Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia or any of it characters.
Path of Ascension
Chapter 10
In Welgaia Yggdrasill's most trusted servant Pronyma entered the blonde angel's throne room. "Lord Yggdrasill I have news. It seems that Kratos has caught up to Origin's signal.", said the leader of the Desian Grand Cardinals.
Yggdrasill looked up at her and smiled. "Excellent. It seems that Kratos mayhave been honest with me about not knowing of Origin's escape. I've gotta hand it to Origin, he can be a clever Summon Spirit and very tricky to deal with." He stood up and walked to his servant and asked, "Is there anything else that you have to report?"
Pronyma grinned at her master and nodded. "It would appear that the traitor isn't Kratos, but rather someone else close to you from your old days. Someone that you never would've suspected is trying to take Origin's power and the Eternal Sword away from you."
Cruxis' leader was surrounded by random bolts of electricity alerting all those nearby that he was now very pissed off. He'd suspected for sometime that there might be other traitors hiding within Cruxis and the Desians, especially with how effectively the Renegades were interfering with his plans to revive Martel. "So 'you' have turned against me and Martel. I thought that you loved her...I deal with 'you' personally soon enough. First I need to know just how far the damage stems and then I'll take care of that troublemaker.", the angel thought to himself before giving Pronyma her orders. "Keep an eye on him, but be discreet about it. If he suspects that I've got my eyes on him he'll go into hiding and continue to fight me from there. I want to deal with those Renegades all at once."
"Yes my Lord.", said Pronyma as she left to carryout her orders. In truth she never really liked anyone other than Yggdrasill, so finding such dirt on Yggdrasill's old friends only served her goals of getting closer to the head of Cruxis. The half-elf knew that her master was concealing his true appearance and she knew what it actually looked like. Soon she would be in a position to become an angel herself and she'd have 'her love' too.
Outside of Sybak Yuan and Kratos hovered in the sky while Lloyd and his crew stood below watching the standoff. Neither one seemed to be backing down to the other, but all present knew that in just a few seconds the fighting would begin.
From his position in the sky Kratos could see the Lloyd's group through the peripheral vision and the brunette obviously wasn't happy with the angel's reappearance after his betrayal in the Tower of Salvation. Kratos couldn't blame him for holding resentment against him, but the man was determined that if they would survive this fight and maybe, just maybe he'd get a chance to make amends. "I'm through do Cruxis dirty work and you Yggdrasill, are on your own.", he privately vowed.
Yuan watched his old friend closely for any signs of an attack. He was no fool and knew that Kratos would fight in order to protect Lloyd. "Heh...that boy would be surprised if he knew why Kratos wishes to protect him.", he thought as he tried to sense out Origin's exact location. It dawned on him why he couldn't sense where Origin was currently and it infuriated the blue haired angel. "That Summon Spirit has a setup a dispersal field to hide his location. That's a tricky move since the spirit would have to maintain a physical presence in order to do that. Origin has to be disguised using one of those bodies down there or he's possessed one of them. Now which one would it be?"
Little did either angel know, but Lloyd was passively reading both of their minds. While only doing so passively he could only see exactly what they were thinking about at the time, but that was ok since they couldn't tell that he was reading them. "Yeah, right Yuan. Like I don't already know about Kratos' motivations, but I don't trust him anymoreand will never do so again.", the red clad swordsman thought.
Finally the stalemate came to an end with Yuan striking first releasing a bolt of mana not towards Kratos, but directly at Lloyd. "Lloyd Move!", the mercenary shouted diving towards the young swordsman.
Yuan took the opportunity to get up behind Kratos and bash him in the back of his head. The blow disoriented Kratos enough that he couldn't pull up before crashing into the ground. Lloyd and Sheena were safe because both had jumped out of the way just narrowly avoiding being blasted by Yuan. "Now that he's out of the way...Where is Origin? Or rather which one of you is Origin?", demanded Yuan smiling at Lloyd's group.
"Lloyd...we make abreak for it on three.", whispered Sheena holding two foreign objects in her hand.
Lloyd acknowledged her telepathically and informed Zelos. "Stay close. She's got a plan.", he said. Something inside of the Summon Spirit caused him to look over at Kratos who'd knocked himself out when he plowed into the ground and the swordsman felt a tinge of sadness in his heart. "I can't believe that I still care, even a little bit for him. All that time I spent with him in the past before I got my memory back left a bond, one that I'm not sure that I can overcome."
"HIYAH!", shouted the Ninja as she threw the two spheres towards the blue haired angel. He smiled and made to dodge them, but before he could they exploded covering the area in a thick patch of smoke that rapidly expanded. Sheena laughed to herself hearing Yuan cursing them while shooting blindly into the smoke. "Yeah stupid keep doing that. This smoke was made by my people and it only grows thicker and wider the more mana you use in it.", she thought.
Origin released a burst of concentrated mana to temporarily blind any sensing abilities in the area allowing them to not only escape, but also give them more cover for their escape. "We make one hell of a team Sheena. You've gotta teach me how to make that stuff.", said Lloyd telepathically.
"I agree with you about us being a good team, but I can't teach you to make that smoke. It's an ancient Mizuho secret passed down only to those of my village.", she answered. The ninja also reasoned that Lloyd would probably lose interest in the unique smoke within minute anyway.
After twenty minutes of running this strange party made it to the Grand Tethe'alla bridge. Sheena lifted her hand and pointed, "There's Raine and Genis."
Unfortunately one of the Knights in the rear of the group heard the ninja shout and in turn he shouted, "RAISE THE BRIDGE! NOW!" He smiled as he and his men quickly made it to the other side of the bridge. He looked back expecting the enemies of the 'crown' to be exhausted, but instead he saw them still running towards them. "Damn those fools. Don't they know when to give up?"
Sheena, Lloyd and Colette were almost side by side as they reached the moving section of the bridge. Zelos and Presea had fallen behind and were not likely to make it. Taking action Lloyd turned to Colette's soulless shell knowing that all she could do was obey instructions in her present condition. "Colette grab Presea while I grab Zelos and get her over the gap.", he told her. He really hated doing that because he knew that he was taking advantage of her condition and that thought sickened him.
Colette grabbed Presea and used her wings to carry both of them over the gap. The Summon Spirit had grabbed Zelos and dragged him across as the bridge reaches its height. The two swordsmen fell down the ramp and crashed at the bottom with Lloyd's foot being wedge inside of the Chosen of Tethe'alla's mouth.
The red haired swordsman immediately started trying to pull the rank foot out of his mouth. "Oh Martel! Lloyd man wash your feet once in a while. Uh...I'm never gonna get that horrible taste out of my mouth.", said Zelos as he started spitting as much as he could out of his mouth. "Uh...there isn't mouthwash in either world strong enough to get rid of that stuff."
The leader of this group of Papal Knights growled and then said, "What are you idiots waiting for! Stop them!" A total of sixteen Knights surrounded the group and prepared to fight. Raine and Genis took advantage of the situation and struck their captors while retrieving their weapons. Quickly the two half-elves moved over to their friends for some form of protection.
Raine spook first, "...I'm...I'm surprised that you came to our rescue. Thank you Lloyd"
The slacker student smiled and replied, "Of course I came to help. You're my friends."
"But we're half-elves. We lied to you about what we are.",Genis objected. The small half-elf was glad that Lloyd had and on some level he knew that swordsman held no such prejudices against any race. Still the fear of rejection made both himself and Raine keep up their front. "Unfortunately most people out there are not like Lloyd.", the young half-elf thought sadly.
"So what? You guys were just protecting yourselves the only you knew how...by deception, but that's ok. I understand and I hold nothing against you guys. Regardless of what race you are, you are still my friends and I will protect you.", said Lloyd reminding everyone of just how much of an idealist he is. He really couldn't be mad at them anyways since he was hiding the fact that he is a Summon Spirit and the king of them to boot.
Raine looked proud of her young student, but the smile fade when she saw Zelos. "...And what about the Tethe'alla half of our group? Do you mind if we join up with you again?"
Sheena smiled as she smacked one of the attacking Knights with a card and back flipped to strike another. "You don't have to worry about me. Remember I'm from Mizuho and we're not exactly mainstream either. We're not 'that' different." She struck another Knight while kicking one straight into Zelos.
The Chosen of Tethe'alla caught the Knight with his sword and made quick work of him. "...To tell you the truth, I can't say that I'm really kosher with this.", he said before receiving a glare from Sheena, "Then again, people have always treated me differently, saying that I'm a descendent of angels. So in a way we're a lot alike."
"Smart choice Zelos.", thought Lloyd after having seen the glare himself. He quickly dispatched two more Knights and turned to see something the both surprised and scared the hell out of him.
Presea lifted a giant axe that was her size if not bigger and easily took out three Knights in one swing. She looked at Raine and said in her usual monotone voice, "I...just want to go home." One guy tried to sneak up behind her, but before Raine could shout a warning Presea threw the axe onto her shoulder knocking the Knight out easily and probably cracking his skull open too.
Raine smiled and said, "I see...All right, then. Let's finish these puppets off and get out of here." She then cast a spell to increase everyone of her party's attack strength and healed the wounded. For her group it was mostly small scratches and such, so she really didn't have to heal anyone.
"Stalagmite!", shouted Genis unleashing his magics on two unfortunate Knights. He grinned and finally noticed Sheena again, "By the, what are you doing here Sheena?"
The ninja chuckled and roundhoused two of the armored idiots. "I have orders from my chief. I'm supposed to observe your activities and report back with my findings.", she said confidently. She noticed that all of the Knights had been defeated and starting sulking. "UGH! There are no more? I still the need to vent on something with Zelos around.", she thought eyeing her world's Chosen.
Zelos didn't notice the look he was getting and said, "That's typical of your people. They're trying to decide if they should side with the King or this group from Sylvarant."
They gathered themselves up and just started walking away from the bridge in order to avoid fighting anymore of the Pope's Knights. Genis muttered, "Great, so now we have two people keeping tabs on us." He looked over at Presea and smiled a little bit forgetting about what he'd just said. "She's really cute. Not much of a personality though, but that's ok."
Lloyd butted back in saying, "Yeah, but at least Sheena isn't trying to get in our way or anything."
Raine nodded in agreement. "That's true. We already know that Sheena's an honest person...perhaps to a fault." The professor couldn't help but laugh when she saw Zelos pretending to be emotionally wounded by that comment. "He'll be hurt physically if he sets Sheena off.", she thought deepening her smile.
Lloyd decided their next course of action knowing that they had to get back to Sylvarant. "Now we just need Sheena to form a pact with Volt so that we can get those Rheairds working!", he said.
Sheena stopped walking and shouted in surprise, "VOLT!" The ninja felt the old fear of that Summon Spirit swelling up inside of her making her feel like she was going to choke. She started taking deep breathes to try to relax while she listened to the party's reaction.
Presea looked worried as did Lloyd. "Sheena?", asked Presea hoping to find out what was wrong.
The ninja quickly muttered, "..Ah...nothing. I'm fine."
Zelos jumped in front of the group and cheerfully said, "Then shouldn't we go get the Rheairds first? Either way, Volt's temple is on the other side of the Grand Tethe'alla bridge. It'll be faster if we pick up the Rheairds, since the bridge is closed off right now and is not likely to be opened again anytime soon." He felt proud of himself knowing that he had a good point.
An annoyed Summon Spirit asked, "Pick up? How exactly are you planning on moving those things? They weigh a ton."
If anything Zelos' smiled widened and he said, "Just leave that part to me my friendly country bumpkin. I prepared a secret weapon just in case something like this happened."
Lloyd started entertaining ideas of using all four of his arms to beat Zelos senseless while Genis asked, "What secret weapon? The young half-elf didn't have any confidence in Tethe'alla's chosen and simply brushed him off as someone that would hog all of the credit for another person's work.
Zelos leaned down to Genis and smiled again. "It wouldn't be any fun if I spoiled the surprise! Now let's get going! To the Fooji Mountains!", he said striking a pose pointing his index finger towards the mountains.
Sheena snickered and tapped Zelos on the shoulder. Pointing in the opposite direction she said, "The Fooji Mountains are that way." The ninja always lashed out at Zelos, but at times like this it was nice to have a fool in the group. "He can at least provide some amusement from time to time."
"Right, I knew that.", the red haired swordsman claimed chuckling nervously. He knew that they knew he was lying and he was glad that they didn't call his lie. While the group changed directions he took the opportunity to give Sheena's body a full look over.
Someone walked up next to him and said, "I wouldn't let her catch you doing that if I were you."
Zelos saw Lloyd right next to him. "Oh, don't worry. She's only left me in the hospital a couple...dozen times. I think that last had to do with me groping her.", he said remembering Sheena beating the crap out of him in front of the castle. "It was well worth the pain.", he thought remembering the curves. If the Chosen had looked back at Lloyd he would've seen the brunette giving him a death glare.
Elsewhere Yuan was still fuming over the losing his shot at forming a pact with Origin. "Well I still have one trick up my sleeve.", he thought as he planned his next move. He was determined that Origin would be on his side and he would bring down Yggdrasill's mass conspiracy even if it killed him. A groan nearby attracted his attention. "Well at least I didn't come out of this empty handed. You may still be of use to me yet.", he said looking at the restrained mercenary.