Disclaimer: I (still) do not own the characters of Tales of Symphonia, however much I wish to do so.
Warning: Yes, this fic will contain some more questionable stuff. That's why it's rated 'R'. So if you don't like mentions of sex or slightly offensive language, you're not old enough, or your parents would get you in trouble and kick you off of fanfiction forever if they found this, DO NOT CONTINUE. Thanks... Heh... I'm such a hypocrite.
Pairings: Sheelos, etc.
All right! Back on track... The end is in sight! I especially enjoyed writing this chapter because everything becomes clear. I like making connections when I'm playing the game...
AAHHHH! And while I'm at it, down with Sheeloyds! Come on, my battalion! Write Sheelos and free cookies to all!!
AmaDono: O.o... Wow, you must have some pretty special sugar there. I think I need some. I'm soooo tired... ::ahem:: Thanks for reviewin'! It's all right if you can't think of anything. For a large amount of time, neither could I, so I can't blame ya. And for reference, I don't mind babbling ; )
potter29vo: Thank you soooo much! Was it really emotional? Good. That's the point I'm trying to make. Oh, that makes me so happy! Well now that I've updated, I'd say it's about time for you as well! Let me have a chance to compliment you! Which reminds me, your new Colloyd story is wonderful; I just had no time to review, what with all the updating and such. So, keep going, and so will I! (O! And now that I'm thinking of it, does the title "Dreams In A Mirror" have to do with the illusion she saw in the water of the wedding apparel (that's what that was, right?)? I haven't looked at your reviews since I read it, I swear, so there's no hint I could've gotten and I might even be redundant...)
Taiy-chan: Hey, get me some cookies while you're up... ::ahem:: I mean, thanks for your input! Zelos just may get a heroic streak...
starr: Aww, I hope your writer's block goes away! It's a terrible thing... I like the idea of Aionis-stealing, although their relationship would have to be a little stronger before this point for that to happen. However, it's not going to be that cheesy... I hope. It's a bottomless pit...
Tarauka-Sosuro: Heh heh, sorry for the cliffhangers, but they must happen! Did you really feel for Sheena? I suppose you got more out of that chapter than I did... Anyway, very perceptive with remembering the letter...
jellybeanz225: ::takes back Yuan:: Ha! Well of course I couldn't have everyone fight Zelos. He wouldn't die if they did anyway. I've always kind of resented the fact that they kill him off just because they need a slot for Kratos. 'Cause Kratos doesn't die when you get Zelos. Just... unfair. Eh, that was only my third time beating it, but I'm on a fourth run... I don't have very much time at all. I mean, I won't even get to celebrate my sweet sixteen because of all the studying I'll have to do. Argh. Alas... ToS is progressing slowly, but surely.
Rin: Yay resumed playing! Sorry for the cliff, but you know how things go, even in the game. Zelos should save her? Hm. Okay! Hurrying with the chapters...
Baka-Kitsuneko: Don't go scary fangirl, please! Heh, I know about those stupid zero grav rooms... Yeah, I have never not used a cheat site to get past those. The ice temple I can do, but there's too much in the zero grav rooms... ::sigh:: Well, it's nice to know I'm being hearted! Thank you for your review!
I thank all of my reviewers whole-heartedly for your input... But now, read on to find out how Sheena gets saved!
--Trickssi
Chapter Eleven: Mysterious Handsome Warrior
"One to go," he thought aloud to himself. Everything else was in place; although, he did feel slightly naked without his sword. But he had to hurry now that the others were safe. Down the corridors, warps that only he could unlock now... It was a wonder he could even open them because of the lack of Cruxis Crystal. He desperately needed it back, and the only way to do it was if he hastened his pace. All the more reason to go get Sheena.
Through the door, and then... There it was. The bridge was broken; he knew it would break. That was the plan. Bridge breaks, she falls... until he can get there from all the other traps. The others were easy; Regal had already killed the angels, Raine's platform was set not to fall, Genis's walls were disengaged, Presea's plant was detached... Now all that was left was to get Sheena.
He took a big breath. He really, really hoped Sheena was down there, because otherwise he'd just be plummeting to his own death at a faster rate. But he didn't want to die anymore unless she was gone, too... He let himself jump into the pit, and fell, and fell, and fell...
Sheena meanwhile had regained consciousness and was contemplating how long it would possibly take to reach the bottom, her death. Why wouldn't she just die already? She had never fallen for this long. Her stomach was turning about itself, so much that it hurt. A whole lot. In fact, was that even her stomach? No, it was... Her side was aching in pain. Why now? It only hurt her before when Zelos left the group. Was it a punishment for feeling angry at him? Or, perhaps, something connected to him. It was, after all, his trust.
In the faint glow of the outline of his false wings (which pained him to draw forth because of the absence of his Cruxis crystal), he began to see his surroundings. Undoubtedly an object was falling beneath him. Undoubtedly that object was a person, and that person was Sheena. He made a sudden atypical prayer that he could get to the crystal before it was too late. And hey, if he didn't make it in the end, at least he got to feel her up.
He reached out in closer following distance to locate the exact position of her body. Forward-facing; that was fortunate. Wouldn't scare her as much. Well, maybe.
Sheena could only see the outline of a person in front of her, falling at her exact rate with an orange backlight. Some creature, some person was there, and an arm was extended toward her. She suddenly felt heat forming around her in a secure lock. That arm. It was that person's arm, and the other...? Okay, now that the other had a probing hand. She could feel its fingers violently searching her midsection for something. 'If you're gonna kill me, don't waste time pulling out all my internal organs. If I wanted that I would have committed Seppuku already,' she thought to herself.
It only bothered her in a comedic way until she realized that this person had to have been a Cruxis angel. Wings equal angel, and that was that. She prayed it wasn't a Seraph she knew too well. But—it had to be! With that color to the wings... She struggled, but the arms held her tighter, and now the hand had reached into her obi to seize the trust of the Chosen.
"No!" Sheena cried. They could take her cards, Corrine's bell, anything—just not that orb. "No! Let go of me!"
Despite the added difficulty from her wriggling, he quickly pulled it from her sash and clicked it in place in his key crest.
"NO!" she protested again, so loudly that the modulation in her throat brought forth chokes of emotion. In a glorious display of ginger and rosy colors, his wings leapt forth from his spine as she said this. The wings slowed the pair to an abrupt halt. In the silent standstill she believed she had credibly died. 'My last moment and I was thinking about that stupid Chosen,' she mused.
"Sheena; Sheena, open your eyes!" he urged in a broken voice.
What was this devilry? Not Martel's intonation, surely. Why, it almost sounded like that confounded Chosen. The old adage about "no good deed" came back to mock her in death. Still, she had to wonder what in the ambiguous vortex of fatality would cause her mind to say that. Cautiously she opened her eyes. Her chin over his shoulder, she first spied his red locks. The reflection in that hair with those wings... Indeed, it was a Cruxis angel, but an angel nevertheless; and it was that very misfortunate part about him that had saved her.
"Zelos..." Sheena dug her face into his collarbone. "Oh my god, you idiot, you idiot," she murmured.
"Are you okay?" he asked, ignoring her comment. She nodded stiffly in response. "Thank Martel. I need to get you back to the others as quickly as possible." He kicked off of the wall and jetted upwards toward the nearing light.
"Why are you saving me? Why are you risking this? You've... got Cruxis wings." Sheena observed them as she said this. Brilliant hues had been mixed together to create the tapestry before her eyes. It was heart-wrenching and beautiful at the same time in their loveliness; for out of these wings some human life had to be sacrificed, and some stinging pain endured to obtain them. But she couldn't swear to these wings. She shouldn't have let these tainted wings save her. "And you lousy bastard, I can rescue myself!"
"You would have died."
"Well so had you if I hadn't trusted you enough to bring that Crystal—You're a damned traitor!" she shouted. All of the hate she felt for him, and for Kratos, and for Kuchinawa, all traitors, came cutting like a blade through her articulation.
"It's your trust in me that we didn't die, and it's my trust in you that you didn't fall alone to your death," Zelos reasoned calmly.
"What the—! Don't change the subject!"
"If I really meant what I said I would have kept my Exsphere, run off with that godforsaken Mithos, and let you die," he countered sternly. "But I love this cause; I love Lloyd too much, and I love Colette too much, I l... What... We'll save chit-chatting for later. You just get the hell to Mithos and kick his ass for me, okay?"
The lilting darkness in his voice was enough to convince Sheena to believe. "I... am going to keep trusting you," she vowed. He landed then on the edge of the precipice and gently put her on her feet. She didn't unclasp her arms from him. She embraced him with all the benevolent might that would not suffocate the angel. Sensing his discontent she had to let him go, though the act seemed nearly impossible.
"Use the warp there. I've set it to go to Mithos's room," Zelos instructed rapidly. He lingered for a moment and Sheena could tell in his physical sway that he expected something more from her, some other word to be said. And in that moment his mouth had never before been so lovely as, unsmiling it was, it turned upward in curiosity. She had not realized how close their faces had been until he jerked away suddenly, hoisting himself into the air. "... Letter."
She nodded heavily, not quite understanding his outburst. "Yeah... Wait!" she called after him. It had just occurred to her that he had not answered any questions she had swimming about her mind. "Those wings... they're...? You can't be with Cruxis! You—" Before any crude name could come to her tongue the Chosen was out of sight.
Pausing before the warp point, she... knew. She would have done it, she would have—dared she to think it? But no, it was true. If for one more second he had stayed, if just for a split second, her lips would have met his, and perhaps there would be some understanding. That was what she needed: understanding. So much that had happened in the past—why, it was probably only ten minutes. Why had he betrayed them all if he acted like a knight just now? Was he still with Cruxis; was this some obscure dream? Her wounds were quite real. And, of all things, why would she think to kiss him?
Sheena's judgment was numb. All she could do was to hop into the warp point and hope to reach the battle in time. Zelos was worth a lot, but not enough to miss slaying Mithos.
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"Guys!" Sheena exclaimed in seeing Lloyd's entourage. They returned a few smiles, lighted expressions.
"Sheena, I didn't think you'd make it from your trap," said Genis in disbelief. "At the rate I calculated you to be falling, you should have died! How did you get saved?"
Blushing slightly, she proclaimed, "You're not the only one who's good at calculations."
Raine seemed to sigh in a gesture that would have had the same effect as rolling her eyes. The axe-wielder reacted in the discomfited moment. "The one who saved us was a traitor," she said.
"I know that! Of course he's a traitor. And yes, we did trust him and now we feel collectively duped, but..."
"What do you intend to say?" Regal questioned.
"Heh heh, that he used a rope to get her out of that pit. Not like he's good enough to have the ability to fly," Genis suggested. He was met with a sharp slap from his sister. "Owwww!"
'No, he has wings,' she thought. Tell them he has wings. Tell them about the glorious, rosy, sunsetted wings. She couldn't get them out of her head. Perhaps he meant to show them to only her, or perhaps they only could be shown after he obtained his Cruxis Crystal; but she remembered the haloed outline of them in the freefall. There were so many questions to be answered before an explanation for a single contraction could be revealed.
"Nothing. Let's go help Lloyd," Sheena said finally. Nobody objected, and the group headed for the balcony above Mithos's room. Still, she felt curtailed.
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"Tell me again what's going on."
"I swear, you're like a sieve," Genis commented. "You're saying you don't remember what went on at all?" Sheena nodded in response.
"I shall inform you," Presea said. "Zelos arrived mid-way during our battle with Mithos, and presented aionis to Lloyd, which will allow him to wield the Eternal Sword. He pushed Colette out of the way of a deadly spell of Mithos's, and soon afterward Colette regained her body. She said that Martel's meaning was misconstrued horribly; but Mithos protested and eventually fled to his castle in semi-defeat."
Sheena nodded. "And now we're going to Heimdall so Lloyd can fight Kratos so I can make a pact with Origin," she continued. Presea smiled.
"See, Genis? She isn't like a sieve at all." Genis blushed and lowered his head in defeat. Nothing could get past that girl, not even his comebacks.
"So why is Zelos alone behind us?" the summoner asked abruptly. Genis was caught off-guard, but Presea was speechless. The two glanced back at the lone Rheiard which carried the redhead Chosen as it lamentably drove forward.
"I... still don't really trust him," admitted the boy. "We built all this trust up for him and he just... kind of... betrayed us. I kind of looked up to him for being so good at math. We even taunted Lloyd in stereo once! But... I don't think the trust will ever be rebuilt."
"He came back. Isn't that enough? He brought Lloyd the aionis that will allow him to wield the Eternal Sword. It was all a ruse, it had to be!" she said.
"Well then you go talk to him," Genis suggested caustically.
Sheena shrugged. When it came down to it, she didn't really want to talk to him, either. Disheartening it was; how much she lobbied for his goodness and how she couldn't even bring herself to speak to him. Something empty was still inside her from that moment in which she denied him a kiss. Or rather, denied herself of affection. Mizuho had probably given her the propensity for denial. Who would understand this flurry of thoughts? She had to talk to someone before going to Zelos, like studying for a test. She veered her Rheiard down to the Professor, who had been sharing silence with Duke Bryant.
"Raine, can I talk to you for a second? You don't even have to say anything. Well, actually, it'd help if you did say something, but when I'm done," she proposed in a roundabout manner. Raine grinned.
"Sure, Sheena. Something does appear to be bothering you," she replied. Both of them drove their vehicles slightly to the side to avoid eavesdropping on others' parts.
"Yeah, well... it's... I don't know," blurted the other. "Back at the Tower, when Zelos rescued me, I didn't... I didn't stop him. I mean, I didn't even think of how he was saving me. He has wings, Raine. He has these big rosy-gold..." Her voice trailed off considerably, and she appeared more detached than before in thought.
"You wouldn't think that they do, but they all do in the end," muttered Raine offhandedly.
"Zelos worked for Cruxis the entire time. He didn't just pop out with those wings; he must have had to go through that awful process like Colette. And I didn't feel sorry for him when I saw his wings. I didn't get angry because he had them," she explained. It became clearer to her as she rambled what her problem was. "We were falling, so I guess it was my fear for him that made me not want to be saved. Fear; can you imagine? A ninja, fearing the life of some...!"
In the following reticence Raine placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "You don't have to keep talking about it if you don't want. I think I understand. From what I can surmise, I think I've experienced this before myself."
"No, no, I've got to get this out," Sheena ordered earnestly. "When I saw Zelos's wings, and I tried to think about how he was a traitor, I couldn't. He sort of... placed me on the ground after we got out of that hole; not 'put me down.' And I... I could've slapped him, or pushed him back into it and cussed him out, but... I hugged him." An amused grin appeared on her lips. "And when I finally let go, I looked, really looked at him; and I didn't feel hate because I didn't see hate in his face. I didn't feel sadness. I... came short of feeling, I think. I could have felt something, I could've changed what happened so I could feel. I... I almost... I was so close, I mean, our noses... Heh, I guess Mizuho just taught me to be empty all my life."
"... So you're saying you almost kissed him?" Raine guided in a mysteriously omniscient way.
The summoner blushed faintly. "Yeah, you could say that. And even though I would feel really stupid now if I had (well, I feel stupid now anyway), I think I should have. I was so close to understanding. I don't even think it's him. I think it's human contact."
Raine smiled. "Even so, I think you should discuss it with him. Your mana level's so low you're rambling. This isn't the strong Sheena we know."
"And I still need answers."
"Right."
"I just wish everyone trusted him again," Sheena sighed. "Things would be so much easier."
"I know it will take a long time for me to be trusting toward him again, but I believe your faith in him will lead to everyone else's. There's something almost poetic in it. But at the same time, remember that we are on this quest to save the world and not salvage credibility. Understood?" Raine explicated.
"Uh huh... Yeah, I'll go talk to him. And thanks again for listening," Sheena praised. She began to steer to the edge of the group, but they approached the Ymir Forest all too quickly. She vowed she would talk to Zelos... maybe.
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Just a thought... I guess I'm at the point of no return now, but do you think I would have gotten a larger response had my story been rated PG-13 up until now? 'Cause then it could be in the Sheelos C2 Community. I would sacrifice the point of my experiment so my story would be... y'know... big. Memorable. Down in history. I mean, I can still salvage it to be more appropriate. I think that if I wisely edit the next chapter I could do that... ::shrug:: What do you think?
--Trickssi
PS—R&R always appreciated! I'd like to try to reach 100 by the end of this story...
PPS—Happy Holidays! I told you I'd give you something to read by Xmas.