Hey everyone, I'm back with more The Life After!


"Stop getting off topic! Da-Kratos!"

Great, Lloyd was still angry with him, "Yes, Lloyd?"

"Why didn't I know you were alive? No one interrupt him!" Lloyd added sharply as a precaution.

"I am not entirely sure myself, one moment I was on Derris-Kharlan, the next I felt a rather uncomfortable and familiar pulling sensation before blacking out." Richter's and Ratatosk's attention seemed caught by this, but it passed too quickly for others to note. "When I next came to, Martel was looming over me with that grin of hers and Yuan was in the background trying not to look concerned; I likely caused quite the break in the space-time continuum."

"Yuan is always easier to read once you know him for a while." Mithos began before smiling playfully, "But I don't think the fabric of time and space was his primary worry when his best friend-"

"Who we all thought was dead," Lloyd interjected.

"-was lying on the ground undoubtedly in a state of comatose." Mithos finished as if never interrupted.

"Ya know, I'd forgotten the old man was mortal enough to actually be knocked unconscious. He was always so high and mighty with his 'holier than thou' attitude."

"But isn't that last part kinda true?" Genis pointed out.

"That, my tiny friend, is up to debate. Especially depending on your definition of 'holy'; you see, we were both angels, but I was the 'Chosen'."

"He was one of the Seraphim!"

"Only by default."

"He created the Church of Martel!"

"Yet he wasn't smart enough to not to wear that bondage gear outfit."

"He told us himself on our way back from Heimdall, it was the uniform for his former position; you know, the protector of the Tethe'allan royal family."

"Richter, does the protector of the royal family really have an outfit of 'servitude'? I would think it would be a privileged position. Or does he mean it literally, like a shirt of ropes and pants of chains or something? Oh! Chain mail! Is it chain mail?"

"…Many things change in four thousand years, Emil, I could not say for certain."

"Oh, okay."

"Ha! I was all but part of the Tethe'allan royal family, brat. And he still wore the thing; at least I have some fashion sense."

"You have detached sleeves!"

"They're opera gloves. He had the detached sleeves!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, you just couldn't see them as well under that pretty purple cape of his."

"You wear pink."

"Yeah, but I pulled it off."

"You look like a girl."

"So? Chicks dig effeminate guys—girls give me all sorts of stuff just because I talk to them."

"Richter, what does 'effeminate' mean?"

"It is a polite way of saying that someone 'looks like a girl'."

"Okay, thanks!"

"Girls give you stuff because you were the Chosen. Not because of any good quality of your own."

"Tch, you may have been too busy in the background with your little toy, but I destroyed any enemy that dare come in my way. The old man has nothing on my graceful footwork."

"His range was longer."

"By nanometers! Plus, he always went into his combos too fast and never hit his target as many times as he could, I always perform mine perfectly. He has no finesse."

"His hits did more damage."

"Not by much."

"By enough."

"Hardly. Why are you defending him anyway?"

"I'm not, I'm merely contradicting you."

"Whatever, the old man was, is, an angst bucket who blames himself for things beyond his control."

"So were you."

"Well, I got over it, brat." Zelos said with the slightest edge of irritation that showed Genis had finally landed a scratch in the verbal battle; Zelos's expression relaxed into a faintly self-pleased smile before continuing, "Which brings to the main reason my bud here," Zelos wrapped his arms closer around Lloyd to give his brofriend a quick squeeze around the shoulders that made Kratos's eye twitch, "is so very, very pissed as all hell at the old man." He ended with a smirk at Kratos that only the other swordsman could get a proper view of.

It was a smirk that taunted Kratos with the fact Zelos was hanging all over his son and he couldn't do anything about it because he was currently being grilled like slices of fried to-ma-toes.

Kratos suppressed a scowl at the smirk for having put emphasis on the word 'tomatoes'.

Lloyd elaborated on Zelos's words, "When you left, Kratos, I thought you were doing it for the good of everyone."

Kratos now suppressed a wince; Lloyd wasn't even close to slipping up and calling him 'Dad'.

"You weren't."

And there it was. That glare Lloyd inherited from him that combined with Zelos's glittering eyes to confirm even more so that Kratos had been found out.

"You were running away. You didn't want anything to change—it's been the same for you for all those years and now that everything's different, you can't handle it."

"I didn't deserve to leave in a peaceful world delivered from the evil and strife I brought upon it." Kratos countered, though it was relatively apparent that Lloyd had struck a direct blow with his accusation.

"Bullshit! You didn't want the responsibility of maintaining that peace, thinking you can only cause destruction."

Critical hit. Blame your fate, old man, blame your fate. You're the one who chose it after all.

Kratos's hatred for Zelos's smirk was increasing at a constant and exponential rate.

"The Exspheres had to be released into space."

"You know that's a weak excuse or you would have used it to begin with. We know there's a way to do it automatically; we've seen the layouts and blueprints of the place."

"How could you have done that? Those sorts of documents are not easy to obtain."

"Professor Sage took one look at that library and put our quest on hold to transport them all back down to be located to every library that had room for any of them, not that there were any places that could. We found the blueprints when sorting through to decide which ones we were going to send to the Tethe'allan Branch and which ones we were going to send to the Sylvaranti Branch."

Kratos had seen the Library of Welgaia and could not believe it was humanly, elvenly, or angelically possible to move that many books ever and especially in the amount of time they must have done so.

But wait a moment, "Tethe'allan and Sylvaranti Branches?"

"Oh, I suppose you wouldn't know," Mithos said, "the two locations where the Renegades were once based were remade into libraries to hold the books. It was my sister's idea."

"It would be Martel's idea." Kratos muttered under his breath before sighing, "By and by, I concede defeat."

Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Richter had drifted over to Raine, and Ratatosk had went over as well out of curiosity before ending up joining their whispered conversation that started to edge closer to an argument once Ratatosk had begun to take part in it.

Kratos continued, focusing on balancing his concentration between speaking and resisting the urge to give Zelos a good smack for the delighted smirk that had already started blooming on his face before Kratos had even made it past the first 'by' and was in full-force before he could finish the 'con' in 'concede', "I was wrong to leave, I am truly sorry. Please forgive me."

3, 2, 1…

"I do not suppose I could examine the Derris Emblem? I have a strong suspicion of its connection to my return."

"Fate fuckin' damnit!" Ratatosk exclaimed before continuing to swear profusely.

A smile appeared on Richter's face, "That is what you get for following Genis's example without knowing the outcome ahead of time."

"Yeah, well screw you, bastard." Ratatosk said glaring as he put his entire bag of Gald in Richter's hand.

Raine sighed and rolled her eyes as she placed the Derris Emblem in the hand that was not occupied by the whole of Ratatosk's fortune, "I'm sorry Kratos, but Richter gets to look at it first."

Zelos lifted his head from Lloyd's shoulder to look at her, "You bet the Derris Emblem?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I merely said if he was correct that he could look at it before anyone else."

"What exactly did you bet on anyways?"

"Whether or not Kratos would immediately inquire after the Derris Emblem after apologizing; I believe it was under the assumption that it would not be entirely sincere but rather was an attempt to gain access to the Emblem more quickly. Richter most likely thought this because he wouldn't put it past himself to do so to get a chance to inspect it in greater detail, no doubt due to his scientific curiosity."

Zelos winced slightly, "Oh yeah, that thing." He sighed before resting his head back on Lloyd's shoulder, "Well, at least he's not as bad as you."


Notes:

That conversation/argument between Zelos and Genis is pretty much based completely in canon, thus the references to range, attack power, and speed. Check the Tales wiki if you don't believe me. There's also references to other various aspects of the games throughout (especially in this chapter like how it's always a critical hit if you're attacked when 'Z-button/free-running' in the second game), so keep an eye out. Yeah, I always over-research when I write my stories.