This takes place within hours of the game's beginning. As I've stated before, this would have been the end chapter of a long story where there would be a lot of questions. The part with Yuan here was meant to end a few questions, but I had to adapt it to stand on it's own. Roughly though, Kratos was once like the Chosens long ago, but Yuan did something, an experiment, to him that might have helped him regain his human emotions and some of his old abilities. That is not cannon, just an idea of mine. Other than that, hope you like!

Spark of Hope

Yuan looked over the vial in his hand once more, wondering if his efforts five hundred years ago actually made any difference. The elder of Heimnell, did not like his demands for the mana leaf herb essence all those centuries ago, and it seemed his experiment in the end was useless. Slipping a few drops of the sap into Kratos' drinks over the period of five years may have brought him back to the surface, but it did not bring back his humanity.

Anna did. Anna and Lloyd.

Even fourteen years later, the old captain of the knights grieved for his wife and child. He had regained the stoic mask he wore constantly in the old days, but his heart was always in the past, if not gone. He was almost the same as before, almost. His old friend still wanted death more than anything.

Sighing to himself, Yuan put the vial away. Maybe it didn't work. Maybe it did. Who knew. Kratos was an odd case to begin with. He couldn't begin to understand how he actually functioned. There weren't any other cases like his, and there never would be another.

If he knew that another angelus project was being performed in Tethe'alla, what would he do? The old Kratos would do the same thing he did with Anna, except better. This version of him though...

He barely got word of him being sent back to Sylverant to perform his duty of leading the Chosen through the seals. Hopefully Botta would be able to stop the girl from receiving the Oracle without running into him. Yuan needed more time to think, to figure out how to get Kratos to release Origin's seal of his own accord. There may be a way to save his life if he released his mana, but knowing him, he wouldn't do that willingly. Not with Mithos' promise.

Had Anna or Lloyd lived, Yuan might have been able to convince him to join the Renegades. He should have tried when they were around. Without them though, Kratos would not move. He would stay with Mithos Yggdrasil forever so long as he believed the mad child's promise.

"The fool..." It pained him more than any could know, but it looked like their fates were set. Curse their fates! Kratos had to die.

The passage of time made no difference to his memory. Kratos found the cliff they fell from easily fourteen years after the fact. He could still hear and see everything that happened that night. A Desian helmet still sat where its owner fell, corpses torn and rotted away through time. Forcystus didn't bother to clean up after Kvar in the end. Other than the remains of his enemies, there were no signs of a skirmish there. Time took care of that.

Face still as stone, he just stared at the site where so many lives ended. His hollow chest threatened to burst and break like it did that night, but his endless mission kept it at bay. A fact haunted him for fourteen years, and it had to be addressed. He never got a chance to bury Anna. Noishe and Lloyd's bodies were already gone by the time he got to her, but to not even bury his wife... Now there was nothing left of her.

Silently, the old soldier cast a grave spell where they fell, creating a shrine from the rock forming there. Three upright stones stood next to each other now, representing all he lost all those years ago. Barely breathing, Kratos removed an ornate knife from his belt and carved a name on each pillar. He was no craftsman so the work was crude and undeserving of them, but it served his purpose. Noishe... Anna... Lloyd... They finally had graves.

Under the largest headstone in the center, he carved in his family's crest: a sun barely peaking over the horizon with three stars almost in a row above it. His eyes remained dry as he softly sang a funeral rite from the old days, setting the souls of those lost to rest. It'd been so long since he heard it last, yet he managed to recite it perfectly from his memory.

Anna would have loved it.

As silence fell, he removed his glove and set it before him, exposing the simple wedding band he could not bear to remove. His eyes remained upon it for a long while, remembering the day Anna put it on his finger. It would never leave him, binding him more surely than the seal he became to retain Origin. Anna would never truly leave him.

Slowly, he sliced his dagger across his palm, enough to bleed on the blade but nothing more. "Blood for blood, a life is lost. I will end the one who forced my hand before I rest here with you. This I swear to you all my remaining days. You will be avenged."

The rocks did not answer him, and he did not seek one. Should this Chosen work out and be able to hold Martel's soul, he would at last be free. She could reason with Mithos and ensure the worlds were reunited. When his task was done, he would slay Kvar, then lay down at these stones to release his mana, finally receiving his eternal rest. That was all that mattered now. Avenging those he loved, returning his former student's sister to life, then finally dying after far too many lifetimes spent on him. This Chosen better be the right one.

Taking his time, Kratos buried the dagger before the stones, sealing his oath and ignoring his bleeding hand. Kneeling in solemn prayer, he begged the heavens for those three to be happy, wherever they were. He placed his hand one last time on the stones before him, closed his eyes, then forced himself to his feet. After all, there was work to be done. His heart did not matter so long as the task was done.

The seraph released his wings for the last time in what would likely be six months to a year, and flew towards the old seal for Verius, the place now known as the temple of Martel. The place he and Anna were married.

It now glowed with the light of Derris-Kharlan. The Oracle had been sent.

Flying high so not to be seen, the angel of death and guardian over Sylverant found a place he could land and approach the place on foot without anyone knowing where he came from. It was just another mission. Hopefully his last. He did not want to do this again.

As he came closer to the temple, he heard sounds of fighting. They were distant, and it was more of a slaughter. His eyes narrowed with distaste. Renegades again no doubt. He had his suspicions on who was telling them about Cruxis' activities, but he didn't want to endanger him on a mere guess. He lost enough as it was.

The man, now acting as a mercenary for a cover, raced towards the temple's stairs. A dead priest met his feet there, pulling away his hope. This Chosen was supposed to be the best match yet to Martel. She had to live or he'd never be allowed to die. Drawing his sword, he took the stairs two at a time, and jumped immediately into the fray at the temple's door. Slicing down two false Desians was child's play, but a large one was attacking children attempting to fight back.

They weren't doing well.

In a flash Kratos parried a killing blow, saving the one in red's life. A grown child playing with wooden swords should not be fighting a man with real blades. He cast the teen a cold glance over his shoulder. "This opponent is too much for you. Get out of the way."

"What?!" The mercenary ignored the kid's tone and leapt into the fray, easily dicing up the large half-elf before him. Another Renegade attempted to interfere, but the children intervened, mostly the duel swordsman he wasn't impressed with moments ago. Trying to prove his worth no doubt, but it hardly mattered. The fight was over.

The Renegade squad leader (Botta wasn't it?) pulled his men back, wisely wary of him. "I never thought you'd show up. Damn..." He made a motion with his hand to his men, making the right call. "Retreat for now!"

He and his comrades fled the scene, not even bothering to retrieve their dead though they did grab their injured. Kratos let them go, showing neither favor nor displeasure at their flight. He knew little of what their goals were other than to stop Martel's resurrection, but he did know they did not kill without reason. Renegades had a lot more self-control than Desians. He'd let them live.

"Amazing..."

"This guy's incredibly strong!"

"Y...yeah... I... I suppose so..."

Hearing the youth in their voices, the mercenary turned to look over the group. It was almost surprising how young they were. Lloyd would have been about their age now...

"...Is everyone alright?" Quickly he assessed them, checking for injuries from ten feet away. This was a very strange group of kids: two humans who seemingly had nothing in common, and a young half-elf boy. He held a kendama and recently cast spells with it. His silver hair betrayed his elven blood, but he stood beside the other two without a hint of fear or anger. The blond teenaged girl wore mostly white and carried two Chakrams, hardly used during the fight. She had less experience than the young mage. The last of them, and likely the oldest, was a late teenaged boy clad in a red jacket with white ribbons dangling behind him. He was the one carrying the wooden blades, and the one who took the most damage. His toys would need replacing soon from defending the others. The oldest glared sourly away from him, his pride hurt more than his body. Looked like that needed diminishing anyway. "Hmmm. No one seems to be hurt."

That kid switched his annoyance back to him, as if saying 'thanks for noticing all these little cuts and bruises on me bub.' It soon changed to interest though, seeing something he couldn't fathom. Ignoring the ungrateful child, Kratos turned his attention to the elderly woman who somehow managed to survive the attack without any signs of fighting. Relief and gratitude shown on her face. "How can I ever thank you for saving the Chosen?"

"Oh yes! Thank you for saving me!" The blond bowed graciously, putting a smile on her face despite her trembling hands.

He glanced back to the girl, his heart dropping a bit. Why did she have to be so young? He had hoped the Chosen hadn't arrived yet and these were merely foolish onlookers. Apparently not. "... I see. So this girl is the next Chosen."

"That's right!" Her attention flew from what just happened to what was to occur in an instant. Well, at least she was dedicated to this position. "I have to go accept the Oracle! Grandmother, I'm going to undergo the trial now."

"What trial?" the one in red ask curiously. Clearly this boy did not know anything.

"The monsters, I would assume. An evil presence radiates from inside this chapel." 'Thanks to the Oracle,' Kratos mentally added. This used to be a place of love and learning. The place he and Anna made their pact to each other. But whenever a world declined and a Chosen was selected, even this sacred place became the roost for monsters. They thrived wherever mana was thin.

The grandmother continued where he left off. "Yes, that is correct. The Chosen is to receive judgment from heaven."

If Kratos was one to laugh, he would have then. Judgment indeed. Her presence, the mana he could feel off of her, was very similar to Martel's. She was worthy. Whether she'd survive the journey was another matter. The lady kept on. "But the priests who were to accompany her fell at the hands of the Desians."

A light lit on the older boy's face. "Then I'll take on the job of protecting Colette!"

"Lloyd?" Kratos' heart stopped when the woman spoke the lad's name. What did she say? "... I would be uneasy with just you."

For the first time since arriving there, the 4000 plus some years old man took a good long look at the boy in question, stunned in silence. He had to be somewhere around seventeen years old, with only a little more height growing to do before filling out. He wore suspenders to keep up the pants weighted down with his two sword belts, and heavy gloves for one reason or another. One of them had a white bandage wrapped around a part of it for some unknown reason, but he didn't worry over it. What struck him most was his face. It looked familiar, like a memory from long ago, and yet so fresh in his mind. Lloyd's eyes were identical to his own, though without the careworn look he always bore. His hair though was the same color as Anna's.

He looked like his Lloyd. But it couldn't be...

Possibilities tried to swarm his mind, coming from the same age to features to what could have been, but he forced himself to put that aside to confirm at least his name. "Your name is Lloyd?"

The kid broke away from his irritated conversation with the woman Phaidra to answer him, with an attitude. He could almost hear an echo as the lad spoke. "Yeah, but who are you to ask for my name?"

It was the same. The exact same phrase Anna said to him when he first met her at the Asgard Ranch. This boy... could easily be his lost son.

But he didn't know his father.

It hurt. After so many years of believing, knowing, his family was dead, then being faced with the possibility of being wrong, it still hurt for his hopes to be dashed with such a simple statement.

'Who are you?'

He turned away from him and got to work as a seraph of Cruxis. This couldn't be his Lloyd. He couldn't hope to be wrong. He was dead. He had to be. Else... he abandoned his son. He never could do that. He would sooner die than give up his last reason for living. All he had now was this: the mission given to him by Yggdrasil. "I am Kratos, a mercenary."

END

A/N: and that is how I would have ended it! Some lines are straight from the game, others from the manga, and a lot more is conjecture. Aurion actually means something along the lines of 'rising sun' so I invented that crest. I thought it'd be poetic if Lloyd said the same thing as Anna did when they first met, proving that personality wise, he's a lot like his mom. Also feel that Kratos would have honored Noishe in death, being his most loyal companion that survived everything. As for the temple of Martel also being the place he and Anna got married, I thought since the summon spirit of the heart would eventually be there, wouldn't it be neat if that was originally the case? Maybe someone in Tethe'alla had dragged the spirit across the two worlds, thinking they made a summon spirit. If it's the temple of the heart, then logically that would be the place people got married, or 'made pacts with each other'. It would be long before Dirk moved into the area so they couldn't do two birds with one stone.

Anywho, that's the would-be ending to 'Becoming Human'. *sigh* ah well, I have other long ones I'm planning on finishing. I had to trash the prequel 'Becoming an Angel' because I couldn't fill in the blanks and work out the kinks. Without it though, and without motivation, couldn't get this one done either. Didn't have a first chapter figured out either. If you want to know where I would have gone after this, Read 'What Clinched It'.

Hope you've liked! leave a review.