I think I have a thing for characters with sad backstories; I always seem to like them more than others. Zelos is my favourite ToS character, so I wanted to write something about him. This is what I got from letting my mind wander.
He hated the snow.
To most people, the snow is beautiful. Children love playing in it and adults enjoy walks in it. To Zelos though, it's a reminder.
His mother never did care for him, but he still felt an attachment to her. She was his mother after all, and that's not something you can ignore. To see her killed so suddenly, to see the white turn red, it was a shock.
It hurt to watch, and to remember.
He was so young, so innocent. It was one of the few times his mother willingly chose to spend time with him, though he suspected it was just to make him shut up. It was the first time he'd seen snow, so he was very excited. They had built a snowman, and Zelos had turned to face her, smiling.
Her face showed no enjoyment, only pain.
As her blood spilt onto the snow, she had grabbed his shoulders and, with her last breath, had said, "You should never have been born."
Zelos had stood there, frozen, staring at her now limp body in shock. Her grip was tight, even with no life in her. He could see Seles' mother being restrained in the background, but it didn't really register.
All he could see was her lifeless body, slumped against him, her blood staining his clothes and the snow.
He barely felt Sebastian tugging him away, murmuring soothing words. He didn't see Seles standing there, horror and fear in her eyes.
That day changed both his and Seles' lives.
You should never have been born.
Those words were now engraved in his mind, despite his will to forget.
He knew she'd never really loved him, but those words had stung more than her slaps, or anything else she'd ever said. She'd said a lot of harsh things.
That day was when he first started truly hating his title of Chosen.
He felt like he would break from all the suppressed emotions inside him – the hatred, the guilt, the pain – so he created a mask.
The womanizer.
He didn't really care for all those nameless women; they just helped him to cope.
He created a new personality – one that wasn't really him – to use to hide his suffering. He got so used to it, it felt like it was really him sometimes. He rarely slipped.
That's how he got here.
To betray the group, who trusted him, and hope they killed him in the fight?
Or pretend to betray them, and help them in secret later on.
He really didn't know, but was leaning towards the first option.
Then Lloyd said something that changed all that.
I trust you.
In an instant, he changed his mind. He would go with the latter, he wouldn't fight them.
Lloyd trusted him, after all. He couldn't let him down after hearing that.