This chapter was a hard one to write. It is definitly an emotional one. On with the story!

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia." – I.K.A. Valian

The tall trees in the forest around the Ranch swayed lazily in the Asgardian breeze. Two squirrels chased one another up and down a tree's trunk playfully. An old Owl sat on his aged branch and slept soundly. Tranquility like this, Gaar had neither seen nor felt before. Quietness filled his soul and made him, for an instant, forget all the wrongs he thought upon moments before. But it was an instant later that the familiar anger came back full tilt and Gaar's eyes hardened.

"I'll kill them, all of them." Gaar looked around where he was standing. "But first," he confusedly admitted, "I have to figure out where they are." Gaar scratched his head and looked at the owl for directions. The owl stood on its branch with its head tucked beneath one wing, looking like a statue. Then, ever so slightly, it moved one foot, and again was still. Gaar in the mean him went straight ahead. He pushed bushes and snapped twigs as he went. He was about to push past another bush, this one as big as a tree, when he heard voices and quickened footsteps. Gaar kneeled down and crawled under the bush far enough so that he could see the feet of the three people approaching. Then he heard them speaking.

"-be able to find where he is." The one who was speaking stopped and then the one in the middle started.

"To reiterate, we must infiltrate the Asgard Ranch to find the experiment that Kvar was carrying out on the boy. He fell somewhere on Sylvarant and he must be found before he is recaptured by Lord Yggdrasill. The only record on the boy is in that experiment, hopefully, it will include his mana signature which will allow us to locate him."

The man who hadn't said anything turned to the man in the middle and said, "I'm sorry I was unable to rescue the boy, Lord Botta. He was right there and the only thing I was able to do was-" The three men were then too far away for Gaar to hear anything. Gaar lay under the bush for a few seconds before he crawled out and looked around. He stood in the middle of a worn pathway grown over with weeds, the air seemed stale. Gaar looked up at the large bushes that lined either side of the path and completely blocked the walkway from the outside.

"Those guys were headed to the ranch," Gaar spoke to himself in a low voice. "I bet if I follow them, they'll lead me straight to it." The three others who had passed were already out of sight, so Gaar started down the path in the same direction without looking over his shoulder. Eventually he came to a clearing and stopped in the middle, staring at each of the tree paths he could take in turn. Gaar shrugged and moved to go down the middle path.

"Ack…" Gaar stopped, and looked down the right most path. He waited for a few seconds and then shrugged again.

"Great, now I'm imagining things," he said. He moved his right leg forward to take a step.

"Aaahh…." Gaar stopped and looked back and forth between the center and right path, lost in indecision.

"Now I know I heard something…but which way should I-"

"Whoa…."

Gaar nodded as he turned and ran down the right path. He ran as the wind for minutes on end, but finally came to another clearing. On the ground were the burning carcasses of three Giant Beetles. Gaar bent down and looked closer at one of the beetles.

"Hm. That's odd. I've never seen that before." Gaar looked around his immediate area and picked up a six inch twig. Turning back to the burning bug, he started poking it. The carcass rolled back and forth several times before coming to a rest again. "It's…almost as if the thing were on fire with out really burning, but…" Gaar put lowered his hand to within an inch of the dead creature and said, "Nope, definitely isn't fire. I wonder what it is." Gaar looked over at another carcass that was burning, but was also cut in half. "They all seem to be on fire…without really burning…weird."

"-emon Fang," came a cry from close by. Gaar's head shot up and looked down a path to his right. Standing up, Gaar immediately started down the path that had issued the call. As he got closer he began hearing more things, things that sounded of swords clashing against metal armor. Grunts, screams, and Gaar stopped when he heard someone shout, "Item Thief," and then a grunt from falling.

"That sounded like Colette." Gaar sprinted down the path way. He was running for a good bit when he heard someone shout, "Stop!" Gaar immediately stopped moving, skidding to a halt, and throwing dust into the air. He looked around but saw no one. Then the same voice said, "It's you, the wanted criminal. Come to hand yourself in have you?"

A new voice answered, "Not in your life. I'm here to save the people of Luin, and to destroy you Desians." Gaar heard swords unsheathing to his right, on the other side of a small incline.

Then the first voice said, "Why you little…" Then Gaar heard metal come into contact with metal, cloth rip, and again metal on metal. He moved quickly over to the hill and then crawled slowly the rest of the way up until just his eyes were over. His eyes widened when he saw a sword flying right at him. Gaar ducked just as the sword slammed into the top of the hill where his head was, spun five times while arcing in a slow curve over Gaar's fetal position body, and sunk into the ground two feet from his toes.

"Filthy human, thought you could defeat me did ya. This is what you get for fighting a superior being, Filthy Maggot!" Sounds of a body being beaten filter over the incline. Gaar felt his hate start to bubble when he heard them. His irises focused sharply on the sword. He moved over to the blade quickly and grabbed the hilt, then pulled it free of the ground. Where it had been warm and sunny moments before, it became dark now. Clouds decided to take this moment to make their appearance as a chill wind blew through the forest. The trees reacted in tree like fashion, waving about violently.

Scrambling up and over the hill, Gaar stopped just short of the two Desians who were kicking Lloyd in the back and the stomach. Blood poured out of the corners of his mouth. He wasn't screaming, or even begging them to stop, but his teeth were clenched as were his eyelids, and he grunted every time a booted foot crushed into his body. But that all stopped when the Desians noticed Gaar standing a few feet away holding Lloyd's belligerent sword, but only now its metal glowed in a golden red hue. Lloyd looked up when he noticed that the Desians had stopped their assault and glared daggers at the two before he noticed his now glowing sword.

"Who the hell are you?" The lead Desian pointed at Gaar. Gaar smiled. "What's so funny, kid, mind telling us?"

"I was just thinking about how you'd scream when I gut you with this sword." Gaar smiles, as he leveled his eyes with the Desians, tilting his head lower. The Desian laughed incredulously.

"I'd like to see you try, you pathetic inferior being." The Desian didn't even have a chance to blink. The glowing sword was already through his gut. Gaar pulled his arm back after having thrown the blade. The other Desian wasn't as smart as his impaled friend. The color drained from his face as he turned to ran, but was tripped up by Lloyd who found his other sword and was back up again having somehow healed himself.

Lloyd held his sword to the Desian's throat and said, "Don't move." The Desian barely breathed.

Gaar, meanwhile, walked up to the Desian who was looking down at the glowing sword in his gut. He tried to touch the hilt of the sword, but the golden red glow coming from the sword burned his hand and caused him to scream in pain. He then looked up at Gaar. Terror flowed from his tear ducts. Gaar grabbed the hilt and twisted it with his left hand, the Desian screamed in pain before Gaar ripped the sword violently out of his body.

Gaar looked down at the dying half-elf and said, "Now you know how we inferior beings feel when we die." Gaar looked into the Desians fading, terrified eyes and smiled the most deranged smile he would ever feel on his face.

Then Gaar's eyes widened and his smile vanished. He shook his head, growled, and chopped the dying man's head clean off, ending his suffering. The sword stopped glowing and Gaar let it drop to the ground. "What… what was I doing…?" Gaar's hands shook violently, drops of the Desian's blood flying off. "I… I was being… doing what they do…" Gaar fell to his knees, bent over, and tossed his cookies.

Lloyd, his face ashen, looked down at the Desian beneath his blade and said in a broken voice, "If you don't want the same thing to happen to you, run…far away from here." The Desian paled even further at the suggestion and seemed to melt like a snowman placed in the middle of the Sahara when Lloyd removed his sword and sheathed it. Shortly after, the Desian found his wits and scrambled away like a schoolboy being shot at with a full auto machine gun toting Terminator. Lloyd watched the Desian run before he turned and walked slowly over to the shaking ball that was Gaar.

"Hey, Gaar-" A hand grabbed Lloyd's shoulder. He turned to see Kratos standing there. "Kratos!"

"Lloyd, leave him alone," the mercenary said, an unmistakable tone of compassion underlying his order.

"What! Can't you see he needs help?" Lloyd spread his arms toward Gaar, as if to say, 'look how pitiful this creature is, surly we should help it.'

Kratos shook his head and crossed his arms. "He is going to have to go through this on his own."

Lloyd stomped on the ground and shouted, "What do you mean he has to-"

"Lloyd calm down," Kratos soothed the boy. "I once had a pupil who was in a situation very similar to this." Kratos' eyes found something to look at in the distance as he relived past events. "He found he had power unimagined, abilities to do things he was unprepared to do. Gaar has found himself capable of a similar thing, and he must come to grips with reality."

"Oh yeah, and what's that," Lloyd said, still irritated.

"He must come to realize that it isn't what your capable of that you must worry over, but what you choose to do. He must also come to terms with what he's done, no matter how horrible the act, and decide if he will let the fear of ever repeating such an act rule his life. I doubt there is anything we could do to help, even if we wanted too." Kratos looked down at the boy on the ground. Lloyd's anger now sated, he also looked down at Gaar, though with sad eyes.

"Wow, I guess I never thought of it that way." Lloyd walked closer to Gaar and kneeled next to the shivering boy. "Gaar, do you think you'll be able to live with this?"

"Up until now," the boy said, his head buried in his arms. He sniffed at the mucus that ran from his nose, "I've been motivated by my hatred of the Desians. When I saw all the harm they'd done, all the woes in the world that they had cause, I was filled with visions of vengeance. I never once realized that the Desians are also living beings, capable of fear and even…" Gaar sniffed again, "…terror." Gaar looked up. His eyes were red from crying. "But when I looked into that dying man's face and smiled, I felt that I had become worse than those who oppressed others. I had done a deed more cruel than any Desian whip. I had become what I hated, and all I could do was smile in…" Gaar coughed as his throat seized up in sorrow. "I hate the Desians for everything they've done, but I hate myself even more for sinking so low, doing something so horrendous. Nobody deserves to die that way, no body!" Gaar buried his face back into his hands. Lloyd sighed and Kratos continued to look on unemotional with his arms crossed.

"Your right, nobody deserves to die like that." Lloyd stopped to look down at the jewel on the back of his right hand. "But as long as the Desians do exist, people still suffer. They run over the world in their efforts to control it, hurting people everywhere they go. I want to defeat the Desians more than anyone, they killed my mom, and they hurt lots of people when they attacked Iselia. I want to create a world that is free of fear and terror. That world would even include the Desians. They could live peacefully in this world if they laid down their arms and helped others, instead of hurting them. But as long as these ranches are around, I don't think that can happen." Gaar looked up at Lloyd, his tears had stopped but his eyes were still red and his face was puffy. "I could use all the help I can get." Kratos mumbled something to himself, but fell silent when Lloyd glared at him. "Gaar, would you help me rid this world of the hate that Desians have spread?" Gaar stared at Lloyd for a moment, glanced at Kratos, who was watching on without emotions, and then looked back at Lloyd.

"I don't know if I'll be any help, but I would like to try." Gaar grabbed Lloyd's outstretched hand. Lloyd helped Gaar to stand up and clapped him on the back with a smile. Kratos smiled for a few seconds before he consciously wiped it off his face.

"Lloyd, we should get back to the others, they will no doubt be worried," Kratos said as he turned and started walking away. Gaar wiped his tears away with a dirt and blood laden hand.

Lloyd turned and followed Kratos. Glancing over his shoulder he asked Gaar, "You coming?"

"Uhh…yeah," Gaar replied. "And Lloyd."

Lloyd stopped and faced Gaar. "Yeah?"

"Thanks." Gaar smiled.
"Heh heh, no problem." Lloyd smiled and continued walking. Gaar caught up with Lloyd and fell into step as the two walked out of the clearing. Then sun came back out, birds chirped, and that owl still slept.