PLEASE REMEMBER: this story starts in the middle of a tale. The beginning of it is in an RP on GaiaOnline called "Tales of the Trinity" as my computer happened to eat the first two chapers!

Fanfiction: A Piece of Heart: Myth VS Memory

Genre: Possibly everything, of course

Game: Tales of Symphonia

Notes: This is yet another chapter of my MemoriaXKratos tale, expanding the world that they live in, forty years after the worlds were reunited. I have not given the world a new name, as it distracts from the ending of the game, you know! Heh heh, with the addition of Yuan and some flashbacks, you might see deeper into Memoria's soul and the missing pieces of the Cruxis Regime. I see it like a manga, belonging all to the same series, like Rurouni Kenshin, but each volume has it's own title. That's just me, though. Oh, the entire tale is "Tales of Love" as corny as it might sound.

Summary: ToL update! Ran-Chan and Kratos have been adventuring for two days, and they meet an old friend from the revolution. This leads to unexpected turns of events, with the pasts of the two on the line. Rated for language, alcohol, and sexual references.

Disclaimer: The characters and places mentioned in this fanfiction belong to Namco, and their Tales Studio to be more precise. The events that are original are mine, as they are only my theories. Ran-Chan/Memoria, Ten-Chan/Tenko, Aurora, Yoshitaka Ishada, and Yoshio are entirely mine. They are MY original characters. You may not steal them, and I have not stolen Kratos, Yuan, Mithos or anyone belonging to Namco. I've stated they belong to them. Arigatou Gozaimasu!

Tales of Love

Volume 3

"A Piece of Heart: Myth VS Memory"

"Sister," a boy said standing beside Ran-Chan with a sword in hand, "You are so brave."

Ran-Chan smiled as she ruffled the boy's hair. "No, I'm not. I rely on the strength of the ones I love for my courage. I fight for a world better for you and me. You were just a baby back when we were saved, but I can tell you that we're going to make the world better. For us both." She hugged him tightly.

"What about Mother? Will we not fight for her sake?" he asked. "Mother is like us!"

"Mother is elven. She will never understand how we feel. We are half-elven. Father was human, and he is dead. Along side Mithos, we'll make our hearts stronger and our place in the world!" his sister told him straight up. "Have you been training with Kratos-sensei to learn the sword, Yoshio?"

Yoshio nodded, hugging his sister back. "Yes," he said quietly. "He expects a lot out of me since I'm your sibling, but I... I'm not like Father. He was a ninja..."

"Father was from Mizuho. I named in Elven tradition, but taking after him... you named as a member of the ninja clan, you are more like the elves with magic," Ran-Chan said to him, letting go. She knew as well as everyone else that he wasn't suited for the sword, but Mithos wouldn't let him go any farther away from Ran-Chan than she could see. It was disappointing to see. "I will talk to the lead of our mages, Yoshio. I can talk to Lord Yuan if you wish."

Yoshio pulled on his sister's bow when she turned and said, "No, sister, I'm afraid... to be without you... I'm going to let everyone down if I go too far from you!"

"Lord Mithos told me that I was to keep you safe," Ran-Chan said. "I'm going to do that anyway. You're my brother, and I'll never let anyone ever hurt you..." She turned around and extended her hand. "Give me the blade. My lesson's coming up soon."

"This is Father's, isn't it?" he asked, handing the sword over. "The Masamune, right?"

"...no. That's the Kokoro Blade," she corrected him. "The Masamune is at his grave... this is my replica of it." She turned to leave again, and her brother smiled. "But Father's soul is with me everyday. Yoshio, when this is all over, I'll take you back to Hiemdall, and we're going to make sure you become the master of mana, okay?"

"Yeah! Thanks, Memoria."

"Sure."

Ran-Chan had been trying to get those memories out of her head for quite some time now. They had bothered her so badly, she drug herself into a bar to drink those feelings away. Kratos came with her, not to drink, but to talk her out of drowning her sorrows in a bit of forgetfulness. It wasn't going to do her or him any good if she was to get drunk. She was on her third sake, all ready with a buzz.

"Listen, that's your last one," Kratos said sternly. "I know you wanted to sing on stage, but with all that's been going on lately, I think it's unwize that you catch the public's attention." He looked up to see Yuan, whom they had met in the bar just twenty minutes ago due to Ran-Chan's extreme loudness. "Yuan, what's wrong?"

Yuan was thinking, and had been for quite a while since he saw Kratos again. "Cruxis is no more, yet we still live on with this... curse," he said quietly. "I kept wondering if you knew any of Mithos' extreme secrets. About the Forsaken Blood that kept the Angels in check, perhaps? Seeing you made me wonder again, as I drowned the thoughts in the past back over thirty years ago." Yuan looked at Ran-Chan carefully, noting all of her specifications as an Angel. She didn't show any Angelic Qualities since he laid eyes on her, and niether did Kratos. "What made the seal so strong?"

Ran-Chan knew the answer to that. "Sacrifice," she answered, knocking back another drink. "No matter how hard my head hurts, I'll never forget any of Mithos' real secrets. I can't, after all." She put the glass down and slid it to Yuan. "Give me another, would you? I'm trying to kill memories here," she said, agitated.

"Memoria," Yuan said, filling up the glass. "You aren't getting any more. This glass isn't for you." He drank it himself. "I don't like sake, but I don't want you to have it. However... I would like to pull you back into the management room, for I have questions that need to be answered." His blue hair surrounded his handsome face, and waved an arm up so a door flew open behind him. "Kratos, Memoria... please follow me," he said as he turned to leave.

Since she wasn't even going to move from the bar until she had another drink, Kratos led Ran-Chan to follow his old friend. "Yuan might ask you about what secrets you know," he said. "It's best that you answer to the best of your ability."

She looked down as they walked. Sorrow spread across her face as terror filled her mind. "Mithos will set his wrath on me if I do," Ran-Chan said, feeling Kratos' eyes look down upon her face. "I don't care if he IS dead, I don't want to face the horror of his wrath. He'll take away my every happiness as he did before... Kratos-sama..."

Kratos knew why she was afraid. She did not want to recall what the Cruxis overlord must have done to her, and this made him almost cry. He, as well as Yuan, did need to know Mithos' secrets if they were ever going to free the last angels if they never figured out the way to break the seal. Others did not have to fall in love to break the curse. It shouldn't have happened in the first place as far as Kratos was concerned, so any secrets that he didn't know could help those who remained slaves to The Church of Martel.

Yuan led them back into what seemed almost like a living room from a house. "Sit down where you like," he said, "this discussion might be a long one."

Ran-Chan glared back at her old fighting companion. "Yuan, if you plan to get the secrets out of me, this will take an eternity. I won't tell you. I won't lose Kratos-sama!" she shouted that out plainly as Kratos was drawn back, forcing himself to sit Ran-Chan down. "I won't!"

Kratos sat beside her and pulled her face to where she was looking him square in the eye. "I will not leave you for any reason," he said. "You know how I feel about you."

"But... this..." Ran-Chan said, tearing up. "This will take you from me... I don't want to be alone, Kratos-sama! Promise you'll stay by my side." She closed her eyes as Kratos let go of her face. "I'll tell you the secrets, and I won't hold anything back... if you promise..."

Yuan sat down, knowing that Kratos would do anything it took to set past errors right again.

Kratos put his arms around her, and gently kissed her ear. "I will stay by your side. I will forever be by your side, you know that," he said, letting her cry out her tears before she sat back up again.

When she finally did, her eyes were unfocused. She had removed her glasses to keep the present out of her mind. "Mithos... he was unusually cruel after he lost his sister... because of my younger brother being in the camp, he assigned him to work with me so he would die... knowing that he couldn't weild a sword, even if taught by Kratos-sensei. I was totally enraged when I found out. I felt like I was meaningless. One night..."

Ran-Chan had cried without tears every night since Yoshio died. Yoshio, her magically enclined brother, had fallen years before in battle, and the man that she loved so much, Kratos, had not even passed a glance at her. Without the possibility of even having the love of the one she adored so, she felt life was totally meaningless.

The Lord of Cruxis, Lord Yggdrasill, had walked into her room, hearing the sobs of the lonely woman from far off. "Memoria, is that you?" he asked. "I hear your empty cries which releave nothing of your pain. Would you like... to become lifeless and not feel any pain at all?"

She sat up and looked at him. "I can not cry to release this sadness," she said. "No matter how hard I try, tears do not come. I can't let this out."

"Then I offer you a chance to be lifeless. Will you take my offer?" Yggdrasill asked, extending a hand. "Your brother died in battle to make his sister have a happy future in the age of Half-Elves. Kratos does not love you, nor has he seen the efforts you have made to try and make him love you. Your life is eternal sadness. Come with me, I will make you above all of that."

Ran-Chan reached for his hand and took it. "I... don't want to feel anything..." she said.

Yggdrasill nodded. "That's good. Will you make a sacrifice to obtain that?" he was looking for someone so despirate to fufill his plan, and he knew that this young girl wouldn't hesitate to give what he needed to complete the ceremony of the seal.

"...what do you ask of me, Lord Yggdrasill?"

"A Blood and Body Sacrifice. I want you to become the living seal of the Angels."

"That means that after Cruxis falls then if I am alive, they will continue to be your servants... isn't that right, sir?"

Yggdrasill laughed. "Will you give up your purpose as a mortal and obtain one in a new, lifeless form? Your brother would be happy... and I will allow you to work as Kratos' second-in-command to be close to him." His devilish nature seemed all to real, but to Ran-Chan, it was a miracle.

She knew that if she was closer to Kratos, she could catch him and serve him to prove her devotion. "I will accept this sacrifice on the terms that I get to be close to the man I love," she said quietly. "He may not love me, but soon I will change that."

"And so... I went to a purification ritual and was then sent to the four Seraphim's gate to gain the approval of the asension into Angelhood," Ran-Chan said, trying not to look at either man, as it would invoke plenty more pain than just talking about it.

"I remember that," Yuan said. "The reason why you requested to become an angel was because you wanted to make sure that Martel was revived to reunite the worlds as soon as possible." He looked over at Kratos. "That day you looked at Kratos with admiration in your eyes..."

Kratos remembered all too well. The process hurt him almost as much as it hurt her. "You wanted to become an Angel to be close to me?" he asked. "You didn't care about the worlds or anything else?" He glanced over to see her blank face telling the total truth.

"No, I didn't," she replied. "I was made into an Angel last night I saw Kratos before he left Cruxis. As a half-elf I live longer than humans, and it was my 23rd Kharlan year. Actually that was a few thousand years after the church was established. My heart ached to tell him what I felt, but that pain was nothing compared to the pain that Mithos..."

Ran-Chan looked at Kratos, smiling. "Lord Kratos... I will always think of you as my sensei. As the last person that I talk to as a mortal, I ask you... please... remember me the way I was..."

Kratos nodded. "I don't want you to become an angel!"

"I need to do this," she said. "For Yoshio and for Father."

"...I see..." Kratos said, walking up to her. "If you feel that you must, then I will not stop you," he added, ruffling her hair. "Yoshio was a bright boy, even if he wasn't ment to be a swordsman."

Ran-Chan's face was redder than Kratos' hair. She started to speak, "My memories of him are important. I will live on for him. And... for..."

Yggdrasill pulled her shoulder. "Come now. Kratos, I entrust you to take care of things in Wegalia. Now, please." He tugged at her, even though she wanted to race into his arms.

Kratos turned after looking at his student's face one more time before he pulled out his wings and flew off.

And for the last time, or so she thought, she felt horrible. She reached out for Kratos until Yggdrasill snatched her arms back.

"It's time to become above this. You," Yggdrasill said to a worker angel. "This is the one. She's a special case, but to make her an angel... we also will make her the seal."

Angels came around Ran-Chan's body and lifted her up into a magic circle. One ripped off the top of her beautiful dress and stuck a bloody sword into her back. She reared out in pain, screaming for everyone she could remember. Kratos, her father, mother, sister and brother... none of them came to help, none of them came to say anything. Her blood fell into the middle of the circle, activating it's magic.

"Blood of half-elven pours into you, great seal! Origin, I sacrifice this blood to you! Make my wishes into a reality! Those who wish to be lifeless and live forever shall, even after the fall of my magic!" Yggdrasill shouted as Origin appeared.

"I do not take the blood of anyone. This young lady is not the one of the pact, nor is she the seal to me. Mithos, you can't do this, even if I am your guardian summon spirit!" Origin cried. "Let her go!"

Ran-Chan fell over and out of the reaches of the lower worker angels, landing in the middle of the seal. Her back felt paralyzed and her life slipped out from her. She was dying there. "K... Kr-...Kratos..." she said, "I... I love... you..."

"Save her!" Origin ordered of Yggdrasill. "A very dedicated young woman is about to die, Mithos! What happened to you! After you lost your sister, you became very coldhearted..."

"I'll save her only IF you make the magic last forever!" Yggdrasill yelled back.

Origin felt compelled to save the young lady's life, making her the Blood Seal of Cruxis. "With her blood can this curse be lifted... when she is allowed to pass on, she will take your magic with her, even if you are alive!" He worked his magic on Ran-Chan's body and left without another word.

Yggdrasill gave orders to every worker angel around. "Now give her the Aionis! That will ignite the transformation, then we will heal her up. You, carve into her body the Derris Emblem. After it's all done, take her to her room in Wegalia, I'll set up the remaining requirements."

Ran-Chan lay there, not feeling a thing. She tried to call for Kratos once again, but she couldn't say anything either. Her heart was gone...

She fell over, back into Kratos' arms, and the collar of her kimono fell open. The emblem still existed and Kratos was appalled. Yuan, however, wasn't that amazed.

"So? Are we going to take her to Heimdall and finish this thing or what?" Yuan asked. "If that's what it takes to free the others of this curse, then by all means then I'm going to."

"NO!" Kratos shouted as he stood up immediately. "Yuan, I won't let you harm a hair on her head!"

Yuan shrugged. "Every time you catch a wonderful woman, it ends them up in trouble, Kratos!" He said, standing up. "She's been in love with you for thousands of years, much more than Anna could have ever imagined! If it wasn't for you, then none of this nonsense would be going on!"

"That's bullshit," Kratos declared.

"Your son defeated Mithos and ended Cruxis. Your previous wife died at the hands of the Angelous Project, and now this young lady, who's been around since the beginning, has to die to save the rest of us! Kratos, you are a curse to this world. Why the hell did you even come back after you left!"

Kratos turned around to see Ran-Chan almost lifeless, crying as hopeless as she had ever been. "I came back... for... I thought it would be all right for just once in my life that I do something for myself... to try to make things better than I had made them before. Yuan, I'm no longer an angel. I'm back to being my usual human self I was before the war. Memoria is now mortal as well," he explained, going over to her. "We broke the curse, not even trying to. I came back and now I'm myself... I won't lose another love to Mithos!"

Her heart rose at the words coming from his mouth were more and more supporting.

Yuan glared at Kratos. "My love died... she was the cause of... everything..." he said. "How do you think I felt then! You changed once you had a family, Kratos. Once you had what you were longing for, you didn't think of anyone else, ever again." He went to the other side of the room and pulled out his swallow from a closet. "For Martel, I have to finish this off..."

Ran-Chan's eyes lit up as she smiled. "You wish to finish me off, Yuan?" she asked, perking up. "I'm sorry, I don't care how drunk I might be... but I'll have to fight back. I won't give in without a fight, and dammit, I've been itching for a fight." She pulled her katana out, looking at her reflection in the blade for a moment.

With the shine sparkling back into her eyes, Ran-Chan fell to the floor. "No, I have no right to live so selfishly. All I wanted to do was show my love to Kratos-sama... I turned away living a life of lies as an elf, and the hand of another just because I was lustful... I couldn't be humble enough to accept what was offered and chased off for something better... I forced myself to be the blood seal because I selfishly couldn't take care of my own emotional struggles, and worse yet... I..."

Kratos kneeled down to see her eye-to-eye, cautiously. "No," he said, taking her into his arms. "Breaking the curse is easy enough, they just have to realize it. Collete and Lloyd both overcame. Yuan, just because Martel is dead doesn't mean that you can't be loved by her spirit. Even though you supported Mithos, Martel loves you... and even though I tried to run, feeling that it was punishment enough, Memoria loves me now... She is the only one who did after everything... and Martel has done the same for you."

His entire being was being solely devoted to her, and her greatest dream had become a reality. She noticed a piece of old magic start to make a change, but she didn't voice it.

Yuan fell to his knees sadly. He closed his eyes and saw the beautiful Lady Martel before him, standing there, waiting. "Martel!" he said outloud, as in his mind he took her hand like the gentleman that he was. "Are... you really... able to forgive me...?" He watched Martel smile and come close to kiss him. In the physical way of things, he was on the floor with tears floating out of his eyes. Martel said that she had never left Yuan's side since she died. Her spirit remained trapped in his heart, as Yuan clung to her despirately over so many a millenium. Never able to see her, Yuan had lost hope in ever having love again once she left the mortal coil. "My... Martel... please, go on... go to where spirits have their afterlife and I will meet you eventually," he said, wiping his eyes. "I'll meet you and Botta over there..."

The silence that filled the room for that short while afterward was horrifyingly loud. Ran-Chan was curled up in Kratos' arms, but Yuan was able to say goodbye without Martel present physically. The two watched Yuan pick himself up freely and notice that tears were running down his face.

"She... she set me... free..." he managed to say. "Martel was with me from the beginning of this whole thing. Always. Why wasn't I able to see her spirit before?"

Kratos just smiled and stayed silent until Ran-Chan started to flinch. "What's wrong?" he asked. "What's wrong? Tell me...!"

Memoria had kept herself under control pretty well, despite a very well placed Derris Emblem puppet encantation casted back on the day she became an angel. "Kratos-sama... it's... it's... Mithos!" she shouted. "He may have existed in the Cruxis Crystal but his soul... did not... go..." Her face only displayed a smile then. "Because you granted my one true wish... and I knew it was fufilled... it reacted... Help me once again, won't you!"

The only thing he knew he could do was kiss her, so he did. Kratos kissed her passionately, picking up her body into his arms once again. Once he released, he pressed his cheek against hers. "Come on," he said quietly. "I'm right here."

Her eyes, which were normally ice blue, now shined a deep red. Kratos let her body stand while he backed away slowly before she began to speak again. "Well then," Mithos' voice said out of her mouth. "From the looks of things, you granted her wish!" he shouted that with laughter. "W-Wh-What! Her soul is still in here? How is that possible! She's no longer an angel? How'd that happen?"

"Human emotions overpower the lifelessness of the Angelic Curse, Mithos. The love present makes life worth living," Kratos explained quietly. "Why are you so restless? Why can't you go to the Spirit Realm with the others who have died?"

Mithos' voice came out of Ran-Chan's mouth again. "I can't face my sister. She will scorn me, and quite possibly hate me, Kratos."

"No," Yuan said, standing to face Ran-Chan. "Martel is just like the Goddess that we created. If you listen to your heart, then you will know that Martel loves you."

"This body is that of a stupid girl who never understood a thing. Her heart has nothing for me!"

"Her physical and emotional heart... are not one and the same." Kratos said. "Because her belief in the future was so strong, she beat you out of it. And when she finally let her guard down, you invaded." He walked over to see into the glowing red eyes angrily. "Mithos, get out of her body!"

With a strong sense of duty, Yuan stared, trying to pierce into Mithos' soul. He didn't say anything, but Mithos got the picture after a little bit.

"I only wanted to... make the place... free of harm and discrimination... I wanted to... make my sister happy... More than anything else... was that so wrong?" Mithos spoke from her body the last time and when he left, her body fell right into Kratos' arms.

Ran-Chan gasped for air a few moments later. She looked down at her chest to see that the entire Derris Emblem had vanished. Was her final curse broken? Was it safe to finally open her heart? "I fought Mithos' soul inside my heart... somewhere... it was exhausting, wherever and whatever it was," she said. "I'm a bit woozy, so I'm going to..." Then she yawned.

"Go right ahead," both Kratos and Yuan said at once as she closed her eyes. They understood, as each of them had a battle that they'd been fighting themselves. Of course, the men didn't fight for the control of their own body, but they could relate.

Kratos stood up, carrying Ran-Chan's sleeping body. "I think we'd best be going, Yuan. It's been a while since I've seen you as true to yourself as you are," he said. Yuan didn't respond for a few minutes. "Yuan?" Kratos asked. "Yuan?"

The blue hair whisped about as Yuan just shrugged, still in tears. "I still don't understand," he said quietly, staring at the carpet below. "After everything," he added, "I'm still the same. Though I feel, I am still the same. Something is missing in me. Old friend, I think I'll have to journey myself and find what I'm missing. Perhaps, even I can obtain the light as you have." Yuan's eyes couldn't stop the tears from flowing, and his face puffed up like any other person who cried. "Yes, I'm at least going to try," he said again. "Do you want to sleep here?"

"You said you live in Triet Base," Kratos reminded him. "I know we can't make that walk. You're welcome to join us at the Inn if you'd like," he added, turning around. When he realized that it might be hard to show some promised affection to his sleeping lady with Yuan there, he stopped, but then kept going. That wasn't as important to him as Yuan's recovery - best friends often act that way. "So?"

Yuan sighed with a nod. "Sure," he replied, turning off the lights with a clap. "I'll stay with you for a bit, but my journey is seperate." His face was a bit more cleared up than it was before when he turned down the fans and locked the other doors besides the one that they were going to go out. "I know I have to find it out about everything myself," he added.

The three left the building quietly after Yuan locked everything down. Another new life had started. And to think, Kratos and Memoria had only been traveling for just three days since they had been reunited!

End

Authoress Notes, yet again: Tis me! It's going to get a bit more confusing later, as if this wasn't all ready. Workin' on an update ASAP. I know Kratos and Memoria will never happen. The more reviews I get against the pairing, the more I'm going to write it. Because it's just a fantasy, a fanfiction... just a dream, shall we say? Yes... I do wish Kratos was real, and I do wish that we could journey. Though he probably wouldn't like me, I am more annoying than my own character. OMFGWTF! Tis true. Anyway, let the Tales of Love linger in your mind, as the story continues. Later.