Gah! I'm so sorry to those who wanted to leave anonymous reviews! I didn't know I had to enable it through my account! Sumimasen to all those who tried, failed, and thought I was a complete jerk!
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Tales of Symphonia except my precious game, some posters, and the ideas in my head and in my story.
CHAPTER 4
REALIZE
"Welcome, Chief. What can I do for you?" A tall shinobi stood in the middle of the large room which Sheena and company had just entered.
"Hello, Orochi. Have you gotten any word from the researchers working on the exsphere project?" Sheena walked up to him, Lloyd and Kratos on her side.
"Hey how're you doin', Orochi?" Lloyd greeted.
"Hello, there Lloyd. And Kratos? I thought-"
"I came back on business," Kratos said sternly, but not unkindly.
"Right," Orochi merely shrugged it off and turned to the large monitor on the far side of the room. All along the sides of the room were smaller monitors and other machines used for communicating with other cities, storing information, and many other things of which Lloyd had no clue. What else was new?
"As a matter of fact, yes, we just received a coded message from Palmacosta. I was about to send for you," he said pointing to the screen. Workers were establishing a link to the seaside city.
"What did it say?" Sheena said, switching into her role of authority figure.
"Only that the U.S.S wished for us to contact them via our secure line. Apparently they don't want any eavesdroppers.
"Hmm. That's odd…" Sheena stood quietly in thought for a moment, then looked to the workers and commanded, "Alright. Open a line to the U.S.S. Palmacosta branch."
They nodded silently and in a short time the screen opened to a scene showing a similar room to the one they were currently standing in, but out a small window in the background one could see the endless blue that was the ocean.
Then suddenly there was a crashing sound coming from somewhere off-screen, followed by loud and angry yelling.
"PARANOID?!?! YOU ARE MERELY NOT BEING CAUTIOUS ENOUGH!!" the voice was female and oddly familiar, and was accompanied shortly by loud smacking sounds. Very painful smacking sounds.
"Uhh…" Sheena was at a loss for words as she stared helplessly at the screen.
"Huh? Hey, I think someone's calling us," it was a new voice, and soft footsteps were heard coming closer to the communications apparatus on the other side of the link.
A short, young boy appeared in front of the monitor, big blue eyes framed by silver hair looked through.
"Hey! Genis!" Lloyd called out happily and ran up to the screen.
"Lloyd, hi!" Genis smiled back and gave a big wave.
"Lloyd is there?! Is that the secret line from Mizuho?" the female voice cried out, and instantly there was Raine by her brother's side.
"Ah, so that was you, Raine. I had a feeling," Sheena sighed and put a hand to her forehead.
"Excellent! That was fast," Raine was obviously very excited about something. She turned to whoever she was previously beating the life out of off to the side, "You! Stand guard by the door! Make sure all the security locks are in place! I don't want even a fly to get in here!"
Low and disgruntled grumblings were heard in the background but they soon disappeared after the sound of a door sliding open and shut.
"They're still alive over there?" Lloyd muttered disbelievingly.
"Did you say something Lloyd?" Raine smiled innocently.
"Nu-nothing, Professor," Lloyd waved his hands and laughed nervously.
Raine scrambled off to the left and proceeded to tap furiously on a key pad extending from the wall. An electronic safe popped open and Raine reached her hand in, pulling out a small object. She walked back to the console and held out the object for everyone to see.
It was about the size of her palm. The device was circular and flat in shape, like a pocket watch. On the side facing upwards, a mirror-like screen that seemed like still water shone in the light. The rest of the surface area was covered in a shiny, obsidian metal cover. Runes surrounded the screen in an unbroken circle.
Raine tapped the screen softly, and a small pillar of gentle light shone up from it to eye-level. Multiple holographic screens appeared in the light. She touched different sections on one of the screens, selecting a mode. The screens were replaced by a three dimensional map, supposedly that of Symphonia.
"This is the exsphere detecting device, or as we call it, the Exe-terminal," Raine enthusiastically explained the workings of the wondrous new device, while almost everyone merely tuned out the hardcore magi technology information for fear it would overload their minds.
"Like a child with a brand new toy," Kratos muttered to himself.
"Aaaaaaaah! Make it stop!" Lloyd groaned and put his hands over his ears.
"Er, Raine? Do you think you could give us the shortened version?" Sheena asked, still a little overwhelmed by the sudden intake of unnecessary knowledge.
"Oh, very well" Raine pouted, "I'll cut the lesson short under the circumstances."
Circumstances? Kratos thought sharply to himself.
Raine tapped the mirror screen once again, and the holograms deactivated.
"The two main elements of the Exe-terminal is the tracking characters engraved on the back, courtesy if Mizuho," Raine turned it over to show symbols similar to the ones on Sheena's cards, "And the internal exesphere battery- which we obtained thanks to Lloyd."
Kratos glanced sideways to the young swordsman who rested a hand on the hilt of one of his swords- a grim expression on his face.
"While I was exploring the mines I found a weird exesphere hidden among the rubble, and showed it to the U.S.S. It turns out it wasn't any old exsphere. The scientists believe it was made from…from a half-elf, instead of a human."
Kratos wondered at his son's tone in his voice for a moment, then hesitantly turned back to Raine as she began explaining again.
"Yes," her face also solemn, "You see, this device is a fusion of elven magic and human magitechnology. Therefore, this exspheres is able to be used as both a power source and a base for finding similar frequencies, or in other words, other exspheres."
"Let me guess," Kratos said softly to Lloyd, "You feel uncomfortable using exespheres in such a way. Almost like a self sacrifice- especially since it is a physical remnant of half-elf suffering."
Lloyd looked down and nodded very slightly. Sheena came up beside him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Wait a second!" Raine and Genis exclaimed, "Kratos? What are you doing here?!"
"I've been getting a lot of that today," Kratos smiled slightly to himself.
"Yeah! Dad came back from Derris-Kharlan!" Lloyd said happily.
Although very surprised at his son's enthusiasm at his return (Not that he didn't like it. Inside Kratos was rejoicing that his son was happy to see him), Kratos could still see the small twinge of sadness in Lloyd's eyes.
"Oh!" Lloyd addressed Raine, "Which reminds me, Professor? Do you know anything about Odin's Tear?"
A look of shock followed by a slightly confused expression came across her face.
"Lloyd, how do you know about Odin's Tear? That is a highly classified file, and is even under tight lock and key in Derris-Kharlan."
Lloyd turned to Kratos who stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Unfortunately-"
"Unless…" Raine's face turned to disturbed realization, "You…it didn't…was it stolen and brought here?"
"No. But the real situation isn't much better. I can't fathom how, but the Tear was mixed in with the exespheres of Welgaia. When we ejected them into space it traveled through a wormhole and ended up here. I followed, however, when I arrived at the crash site, it was no where to be found."
"I see…" Raine stared at the Exe-terminal, deep in thought, "What are your ideas on the matter?"
"My hypothesis was that it fractured from the intense heat created by the friction of cutting through the atmosphere as it fell; there was also the change in pressure from when it was floating in space. Then, the force of the impact spread the shards throughout the area. Or otherwise, the crystal could have dissipated entirely."
"Then there would be no real problem right? I mean, no one could get their hands on it, then," Lloyd smirked and looked quite pleased with himself.
"Wrong," Genis' grim voice was small as he slowly shook his head, "If that happened there could be a BIG problem."
Kratos nodded, "Yes. If it split, the only ordeal would be to find all the pieces. The high levels of mana introduced could cause mutations in the ecological environment, but nothing major. If it dissipated however…"
"Mana anti-diffusion," Raine finished for him.
"What? What does that mean?" Lloyd looked from Kratos to Raine waiting for an explanation.
"Think about it Lloyd," Raine closed her eyes and switched into lecture mode, "If there is one thing we know about Odin's Tear, it is that it is a source of immense energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, so, what happens to all that mana?"
"Wouldn't it just like, flow out or something?" Lloyd said, still confused.
"That's part of the problem. The energy would normally try to achieve equilibrium by spreading out evenly throughout an area by diffusion. However, the Tear isn't a very big object- the size of a normal exesphere as a matter of fact. It was created so that vast amounts of energy would condense into a small point."
"So, what's the big deal? It would just condense and turn into its crystallized form again, right?" Lloyd still didn't see any evident threat.
"We're talking about mana from Derris-Kharlan, Lloyd," Kratos said quietly, "No doubt Symphonia hasn't fully recovered from its mana deficiency. If there was only enough mana for one world at a time, then the two together can only get so far with that limited supply. The Yggradsill Tree is still too young to provide sufficient amounts for the whole planet. The Gaoracchia Forest would be trying to obtain any mana it can find, especially mana of such high caliber. This will amplify the diffusion as the planet tries to absorb the energy."
It was Genis' turn to talk, "And like two different forces of a magnet, the powers would oppose each other and cause a force that would pulverize the matter caught up in it."
Lloyd's eyes widened and this time he only stood speechless. Genis glanced at his sister and said hesitantly, "There is also the slight possibility that the pull of the Tear would be greater than the absorption rate. Then it would actually take extra energy from the planet. By reforming with more mana than was intended for the Tear to be able to hold, an almost super nova effect could take place. The energy would expand at high velocities because of its instability, then try to compress again at the same speed, maybe faster."
Lloyd was wide-eyed with mouth gaping. Genis nodded solemnly as he believed he had made his point clear.
"That's…wow…" he stuttered.
"Exactly," Genis nodded again.
"I couldn't comprehend any of the words that were more than four letters long that just spewed from your mouth," Lloyd said aghast.
There was a unified groan from everyone in the room: Raine looked as if she was ready to pound the stupid out of him, Genis was banging his head in frustration, and Kratos and Sheena held their heads in their hands.
"Seriously, did you really expect me to understand that?" Lloyd huffed.
"Ugh," Genis faced him, "In other words: BIG boom. Then huge hole that sucks stuff up."
"Say good-bye to about a quarter of the planet," added Raine.
"I really don't understand why you guys make such an effort to give these big, complicated explanations, when it usually comes down to using less than ten words in the end anyway," Lloyd shrugged.
"That's because most people have an IQ higher than that of an apple gel," Raine sighed and covered her face with her hand to hide her affectionate smile for her pupil.
"Hey, careful, the apple gel might take offense," Genis laughed.
"Yeah, well, you give apples to, uh, teachers! And teachers are smart…er," Lloyd was trying to save a sinking boat.
The Sage siblings stared wordlessly at him, and Kratos made a mental note to teach his son better comebacks.
"Wow, Lloyd," Genis groaned, "That was the saddest, yet most convincing evidence of your lack of intelligence, I have ever seen. And I knew you when you were younger, and supposedly less developed."
"You guys suck!" Lloyd turned around in a pout, but everyone knew he was joking, and probably smiling the widest of everyone.
"Right, now that we are done teasing Lloyd we must get back to the matter at hand," Kratos shot a quick smile to his son before turning serious again.
"Yes," Raine looked thoughtful again, "There actually is a sort of keeper of the information concerning the Tear and other such ancient secrets."
"Where can we contact that person?" Kratos asked, though in his 4,000 years of life he had never heard of such an archive or the guardian who protected it.
Raine smirked, "You are presently looking at her."
Yup yup, another chapter. One thing one must know about me- there is always a method to my madness. Even small, funny things like the tea incident have meaning later on, and even seemingly minor characters, like the old lady, Chesa and Shinta have important roles. I reveal stuff when the time is right, mwuhahaha.
So, yeah, I'll try making the chapters a bit longer, but my method is write short chapters, update more often. Tell me if they seem to fast paced or diluted, 'kay?;p
Oh, and there will be more oyako in the next few chapters too. And some action!