Sorry about the delay on everything, it's been…difficult, lately…blah.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"He's alive, but he's the only one."
Lloyd looked positively devastated, his eyes dull as he scanned the wreckage.
"If he's the only one alive he's the only one we can help, we need to focus on that right now, Lloyd." Raine said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
She was right, of course. He knew that.
"Things die en masse all the time, I don't know why this one in particular is such a big deal to you." Zelos said, a hand on his hip and a scrutinizing look in his eyes.
Lloyd's hands clenched.
"I- I know, things happen, storms and earthquakes and- and things die. But this- this is- I just-"
"Killing is a part of life."
"This wasn't an act of nature!" Lloyd snapped, turning on heel. "This wasn't a fight over food, this wasn't over resources or- what threat did they possibly have to Cruxis?! Huh!? What could they have possibly done!? There was no reason for them to kill them! None! They only did it because they could! Those- those-!"
He shook, forcing himself to take deep breathes at the look of horror creeping into Zelos' eyes.
But the bastard pushed it.
"Why wasn't it an act of nature? People are just animals too, aren't they?"
"Animals at least kill for a reason!"
"And people don't?" Zelos scowled, his eyes narrowed. "People kill for almost every reason animals do. War? They kill to survive, or they kill to protect someone else, or they kill for a sense of duty, or reward, or territory, food, resources, anything really that you can argue is for their survival. So how come people are the only ones that get a bad rap for it, huh? Nature only survives by victimizing something else."
"…Life survives at the cost of another?" Sheena whispered.
Lloyd twitched, remembering when she had originally spoken those words, about the expsheres in Asgard.
"That may be true, but people are the only ones that try to justify what they have done. They try to make it seem like there was no other choice…" he muttered, frowning. "I-….it doesn't help to talk about it right now, anyway. There's someone that needs help so we have to help them."
"You know what? No." Zelos' eyes narrowed. "Listen mister high and mighty, I'm getting kind of sick of you. You go on and on about how all life and nature is sooooo important but you're so damn quick to blame humans for everything!"
The dual swordsman flinched, staring at the redhead. Raine went to say something but the Chosen cut her off, glaring at Lloyd.
"You know what? If we're so fucking bad why do you bother with us, huh? Why try? I mean we're all just stupid self-destructive little creatures in your eyes so why not get rid of us and be done with it? Why do you care, huh?"
"Of course I care! People's lives are important, people are important! They-"
"But everything is because of us, isn't it?" Zelos sneered, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Everything wrong with the worlds is because of the big bad humans. We're just too stupid to be left alone so you gotta meddle with us, is that it? Well every other creature does the same damn thing, they do what they can to make their lives easy and they don't give a rat's ass what it does to anything else. Why are we so damn special, huh? Why are we so bad?"
"You're not bad!" Lloyd snapped, his frustration clearly showing on his face. "You just- just-"
"Just because a handful off assholes like Yggdrasill fucked the world up doesn't mean we're all evil, you know!" Zelos shouted back, one hand lifting to the hilt of his sword. "it's not our fault! So why are we so damn evil, huh? Answer me, O great spirit of life!"
"You're NOT evil!" Lloyd rose his voice, the wind picking up around them. "And you're not stupid either! You want to know what the difference is?! The difference is people are smart! They're smart enough to realize what they're doing hurts, they're kind enough to care if they hurt something that's not them! People are smart, people are kind, people are- are wonderful, they just don't know how good they are, so they don't realize they can make things better!"
Zelos frowned but backed off, stuffing his hands back in his pockets, eying the spiky-haired young man. The others were watching, silent, hooked on their ignoble leader's words. Lloyd bit his lip and then shook his head, sighing.
"People can be stupid, they can be thoughtless and cruel. But that's because they forget, they forget that everyone has the same heart, they forget that everyone they know can be hurt by what they do, they forget that everything they do has some impact. But then there's people like you." He smiled weakly. "There's people like you who show everything that's good about people; humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves, spirits….you show all the good. You show the courage, the wisdom, the kindness…"
He smiled warmly, his eyes almost shimmering.
"You all are what people really are. Wonderful."
"Lloyd…" Colette said softly, but did not continue on her thought.
"He's waking up." Presea said, drawing all their attention.
The group crowded about the blonde boy as he stirred back into consciousness.
"Are you awake? Are you hurt anywhere?" Raine asked, looking him over.
"Mm, I…think so," the boy sat up, scanning them. "Who are you? Did you guys save me?"
"We did, do you know what happened here?" the professor questioned him.
"I- I don't know, just suddenly angels appeared and attacked the village." He shook his head. "I mean, I think they were angels. They had wings, those with wings are angels right?"
"Cruxis destroyed my village," Presea said quietly.
"Wait a minute, are you a half-elf?" Genis spoke up, staring.
The boy seemed panicked momentarily, but the situation quickly diffused when the Sage siblings told him what they were. Clearly he was wary, but Lloyd didn't really blame him. Like Regal said, he'd been through a lot. Especially today. He seemed willing to trust them for now, at least. Apparently his name was Mithos.
For some reason, that made Lloyd feel…uneasy. That name just seemed to churn his stomach with some emotion he couldn't quite distinguish. Fear? No, not that…anxiety? Possibly; but there was something more than that, there was something almost sad about it. Sad and...irritating.
Lloyd didn't get to mull it over very long, given Altessa and Tabatha made an appearance in the midst of his train of thought. The old dwarf said something about being punished for a failure, then ran off.
"Wait a minute!"
Lloyd dashed forward, but was cut off by Tabatha. The doll did nothing more than tell them Altessa regretted something, then ran off after her master.
"I assume we're going after him?" Raine said, eying him.
"Of course. Let's go. Mithos, right? It's not safe here, you should come with us."
"W-wait, what? But I'm a half-elf."
"That doesn't matter. Besides, what are you going to do if they come back? Let's at least get you somewhere safe." Lloyd said, smiling just a bit in an attempt to comfort the boy.
"I…"
"You can relax, you're safe with us." Raine mustered one of her comforting smiles. "But Lloyd is right, we need to leave."
"Well, if you say so…I guess if I can't trust my own kinsmen I can't trust anyone, right?" the blonde chuckled nervously, eying her then Genis.
"Don't worry, everyone's really nice. We'll be great friends!"
"Friends?"
"Don't worry we're still your friends!"
"Gnome, hush! He's trying to sleep!"
"He is sleeping!"
"That doesn't mean anything if he can't rest mentally. Leave him alone."
Lloyd felt confused a moment then looked around in a haze. Slowly but surely various forms became sharper around him.
"Oh look what you've done, Gnome."
Undine sighed, crossing her arms over her torso and glaring disapprovingly at the Earth Spirit.
"Why are you bothering him anyway?"
"Because he felt bad for forgetting us!" the large hamster whined. "I was trying to make him feel better."
A buzzing sound added to the conversation and Undine scowled, her red eyes locking on the electric sphere.
"You're in no position to be talking, Volt. Your behavior has been- frankly, disappointing the past few centuries."
"Uh- am I dreaming or are you guys actually here?" Lloyd frowned, looking at the three.
"Both, actually." Undine turned to him, a weak smile twisting her lips. "I'm so sorry to disturb you. Gnome claimed he wanted to check on you but he wouldn't shut up."
"Oh- no it's okay," Lloyd smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I uh-…"
His expression saddened and he averted his gaze, frowning.
"I really am sorry though," he mumbled. "For forgetting you. I- I really feel terrible. I mean I don't remember forgetting you but still I-"
"Oh come on, buddy, don't beat yourself up over it." Gnome grinned, putting a fuzzy arm around his shoulders. "It's not like you meant to. I mean yeah we're bummed but you still care so much about us, so…it means a lot."
"…I-"
"Lloyd!"
His sprang upright and groaned, rubbing his head. For some reason he had a splitting headache- and Colette was looking distraught by him.
"W- Colette? What is it?"
"The Professor is gone!" Colette blurted, concern obvious on her face.
"Wait- what?!" Lloyd snapped to attention, looking around.
He followed her out of the clay house and up to the surface where the others had already gathered. They had stayed the night at Altessa's home after a very long discussion the dwarf had initiated. They had learned a lot, but somehow not much at all. There was something about a sword that could alter reality and that seemed familiar, but if it was something he knew at one point, he couldn't remember it. Regal had mentioned something about a 'gate' and Raine had seemed weirdly interested in it. She had taken him aside after and kept trying to pry information from him. None of it rang a bell to him though, for once. Stupid ethereal knowledge came and went as it pleased.
"Does anyone know where she could have gone?"
"I SAW A RHEAIRD HEADING IN THE DIRECTION OF ALTAMIRA THIS MORNING." Tabatha reported.
"Altamira? Well then we know where we're headed." Lloyd nodded. "Come on, let's go after her."
"Can I come along too? I'm worried about Raine." Mithos said.
"Of course you can! Right, Lloyd?" Genis smiled at him.
Lloyd hesitated a moment. His friend clearly was excited to spend some time with the blonde half-elf but he couldn't shake a feeling of unease about him. There was something…off, with Mithos. He couldn't put his finger on it. Though his new senses were still a little shaky, from all he could tell Mithos was exactly what he said. A half-elf boy just a bit older than Genis, nothing really strange. Though he did have a weirdly…concentrated amount of mana. It didn't seem like a lot, really, but it seemed kind of like- like overstuffing a bag. Like there was a lot of something stuffed into container it just barely fit in. It was unnerving.
"Er- yeah, sure. Let him ride with you, ok?"
Sorry this is short after so long. Trying to get into the swing of shorter but more frequent updates.
Review please