Author's Note: Okay, this one requires a bit of explanation. It contains spoilers for about 7/8 of the way through the game, so if you haven't got that far, don't read this fic! No, it's not another chapter of "Ties That Bind". :P It does take place in the same universe as my earlier stories, but as that's roughly the same as the canon universe, you should be okay reading this if you haven't read any of the others.
For the rest of you, that means the scene right after you get Origin. In fact, the rather abrupt opening is taken directly from the dialogue right after Tabatha mysteriously appears and continues right into the scene change. We're assuming Lloyd took Colette's path in the game. Enjoy!
"But Altessa is not well enough to move," Yuan protested. "Who is going to craft the Ring of the Pact?" Nevermind how he knew that a human would need such a device. It was a good thing, Yuan decided, that Lloyd was denser than the average teenager.
Lloyd's expression darkened, but then suddenly lit up again. "Dad!" he exclaimed.
Yuan looked at Kratos with one eyebrow raised. He glared back at Yuan with one of his "How should I know?" expressions.
"Dirk?!" asked Genis, looking surprised. Right, Yuan thought. He still doesn't think of Kratos as his father.
"Yeah," Lloyd continued. "He's our only hope. We'll go to Sylvarant!"
Kratos, who had apparently been thinking along the same lines as Yuan, said "Wait." He paused then, struggling for words. Apparently the best he could come up with was "I'm going with you." Yuan sighed internally. Maybe it was a bad idea to keep him away from society for so long. He used to be so eloquent. Would it kill you to tell the boy you care about him?
Well, and maybe Kratos was just exhausted. Passing mana directly from one person to another had an attrition rate of something like sixty-five times, so even though Yuan had nearly wiped himself out, Kratos only had a bare minimum of energy left and was probably using everything he had to keep himself going rather than trying to be sophisticated.
Lloyd stared at Kratos, looking like he was trying to decide if he could trust his father. "All right," he said reluctantly.
"Do you have a Rheiard?" Genis asked curiously.
Realization dawned on Kratos's face. It looked rather comical. Yuan tried not to grin. "If I can't use the Tower to travel back and forth anymore, I am going to need one," he admitted. He turned to Yuan expectantly.
"What makes you think I have one you can borrow?" Yuan asked indignantly. Were it any other time, he would have exposed his wings and fluttered them as a visual reminder of "Why Seraphim Don't Use Rheiards", but his mana levels were still dangerously low. He settled on scowling instead.
"He can use Colette's for this journey," Raine suggested.
Lloyd's expression hardened at the reminder of Mithos's latest treachery. "Okay. But let's not waste any more time!"
"There is one more thing," Presea interjected. "How is Tabatha going to get home?"
"I'll escort her," Yuan said quickly. "If she's agreeable, that is." He darted a glance over to the very familiar figure and tried not to let his expression betray anything.
"Thank you, Yuan," she said warmly. Yuan shivered. He suddenly decided that it was a very good thing Kratos was exhausted, manners be damned. He was so preoccupied with She said my name! that he almost missed her next words. "I would like that, very much."
"Go," Yuan said to the others, closing his eyes. "I have a feeling the hardest battle is yet to come." The young heroes scrambled to obey, and Yuan added something under his breath. As it happened, he didn't realize the irony of the comment.
"I pray for your success in regenerating the world."
After the others had left, the woman who was not Tabatha turned to Yuan. "And how do you plan to escort me back, if you don't have a Rheiard?" she asked archly.
"How did you get here in the first place?" Yuan muttered. "And I never said I didn't have any. If Kratos can't figure out a dodged subject after being around me for four thousand years, I understand why his son's so dense." He fished around in his cloak for his Wing Pack as an excuse not to meet her eyes.
"Yes, how did I get here in the first place," she said reflectively. "Origin has awakened into this time. That should be enough of an explanation."
I should have asked why, not how, Yuan thought sourly. I'm not sure I really want to know the answer, though. "Here we are," he said aloud as he pushed a button and a larger-than-average Rheiard materialized. "Rheiard L-106b. It's specially modified to carry the weight of two normal people, three skinny people, or one very heavy dwarf." Yuan hopped up onto the long seat and gestured for the woman to do the same. She did so, moving much more gracefully than any automated doll Yuan had ever seen….
Savagely telling his mind to shut up, Yuan checked the fuel gauge. Good, it's been recharged. Shouldn't have any problems, as long as I don't try to dimension jump away from the bases.
He stiffened as she wrapped her arms around his waist to hold on. Yuan closed his eyes. No! This would be a very bad time to start having flashbacks. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.
"Ah, are you ready?" he asked shakily.
She took one last look at the ruins of the elven village before answering. "They wouldn't accept our help, even if we offered it?" she asked quietly.
"They might," he replied. "Then again, they might not. They're not terribly fond of half-elves at the moment. An offer of assistance from someone they'd exiled would only be a slap in the face to them, no matter how it was meant." It was hard not to be bitter at the elves when you lived among the children they'd rejected, but Yuan tried not to blame them. It was only a current attitude, after all. A hundred and fifty or so years ago, Heimdall had been a haven for half-elves, although most had left peacefully for Exire to live among their own kind.
"We can leave, then," she said, leaning her head against Yuan's back as they lifted off and sped towards the remains of the Ozette village.
Yuan half-expected this would make him even tenser, but something in him decided to stop fighting it and just be happy. He suspected it was the "you're really low on mana, get some sleep" part of his brain. He did still had enough objective thought left to land the Rheiard a good distance away from Altessa's house once they got close enough.
He closed his eyes. It did feel good to have her laying against him like that, he had to admit.
"We need to talk," Yuan said reluctantly.
"Yes," she said solemnly as she disengaged herself from him and slid off the Rheiard. "I believe we do."
Yuan sighed, put the vehicle back in the Wing Pack, and sat down. It was going to be either sitting or pacing, and he didn't really feel like pacing at the moment. "First of all," he said, trying to let a little annoyance creep into his voice, "you're not Tabatha. Well, you could be. It's possible that I am hallucinating after giving away most of my mana to Kratos back there."
She laughed. Oh, he'd missed that laugh. He dreamed of it sometimes and remembered waking up with tears on his cheeks because he'd missed that laugh so much. She sat down in the grass, facing him. "And if you're in full command of your senses?"
"Then it's possible that Altessa developed a highly realistic and accurate AI and installed it after Tabatha's memory banks were wiped." Possible, but highly unlikely. Even Lucien couldn't write programming that well.
She nodded. "And if he didn't?" she said in a low voice.
Yuan hesitated. "Then something in Mithos's calculations was wrong," he admitted. They'd tried to use the doll as a vessel. Nothing had happened. Yuan had been glad, at the time.
"Perhaps he was not factoring in the willingness of the soul to be transferred," she said, looking at the ground.
"No," Yuan agreed, "that he did not." He touched a hand to her face and she lifted it, smiling at him. "Martel." It must have been pure chance that Kratos didn't realize it – but then, Kratos probably didn't remember her as well as Yuan did.
"Being bonded with the Great Seed for so long made me strong enough to survive on my own," she admitted. "And when I saw that this poor girl had lost herself, it was a perfect vessel to fill." She placed an arm on her chest where the heart would be on a living person. "I still feel her, inside. What's left of her, anyway."
"Tabatha was a very kind being. It was never her fault that I couldn't look at her without remembering you." He'd been unable to meet her eyes before, but now Yuan felt himself absorbed by Martel's gaze. He drew in a breath. "Kratos said you'd mentioned that you were conscious the whole time."
Martel looked down again and smiled shyly. "That was an exaggeration. It was very much like dreaming, really." She raised her eyes again. "Sometimes I'd be conscious for years at a time, and I could send around my mind to follow whatever I wanted. I was there when the Balacruf family finally fell. I was there when my brother's first child was born, and when she died. I was there when the third Chosen of Sylvarant rebelled against his fate and started the Asgard War." She paused. "I was there when you founded the Renegades, and I was proud of you."
A knot in Yuan's stomach loosened and he felt giddy with relief. "I wasn't sure," he said. "I was never—It was so hard to know what to do—and I…" He bit his lip. This wasn't coming out very well. He looked down at the ground.
"I'm sorry I tried to kill you," he finally said in a very meek voice.
It was her turn to lift his face now. Before he was truly aware of what was happening, Yuan felt something he'd missed desperately for four thousand years.
Martel tasted of honey and sunlight and green growing things, and the end to a self-hatred that had lasted longer than most people could imagine. Yuan understood the message she was giving him with the kiss as easily as he'd ever understood anything she said in words.
I forgive you.
After it ended, he closed his eyes to savor the moment. Finally, though, the responsibilities he'd been shirking nagged at him enough and he was forced to break the serenity. "I would truly love to stay here with you," he said.
She caught the implication immediately, as Yuan knew she would. "Almost as much as I would love to meet your Renegades in person, Yuan. But if I neglect Altessa, he will likely die. I will not have another death on Mithos's soul."
Yuan nodded and stood up. "That you can still love him after all he's done makes you a better person than I am," he said, turning to gauge the sun and calculate if he could make it back to the Flanoir base before nightfall. There was only a core staff at each of the bases now, but he still needed to get the news of Origin's release to his Renegades. Plus, they were probably all freaking out about Derris-Kharlan.
"No," she disagreed, "I think you do still love him." Yuan turned to her, looking incredulous. "He wouldn't be able to hurt you so much if you didn't still love him," she said, smiling ever so slightly.
"I suppose you have a point," Yuan remarked ruefully. He paused and became serious again. "If—If Lloyd and his friends don't succeed…." He swallowed. It was a real possibility, after all, even if it was a very bleak one. "I won't give up," he said fiercely. "I'll find a way to save the world." He mellowed. "I do hope they succeed."
Martel smiled brilliantly. "I believe in them," she said simply.
Yuan nodded. "Then I will believe in them, too." It would save him a lot of worry if they managed to germinate the Great Seed.
Following his line of thought as she so often had in the beginning, when he had first fallen for her, Martel spoke next of the Seed. "If another Tree is born, I will become its caretaker." She met Yuan's eyes. "My soul was bound to the Seed for nearly an eternity, Yuan. It will need a guardian, or it will die like the Kharlan Tree."
Yuan hid a smile. That would be a perfect role for her. Martel had always felt a special connection to the Kharlan Tree in the ancient days. "Then shall we agree to meet once again when the Great Tree is born?" As if I'd want to live away from her when I have a choice! The temptation to stay now was almost unbearable, actually, but if anyone besides the Renegades had a plan of action for when the Tower of Salvation fell, he'd sure like to know about it….
Martel beamed a smile at him, and Yuan was unable to keep his hidden any longer. "Yes," she said. "I will wait for you."
Deciding that his mana levels had risen enough that he was no longer in danger of knocking himself unconscious by transforming into his angelic form, Yuan got out his wings and smiled once again before taking off. "I will not make you wait very long," he promised.
As he flew away, the tiny figure of Martel waved to him from the ground.
And for the first time in over four thousand years, Yuan felt unconditionally happy.