Life is hectic. Has anyone ever noticed that? But I am trying to stick to at least monthly updates. I'll do my best! Thank you to HyruleHearts1123 and Olirving for reviewing. (You guys rock!) Thanks to everyone who read and didn't review too! And now...on with the show!
Disclamier: Still don't own it.
Quote: Ada moved around to look straight into Colette's lifeless eyes. "Colette…Lloyd will save you. He loves you more than he knows. I hope it's enough to make up for what I've done." Mirror Image, Ch. 6
BR
Vikki rested her palms on the chunk of ivy covered white marble, eyes closed as she used her extended hearing to listen to the sounds of the forest. The birds were silent, but present, revealed by a rustle of a feather or the scrape of a claw. The animals scurried in the underbrush, hiding, never coming out of their holes for more than a moment. Like they were afraid.
Don pulled himself up to the top of what had likely once been a set of stairs and looked out across the forest, what little he could see. The others climbed up behind him to stare at the sight before them. Looking down at his twin, he nudged that strange connection that only twins shared and Vikki looked up at him. He knew what she had observed. Something…someone was in this forest that shouldn't be.
Suki reached the top and stood next to her nephew, her face stony. "These…are the ruins of the Tower of Salvation." She shielded her eyes from the sun and stared at the break in the trees that was uncomfortably close to where they stood. The break interrupted by a large, albeit still young tree emerging at its very center.
Xander saw it to. "There," he said, pointing at the gap. "That clearing…that's it, isn't it?"
"Yggdrasill…" Jon breathed, echoing his own twin's thoughts. "The World Tree. We made it."
"Any sign of…" Akira broke off not sure how to continue.
"I don't see anything," Don said. "The animals in the surrounding area are silent though, can you hear it?"
"They are afraid," Vikki added.
"So…what do we do now?" Hoshi asked. Every looked at Suki.
Suki straightened and set her shoulders squarely. "We head for the tree. Now we will see. Now we will know."
They climbed down and set off slowly through the trees, their footsteps loud in the unnerving quiet. They were oddly jumpy; each twig snapping became an enemy waiting to pounce. They walked for about half an hour before the trees started to thin, unknowing gripping their weapons. As light peeked through directly ahead of them, Suki and Don stopped.
"I sense…" Akira said. "I sense something. It keeps changing…"
The scrape of a sword clearing it's sheathe made them all jump and draw their own w before they realized it was Suki. "Good thinking," she murmured. "Keep them out. Whatever is out there…it knows we are here."
"Are you sure?" Bryant whispered. "Then why hasn't it attacked?"
"It isn't sure if we are a threat…" Vikki and Don said in unison. Everyone looked at the pair of them, who looked equally startled at what they had just said.
"I don't know how we know that," Vikki said. "But we do."
"I'll take point. Jon, Vic, Don, you take my right and left and center. Diamond formation. Akira, Hoshi, hold back, long range. Bryant, Senshi, Xander and Alicia, form a line at our backs." They moved into formation quickly. "Let's go."
Slowly, Suki inched forward, the flame-like blade in her hand steady while inside she was anything but. She felt reassured with her friends at her back, she knew they outnumbered whatever was waiting in that clearing but…is anyone ever ready to charge in like this?
They broke through the trees and Suki was momentarily blinded by the sun as the clouds above shifted. Raising her hand she shaded her eyes and looked towards the base of the tree where a shadowy figure crouched in the shade. She watched with apprehension as the person crouched in the shadows got to his feet. She couldn't make out any of his features, just that he wore dark clothing and was clearly wearing a hooded cloak of some kind, judging by his shadow's shape. At least she assumed it was a man. Suki could feel his eye boring into them, boring into her.
"Wh—?" Her throat was dry as a bone. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Who are you?" She was relieved to hear that her voice didn't shake.
There was silence but for the faint rustling of leaves in the breeze. For a moment she thought he hadn't heard her and started to repeat herself when a his voice echoed clearly across the clearing.
"Give me your name and I shall give you mine."
Anna slammed into the ground hard, her vision going gray despite her willingness to stay conscious.
"ANNA!"
Strong, callused hands lifted her up and brushed the dirt off of her face. She blinked rapidly, regaining her consciousness despite her body's best attempts to pass out into oblivion.
"Kratos…" she struggled to say. "He's alive…"
Kratos nearly dropped his wife, but managed to hold on to her. "How do you know?"
"She spoke with Origin," Yuan guessed. "Origin must know."
Anna gripped the front of Kratos's shirt to steady herself and slid out of his arms, balancing on her own two feet. "Suki…we have to get to Suki." As the world stopped spinning, things started to become clearer and the razor sharp blade of panic she had felt with Origin was returning full force.
"What's happened?" Kratos demanded. "What has happened to Lloyd?"
"He's alive," Anna said, taking a shaky step forward. Her legs held and she grabbed both of her hilt, wings fanning out behind her. "He lives and our children are in grave danger."
"Why?" Zelos asked, his face pale. "Lloyd wouldn't hurt them."
Anna shed the last bit of her wooziness and stood up straight. "We have no time!" she growled. "We have to beat them to the Tree."
"Even flying and with the Reihards, we are a nearly a day of travelling behind them," Raine pointed out "They are either almost there or, more likely, they are there now. We wouldn't make it."
"We have to try!" Anna insisted.
"I agree with Zelos," Genis said firmly. "Lloyd wouldn't hurt them. He wouldn't."
Anna turned and faced the group. "Lloyd wouldn't, if he was entirely himself. You are right in that."
"Then why—?" Sheena began.
Anna clenched the hand that held her Cruxis Crystal. "Mithos would."
A stunned silence fell after this pronouncement. Everyone stared at her in shock, except for Kratos and Yuan. She could see the wheels in their heads turning quickly and she knew they were piecing things together.
"The Cruxis Crystal…" Kratos muttered. "The shards…mixed with his. Of course."
"With Ratatosk's influence…" Yuan added.
"Are any of you making sense yet?" Zelos demanded.
"Mithos's exsphere shards were absorbed into Lloyd's exsphere when it was shattered."
Everyone looked at Colette, who had remained silent until now. Her eyes were wide and the sheen of unshed tears danced in their blue depths. In contrast her face was line with worry and moreover anger. She may not be the smartest person in the group, but even she could put the pieces together. "I'm right, aren't I? Mithos is possessing Lloyd. Just like he possessed me." She looked down at the ground battling the emotions surging through her: relief that Lloyd was alive, hurt that he had abandoned their family, worry for her children, and most of all fury…fury that Lloyd was being used, fury that he friends doubted their children even now, and most of all fury that Mithos was once again trying to destroy everything she held dear. It couldn't stand. She wouldn't let it. She looked back up at the group. "Let's go."
"But—."
"No," Colette said, cutting Sheena off. "We don't have time. Mithos tried to destroy us all once before. We can't let him do it again." She looked at her mother-in-law. "And we especially can't leave Lloyd to ruin the world he created."
Anna nodded once. "Right. Let's go. We'll explain more on the way."
Children. There were children in his sanctuary.
Kill them.
He readied his sword and stepped towards them. The glint of steel and polished wood, and in one case the rustle of paper, revealed the weapons of the young ones that had found him. They had come prepared. He could see it in the way the brown haired girl, clearly the leader, stood brandishing her strange red-orange sword at him.
Flamberge.
He knew that sword. He looked at the girl, who stared at him for a moment, shock etched into her red brown eyes. He knew those eyes. He knew that they were related to that sword.
"It can't be..." She spoke, her voice a fearful whisper. "It can't be you."
Kill her.
He walked slowly towards her, hand flexed as it casually drifted towards his sword. The cold voice whispering in the back of his head had to be obeyed. If it didn't, terrible things would happen. People would die…they would burn. The blue eyed angel would burn.
"Suki." The boy with spiky purple hair and pale indigo eyes held up a small sheet of paper inscribed with strange symbols. "Suki stay back from him. He doesn't seem to hear you." He was not afraid. The boy stared at him, daring him to approach the girl. The urge to protect rolled off of his very essence. The boy loved this garnet eyed girl with the red sword. Suki.
You know what I wish, Suki?
Kill her!
"Calm down Jon," the Suki-girl said, her voice strengthening. "Who are you?" she asked him. "Do you…you know who I am?"
"He knows!" said a harsh voice. "He just won't admit it." The leader briefly looked back at the boy and girl on either side of her. Twins. One garbed in green. One in red. Red with a blue blade. Brown hair. Blue eyes.
The blue eyed angel.
Take the swords. Kill them all.
He stopped walking. The voice had to be obeyed, but the eyes. They eyes of the twins. The girls' so wide and fearful, the boy's bright with anger. He knew those eyes.
I must have the sword.
He winced as the cold, vicious voice shouted out in the deep recesses of his mind. It was so hard to fight it off these days. Every second was a battle to stay himself and after so many years, he didn't know who his true self was anymore. But he knew the voice full of malice wasn't him. It couldn't be. Could it? Why did he need the sword? They were of some significance to the voices in his head. Every voice rang out, urging him to take the blue and red blades in hands. He buried his face in his hands and fought them back, trying to find his own thoughts. But he couldn't.
I MUST HAVE THE SWOR!
He straightened suddenly as cold flooded his brain and trickled down his body. It was happening. He watched as though from above his own body. He dashed at the leader, the girl he knew he should remember. With a blinding rush of speed and a swift blow to the head, he had freed the reddish blade from her hand and sent her to the ground.
Mana spiked in the air and the elements shrieked down around him as some of the children called on magic to aid them. He watched himself dodge, heading for the twins. The blue eyed twins. So afraid. So angry
No. Not them. He mustn't hurt them. For a brief second he gained control and threw himself to the side, at the boy who loved the leader. The voice in his head laughed and his arm gripped Flamberge's hilt tighter. Swiftly, he disarmed the spiky haired young man and what looked to be his two brothers. The half elves followed suit, leaving only the twins.
They were important. The boy and his sister. The girl with reddish eyes. The four half elves, the ninja brothers…they were all important. He didn't want to hurt them.
He stalked forward, closing in on them. The boy shoved his sister behind him and readied his own blade. She peered around her brother, blue eyes wide as she gripped her weapon. She did not want to fight.
No.
The cold voice laughed.
NO!
His arm lifted and swung the sword down. It felt like it all happened in slow motion. As it descended, his vision went dark and the lone memory he had played across his mind's eye. Fire. Smoke. Blood. Screams. Children trapped in a burning school. Men in armor seeking the girl. The blonde girl with angel wings. They wanted her head. They wanted her dead. He wouldn't allow that. She was with child. A child important to him. A child with blue eyes and brown hair. Two children. Blue eyes. Brown hair. Twins. She was going to have twins. And they wanted her dead. He couldn't allow it. He couldn't!
"NO!" he shouted, stopping the blade a mere inch from the young boy's neck. He trembled with the effort of stopping the blade as the evil inside him pounded furiously. He wouldn't allow them to hurt this boy. To hurt any of them. He owed the blonde angel. He owed the mahogany eyed little girl he saw in his dreams, the one who lay yards away, changed by time.
Kill the boy!
"I won't," he said through gritted teeth. He raised one foot the weighed a thousand pounds and took a step backward. He raised the other foot and took another.
Kill him!
"Make me," he challenged.
Kill him!
"I WON'T!" he shouted and he slammed the sword down into the ground, a mere inch away from the young man dressed in red.
Vikki and Don stared at the stranger and at their semi-conscious friends around them. "Who are you?" Vikki asked. "Why didn't you kill us?"
"Who I am is not important," he said. "You two…you belong to the blue-eyed angel…"
Don and Vikki exchanged a look. Could he refer to their mother?
"They do." Suki was back on her feet and staggering towards them She stopped in front of don and grabbed her sword back from the strange man in front of her. "You leave them alone."
"I know you," he said quietly, turning his hooded head toward her. "Your eyes…your sword."
Suki swallowed hard. "You know me?"
"You were…a little girl," he said, straining as the cold voice in his head shrieked. "You cried. The city burned. People…died."
"Yes!" Suki said, excitedly. "It is you. It really is!" Happiness flooded Suki. He was here, the brother she had mourned for most of her life. He was alive and some piece of his brain that was still buried in tragedy remembered her. Something was clearly off about him—the way he changed demeanors so quickly, the way he moved and fought, the fact that he had attacked all of them—but it could be sorted out later. The important fact was that he was alive!
The man reached up and pulled down his hood, erasing Suki's happiness and replacing it with fear.
The man's face was pale and smudged with dirt. His hair was a dirty shoulder length tangle, the color of dirt and dust, shot through with white. For all he was agile and well-muscled, his face still looked drawn and gaunt. However the truly terrifying thing about him was his eyes. They weren't the garnet shade Lloyd shared with his father and sister. They were a deep crimson, almost like blood, as though the brown had leeched out of them.
"Your face…" Suki said in horror. "It can't be. Is that really…?"
Oh it's him," Don snapped. "I know it is. So this is where you have been hiding?" Don shoved Suki out of the way. "You've been sulking here like a coward while we have been through hell!" Don was in the man's face now and Suki could feel the anger pouring off of him. Squinting at the man, he looked more afraid than hostile and Don looked more hostile than afraid.
"No…" Akira muttered, her hands grasping feebly for her dropped sword. "Suki…the mana. Look at him. The mana."
Suki rushed to her friend and helped her sit up. The others stirred, but Akira looked determine to fight her way back to consciousness. Vikki tugged on Don's arm but he pulled away, still snarling at their attacker.
"I know you," Don said. "You're the man who left. The man who kill people. Including someone you once called friend. The one who saddled me with this." Don held up his hand, showing the Cruxis Crystal glinting under his skin.
The man shrank back. "You are yet another victim?"
"I am no victim," Don said.
"Don!" Suki shouted.
"Suki, get Don away from him," Akira said, gripping her sword. "The mana…it twines around that man like a cat. As it drifts away from him it carries that wrongness we feel. And right now Don is absorbing it like a sponge."
"We are looking for our father…and we think we found him." Don growled. "We finally found your hide-out, Lloyd."
"NO!" Akira shouted, surging to her feet with Suki as their foe lunged for Don, his mana signature all but consumed with darkness when it had not been a moment ago. Faster than anyone would have believed possible, they were across the clearing and in between Don and the would-be Lloyd. Akira seized one arm and Suki seized the other without breaking stride. Their opponent felt his feet lift off the ground and he was slammed into the base of the world tree staring into very cold eyes of red-brown and emerald.
Yuan…
"You know me," Akira said, positioning her sword under "Lloyd's" chin. "You recognize this sword, just like you recognize hers." She jerked her head to the side indicating Suki. "Isn't that right?"
The man nodded.
"Do you know who my father is?" Akira asked, letting the memories of her father run through her mind so that she could draw on his tough as nails, calculating persona.
"I can guess," he whispered.
"And you know mine," Suki said adopting her Kratos-like voice. She didn't care who this man was…he would not harm her nephew.
"Obviously."
"Then you know we would have no problem dealing with you." Akira pressed her sword harder, drawing a droplet of blood from his neck.
The man said nothing, just starred at them.
"See that you remember," Akira said, stepping back a bit. "You got the drop on us twice. You won't get it a third time."
The others, who had revived completely and were crowded in close, stared at Akira and Suki in both horror and amazement. They could have sworn they were looking and Kratos and Yuan. It was spooky.
"Now what do we do?" Akira asked Suki. "The mana is being twisted through him. He obviously has no idea who he really is. He wouldn't even show his face at first."
"Hidden underneath the mask…" he muttered.
"And he keeps muttering crazy things," Xander added.
"We need him," Suki said, not lowering her sword. "We need him alive. He's the only one who can help us."
"But will he?" Bryant asked. "It's quite obvious that he doesn't know what is going on. Not fully."
"It's even more obvious that he is being possessed," Alicia said, squinting at the man, trying to decipher his mana signature. It was harder for Bryant and Alicia to see the things their cousins Akira and Hoshi did since their half-elven blood was diluted further by their mother's human blood. Although their parents were both half elves, Akira and Hoshi had enough elven blood to be able to see with relative ease. "There are two forces accompanying him. One is very clear. The other looks very faint, if it is there at all."
"There's a third," Hoshi said quietly. "Almost imperceptible. I only saw it for a moment…"
"Ok…"Suki said firmly. Mind racing. "Ok." She took a deep breath and slowly lowered her sword. Akira kept hers where it was and hissed at Suki "What are you doing?!"
"Look," Suki said to the stranger. "We need your help. We need to know. Are you really Llo—."
"Don't say the name!" the man shouted. Suki stared as he shrank back against the tree. "Don't say the name…it comes back."
"What comes back?" Suki asked.
"The voice…the evil, cold voice comes back…" he shuddered. "He'll attack you. He attacks everyone. You'll die and I can't…"
"You can't help it?" Suki supplied, her voice gentle.
He shook his head violently.
"All right then," she said, her voice calm and reasonable as he continued to look afraid. "What shall we call you then?"
The man looked at her questioningly.
"You need a name," Suki insisted. "We can't just call you 'man.'"
He looked at her for long moment and then tilted his head to one side. "Sei. You can call me Sei."
"There!" Anna shouted pointing in the distance as the World Tree loomed into view.
"Any sign of them?" Zelos asked, squinting through the trees.
"We're not in range yet," Kratos said. He looked at Anna. "I'm going ahead."
"Me too," Anna said.
"And me," Yuan added. "Zelos, Colette, you stay with the others.
Zelos opened his mouth to argue.
"We need two angels left in case the three of us are incapacitated," Yuan pointed out.
Zelos though for a second and closed his mouth again.
"Don't hurt him," Colette said quietly. "Please try not to hurt him."
"We'll do our best," Yuan said.
"Yuan, be careful," Raine said. "And hurry."
"We're right behind you," Sheena added, clutching her Reihard tightly and trying to look brave.
Yuan nodded once and jumped off his Reihard. As he plummeted toward the ground, his wings stretched out into the air and disappeared into the tree line.
Anna met Kratos's eye and a feeling of pure dread passed between the couple. Kratos followed Yuan's descent and after muttering a quick prayer to any listening deities, Anna plunged after them.
"Sei," Suki said. The name was familiar. Why was it familiar? "Why Sei?" she asked.
"It's the only voice that is not in my head," Sei replied.
"This guy is a wack job…" Senshi muttered.
"All right," Suki said, glaring at the young red-head. "Sei it is. We need your help."
"I can't—!" he started to say.
"The blue-eyed angle needs your help." Suki said over his objections. "These are her children." She pointed at Don and Vikki. "I am her niece. We are looking for her husband…their father…and my brother."
"You will not find him," Sei said. "He's gone. Long gone."
Suki's heart beat uncomfortably in her throat. This man…he could be Lloyd…he could be someone else. All she knew was she had to get him away from the tree and she had to find a way to stop their Cruxis Crystals from killing them. He may be able to help if she could coax out some memories. But where to start?
"Sei…" That was Vikki. She approached Sei, looking afraid but determined. Her eyes were kind and she reminded them all strongly of Colette. "Sei please." She crouched next to him and raised her hand, slipping off her glove and showing him the place where the Cruxis Crystal glowed, steadily and more brightly and fully emerged. Suki started. When did that happen? "Do you know what this is?"
"Cruxis Crystal," Sei said. "With no crest. Are you a Chosen?"
"My mom is," Vikki said with a small smile. "The angel, remember? I…inherited this. We all did," she said, gesturing out at her friends. "Except they are hurting us. We don't have the things we need to stop it. Can you help? Do you know what to do?"
Sei said nothing for a very long time, his eyes jumping from face to face. Suki glanced at her bandaged hand and said nothing. Vikki was gentle and kind. She would do better that Suki with her logic and don with his anger. She prayed they weren't wrong. She prayed that this man had an idea…because if he didn't, they may be in trouble.
"Mana Leaf Herb," he said finally. "Zircon. Mana fragment. Unicorn horn. Inhibitor ore."
"We have everything but the mana fragment," Vikki said. "Or rather we can get it…we need the fragment. Where do we find it?"
"The holy city…" Sei said.
"Can you take us there?"
He twitched. "Not without the sword…the sword…I must…" he twitched again more violently and then he rose in one fluid motion like a puppet being yanked up by his strings. Vikki rose too and backed away a few steps.
"Do you mean the Eternal Sword?"Don asked with a sneer. "Great. How can he possibly wield the Eternal Sword? He can't even remember what it is!"
"Don, shut up!" Vikki hissed, eyeing Sei nervously.
Sei stared at Don. "The Eternal Sword…?" He stared at Flamberge and then back at Don. "Yes…eternal. Sword. Ring." He shuddered. "I…I…"
Don looked at Vorpal for a moment, then sheathed it, sneering at Sei.
Sei's eyes flashed and seem to glow with rage. "I. Need. That. SWORD!"
Sei charged yet again and true to Akira's word they were ready this time. Only it wasn't Akira that stopped him. A searing pain, a spurt of rage, and Suki was off again, the second time in two days. Her hand shot out and grabbed Sei by the throat, squeezing hard as rage welled up inside her. She shook him. "You will not harm him!" she shouted. She dug her nails into his neck, dimly aware of what must be happening, but she ignored it. Shouts echoed around her and she ignored those too. Sei strained against her hold but he couldn't break free, no matter how hard he tried.
That is until a black blur shot across the clearing and ripped him from her grasp.
"Grab her!" shouted a new voice.
Hands grabbed Suki, yanking down her arms and pinning them. A pair of arms circled around her keeping her confined. She thrashed, actually lifting her feet up off the ground, trying to escape while she screamed with frustration.
"Anna, I can't hold her!" That was Jon.
"You have to!" Mom. Her mother was here? What did that matter? Sei was going to hurt the people she had vowed to protect!
Suddenly Akira stepped into her frame of view. "Suki, we don't have time for this!"
SLAP!
Suki's eyes watered from the sting of the slap she did not feel and all at once, her anger dissipated. She sagged against the people holding her as she waited for the pain in her hand to signal what she knew had happened, but it never came. She looked down. The crystal had flared and disintegrated her bandage. It was now fully exposed…and she couldn't feel the pain. Glancing up, she looked at the trees as they swayed in the breeze. She closed her eyes, praying to feel the soft kiss of the wind on her face…and felt nothing.
"Suki, what's wrong?" Jon asked, still holding on to her. She stared at the spot where his hands gripped her, willing herself to feel what she had felt before when he held her.
"I can't…" she whispered. "I can't..."
A strangled yell brought her to her senses and she looked toward the base of the World Tree and received yet another shock. Her mother was actually here and she had Sei by the throat. Unlike Jon when he had intervened for Suki before, Anna was not beating him or threatening him with physical violence. She didn't have to. Her eyes said enough. Suki searched her mother's face for some trace of recognition from Sei, but she saw nothing but fury.
Two blurs, one purple, one blue, dropped from the sky next to Anna and straightened. Swords out, Kratos and Yuan pointed them at Sei, their eyes cold and merciless, more so than any of the children had ever seen them.
"Having a bit of fun are we, Yggdrasill?" Anna asked, her voice so calm that it made the others shudder.
Sei coughed his face turning red. "No. Speak not the name. Speak not the name."
"Why?" Anna shook him. "Afraid to be called out for the monster that you are?"
"Anna let go," Kratos warned. "Do not forget whose body he wears."
"He was going to kill my grandson," Anna replied, still calm. "He already stole my son."
"So it's true…" Don breathed. "It really is him."
Yuan turned and faced the children. "What are you doing?" he asked, looking at all of them before his eyes rested on Akira and Hoshi.
"What?" Akira asked.
"Weapons out and at the ready," he barked. "Surround him!"
The children scrambled to do as he bid as Anna drew Sei away from the tree. The others formed a tight circle around the pair.
"Wait," Suki said. "You have it wrong. It's not his fault!"
"Possessed or not he is still a monumental danger," Kratos said.
"I know but listen!" Suki grabbed her father's wrist and pushed his sword down. "One moment. Please just listen to me, for once."
Kratos lowered his bald slightly. "Explain."
Suki blinked at him for a moment. Had things changed so much that her parents were actually taking them seriously for once? Kratos raised an eyebrow and Suki hastened to explain.
"Look, the reports have been consistent. Everyone who enter this clearing has been immediately struck down, correct?"
"That much has been confirmed," Yuan agreed.
"Well we weren't. We entered the clearing and attempted to talk to him." Suki explained what had happened. She knew Sei was dangerous, but she also knew that he wasn't beyond saving.
When she reached the part about Sei resisting whatever was compelling him to kill Don and Vikki, Sei himself spoke up.
"The twins," he said, his voice hoarse. "They belong to the blue-eyed angel. They must not be harmed."
Anna let go.
"So you know the blue eyed-angel?" Anna asked.
Sei nodded. "She mustn't be hurt."
"And the children?"
"They mustn't be hurt," he repeated.
"Every time we mention his name he snaps," Suki said. "This last time he snapped when we mentioned the Eternal Sword." Sei's face darkened and he lunged forward halfway before stopping himself short. Anna grabbed him again, but he had stepped back again. "See? There's some trigger words that turn him hostile."
"And he thinks his name is Sei?" Kratos asked. "How…unpleasant."
"I don't think 'unpleasant' is the word that should immediately come to mind…" Suki pointed out, confused.
Anna actually smiled for a fraction of a second. "Sei was my boyfriend back when I was Adalais Orion."
"Dude…" Xander said. "Kratos is jealous? Who knew that could happen?"
"Well he is a male," Alicia said logically.
"So what do we do with you?" Anna said, staring at the ruin that had at one point been her son.
"We need the Eternal…thingy," Suki said, looking warily at Sei. "And we need to restore him if we can."
"Maybe we can take him with us," Yuan said.
"No," Sei said.
"No?" Anna asked.
"No control," Sei whispered. "I will kill you. You must go before it comes back."
"Before what comes back?" Suki asked gently.
"The mean cold man who lives in my head." He looked at Kratos and Yuan. "He doesn't like you," he said quietly. Sei looked at Yuan and gave him a slight sneer. "I don't like you either."
"We need your help," Anna said, her voice kind, but still slightly cold. "The children are in danger. We need you to…" she sighed heavily. "We need you to remember who you are." She shook her head and muttered something. Suki thought she caught the word "Mufasa," but it made no sense to her.
"He'll come back," Sei said, shaking his head hard.
"The blue eyed angel needs your help," Anna said.
"We need you," Vikki said. "You're our only hope."
Sei looked at Vikki and at Don. Ignoring Vikki's request he focused on her twin. "You…you are angry."
Don glared. "So?"
"Why are you angry?" Sei asked.
"Because you kill people!" Dion cried.
Sei shook his head. "No. Why are you angry?"
"I just told you," Don said, confused.
"At me," Sei said. "Why are you angry at me?"
Don stared at the man, the man who was likely his father somewhere in the fractured recesses of his mind. He stared for a long moment until Vikki gently said his name. Then he looked down.
"I am angry that you left and never came back."
Sei nodded sagely and looked at Anna. "I will help." He stood up straight. "I will help the children. What should I do?"
"Anna," Kratos said. "The others are coming."
The children looked up at the sound of Reihards buzzing overhead. Figures fell from the sky, landing in clouds of dust as Sheena, Raine, Genis, Presea, and Zelos landed in the clearing, weapons out and looking wary.
Sei stiffened. "No…"
"It can't be…" Genis said, staring at the ruin of the man. He looked at Anna and Kratos. "It's not."
Anna nodded.
"Oh no…" Sheena muttered. "Oh no…Zelos!" she looked frantically at her husband. "Go stop Colette! If she sees him like this-!"
"You're too late…" Sei said, his voice a voice low and dangerous. "She's here…"
Every turned and saw Colette standing at the edge of the wood. He chakrams were gripped tightly in her hands, but hung at her side. Her blue eyes were wide as she too stared at Sei. Her face shone with a multitude of emotions: fear, anguish, hope, trepidation…a million things reflected as she searched for a hint of her husband in the man before her.
"It's you…" she said quietly. "It's really you."
Sei shook his head.
Colette swallowed hard. "It is you. No matter what you have become…no matter what happens to you, it's still you. You're still you."
Sei shook his head again harder.
"You said that to me…remember?" Colette walked towards him.
"Stay back!" Sei said. He was twitching again. The others recognized the signs.
"Mom, get back!" Vikki ran to her mother and pushed her back a few steps. "Mom he's not himself…he can't control the shadow of Mithos that he carries with him.
"Get her away from me!" Sei shouted. "Get her away!"
"What's happening?" Genis asked.
"His mana signature is warped," Raine said. "Just like Anna's was when she was stuck between Anna and Ada. He's got Mithos with him and it looks like Mithos is fighting to come out."
"I'm not leaving!" Colette shouted. "Not now. I won't let you go again!"
"GET AWAY!" Sei fell to his knees clutching his head and the parents all shouted out in alarm.
It had happened so many times in the past few minutes that Suki and the others were unafraid and unsurprised when Akira shouted, "Hold him down! Here we go again!"
Suki, Jon, Xander, and Vikki were closest. They flew forward with the same inhuman speed that Akira had shown earlier and grabbed Sei. Sei began to laugh—a cold, merciless, insane laugh that the heroes of regeneration knew all too well.
"Did you think you could protect her?" he shouted, laughing. "Did you think you could outrun me? Did you think you could fight me off?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Zelos said frantically. "What's going on?"
"He's cracked again!" Suki shouted.
"And he's quoting Twilight…"Anna muttered, unaware of what she was really saying, preoccupied by the insanity before her.
"No!" Colette cried. "No, Lloyd, please. Stay with me. Don't give in!"
"You won't get away!" Sei shouted as Alicia, Hoshi, and Don ran to help drag Sei away. "I'll find you. I'll find you wherever you go!"
"We can't hold him!" Suki shouted.
"MOVE!"
A chakram zipped through the air and smashed into Sei's head. Above them the sky boomed with thunder and two lightning bolts struck Sei and the children dead on. Suki felt her hand wrench away from Sei's arms as she flew backward and slammed hard into the ground. She stared up at the blue sky and noted the absence of pain with growing anxiety. She had been threatened, almost killed, beaten up, attacked, lunged at, struck in the head, slapped in the face, and thrown into the air so many times in the past four days that she should be shattered into a million pieces.
The distant shout of her friends and families sounded muffled to her as she stared up the sky contemplating three very important things:
One: Their efforts had not been in vain. They had found her brother. They had found Lloyd. But they hadn't...
Two: Lloyd was being possessed by Mithos and had bound Ratatosk's core to himself, causing the life giving mana from the World Tree to turn against the people who needed it most.
Three: Her Cruxis Crystal had fully formed and was now active.
Suki sighed. "That's the textbook definition of a very bad day."
BR
Broken Reflection...now with plot development! Review and show the plot development some love!
