Crystal Feathers: A Fanfic by Gyppy

Timeline: Based 2 years after 'To Kill An Angel'

Summary: After Niflheim was sealed, Lloyd thought the evils of the world to be dead. The group split up, expecting peace and quiet to reign around the world.

However, they were all in for a big surprise. Two years after Niflheim was sealed, the rising shadow that once concealed the world began to rise again... and now, Lloyd and the others must go on a journey to uncover the cause of the Rising Shadow and seal it away forever.

Pairings: LloydxColette and ZelosxSheena primarily, with some MithosxOC, YggdrasillxPronyma and GenisxPresea. There will also be hints at SelesxOC, YuanxMartel and KratosxRaine.

Author's Note: For the sake of keeping true to the storyline of Rising Shadow, there will be (as probably expected) very few hints at KxR. This is primarily to avoid offending all those random purists out there. I know that most of the purists will end up hating this story because of a few other pairings, but KxR seems to be the most hated of them.

As you all probably know, I'm a big fan of KxR. It's an official pairing in this storyline, though it will be rather rare. This fanfic will mostly focus on the action, though there will be some fluff inserted here and there.

This fanfic is based two years after 'To Kill An Angel', four years after 'Rising Shadow'. Therefore, Lloyd is 21, Colette is 20, Zelos is 26, Sheena is 23, Genis is 16, Presea is 16, Raine is 27, Abyssion is 27, Leviathan is 20, Seles is 18, Allurya is 8 and Karina is 15.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia, Namco, Final Fantasy or Squaresoft/Square-Enix.

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Chapter 1: Treacherous Nightfall

Third-Person P.O.V.

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"Dammit!"

Lloyd's sudden outburst awoke Colette, who had been sleeping peacefully in the bed just seconds before.

"What's wrong, Lloyd?" the blonde angel asked, sitting up.

Lloyd seemed to be deep in concentration. "This is not good..." He suddenly looked at Colette. "I've been feeling this weird mana signature from the southwest quadrant of the Iselia continent. That's far away from the Tower of Destruction's ground, and yet it seems there's incredible amounts of dark mana radiating from there." He fell back into concentration. "And that's not the only one either. There's also one just southeast of Meltokio. It seems as though there's some chaotic work going on down there."

"Why are you still awake?" Colette asked. "Normally you'd have been asleep a long time ago."

"I've been tracking the mana signatures," Lloyd replied. "It's really difficult to do it from here, but combined with the power of the Eternal Sword and my Cruxis Crystal, I've been able to locate the dark mana signatures." He suddenly remembered something. "Think of it as a type of radar."

"What can we do?" Colette asked nervously.

"All we can do is wait until tomorrow," Lloyd replied. "It's currently nighttime in Triet, and that's where the more powerful of the two signatures is coming from. It would be a bad idea to ambush a dark creature of any sort at night."

"Yeah, you're right," Colette said. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Lloyd said. "Just wait until tomorrow, and we'll sort everything out."

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Suddenly, the entire city of Welgaia was caught in a massive earthquake. The city was thrown into chaos as the floating platforms shook, an action caused by the shockwaves from the earthquake. It seemed almost as if the whole of Derris-Kharlan was shaking, but the epicenter was located just beneath Welgaia.

Once the shaking stopped, Mithos exploded out of his bed and started wandering the halls of Vinheim, searching for any possible clues. At the same time, Kratos was patrolling the second floor catwalk and making sure nothing funny entered the structure through the warp.

It was Kratos who first realized the cause of the earthquake. There were two Ktugach and an Adulocia on the first floor of the structure, and they were being led by some mysterious dark-cloaked human. Kratos leaped down, using his wings to stabilize himself on the way down, and came face to face with the cloaked figure.

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"Oh, I see you've become quite accustomed to the cold air of Derris-Kharlan," the human said in a rough, rather unpleasant voice. "You need to learn to endure the warm air of Symphonia before you can defeat me."

"I lived on Symphonia for most of my life as a human," Kratos growled, glaring defiantly at the human. "I'd rather not experience such a foolish attitude from my foe."

"Oh, I see you're a sensible bastard," the human said. "Hard to find those around here these days."

"You're not going to get away with this," Kratos said, anger gleaming in his eyes. "I'm going to tear you to pieces before you can touch any of us!"

The seraph swiftly brought his sword up in a massive upward stroke, leaping into the air. At the peak of his altitude, he aimed the sword down and launched a fireball, which struck the enemy dead-on.

The human flinched, but otherwise had no reaction.

Kratos landed gracefully before his opponent, sword held out in front of him. "If you desire to live, I advise you give up now."

The human merely chuckled. "I don't think you're going to get away with fighting me off." He drew a staff and slammed one end into the ground. "Chaos Pulse!"

The dark shockwave caught Kratos completely off-guard. The seraph reeled, flying into the wall. Seeing his window of opportunity, the human escaped through the warp, leaving the Ktugach and Adulocia behind to fight off the angels.

At that moment, two angel swordians and three angel spearmen floated into the room, along with Mithos.

"What happened?" one of the angels asked, her gaze pointedly on Kratos.

"Vinheim was attacked," Kratos replied. "Some human I couldn't get the name of." He gestured rather annoyedly to the monsters. "And he left these behind."

"They pose no threat," Mithos said. "Just leave it all to me."

Mithos teleported in front of the Adulocia and gave it a massive psionic blast right in its face, knocking it back. Then, he turned and performed Prism Feathers, which took out the first Ktugach.

At that moment, one of the angel spearmen loosed Spark Wave. The spell struck the Adulocia dead-on, bringing it down rather rapidly.

"We can handle this," the first angel swordian said. "Don't worry about it, we have it covered."

And with that, the other angel swordian cast Ice Tornado, finishing off the other Ktugach.

"We have to research this opponent," Kratos said abruptly. "If they have the ability to summon shadow guardians like those, who knows what they could do?"

"We'll figure it out in time," Mithos said. "I'm sure Zelos will be able to get to the bottom of it with his mysterious machinery."

As Mithos and the other angels exited the room, Kratos couldn't help but think, I don't think Zelos will be able to help us here...

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"Whoo, that was pretty rough," Zelos said, shaking his head as if trying to clear an unpleasant thought. "Can't say I've ever experienced a magnitude 9 earthquake here before."

"It was a lot weaker than that," Sheena said. "Probably, at most, a 7. But it was a pretty big one, you're right."

"We just gotta avoid getting into another sticky situation," Zelos said. "Now that I've lost my pact with Verius, I don't think I'll be able to handle the pressure."

"You lost your pact with Verius?" Sheena looked confused.

"Yep," Zelos said. "He only made a pact with me to help me seal Niflheim. The vow was fulfilled, so I lost the pact."

Sheena looked bewildered. "I didn't know that once the vow was fulfilled, you lost the pact..."

"Like I said, it was a temporary one," Zelos said. "Remember, Verius makes pacts with no one. Or at least, not permanent ones. Once he makes a pact, he stays with that summoner until the vow is fulfilled, and then goes back to whatever he's doing. The other Summon Spirits keep their pact with the summoner long after the vow has been fulfilled."

"Oh, thank you," Sheena said. "For a moment there I thought you'd implied I lost the pacts I had with the other Summon Spirits."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Zelos muttered. "Let's hurry up and get back to sleep, will we?"

Sheena muttered something under her breath, clearly annoyed at Zelos' impatience.

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Author's Note: In case you're wondering, they all returned to Vinheim for the time being so that plans could be made for whatever the hell is going on down below.

A little explanation and a little action. And a little radar, as well as seeing the smart side of Lloyd. :P