A/N: At long last, I return with my second of three odd character studies from ToS. This time, it's The Fugitive, Sheena and Zelos' monster. Hope y'all enjoy.

Disclaimer: I no own ToS. Namco own ToS. Yeh ken?

The Fugitive

I came to be. From the Derris Emblem? Perhaps. But that's not important. For even as I came to exist, I fled. Fled from the Emblem, from Mithos, from everything. But then I stopped. For Mithos stood before me blocking my path. I made for another direction. He was there as well. I tried again and again to flee but always he would halt me. But then I stopped. For he had shown me something. Two people, a man and a woman, of the human race. And I knew who they were. The man was Zelos Wilder, the Chosen of Tethe'alla. And the woman was Sheena Fujibayashi, an emissary of Mizuho and a guardian to the Chosen.

I wondered why he showed me these two, and then he made me know. They were why I had to run; it was from them that my fear and cowardice stemmed. Destroy them, he said, and I would no longer have to run. So I came to be below where they stood alone in Welgaia. I opened beneath them a vortex of dark energy from myself, drawing them down into obliteration. They resisted, and came to a stop, neither gaining nor losing their ground. But then, another came near where I was. A human boy, his name Lloyd Irving, stood near where I lay, not knowing of my presence. He called to them.

Mithos spoke to me again. He was to save them, preserving my fear for all eternity. So I disguised him. Near my location was a small golden figurine of a spider. Through it I shrouded him in the guise of a monster, its ravenous jaws snapping at the two hanging above. But still his voice came through. So then I came to create at the edge of the vortex two illusions. Seles Wilder, the Chosen's sister, came into his vision, taunting him with his sin of cowardice. And before the emissary came Kuchinawa, her former comrade. To her he revealed her sin of abandonment. Lloyd contested, but the illusions assured the captives that it was a ruse of the monster.

All the while, I absorbed their life.

And they began to believe the illusions. They started to let go, to let themselves die. I began to rise from the darkness, as my promise came closer.

But then Lloyd stopped them. His true form shone through for but and instant, and the two captured themselves again. They stopped their resistance to the vortex, and fell down through. In an instant, all of my illusions shattered.

But still Mithos told me, 'Destroy them!'

So I sent to them the spider figurine, and through it I spoke for the first time to them, the truth of myself challenging them:

"I feed off the fear and selfishness that lives in the hearts of men. Will you offer your selfishness unto me?"

With no fear, they stand to me. And so I speak again:

"Fall into dark, pleasant slumber within me…"

And I take them into myself, my existence. Before them, an avatar of myself appears. A crystalline body, flanked by powerful arms. I sally forth against them, my physical force and magical strength battering them. But they resist, striking back with the very same forces I levied against them. And I am overwhelmed.

They climb out of my fading self, leaving me to sink back down into the dark. With my last bit of existence, I leave my last testament upon reality:

"…Light fled into the darkness, and you are now the new light. The coward who fled into darkness has lost his power."

And I sink below the surface, my flight fin…ally…end…ed…

A/N: Thassal. Read and Review!