Cat-Alin: .. I do not know how to put more Plot Twists in this ..
Shihna: Mhm ..?
Cat-Alin: And I don't know HOW or WHEN Lloyd is going to be revealed to them. I THOUGHT, I'd do it in Welgaia itself, but that's too late in the storyline, I think.
Shihna: Mhm. -turning a page of her 'How to get rid of Redhaired Oversexed Young Twens' magazine-
Cat-Alin: Listen to me, dammit!
Shihna: Yeah, yeah, whatever. Cat-Alin doesn't own Namco, nor Tales of Symphonia, nor the OVA. If she did, she'd had chosen a different Director for the OVA, since THIS director is ADDICTED to 'official' pairings.
Cat-Alin: Which is the reason why the episodes are DROOLING of Colloyd .. -hate-
The next morning, they entered Gnome's temple and Collet .. tripped of course.
"I really wonder how she is able to trip over nothing." Lloyd sighed.
"Hey! I'm not 'nothing'!!" a tiny high voice squeaked.
They all looked around and when they didn't see anything, they looked down.
A tiny creature was there, growling. Collet's huge foot was behind him and a bump on the little creature's head indicated, where Collet had hit it.
Collet got up and dusted herself off.
"I'm sorry, Mr .."
"I'm a Gnomelette."
"Mr. Gnomelette." Collet smiled.
"Aw, no problem, hon!"
"It reminds me of you." Shihna smirked at Zelos, who looked hurt and wanted a 'First Aid' of one of the girls.
"Say, Mr. Gnomelette, could you perhaps let us through? We're here for something important." Collet asked the Gnomelette, going back onto her knees.
"Hmmm .. Sorry, hon." the thing said. "I won't let you pass."
"Why you REALLY little-!!" Zelos shoved his glove up.
The gnomelette stuck it's tongue out at Zelos.
"I won't let you pass .. NOW." he said and smirked. "But .. if you show me what 'spicy' means, I'll let you through."
"Spicy? How to SHOW what spicy is?" Lloyd wondered.
"Maybe give him a spicy dish!" Collet suggested.
"That could work. What could we make?" Genius asked and everybody counted their recipe list down mentally.
"Oh, how about Cabbage Rolls?" Collet suggested and smiled widely.
"That's not spicy at all!" Lloyd threw in.
"If you let Sis cook, yes-OW!" Genius rubbed his head where Refill had hit him.
"Curry Rice!"
They all agreed to cook curry rice for the gnomelette and checked their wingpacks if they had all the ingredients.
"We're missing Red Satay .. and Onions." Lloyd sighed. "Where to get Red Satay except Sylvarant?"
They all wondered and decided to check through several cities to get onions and search for the red satay.
Lloyd sighed relieved.
He had managed to keep them off the seal for a while .. and only by coincidence.
Although, what to do to make them forget to form the pacts and leave the two worlds alone? But then again, if they didn't do ANYTHING against the system, both worlds were going to die because of the lack of mana and-
Bang!
Lloyd grumbled and peeled himself off of the tree he just walked into.
"Lloyd, you should watch out where you're going." Zelos smirked.
"I think he finally managed a record of his own stupidness." Genius grinned and Lloyd growled at him.
They used their rheairds to fly over to Flanoir and killed some penguin monster that attacked them. At the market of Flanoir they found some red satay.
"Now we can cook for that Gnomelette!" Collet chirped happily. And tripped.
Lloyd sighed and helped her up.
"Well, then we'll form a pact with the earth-spirit first." he said.
".. I heard that the ice-spirit, Celsius, is around Flanoir." Regal remembered.
"Well, shall we go after Gnome or Celsius first?" Lloyd asked.
"How about we go after Celsius first, since she's closer?" Refill suggested and they went over to the temple of ice, after getting some penguin gloves, which somebody told them they'd need for Celsius' Tear. Whatever that was.
When they got to a big lake full of water close to the altar, they wondered how to get further ahead.
"Lloyd" Refill said and smirked. "How about you use your wings to take each of us over there?"
"Eh?" Lloyd flinched. "B-But Sensei, I don't have the wings very long .. and .. I don't know very much about how to fly with them .."
"You managed rather well when you went after Rodyle." Refill countered.
"Uh-T-that was .. an emergency situation." Lloyd said and loosened his collar. "How about we search for this .. this Celsius' Tear? It's supposed to freeze everything, right?"
"Wow, Lloyd, you remembered something." Genius smirked.
They searched the cave for Celsius' Tear and finally found it.
"Watch out, Lloyd!" Collet stopped Lloyd from taking it. "Remember what that guy told us about Celsius' Tear. He said that one couldn't just touch it."
"You need some special gloves for that." Genius reminded him.
"Mh?" Lloyd took out some penguingloves from his wingpack. "These?"
"Yeah, exactly!"
Lloyd took his right glove off and slipped the penguinglove on.
It felt weird. It felt like he didn't wear it, but a protective layer of fluoresciding liquid was pouring over his hand. He grabbed the thin stem of the ice flower and broke it off. He didn't feel anything. Like the glove had grabbed some air. He hoped that the flower wouldn't melt or anything like that from the heat of his hand on the glove.
They backtracked to the big lake.
".. and now what?" Lloyd asked, who was still holding the flower.
"Um .. how about you touch the water with it?" Collet suggested.
Lloyd sighed, shrugged his shoulders and knelt down onto one knee. He touched the water with a piece of the petals and in a few seconds the whole lake was covered with a three inch thick layer of ice.
"Wow .." Genius was stunned. They slipped and slid to the other side and stared at the four statues in front of them. They were obviously put their a while ealier.
"Hmm .. they look new." Lloyd said, sounding like he was acting surprised. "Wonder who put them there? And why?"
He smirked a tad and stopped his communicator from vibrating a few seconds later.
Refill was busy looking at a slab in the corner.
"The angle of view is the key .." she mumbled, reading the slab.
They were all quiet, letting Refill and Genius think, since they were the cleverest in the group.
"I think .. we need an angle of 59 degrees." Lloyd said to everybodies' surprise.
"WHAT!?"
"L-Lloyd .. a-a-are you feeling alright?" Genius asked. "Did that knock against the tree do something to you?"
"Shut up!" Lloyd snapped at him and turned the statues around with Regal and Zelos, until they formed an angle of 59 degrees.
The door rumbled and opened.
And everybody stared at Lloyd.
"How did you know that?" Refill asked.
"Um .. I .. uh .." Lloyd stuttered, thinking of an excuse. "I .. I guessed."
"Figures." Genius said. "Only thing that you get right except swordsmanship and art is when you guess."
Lloyd gave him a hit on the head for that.
Celsius was standing at her altar, glareing at them. She looked over at Lloyd and smirked.
"I am the spirit of everlasting cold, Celsius." she said calmly. "What do you want?"
"I am Shihna and I wish to form a pact with you." Shihna said and Celsius laughed.
"A pact? Well, let's see if you can handle my strength!"
Celsius had her loyal wolfgod Fenrir by her side and he was a good protector. They first had to take care of Fenrir, before they could even get close enough to Celsius to strike her.
They managed to bring her down and she threw her head back.
"Very well. You are strong and I will give you my strength if you tell me your vow." she said.
"I vow to change the system of the two worlds." Shihna promised and as a proof of the pact, she got the Saphire ring.
They made their way slittering back over the ice, Lloyd trying to think up of a way to keep them from forming more pacts.
And then he snapped his fingers and knew an answer. The idea would, true, only keep them from it for a short time, but any time was better than none.
"Hey, Guys" he said when he joined them from the icy ground. "How about we rest for now at some place?"
"What?" Refill asked.
"You know, we've been wandering around on this cold continent for hours." Lloyd explained. "Maybe we should fly over to some warm place and rest for the day. Thaw and so."
They all thought about it and agreed to fly over to Flanoir, since the Inn there was greatly heated because of the cold.
They were resting in their rooms in Flanoir and Lloyd was sitting on his bed, staring like mad at the communicator. He was waiting for a message - any message - from his father about what to do next. A soft tap on the door startled him and he shoved the communicator underneath his pillow when Refill entered.
"You're still up?" she wondered a bit. "You should go to bed, Lloyd. Otherwise you won't be able to stand a chance against Gnome tomorrow."
Lloyd nodded quickly. "Yes, Sensei."
"Good Night, Lloyd." she said and closed the door after a following "G'night" from Lloyd.
The teenager sighed and decided that sleep would be a good idea, even though he could no longer sleep, since his father wasn't sending him any messages anymore. Lloyd was in a phase where he was feeling so relaxed and his eyes so heavy that he felt like if he closed them, he'd fall through the sky until he hit the real realm of dreams and sleep. Then there was another soft tap. But not on the door. Lloyd bolted up straight and looked around confused. Then he saw the shadow floating at the window. He got up and turned the light on on his way to the window. The shadow was lighted and he recognized Kratos.
Lloyd opened the window.
"Dad" he whispered. "What are you doing here?"
"Taking you away, of course." he said.
"Where to?"
"To Derris Quaran. And other places." Kratos answered him and beckoned him out.
Lloyd frowned and there was another knock on the door. Lloyd quickly banged the window shut, Kratos flew upwards out of view and Collet entered.
"Lloyd? You can't sleep?" Collet asked.
Lloyd jumped a foot.
Was it that obvious? That he was unable to sleep anymore? Collet noticing it was probably very likely, since she couldn't herself for a long time, but Sensei shouldn't have noticed it. She only found out about Collet's inability to sleep much later. True, he himself hadn't noticed it until she confessed, but he hoped that nobody would find out about his whole angeltransformation. Sensei was definitely suspiscious towards him. More than before after he had revealed his wings to them. Although he didn't really wanted to do that.
"Lloyd?"
"H-huh?" the teenager stammered.
"You okay? You look pale. Are you coming down with something?" Collet asked worried.
"Uh, no, nothing. Just .. rather hot in here!" Lloyd laughed and opened the window again. Collet still looked a bit worried and a voice shouted.
"Collet! Go back to bed, you should rest!" It was Refill. "And Lloyd! You stop keeping her awake and go sleep yourself!!"
Collet flinched and apologized to Lloyd, closing the door she tapped back towards her own room. Lloyd sighed and turned back towards the window, Kratos had appeared again.
"Dad, I can't come along." Lloyd said. "If I go missing for a long time, and I don't think that we will be back in about an hour, Sensei is going to rip my head off when I'm back .. but first she would question the hell out of me."
Running steps. And Lloyd's door banged open and shut again. Kratos flew off again.
"Zelos!" The male Chosen beckoned Lloyd to be quiet. Lloyd wondered what the hell was wrong with this evening. Everybody kept coming to him, no chance of being alone!
"Lloyd, buddy! Hunny! You've GOTTA hide me!" he flustered.
"Huh? And why should I do that?"
"Ultra Gorgeous Cool Beauty" Lloyd looked at him with huge eyes. "You know, Refill-sama, she found me sneaking into Shihna's room. And now she's after me! And NOT in a good way!"
"Serve ya right." Lloyd said, shrugging his shoulders.
"No!" Zelos hugged Lloyd in a help-seeking meassure. "Please, please, please! Hide me! You have no Idea how scary Refill-sama can be-"
"Excuse me, I'm her worst student, who forgets his homework."
"Oh, right." Zelos sighed. "Help meeee!"
"No!" Lloyd snapped at him. "Go and hide somewhere else! Go to Regal, Refill would never expect you there!"
Zelos looked at him, his eyes huge as soupbowls.
"You're right! Thanks, Amigo!" Zelos gave him a pat on the shoulder and sneaked out of the room to sneak back into Regal's.
Lloyd sighed annoyed.
"Just put a decoy for them and they won't notice you're gone." Lloyd jumped a foot at his father's voice.
"Huh? Oh, oh right." Lloyd hurried along the room, before somebody else decided to join him. He grabbed a second blanket from the cupboard, stuffed it underneath the blanket on the bed, arranged some manners and it looked like a rumpled up figure of Lloyd, completely covered underneath the blanket, sleeping.
The teenager stepped onto the windowsill and jumped out, revealing his wings and following his father.
"Where are we going first?" he asked.
"It depends. How far are they?" Kratos replied, asking about the group.
"They formed a pact with Celsius. But not with Gnome yet."
Kratos frowned and seemed to think a bit, floating in midair.
"Then they'll go after Gnome first. Alright, we're off to Shadow's temple." he flew off, Lloyd flying close next to him.
"Why to Shadow?"
"You'll see."
The rest of the way they flew silent and landed on a high cliff, south of Meltokyo. The temple was built halfway into the cliff. They entered.
"Wah, it's so dark .." Lloyd noticed and stopped.
"Wait a bit." Kratos said and rummaged through his wingpack. Blue light lit in his hand on a candle of the same color. The light kept growing and seemed to fill the whole temple with passable light now.
"Wow .. what was that?" Lloyd asked.
"A blue candle. You'll need one when they go after Shadow." Kratos answered. "One blue candle only works for about three hours in here."
Lloyd grumbled and they walked through the silent temple, their steps echoing on the walls.
"What are we doing here, anyway?"
"We're going to do something that will keep them from forming the pact with Shadow too soon." Kratos said and they decended further down.
They were finally in front of the altar.
"Do you want to do the honors?" Kratos asked.
"Huh?"
"Do you want to cast the spell?"
"Me? Do Magic? Of course, I'll do it!" Lloyd called out, getting excited. " .. but how?"
Kratos smirked and got a sword out which was decorated with weird black and purple runes all over the blade.
"Hold this. I'll assist you, since you can't really use magic on your own."
"Why can' t I?"
"Because you aren't of elven or half-elven blood." Kratos said.
"But neither are you. Unless you kept that from me secret as well."
"I don't have elven blood in my veins." Kratos said and gave Lloyd the sword.
"Then how can you use magic?" Lloyd asked.
"I'll tell you that later. Now, this spell will destroy Shadow-"
"WHAT!?"
Kratos calmed him down.
"Not really. It'll just break him apart in several pieces." Kratos explained. "So, they will have to search the other pieces of Shadow, before forming a pact with him."
"Ooooh." Lloyd said and nodded. He stepped up, holding the sword with both hands in front of him. "And what do I do now?"
"Just stay like that and concentrate on breaking Shadow apart." Kratos said. He stepped behind the boy and put his hands as well on the hilt of the sword. "I'll speak the spell .."
Lloyd nodded, closed his eyes and concentrated.
Break Shadow apart ..
Not into millions, but into enough pieces to keep anybody from forming a pact too soon ..
Kratos closed his eyes as well and muttered a spell underneath his breath. It sounded weird and one by one, the runes on the blade started to glow, a spellcircle formed underneath them. A loud rumble came from the altar and the spirit of darkness, Shadow, appeared, glowing weirdly until there was a burst of light - and it got dark again.
Lloyd dared to open his eyes, since everything got silent, and looked around.
".. Where's Shadow?" he asked. Kratos pointed down and Lloyd looked.
There were five pieces of little hooded figure that just bobbed in place.
"Come."
Lloyd flinched and followed the seraph.
"Don't we have to, like, hide them in some places? Won't it help them to form a pact with Shadow quicker, if all the pieces are at the altar?" Lloyd asked, not noticing consciously that he had started to call his friends 'them' as well.
"No, they'll go and move about freely in the temple until they are done with Gnome and come here." Kratos answered. "And now, we will go to Derris Quaran, Yggdrasill wishes to speak to us. Mostly, you."
Lloyd paled.
"I'm not in trouble, am I?"
"No."
"Okay." Lloyd sighed and, once outside the temple, they revealed their wings again and flew to the high tower in the middle of Tethe'alla.
"Wait a minute, Lloyd."
The teenager stopped in his tracks towards the room where Yggdrasill always was. "Hm?"
"We need to change."
"To .. change?" Lloyd asked.
Two angels came in, each carrying a pack of clothes and one was handed to Kratos, the other one to Lloyd.
"Change clothes .. just to see Yggdrasill?" Lloyd asked in disbelief.
"Curtisy. Or so Yggdrasill says." Kratos said, shrugged his shoulders and took off his cloak. Lloyd sighed and started to change as well.
Kratos' Cruxis outfit bore just a tiiiiiny resemblance to a bondage costume, seeing as it was covered with a lot of belts. Lloyd on the other hand had one that looked similiar from the texture and pattern like his father's outfit, but the blue parts were red, the white parts black. And he didn't have so many belts. Only around his arms, legs and two in a crosspattern over his chest.
They entered Yggdrasill's room and bowed onto one knee.
"Ah, Lloyd, Kratos. Good to see you. Especially you, Lloyd." Yggdrasill said and smirked a bit.
"Kratos told me you were expecting to see me, .. Yggdrasill-sama." Lloyd said, still hesitating over the title for the Leader.
"Yes, that is correct." Yggdrasill said and settled back in his throne. "I heard from Kratos that the Chosen and her group have gotten knowledge over the mana links and have started to form pacts with the summon spirits."
Lloyd nodded.
"That's true. Undine from Sylvarant and Volt from Tethe'alla appeared before them, shortly after the parallel pact was formed, telling them about the mana links." Lloyd told him and hesitated a moment and added with an apologetic sound. "They already formed a pact with Celsius."
"And you have already gone to Shadow with Kratos and used a spell to prevent the immediate forming of the pact."
Lloyd flinched and looked at Yggdrasill. How did he know!?
"Y-yes."
Yggdrasill stretched his hand out towards Lloyd, who flinched and took back a bit. The Leader put his hand over Lloyd's cheek and gave it a soft pat.
"Good Work." Yggdrasill said and smiled. Then he turned. "You may leave."
The two seraphim nodded and left.
"Is he a faggot, or what!?" Lloyd yelled, being back in Kratos' chambers. Lloyd as steaming around the big room. "I mean, what else could one think? He freaking touched me! What the heck!?"
"Lloyd!" Kratos snapped and the teenager flinched, shutting up. "I can understand that you may be upset about it."
"Well, 'upset' is the wrong word! I am freaking DISGUSTED!"
Lloyd steamed around a bit more, but finally calmed down.
"But how did he know that we went to Shadow?" Lloyd asked.
"I'm being watched."
"Huh?"
"Yggdrasill has appointed Pronyma as my watcher. She watches me most of the time." Kratos said and Lloyd looked even more confused. "Suicidewatch."
"WHAT!?"
"Well, I did try to commit suicide after Anna was dead and I though I'd lost you as well." Kratos told him calmly. "But Y-"
"Y?"
"I got stopped. And since then Yggdrasill has kept Pronyma keeping tabs on me, so I don't do anything like that." Kratos said. "But why still after all these years? I mean, I've got my son back. I'm not suicidal anymore, anyway."
Lloyd blushed a bit.
He stepped over to Kratos, sitting on the latter's bed, and put his arms around him, resting his head on the seraph's.
"I'm glad that we found each other again, Dad." Lloyd said and Kratos embraced him as well.
They were silent for a while and Lloyd got a random thought in his head.
"How are you able to use magic?" he asked.
Kratos hesitated for a moment and got something out of a shelf. It was a tube filled with a a liquid that was silvern and it glittered. Looking closer at it, there were fine streaks of blue mixed into it.
"And that is ..?"
"Aionis." Kratos said. "It's the legendary material, said to be fake. But there is a huge supply of it on Derris Quaran. Y- .. Mithos, I and a friend of ours, we took it and fused it with our blood shortly after the war. It made us immortal and it henced Mithos' and our friend's ability of using magic. I was given magic as well."
Lloyd inspected the tube even more.
"So, Aionis made you able to use magic?"
"I just said that."
"You fused it with your blood?"
"Yes."
Lloyd's eys sparkled.
"Can I fuse some Aionis with my own blood as well?" he asked.
Kratos flinched and looked surprised at him with his own, noncovered eye.
"It would be SO COOL to use magic! Like Genis' best spells. Like, like .." Lloyd got really into it and struck a pose. " 'Show remorse for your deeds, suckers!' and then the spell would activate!"
Kratos kept silent.
Then he erupted.
"Are you out of your mind, Lloyd Aurion!?"
The teenager jumped three feet into the air and stared at the seraph.
"Do you have any idea what Aionis could do to you!?" Kratos yelled at him. "This thing will change your whole body, and I don't just mean your bloodcirculation! This will change your whole way of thinking, it would change your whole personality! And immortality isn't that great!"
Lloyd's eyes were bigger than soupbowls.
Kratos cleared his throat and looked away embaressed.
"I'm sorry." Kratos sighed.
"No, I should've thought about the consequences of Aionis before losing my head over it." Lloyd said, rubbing his neck. "But why are you so against me using magic?"
"I'm not against you using magic." Kratos said. "It's just that Aionis would make you immortal. You would be stuck in the body of a seventeen-year-old teenager, if you take it now, forever. And I don't want you to become so horrible of a person like I am."
"You're not horrible!" Lloyd said. "You're great! I always looked up to you, even when I didn't know you were my dad! You're strong, you can keep a cool head all the time ... but you aren't happy being stuck in the body of a twenty-eight-year-old?"
Kratos smirked.
"Not really. Although it has it's advantages." he said and put the tube back onto the shelf. He stepped towards the door. "Come on, you should go back to the others or they'll find you out." and he left.
Lloyd sighed and frowned. He looked around and then took the tube with the Aionis in it back out.
A legendary material. With horrible side-effects. Of course, Lloyd could understand that it had to be horrible for a person who should've died a long, long time ago to keep on living, like he was .. stuck in time. But on the other hand, Aionis had the ability to let people, even humans, use magic. If one would look at it from that point of view, it would be a great material.
"Lloyd! Hurry up!"
The teenager flinched and, the tube hidden in his gloved hand, ran out of the chamber to the teleporter.
"Weren't you going to show me how to teleport when I'm here again?" Lloyd asked.
"Not today. When we have more time." Kratos said, smiled and ruffled Lloydy's hair a bit, before the teenager stepped onto the teleporter and vanished.
Lloyd's wings shot out and he flew towards Flanoir, floating a while over the Inn, trying to listen if anybody was moving close to his room or to a window to look out. When he heard no noise, just the calm breathing of sleeping people, he flew slowly to the window of his room and, taking his wings in, stepped slowly and quietly onto the floor.
"Back already, Lloyd?"
Cat-Alin: Ehehe, sorry it took so long ..
Shihna: And why did it take so long this time?
Cat-Alin: I didn't quite know what to do for Gnome and Celsius. And a friend of mine gave me some critique on Kratos' Life the original, german version and I lost interest in it.
Shihna: So you're going to drop the story?
Cat-Alin: Hell no!
Shihna: Rewrite it?
Cat-Alin: Hell no, squared! I'd have to rewrite the whole damn story in english again! No, I'm gonna finish it like I wanted to and then I'll just .. do something. I dunno.
Shihna: So bored with your life that you aren't interested in anything anymore?
Cat-Alin: .. Yes. Now if my Mom would finally see SENSE, then she'd let me have my way and I'd get back interested in life.
Shihna: Pff, yeah, through sex.
Cat-Alin: Whatever you think is so bad about sex ..
Shihna: Well, if you have grown up with a sexcrazed sociopath, maybe then you'd understand me!
Cat-Alin: I do, I really do .. although you still have a soft spot for him.
Shihna: .. EW!
Cat-Alin: Holy camoly, my perverted thoughts are contagious! Yes!! Dear Readers, can I get a review, please?