I want to specify right away that this is partially AU in terms of a few things. Locations, characters and roles are somewhat different, but somewhat the same. Namely, for characters, some who were dead (even pre-game) in any of the games may be alive for this fanfiction. There WILL be a LOT of characters. This is ALL Tales. However, because of the story I have planned out as a whole, it pretty much HAS to be partially AU, so nobody necessarily has to have full knowledge on every game.

This chapter is, admittedly, more informational than most chapters will be (in this chapter's case, the information serves for the plot). I cleared a lot up in the first chapter, but I've got a few more things I plan to make clear next chapter.

Also, there is going to be a LOT of death. There will be many pairings, as well, but some will be crossovers. I've attempted to spread out the selection of pairs so nobody feels like they enjoy the plot but are stuck completely with pairs they don't like. Crossover pairs get the most variety, seeing as two characters that get paired are spread out through a total of fourteen games (not fifteen, as here I'm counting ToS and its sequel as one).

Lastly, with character deaths, I will be killing off characters who don't necessarily die in their respective games. I won't be making any mention of whether they do or don't. I may also NOT be killing off characters that DO die in their respective games.

I also feel I should mention here... I had to go back and fix up some of the punctuation that was left out. I left a space between question marks and exclamation points because the document manager kept taking the exclamation points out if the two were together.

That said, I should now be able to proceed with the story.


Death.

"Speaking of killing…" The idiot went and opened his mouth. It reminded him, their leader, of what he'd been meaning to say since earlier. He'd just put people at risk. And he was happy to do so.

The blond leader of the large group spoke quite calmly as he carried on. "We must be prepared for a war at any time. These are people who will not sit by quietly and let us continue peacefully about our objectives; be it our individual objectives or our objectives as a whole. These people… will resist us. Undoubtedly."

A blond nearby, a rather… close friend of this man, somehow dreaded the words he knew would follow. Half dreaded, half rejoiced. His eyes closed in contemplation as the words poured out of the leader's mouth. "Kill them. Men, women and children alike. Any of such will oppose us."

Kill the children. Somehow, that part alone felt like a newly sharpened knife being shoved through his chest. His friend was but a… child, was he not? On their side.

"Nobody cares about age. Kill… I just wanna… kill them." The idiot just wouldn't stop. The deranged, psychotic, idiot.

"Calm yourself. Nothing good will come of being reckless." At least the Commandant had some sense.

"It is, however, but the first step leading to hatred. That hatred will consume, and thereafter breed war. This is exactly what must occur. Those pitiful children stand in our way, do they not? War is what we need to eradicate them." Most of the room fell silent. Just her voice alone could quiet any soul pitifully. There was, however, one man brave enough to continue the discussion. This wretched discussion the average citizen would be disturbed by.

The earlier talk of the bloody limbs. The way to instill fear in the enemies. The torture they would live through.

"There are quite a number of people filled with the desires hatred brings as of now. We have already used this to our advantage." The other Commandant. "Further it. The children you speak of will come to us. Let them. Allow them their souls to be torn from their bodies in their quests for vengeance. Allow them their friends to heedlessly lash out against us. We need not waste our time searching them out."

"Correct." It was that leader again. Approving the words of a deadly man. "Let them feed on their emotions. It is they who will bring them to us. They will unquestionably bring themselves to us. Wait until that time, Hasta."

"Lord Dhaos' words are supreme." Must have been a stanch follower. "The killings will arrive later on."

"You have gods standing before you. Everything shall turn out in our favor." He even looked godly. Indubitably, he was with Heaven at that time. That other war.

Even an idiot could comprehend this. Hasta lacked a response. What did it matter? He would be granted the honor of helping in the bloodshed. These people; they were annoying. Recurrently. But this time, at least, his method was approved of. Those "children" or whoever… someone was going to get slaughtered. It didn't have a bearing on whom.


"The hell-? !"

"You should watch where you're going, kid."

A pair of teenagers had unwittingly turned a corner, neither really heading for a particular destination; nor were they moderately paying attention to what was ahead of them. They'd walked into a pair of obvious adults, and while the younger one was slightly freaked out, the older of the two looked as though he were about to have a fit.

"Me? Me? ! Why am I the only one who's gotta watch where I'm goin'? !"

"Because you're the one who walked into us." The older man had slightly slurred and extended the first word, sounding quite as if he wasn't really taking this seriously. It only served to infuriate the teen. Although, rather than paying attention to his rant, he was more concerned with trying to figure out the color of the kid's hair. Somewhere between an emerald green and a shamrock green was his conclusion.

"Hey! Hey! You even listenin' to me? !"

"Not really. Your hair is a lot more intriguing than your voice."

"Wha-!"

"Uh… Um… I'm really sorry! He… It's just… we were in a deep conversation when you guys showed up, and I probably should've paid more attention, and-!"

"Whoa, take it easy, little guy. Do I look upset to you? Well, I guess if I do, it's not that easy to tell in comparison to this kid."

"Quit callin' me a kid! I ain't no kid!"

"Yuri, we really need to be going. We don't have all day." The teasing adult's blond companion interrupted the boy before he could let loose on another rant, looking toward his friend rather than the fuming teen.

"I know, I know. Well, kids? You gonna let us get by without attacking us for continuing on our way?" He smirked as soon as the older one was about to flip out again, but was stopped by his friend.

"I'm really, really, really sorry! It's just… we just had an audience with the Empire, and everything we tried to say was disregarded completely. Um… sorry…"

Both adults gave the boy clothed in blue an inquiring look. It was the blond who reacted first. "The Empire?"

"Um… yeah…"

"Ruca, that ain't their business! Come on. Let's go. They'll start pickin' on you, too, before ya know it. Then I'm gonna get really mad."

"You already are really mad." The dark-haired man referred to as Yuri pointed out. The boy was about to retort to that, but kept his mouth shut this time. Apparently it was exactly what the man wanted.

"We're going to see the higher-ups right now, actually." Yuri's friend continued. "Why don't you go with us?"

"But… they wouldn't listen to us…" The shyer boy was starting to look disheartened as he recalled the responses they'd gotten from the Commandant and several other officials.

"Stay outside." Yuri shrugged. "Besides, Flynn here isn't exactly considered lower-class. Granted, he's not an official, but he's got some authority."

"Flynn? I feel like I've heard that name before…" Ruca's friend stopped to mull over the name. "I've heard of a Flynn Scifo, I think."

"That would be me." The blond who had revealed himself as Flynn nodded to the previously enraged teen.

"S-So, what you're telling us is that if we go with you, they might listen to us?" Ruca perked up, causing a look of surprise to flicker on his friend's face.

"Well, that would about sum it up." Yuri answered for Flynn.

"Don't tell me you're thinkin' of goin' with these guys." The younger pair turned to each other.

"I… I think we should! I mean, they're adults, too, so I think adults would rather consider what other adults have to say than a couple of kids." When his friend was silent, he started to get nervous again. "Uh… right? Um… is that wrong?"

"No." His friend shook his head. "I just wasn't expectin' you to actually want to go back after all that. I was kinda thinkin', 'who the hell would just go off with a couple of random adults they just bumped into and don't even know?'. But I guess we got a good reason to go. If they weren't goin' to see the officials, you know, the people we were just havin' that audience with, there's no way I'd just up and go with some strangers anywhere. But I guess they're in the same boat as us right now, like how you and I first met."

"Well, you two set to go, then?" The two turned back to Yuri and nodded. "Well then. I'm Yuri Lowell."

"Oh! Uh… I'm Ruca… Milda… S-Sorry if I'm coming across as weird or awkward to you…"

"More shy than weird or awkward. But I can swear I know that last name."

"P-Probably… I'm the son of a really well-known merchant…"

Yuri gave a nod as he finally recognized the name. He then gave his attention to the other boy. "And you'd be who, now?"

"Spada Belforma." He didn't exactly seem delighted to give out his name.

"Belforma? The aristocratic family? They're fairly close to the Milda family, are they not?" Flynn was the one to recognize Spada's surname.

"Uh… yeah." He glanced at Yuri before shrugging. "But I guess this guy's the only one here without a renowned name. Can't really say he looks like he's got any class, either."

"Thanks for noticing. I'm glad to hear I stand out." Yuri seemed just as zealous about it as Spada had been as he introduced himself.

"Glad to hear I do, too." Both their voices were full of drenched sarcasm. While Yuri stood out in the sense that he was the only one to not stand out, he was still giving a sarcastic attitude to being the only one without any class. Although, in a regular crowd, he wouldn't stand out. Spada, on the other hand, had more obvious derision toward the fact that he was well known by his family name. Not that he was ready to make that reason clear to a pair who were still technically strangers.

Ruca and Flynn regarded the two with slight consternation as to whether or not they would get along. From what either could tell, they were either going to get along perfectly fine in the near future, or they were going to outright despise each other. They were each left with the hope that it would be the rejecting Empire the two reviled and not each other.


The Empire. It was, as a whole, slighting the citizens. Most people were aware there were new members in the Council, but whoever any of them were, they were doing a miserable job.

If the group were without the statues of both Flynn and Spada, by no means would they have been allowed any sort of audience with any officials. If a person had an eminent status, they were allowed to speak with any higher-ups. However, commoners were not so fortunate. Not even Ruca's family's status was high enough to be granted a symposium without notice long ahead of time.

At the time the small group presented themselves, both Ruca and Spada were half shocked and half expecting to see the amount of people in the conference room. The four of them were looking in various directions, not one of them looking toward the same group of people. They eventually gave their attention to Flynn when he spoke up.

"Even High Highness Ioder is getting wrapped up in this…" Yuri searched Ioder out in the crowd, eventually finding the blond speaking to a brunette woman in mostly brown clothing, save for the bright red stockings and a couple other barely noticeable colors from their distance.

"Looks like it… Guess we should find ourselves someone to talk to."

Luckily enough for them, there was an open space beside Ioder. They'd be able to listen in on the issues their Emperor was having whilst being in their own consultation.

Yuri pointed out the open area to the others. Thankfully, it wasn't someone they knew from the Empire as they knew it. They approached a bald man with earrings, someone who seemed at least somewhat conversant about what was going on.

"What is it you need?" The man spoke up as the four approached his section of the long, room-circling counter.

"We want to know what's going on with this damn Empire." Yuri's answer was instant.

The man closed his eyes for a moment, sighing. "I see…" It seemed like the others who had come to him before this group were only vaguely aware of what was going on. Conversely, these people seemed to know the majority of it. The older pair seemed to be mostly erudite, anyway.

Opening his eyes to look at the four before him, he introduced himself. "I am Brute Lualdi. You likely know my name from hearing about the Vanguard. I am the one who leads them."

"Yes. I've heard about the Vanguard. As their leader, I am sure you're well informed about how a lot of its members are being used to serve the Empire now." Flynn was only reasonably knowledgeable about the Vanguard, but he at least knew of their leader and his accomplishments. One namely being given a position as a Council member.

"That is correct. I do not wish to see my subordinates involving themselves in such acts. Nevertheless, the Empire holds much more power than I. Because of this, I cannot stop the Empire from using them. I am merely able to make requests."

"You're part of the Council now, ain't ya? !" Spada retorted, gaining the man's attention. "Just tell them the Vanguard is yours and only yours! They ain't got no right takin' your group of people for their own selfish business!"

Brute shook his head at the boy's remark. "I may be part of the Council, but there are members of higher status than myself. It is also because I am part of the Council that I now must follow by their rules. If they ask for my soldiers, I cannot simply deny them."

"They got their own soldiers, dammit!"

"They need as many soldiers as they can congregate right now. There are many cities and towns facing difficult situations. Most soldiers have been sent to these locations to help with that."

"Like hell they are. Those soldiers have been told to prepare for wars; not help a bunch of citizens. If they're supposed to be helping the populace, they're doing the worst job at it I've seen in my life. And that's absolutely pathetic." Yuri was crossing his arms now in impatience.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me." Spada abruptly felt an overwhelming fury at the idea of the soldiers "being sent out to help the cities and towns". Ruca wanted to say something; anything; but he knew what Spada was feeling was right, and it was precisely how he felt. "Helping the cities and towns? So was Regnam just not on their list of places that needed help? ! Or did they just conveniently forget about it? ! Or was it that they just ignored it because it wasn't on their priority list? !"

The raise in Spada's voice seemed to distract Ioder, who looked over tentatively. Flynn noticed he'd been distracted and mouthed an apology. Ioder gave him a nod and returned his attention to the woman at his section of the counter, although the sudden attention given to the group by the Emperor himself left Flynn thinking he likely knew something about the concerns Spada voiced. Not necessarily that he was involved directly, but he may have known something.

"Calm yourself." Flynn was temporarily torn from his thoughts as Brute's voice took their place. Everyone's attention was back on him as he explained. "It's likely nobody made it in time to help Regnam. Almost all the soldiers were dispatched from a place known as Seingald. As you may well know, the capital of Seingald, Darilsheild, is rather far in distance from Regnam."

"Then how the hell did they manage to get to other places like Sulz, in Karegia so quickly?"

"I do not know the specifics. You may have to take that up with whoever it was directing all the soldiers."

Yuri quirked an eyebrow at this. "Whoever? If the dispatches were in Seingald, wouldn't it have been the captain of the Seingald soldiers; Leon Magnus?"

"That is not the case. Not all the troops there were of Seingald. In fact, most weren't."

"So… whose soldiers were in Seingald?" Ruca inquired, starting to feel doubly uneasy.

"Many solders were there, from various parts of various places. Even I am unable to inform you as to whose soldiers took part in the recent events."

"And you've told us all you know?" Yuri queried doubtfully.

"I am not at liberty to enlighten you with everything I know. I apologize for this."

'So he's hiding things. Whether forced or not.' Yuri realized, grimacing. 'Least he can admit that much…' He turned to the other three. "If that's the case, we're not getting anymore information here." From the look on Flynn's face, he knew both of them were aware things were being kept from the general public. But for Brute to make that clear as day… he couldn't possibly be entirely on the Empire's side.

Flynn nodded to Yuri. "We've taken long enough, anyway. I'm sure there are plenty of people who are waiting for someone to finish." He then gave his regards to Brute. "I thank you for your assistance, Mister Lualdi."

To the surprise of the four, Brute returned the nod. "I'm glad I could be of assistance for you. Please protect the areas that are being neglected in my place."

Everyone seemed to relax quite a bit at this. Brute wasn't a bad person. In fact, he was probably trying just as desperately as they were to do something about the worst of the problems they'd been having unremittingly. They had found a good person to speak with. Hopefully they would get the opportunity to converse with him again.

Just as they were heading out, it seemed the woman beside them had also finished her discussion with Ioder. Yuri waited until they were out of the room and in the waiting room again before he spoke to her.

"Hey; why were you talking with the Emperor?" The question almost caught the woman off guard, but she promptly noticed the asker was one of the people beside her in the conference room.

"Oh, it's you. I was trying to find out what on earth the soldiers were doing for so many to be injured. There are also a large number of injured civilians from various places. It's worrisome."

"What soldiers? The ones that were sent out from Seingald?"

"Seingald? No, not there. Most of the injured soldiers were sent out from Kimlasca's capital, Baticul."

"…Were those soldiers all respectively from Kimlasca?"

"No. Like with Seingald, it was a large mix. Though, from what I've been able to gather… it doesn't seem at all like Seingald and Kimlasca have the same objectives."

"Injured soldiers? A lot? And you say Seingald and Kimlasca don't share the same goals…" Flynn was trying to process all this information at once. "Are they at war with each other, and haven't been letting the public know to avoid fear among the citizens?"

"I can't imagine why they would be at war. They ultimately have no reason to be. But if they were at war, and Seingald's troops were sent out first… it could explain why there have been so many injuries on Baticul's side. Originally, Seingald had no reason to send soldiers out. Their captain is away right now, but only few people know of this."

"Um… Mister Lualdi told us Seingald's troops were sent out to help the cities and towns that needed it…" Ruca reminded the other three, and now informed the female, who looked slightly mystified by the statement.

"Baticul's troops were the ones who were sent out to help the cities and towns. I had thought the injuries were coming from monsters when they were protecting those places, but there simply aren't enough monsters attacking right now for there to be this many injures."

"It sounds like Brute's information was relatively off." Flynn noted. "What he mixed up were the soldiers from both Seingald and Baticul. Baticul's soldiers were sent out to protect the towns and cities. Seingald's soldiers, as Yuri said back in our meeting with Mister Lualdi, were told to prepare for war. It must be Seingald's soldiers who are attacking the cities, and Baticul's soldiers who are defending them. It wasn't Seingald's men that reached Sulz in time; it was Baticul's."

"The guys from Seingald weren't given orders from their captain, either. So who is it that's directing them right now?" Yuri was still trying to answer his own question, but was ultimately failing.

"Nobody actually knows the faces of more than half the people in command at Seingald right now. Since the captain's departure, Seingald has been acting… strangely."

"So the wrong person found out he left for however long, and got themselves involved with the soldiers."

"I would imagine so." The woman nodded. "I would assume, though, that there is more to the story than just the capital being taken over."

"His Highness seemed to know exactly what was going on, or at least most of it." Flynn recalled at what time Ioder gave his attention to the group. When Spada was asking if Regnam was ignored… "That means… when he looked over at us… he knew Regnam wasn't ignored. He knew it was attacked by Seingald, and that Baticul's troops hadn't made it in time to help it. But he was speaking with you at the time, so he couldn't just jump into our conversation."

"Most of what I've learned was from His Highness himself."

"So then… lots of people must know what's going on. All the higher-ups must know. But they aren't telling us because people might freak out." Ruca mentioned anxiously.

"And if they don't tell us, we're gonna die." Yuri said sternly. "Even if it's something to be fearful about, those idiots can't just not let us know when there's danger, hell, probably right around the corner!"

"I thank you for this amount of information. We would never have been able to see His Highness anytime soon at this rate. May I ask your name?" Flynn held out his hand for the woman to shake.

"I'm Mystearica Grants. You're welcome to call me Tear, as most people do." She accepted the hand with a smile.

"Miss Tear… I see. I do believe I have heard of you to be not only in the Oracle Knights, but you are also part of the medical team dealing with wounded soldiers and civilians, are you not? It would certainly explain how you would know about the number of casualties."

"That's right. It's been quite tiresome lately. I was sent back here with very little soldiers to support me. They needed to send out a witness to the mass numbers of the wounded, but they could barely even sacrifice one healer."

"That many…?"

"Yes. There are far, far more injured than we can all attend to at once." She heaved a long, heavy sigh, attempting to release some of the burden off her chest. "And you all are?"

"Flynn Scifo. My friend here is Yuri Lowell, and these boys here are Ruca Milda and Spada Belforma." He indicated to each person, and received an accepting nod from Tear.

"Truthfully, I would like to help you all figure this out further, but I need to speak with my brother, who is also a member of this city's council. He's also the Commandant of the Oracle Knights, so with his status, he may know something about what's going on. I just hope he'll answer my concerns…"

"I see… Thank you for everything, Miss Tear."

"You, as well. I'm sure we'll be passing by each other in the near future."


"Geez… This is ridiculous…"

The red-haired magic swordsman had been exhausting himself all day, just as the others around him were, to ensure the lives of all wounded. It was finally taking its toll on some of the healers, though. This didn't go unnoticed by some of the redhead's healer companions.

"Zelos, you okay? Take a break, would you?" The silver-haired swordsman walked over to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"You're not one to talk, Loni." Zelos sighed. "I know you've been stressing over your brother for a while now. Don't you think you should rest, too?"

Loni fell silent. Zelos was right, and he had most definitely wanted a break, but there were so many injured… What if… What if Kyle ended up coming in as one of them? His beloved adoptive brother had been drafted by Seingald's army, and hell, the kid was only fifteen. Loni knew something was wrong with Seingald, but there was no way to fix that right now. There was just too much going on…

"I…" He finally spoke up. "I want to at least stay out here. If my brother comes in wounded, I want to be the one to heal him. If I'd actually been able to do something… anything… I could have stopped those soldiers from drafting him. It's my responsibility now, and it's partly my fault he was taken into the army."

"…If you say so, man. I still don't think it's your fault at all. They probably would have taken the kid regardless of what you did."

"Even so…"

"Don't fret over it, huh? We've got people that need to be taken care of us right in front of us. Doing a job like this is totally too tedious for me, but… these guys need all the healers they can ever get right now."

"You're right. Looks like we've another one, too."

The two watched as the next of the injured was brought in. The boy had bright red hair as Zelos did, albeit very short. He probably wasn't easy to miss in battle… His outfit was mostly made up of various shades of blue, and some parts of the outfit stuck out like a sore thumb.

"I thought it was just Seingald, but… Baticul, too? Even Baticul is drafting children?" Loni was shocked as he kneeled down to heal the boy who was placed on a mattress on the floor. It was easily going to take both swordsman to heal this boy. They were weak with exhaustion, but they weren't just about to let a child die. Much less right in front of them.

"Are you two both alright over here?" Both of them only nodded, feeling somehow comforted by the voice of a companion. She was watching the two to make sure they really were before nodding – not that they saw the nod. They were intently focused on the boy before them, making sure to heal every wound. One simple infection could end up deadly.

"He's very badly injured. I'll go get Jude since he's free right now. That boy needs all the attention he can get."

"Kohak, it can't be that bad…" Zelos protested, looking over the boy's wounds. At least, they didn't look that bad.

Kohak also protested. "We heard he was attacked by that man named Hasta. I've heard he's… psychotic. I'm going to go get Jude. We have to make sure that boy stays alive." She hurried off before either of the two could say anything else.