AN: Enjoy? XD I kinda began this on a whim when I was discussing with a friend what I thought the sequel to Tales should have been... Then I got this idea and so I began writing out some scenes... Before I knew it, I had an entire story mapped out in my head and it sure as hell wasn't going to leave me alone. So, here we go. XD I own nothing, nada, zip, zero, zilch, nix, you get the point. Don't sue me, I have no money to feed myself let alone pay legal fees. :3

The angel looked up absently at the empty throne in front of her, her pale lips pressed into a thin line as the remnants of the red gem floated an inch from the plush red cushion. Behind her, she was well aware of some of her comrades moving unconsciously, but she paid them no heed, focussing her eyes on the pieces of the crystal and nothing else. As if on silent command, she got to one knee, her head bowed in a sign of respect to the empty chair. The small crowd behind her knelt as one, murmuring a name that was lost in their indistinct and robotic voices and carried into the emptiness of space and time.

A new voice spoke, though it had no real voice to it as the words floated from the red shards, carried directly into the heads of the crowd through unknown means. There was no tone or emotion, there was just words spoken out loud and carried by pure mana or perhaps by something even darker and more twisted than they could understand.

Lloyd... Irving...

The angel felt her lips twitch in what could have been a smile and carelessly she raised her head to stare at the floating remains of the Cruxis Crystal. Though most of the mana had departed the object only short days ago, there was something clinging to the glassy shards, something that she knew not how to explain. "Yes, my lord?"

Lloyd Irving... My body... Exspheres...

Her lips did curve and the angel slowly got to her feet as a figure from the crowd approached her from behind to take its place at her left shoulder. Ignoring the figure, she stared at the small and flickering spark of mana that still possessed the shattered remains of the crystal. "How many Exspheres do you require?"

Ten... Thousand...

"Lloyd Irving is on a journey collecting Exspheres from the now reunited world. It would be easy to steal them from him while he does it. The Toize Mine has been destroyed and dismantled thanks to Bryant. We can't collect any from there." The man at her left shoulder spoke carelessly in his calm and husky voice, and she could hear his bandaged hand stroking the hilt of his blade in an almost tender caress. "Using ranches is out of the question too, the traitors made sure to destroy each and every one the moment they touched back to the ground. Irving is the only way to collect that many Exspheres."

"No, we leave Irving to finish what he started. We can collect the Exspheres after he's rounded them up, it would be far more easy to sit back and wait for him to do our job for us." The angel replied in a careless but cold voice, raising one hand to silence the protests she knew her comrade would make to her order. Her eyes still focussed on the shining shards, she continued in what could have been a bored voice, "Of course, only if that is alright with you, my lord."

Wait... Prepare...

"Yes... Of course, Lord Yggdrasil." The angel answered flatly, her eyes closed for a long moment, prepared to receive more instruction. When no further words accompanied her last order, she stood with a weary sigh, turning her back on the old throne and fixing her stone gaze of the group behind her. Resolutely ignoring the man at her left, she snapped out several quick orders. "You are to disperse to the wind, leave no area untouched by your presence. Avoid the remains of the ranches, but let no village be without you or another soldier. You are to lay in wait until myself, Auin, or another of our rank sends word to you. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" The words were not spoken, but yelled by one throat of all of them, and without another word, the soldiers turned and disappeared through the large doorway.

The female waited patiently until she was sure they were gone, then turned to look at the taller angel at her side, a hint of something malicious tugging at her thin lips. Her hand resting lazily to caress the pommel of her blade, she asked casually, "Do you disagree with my orders?"

"I don't get what is with you wanting to be patient. Why don't we just go and kill them all?" He answered scathingly, saving a glare for the throne he, too, had bowed before. Huffing when she didn't answer, his upper lip curled into a savage sneer and he continued in a low hiss, "It'd be so easy, none of those fools are expecting it... We could have them all dead by the end of the night. The Eternal Sword may have our motherland into space, but we are still here, our numbers–"

"Oh shut up. You obviously don't understand the fine art of revenge, and you obviously have no idea why our lord wishes to wait." She cut him off with a laughing snap, ignoring the angry hiss he produced when she played her rank on him. Jerking her head towards the throne where their master lay in wait, she spoke in a condescending manner, "So we kill the Eternal Swordsman and his summoner partner, we destroy the two traitorous half-elves, the lumberjack child and the Lezareno president, then we dispose of the Chosens. What pleasure does that leave for our lord if we do all of the dirty work for him? This is fairly personal, wouldn't you say? We draw it out, we let them dance around like the puppets they are, then we destroy their hope and leave them to bleed at our feet. That is revenge, that is the pleasure our lord seeks. There's still so much time left before we can go around on our own accord."

"It's so stupid, this meaninglessly drawn out plan... When it could be done so easily overnight... We still reel from Kratos' betrayal, and he's taken almost half of our force with him on Derris Kharlan..." He let it go however when the angel at his side turned to glare at him. Raising his chin as he resisted the urge to bare his teeth, he changed tacts quickly, "I see what you mean about wanting to make them squirm... It will be fun to watch their faces."

She rolled her eyes, not caring that he was still watching her. There was an obvious disgust in her expression and she took no steps to disguise the contempt she felt for her ally. Instead, she turned to stare at the empty throne, watching the remains of the Cruxis Crystal. "As always, you disgust me... We still have much work to do before we reveal that the Desians are still alive and well. If we let the traitors see our cards before we're prepared to play them, all of our effort will be to waste."

"I'll never understand you chess-players." The man replied with a shake of his head, though there was no real disgust in his face, merely a rueful amusement. He turned his body towards the throne, unable to disguise the hunger on his scarred face. A dangerous smile lifted his lips, and he murmured aloud, "Soon enough... He'll need a new vessel. The Exspheres won't give him a tangible form."

"Your arrogance is astounding." The angel's voice was cold and mocking, though the hint of amused malice couldn't be disguised. She turned completely to face him, not bothering to hide her contempt for his words as she struck them down with a wave of her gloved hand. "Why do you think he wants Irving? He'd never even consider using your body. To complete his 'perfect revenge', he will use Lloyd's body to strike down the ones closest to him. Using your body would be completely useless. Besides, what makes you think he wants to inhabit the form of another half-elf like he once was?"

"Are you saying that stupid swordsman is better than me!?"

"I'm saying that Lord Yggdrasil would prefer to inhabit the body of the former Chosen of Sylvarant before deciding on yours." She replied coldly, ignoring her ally's growing fury at her words. She turned her eyes towards the throne, focussing on the shards of the once battered Cruxis Crystal that a half-elf had saved and then helped to destroy. The irony was not lost on her, nor did it give her any cruel amusement. Instead, she simply explained as though she was speaking to a very young child, "Lord Yggdrasil despises the blood that runs in his body, and in our bodies. He would never, if given the choice, willingly inhabit a body like his or ours. He will take Lloyd Irving's body and exact his revenge. He'd sooner commit suicide before placing himself in a vessel like yours, or even mine."

"We'll see Tasogare. We'll see. It's only been two weeks since that little team left Derris Kharlan and rejoined the worlds. Give them the time they need to collect the Exspheres and even Lord Yggdrasil's patience will fail. He'll want a body, and I'll give him my own." His voice was just as condescending as her own, tossing out her given name with a mere wave of his hand. He saw how she flinched underneath the gesture, and his lips pulled up sadistically at the sight of her pain. "Like you said... There's still plenty of time left."

"I can't believe I've been putting up with you and your unhealthy obsession for nearly a whole ten centuries. You truly sicken me." She snapped with a wave of her hand, giving her back to the angel with a snort of disgust. She heard him unsheathing his blade, a threatening gesture for giving him her back, yet she simply murmured aloud, "A philanderer of a Chosen, a martyr of an angel, a child lumberjack robbed of her youth, the felon president of a world-renowned company, a half-elven mage and his healer sister, a young and tormented summoner and then the son of one of our own Seraphim... Eight lives, eight toy pieces we move on our chessboard as we play out our own game. Surprising how only eight or nine creatures can tip the balance of a world, don't you think?"

"They tipped the scales, but we'll get them back in blood, won't we now?"

"Time will tell... For now, we wait."

AN

And so, we begin A New World with a completely random and rather full of nothing prologue that probably doesn't make sense. FYI though, lol, it's not supposed to. It's only supposed to give an odd mystique to everything and name two characters. So new faces, new problems, and yes, I went there by wtfpwning KoR out of my canon universe with this story. XD In my own defence, I have not played the ToS sequel, heard both good and bad things about it, but I refuse to make any fiction work on something I have yet to play and judge with my own eyes. Just a code of mine to keep me, and my work, honest.

Now, this story should be updated weekly, and that's a hopeful outlook of mine, to have a chapter up per week. Hold me to that, because I need to get my writing ass in shape, and I'm going to do it even if it kills me. So please don't let me miss a week of updating, I want anyone who wants to read this to kick me when I fail to deliver. It's important to me, lol. (And what do you know, I started that on a Sunday night, XD) So by next Monday, the first chapter should be up, and so on and so forth, lol, don't make me continue my sentences.

Anyway, so thanks for all of those who read Jealousy, told me you were looking forward to this, and etc. I hope to have you around for A New World, and I hope to hear from all of you down the road! Now, future warning... I'd like to advise all readers to don the safety helmets seen to your left, to buckle up your seatbelts and keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times, as I have a habit of screwing with my reader's heads. For your own safety (and sanity) of course. Welcome aboard and don't forget to press the button below!

Pronounciation Note: Auin; pronounced like Owen. Tasogare; Tah-so-gar-A. (That would be the pronounciation I know of at this given moment, if anyone can correct me, please give me a holler so I can change it asap. -.-'')

Sky