Hikaru: I don't own anything, though I wish I owned Lloyd. And Kratos. And Noishe.

So . . .he was losing both sides of what made him human . . .what'll go next? Both sides meant . . .he'd eventually go deaf, mute, and . . .and . . .blind. Lloyd shut his eyes, flipping over on his stomach, feeling resentment and anger well up inside him. If he went blind, then . . .that's it. Nothing would be the same, and he would never be able to gaze upon the visage of his beloved friends again. No, he won't accept this. Going deaf would also mean never hearing the reassuring chime of his dear friends' voices, either . . .Damn. It. This whole human and angel thing . . .damn it to hell!

Still carrying the weight of bottled up anger; Lloyd forced himself to sit up again, although his body was just screaming for sleep and rest. Idly, the boy made his unusually large wings appear, which were gently wafting the otherwise still air of Altessa's home. He didn't know why, but he smiled then.

"Damn you . . ."

Lloyd willed his wings to disperse, focusing his mind on more important matters, such as curing his Angel Toxicosis. Though it just might be a punishment, the youth simply refused to sacrifice the voices and sights of his friends.

"Lloyd?"

The boy in question looked up. Professor Raine stood in the doorway, blocking out what little light came to the room.

"Yes, Professor?" Lloyd asked, his student like instincts kicking in.

His half-elven teacher slowly, carefully, walked over to his bedside. Upon studying her face, Lloyd guessed there was something to be said, but she didn't have the courage to say it outright.

"Lloyd . . .There may be a method to cure your illness before the alteration progresses any further." She hesitantly said.

"And?" Lloyd urged.

"But . . .with the Mana Fragments gone, I can only preserve a few of your human senses before we can begin searching for a way to fully remove the Toxicosis. After all, once you become a true angel, nothing will work."

Lloyd nodded, understanding.

"So, you're saying at least one of my human senses has to be intact in order for any healing method to work."

"Yes, unfortunately, the preservation lasts only for so long."

Lloyd was about to say something to the effect of "Don't worry," or "I'm grateful," but the pain of his Angel Toxicosis struck his weak body like lightning, this time more powerfully than previous times. Startled at the sudden surge of pain, Lloyd's mouth opened up and something of a strangled yell escaped him as he sank back into the bed covers.

"Lloyd! Are you all right? Say something!" the Professor urged, panic getting the better of her.

Lloyd couldn't say anything; all he could do was focus on the pain. When it finally subsided, the youth expected to pass out immediately. The phase of periodic unconsciousness never came. The boy lay there in the bed, reality hitting him like a ton of bricks. The alteration was progressing faster than anyone could have predicted. Sleep was now a luxury he can't have anymore.

Among the empty, lifeless floors of Welagaia, a single man dressed in purple clothing stood, destroying what felt like the ten millionth Exsphere. Every time Kratos disposed one Exsphere after another, he had thought it was the final crystal, only to find more in the most unlikely places-in Mana Fragment warehouses, some were jammed in the refreshers, even stashed away in Yuan's spare socks! Thank Martel the socks were clean. The four thousand year old angel made a mental note to ask Yuan about the socks later.

A/N: Kratos went on Derris-Kharlan to dispose of the Exspheres so that no alien race could discover the mass of mana and toy with them. Yes, there is a way to bring dear Daddy back to Symphonia.

Kratos was also worried-about Lloyd. He had been making transmissions to Zelos ever since he left on Derris-Kharlan. Using his four thousand years of machine knowledge, Kratos managed to engineer a system to keep the mass of mana from drifting any further in space. Pinning the mana emitting from the Eternal Sword as a kind of anchoring spot, Kratos used the ancient magitechnology to create an artificial force very much like that of Origin's magic sword. With that force and his angelic prowess, Kratos converted all of Derris-Kharlan's mana into the same mana as that of Symphonia, causing the planet to drift towards the world Lloyd created. Now, this sounds like Derris-Kharlan's going to collide with Symphonia, but Kratos used the force like the Eternal Sword to shift the planet's mana out of phase, causing Derris-Kharlan to come to a standstill.

A/N: Think of it as setting two S-Type and two T-Type Ex skills at once, and the disposing Types reach a standstill. Yeah, it's kind of like that.

As I mentioned before, Kratos had been keeping tabs on Symphonia via transmissions to both Yuan and Zelos every now and then, which was how he learned of Lloyd's Angel Toxicosis, and how his son believed it to be a punishment for pushing Kratos away. The angel knew that forging a Rune Crest was useless, however, the Mana Fragments would surely be of use in any given healing art. He also suspected that something was wrong with his son's own Key Crest. Since the Cruxis Crystal afflicting Lloyd started out as an Exsphere, previous theories dictated that the Crystal should have been fully controlled by the Key Crest, however, if the transformation continues anyhow, and both sides of humanity are lost . . .Kratos shook his head to clear his many thoughts.

The Crystals were engineered with magitechnology so that only one side of a human would be lost in the duration of the alteration. Meaning that an unmodified Cruxis Crystal would take both human sides. And if that held true, then what will happen to Lloyd in the very end if nothing is done? If he loses his soul when the first side of the transformation is absolute, then will Lloyd also lose his body when the second phase is complete?

Kratos recalled that Lloyd had retrieved Colette's soul by making a Key Crest. It's possible that Lloyd's Crest was rendered useless if someone who got close enough to touch him before meddled with it, or if they embedded a second Exsphere or Cruxis Crystal without any kind of Crest in Lloyd's body. The rest of this is just theory. He decided that the sooner he returned to Symphonia, the better. For one thing, Lloyd would have to stop mentally beating himself up. For another, he would be able to help cure his beloved son.

Hikaru: Wow, I never expected anyone to like this story . . .

Lloyd: But your fan club does!

Hikaru: Since when have I had a fan club?!?!

Kratos: Since those seven or so people started praising your story.

Hikaru: Which reminds me . . .I remember the very first time I played ToS, in the Triet desert, right after Colette released the Fire Seal and got wings and crap, after I had Lloyd talk to Kratos, and he said, "Grow strong, Lloyd," all father like and stuff, I thought "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that Kratos was Lloyd's father?" and sweet mother of Martel, I was right. Creepy, huh? Well, anyway, please read and review!