This, if you didn't read the summary, is a gift fic for a friend 'o mine, freakyanimegal456.
I didn't originally plan this to be a part of her 'challenge', because I was planning this before the challenge was issued. But, meh, I suppose this kinda fits the conditions. Kinda.
This is a crossover with two different fics: freaky's Tasks of Spirit (which you pretty much need to have read to get any of this, up to chapter 17 anyway), and my Past and Future (which you don't need to have read). Actually, I suppose this isn't as much of a crossover as it is a 'I'm going to drop one of my characters into the universe of her story, set the microwave to defrost, and wait for the fireworks'.
Disclaimer: Tales of Symphonia and its characters, plot line, and locations are all property of Bandai-Namco. However, Cheresea, Chala, Trethe, and the rest all belong to freaky. In fact, all I'm bringing to the party is one semi-OC, and the degree to which I actually own him is very much debatable. Which makes me sad, because I luff him to death.
Here's for you freaky!
Spirit of the Past
Chapter I: If Apples Could Fly
Lloyd was playing with the Eternal Sword.
He wouldn't call this activity 'playing' by any means. If asked, he would probably refer to it was 'experimenting'. The pulsating purple weapon spun in the air, as Lloyd 'carefully' manipulated its mana. So much had been going on recently… there had to be a way for the Eternal Sword to help! He had a sword that could bend space and time, how could there be nothing he could do with it? The Sword must be able to find Nagas' 'perfect host', or find a cure for the Nagithian venom! There just had to be something! Thing was, having spent much of the past few years drifting in an alternate universe called the Nagith, he had little time to learn to use the Sword to its greatest potential.
He made the sword fly around in a figure eight, while brainstorming possible ways to use the Sword. He had said before that he was against time-travel, because there was so much that could go wrong. And if he started doing it for good reasons then maybe he would start time traveling for bad reasons.
He tried to make the Sword do the 'cha-cha-cha' while his train of thought continued to wander. Then he got an idea. He gave it a try.
Something went terribly, horribly, dreadfully, awfully wrong.
Everything was right with the world. That was, everything was right with the world unless one includes:
1. Kratos is suffering from the effects of Nagithian venom, the effects of which are understood only by two other individuals who aren't going to spill the beans anytime soon. Not even when bribed with cheese or threatened with Furbies.
2. Trethe, Chala, and Cheresea are mysteriously turning into Summon Spirits, a process that is both unpleasant and painful.
3. Kratos is sick and stuff.
4. Raine is pregnant again. As a result of this she eats strange combinations of various substances that even she would probably not consume under normal circumstances.
5. KRATOS IS TURNING INTO A MONSTER! AHHHHH!
6. An evil Summon Spirit named Nagas the Evil is running evilly around plotting evil things. While evilly eating an evil sandwich.
7. Did I mention that Kratos isn't doing all that well?
8. Lerek and Malk are starting to play host to the personalities of the Grand Cardinals from whom they were cloned.
9. Kratos' eyes are all weird, his skin is becoming transparent, and his heart stopped beating… That probably isn't normal.
Aside from that, everything was dandy as a daisy.
It was because of these few little things that made life not dandy as a daisy that a group of individuals were meeting inside the Wilder Mansion, attempting to think of what to do next. These people were the entire Sage clan, the Aurions, a pair of Yggdrasills, and a few Wilders thrown in. Then there was Regal, all by his lonesome, and Noishe, who was having a power nap.
Said group of individuals were having some trouble. But that was okay, because their anemic discussion was suddenly interrupted when the half-elven and angelic members of the group all sensed something BIG.
The only ones not in this category, Cheresea, Regal, Sheena, and Presea, looked at their companions, who had all simultaneously stiffened, as if the room had become suddenly cold.
One of the younger members of the group, Sari, said to Mithos, "Daddy, what was that?"
"What happened?" asked Cheresesa, "You guys all kinda went stiff… is something wrong?"
"A giant blast of mana…" said Chala, her gray eyes distant.
Lloyd chose this moment to come downstairs from where he had been 'experimenting' with the Eternal Sword. When he saw the others, he asked, "What's wrong?"
Yuan stood up and declared, "This mana blast might have something to do with Nagas. We should investigate this as soon as possible."
Lloyd, with a creeping feeling that this 'mana blast' might have been his fault, because he had been experimenting with the Eternal Sword, followed everyone else out of the mansion to investigate.
In the center of a grassy field, where the 'mana blast' had occurred, there was a figure lying spread-eagled, face down in the grass.
It didn't move or make a sound for a very long time.
Then it groaned in pain and tried to sit up. When the figure failed at this it flopped back down on the grass. Then it tried rolling over. Several failed attempts and many grass stains later, it had managed to get onto its back (and thus revealing the figure to be a boy of about seventeen) and looked up with disoriented, glazed, red eyes. At least he assumed this was up. It had to be up, because he wasn't inhaling dirt anymore. And dirt was down, right? And that blue stuff that was above him… that was sky, right? Yeah, sky was up, right?
He closed his eyes and tried to shepherd his scattered thoughts. This took a very long time, as whatever had happened to him had managed to scramble the contents of brain very effectively. As soon as he managed to hold a train of thought to the end of a sentence, he opened his eyes again.
Where am I? He wondered. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked around. He was in the middle of a grassy field, with trees and what might have been a city in the distance. He didn't recognize any of it. He groaned.
After several moments spent trying to regain proper motor functions in his legs, he stood up. He looked around again. Then he tried thinking for a change.
He had been minding his own business when suddenly there had been… a flash of light? That was what it had been, and then he had ended up here, the middle of this… place. To occupy himself, he tried brushing the grass and dirt out of his spiky auburn hair. After a minute had gone by and he had not yet succeeded in his endeavor, he stopped trying. He tried to think what to do next.
His thoughts were interrupted however, when someone finally discovered him.
"Crick-cricket!"
He looked down at a small green insect that had decided to perch itself on his right shoe. It was a cricket, and it was staring up at him, and occasionally making strange chirping noises.
"Crick crickey!" said the insect.
The auburn-haired boy blinked.
"Crickeley crick cricket?" chirped the insect. Had the boy possessed a Cricket-To-English Dictionary, he would have known that the cricket had said, "Do I know you?"
The boy continued to stare down at the insect. The insect examined the boy critically, before cricking, "Crickle, crickey cricket crick!" Which was Cricket for, "I know, you look like Cheresea's grandfather!"
…Oh dear gods, the boy thought, I have landed in an alternate universe. "Uh… go away."
The insect's antennae drooped. "Cri-cricket…" said the insect mournfully.
"Shoo," he said, "Just leave."
The insect's antennae stood straight up from its head in anger at this dismissal. With an angry "Cricket!" and an insect's interpretation of The Finger, it leaped off into the grass.
I wonder if therapy could ever make this moment okay… wondered the boy.
It was then that someone else discovered him.
"Hey thar!" called a voice behind him, "Are ya lost?"
The boy turned to see a sixteen-year-old girl with orange hair and dirty clothes, accompanied by a vacant-eyed seventeen-year-old boy with teal hair, and a large black and blue cat… thing.
The girl's eyes widened when she saw the stranger's face. "HOLY FRIED MACK'REL!" she shouted, "Ler'k! Lookit! Lookit that! Don' he look like Cher'sea's granddaddy?"
The boy identified as Lerek cocked his head to one side and looked at the newcomer. "He does look a bit like Mr. Kratos." Admitted Lerek.
Agreed, agreed the voice of Forcystus inside Lerek's head, He does bear an uncanny resemblance to Lord Kratos…
"Uh…" the auburn-haired boy blinked, "…Who are you people?"
"I'm Malk!" said the girl cheerfully, "And this here is Rafei!" she added, indicating the large cat with the wave of an arm. Rafei stared at the auburn-haired newcomer intensely.
"And I'm Lerek!" added Lerek, "What's your name?"
"Just tell me first, who's Kratos?" asked the unnamed auburn-haired boy.
"He's Cheresea's grandfather," supplied Lerek cheerfully, "He used to be a bad guy working for Cruxis, but he's good now! Except he's sick…" He trailed off.
"…Who's Cheresea, and what's Cruxis?"
Malk stared at the unnamed boy as if he had asked her if apples could fly and sing the Star-Spangled Banner.
"…Ya don' know whut Cruxis is?" said Malk, "Dang boy, I know whut Cruxis is!"
"Then enlighten me," said the unnamed boy, with a certain amount of frustration. Perhaps it came from being thought dim by a girl who spoke with an accent that would shame Larry the Cable Guy.
"Cruxis was dis big bunch 'o angels," explained Malk, spreading her arms to indicate just how big this bunch 'o angels was, "But den Lloyd and his pals beat 'em all to a bloody pulp, dey did!"
…Just what kind of hellhole am I in? Thought the unnamed boy wretchedly. "Uh… how about we assume I've been living under a rock for a few years?"
This commented provoked an unexpected result. Malk wrapped an arm around the unnamed boy's shoulder and said, "Den why don' we take ya ta see Cher'sea and 'er friends?" The unnamed boy said nothing, and tried to suppress the horrible feeling that he had just been violated.
"Hey…" started Lerek, who had apparently been mulling over something since Malk had been talking, "You still haven't told us your name yet."
"Dat's right!" cried Malk, releasing the unnamed boy, "What's yer name?"
"…It isn't Kratos, it it?" asked Lerek, who still seemed deep in thought.
The unnamed boy said nothing.
Lerek's eyes went wide, as the voice of Forcystus presented a theory as to who this unnamed boy was. "Are you like us?"
"Come again?" asked the unnamed boy, wondering just in what way he could possibly be like these nuts.
"Are you a clone too?" asked Lerek, "Quet said the clone of Kratos died, but maybe he was wrong."
The unnamed boy blinked. Oh great, now clones were being added to his already large mountain of Things To Worry About, "I'm nobody's clone!" he protested hotly.
"Dat's whut I thought," said Malk, "Den I foun' out dat I'mma clone a dis ho Pronyma. An' lookit how I turn'd out. So it's not all bad! Kra'os ain't a bad guy, so if yer a clone a' him, dun feel bad!"
Some part of the unnamed boy's brain screamed and died after the end of that speech. It was either overloading from all the weird junk that had been dumped on him since he had arrived here, (wherever that was) or it was trying to save him from Malk's accent.
"I'm not a clone!" repeated the unnamed boy.
"That's what I thought at first," said Lerek, sadly.
The unnamed boy glared a Glare of Doom at Malk and Lerek.
"Eek!" screeched Malk suddenly, "Ya even got Kra'os's scary stare! 'Cept I dun think 'e twitched before..."
"I'M NOT A CLONE!" shouted the unnamed boy, "GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEADS! I AM NOT A CLONE!"
"How ya know?" asked Malk, "I didn' know fer da longest time."
"I give up!" said the unnamed boy in total exasperation, "If it'll make you feel any better… then fine, I'm a clone of this Kratos person. Now can you just tell me where – "
The action Lerek performed would be best described as a glomp. "That makes you our brother, doesn't it?" said the teal-haired boy gleefully, "I've never had a brother before! I wonder what it's like to have a brother?"
The unnamed boy made a distressed gagging noise.
"Let 'im go Ler'k!" said Malk with some alarm, "'E's turning blue!"
Lerek released the unnamed boy, who gasped for air.
"Sorry brother," said Lerek apologetically.
"…I'm not… your brother," gasped the unnamed boy, "Okay?"
Lerek look hurt at this rejection. His eyes went big and he stuck out his lower lip. The unnamed boy groaned. Some of his younger cousins performed this act, the 'I'm going to cry' thing. It always managed to get on his nerves. Spoiled brats.
"Look, I'm sorry," said the unnamed boy, "I'm just not your brother, okay?"
Malk frowned, "Whoda thunk Kra'os's clone woulda turned out ta be such a jerk!"
"I'm not a cl – " The unnamed boy tried to marshal something resembling restraint, which was, rather unfortunately, something he was not particularly good at. He decided then that he had to get away from these people. But they were both looking right at him. How could he possibly distract a girl with a stereotypical hillbilly accent and her tagalong?
"LOOK OVER THERE! A MECHANICAL SINGING FISH!"
"WHERE?!" demanded Malk, turning the in the direction the unnamed boy had indicated. Lerek looked too, because that was where Malk was looking. Rafei didn't look around, which was why she was the only one that saw the unnamed auburn-haired boy turn and sprint in the opposite direction.
Rafei gave chase.
A few minutes later, Cheresea and the rest of the group landed in the grassy field where the mana blast had occurred. They found nothing remarkable there.
"Maybe we got it wrong," suggested Cheresea uncertainly as she surveyed the empty field.
"That was a powerful blast," said Chala, her hands on her hips, "I doubt that we all simultaneously imagined it."
Lloyd was careful to avoid the others without trying to look like he was avoiding them. He still hadn't told them that he thought the mana blast might have been his fault yet. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened yet. The field looked okay to him, nothing was damaged. So maybe it had been a totally harmless mistake.
The possibility of the above statement being true was immediately smashed to little bits when the group saw Lerek following Malk, who was shouting at the top of her lungs, "DER WAS NO MECHANICAL SINGING FISH YA JERK! I'LL SKIN YA FER DAT!"
The silence that fell around Cheresea and the group was the kind of silence that is generally represented by ellipses.
"Do you think we should stop the crazy lady before she does skin someone, or just watch the fun?" asked Trethe with a grin. Sheena smacked him.
"Malk would probably skin someone if she were angry enough at them!" said Sheena, ignoring the pained moans her son uttered, "We should go ask her what the matter is."
They were cautious in approaching the two clones, and when they did, the first thing Malk did was continue to shout, "I'LL SKIN DA L'IL JERK!"
"Malk! It's us!" said Cheresea, "What's wrong?"
Malk turned to Cheresea, and then looked up at Kratos who had been standing behind his granddaughter. Malk pointed to him and said, "Fer havin' such a nice lady fer a granddaughter, I didn' know ya could be such an ass!"
Kratos raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"Ya 'eard me!" ranted Malk, apparently unaware of the danger, "Whut kinda guy lies to a girl 'bout dere bein' a mechanical singin' fish?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Kratos sincerely.
Cheresea looked from Malk to her grandfather and back. "Uh… Malk?" she started uncertainly, "What are you talking about?"
"She doesn't mean Kratos as in Mr. Kratos," supplied Lerek, "She means Kratos as in my brother!"
"You have a brother Lerek?" asked Raine.
"I still fail to understand what any of this has to do with me," said Kratos, still unable to unknot this mess of strangeness.
"Well, Malk and I heard a noise so we went to see what it was," explained Lerek, "But then we found a boy there, and he looked lost. He didn't know what Cruxis was, so we tried to explain it to him, but then he wouldn't tell us his name, and then he said he was a clone of Mr. Kratos – "
"WHAT?!" shouted Yuan in a panic, "The clone of Kratos is alive?!"
"At first he said he wasn't a clone," said Lerek, "But then he said he was. So that kind of made him my brother, but then he ran away."
"And dat's when Rafei ran off after 'im!" said Malk, "And dat's where I wuz goin'!"
"Where'd he run to?" asked Cheresea.
"Dat way!" Malk pointed.
They went that way.
The unnamed boy was still running. If a passerby had seen him running, all they would have seen would have been a seventeen-year-old boy with jeans, a purple windbreaker, and a slightly desperate look, running. They wouldn't have been able to tell that he didn't belong in this time.
His name was Kratos Aurion.
He was not a clone.
A/N: ...And if you haven't figured out what that means, then I'll laugh at you.
If you have been paying attention, you will have noticed that this is going to be a chapter fic. Why?
Because freaky and I have too many ideas to shove into a oneshot, and I'm a chronic overachiever, that's why!
I know I kind of skipped over Cheresea and the others, but I will get to them eventually. I wanted Malk and Lerek to have the spotlight this time, so... yeah.
Malk's accent is a pain in the ass. I hope I didn't screw it up too much...
Review please. You know you want to.