Awakening
"For Good" is from Wicked, and belongs to other people. Some cool bits of this are original, another especially shiny one can be found in the PS2 version of Tales of Symphonia that, for whatever evil reason, you'll need to learn Japanese to play.
Lloyd had to give him credit. Zelos had been outnumbered six-to-one, and with the power of a hi-Exsphere, he had already put the others out of the fight. Regal was slumped, unconscious, against one of the infinitely tall pillars at the centre of the Tower of Salvation, and Presea was alert but too badly hurt to move, not far away from him. Raine barely had the strength left to heal the scorching Hell Pyre had dealt against Genis, and Sheena… had been standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The blast of a spell had hurled her over the edge.
"I can't believe I actually argued with you about whether or not to trust Kratos," said Lloyd, glaring at Wilder with nothing but unrestrained hatred. "You must have been laughing yourself sick the whole time."
"I haven't really been taking this lightly, Lloyd," the Chosen countered. "Which, you might recall, is the whole reason we're fighting. I'm not going to keep getting pulled into these sorts of little wars for the rest of my life just because they want me to be the Chosen instead of my sister."
"You'd shove all this onto your sister?!" the swordsman demanded, rushing Zelos with a high slash and low stab. Zelos bent to the side in his usual gymnastic way, smacked Lloyd in passing with the hilt of his sword, and then hurled him overhead with his shield.
"She wants it!" Zelos insisted.
"I don't think either of you know what she wants," Lloyd growled, rolling easily to his feet. He had the offensive advantage, or at least looked to, with two swords coming in as a constant storm, but Zelos' shield deflected their edges easily, and he only had one blade to control.
He wanted to ask What's that supposed to mean? but it was too much just to keep up with the dual attacks that Lloyd had mastered over their journey. Why hadn't he just killed them in their sleep and dragged Colette here by force? But what Zelos was beginning to fear most of all was that he already knew the answer.
They were his friends. He didn't want them to die if they could be spared. But this was a fight to the finish, him or them… and that meant even Zelos wanted himself to lose, didn't it? Of all the ways to commit suicide, why did it have to be this one he ended up with?
Better than being in one of those spinning coffins, I guess, he thought, and spared a half-second to glance down through the crystal floor at the graveyard helix. Is that something moving down there?
Half a second is a long time when fighting Lloyd.
"Beast!" An azure lion-head burst from Lloyd's Exsphere, and Zelos stumbled backwards from the force, his arms swinging out to the sides. Irving followed with wicked speed, one sword guarding against Zelos' blade and the other stabbing in toward his heart–
Zelos dropped to the floor, strained every muscle he had to deliver a whirling kick that knocked Lloyd to the floor, and then came springing up on the opposite axis. The tip of Zelos' weapon dug into the crystal on the other side of the prone swordsman, its blade hovering over Lloyd's neck like a guillotine.
He hesitated. This wasn't what Zelos wanted to do. It had been pure instinct to save himself, but he didn't even want to be saved! Lloyd was staring into his eyes, realising he was about to die, hating Zelos all the more for prolonging the moment.
A dagger sliced the air and cut into his chest, just beside the Chosen's Key Crest. The combatants looked up at Sheena, standing at the edge of the raised dais, breathing heavily. "Sorry, Lloyd. Lost my ofuda somewhere down there, but it looks like that did the job too. Has someone got spares?"
Sheena… you've killed me… and you're asking for spare spell cards? Zelos toppled backwards and let his sword and shield fall. Staring upwards into the endless tower, he wondered if any injury had ever hurt so much as the two just dealt by Sheena Fujibayashi.
"Zelos…" Lloyd was standing again, and at last he looked like he wasn't sure this was what he wanted, either. "Professor, you've got to heal him!"
"No," Zelos wheezed. Knowing that he didn't have much time left to use what strength remained, Zelos reached to his collarbone and detached his Exsphere from its crest. "Because no matter how much faith I've got in Raine the gorgeous, if it doesn't work and I still die, this thing gets my soul. I'm not taking that risk."
I'm limited…
Just look at me
I'm limited…
And just look at you
You can do all I couldn't do
"Don't say that!" Sheena snapped. "Why did– why did you have to do this?! Of all the stupid…" Zelos realised, in a far-off way, that he had never seen Sheena look so broken. She wasn't too dishevelled from making her way back up to the platform –and leaping up a staircase of dead bodies had to be disturbing– but she seemed to be somewhere between fury, disgust, and tears, all of them fighting to get through deep exhaustion.
"Lloyd, I've tended the others," said Raine. She was obviously trying not to look Zelos' way.
"Go on," the fallen Chosen said. "You still have time to save Colette. She's at the back of the inner chambers, past the ruins of the tree." He choked, and realised it was blood in his lungs. That couldn't mean anything good. "Be careful, plenty of Cruxis' soldiers are in there."
"We can still save you," Lloyd told him.
"No," Zelos stated, and smashed his palm to the floor for emphasis. The Exsphere shattered under his hand, spraying splinters that skittered over the transparent stone. "I'm not going; didn't you hear me? Maybe… like this… Seles can finally be happy. Without me there to mess up her life… maybe they'll let her out of that abbey."
I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led to those
Who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
"…All right," Lloyd said.
"You can't!" Sheena burst out.
"If we don't go now, it will be too late to save Colette," Raine pointed out, but she looked guilty.
"I don't want to leave him," Lloyd went on. "But we can't let Mithos finish what he's doing."
"And I thought you were the one who said there was no meaning in dying," said Sheena, fixing him with an accusing stare.
"Nevertheless, we must respect his wishes," Regal agreed. "And remember what is happening while we delay here."
"Damn right! Now get moving before that circle closes!" Zelos shouted, and felt a trace of blood ride his voice over his lips, to trickle down the side. "…I don't want this to be a waste," he whispered, too quietly for any of them to hear.
He heard them walk up to the transport circle, their steps heavy, but already turning their attention to the next task. "I'm sorry… Zelos," Lloyd said, before power hummed and warped them all away. Hah. Well, maybe that hatred didn't run so deep after all. It would still be a relief to get this joke of a life over with…
More footsteps. Who in Cruxis would come to see a dying man at a time like this? Zelos closed his eyes, preferring to remember that last glimpse of his gathered friends… former friends, rather… over whoever was about to walk across his body.
Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
"It would seem you left this by the door," said a familiar voice, although to Zelos' ears everything sounded like it was happening in another room, and even the darkness behind his eyelids was fading to black unlike anything he had ever known.
In the midst of a void only ever seen by living souls in the deepest, starless space, something went supernova. Zelos' eyes snapped open as he sucked in breath to fill empty lungs, but he could still see nothing but unrelenting light. Something activated the warp circle again, and by the time his vision had cleared, he was alone in the seal room.
Shining like a red star in his Key Crest was the Wilder family's Cruxis Crystal, which hadn't been worn by anyone for sixty years. It wouldn't let him die. The awakening of any Exsphere, especially a Crystal like this one, was achieved by feeding it the wearer's life force, and now it was sharing that energy with him.
He was still weak, but weak was a long way from dead… which was the state everyone on both worlds thought he was in. The way out of the Tower was short and unguarded, and if it was true a Cruxis Crystal could modify a person's appearance… the easy life he had always wanted was right in his grasp. Seles could have the rights of the Chosen, and no one would ever demand anything of him again.
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
Because I knew you
I have been changed for good
Sheena hung from a single root, with another maddeningly stubborn one wrapped around her ankle. "Don't worry!" she told Lloyd. "I won't miss the main event!"
"We have delayed too long already. We must continue with increasing haste," Presea called from the next magic circle. Still afraid for Regal, and now Sheena, Lloyd followed her, and the remainder of the group warped through.
"…I've really got to start acting more feminine at times like this and let him rescue me," Sheena said to no one, as her hand started to slip down the smooth bark. "Ah, that wouldn't be my style, now would it?" She risked kicking at the other grasping tendril, and discovered too late that the shaking of that motion weakened her hold even more.
Falling into the darkness, she tried to meditate, and wondered if she would even feel it when she hit the bottom. In a place like the Tower of Salvation, was there even such a thing as an end to this hole? If it hadn't taken so much of her mana to destroy that last tree sprout, she'd have time to call for Sylph…
So smoothly that she didn't even notice it at first, the freefall turned into rising flight through the humid darkness. Sheena's eyes snapped open, and her first thought was simply that she had turned over in the air, but gravity pulled rather than carrying. And it definitely didn't have arms.
"I am dead," she stated.
"Nope. I'm not your personal heaven or hell," said Zelos. Wings were even better than he had expected, and they were still a stylish gold to complement his hair.
"You're going to have a hard time selling me on the second one," Sheena informed him.
"I did just save you," he noted.
"It's been a strange day for everyone. What about Regal?"
"I couldn't get into the angels' garrison…" Zelos remembered the voice, though he still hadn't seen the one who gave him the Crystal. "…But somehow I don't think he's alone. Let's see if we can catch up with Lloyd."
It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me is made from what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
"I'm supposed to trust you now?!" she demanded. Zelos crested the top of the abyss and let Sheena down onto stable ground. "I don't have a single reason to believe you're doing anything less than weaselling your way into another chance to kill Lloyd."
"Hey, hey, I don't want him dead either. I didn't save you just 'cause you're hot, you know. I've had enough trouble involving spies for about four thousand years. But in case you didn't notice, the reason Lloyd was still around to go on ahead is that I hesitated long enough for you to put that dagger in me." Zelos brought his hand up to tap his chest and realised that he had never remembered to take the blade out.
Apparently Sheena hadn't noticed it either. "Holy–" she began, and covered her mouth with one hand in shock. Tentatively, she reached to pull it out, but Zelos stopped her.
"I'm told sometimes it's better to leave the knife in," he said, as if it were intentional.
"That looks awful…" she mumbled.
"What can I say? You've got good aim, but I was lucky enough not to take it in the heart." Sheena glared at the Chosen, not appreciating the reminder that she had been the one to cause his injury.
"I'm not going to forgive you. I've had enough of betrayal in my life," Sheena said, bringing up a hard and unyielding front again.
Zelos rolled his eyes, wondering if anything was ever good enough for her. "Fine. Don't trust me, don't forgive me, just go help Lloyd. If I know Mithos at all, he'll have all our other friends dealt with by the time anyone gets close to the centre." He knelt by the warp-circle, and unlocked it with his personal mana signature. Sheena didn't step in. "Look, if I wanted you dead, I could have just let you fall."
It was annoying but accurate logic. Sheena ran through, not having the time to think of any other bizarre reasons Zelos might be lying about any of what he said, and in a few seconds, he was alone in the chamber.
He would be no use in a fight, the way he was now, and Zelos had no idea where else members of the group might get caught. It was enough of a miracle he had heard of this tree root, and how it was used as a Tower guard, to make him think there might be a goddess after all.
But coming at the central sanctum from the other side, there were two important places. The chamber of regeneration could bolster natural healing, and somewhere in the mausoleum of the Ancient War Mithos kept… Zelos re-keyed the warp-circle and stepped aboard.
Like a ship blown from its moorings
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a sky-bird
In a distant wood
Letting the bursts of restoring light rain down on him from the chamber's mana-node, Zelos searched through the room that made him wonder again about Yggdrasill's mind. They had seen Welgaia already, filled with cold technology that mirrored the lifelessness of angels, but this mausoleum was like something from an ancient castle.
Armor hung from the walls, old books described the history of the war and heroes of the half-elf race, and in one chest –unlocked with incredible ease, if the opener wore a Cruxis Crystal– he found the prize. It was a substance somewhere between stone and metal, but felt more like water that had been convinced to take a rigid shape.
Zelos had barely closed his fingers around a crystal of Aionis when a glowing blade slipped in quietly under his chin. "And what, precisely, do you intend to do with that?"
He stood. It seemed to be relatively safe, especially when done slowly and with his hands far away from any weapons. "Seems sort of weird for you to save me if you don't think I'm trustworthy."
Kratos looked the Chosen sternly in the eye, and kept his Flamberge up, not far from Zelos' chest. "I don't make choices lightly. I gave you your Cruxis Crystal back. That doesn't mean I'm going to ignore what you do next."
"No, you don't make choices at all, do you?" Zelos countered. "I went out there into the real world and made huge mistakes, but at least I was trying to do something, which is more than I can say for you. Which Seraph are you, the patron saint of apathy?"
"I have learned more than you can ever imagine, Wilder," said Kratos.
"Go to Niflheim, Aurion. Do you even listen to your son?"
"What did you hope to accomplish by forcing your sister to become the Chosen?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself on the whole 'Zelos is going to live' concept. I'm not promising anything right now, including some kind of positive outlook in a world where everyone hates me, probably including the gods. But you know there's no way Lloyd would find this stuff without someone's help."
"And now?" Kratos prompted.
"I'd better deliver it."
"You assume I'll let you leave here unhindered?"
"For Martel's sake, Aurion, why is it that out of the two of us, I'm the untrustworthy one?! You can't even seem to decide if you're on Lloyd's side or Lord Yggy's. Half the time you tell us where we need to go, and the other half you're pretending to fight us to the bitter end."
"You forget that I know the details of all your reports to Cruxis. You haven't been much of a loyal ally yourself," the Seraph responded. "Is this supposed to make up for that?"
If he had ever sincerely hung his head in his entire life, Zelos would have done it right then. Instead, he met Kratos' gaze unflinching, and his eyes narrowed until he resembled a dragon. "No. Maybe nothing ever can. But to hell with the idea of not trying."
"…Very well."
"And I'm just going to trust you too, am I?" Zelos demanded.
"Yes. Because in this time and in this place, we are the same." The angel turned back to look at the warp-circle, ready to take entrants to the chamber of the Great Seed, where Lloyd would be facing unstoppable odds, and no doubt walking into the fight anyway.
"How's he doing?" Zelos asked.
"I left an old sword in the stone-gate, and the others should be making their way to join him. …I see Sheena survived. I didn't know where to look for her."
"I guess I'm just naturally lucky," said the Chosen, with a flat expression that mocked his own words. "Would you like to stop waving that blade around?"
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
Because I knew you
I have been changed for good
The red lion, Leozanium, drove Lloyd back and to the ground, but Presea was ready to come in just behind, slashing at Pronyma with the crescent strikes of Endless Infliction. No one could wield Darkness magic like the leader of the Grand Cardinals, and even Shadow's amethyst ring, glinting on Presea's hand, wasn't enough to deflect the savagery of Dark Sphere.
The battle hadn't taken a decisive turn, but Lloyd knew as he rolled to his feet that as soon as Yggdrasill decided Pronyma couldn't handle them on her own and joined in, they were finished. Zelos hung back, watching from behind a pillar on the upper level. There was no turning back, if he chose to step into that soon-to-be slaughter.
None of them knew he was alive, except Sheena, and she hated him, even if she did get confused about it every once in a while. The girl from Mizuho looked up in the midst of casting Force Seal, and by sheer improbable chance, caught sight of him. Their eyes locked across the room, and he realised she knew exactly what he was thinking. He could let them die if they were stupid enough to take on impossible odds, couldn't he?
No, he couldn't. Damn.
And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for
But then I guess we know there's blame to share
And none of it seems to matter
Anymore
Zelos took a leap of faith right over the balcony's edge, landed behind Pronyma as she called down Acid Rain, and set upon her with a half-dozen flashing sword strokes leading into Victory Light Spear. In his current state, he was too badly hurt to take many hits, and had to put all his effort into unwavering assault.
"Zelos?! What are you doing here?" Lloyd shouted, and then grabbed his side; the exclamation had strained already-injured muscles.
"Ridiculous… even if you survived those wounds…" Pronyma growled.
"If you're about to say I'm on the verge of death, you might as well save your breath. It's not like I don't know," Zelos told her, and immediately attacked with a series of magical skills. Raine and Regal took the hint, and set about healing the others who had been blasted by the Grand Cardinal's Bloody Lance.
As he retracted from stabbing with Super Lightning Blade, Pronyma wove around the electric bolt and swung down to lay the Chosen low with a single gouging strike, and found a fiery sword blocking her path. "Kratos? You fool! You would dare turn against Lord Yggdrasill in his moment of triumph?"
"I will follow the path I have always known to be right," he countered, "and no more avert my eyes in the hopes that the pain he causes may vanish as easily." The angel smiled, and if it was a grim one, it was still the most pleased Zelos had ever seen him. "Either way, I have little interest in aiding your mad quest for power."
"Don't think this will go unpunished, Kratos!" Pronyma dove at him, but her attention was divided by Zelos' presence on her flank, and fending off the two of them was a ridiculous strategy. But if her armor could stand against an injured man's feeble attacks long enough to cast Bloody Lance again…
"Leozanium!" Her attack blew Kratos off his feet, and even after the tumbling ended, he slid for some distance across the smooth floor. Pronyma spun, slicing Zelos across the torso with the hooked ends of her unnatural mantle, and grinned in satisfaction as blood began to run again from the many cuts.
"Heh… c'mon, put up a fight," Zelos taunted her, refusing to stagger, though his blade had been knocked away by the whirling edges.
"You can't possibly be serious," she snarled.
Something made Zelos look back at that moment, in time to see Kratos cast his sword in a high arc toward the Chosen. The Flamberge landed in Zelos' grip, and that gave even Pronyma pause. The weapon of a legendary hero, in the hand of an angel with nothing to lose was not to be dismissed.
But Zelos did have something to lose. He had looked to Kratos many times during the battle, watching for the best way to complement his attacks, but a different one had his attention as golden wings flashed from his back and shining feathers began to rise around the Chosen.
Never before had he been glad to be on the edge of death. Weakness forced him to see the truth, because only the strong can afford to delude themselves. Only the weak could see where their strength came from. In a spiritual sense, Zelos knew that source was Sheena, who was watching him with growing uncertainty.
In a physical sense, it was the Cruxis Crystal and the firebrand, which both brought up new reserves of power when their wielders needed it the most. "I'll show you when I'm being serious," the Chosen informed the last Grand Cardinal. A sky-blue circle burned at her feet, radiating light upward that held her within its bounds. "Divine Judgment!"
Pillars of sacred power rained down within the circle, as indomitable as the deepest heat of the summer sun. They rained until the villain in their circle was driven to the floor, and then it all faded. Zelos smiled faintly at Sheena, whose hesitation had been replaced with concern. "Don't fall for me now," he whispered. "Heh. As if."
Zelos fell to the ground without resistance, and Sheena rushed to his side. "Not again," she pleaded with Lloyd, although pleading from Sheena usually carried a certain threat of consequences if denied.
Lloyd spread his arms helplessly. "We can't spare Raine," he said, knowing that Yggdrasill was sure to turn and fight at any moment.
"You can spare me," Sheena insisted. Lloyd considered it for a moment, and then looked to the other unexpected arrival. Kratos said nothing, just tapped the switch on a useful bit of magitechnology and let the laser-sword's glowing blade extend.
"…All right," Lloyd agreed.
As she pulled him away from the battlefield, Sheena was aware that something was happening with the transfer of Martel's spirit to Colette, something Yggdrasill didn't like. She put it out of her mind, having faith in her friends to handle the situation. At her touch to his face, Zelos' eyes opened a fraction, but he didn't have the energy to form words. Luckily, he didn't need to.
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better
And… because I knew you
Because I knew you
I have been changed for good