Hikaru: I do not own anything save plot, my original characters, and relationship development. Oh, yes . . .I also conducted the vote outside of the internet world with my friends and family that knew about Tales of Symphonia . . .and it looks like Sheena won. Here are the standings:
First Place: Sheena Fujibayashi
Second Place: Zelos Wilder (OO) ((YIKES!))
Third Place: Colette
Fourth Place: Raine (OMFG SOMEONE VOTED FOR RAINE!)
But . . .yeah. Miss Sheena won. So, yeah, I'm gonna put the romance sometime between this chapter and next chapter. Oh, yesh, and THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS! If you guys hadn't reviewed, then the story would've been abandoned just like countless others before it. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Kratos gazed at his son's face, tears mercilessly flowing down his normally serious face. Why now? Why Lloyd? Gods above, WHY?!
Lloyd was fighting viciously to keep awake, gasping in the pool of blood he and Kratos were lying in. The father and son were oblivious to the heated battle Zelos and Raphael were engaging in. No matter how many attacks Zelos threw at him, Raphael countered it like it was nothing. As if he just toying with the former Chosen . . .
"Stand still, damn you!" The redhead shouted, casting Explosion.
"I cannot die as of now, however, should you continue to assault me, you just might die tonight." Raphael said, blocking off the spell.
He jumped to another path of light, making signs with both his hands. A spell circle drew itself beneath him, radiating incredible mana and power. Kratos watched Raphael, still embracing Lloyd closely while crouching on his knees. A mere second passed by; Kratos thought it would be his last.
All the shimmering lights guttered and died, enshrouding the four warring people into absolute obscurity. Everything was deathly quiet, if only for a moment or so. The entire Tower shook violently, as if it were caught in an earthquake of large magnitude. Kratos was thrown to one side, but he refused to part ways with Lloyd, although it was pretty hard to maintain a steady grip on him through the sudden quake. The swordsman heard Zelos cry out, accompanied by a loud crushing noise, which made him grimace. Another quake tossed Kratos and Lloyd to the back of the chamber; Kratos flinched when he felt liquid splash on his face and torso, most likely Lloyd's blood. The injured fledgling cried out in pain.
"In the name of the respected Leonazium family, I, Raphael, call upon the destructive power of the earth! Detrimental Devastation!" Raphael chanted from somewhere to Kratos' left.
The earth upon which the Tower of Mana was lying shook so brutally that this time, the supposedly sturdy Tower fell into pieces at that very moment. The ceiling caved in, large chunks of it rained down on Kratos, Lloyd, and Zelos. Unluckily, the absence of light made it nearly inconceivable to dodge all the falling rocks accurately, so they had to rely on their instincts and sense of hearing to avoid being crushed. The shaking temporarily ceased, and just when Kratos let his guard down, the quaking abruptly began anew, this time forcing Lloyd away from him, throwing the juvenile angel somewhere in the dark abyss closing in on all sides.
Kratos desired nothing more than to give himself a deserving beating for being so stupid. It was insanely dark, the Tower of Mana was falling to pieces right when he, Lloyd, and Zelos were scattered quite vulnerably in it, and he had managed to let Lloyd out of his grasp during the third earth tremor. This next quake caused rather big portions of the ceiling to drop down to already severely damaged tiled floor, shattering the four glass light-refracting cubes into countless shards, littering the room, although no one could see exactly where, which only added to the danger. The earthquake currently commencing was tremendous; even Kratos had intermediate difficulty in maintaining proper footing. The seraphim decided to try his luck in locating his son, after all, it was much more than likely that Zelos broke a few ribs or perhaps even his spine, judging from the way he screamed at the sound of the sickening crunching noise previously. Kratos cupped his hands about his mouth.
"Lloyd! Can you hear me?!"
Another chunk of the ceiling crashed somewhere to Kratos' right, making him jump, but just slightly. Lloyd failed to answer his call. Kratos tried again, though he was much louder this time.
"Lloyd! Answer me!"
Still no reply.
"LLOYD!!"
The name echoed in the small, dark chamber, though the godly shaking refused to quell.
"You . . .fucking . . .bitch . . ."
Kratos heard Zelos breath somewhere behind him, gasping to fill his presumably crushed lungs with oxygen. The blue-winged angel spun around to find the orange-winged one, who lay writhing on the floor in immense suffering. Kratos didn't know how he was to locate his fellow angel when his optical senses picked up a flame flickering about weakly, just ahead of him. The seraphim dashed recklessly to Zelos' side; the ex-Chosen's breathing was unsteady, uneven. The light Kratos had seen earlier was contained in Zelos hand; he assumed the redhead used magic to conjure it to gain his attention. The four thousand year old man began tending to the philanderer's wounds immediately.
"Healing Stream!"
Kratos was quite relieved to see that his healing magic was working properly this time around as Zelos' breathing regulated to the point of what was normal for him, and the pain Kratos detected in his occasional groans vanish. Momentarily after being healed, Zelos leapt to his feet, shaking his clenched fist in the intense blackness of the puzzle chamber.
"Raphael! Damn you to hell!"
Almost as if on cue, the violent shaking suddenly ceased to exist, causing the whole room to become unnaturally silent for a few fleeting moments. Kratos stood, alert as a cat in a shoe factory; his breathing momentarily ceased, Zelos mirrored his actions. At last, the lights slowly, almost reluctantly, glimmered weakly, giving off enough light only to see, if not excellently. As soon as he regained the ability to see, Kratos cast his eyes around frantically around the absolutely demolished puzzle chamber until he spied a small tuft of spiky reddish-brown hair sticking up somewhere random. The swordsman flew to his son's side instantly, Zelos following suit.
Lloyd lay on his side, panting for breath. His lower half of his body was pinioned to the floor by a sizable slab of the ceiling that crushed him down during one of the earthquakes, and the pool of blood he was currently lying in was steadily increasing in size. Kratos also took notice of the sudden appearance of Lloyd's overgrown turquoise wings not too long after the disturbing unnatural earth tremors. Why did Lloyd have his wings out when they were unneeded? Pushing the matter of the wings to the very back of his mind, Kratos focused on more important things.
"Zelos, help me shift this off Lloyd." He said, pushing his arms up against the slab from underneath it.
Zelos obliged to help; in just a few short minutes, the two angels freed the fledgling that which they came for of the rock pinning him to the ground.
Kratos never hesitated to scoop his son in his arms, dismissing the ruby blood soaking up his purple outfit. It seemed that either Lloyd fell victim to unconsciousness or he was actually feigning it, but that didn't matter one bit to Kratos. As long as Lloyd was alive, it was enough for him, although seeing his son drenched in his own blood wasn't exactly a pleasant sight, either.
"Gods . . ." Zelos breathed, at a deathly whisper.
Kratos assumed that what bothered Zelos was the abhorrent amount of blood that he and Lloyd were currently sodden in.
"It seems that Raphael fled the building." The blue-winged angel said absent-mindedly, looking about the razed puzzle chamber.
"Doesn't matter! What about Lloyd? Or you, for that matter?" Zelos urgently said, gesturing to the older man's blood-spattered clothing. Kratos shook his head.
"I'm all right. Lloyd is the one about which we should worry."
"But we need the Unicorn Horn to heal him! The only person we know that has one is Raine, but she and the others are back at Altessa's place!" Zelos countered, sheathing his short sword.
A sudden idea struck Kratos' mind like lightning. It probably won't be as effective as the Unicorn Horn, but it might just be enough to stem the flow of blood seeping out of Lloyd's body . . .
"Zelos, I suggest we combine our healing mana to at least stop Lloyd's wound from bleeding, even if we cannot completely heal the injury."
"Of course! Let's do it already!" Zelos very nearly shouted, rubbing his hands together.
Nodding silently, Kratos gently knelt on the floor, so that Lloyd was lying down but was still supported by his knee and arm. Zelos stooped down beside him, readying himself to cast the spell. Kratos lay one hand on the open wound, while Zelos placed both hands overtop his. Silence was absolute for a second or two.
"Healing Stream!" The two angels cried out in unison.
They both winced vaguely at the eruptions of pale, bright blue light flooding over Lloyd's body as he was healed. After the magic subsided, Kratos was glad to see that he had been right-the bleeding had indeed stopped. But even if it did, Kratos realized he would have to have Raine use the Unicorn Horn, for it wouldn't take long for the hemorrhage to start again. He then eyed Zelos doing something silly.
"Zelos, what in the name of the Giant Tree are you doing?"
"Uh . . .good question. Uh . . .passing time by?" The former Chosen replied, grinning lightly.
Zelos had been sticking his hand in and out of Lloyd's wing, fascinated at the fact that his hand flew through the crystalline wings instead of hitting them. He quit, flushing slightly. Kratos sighed heavily, picking up Lloyd once more.
"At any rate, let us go to Altessa's, if Raine and the others are still there."
"But still . . .what did Raphael need those Exsphere shards for . . .?" Zelos murmured thoughtfully, half to himself.
Kratos felt a pang of insight. Now that Zelos mentioned it . . .Raphael did take out the crystal pieces, even if he resorted to violence to do it. What did he need them for, anyway?
"It's of little consequence, aside from Lloyd's injury. But now that those shards are gone, we are able to fully remove his Toxicosis without risking dealing Lloyd serious harm."
"But without Mana Fragments, no cure can be made permanently! And don't forget that someone stole all of Derris-Kharlan's Fragments! How did you get here so quickly from there, anyway?" Zelos retorted.
"That's not important. What's crucial as of now is that we find the others," the older man replied, indifferent.
With that last response, Kratos and Zelos fled the archaic Tower of Mana, taking Lloyd with them.
Despite the late night hour, no one slept after learning of Lloyd's kidnapping. Fearing the worst had they dared to follow Zelos, the group members were scattered about the dwarven home, eagerly awaiting Zelos' return. About half an hour after Zelos fled, it began to rain heavy sheets of water outside. Noishe howled pitifully in the bad weather, terribly missing the only two people he ever loved: Kratos and Lloyd. Sheena was especially worried. She paced the home, muttering vigorously to herself as she paced. Finally, after nearly an hour of pacing about the house, Sheena, unable to contend with the stress building up inside her, stepped outside, in the torrential downpour. Once left to collect her many lonely thoughts in the howling rain, she hugged herself, shivering in the cold.
"LLOYD! ZELOS! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" the ninja screamed into the hollering wind. Her ears perked when she heard a faint responding call. Not long after that, Sheena sighted a few shapes in the foggy rain ahead of her, emerging from the ruins of Ozette. Disbelieving, the shinobi rushed out to meet the newcomers. As she ran forward, the images of Kratos carrying Lloyd and Zelos walking alongside Kratos materialized in the raining mist. The ninja couldn't fail to notice Lloyd's wings out, vaguely shimmering, rather weakly, in the ice-white haze that was the mist.
"Kratos! Zelos! Lloyd!" She gasped upon reaching the three of them.
"Lloyd . . .wake up . . ."
Lloyd awoke, a cold voice echoing all around him. He gasped when he saw where he was. He was laying, quite helplessly, in the bottom bulb of a giant hourglass, the upper bulb chock full of white sand. Outside the hourglass, everything was inanely dark. Lloyd noticed his wings waving gently; and then he noticed it. Beyond the hourglass stood a hooded figure in a black robe that blended well in the intense darkness that surrounded the world afar. The figure was grasping a scythe in one hand, a normal-sized hourglass in the other. Lloyd wanted to scream when he sighted the visage of the unknown's face. It was a gleaming white skeleton. It's voice echoed like the two of them were inside a cavern, while they weren't actually in one.
The skeleton made a swift slicing gesture with its scythe, and almost immediately, the pure white sand contained in the top bulb of the hourglass Lloyd was trapped in began to rapidly pour into the bottom one. Surprisingly, Lloyd found the strength to stand, banging his fists against the glass dome, although it was a futile attempt to escape. The sand grains filled the bulb promptly, hastily engulfing his legs, then his waist, and then up to his neck . . .
Lloyd was finding it more difficult to move about; the sand was overwhelming him. Although he didn't know how it could be related, he glimpsed his turquoise wings develop into ebony, glossy, feathery ones. When, at last, the sand buried him past his mouth, the cloaked skeleton spoke to him.
LLOYD . . .YOUR TIME . . .
Lloyd noticed the hourglass in the skeleton's hand dispensing its sand as well. The living structure of bones spoke again as the last grain of sand fell in the lower bulbs of both his and the giant hourglasses. Lloyd heard it, although the sand completely overcame him, burying him under all the grains of sand.
YOUR TIME . . .HAS RUN OUT . . .
Hikaru: Well? WELL?! How did you all like that chappy?
Lloyd: . . .waitaminute! I get swallowed . . .by sand?!
Zelos: Yep!
Hikaru: Well, if you want to know what happens next, then by all means review! If you don't, I'll send my demons after you all!!!!