan snatched the straws from Kratos and fiddled them behind his back before putting them forth at again. "Alright Ladies, choose your poison."

Half-elf and Human exchanged glances, and Mithos spoke up. "Yuan, do you even realize how cliché that sounded?"

Green eyes looked at them blankly, "What?"

On cue, both rolled their eyes and grabbed a straw. A quick glance had both Kratos and Mithos nodding. Mithos was the bad guy – something he didn't mind, because he got to go all out with making up some obsession with his sister that freaked out the Chosen every time. Kratos got the job of guiding the Chosen, which meant that they'd get through it to the end. That was what was so great about Kratos; if he had to, he'd drag them by their ears to the Tower, but most of the time the Chosen's "Saw Something" in him that made them succeed.

Yuan was still pouting, but handed off the files. As he looked at his and remembered, however, what his position was, he grinned. "So I'm the Leader of the Renegades, huh? Watch out Mithos, your tail is on fire."

Kratos ignored that very deliberately, instead perused through the file. Most of the time the Cruxis file and the Renegade file didn't change; just major personal for the most part. The Chosen file though, was never the same. "You think the teacher will accompany us?" Kratos queried, looking through the list of villagers.

Mithos looked up from his own file and scooted over, caught sight of the name and went for the picture file. "Ah-hah. Huh. She's pretty." He remarked, staring at the picture of "Raine Sage" relaxing in the village square.

Kratos shook his head, "It says here that she throws erasers at her students."

Yuan smiled broadly, "She'll be quite the companion then, won't she?"

"…"

"…"

"…what?" Yuan asked, brushing his hair behind his ear.

Mithos shuddered, "You're such a pervert, Yuan!!"

Kratos stood up, also glaring at Yuan. "I have no intentions of making her my paramour."

Yuan sighed, then grabbed the picture from Mithos' grasp. "I wouldn't have done anything. Or said anything." He amended.

"Grr…" Mithos muttered, before marching out of the room. "Cheating on my sister are you, I'll show you." Jerking the door open, he turned on his heel. "You're going to regret being the traitor, Yuan! I'm going to have fun being "Lord Yggdrasill"." He said the last part in a high and mighty tone, before marching out the door.

Kratos headed towards the door as well, but paused to give a parting message to Yuan. "I'm going to head out and work on my alibi. I suggest you do the same."

"Yeah, yeah." Yuan muttered, wondering how it was they almost always ended up arguing at this time. If it weren't for the fact that they got so bored, they never would have continued with this entertainment.

But it had been four thousand years! That was a long time to live! Granted, they created "Cruxis" over three thousand years ago, but still.

Like little boys, they needed to keep their hands dirty. Life was their play dough, and the best thing of all was saving the World.

"You don't blame us, do you Martel?" He asked softly, gazing at her entombed features. Then they hardened. "One day, we'll find a way to germinate that stupid seed you're imprisoned in, but until then keep it alive a little longer okay? We can't have the world dying on us yet."

-- End

Hahaha, just a quick thing that came into my head. A bit of a funny that makes you wonder, you know?

Unaddressed things: Is Lloyd really Kratos' son or is he just imprinting?

Leading to: "Anna, hmm" Kratos thought quietly for a moment, looking at the brunet's confused puppy expression. I can work with that.

Getting into Mithos' head, what does he really think?

Why do Kratos and Mithos regard Yuan as a pervert for everything?

Pretending that ToS goes exactly as it did, would I ever have Lloyd and Co find out that everything was a game of cops and robbers?

Human ranches… are they real, or are they not. Reminds me of how Chocolat wasn't exactly injured like the other prisoners. Hmm.

Disclaimer: I do not own any plot or characters pertaining to Tales of Symphonia, nor the game and franchise itself.