Insert incredibly witty and believable excuse for the unforgivable delay here.
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Damn. There isn't one.
What this chapter is, is a revision of the original Chapter One. That had serious issues in it, (Being basically the remnants of my TWOS-inspired writing frenzy) and I not only found myself shocked by the comparative quality (Or lack thereof), but completely unable to proceed with Chapter Two from the base it gave me. It, and the three subsequent revisions based directly upon it, simply moved too fast. So I said 'To H-E-Double-Hockeysticks with it all, I'm rewriting it from the beginning. Two revisions and a beta later, here's the result. And I promise. As soon as my Eagle Project is done, I'll have enough free time to start cranking out chapters on this story. So give me a month or two, and this story shall be brought back from Purgatory! Resurrect...
Sorry.
Standard Disclaimers Apply.
Darkness and Light
Chapter I – Second Genesis
Aaron was in the midst of a peaceful slumber, recovering after a long day of exams. It was that kind of calm, deep, dreamless sleep that allows you to recover completely and wake up feeling like no time had gone by at all. Unfortunately, it's also the kind that never seems to last.
Suddenly, Aaron found himself on a piece of pale, jagged grey stone floating in a deep abyss. Seated cross-legged on the rock, he took in his surroundings. For all appearances, he seemed to be alone. Beyond his solitary piece of ground, there was nothing but blackness. Nevertheless, he could not shake the feeling he was being watched.
Within the void, a light winked on far in the distance. Merely a tiny spark, it floated alone in the endless blackness. Aaron stared at it, and as he did so more began to appear. Like fireflies, they winked on in the night until they filled the void. After a few minutes, he realized they were stars. He was floating in what appeared to be deep space.
Suddenly, four violet-colored stars burst into being. They were much larger than the others, and a strange shape. They almost seemed to be…eyes?
Aaron stood, and walked back and forth across the stone platform. As he did so, he noticed that the star-eyes were following his movements.
'Yep, definitely eyes,' he thought. 'Man, my dreams have been getting weirder and weirder lately…'
As if on cue, a voice echoed in Aaron's mind. Greetings, young one.
Aaron jumped, startled by the sound of the voice. It seemed to echo about the starry gulf, as if coming not just from the star-eyes, but from all the stars at once.
'What? Who said that?' he looked frantically around until his gaze was met by the star-eyes again. Aaron cocked his head in silent question.
They bobbed up and down just slightly, an unspoken Yes.
'What do you want?' he asked.
The voice chose not to answer Aaron's question, instead asking one of its own. Tell me, young one. Do you desire power?
Aaron blinked, caught off-guard by the strange question. 'What kind of power are you offering?'
The violet flames flickered out for a brief instant, one after the other. Blinking, apparently. I have great power at my disposal. But that is not an answer. Do you desire power?
Apparently, the voice was not to be dissuaded, Aaron decided. He considered the question carefully. Did he really? Power was great to have, but if you lacked the will to use it wisely…it could easily ruin you. Finally, he answered. 'No, I think I'd rather not. A wise man once said; Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Personally, I'd rather not take that burden. I don't trust myself not to abuse it."
The eyes blinked again. Aaron got the idea that their owner was mildly surprised. Sometimes that choice is not ours to make, young one. There comes a time when we all mustface our duty. All we can do is prepare ourselves to bear the burden.
The eyes began to recede from the platform, sinking back into infinity. As they did so, Aaron heard the voice speak again. Farewell for now, young one. I must take my leave of you, for I am a captive spirit. I can only be away so long before my absence is noticed.
Aaron made no attempt to stop the eyes; he knew he could do nothing. Nevertheless, as the eyes began to fade and the dream-world along with it, he thought he caught the barest sigh of a thought from the retreating being. Perhaps…perhaps I have found the one I seek…
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Aaron was jolted from his slumber by an alarm clock that was apparently attempting to wake the dead. Reflexively, he rolled over and slammed his hand down in the general vicinity of the klaxon. Either by long practice or dumb luck, the clock's wailing ceased.
Amidst a grumbling monologue generally directed at unreasonable wake-up calls, Aaron sat up, yawned, and got out of bed. He crossed the room quickly, stretching his arms over his head as he did so.
Do you desire power, young one? What an odd question. An odd dream all around, all things considered. The dream mildly unnerved him, but he supposed that was normal. Really now, how often do you get mysterious, disembodied eyes offering you power in your sleep? But that was just business as usual for this particular Terran. Seeing as what he had witnessed in the past, this was nothing out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, echoes of the Voice's words hovered around the edges of his concentration as he stood and dressed, like they wanted to be delved into.
After a brief shower to fully wake him, he pulled on a pair of white shorts and a forest green shirt. Over the top, he put on a pale green-and white camp shirt. Suitably dressed, he went back to his desk to gather his things for school. Just as he began to wonder why there was a padlock on his backpack, he looked up to his bulletin board and saw a note pinned there. Simply, it read;
'School's out, you moron.'
Shocked, Aaron stared blankly at the note, as if uncomprehending its message. After a moment, though, the words finally completed their journey to his brain, and he burst out laughing at his own stupidity. "Wow…" he sighed, still chuckling, "Leave it to me to know that I would have to leave myself a note and then forget about it completely!"
Immediately, Aaron's bag was abandoned and all thoughts of school banished from his mind. Instantly taking their place were his long-since laid out plans for the months of freedom that now stretched out before him. With them, of course, came the tide of memories from the summer before. It had been a journey and an adventure of such a degree that Aaron sometimes found it difficult to believe. As he always did whenever that feeling took him, Aaron reached down inside his shirt and retrieved an object that was the proof of the whole affair.
Almost reverently, he cupped the trans-dimensional communicator in the palm of his hand. Brilliant light caught the edges of the crystal as he held it up, settling in fiery lines along the facets.
Even though it looked to be an unassuming bit of clear, blue-tinged crystal on a silver chain, he, his sister, and his best friend knew better. With a thought, they could activate it and speak mind-to-mind with people most others on Earth considered to be nothing more than pixels and polygons on a TV screen and a mini-disc.
The device had originally been voice-activated with a holographic interface, but the need had been seen to keep such advanced technology hidden on Earth, at least at present time.
So, after a little bit of experimentation, it had been discovered that the crystal itself possessed the correct molecular alignment to amplify brain signals, and even to project them. To allow mind-to-mind communication between the two planes, Lloyd had popped over to Earth for a little visit to carve a sigil Origin showed him into the crystal.
With this sigil, Origin assured them; the user's thoughts would be picked up by the crystal and amplified by the Eternal Sword. It could then 'beam' them to the correct receivers. Kind of like a universe-wide radio antenna, Aaron had mused.
During the year that had passed since the 'Orois Incident', the Terrans had had relatively frequent communication with the Symphonian group. This contact had kept them rather well-informed on the post-game goings-on in the other world and Aaron and Kyle's joint 'after the game' Fanfiction was doing quite well because of it.
Aaron sighed as he fingered the pendant, letting the memories wash over him.
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Nearly immediately after their return to Symphonia, Lloyd and Colette had set off to collect all the Exspheres from the world so they could do no further harm. Raine and Genis had embarked upon a journey of their own, accompanied by Presea. Their purpose; to end all kinds of discrimination across the worlds. Not just that against Half-Elves, but any and all who were oppressed for their differences. Though it went without saying, Genis was quite happy to be going. One might feel sorry for Raine.
Zelos had returned to his mansion in Meltokio, though the city itself wasn't quite in the same place anymore. He melded back into high society like he had never left, and was doing a surprisingly good job in his new position as Royal Knight Commander, ironic though his promotion may have been. Regal, similarly, returned to the Lezareno Company in Altamira. He devoted most of his impressive resources to aiding anyone and everyone with their efforts to rebuild in the wake of Mithos' attacks.
Sheena, of course, returned to Mizuho. She was, after all, the chief-in-waiting, and had her own duties to her people. She remained the liaison and diplomat to Meltokio, but now her contacts included the cities from all parts of both worlds. Mizuho was intent on establishing good relations with all the members of both worlds. Because of this, Sheena had been travelling almost as much as Lloyd and Colette.
And finally, the two remaining Seraphim. Kratos, despite the best efforts of Lloyd and the company, had remained adamant in his decision to go to Derris-Kharlan. No one but Kratos himself had any clear idea of what he would be doing there, but he deemed it of the highest importance. Thus, it was completely impossible to persuade him to stay. Heartbreaking though it may have been for Lloyd, he accessed the power of the Eternal Sword and watched helplessly as his father drifted off on the purple comet.
Yuan had attempted to vanish into the background once again, but it proved very difficult to do so. He had, through his actions to aid Lloyd and company against Mithos, inadvertently become as famous as the 'Heroes of Regeneration' (Though he considered himself fortunate that no one had made the connection to the 'Heroes of the Kharlan War'). Thus, the majority of the Renegades found it nearly impossible to act in the shadows as they had done for so long before. The situation quickly reached the point where Yuan seriously considered disbanding the Renegades.
Fortunately, Lloyd and crew (Plus our heroes from Earth) were able to convince him that this was a bad idea. The Renegades provided a shelter of sorts for hundreds of thousands of Half-Elves who would be accepted nowhere else, not to mention a purpose, a career, and a steady income. Against Yuan's argument that their purpose had been fulfilled by the downfall of Cruxis, the Companions offered another route. The worlds…er, world, as it was now…was in a period of great instability. As the citizen's of two different worlds adjusted to life together in one, the potential for devastating crises to occur was exponentially increased. And at this point, any disruption to the already tenuous balance would be disastrous to both parties. So, the Companions said, use your abilities and resources to help keep the world a stable place.
Yuan saw reason, and agreed. Shortly afterward, the Renegades opened their ranks to all the races and began their transformation from shadowy rebellion coordinator to legitimate defensive authority. Thanks to the influence of the Heroes of Regeneration, the Symphonian Police Corps was founded within a month. Unfortunately, they had been having a hard time enforcing any laws at all. This was partially due to the two conflicting legal systems of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, but more so because many people still saw the mostly Half-Elf Corps as 'some sort of Desian plot'.
It was a mess, but things were improving nonetheless.
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Yet even with tangible proof in the palm of his hand, it was hard to believe that it was even real at all. As Aaron munched on his morning toast, he thought back to the time almost exactly one year ago when everything he thought he knew about how the universe functioned came crashing down around his ears.
He had discovered that video games were in fact real alternate universes, and that four of the people from his favorite had landed themselves on his deck. They had proceeded to drag the other remaining characters to Earth and meet up with an ancient archenemy that then went about some crazed Yukishiro Enishi-esque revenge, over the course of which he and his sister and best friend discovered that they had magical capabilities and that Earth was flooded with Mana from an unknown source. Following the survival of a crazy torture device, they had defeated the villain with techniques straight from a graphic novel, and then had been given items that had given them access to trans-dimensional telepathy.
It was a little hard to swallow, looking back. But he knew it was real. It had all been real, and he wished nothing more than to be able to do it all again.
Aaron's cell phone beeped at him. Glancing at it, he read his best friend's message.
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Yo
When are you coming over? You did remember that school was over yesterday, didn't you? I bet you forgot. Heh So, what're you waiting for? Grab your stuff and get over here! We're going TODAY, in case you forgot that, too. Don't forget to bring IT, as well.
- K
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Aaron slid the phone shut with a click.After replacing it in his pocket, he hit himself on the forehead with a smack. Summer must have set in extremely early this year. He had nearly forgotten their plans.
This day, almost exactly one year ago, had been the day that reality had opened up and deposited Lloyd, Kratos, Genis, and Raine on his deck. One year ago, the legendary Kharlan War-Era assassin Orois, ancient enemy of Kratos', had reappeared and sought his vengeance. One year ago, they had defeated him and saved both Lloyd and Kratos from their separate hells. One year ago, they had parted ways again.
And now, one year since, they planned to reunite once more. In celebration of the defeat of Orois and the meeting of new friends, a "party to end all parties" (as a certain red-headed philanderer had called it) was being thrown in Altamira, courtesy of the Lezareno Company. The entire Symphonian Company would be gathered back together like they hadn't done since leaving Earth, and the Terrans would be able to experience the world they had all dreamed – no, fantasized – about visiting ever since their discovery of it in 2001.
Instantly, the last remnants of his summer lethargy were dispelled like morning mist beneath the sun. Rapidly ascending the stairs back up to he room, he felt a great excitement building in his chest. For days, Aaron had been packing and preparing for the trip. His parents, conveniently, had left at the beginning of the week on another of their long, far-reaching vacations. He was starting to wonder if they had some sort of idea of what was happening and planned their trips accordingly. But Aaron squashed that thought immediately. It was just his paranoia talking again.
Not wanting to hesitate at all, Aaron retrieved his duffel from beneath his bed. He conducted a final check, and found everything to satisfaction. Then, he reached under his bed again and felt around for his special latch. Finding it, he flicked open the secret compartment he had built into the bottom of the bed frame. Soundlessly, the concealed hatch opened, and the "it" that his friend Kyle had mentioned fell into his awaiting hands.
Aaron withdrew his hands from beneath the bed, reverently cradling the object he held. Once again awed by the feelings of power that emanated from the blade, for a moment he could only stare at the black-lacquered sheath of the katana in his hands. Simple and elegant in form, it seemed a normal blade. Yet, an aura hung about the weapon, an air of strength, reassuring in its certainty. Anyone who touched it would be instantly aware that the weapon had been used by a great man once.
And when the blade was drawn, that aura, those feelings would be increased tenfold. For as soon as even an inch of gleaming steel emerged from the sheath, it would be plain. The blade was sharpened on the wrong side. It was a sakabatō. And for those who read a particular section of the graphic novels of one Nobuhiro Watsuki, the meaning of this was even stronger. This was the weapon of the ex-Hitokiri, Rurouni Himura Kenshin. Sakabatō Shinuchi.
Aaron gripped the sheathed blade tightly for a minute, then slid it into a homemade sword bag. (Imagine Enishi's, but made from white cloth) With Shinuchi slung over his shoulder, his duffel in his left hand, and the crystal around his neck, he felt he was completely prepared for whatever this party could throw at him. Boy, did he have another thing coming. But that, of course, will be revealed in due time.
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Aaron did a final check of his things, strapped on a pair of leather sandals, and left his house, locking the door behind him. As he threw his bag onto his back and hopped onto his bike, he sent a pulse of thought toward the crystal dangling around his neck to activate it. He entered his password mentally, and felt the stone grow slightly warm in response. He knew that beneath his shirt it would be emitting soft silver light as well. This was the proof that it recognized him. As far as he knew, it reacted differently for each person who used it. Kyle's for example, darkened in color and grew cool to the touch.
He opened a private channel to his best friend as he slipped on his biking gloves and helmet. As he waited for a reply, he began to pedal. Almost before he had let his driveway, his crystal pulsed and Kyle's voice emanated from somewhere just behind and between his ears.
Hey, finally coming? You did forget about today, didn't you! Telepathic communications always 'sounded' subtly different from actually speaking. You didn't so much 'hear' the other person than you 'felt' them. As such, voices acquired a 'sense' more than a 'sound'. Kyle had always seemed to suggest, at least to Aaron, a full moon on a crisp, cool night. In return, Aaron had been told, he felt-sounded like sunlight dancing on rippling water. As he rode on, he responded.
Yeah, yeah…go ahead and laugh. I'll get you when I get there. He could feel his friend's grin across their psychic link. So, are you ready?
Like you even need to ask. Responded Kyle. I've been ready for this trip ever since Lloyd first told us.
Aaron chuckled. He did so out loud, but he knew Kyle could hear it too. That long? I've been ready since they left!
Kyle laughed as well. I've got Null Moon all sharpened and polished up…Do you have Shinuchi?
Of course I do. Aaron knew that Kyle was referring to the black-bladed scimitar he had acquired in Orois' fortress armory. Like I'd actually leave it somewhere where I can't keep an eye on it. You think we'll even need them?
Who knows, my friend, who knows…it's a very difficult time over there right now… Kyle's thoughtvoice had a slightly saddened tone.
Well, I wouldn't worry about it. I mean, just look at what anything bad would have to go up against. They'd be screwed. Aaron said.
Yeah, you've got a point. They've got things under control. Why are we even worrying? If there was a problem, they'd tell us. We're going to have a party, not to drive off the second coming of the Desians. Once again, Aaron could feel the smile spread across his best friend's face.
Well, no matter what's happening over there, just be ready to go as soon as I show up. Replied Aaron, as he coasted down the long hill towards Kyle's abode.Lloyd's probably bored out of his mind waiting for us to call in already.
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Symphonia, The Resort City of Altamira
Lloyd, meanwhile, was pacing back and forth in front of the lavish Hôtel d'Altamira. He had been doing so for so long now that the cobblestones along his path seemed to have a track worn across them.
"What's taking them so long? I'm bored OUT OF MY MIND!!!" he griped loudly as he paced. Suddenly, he was wracked by a gigantic sneeze. Grumbling and ignoring the quizzical stares of passerby, he wiped his nose and continued his pacing.
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Aaron's tires crunched on gravel as he sped down Kyle's driveway. Not stopping at the house, he slowed his pace and kept going across the lawn. Not bothering to alert his friend mentally, he yelled out "Hey, I'm here!" as he pedaled into the stand of trees behind the house. He ducked a low-hanging branch or five, and vaulted off his bike as he encountered a barrier of pine boughs too dense to cycle through. Gritting his teeth and shielding his eyes, he pushed both his bike and his body through to emerge into the clearing within.
Once through, he spared a brief moment to observe the clearing. Circular in shape and about thirty feet wide, it was surrounded by thickly grown pine trees so that there were no gaps between their branches. Far above, a patch of sky shed light down into the circle. A multitude of large boulders were scattered about, and verdant, soft grass adorned the ground. It made an ideal secret meeting place and a convenient location for discreet and covert actions such as these. Seated on one of the aforementioned mossy rocks was a young man with bright blue eyes and long orange-red hair pulled back into a ponytail. He was dressed in a short-sleeved red shirt and blue jeans, along with a pair of white sneakers. Beside him sat a suitcase and a black-bladed scimitar with a golden edge lay across his lap.
"Hey, Aaron." He said in greeting, sliding off the rock and picking up the sword.
"Hey yourself, Kyle," Aaron responded. After he leaned his bike against a stone, he let the duffel slide to the ground and adjusted the sakabatō on his shoulder.
"You ready?" They asked each other in accidental unison. The two friends chuckled and tried again.
"Heck yes!" The pair responded in the same way. This time, they just laughed. Then, as one, they activated their crystals and called. Hey Lloyd!
Without even bothering to respond, the tip of a purple-bladed sword appeared in the air before them. Aaron and Kyle leapt backwards in opposite directions as the sword blade slashed downwards. Reality tore, and with a white flash and a pop, Lloyd Irving-Aurion stood before them, one hand still extended backwards through a free-standing rift in the air.
"Hey guys! Took you long enough!" greeted the Eternal Swordsman. "We going, or not?"
"Will people just stop asking that question and let us leave already?" asked Aaron in mock annoyance.
Lloyd chuckled, and pulled on the rift to open it farther. "Well, come on already! Let's move!"
Aaron and Kyle cheered, then snatched up their bags and all but dove into the rift. The three vanished from the world in a flash of light, taking the step toward another grand adventure.
Well, how was that? I certainly hope the rewrite was satisfactory.
The next few chapters will be worked on any chance I get, but in a month or two, Darkness and Light will be alive and kicking once again.
Scout's Honor.
ZZ
