/* Disclaimer: I do not own Tales characters, I just like to pretend I know the stuff they never elaborated in the game (Tales of Symphonia). Yes, I am having fun making up this stuff xD

And i'd like to apologize if the first few chapters are kind of boring... Kratos has to warm up to his humanity, you know? He was kind of zoning out for 3,000 years or so... possibly more... bear with me. =)*/

Chapter 2

Kratos followed his escort down one more corridor before they stopped in front of his door.

"Here we are, Lord Kratos." He turned to leave.

Abruptly, the siren stopped halfway through its whine. Kratos could hear it still ringing in his ears, and resisted the urge to massage his temples. It could wait until he was alone. He couldn't help but wonder though, if the woman had escaped or if they had simply given up. He doubted that the clumsy security would have been able to restrain her, and he certainly wasn't going to help them unless it was in his interest to do so. One person would not overtly delay the coming of world peace. If she wanted to leave so badly, she might as well be allowed to escape. At least, that was how Kratos felt on the matter. He wondered how Kvar would handle the situation, how he would explain it away in the morning.

Kratos called out to the Desian who had almost made it out of sight, and asked if the woman had escaped, figuring the headsets would have given more information than the klaxons could have done.

"No, sir. We have her in custody, under tight security now. She will be appropriately punished, of course, not to worry sir."

Kratos nodded, and went into his assigned room. For some reason he felt a pang of anger as he locked the door behind him. He couldn't discern why after a thousand years of nothingness he suddenly felt emotion, but it was somewhat enjoyable to him. He savored the anger for that brief moment, before it retreated into the void from which it had come. As he sat on the bed he couldn't figure out what had happened to bring on that strange sensation. He shrugged, and stretched out on the mattress, hands cupped under his head, staring at the ceiling. It was dark outside now, and the window was letting in a breeze of cold air. Kratos never moved to close the window, nor did he seem bothered by the draft- he didn't request dinner, and he hardly even slept. These last actions were things he did when he was bored, and at no other time; Kratos was equipped with a Cruxis crystal, and did not require as much sleep or nourishment as a normal human being. He felt heat and cold, but learned to feel indifferent to them after all the years he had endured them. Food held no appeal to him, and sleep even less. He could feel tired and hungry, but he rarely acted on these needs as he felt them, because the simple sensation of need was more interesting to him than satisfaction. Feeling uncomfortable was the only way he could remember what it was to feel alive. He wondered if Mithos or Yuan felt that way as well, but it was not something he would be obligated to bring up, and so he dismissed the thought.

Morning came much more quickly than he had expected. Kratos supposed he had his recent encounter with the escapee to thank, because most of his thoughts had dwelled on that event during the nighttime hours. He was glad he had decided to stay the night, instead of continuing on. Only so much boredom could be tolerated in one day, he decided, and the excitement in the Desian compound had been enlightening. He left his quarters as dawn broke, and wandered the corridors giving himself a better idea of where his room was oriented. After he had had enough of wandering, Kratos went outside and stood beneath a tree on the edge of the forest. He wondered when the ranch would liven up, but he was content to wait. It was unusual, he had to admit, to be this indifferent to delay given how much he had held this task in disdain even just one day ago. He credited the escapee once more, because he was looking forward to seeing Kvar at a loss for words. He started planning out a verbal attack for the half-elf to amuse himself in the time he was forced to wait, and to his surprise he was quite enjoying himself. It had been a very, very long time since he could remember taking as much enjoyment in something.

Eventually a Desian underling approached Kratos, and told him that the tour could commence at any time. Kratos grunted in response, and started walking back towards the ranch, with the soldier struggling to keep up. He didn't mind the wait, but he wasn't looking to wait any longer than he needed to. He wanted to hear the old man's excuses, grill him for details, and finish his duties on Sylvarant, the dying world. That was all. So when he stepped into the building, it was with the intention that he wouldn't come near it again for another century at least.

"Lord Kratos."

"Kvar."

"Would you like to make your inspection now?"

"That is why I am here. But first, I would like to ask why an alert went off yesterday."

"Ah, yes. Well, let me explain…"

Kratos allowed himself to be taken into another room, just off the main entrance, and waited patiently for Kvar to explain. When the man tried to explain it away as a security drill, Kratos didn't buy a word. He waited for him to finish blathering on, and paused for several seconds to watch if Kvar would start to panic. When he didn't, Kratos continued anyway, probing for the truth, and hinting that he didn't believe the story he had been fed. His adversary caught on quite rapidly, and realized there was no way to salvage his lie. With much hemming and hawing, he revealed that a human had indeed escaped, but that it was a controlled test, and that there was no real danger of losing the captive. Kratos wasn't convinced, but it was closer to the truth than the previous story.

"What if I told you that I saw the escapee last night, running down the corridor unchecked?"

"I would say that perhaps you saw the project seconds before it was ambushed."

"I see. Are there any other projects that I should know about?"

"No, I don't believe so."

"Hmph. What about the A012 you mentioned yesterday? Don't think you can keep things from me, Kvar."

"Ah, so you heard. That spoils the surprise then, I suppose." The ugly man gave a hopeful look, probing to see if his cover had worked on this member of the four seraphim. He couldn't read the impassive face, and continued winging an explanation. When he saw that nothing would work, he sighed heavily and started once more at the beginning.

"Well, Kratos, A012 is a new experiment I have been running, in an attempt to improve the design of the Cruxis crystal. If I am successful, it will be the most powerful crystal ever made."

"I see. And what would you do with such a powerful crystal?" Kratos looked at Kvar's squinted eyes, and couldn't find his pupils. It would be harder to tell if he was lying, this way.

"I call it the Angelus Project, Kratos. I was planning to present my research to Lord Yggdrasil as soon as I had results to show for it."

"So A012 is a test subject, then. I would like to see evidence of this experiment, and I will report it to Lord Yggdrasil for you."

"With all due respect, Kratos, I would much rather give the report myself…"

"He will not be pleased that you were doing research in secret, Kvar. By all means, tell him yourself, but I won't be responsible for what happens afterward."

The half-elf mulled over these conflicting desires for half a minute, weighing the pros and cons. Kratos was just glad to have discovered what the big secret was, and that he had uncovered it before it could be used against him. Now that he had been found out, Kvar would likely use the project as leverage to gain respect; Kratos didn't want to think about how it might have been used otherwise. Not that he wouldn't be able to handle a doddering old half-elf in battle, but the exertion would have been much more of a hassle…

Kvar escorted his superior personally through the ranch, trying to dress up his own accomplishments, though Kratos was able to see through his act now. He wasn't much impressed with anything, and did not plan to report this ranch any more favorably than the ranch operated by Magnius, until he came to the last part of the tour that is. Kvar took him to see A012 in person, so that he could be assured of the truth in the Angelus Project, and so that he would have something to tell Mithos. They went into the detention center, and walked up to the first cell on the right. Kratos was surprised to find that he recognized the host body- it was the woman from before, the one who had bumped into him, and attempted to escape. She was sleeping, curled in a corner like an animal. It wasn't hard to see why the Desians treated humans as dogs, when they played their roles so convincingly, he thought to himself.

It made sense to him now though, that she would have been the one chosen for the Angelus project. She had been so wild, and so determined- these traits would carry over into the power of the exphere. Kvar must have chosen her specifically, which all things considered, would be a great honor if she were being selected for anything other than a slow and painful death. Kratos almost pitied her, but he knew that she was committed now that there was a crystal forming on her hand, and thought no more of it. It made sense now that she had been the one to escape, because he recalled Kvar talking about relocating A012, and if she had been the one they were moving she would have had a chance to escape while the security was lower. He felt his questions were answered now, and turned away, prepared to leave.

"Wait, wait. Don't leave yet. Don't leave." The woman in the cell was hissing at him, and it was unnerving.

Kratos turned his head to look at the speaker on a reflex, though he knew she would not say anything worth listening to. He met her gaze, as she pressed herself against the bars, struggling to get a better look at her captors. Those brown eyes of hers still shone with determination, and she gave off an aura of fear mixed with hope. Kratos couldn't help but feel interested in what she thought she could detain him with.

"You're not like them, are you? You have human ears. You have to understand, you have to look around you, look at what you are doing. Do you not see what is becoming of us? Do you not care? Just look-" Kvar stabbed at her through the bars of the cell with the butt end of his battle staff, and she made a short cry of pain before he heard her head impact with the floor. Kratos looked away, not wanting to see what had become of her. He knew she would not be dead, she was far too valuable for that, but- he closed his eyes and shuddered internally at the thought of her lying in a pool of blood.

"I apologize for her insolence, she is… perhaps stronger than it is in her best interest to be."

"I can see that." Kratos muttered under his breath.

As soon as he reached the front gate, he unleashed his wings and took to the sky once more, wanting more than anything to get away from that ranch. He flew toward his next assignment, and while dreading his encounter with Rodyle, he hoped that it would not be as disturbing as the inspection he had just escaped from. In all his millennia of serving Mithos, he had never come across something so wretched as that man, Kvar. He promised himself he would have a word with his old friend, and try to get Kvar a reprimand.

"Martel knows that brute deserves it!" he thought furiously. It was invigorating to be feeling with such intensity these past days, and Kratos thought deeply on Martel the person, whom he had just mentioned in the context of a goddess. It was finally starting to become apparent to him how much Mithos had changed him since he had been given eternal life.