Hikaru: Oh, Lloyyyyyyyyyyd!
Lloyd: What now?
Hikaru: Pleeeeaaaaaaaase do the disclaimer for me!
Lloyd: Why me?!
Zelos: Cuz I did it last time.
Lloyd: You expect me to do you a favor, after all of the torment you put me through?
Hikaru: I'll bite you if you don't do it.
Kratos: Do the disclaimer Lloyd. She bites pretty hard.
Lloyd: How do you know that?
Zelos: Uh . . .you're better off not knowing . . .
Lloyd: Fine. Hikaru doesn't own ToS, although she's the one who called dibs on my soul . . .
Sora: Hikaruuuuuuuu!
Hikaru: Oh, hi, Sora . . .
Zelos: Is that the guy from Kingdom Hearts that you dumped for Lloyd?
Sora: LLOYD! I'M GONNA KILL YOU FOR STEALING HIKARU FROM MEEEEE!
Lloyd: Uh . . .I NEVER STOLE HER! SHE STOLE ME FROM COLETTE AND VARIOUS OTHER FANGIRLS!
Sora: SAME THING!
Lloyd: RUN!!
"Is he awake?"
"Gah, there are black feathers all over . . ."
"Shut it, Altessa! It's not like it's Lloyd's fault that his wings grew feathers!"
"That may be true, but I still want to know why they did . . ."
"You're hopeless, Raine."
Lloyd felt relieved when he regained consciousness some time later, lying in a bed in Altessa's house once more. He opened his eyes, greeted by the sight of all his friends hovering over the bed he was resting in, as well as glossy ebony feathers littered about the floor. So his wings really did grow feathers, just like in that weird dream with the hourglass . . .
"Lloyd, are you feeling unwell?"
Lloyd heard someone to his right. He turned his head to glance at his father, who was leaning on the bed, using an arm to prop his head up, an unusual sight to behold. Kratos cast a quick glance at the others in the room. They got the hint, all of them leaving the room to the newly reunited father and son.
"Let's leave them alone for a while, Genis," Raine gently said to her little brother, taking his hand while leading him out of the bedroom.
Lloyd rolled on his side to face Kratos, a challenging task due his oversized wings, which were nearly three times his arm length. His angelic father extended out a hand to softly stroke his face, a gentle expression clear in the angel's reddish brown eyes. Lloyd furrowed his brow, appearing to be distressed by something. He dared a look at Kratos, and merely gave a hoarse croak. Kratos recognized the problem immediately, moving his hand to put a finger to Lloyd's lips.
"If you cannot speak, it is futile to try."
Lloyd sighed, devastated by his inability to speak. Being the caring, sensitive father he is, Kratos leaned forward, taking his son in a loving embrace.
"It's going to be all right, Lloyd. Trust me on this one." Kratos said soothingly.
Lloyd returned the embrace, sobbing softly, but the tears wouldn't come.
Zelos watched the two from the hallway, feeling a pang of pity for the angelic duo. The former Chosen fingered an ashy shaded feather vigorously, frustration engulfing him. It was likely that this Raphael guy was either the person to put Lloyd in the Angel Transformation, or at least working in conjunction with whoever is making Lloyd a full angel in both sides. The only way to find out for sure was to find and interrogate Raphael, however, he fled the Tower of Mana long ago, and therefore it was impossible to discover the truth. Impossible, yes, unless Raphael comes after them again on his own, which Zelos doubted.
Kratos finally emerged from the bedroom around half an hour later, appearing extremely harassed. The others flocked to him instantly, eager to ask a multitude of queries. Regal was the first to ask the question everyone wanted the answer to.
"Kratos, how, may I ask, did you return from Derris-Kharlan so quickly?"
"Yes, as far as I can tell, that could only happen with the assistance of the Eternal Sword." Genis added.
Those two questions alone led to a long, dreary explanation of how Kratos used magitechnology to bring Derris-Kharlan into a standstill, and how he knew of Lloyd's Angel Toxicosis.
"I may know of a way to halt the Toxicosis from proceeding any further before we seek out the Mana Fragments." Kratos finished, fully aware that Lloyd was probably drinking in every word he said.
That last statement brought about a series of loud gasps emitted by his comrades. Colette was beside herself.
"Really? How?" She asked, at a loss for words.
"I'd like to know that myself," Raine murmured.
Kratos sighed, exasperated from talking so much.
"As I said before, Cruxis Crystals are modified with magitechnology to prevent them from absorbing both human sides once fused with a host. That magitechnology was lost after the Kharlan War, however, it still exists on Derris-Kharlan, and Lloyd's Crystal started out as an Exsphere, and was never modified."
Presea caught onto what Kratos was saying before anyone else did.
"You're suggesting that we take Lloyd to Derris-Kharlan to modify his Cruxis Crystal before the Toxicosis worsens."
"That is correct." Kratos replied, indifferent.
"But how are we going to go to Derris-Kharlan if Lloyd's too weak to use the Eternal Sword?" Genis automatically countered.
Kratos sighed again, bringing a hand to his forehead.
"Did I forget to mention I also spent the last few weeks on Derris-Kharlan engineering a transporter that will take us there with the combined mana force of but a few angels' Cruxis Crystals?"
It was settled. The following day would be the time they were to journey to Derris-Kharlan.
Kratos left Altessa's at the crack of dawn with only Raine, Sheena, and Zelos accompanying him to Derris-Kharlan for the sake of preserving whatever human senses Lloyd had left. The angel had a bit of difficulty carrying Lloyd to the remains of the Tower of Salvation due to the youth's overgrown wings that were now physically present, and kept flapping in the father's face every now and then. When Sheena questioned how they were going to make it to the Tower on foot, Zelos offered to carry her and Raine with the use of his angel wings, which Sheena politely declined.
"We have little choice in the matter, Sheena." Kratos said, his voice becoming snippy.
Lloyd glanced at his father's face, seeing the obvious apprehension Kratos was trying to hide show through. He tried to talk, then remembered he couldn't do that anymore.
The five of them reached the Tower of Salvation ruins around twenty minutes later, eager to get this over with so they wouldn't have to worry about Lloyd losing his soul or body anymore. Upon reaching the base of the once ostentatious Tower, they happened to notice the seedling of the Giant Kharlan Tree had grown considerably since the last time they glimpsed it. It was now the size of what could be considered a normal tree by their standards. Kratos noticed Lloyd staring at it in awe, simply admiring its beauty. Zelos spotted the spirit Martel sitting at the base of the tree, ready to ward off anyone who might dare to attempt to kill the tree. Sheena loosely wondered how long it would take for the Giant Tree to reach its full potential height; Raine, on the other hand, wanted to study the biological structure of the Tree before both Sheena and Zelos dragged her off to the broken seal room still present in the Tower ruins.
"Kratos, where is this magitechnology we're supposed to use to halt the Toxicosis?" Raine demanded upon arriving in Welgaia.
Kratos did not answer verbally. He merely walked off with Lloyd in his arms, heading for the giant transporter that led to Mithos' castle. Seeing no point in just staying idle in Welgaia, the other three dogged the other angels' footsteps to the long abandoned castle.
Kratos seemed oblivious to the fact that there were people following him as he walked deeper into Mithos' old castle, searching for the one chamber with the magitechnology he currently needed. The angel treaded upon corridor after corridor, until he found the chamber he was searching for. He didn't dare hesitate to go inside, not even to wait for the others. The interior of the chamber was, like every other part of the castle, tinted with varying shades of blue. But Kratos didn't mind that. What he really paid any special heed to was the machine resting in the centre of the room. The mechanism's appearance was very much like that of the machine used to transfer Martel's soul into the Chosen's body when Mithos was still alive. The pod was open, so Kratos took extreme care to place Lloyd within it. His son gave him a quizzical look, waving his ebony angel wings to get his attention. Kratos returned the look with a stern stare.
"Just fold your wings so they do not get caught in the lid." He said hastily.
Lloyd nodded, doing as he was instructed with a little difficulty, since the wings were so large. With one obstacle out of the way, Kratos carefully shut the lid to the pod down, locking it so that Lloyd would not accidentally open it. He sidestepped to the control keypad attached to the side of the machine, swiftly punching in the proper commands to modify the Cruxis Crystal attached to Lloyd's hand. His hand froze, hovering over the keypad as a dagger's blade was put to his throat. Kratos turned his head to his right to look at whoever was holding the weapon. It was not someone he recognized; the person was a woman that looked to be Raine's age. She wore a Mizuho style outfit that was suited for combat, had bright aqua eyes, pale silver hair that appeared white, and had an air of danger about her. Her eyes narrowed a great deal whilst smirking slyly, as if she expected Kratos to come here.
"Who are you?" Kratos demanded, still unmoving.
The woman's smirk grew in length.
"Give me your name, and I shall give you mine."
"Ladies first." Kratos countered.
"I suppose that logic makes sense. Very well. My name is Ino Hinata. I've been waiting for you, Kratos."
What was the point of asking my name if you already knew it? Kratos thought, but didn't say it outright.
At that precise moment, the doorknob to the machine room rattled noisily, accompanied by Raine, Sheena, and Zelos' voices of protest. Unfortunately, there was nothing Kratos could do in the current dire situation. Except for one thing . . .
"Sacred powers, cast your purifying light upon these corrupt souls; rest in peace, sinners! Judgment!" Kratos muttered under his breath, concentrating on the spell.
Ino failed to sense the magic at work, and she ended up being struck by Kratos' magical energy. She fell to the floor, cursing loudly. Kratos took advantage of the moment to continue inputting the code to modify the Cruxis Crystal, but he didn't finish because at that instant, Ino tackled the angel, slamming him against the modification machine. Kratos was sure that if Lloyd could speak, he would have shouted in surprise. The angel focused his attention on the woman that knocked him down; she was casting a spell of her own. Battle instincts clicked online; Kratos willed his blue transparent wings to appear, and flew out of the spell's range. He concentrated another work of magic.
"Spark Wave!"
Ino cried out as a condensed sphere of lightning shocked the wits out of her, and she fell to the floor once more. She grinned, to Kratos' bewilderment. Before the angel could move in for the kill, Ino used her Mizuho techniques to disappear from the room. Kratos didn't mind at all, so he just proceeded in completing the Cruxis Crystal customization command the machine was to use. A few moments passed, and the machine beeped a couple of times, signifying the end of the modification process. Apprehensive from the woman's appearance earlier, Kratos opened the pod containing Lloyd with shaking hands. The Cruxis Crystal on his son's hand glimmered slightly, then its red colouring faded away, only to be replaced with a pale, snowy gray hue. Kratos froze. He nervously held out both his hands to grasp Lloyd by his shoulders. A moment passed before Kratos began to gently shake his son awake. When Lloyd opened his eyes that should have been akin to Kratos' eye colour, his father felt shock rip through his body. Lloyd's eyes were the same, depressing gray colour as his newly modified Cruxis Crystal. Kratos knew what had happened, yet he did not want to believe it.
"Finally!" Raine sighed as Sheena opened the door that was locked previously.
The three of them walked into the chamber. What met their eyes confused them. Kratos was on his knees on the floor, embracing Lloyd closely, black feathers scattered all around them. Sheena cautiously approached the father and son. Kratos looked up weakly at her when she placed a hand on his shoulder. Sheena was unsettled at the fact that Kratos was crying silently, the tears mercilessly flowing down his face.
"Kratos . . .what happened?" Raine asked, quite shaken as well.
Kratos' voice sounded weak, helpless in his reply.
"Lloyd . . .Lloyd lost his soul."
There was a long, unnatural silence that followed the answer.
Hikaru: How was that chapter?
Yuan: It was kind of . . .I don't know, maybe a little too angsty?
Hikaru: Well, this story's genre is gee, I don't know, maybe angst?!
Lloyd: I'm not even gonna say anything about this chapter.
Raine: Are you mad that the authoress deprived you of your soul, sense of touch, voice, and sleep?
Lloyd: Well, duh!
Hikaru: Well, whatever. Read and Review if you wanna know if dear Lloydie lives or not. If you don't review . . .well, just remember, I know where you live.