((A/N: Let's get this show on the road! A little bit of fluff and mystery to kick this story off. Yup yup.))


Chapter one, Yuan's P.O.V.
Preparations.

It was fifteen years since I'd convinced Kratos to join the Renegades. Fifteen years since he lost his family. He'd returned to Cruxis, under the pretence that he would be loyal to Yggdrasill once again. Though in reality, he had moved into the Triet base with me.

Most of the Renegades weren't too glad that their new leader was human. I warned them that they weren't allowed to question Kratos' orders, and that I wouldn't tolerate discrimination within our organisation. Afterall, that was what we were fighting against.

It took us years to come up with a plan to stop Yggdrasill. Years of preparation, that were now almost complete. Soon, everything would be set in motion. Ofcourse, what worried me the most was how dangerous it was. One little mistake could mean the end of it all.

"Yuan?"

I blinked to see Kratos leaning over me, bearing a slightly worried expression. As we worked together on our common goal, we'd set our differences aside again. We'd grown towards each other, a relationship developing between us as we learned to look out for each other. Both of us tried to forgot the family we could've had, focussing on our new family instead. Though Kratos started off sleeping in a spare bed, it wasn't long before we shared one. What started off as mutual comfort evolved into love.

"Yes?" I asked, resting my head on my arms as I lay in bed, glancing up at him. Moonlight streamed into the room though the window and a quick glance at the clock told me it was past midnight.

"You seem concerned. Is something wrong?" Kratos moved some stray hairs from my face, stroking my cheek.

"No, it's nothing." I lied. Apparently, he'd noticed.

"Tell me." He said, a slightly commanding tone in his voice.

I sighed helplessly. "I was thinking about our plan. If something goes wrong…"

"Nothing will go wrong. You spent years perfecting it." Kratos smiled warmly, causing my stomach to squirm.

"With your help…" I added slowly. "But the chances of something unexpected happening are extremely high."

"When all the preparations are complete, those chances will be close to zero." He assured me, though I still had some doubts.

"If you say so…"

"Get some sleep, alright? If all goes well, we can get started on the first step tomorrow." He placed a quick kiss on my forehead, before lying down again and wrapping his arms around me.

"Ah… Alright." I snuggled up against him, closing my eyes. If I wanted this plan to succeed, I had to banish all doubt from my mind.


The next morning, we headed into our office to start working. Kratos' desk was placed next to mine, granting us both a slightly limited workspace. Still, I was glad to have Kratos' help, as my work was now cut in half. It was hard to imagine I used to do all this by myself.

Taking out a few files, we both got to work. Renegade paperwork was just so boring, but it had to be done. Someone needed to take care of financing and we couldn't rely on Botta to do it for us. He was always on other missions at the time.

Covering my mouth to stifle a yawn, I suddenly got hit on the side of the head by something. Slightly startled, I saw a small, crumpled piece of paper land on my desk. I unfurled it to see it was empty. Turning my head to cast a curious gaze at Kratos, I noticed he was still concentrated on his paperwork. The mischievous grin on his face, however, told me enough.

Smiling faintly, I reached out for a nearby memo pad, crunching one of the notes into a small pellet. Then I unscrewed my pen, taking out the contents to use it as a blowpipe. Kratos let out a startled cry and his hand shot to his cheek as he got hit.

"Why you-" he growled, turning to glare at me. But I knew he wasn't serious. Deep down, he was amused.

"What?" I asked innocently, twirling the 'blowpipe' between my fingers.

"Prepare to die!"


Ten minutes later, Kratos and I froze at the sound of a timid cough and turned our heads to glance at Botta.

"You two are at it again?" he sighed, shaking his head.

At the moment, I was sitting on Kratos' lap, trying to force a paper airplane up one of his nostrils. The human's right hand was down my pants, as he attempted to drop an entire load of paper wads into my underwear. Luckily, Botta couldn't see that, as the desk was in the way.

"Ah, sorry." We both mumbled. I quickly got off Kratos' lap and returned to my seat. Kratos sat up straight, running a hand through his hair and causing a few more bits of paper to fall to the ground.

"I've come to give my report on the chosen." Botta said, trying to act as though he didn't see anything suspicious.

"Very well." I spoke, giving him permission to proceed.

"He celebrated his twenty-second birthday quite abundantly. If I'm not mistaken, the party is still going on." Botta began, smiling faintly. "However, it seems that he does not have his Cruxis crystal."

"He doesn't?" Kratos raised an eyebrow. "But we made sure that it was in his hand when he was born. The cathedral of Martel has no right to take it from him and neither does the king."

"Apparently, he gave it away." Botta shrugged nervously.

"What?" I exclaimed, placing both my hands on the desk surface with a bang. How could anyone be so irresponsible? The Cruxis crystal is one of the greatest treasures in the world and the absolute proof that you are the chosen one.

"His half sister, who lives in the South-East abbey, is supposed to take care of it for him. Perhaps he thought it wasn't safe in Meltokio."

I heard Kratos sigh deeply. This posed a problem. Without the Cruxis crystal, the chosen would be useless to us.

"That concludes my report." Botta commented, apparently eager to leave.

"Very well. You're dismissed."

Botta gave a short salute, before leaving the room. The door slid shut behind him as I turned to Kratos with a concerned expression.

"What now?" I asked, hoping he would have an idea.

"We'll still have a talk with the chosen. If he agrees, he can retrieve the crystal from his sister." Kratos pondered.

"And if he doesn't?" I questioned.

"We'll have a big problem." Kratos sighed, turning back to his paperwork.

I ran a hand through my hair, thinking deeply. Sure, when all preparations are finished, the chances of unexpected events would be close to zero. But what if something unexpected happens, ensuring you can't finish the preparations?

I looked up as a small paper airplane suddenly came whizzing past my face, knocking over a pot of ink that was on my desk.

"Why you!-"