Chapter 1 Paranoid
A/N: Mithos is lazy
Mithos: "Excuse me
Why didn't you get off your lazy butt and go guide Colette on her journey?
"I didn't want to"
Oh. Well, now I'm making you. DISCLAIM ME
"Ugh, fine. Thunder Explosion does not and never will own Tales of Symphonia."
"What have you called me here for, Lord Yggdrasil?" Kratos asked as he walked into the throne room of Vinheim, bowing to one knee.
"Ah Kratos. Good to see you." Yggdrasil said in a quite cheerful tone, at least cheerful for him. "You know that the Chosen of Sylvarant is set to receive the Oracle in a week, right?"
"Yes. Go on." Kratos said.
"Well, you also know that this one has the closest mana signature to Martel yet, correct?" Yggdrasil asked. Anyone could tell that he was going somewhere with this. That also meant something bad would probably happen.
"Yes." Kratos said, with his patience wearing thin.
"This regeneration must suceed, therefore, I am sending you along with her to ensure the regeneration suceeds." Yggdrasil said in a gleeful tone.
"As you wish, Lord Yggdrasil." Kratos said. He then stood and warped out of the throne room.
"Ah, dearest sister. After 4000 years of waiting, your vessel will finally be complete." Yggdrasil said quietly to himself. He then stood and paced around the throne room. 'I wonder what kind of girl the Chosen will be' he thought to himself. 'I hope she isn't to the point where she's even beyond Kratos's protection. Maybe I should send someone else to accompany her as well. Even an upper ranked Desian would work well. But if they run across more Desians who recognize them, the Desian's cover is blown, and that will blow Kratos's cover. Well, I still have a week to figure this out.'
Three days later, Yuan decided to pay a visit to the throne room. All the angels moved out of Yuan's way. He was clearly pissed about something. Yggdrasil found this out as well when Yuan barged right into the room. "Why the hell are you sending Kratos along with the Chosen to regenerate the world?" Yuan all but screamed.
Yggdrasil's reaction was as expected. "To ensure the sucess of the regeneration. If it weren't for those damn Renegades, we wouldn't have had to resort to this. Why are you so mad?"
Shit. Think Yuan, think. "I was wondering why you would send Kratos to do this, after he ran off with that human. I was thinking he might do that again, you know."
"Hmph. You may be right. But I don't think he would, do you?"
"Well, I am just stating you may want to be careful in case he decides to run off again." Yuan states.
"Oh. Well, I will see what happens." Yggdrasil replied.
"Well, I just think that Kratos can be trusted to go back to the surface." Yuan said with a hint of amusement.
"Do you want to accompany the Chosen?" Yggdrasil asked abruptly. Yuan hadn't expected his plan to work so easily.
"I would be honored to, Lord Yggdrasil." Yuan said, a smirk growing on his face.
"Well, it's nice to see you're a team player. You and Kratos shall leave for the surface tomorrow." Yggdrasil stated as he watched the smirk dissapear off of Yuan's face.
"Don't you think I should go alone? Sending both me and Kratos would only encourage him to run off again." Yuan shouted.
"Why do you want to go so bad?" Yggdrasil asked in a cold, interrogating voice.
"I want Martel's revival to go as smoothly as possible." Yuan said very quickly.
"So do I." Yggdrasil said with a distant look growing in his eyes. "How about this? You and Kratos can go, and I will go as well. I can keep an eye on Kratos this way and you can help ensure Martel's revival." Yggdrasil said. He then chuckled at Yuan's reaction. It was a look of shock, anger, and slight reminiscence appearing on his face.
"Yes sir. May I take my leave now?" Yuan asked.
"Yes. You are dismissed."
"Dammit! Goddessdammit!" Yuan shouted as he pounded his fist against the wall of his room in Welgaia. As this took place, Kratos decided to walk in.
"Yuan, what on Aselia are you doing?" Kratos asked, tilting his head to the side in mild confusion.
"I'm planting a tomato." Yuan said sarcastically, earning an appalled look from Kratos. "What the hell does it look like I am doing?"
Kratos, just recovering from hearing the word tomato, said "It looks like you are punching the wall, Yuan." This earned a stare of disbelief from Yuan.
"Yes, yes I am punching the wall, Kratos. Did you just figure that out." Yuan said with impatience.
"I knew as soon as I walked in, but-"
"Then why did you ask?" Yuan asked the auburn haired Seraphim.
"I wanted to know why?" Kratos asked, with his patience wearing thin.
"Mithos is sending BOTH of us on the Regeneration journey."
"So. It will be just like old times, at least, sort of." Kratos said remorsefully.
"Mithos is going as well." Yuan said.
"And the Chosen to act as Martel. Maybe Mithos will regain his old self." Kratos said hopefully.
"Heh. Yeah right." Yuan scoffed. "Anyway, we are leaving tomorrow, so I want to rest, even though we don't technically need sleep."
"Very well. I will take my leave. See you tomorrow." Kratos said walking out the door.
Yuan, however, did not rest. He decided he was going to pay a visit to his dead fiancee in the Hall of the Great Seed. He unfurled his wings and flew to the elevator that would take him there. As he passed, he wondered what Martel would think about how her brother changed, about the Desians causing absolute mayhem and suffering on the surface, about the cold, lifeless angels that float around this desolate excuse for a city, about everything. He knew Martel would never want to take some innocent girl's life just to be reborn for her maniac brother's sake. He wanted Martel to rest in peace instead of living in that lifeless state tied to the Great Seed, unable to do anything. He would have to find a way to stop this cycle and save the world, even if it meant having to finally end the dream of reviving his dead fiancee.
After a while he finally made it to the Hall. He stood there in front of Martel's soul, wondering if she would speak at some time. "I hope you can hear me." he started. "Mithos wants us all to go on the Regeneration journey this time. This vessel is an almost perfect match. I wonder if I should let Regeneration happen this time. I mean, she is going to die anyway so I shouldn't let her sacrifice be in vain. Or maybe scare her out of the journey somehow." Yuan said to Martel. "I'm not sure what I will do yet, but I want you to be happy, and I know your not happy like this." Yuan said, then turned to walk out of the Hall.
"Are we ready?" Kratos asked Mithos, who was now in his child form.
"We will be once that slacker Yuan gets here." Mithos growled.
"I see you are carrying a sword. I haven't seen you use one of those in a long time, Mithos." Kratos said with a far off look in his eyes.
"Well, since we are going under the guise of a mercenary team, it would help keep our cover. I could pretend to be your student or something like that, since I look so much younger than you." Mithos said.
"I see." was all Kratos said after that.
Yuan was late for two reasons. One, he was giving the Renegades a secret order to kill the Chosen at the Martel Temple. The other reason? He overslept. He gave himself the ability to sleep again, and since he hasn't slept in nearly a thousand years, it backfired on him. One of Cruxis' Four Seraphim overslept before one of their most important jobs in history. Mithos would have his head.
"Where have you been, Yuan?" Kratos asked his fellow Seraph.
"I uh, I kind of, uhm, overslept." he said shrugging his shoulders, his voice rising when he said overslept.
Mithos sighed. "This will be a long trip."
And with that, the trio descended to the surface.
"OW!"
The shout came from Yuan, who could be seen laying on the ground, Mithos standing over top of him. "Dude, did you have to fall on me?" Yuan asked while he was laying on the ground holding his side.
"Well, I guess that's what you get when you oversleep. Now come on, we have to get to the temple." Mithos said to him in a voice that indicated he was amused, which he obviously was.
"I think you broke a rib, Mithos." Yuan whined.
Kratos sighed. "First aid." A green light restored Yuan's ribs to full health. He then proceeded to pull him up. "Now come on."
"Fine." Yuan said.
It would be a short walk to the temple from where the trio landed at. The trip went in relative silence with Kratos leading the way. However, with their angel senses, they were able to hear a conflict break out at the temple. Kratos and Mithos sprinted for the temple. Yuan, who assumed it was the Renegades, decided to just take a leisurely jog up to the temple. He could hear the voice of Botta issuing out orders and blades clashing. He assumed the Chosen must have brought defense from the village.
Once they got there, a huge guy who wielded a medieval flail and some sort of big hammer was about to finish the Chosen's group off. Kratos bolted, sword out, to stop the attack that would kill the group.
"Who are you?" the kid in red asked.
"Get out of the way." Kratos commanded.
He and Mithos proceeded to finish the big guy as Yuan just walked up the stairs. Mithos and Kratos both turned to the Chosen's group. Kratos saw a kid dressed in a red coat, black pants, red boots, and suspenders. That was the kid he told to get out of the way. He noticed that he had chocolate brown hair and a slim build. He was also a couple of inches shorter than Kratos. The kid's eyes also had a garnet tint to them, which is something that Kratos took notice of, as well as the fact that he fought with two swords.
He saw the mage of the group as well. He was a short kid, not even five foot, with long silver hair and blue eyes. He looked like an elf or half-elf, but he wasn't sure which yet. He was dressed in a blue short sleeve button up shirt and blue shorts. His weapon of choice was a kendama, which was very strange.
The blond girl was the one who he figured was the Chosen. She had long blond hair and blue eyes. She seemed to be a small girl, but she was dressed in the church garmets, which probably made her look a lot smaller than she was.
Then, Mithos decided to pipe up. "You helped a lot, didn't you?" he asked Yuan.
"I was preparing to cast a spell, but you had already taken him down so I just stepped out of the way." he said casually.
"I never thought you guys would show up. Dammit, retreat for now." Botta said as they jumped off the side of the hill and slid down, making their escape.
Then the old woman at the front of the chapel spoke up. "How can I ever repay you three for saving the Chosen."
"Don't count Yuan. He didn't do anything." Mithos sniggered.
"So this girl is the next Chosen, I take it?" Kratos said as he pointed at Colette, completely ignoring the two bickering half-elves.
"Yes, that's me. I'm Colette. What's your name?" she chirped.
"I am Kratos, a traveling mercenary. These are my two companions, Mithos and Yuan." he said pointing at the two, while Yuan had Mithos in a sleeper hold. "Knock it off" Kratos said, glaring daggers at the two, who immediately stopped.
"I see." the old woman said. The other two children with Colette were just staring at Yuan and Mithos, barely refraining from laughing. Colette just looked at Kratos. "I am Phaidra, Colette's grandmother."
The kid in red abruptly interrupted everyone, bringing them back to the task at hand. "Are you going to undergo the trial now Colette."
"Oh, yeah." Colette said.
"What exactly is the trial, anyway?" the silver haired kid piped up.
"I would assume it is the monsters." Kratos said calmly. "An evil presence radiates from this chapel."
"Why would a church be evil, though?" red kid asked.
"It's part of the trial, Lloyd" Colette said. As she said this, Kratos got an alarmed look on his face.
"Your name is Lloyd?" Kratos asked.
"Yeah, but who are you to ask for my name." Lloyd bitterly retaliated.
"His name is Kratos, Lloyd. He already said that." the mage piped up.
"Shut it, Genis." Lloyd said.
"Shouldn't the Chosen be taking the trial now?" Mithos asked.
Phaidra spoke up again. "If it's not to much to ask of you, would you three accompany her for the trial?" she asked. "I can pay you guys."
"Ok, we accept the task." Yuan said.
"Oh, Grandma, can Lloyd come to? I feel so much safer with him around." Colette asked.
"No." The response came from Kratos. "It's dangerous and children need to stay home."
"Well then, I'll just follow you on my own." Lloyd said. Kratos was reminded of Anna for a second.
"Look kid, nothing against you, but it is really dangerous and you're not the most skilled swordsman I've seen." Yuan said.
"Oh, please let Lloyd come. I'm sure he can at least protect himself." Colette whined.
"Fine. If the Chosen desires it, Lloyd may come along." Kratos said in defeat.
"Alright." Lloyd said. "Come on Genis."
"M-Me?" he stamerred.
"Of course, come on." Lloyd said with excitement.
"This isn't a field trip, you know." Kratos said as he walked into the temple, Colette, Yuan, and Mithos following closely behind.
And thus the journey begins.
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