Wow, I got a review on the first day I posted the story :) That, and it was a realy nice one too! Thanks Contraltissimo! On with the story!
"I do not own Tales of Symphonia" – I.K.A. Valian
"Open the main gate," shouted the Desian commander. A cold gust blew threw Gaar's hair and tattered clothing as he stood behind the commander with his hands shackled at his back. Five Desian soldiers were standing around him. Blood dripped from several scratches and a deep gash in one of the soldier's forehead. The bloodied soldier made a scowl every time a drop of bright crimson dripped from his eyebrows into his eye, which made the whites go red with irritation.
"Next time, watch out for the Giant Bee's nest, moron," chuckled the Desian soldier to Gaar's right.
"I still don't get why I am the only one who was attacked. It was this filthy human who destroyed the nest. But instead of attacking this worthless pile of human crap, they all come after me," exclaimed the bloody one.
"Quit your whining! Here comes lord Forcystus." The Desian commander and the five Desian soldiers all immediately stood at attention. A blue haired man with a long barrel on his arm and an eye patch approached the group of Desians and Gaar at a leisurely pace. Upon reaching the group he stared at the cut up Desian soldier before he turned to the commander.
"What took you so long, I was expecting you to report back much sooner, and why are you not wearing the proper helmet commander," Forcystus growled.
"Sir, we were on schedule, escorting the prisoner back to the ranch, when a hoard of angry Giant Bees attacked us and we were forced to defend ourselves. The prisoner attempted to escape while we were being attacked relentlessly. After we dealt with the Giant Bees, we tracked down and re-apprehended the prisoner. And I uh… am having the feathers re-implanted, Sir!" The Commander stood as still as a twig stuck in the sand during a hurricane as Forcystus stared straight at him.
"Right," Forcystus said. He then made a cursory glance at the rest of the soldiers and then turned and walked back into the ranch. "Take the prisoner directly to processing. And have those cuts looked at Mauler, before anymore Giant Bees decide that you're pissing them off, which will in turn, piss me off. The rest of you get back to your duties."
"You heard Lord Forcystus, get to it!" The commander turned and followed Forcystus into the ranch. Mauler wiped some of the blood from his head before kicking Gaar in the back of the legs, which knocked the boy into forward motion.
"Stupid human," grumbled Mauler. The other four Desian soldiers around Gaar all moved as one, pulling Gaar into the ranch. The large gates closed, metal grinding on metal, until they slammed shut with a resounding thud. Gaar was escorted into a doorway at the very back of the inner courtyard. Gaar squinted to see when he moved from the bright sun-lit courtyard into the darkened interior of the ranch. His irises dilated wide when they laid upon the handfuls of bedraggled and dirty people working in the chamber he was being escorted through. He wrinkled his nose and nearly choked when he smelled the hot sweaty, putrid atmosphere and some of the people he passed. A couple of the dirty workers hacked and coughed something terrible every few seconds before going back to what they were doing. The lights barley illuminated the occupants of the room. Gaar stained his eyes to see the people farther away than a few feet.
"Who…why…how could you do such a thing? This is horrible!" Gaar was cuffed up side the back of his head in response to his question.
"Shaddup human, else you'll be doing worse," the Desian to Gaar's right sneered. Gaar was about to look through the door way he was being escorted through when he caught sight of a small girl coughing so bad that blood was dripping down from the corner of her mouth.
"H-hey, that girl needs help!" Gaar shouted and tried to break away from his Desian entourage to get to the girl. Gaar made it two feet before he felt a sharp crack to the back of his head. He fell to the dirty and stained floor and grabbed his head with both hands as the pain started to radiate. He stopped breathing because of the intensity of the fire raging on his skull grew to its peak before lessening gradually.
"Next time I tell ya ta shaddup, Shaddup," screamed the Desian as he kicked Gaar in the ribs. Gaar took in a shaky breath before he felt himself being dragged through the door he was once being escorted through. The last thing he saw before he passed out was the little girl being whipped by another Desian for not working which caused her to cough harder.
Gaar woke up with his hands chained above him, his feet suspended about a foot above the floor, and he could see three Desians around him but couldn't hear them. He winced when he felt the pain at the back of his head. A blue light moved up and down Gaar's body rapidly and every time the light passed his head, the Desian seated behind the console that showed a holographic image of Gaar's body would point and say something excitedly while the two others would say something or nod their heads.
"Let me down," Gaar shouted, but the Desians didn't even register that they heard him. Gaar twisted and swung about before he noticed that the Desians outside saw his frustration and were holding their guts as they laughed, but he was confused when he realized that he couldn't hear them. Gaar sighed and stopped his struggle, and a few seconds later, the floor seemed to rise up to his feet and he was once again standing. The air around Gaar shimmered for two seconds before the sounds of the room about him came flooding in.
"-will be transferred to Asgard Ranch for Exsphere implantation and observation," one Desian was explaining to a Desian dressed up in a fancy helmet with large yellow feather fans that waved about on top of it. The Desian who listened to the instructions nodded, the feathers on his helmet swayed back and forth elegantly with the abrupt movements, before he turned toward Gaar and sneered at the boy.
"Why is this worm looking at me like that, no fear at all? We shall have to…rearrange this insect's attitude before he is transferred." Gaar stared at the Desian before he wondered how the Desian would try to rearrange his attitude.
Gaar's musing was cut off when the Desian behind the hologram consol said, "Oh no Commander Ggrif, he must be sent to Asgard Ranch immediately. Research on this subject has been deemed priority one." Commander Ggrif huffed before walking over to Gaar and grabbed the chain linking his hands.
"This slime is just lucky isn't he," Commander Ggrif said before he jerked the chain roughly. Gaar was pulled forward with the commander as he walked calmly out of the room. Gaar looked around in wonder as he was lead down hallway after hallway. The commander walked as one would in their home, one hand on Gaar's chain and the other at his side, the feathers on his helmet swayed back as he pulled Gaar forward.
Gaar stumbled once and launched forward into Commander Ggrif. The commander fell to the floor with a grunt before he quickly got back up and turned growling to Gaar with an ugly grimace. "You insignificant little insect, how dare you strike me, a Superior half-elf," the commander shouted.
"So you're a half-elf, huh," Gaar asked while he tried to stand up without the use of his hands. Commander Ggrif's face turned red in a flash. He immediately stuck his boot into Gaar's face, hard.
"Don't you ever talk to a superior half-elf, Slime," Commander Ggrif shouted before he turned and started dragging Gaar behind him into the room at the end of the hallway they were in. The commander swung Gaar around by the chain into the middle of a circular platform and yelled, "Get this crap out of my sight, send it to Asgard Ranch NOW!" The Desian behind the console on the other side of the room looked shocked for a few seconds before he rushed to warm up the machine. Gaar sat up and wiped the blood dripping from his nose on the remains of the dress' sleeve.
"I don't know … how much more of this … I can take," Gaar said as he looked at the blood. The sight of the blood triggered a thought process and brought to mind all that Gaar had seen the Desians do, to him and to others. His imagination flared to life and showed him all the ways he could punish the Desians in return for the harm they inflicted, the torture they imparted. All of these thought, images, and feelings coalesced into one feeling, something that Gaar had no recollection of ever feeling before, Hate.
Gaar looked at Commander Ggrif and smiled. The commander looked back and the sneer on his face slowly changed to one of surprise, then fear. Commander Ggrif began to visibly shake when he saw the look in Gaar's eyes. "I am going to enjoy getting my revenge," Gaar whispered just loud enough for Commander Ggrif to hear. The Commander's eyes went wide in fear as he felt an abnormally large amount of mana swell within the human boy's body.
Gaar could feel his emotions running out of control, but he didn't care, he wanted to see the Desian suffer as he had suffered, as the village had suffered, as all those people working to death suffer right now, as that little girl suffered. Gaar wanted revenge, justice, and recompense. Yes, Gaar could feel the energy in the emotion, and he urged it on, making it bigger, larger, giant!
"What is this," Commander Ggrif screamed as an unseen wind began blowing in gale force. "No! It can't be! Humans can't control mana. They can't even touch it! But then, how?"
Gaar screamed as the energy left his body and formed a massive bolt of glowing gold energy that shot straight toward Commander Ggrif. The Desian technician behind the control consol let loose a shrill, blood curdling scream fit for any woman worth her grit as he watched Gaar pass out and Commander Ggrif disintegrate while he screamed in terror, pain, and fear. The technician passed out, his head fell directly onto the activation panel, which sparked several times before the system activated. Gaar's body slowly disappeared into thin air, which left the room in complete silence save for the hum that the machinery gave off.
Heavy footsteps on the wooden planks of the pier came to a stop. "Hey," shouted the man to anyone that was within earshot, "look at that light." The man pointed to a shimmering blue ball of light above the lake. "How high do you think that is," the man asked one of the people that ran up next to him.
"I dunno, maybe fifteen feet or so. Wow, I've never seen anything like that before." The second man responded. Soon a crowd of people had gathered on the wooden pier and stared at the ball of light as it shimmered.
"Wow Mommy, it looks like water," said a little girl who sat on a woman's shoulders.
The crowd murmured and a few hands pointed at the light which soon started to fade. A chorus of 'look's' from adults and some disappointed 'aww's' from children drove through the crowd as they stared at the light which was neared invisibility. Then, suddenly, the ball of light exploded in a deafening boom which flattened anyone standing on the pier. Some, who were standing on the edges of the pier, were pushed into the water, while others just fell onto the people who were behind them.
The entire village was in chaos as fireballs streaked left and right from unknown attackers. A man who was lying down on the pier got up and tried to run across the wooden bridge connected to the island that held the local Church of Martel. He only got his left foot in front of his right once before a lightning bolt fell from the sky and burnt the man to a crisp. The people on the bridge screamed and ran across ether one of the two bridges in their attempt to get out of the line of fire and onto dry land. Some of them didn't make it, the few that had fallen into the lake tried to climb back up onto the pier, but as soon as they stood up, they were taken down. A huge lightning bolt shot into the lake and electrocuted the rest of the people still swimming.
In front of the Phoenix Inn, a group of Desians materialized. One, whom was wearing a helmet with two fans of yellow feathers on top of it, started pointing and shouting, the soldiers around him immediately moved into action. The Desians spread out through the village and checked the housed in a systematic order. On their way through, the Desians took pride when holes were blown into walls, sidewalks, bridges. Villager's screams and pleas made them smile contentedly. The commander stood and watched his subordinates do their work. He lifted his hand up to his mouth and pressed a red button on a device he was holding.
"Lord Kvar, this is Commander Ikarus reporting in," the Desian said into the comm. Device as he nonchalantly took out his sword and chopped off the head of a panicked villager who tried to get past him and out of the village. When the villagers behind the now dead one saw what the commander did, they immediately turned around and ran into the burning Phoenix Inn.
"Ahh, Commander, how long do you believe it will take to round up the survivors and destroy what's left of Luin," replied a chillingly monotonous voice.
Commander Ikarus glanced around the village and saw one of his men kicking a yipping dog into the lake, a sorcerer setting fire to a house on another island, and a few Whip masters and a Spearman destroying the fountain. "Sir, we should be on our way back to the ranch in about twelve hours. A good amount of the villagers are still alive, so there should be plenty of new Exsphere subjects soon."
"Excellent, Commander Ikarus. Continue in this way and you might one day be made one of the Five Grand Cardinals. Kvar, out." Static burst from the comm. device before Commander Ikarus shut it down. He smiled as he shouted, "All right men, round 'em up!"
A body slowly began to fade into existence above the fountain in Luin. The Desians failed to notice the body, but did notice the splash that came when it fell. One of the Desians stuck her spear into the water and started moving it about.
"What do ya think 'tis," asked a Whip master to the Spearman's right. She shrugged her shoulders when a hand popped out of the water and grabbed the spear. The hand tried to pull the spear into the water with it, but the Spearman held fast onto her weapon. This stopped when the Spearman was lifted into the air and pulled into the water with her weapon. The other Desians who were busy destroying the face and wall of the fountain stopped their work and watched the Spearman wrestle with someone.
"Having trouble with one of the local's," asked one of the spectators. The Spearman grunted in reply her waterlogged armor began to get heavier which increased the strain on her arms as she tried to hold on, now for dear life. She eventually lost her grip and was sent spiraling out of the fountain into the lake, the spear disappear into the fountain and Gaar's head popped up in its place.
"Look, there's a kid in there. Hahahaha. She was beat by some filthy human." The Whip master pointed and laughed with the rest of his comrades at the spear-less Spearman as she grumbled and started swimming toward the pier. "Come on guys, lets show her how it's done," said the Whip master as he turned back. "Hey, where'd he go?"
"Hey, Ugly," Gaar shouted as he ran full tilt at the Desian. The Whip master turned and was skewered easily by Gaar onto the spear. Gaar had put so much force behind the thrust that he skewered the four other Desians with the same thrust as well.
All the Desians groaned and fell to the ground and then rolled into the lake. Gaar looked around for the next target and gasped when he saw tens of Desians swarming over the rest of the village killing, maiming, and plundering. Gaar felt the hate swell within him again when he heard a shushing sound behind him, suppressing the extreme feeling. Gaar turned and noticed a small group of people hidden behind one of the stone benches. He walked over to them and said, "It's ok, the coast is clear."
The group slowly stood up. The man in front of the group said, "Thank you. Thank you for saving my family," he motioned toward the four others, a little girl, two boys, and an elderly woman. "I don't know who you are, but thank you, and may the Goddess Martel protect you." Gaar smiled at the man who smiled back and then turned back to his family. He motioned for them to move toward a wooden bridge connecting the island they were on to the mainland.
Suddenly a shout sounded from the direction of the village. Gaar turned with the family and saw six Desians point at them and then come running. Gaar turned to the man and his family and yelled, "Go! Get your family out of here. I'll distract them." Gaar pointed vigorously toward the mainland. The man nodded and rushed his family onto and over the bridge. Gaar turned back to face the oncoming Desians. Growling he shouted, "I won't let you Desian lay a hand on them." The oncoming Desians barely broke stride and ran right past Gaar faster than he could get in their way.
"Hey, kid, lets play." Gaar turned to see one Desian had stayed behind to fight him. Gaar turned back around to see the man and his family being apprehended halfway across the bridge. "Heh heh, it's useless to resist kid, you either come with us, or die," the Desian behind Gaar spat derisively. Gaar turned back around and felt the hot fever of the hate he felt before rising within him. The Desian laughed at Gaar, and then laughed harder when he was knocked unconscious by a Desian coming back with the writhing family man over his shoulder. "Heh, stupid human," the Desian jeered as Gaar's unconscious body fell into the water. The Desian turned and headed back into the main part of the village.