Alaia Skyhawk: The hits on this story have passed 1200, with nearly thirty on the last chapter alone! Wow, a lot of people seem to be reading this... but I really wish more of them would review, since it would be nice to get comments from some other people besides my four regular reviewers, no insult intended guys... or should I say gals. Anyway, here's chapter 26 and it's going to be dark, and looooooong.

Now for the disclaimer.

I don't own Tales of Symphonia so please don't sue me. I do however own Krishka, Dallinius (Dalli), Aluran, the Alurannai and any OCs, except Sanaro and Annule, who belong to Mr.Who2123, so please don't steal them...

Enjoy

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Chapter 26: Setback.

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As the smoke rose from the land to the north the companions, rendered silent by their sudden ordeal, simply stared. After a few moments Vayla and Martel moved onto the rear deck of the skimmer and set to work healing the groups' injuries, while Kratos and Yuan checked the skimmer for damage.

"So how bad is it?"

Yuan looked over at Kratos.

"There's some serious damage to the hydrofoils, though the engine and the hull, thankfully, are undamaged. If we take it slow we can make it to land, after that it'll take me a couple of weeks to fix it... The only other damage is a few scratches on the outer hull."

Kratos sighed in relief.

"That's good to hear." He stepped through the entrance hatch out to the rear deck. "Sanaro, we can get going. You'll have to keep it at the lowest cruising speed though; the hydrofoils are unusable right now. As for the rest of you, since we'll be travelling slowly you can stay out here if you want."

Kratos re-entered the cabin followed by Sanaro. A few moments later the skimmer turned and began slowly making its way towards the north.

As the hours crawled by the drifting pall of smoke created an unnatural twilight and finally, through the dim light, they saw the first signs land ahead of them... and gasped as one at the sight... The docks of Ralta, against a backdrop of smouldering and shattered buildings.

The group remained mute as the skimmer slowly approached what was left of the main pier, half of its length having collapsed and fallen into the sea. Only when they had disembarked and the skimmer had been put back into its wingpack, did someone speak. Martel, tears streaming down her face as she held Mithos close, whispered.

"This is horrible, what happened here?"

As Yuan moved to comfort her, Kratos glanced around, with a look of horror in his eyes.

"From what we experienced out at sea, I'd say some kind of bomb was dropped here... but I've never heard of a bomb capable of doing this..." He gestured at the ruins ahead of them and then turned to look at the group. "We'd better search for survivors. We should split up, with a healer in each group... Martel, Yuan, Mithos, Dalli, you check the east side of the city. Vayla, Sanaro, Annule, you check the west side. Noishe and I will check along the north south part of the city. We'll meet back here after sunset. Is everyone ok with that?" Everyone nodded. "Very well, I'll see you then."

Before they set off, Vayla shared out the medicines she carried between the three groups. Once that was done they stepped into what was left of the shattered city...

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The four of them walked down the remnants of a street. They had passed through this city a number of times during their travels and back then this had been a bustling street market, stalls lining the sides of a road packed with tradesmen and shoppers alike. Now... all around them was fallen rubble and crushed stalls, with their wares scattered across the ground to lie amongst the mass of bodies, all of this framed by the roofless warehouses on either side.

Martel, hand over her mouth in horror, held her brother close while Yuan walked alongside with Stormsong unsheathed and ready to protect them. He looked over at her.

"I know this is hard to see, Martel, but we need to keep going. As bad as it looks there must be survivors here somewhere." He walked closer and placed a hand on Mithos' shoulder. None of the group save Sanaro had seen anything like this before and Mithos, like his sister, weren't taking it too well. "Don't you worry either, Mithos; I know this is hurting you too. Think about why we're here and the people who need our help. Let that give you the courage to keep going."

Mithos looked up at him, distressed and with his eyes full of fear.

"I'll... try."

Yuan gave him a reassuring smile.

"That's all anyone can ask for, Mithos."

They continued down the street, checking all who they came across for signs of life. Body after body they passed as the number of dead they found continued to grow. Finally, after searching most of the inner city part of their area, they heard the muffled sound of a child crying. Martel stopped.

"Can you hear where it's coming from, Yuan?"

Yuan pointed.

"It sounds like it's coming from under that rubble."

They dashed over to the ruined building he had indicated, the sound of the crying getting louder the closer they got. There was a child under the rubble. Immediately they began to carefully shift the fallen bricks and support beams, slowly making their way towards the source of the cry. After nearly an hour... and finding five bodies... they at last reached the child.

Yuan carefully lifted the little girl, about six years old, out of the hole. She had been lucky. She must have been right next to the house when the explosion happened. A piece of the wall above her had come down in one piece and wedged itself against the lower wall and the ground creating the small space which had sheltered her from the falling bricks. Yuan passed her to Martel, who began to try and reassure her.

"It's ok, you're safe now. What's your name?"

The girl sniffed as tears flowed down her cheeks, creating tracks in the dust covering her face.

"K-Kara." She looked around. "Where's my mommy? Where's Daddy? And..." She saw the bodies that Yuan had lifted from the rubble and lined up to one side. Her eyes widened. "Mommy!" Yuan, Martel, Mithos and Dalli watched, frozen, as Kara clutched at the body of her dead mother. After a moment she recognised the others. "Daddy! Big sister! Jasa! Little brother!" She collapsed in hysterics and began to scream. "Nooooo! Mommy! Daddy! Don't leave me alone!"

Martel went over to Kara and picked her up. The girl began kicking and screaming, fighting to get back to her dead family...as Martel carried her away...

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It was some time later that they found a makeshift hospital set up by the survivors. As they approached, a man in a dust stained doctor's coat came over to them.

"Are any of you injured?"

Martel shook her head.

"No." She looked down at the child in her arms. After a while, Kara had calmed down and was now asleep. "We found this girl beneath some rubble. Her name is Kara... her family are all dead." Martel choked back a sob. "I-I've healed her injuries... she just needs someone to look after her."

The doctor called a woman over. Martel handed Kara to the woman, who then left, taking Kara to where the other orphans were being housed. The doctor turned back to Martel.

"You said you healed her injuries? ...So you're a Healer?"

Martel nodded.

"Yes, I'll help in any way that I can."

The doctor smiled in relief and thanks.

"Then come with me, there are many who need your help." Before going he looked at Mithos. "Perhaps your... brother?" He looked at Martel who nodded her assent. "Perhaps he would like to go to Kara. It may be easier if there's at least one person she knows nearby when she wakes up."

Martel looked at her brother.

"Mithos, ask Dalli to lead you to Kara. Yuan and I will come and collect you later." Seeing the puzzlement on the doctor's face she explained. "Dalli is a summon spirit. If he's been near a person recently he can lead people to them even if they've moved. So he can show Mithos where Kara is... Now I believe you said there were people in need of healing?"

The doctor snapped out of his puzzled daze and proceeded to lead Yuan and Martel to the medical tents, while Dalli led Mithos to see Kara...

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Sanaro looked round at the destruction. As the son of a merchant he had been here many times, often spending up to a month living in the city on each visit. As he, Vayla and Annule walked among the ruins, he remembered... This was the area where travellers and merchants stayed when visiting the city. Memories of those times flowed through his mind. Memories of sitting with his father, of watching him barter with his fellow merchants and traders. Memories of all the friends he had made back then. Memories of running down the street playing tag, hide and seek and the many other games that all children seemed to know regardless of their race or upbringing... He looked round again... There was none of that now... The only children here were those whose bodies lay in the street along with those of many others of varying race and age. He wondered if any of those he had befriended back then... had survived this...

"All the rumours we've been hearing... This is what the king was afraid of." Sanaro looked at Vayla, who had placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'd best keep moving. We help no one by just standing here."

It was then that Sanaro realised that, caught up in his memories, he had stopped walking.

"Sorry, it's just... seeing this place like this when I spent so much time here as a child."

Vayla looked down at the ground thinking about Alahnsyr, her home burned to the ground, then looked up at him with a sad smile.

"Come on... let's go..."

They resumed their walk down the rubble strewn streets and after a time they found their first survivors. They ran up to the group of people consisting of two women, four men and a young boy of about ten years old. One of the men was hurt, and being helped along by two of the other men. Sanaro took the place of one of the men holding the injured man up and looked at Vayla.

"Vayla, he needs healing."

Vayla quickly cleared a patch of ground and put a blanket on it.

"Lay him down so I can check him over." She began to get medicines out of her ver and then looked up them. "Do any of the rest of you have any serious injuries?" They shook their heads. "Alright then." She began to check the man's leg. He grimaced as she carefully cut the fabric of his trousers and peeled it back revealing the swollen flesh beneath. "Hmmm, it broken and the bones have shifted. This is going to hurt so try to keep still." The man yelled as Vayla tugged sharply on his ankle. She checked it again. "I've set the bones back in place, one more moment and I'll be done." She held her hands over the leg. "Power of life, I call upon thee to ease this soul's pain... First Aid!" Green light surrounded the limb and the swelling visibly went down. The green light also flickered over the various cuts and bruises the man had. Once done, Vayla bound the man's leg to a splint. She looked at him. "I've only healed your leg to the point where the bones have fused so you need to go easy on your leg or it will break again in the same place." She smiled at him. "So no running, ok." As Vayla helped the man up and proceeded to treat the injuries of the other survivors in the group, Sanaro asked them.

"Did any of you see what happened? We were a few miles off the coast so all we saw was a flash of light."

One of the women limped forward.

"There was an aircraft of some sort. It flew high over the city and dropped some kind of large sphere. It took a few minutes for it to reach the city, I lost sight of it behind the rooftops and then there was a huge explosion. It blasted the roofs off of most of the buildings and flattened a lot of others, even more collapsed. Through it all there were rocks and people being thrown through the air... and..." She broke down into sobs. "Why? ...Why did they do this to us?"

Sanaro did his best to comfort the sobbing woman. As soon as Vayla was done treating the others they all continued through the city to search for more survivors...

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Kratos and Noishe clambered over piles of debris that had once been buildings. The two of them had spent an hour searching the ruins before they found a makeshift hospital much like those which were cropping up throughout the wreckage. After three hours healing the wounded the two of them left to investigate the centre of the city, where witnesses from among the survivors said an aircraft had dropped the cause of the explosion. The closer they got to the centre of the city the fewer the number of buildings still standing. Eventually there came a point where everything had been flattened.

Kratos and Noishe continued to stumble over the rubble, trying to see through the dust choked air. A part of the pile they clambered over collapsed sending Kratos tumbling down a slope ahead of them. When he came to a stop he found himself on ground that was curiously clear debris. In fact it was completely smooth. Kratos pulled himself to his feet as Noishe slid down the pile behind him. Then he looked ahead of him... and gasped.

"By the Spirits..."

Everything's... gone...

Noishe and Kratos found themselves looking upon a vast shallow crater. The entire centre of the city had been vaporised leaving only an expanse of bare earth that had pattern of lines, spraying out from the middle, etched into it. Kratos reached out with his senses, trying to learn what had happened here. What he discovered concerned him deeply.

"Humans... how could they be so... foolish?"

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Mithos looked up as Kara stirred, then glanced around, confused at her surroundings.

"It's ok, you're at a survivor camp."

She looked at him, her lower lip trembling.

"My family... I'm all... alone."

She began to cry as Mithos went over to her and cuddled her, while Dalli settled himself in her lap and nuzzled her chin.

"Don't worry, you won't be alone forever. I lost my parents too." She looked up at him surprised as he continued. "So I know how you're feeling right now."

She sobbed.

"Really?"

Mithos nodded, though he didn't tell her that his parents were still alive, but didn't want him. As far as he was concerned, he no longer had parents.

"My sister and I lost ours when I was two years old. Since then we've made a new family for ourselves. My sister got married so I have a big brother now. His name's Yuan, he's the one who was with us when we got you out from under those rocks. Then I have Vayla, Kratos and Sanaro. They're kinda like an aunt and uncles to me. Then there's Noishe and Annule. Noishe is a protozoan and Annule is a vale wolf and they're friends of mine. Lastly there's Dalli." He pointed to the spirit sat in her lap. "He's a summon spirit and he's my partner and best friend. So you see, you may have lost the family you had, but you can still find people who will be a new family to you."

Kara gave a small smile.

"Yeah...?"

Dalli chose that moment to climb out of her lap and walk off. After a moment he can back holding a piece of a broken pole, which he put down in front of Kara. Mithos, seeing Dalli's eager face and wagging tale, chuckled and said.

"He wants to play fetch."

Kara looked at him and giggled. She picked up the pole causing Dalli to go into a bouncing frenzy, and then stood up with a genuinely happy grin on her face as she threw the stick, laughing as Dalli raced after it...

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Kratos and Noishe sat on the docks next to the fire they'd made out of wood collected from the ruins. The wind had come up, finally clearing away the dust and smoke that had veiled the city. Now he sat, deep in thought as he waited for his friends to return. He and Noishe had been waiting for close to an hour before all of their companions arrived. Kratos looked up at them as they approached.

"I've been talking to the runners that have been taking messages between the camps. So far it's reckoned that more than two thirds of the city's population has been killed." They settled themselves around the fire, their faces grim. "The entire centre of the city, roughly a quarter of the city's area, was obliterated. Of the remainder nearly half has been completely flattened. Also I think I can tell you what was dropped on the city." They all looked at him intently. "When I examined the crater I sensed that a huge amount of mana had been released and consumed there. One man who survived was standing on a rooftop and saw the whole sequence of events before the explosion. It seems an aircraft, bearing the crest of Sylvarant, dropped a cluster of about twenty shielded mana crystals onto the city. Like the crystals used in Tethe'alla's Striker, they must have been unstable when kept close together, hence the shielding. The man then stated that he saw the light, that is the shields, surrounding the crystals disappear. It was moments later that they exploded. The mana bomb, for lack of a better description, detonated about sixty feet above the ground, which is why it damaged such a large area. On the plus side, the shields round the crystals must have been incredibly complex to build, and not only that but each crystal must have been paired with it's shield in separate areas then linked to each of the others when the bomb was assembled. That means that it should be months if not years before Sylvarant can have another ready to use."

Martel looked worriedly around at the group.

"But what can we do?"

Kratos looked at her.

"It's simple, we'll have to destroy the plans and all the research data they have on the shields used in the bomb. Leaving them unable to build another"

"But what about..."

He interrupted her.

"Martel, the chances of us getting any more people to listen to us is now next to nil. The people of this city are determined to get revenge. The sequence of events that has occurred could trigger a cycle of revenge attacks lasting for decades, if not centuries... It is like Dareillfin said, it seems this war has progressed past the point where words can stop it. So the first thing we need to do is ensure that Sylvarant can never build another Mana Bomb. What we do after that... we'll just have to wait and see."

Sanaro looked puzzled.

"Wait a minute, you said that the cycle of revenge attacks may last for centuries? If that's true then I could be dead, and Martel, Mithos and Yuan in their old age before this war is stopped."

Kratos sighed, he had made his decision and he knew Vayla would agree with him. He looked at his companions.

"There is a way around that..."

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Alaia Skyhawk: Whew, that was hard to write. I think you all know where Kratos is heading with this. Well I plan to put the next one up tomorrow, since I once again have NOTHING to do. Seriously I need to find a full time job. My part time one leaves me with WAY too much free time. Sometimes I'm so bored that I feel like banging my head off a wall. O-o;

Anyway, I hope you like this, oh and by the way I've also got two new pieces of fanart up. The links are in the fanart section I put part way down my profile. I'd like to know what you think of them. Thanks for reading. See Ya for now.