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, Mithos is 16 and Karina is 15.

I might introduce more Tales of Destiny 2 characters later on.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Destiny/Tales of Destiny 2, Namco, Final Fantasy or Squaresoft/Square-Enix.

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Chapter 5: Learning of the Shadows

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The air was deathly silent as Lloyd approached the ancient ruin. He had felt the presence of some type of bizarre dark energy near Triet, and he decided to investigate the region, though he knew it was a bad idea to approach the darkness at night.

What he saw was more than a shock. It was completely, thoroughly, totally unexpected... and so dark, it seemed to put even Nebilim himself to shame.

The entire ruin was engulfed in solid darkness. It was like a black hole, absorbing all light even from the stars into it. Something seemed to be at work deep within that ruin, and Lloyd was determined to investigate it.

He cautiously approached the shadow and entered the abyss that lay before him.

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"What is this place?"

Lloyd's voice seemed to echo in a cavern that he had not known to exist before. He was in a cave, a tall and deep one that had very little light except for that which shone through the entrance. It was still nighttime, but the moon was unusually bright. The Eternal Swordsman cautiously advanced, struggling to take each step.

"It seems like I'm in another world," Lloyd whispered to himself as he continued. "I can tell I'm still in Sylvarant, but... there's definitely something different about it. I just can't quite place my finger on it..."

"So it wasn't just me." Lloyd turned at the unexpected voice and saw that Judas had apprently followed him in. "This place is creepy... if I could find a better word to describe it, I would. I think something's amiss."

"No duh," Lloyd muttered dryly. "It's gonna be a long time before we can figure out what's going on."

"You're pretty conspicuous in here," Judas said. "If we encounter some kind of light source, you're gonna have to be careful. I'll go out ahead and scout."

Lloyd nodded, and allowed Judas to pass in front of him. The two walked like this for some time, until they came upon what seemed like a door in a sheet of ice.

"What's this?" Lloyd's curiosity overtook his actions, and he reached over to open the door.

"It just looks like empty cave," Judas said, watching the door open. "But... there's something beyond that door that just isn't the same as the rest of the cave." He carefully drew his shortsword. "Let's be careful. You never know when something bad is going to happen."

"You're right," Lloyd whispered back. "You watch out for yourself. I'm going in."

Upon entering the space beyond the door, Lloyd felt like he had entered another world entirely. He now seemed to be in a ruin, much like the Triet temple ruin where Efreet rested, but it was a lot different... much lighter in color, and with no lava seeping through the crevices in the walls and flowing through the gaping holes in the floor.

One more thing he noticed was that the Flamberge was reacting very strongly to this place. He glanced down at the sword and whispered words of reassurance, even though he knew that the sword wasn't a living sword and couldn't hear his words.

Once Lloyd felt Judas' presence behind him, he felt strangely reassured. He just had this feeling that as long as Judas was there, everything would be all right...

A sudden shriek broke Lloyd out of his thoughts. He looked up, obviously startled as well as frightened. "What was that?"

"I'd assume it was a monster," Judas said, drawing his longsword. "Don't worry. I can take care of any threat we happen to come across."

A creature leaped out of seemingly nowhere, its sleek canine form gracefully falling upon the cracked and damaged floor. Its three heads, streamlined like a hound's, all had their teeth bared, and it was snarling a hideous snarl, its tail pointed straight down at the floor.

"Oh crap," Judas muttered. "It's a cerberus... one of the fire guardians. We have to take it out as quickly as possible!"

Lloyd nodded, and quickly dashed forward, both swords drawn. However, he was quickly forced to jump back to evade a blow from the cerberus, countering with a Double Demon Fang.

Judas launched himself at the cerberus, and with a single upward slash with his shortsword followed by a downward slash with his longsword, performed a technique resembling Tiger Blade. This was followed almost immediately by a Beast attack, which was enough to knock back the cerberus temporarily.

However, the creature quickly lifted itself up, and spewed from its mouths a stream of pure fire, which struck and knocked back both comrades. Judas was the first to get up, but he didn't immediately launch himself back at the cerberus.

Instead, he leaped back, much to the surprise of Lloyd.

"Light of the heavens, come down upon this sword and reveal thy power!"

A glimmering halo surrounded Judas' longsword, one that was composed of pure golden light, and sending rays like those of the sun splaying out around the sword. A magnificent, azure-blue light started blazing on the sword's blade, and a similarly colored triangular blade of mana extruded itself from the sword, fading to green at the very tip.

"Shining Blade!"

Judas launched himself at the cerberus again, but this time to perform a dazzling display of slashes and thrusts with both his swords, primarily the mana blade. He then leaped back, and allowed the blade to cool off, the blade of mana vanishing into nothingness.

The cerberus was down, knocked out by one single, powerful attack.

Lloyd was positively amazed. He rushed toward Judas, sheathing both swords, and insisted on investigating the longsword. Judas shook his head, though a smirk was on his face.

"It was nothing," the younger swordsman said. "You could probably learn to perform that technique. But I had to hold off the attack, because a dark attack would've just..." he cleared his throat. "...fueled the flame."

Lloyd raised an eyebrow. "You had to hold it off...? A dark attack...? What are you talking about...? That was a light attack, wasn't it...?"

"It was only a basic part of the technique," Judas said. "It's part of the-" he quickly cut himself off, shaking his head briefly. "training I received when I was younger.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Lloyd muttered. "Let's just get on with this place, now shall we?"

Lloyd could tell something was amiss with Judas, but he just couldn't figure it out...

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Author's Note: Another update before Christmas! Woohoo! (dances)

...Yeah, yeah, whatever.

And just so all you newbies know, Marian was a real person. I'm just not going to spoil her role... yet. ;)