I do not own anything besides what has already been stated. If I did own tales of symphonia Lloyd and zelos would both have girl friends and kratos would still be there.
It was a few days later that they reached Asgard, and during that time, Violet had been filled in about what happened at Luin with the Church of Martel and the Vanguard, to put it mildly, Violet felt guilty.
One of the reasons she was allowed to stay near Luin was so that if it was attacked she could help. When she questioned Emil on why they didn't send a messenger he said they tried to send one, but they were cut down before they reached the gate. Violet couldn't see the smoke thanks to how far into the forest her house was. Therefore, she couldn't help because she didn't know the town was being attacked in the first place.
If she ever went back to Luin she'd have to find a solution to that problem. The whole purpose of staying near a city was to help. If she couldn't tell when they needed help then it defeated the purpose of staying there. Moving into the village itself would not be a good idea thanks to Violets 'other' tributes. Her red eyes tended to make people nervous. Rose once told her that her eyes wouldn't be so bad if she would smile or loosen the muscles in her face. Violet hadn't even been aware that she was glaring at people it was her automatic facial expression.
It was a running joke between Rose and her that she only had three moods: bored, irritated, and snarky. Unless you had known her for awhile all three moods would look the same. After nagging Rose for months on end she finally told her how she could tell the difference. When she was bored her eyes glazed over a bit and she would shift her stance so she was leaning against something. Irritation was the polar opposite. Her gaze would harden to stone and her body would stand straight and tense. Her muscles waiting for a fight and her mind already going over all possible exits. It seemed that snarky was somewhere in between the two. Her eyes would harden, but her stance wouldn't shift at all. Usually it was accompanied by a smirk, but not always. Snarky seemed to be a defence mechanism for whenever something hit too close to home for her comfort. By ripping into the offender they would back off long enough for Violet to recover her composure.
Rose said that she also had a compassionate side, but Violet had dismissed that with a snort and an eye roll. If she ever did have such a side then it was long dead or on it's last leg and she told Rose so. Rose came back with that she believed that when Violet finds someone then that side wouldn't be on it's death bed for long. Violet only reply was an incredulous look, as if she couldn't grasp why someone would ever like her for her. It would take a seriously determined person to work through all of her emotional baggage with her, but she told Rose that if she managed to find someone who would look past her issues she would give him a chance. Anyone who learned about her past and still wanted to work her through her issues instead of high tailing it out of there deserved a fair chance.
Violet was broken out of her wandering thoughts by Marta. "It wasn't your fault." Violet looked up to see Emil at the town entrance talking to Tenebrae and Marta standing in front of her with one hand on her hip. It took Violet a few seconds to figure out she wants talking about Luin. Once the shock of being knocked out of her thoughts cleared she replied. "The purpose of me staying near a town was to protect it. I didn't do that so what is the point of staying near a town?" At that Marta sighed as if she was talking to a child who didn't understand. "Your house was too far away from the town to see, or hear anything and they couldn't get a messenger out to you. If you don't know about it you can't do anything about it. Next time just move closer to the town. Besides, if it is anyone's fault it's mine. I'm the one they were after in the first place. So don't blame yourself, okay?", said an exasperated Marta.
Talking to Marta had put some of her guilt to rest, however there was something else she was curious about. Ever since they had left, Marta had made it painfully clear she did not like Violet, yet here she was trying to help her. It made no sense to Violet what so ever. It could just be that Violet was over looking something obvious. Thanks to being raised away from many people she didn't know the basics of interacting with people. Getting captured certainly didn't help with her with that issue. She didn't see why Marta was suddenly being nice to her.
Violet decided to question her on this, "Ever since we left Luin you have made it blindingly clear you don't like me. Yet you are now trying to help me. Why?" The exasperated look seemed to melt away to be replaced by a look of embarrassment. "Well, you seem important to Emil, and Luin really wasn't your fault to begin with." Violet smiled behind her hand and thought, 'Maybe it's time to tell her that I don't like Emil like that. It was fun watching her get jealous over nothing, but it might start getting in the way soon.' Marta saw her smile and immediately went on the defensive. "What are you smiling at? It's not like you're my friend or anything. It's just that Emil doesn't like seeing you moping so I stopped it!" It would have been more convincing if she didn't turn bright red when she said it.
Decision made Violet opened her mouth and said, "Well thanks anyway. I feel better." "Yeah well, don't mention it.", said a bright red Marta. "Oh and by the way Marta?" A smile had slowly crept onto Violet's face making Marta weary about what she was about to say. "What?" "I get the impression you think I like Emil as more then a friend and thought you ought to know that you are wrong. He is like a younger brother to me so if you want to go after him go for it. Some advice though, he's oblivious so if you don't out right tell him he won't get it." Violet watched with a smug look on her face as Marta's face changed with her emotions from embarrassment, to confusion, to understand, then elation, and finally embarrassment again. Marta's face which was just beginning to cool down flared up again and she said, "I'm sorry about how I acted before. It's just that every time I liked someone they always run away like I'm the plague. Emil didn't run away and then you showed up and he started acting differently toward you. I was afraid you were trying to take him away." Marta was steadily speeding up from the start of her explanation and by the end was mumbling, but Violet, who got the gist of it, said back, "It's fine. I didn't tell you because I thought it was funny. Don't worry thought you won't have any competition in me. A good friend of mine has been trying to set me up with someone since we first met. I can honestly say Emil is not my type. He seems nice enough, but I will need someone who will kick me into action when I start slacking, someone who will knock me on my ass whenever my attitude gets away from with me, and most importantly someone who can put up with what I dish out and throw it back twice as strong. Like I said Emil is nice enough, but he would never be able to keep me in check like I would need him to." Marta seemed to think it over in her head before looking up at Violet with a curious look and asked, "Why do you make it sound as if you need a baby sitter instead of a partner?" Violet chuckled mirthlessly but answered with a bitter smile on her face, "Because that is basically what I need. I have the habit of forgetting Important things like when to eat or sleep. When I get focused on something I get tunnel vision to the point where nothing affects me. Hunger, fatigue, pain nothing registers in my mind until I am done with whatever I was doing. It is highly annoying to come out of doing something to find two days have passed, my body is on the verge of collapsing, my stomach is trying to eat itself, and I stink to the point where it hurts my nose."
This seemed to visibly startled Marta, but before she could question Violet further Emil caught up with them. "What are you guys talking about. Is something wrong?" Marta immediately started tripping over her words trying to come up with what they were talking about when Violet stepped in and handled it for her. "We were just saying that we need an inn for tonight so I was going to go around and check all of their prices. I'll meet up with you at the mayor's house when I know which one is cheapest." With that Violet turned and started toward the nearest inn.
It was about an hour later when she had chosen an inn and went to tell the others. When out of nowhere the wind started picking up to an alarming strength. She took cover in the only cave that wasn't full and came face to face with Marta and Emil. "Well I was going to meet up with you guys at the mayor's house but this works too. I chose the inn closest to the ruin. Anything interesting happen while I was gone?", said Violet as she leaned back against the wall. Marta stepped forward and said, "Well we ran into someone who could see Tenebrae, but besides that not really. The mayor wasn't home."
That got Violet's attention. The only one who should be able to see Tenebrae when he was hiding was Emil, Marta, and herself. Not even an elf would have been able to. Violet was broken out of her thoughts by Emil saying, "Yeah, and now that I think about it he kind of reminded me of you. He had blue hair just like yours. Not only that be he was talking about how he lived in Asgard before it was named that. Marta said that's impossible though because it was named Asgard over two thousand years ago. Elves only live to about one thousand at best so it makes no sense. Do you think he's like you, Violet?" Marta looked confused now and said, "What do you mean like Violet? She can't be that old. She looks about our age." It was then that Violet was reminded that she had neglected to mention something to Marta. She sighed and said, "I won't tell you here because there are too many people, but I will when we get back to the inn. Okay?" Marta still seemed confused but nodded.
Violet noticed that it was quieter then before and said, "I think the wind has died down. We should be able to go to the mayor's house now." After a nod from both Emil and Marta they left the cave only to stop when they saw a blonde girl from the Vanguard right outside. Violet's first thought was that she hoped she got to fight the blonde brat. She'd put the little girl in her place and show her what a real sadist acted like.
Thankfully the blonde left before Violet could act on her thoughts. Marta then informed them that was Alice. One of the top members of the Vanguard and warned them to avoid her. Apparently Colette was in Asgard and Alice was looking for her. Marta said they should go talk to her to see if she knew where Lloyd was. So off they went to find Colette.
'That could have gone better.', thought Violet as she watched Marta storm out of the house shortly followed my Emil. She sighed as she turned toward Colette and said, "I'm sorry about her. If I knew she was going to do that I would have told her to wait outside. And before you can start Palmacosta wasn't your fault. Some things happen for a reason. I'm sure Lloyd would tell you the same thing." Colette seemed to look a little better after that, but Violet was trying to decide if she should tell her about Lloyd's imposter or not. Violet had the feeling Colette would wind up blurting it out on accident. She was a kind girl but she tended to be an airhead. Decision made Violet turned and said, "I should probably go and catch up with them. If I get any information on Lloyd I will tell you." With that said Violet left to follow her companions.
Violet was shocked at what she found when she caught up with them. There was Marta holding onto a little boy and they were both about to fall off the cliff. 'You have got to be kidding me. I leave them alone for not even ten minutes and disaster strikes! Not even Rose was this bad, and she was practically a legend for being the biggest trouble magnet I ever met.', thought an irritated Violet as she started toward the rock. Just as she was about to climb the rock to go help, Marta's grip started loosening. Violet cursed under her breath. There was no way she had the time to get up the rock to grab Marta unless... She was broken out of her thoughts by the sound of Marta's cry when her grip completely slipped.
Marta closed her eyes expecting to fall to her death when after falling for a few seconds she suddenly stopped falling with a sharp lurch that almost made he rose her grip on the boy. She slowly opened her eyes, worried about what she would see. What met her eyes was something she never expected. Violet had caught her, but that wasn't what was surprising. No, what was surprising were the purple wings with what looked like red veins sprouting from the middle on her back. 'Violet is an angel?!', Marta thought incredulously.
Seeing the look on Marta's face Violet cringed. She was in for a lot of questions when they reached the inn. Marta's shock caused her grip to loosen on the boy. Violet panicked when she saw the falling boy, unable to do anything as she was still holding Marta, however she breathed a sigh of relief when she felt a familiar energy. When she opened her eyes Colette had caught the boy and was lowering him onto the ground.
Violet quickly followed her example and placed Marta down, and then turned to Emil only to see that the Vanguard had knocked him down. Marta, seeing that Emil was surrounded, jumped into the fight shortly followed by Violet. Between the three of them they managed to make the vanguard flee.
Now that the fight had calmed down Violet remembered why she was nervous around angels. She hadn't fed in well over three days and her senses were punishing her for it. Back in the house she didn't notice because the other scents covered Colette's. Now however the wind was blowing it right to her. Violet swayed dangerously before straightening and saying hastily, "Sorry to leave in such a rush, but I need to hunt. Emil explain everything to Marta, okay?" Violet had told Emil after the first year she had known him about what she was, so she left Marta in his hands. She would probably take it better from him anyway. She needed to get out of there right now. With that Violet spread her wings as far as they would go and surged into to the sky toward the nearest forest.
Authors note: If anyone has ideas for situations for Lloyd and Violet to meet please tell me. I am hitting some issue with ideas. Please and thank you. Merry Christmas!
