Fanfiction: Yuan's Secret: The Truth of Triet
Rating: R, must you ask every time!
Genre: Romance/Adventure
Disclaimer: Don't shoot me. I don't own the world of Tales of Symphonia, nor the characters or events that happen in the game, no matter how much I like or write about them. I don't own the reiards, either. I do own my characters which you have encountered in reading this... YARRRRR! Oh and the "Dance of the Sword" is rip-off from Zelda and a YuGiOh! card.
Summary: ToL update! The Reiards are being fixed, and soon Kratos and Ran-Chan will see Origin about the fate of the seal. Sadly, Yuan keeps thinking of the negative effects, which makes Kratos uneasy. Can he fufill his promise this time? R+R.
Chapterly Rantings! Hiya folks. Last time I was pretty much in a tizzy, but now I'm pretty much doing okay. I am very happy about how my fanfiction is coming along, and I really enjoy writing it! Though some believe I'm not doing that great in bringing about Kratos' personality, but I think I'm doing a damn good job. There's a lot of Anna reflections and he remembers her A LOT. I respect Anna, for even though she knew what was going on, she stayed with Kratos and held on for the best. That's one thing I really try to bring out in Ran-Chan. She's much different from Anna - but she still loves him. Bringing Anna back last chapter is not meant just to make Kratos available to Ran-Chan in this world, but to make Kratos a little bit more mortal than he had been before. He missed her, and now she's in the other world, which in the story I've refered to as "Heaven", mostly because I don't know what to call it... He knows that her soul is safe, and that makes him a lot easier to get along with. So, even though I write this fanfiction for myself and to make me happy, I still would want Anna to have a major influence of him... yeah... well... STOP DOING THAT!
PLEASE... FORGIVE ME, CAPICORN! Here's why: Ah, I must apologize to my dear friend Cap-san! In this part of the story, you hear something about the desians coming back. Not only are you a fan of and member of the desians and I'm sorry, but I've almost slated Forcy-san in that role of leading the comeback! However, I didn't, and I'm trying to think of a way to blame Rodyle for everything because Magnius was blown up, Mithos slaughtered the Pro-demon, Kratos just so sexily destroyed Kvar, and you oh so love Forcy-san... I could never use him that way! Ran-Chan apologizes tons and tons of times... eek!
Tales of Love
Installment 6
"Yuan's Secret: The Truth of Triet"
Tears streamed down Ran-Chan's face as she sat there at the table in the kitchen, not saying a word. Kratos had been fumbling about the cabnets, looking for different things to prepare food with, even though he was still talking with her while doing so.
"I know you're upset," Kratos said when he finally found a skillet he could use. "It's pretty unsettling for me, too. I can't imagine another day without you there beside me," he added, being completely truthful. "Besides, I don't need to go to Luin anymore... once this is over, we're going back to Iselia, Ran-Chan. We'll both teach together, how's that sound?"
"...Kratos-sama," Ran-Chan said quietly, "I... must go to Mizuho..."
Kratos nodded, cracking some eggs in the skillet. The heat from the stove made the eggs crackle and pop. "You're right. I want to talk to your father personally and tell him all about how his daughter is a wonderful person, and how well she's perfected his sword style," he said, putting down some toast. "He must be one proud dad, hmm?"
"...proud... of me?" she asked, wiping her eyes only so more tears could replace them. "No, I rather doubt that... he would be upset. I joined a military, I gave up my rights in Hiemdall, announced to everyone that I'm not really a full elf... I took up the sword, when he instictly told me that violence should not be the way... I wanted to join the ranks of Mizuho's ninjas... no, he's very angry with me."
The eggs were finished, so Kratos slid them off onto a plate and as the toast popped up, he put them on the same plate, then slid them over to Ran-Chan. "It's what I could find," he said, cracking some more eggs. "Anyway... Ran-Chan... as a father myself, I know what it's like to see someone as a child... and I know what it's like to feel proud of your own child..." he said very quietly as he let her poke at the fried eggs.
"I know about Lloyd," she instantly snapped as she put the eggs between the two pieces of toast, eating it like a sandwich. "I know you're a father. More than once, I'll say," she added, knowing that would catch his attention.
Kratos instantly turned around and dropped the spatula on the floor. "More than once," he repeated, scared of the words. "You-" He bent down to pick up the spatula he dropped , then turned off the stove. "I'm not going to lose this chance to raise my own child," he said, walking to her. "I am sorry that I have done this to you..." Kratos wrapped his arms around her, placing his ear on her stomach. "To the both of you..." It was amazing that he forgot anything about eating after the message was put out. "Yuan had better hurry up with the Reiards."
The young mother-to-be stood up and walked over to the stove, after prying herself out of Kratos' arms. "I'll make Yuan some lunch. That will make him want to help... well, make him want to help me at least," she said with a smile. "I've been so scared of actually having you in my life," she said, digging out some bread, eggs, and milk. "Because I was afraid that I was going to have to let you go once I had you," she continued, dragging out some bowls. "...that's why I've been so standoffish."
"You're much stronger than you seem," Kratos said quietly as he glanced at the door. "You are... much more than meets the eye, but then again... that's the same for anyone I ever met," he added with a small chuckle.
A brush of blue hair flew into the room as Yuan walked in. His hair wasn't in a ponytail anymore, but braided and pulled up so it wouldn't get in the way of his garage duty. "Ah," he said quietly, "The lady in the kitchen, I would like to make a request."
"I don't do requests," Ran-Chan stated plainly, cracking the eggs in to a bowl. "But... I do specials..." she added after a few minutes, noticing grease on his face. "Yuan, I'll bring yours to you. Just wait. You've not had Yoshio's favorite dish yet, have you! It's not elven, and it's not from Mizuho." Her face showed a strange healthy and happy glow, shining into the world a lie of security. "I learned to make it back when my family was still together... so it's a food of my memory..."
"That's not what I'm talking about," Yuan stated plainly. "Don't cook for me." He tried to flash his beautiful pink wings before the two again, but all it did was create a strange awkward silence around the kitchen. "I was wondering what you have planned with the reiards. Are you going to keep them after you see Origin?"
Kratos' red hair fluffed up a bit as he turned to look at Ran-Chan. "Probably not. We'll fly back here, then walk back to Iselia," he replied as he stared into her blue eyes. "Yuan, old friend, we shouldn't stay here very long anyway. I want to help you as much as I want to help her," he added, standing up. "Come to think of it, Ran-Chan, I'm not hungry, either."
"Memoria," Yuan said quietly. "I want you to live. Martel wants you to live!"
Ran-Chan looked off to the side, slowly taking a breath and releasing her sigh. She was tired, but more than that, she was angry. She didn't know why herself, but she did know that she was infuriated about something. "Thank you," she said quietly, feeling her feet fall from under her. "Ahh!"
She landed in Kratos' arms with a snuggle against her cheek. "That's what happens when you overwork a pregnant woman, you know," he said, "So, Yuan, where are the quarters? We'll borrow a room for the rest of the day, if you don't mind. Or... do you?"
With a smile, Yuan shrugged as he turned toward the door. "If you aren't going to eat, you might want to sleep, but the personell quarters were destroyed a long time ago. I accedentally blew up a machine on that end trying to get it to work, but it totally disentegrated one of the walls, if you could believe that," he said whimsically, laughing at himself. "My PERSONAL room, however, still survived because I put it on the opposite end of the base!"
Muffling his laughter, Kratos gave Yuan a strange look. "I'd never want to ask to sleep in there... I know what kind of things you do in your room, Yuan," Kratos said, not trying to be too mean to his best friend remaining, though it seemed there was no other way to be. "So would you require any help with the reiards?"
"...I'm not a pervert like you, Kratos," Yuan said quietly as he tapped Ran-Chan on the head lightly. "Though I do believe that my sheets are clean. Or will be, until the both of you get to them. I'd have to wash my sheets five times 'fore I could sleep in them."
"Are you implying that I'm dirty?" Ran-Chan asked, finally bursting out in laughter. "Just what are you thinking, Yuan?"
Yuan turned around dramatically and just smiled to the wall as if he had fallen in love with it instead of his half-elven beauty as he said, "Only an angel's thoughts," when he turned to leave. "I'll go back to work now."
"...work?" Kratos said with a raised eyebrow as he glanced over at the eggs and toast on the table. "He thinks that just being himself is work," he muttered, going to sit back down at the table. "Then what is it about the reiards he's working on?"
"The absence of summon spirits might have something to do with it," Ran-Chan answered, taking up a fork and shoving the blunt end in her left ear, trying to clean it out. Obviously, the girl had never heard of a regular human Q-tip, Kratos thought when she pulled it back out and cleaned the ear wax off of it. "The power of Volt is what made them work before, and I'm not so sure what happened with the spirits back when the world became whole again. They only existed because of mana links. Now the worlds don't need the mana links," she reasoned as she cleaned out her other ear with the same fork.
He sighed slowly, noticing that she never really had the chance to learn much manners since she'd been living alone for so long. "I haven't heard you think this much in a while," Kratos mentioned, trying not to let the whole fork in the ear situation bother him too much. His orphanage-mother would have drove a wooden stake through her heart if she ever caught a glimpse of that happening anywhere near a kitchen.
"Domestic things like cleaning really help me think, and it was perfect time since my ears needed to be cleaned, it worked out perfectly," she replied as she tossed the fork across the entire room and into the sink. Her face was smiling like she usually was, though it didn't seem to be right for a smile at that time. If what she said was true, and the summon spirits weren't around anymore, then how were they going to fly to Hiemdall? What happened to consorting with Origin?
"I hate this," Kratos said aloud finally, after letting dozens of questions race through his mind. "It seems like fate won't let me resolve problems that I have started," he breathed out quietly just as Yuan re-entered the room, this time, much more grim than he had been previously.
With his beautiful blue locks covering half of his face, Yuan had his arms crossed. "That means that your problems have been resolved, old friend. The reiards are never going to work again. The magitechnology that made them will not function properly, and without Volt, it's completely useless to even try," he sputtered, finally pushing his bangs behind his ear. "Kratos, it's best you don't go to Origin or Hiemdall for that matter."
"Why?" Ran-Chan asked. "Because he's a summon spirit, he'd know what to-"
"That's just it," Yuan interrupted her quickly, "Origin, like the rest of the summons, is long gone now."
A cold wind blew through that tiny little place, though there was no real air currents except the door to let air in. Ran-Chan pulled down her collar and smiled slightly. "This thing can't leave me without Origin's help. Only his magic can..."
"Only his magic?" Kratos repeated, inside questioning his memories. "The summon spirits were concentrations of solid mana. Now that we no longer have the links to worry about, I'm sure the mana was returned to the planet as it should have," he reasoned aloud, trying to sort his thoughts. "High concentrations of mana with power like Origin's." He held his chin with his hand lightly, making him look quite strange to his companions.
"You mean, you want to find a mana spring?" Yuan asked as Ran-Chan's eyes were shuffling between the two of them. "Mana springs are rare, Kratos. Listen, this is impossible to deal with, so take Memoria back to Iselia before someone finds you here."
"Finds?" Ran-Chan asked, shocked that Yuan would say a thing like that. "You're only joking, aren't you, Yuan! I know that the Desians would never-"
Yuan just grunted and shrugged. "The Desians, like everyone else, can be free if you are taken out," he said much more quietly, "I've heard rumors that someone who looks like Rodyle is still alive. He and his loyal band of Neo-Desians are planning on trying to realize Mithos' dream without Cruxis and without a chosen. Well, not really..." He locked eyes with Ran-Chan, slowly coming closer to their table. "...there is someone they'd gladly sacrifice for the Glory of the Age of Half-Elves."
"I'm a half-elf," Ran-Chan retorted, finding herself creeping back from where Yuan was leaning in closer to her. "My mother was an elf and my father was a human, that makes me half and half!" She expressed her deep anger at Yuan, though he didn't deserve her rage. "I'm not an angel anymore... and I'd gladly give up my elven blood, but if I wasn't a half-elf, I would have died... possibly in a Human Ranch or during a huge explosion of the Kharlan War or something! It's both of my parents, the fact that I have both elven and human mental instabilities... that makes me who I am. No elf or human OR Desian can take that away from me." For the first time, though she was scared, Ran-Chan shed no tears. She didn't even sound fearful.
"Rodyle is dead," Kratos stated cleanly, noticing how tense and angry he sounded, "Lloyd and everyone... plus myself... worked to defeat him. All of the Desian Cardinals are gone!"
"Not as much as you might think," Yuan said as he slammed down a booklet of photos he'd recieved from a bar buddy. "One thing always works when you run a bar. You're always the king of gossip."
Kratos grunted as he said, "You realize we've no time for your damn gossip."
Ran-Chan opened the booklet anyway to find something like a modern day photograph taken of a man who looked just like Rodyle frounging around in Triet of all places. "That is him. The one who invented the Blood Seal's concept and convinced Mithos to use me," she said, swallowing the saliva that had gathered in her mouth as it was dry. "That man who set me up and made me a slave!"
"A slave," Yuan repeated. "Yes, Rodyle was way too cunning for his own good. It was a good thing we had Lloyd and co. defeat him, as Botta and I would have lost rather gruesomely," he added, watching Kratos almost crack a grin, though it didn't happen. "Anyway, we have to get you out of here, Memoria. They'll be coming for the Reiards to help find you."
"No, I won't run!" Ran-Chan said. "I am a Mizuho Ninja AND Kratos' best student from before the Kharlan War. If I run into them, then," when she paused, she drew her katana very proudly, "then I'll do this world a favor and kill him a second time." She was so still with her deathglare that she really didn't notice how funny the air smelled.
"Kratos, did you flatulate!" Yuan asked, waving his arm trying to get the smell away from him. "Damn, that stinks... whoever put that out is going to get it, once it stops making me dizzy," he said, shaking his head quickly to make sure he was still in control of his muscles.
A few hairs stood on the back of all three friend's neck when a very familiar and scraggly voice said from the door, "Oh you will, will you?"
Yuan leaped onto the other side of the table to help Kratos protect Ran-Chan from this new person entering the room. "Dammit, I should have told you this the night she got herself drunk," he stated, which was obviously a little bit too late.
"Yes, you should have," Kratos grunted, looking for another exit. Sadly, there wasn't one that he could find, so he had to think of a plan while dealing with an enemy. Multi-tasking was never a problem with Kratos before, so it didn't really bother him at all.
Indeed it was Rodyle, completely revived and cured from the serum that he had given himself many years before, in all his nose's pointy glory. "The last one!" he cried, smiling to Ran-Chan, "Such a selfish little girl to have lived so long and still put up a fight for your life. Tell me, deary, are you really going to try and fight me, when you've been breathing this uncirculated air which is so stale and poisoned?"
"You haven't poisioned anything," Yuan said, "Stop bluffing. You took Botta and it's my turn for revenge." He pulled his swallow from his cape and lept back over the table, charging angrily. "Feel the pain of loss as you burn in hell!"
"What the? Yuan, you copied my line!" Kratos said, using Yuan's diversion to use his Light Spear Cannon on the wall, knocking a huge hole through it. "Ran-Chan, come on! The sand won't hurt us only at this height."
Ran-Chan ran to the whole and looked down to find many people dressed as Desians were waiting for their departure. "Kratos-sama, the sand might not hurt us, but I swear they will!" she shouted, preparing to make a dive attack combo. "...I mean, if we aren't careful, that is."
Kratos ran over and glanced down, wishing that he still had his wings. "Yuan, we need to get out of here!" he shouted, seeing Yuan flying back toward him. "Oh, shit," he swore, snatching Ran-Chan's waist to dive out of the whole on the wall.
The couple landed in the middle of a circle of Desian look-a-likes.
"I never really liked Desians much," Ran-Chan said quietly when Kratos let her go. She all ready had her sword drawn, and Kratos soon followed suit. "So any revamp of 'em won't look too pleasing to me, either," she said finally, noticing Yuan had landed between her and Kratos.
"He's much stronger," Yuan said, leaning on his swallow with a blood streak from his cracked bottom lip. "Much more than before..." he looked as if he wanted to pass out, but was pushing himself against it fiercely. "I don't know what to do..."
From the whole in the wall Kratos created, Rodyle's ugly pointed nose pointed in their direction. "Capture them all alive. I'm quite sure one won't cooperate without the other two still with them," he laughed, pulling his head back in. "I've never had easier prey in my entire work as a Desian Grand Cardinal!"
Ran-Chan just gritted her teeth angrily, noticing her feet were all ready getting weak from standing still so much. She hadn't experienced combat as a mortal since she was in the Kharlan War, which gave her an extreme disadvantage. "Kratos-sama," she said, having a hard time standing, "I..."
Kratos looked behind him and saw her knees shake while Yuan was breathing hard in the heat. He was sure he could have protected them both just a few days ago, but in his current state, he felt his confidence slip. Desians took Anna from him, and if he fell, what would stop them from taking Ran-Chan, too? Just because he took eyes off of Anna for a split second fighting off Kvar's men... she was lost to him forever... Now was he going to let Desians destroy his future again? "No," he breathed out. "You're fine. I'll protect you. Both of you."
Yuan laughed as he pushed Ran-Chan behind him and Kratos. "I don't need to be protected, Kratos," he said, making the first move. "It's time!" He rose his swallow quickly, slicing though two enemies at once. "Kratos, I've got this side," he said, after finishing three more.
Ran-Chan tried to gather some strength to help, but nothing came. "I can't... as a mortal... I'm..." she sighed, looking at the sword she so proudly wore on her hip every day. "I'm not good for anything in a mortal form," she quietly breathed to herself, feeling her Blood Seal burn.
Kratos made his way through half of the enemies with no problem, but Yuan was lacking. It seemed that everytime he lifted his swallow, he ended up thrusting it in the wrong direction or falling over, defeating his half of the foes on a fluke. Kratos felt the weight of his breath, and knew that they weren't going to make it past the second round of enemies... if there was a second round.
"Damn you," Yuan cursed, getting knocked in the back of the head with the hilt of a sword. He hit the sand with a thud, almost landing on the female member of the group.
Ran-Chan took her feeble courage and faced Yuan's enemies with a very worried expression. "My father was mortal, and he was able to face anything," she said aloud, trying to give herself a bit more courage than she had before. She took the sword and gripped it with her left hand, thinking of a way that she could attack every single one of them with just one blade, perhaps just one attack. When she thought of a tornado, it was enough to propell her into the next thought. "That's right!" she said, walking away from Kratos.
"What are you doing!" Kratos asked worriedly. "Can you really...!" He started to turn around, but had to deal with an enemy of his own. "Get back here!"
"I won't have you caught in this," she answered. "Dance of the Sword," she named it, spinning blindly with her katana tightly in her left hand, and her right pulled in to determine her center of gravity. "This is it," she said, defeating the other half of enemies. Though it did cost her, she was completely dizzy and fell over right as Rodyle came out of the entrance Kratos and Ran-Chan used before.
"What a marvelous beauty. If I didn't have to use her, I'd almost marry the girl," Rodyle laughed as he started to pick her up off the ground. "Well, capture Kratos!" he said to the remaining few Desian lackeys as Kratos fought back. "I'm quite sure that this Cruxis Crystal has enough power in it to bring the mana together," he said, pulling Ran-Chan's collar down to see the Blood Seal in full. He was quiet for a while, and Kratos didn't know if he was being a pervert or if he was actually analyzing the rune itself. "Runarium..." he trailed off as one of Rodyle's famed baby dragons lifted the uncoinciuss Yuan to the sky.
Kratos was completely able to slay the last Desians running around so he could deal with just Rodyle himself. "Let her go. Now," Kratos breathed out angrily.
"Afraid another Desian will steal away your lady love?" Rodyle asked him with an evil grin. "You've got an Exsphere, still, don't you?" he walked carefully to Kratos, seeing the exsphere on it's key crest as it had been since he donned it. "With the ways you have built it up, I'm sure it is as powerful as a Cruxis Crystal! I do not wish harm on anyone of you."
"You want to kill Memoria just to relieve Mithos' magic from you," Kratos said. "I believe that is harm."
"So you believe. She's not going to die," Rodyle said, waving to signal another dragon. "However she won't do anything without you. I am going to have to take all three of you to ensure cooperation." He shrugged then scratched his chin as he nodded. "Yes."
A dragon claw nailed Kratos on the back of the neck, making him fall into the sand. "Forgive me," he said in a whisper as the dragon picked him up with it's talons. "It was never meant to be like this..."
Rodyle climbed onto the dragon with Ran-Chan in his arms. Suddenly, the two dragons lifted up into the sky as their master just thought aloud since he knew that no one was going to hear him. "She's a half-elf," he said, not believing his own words. "And she's pregnant. Kratos, you naughty boy. It's not right... with her pregnant, she won't be able to give up the power that I demand..."
Ran-Chan wasn't dizzy anymore, but she pretended to be. Now was not the time to jump up and accedentally fall from whatever height they were at to the ground. "Oww," she muttered quietly as Rodyle just calmly rubbed a spot on the back of her neck. How'd he know that was one of her very weak spots? As he rubbed it and she fell into a real slumber, she thought of Kratos, scared for his life.
"A weakness for those who are native to Hiemdall's forest happens to be the setsuna spot there," Rodyle answered her silent question. "And I know all about you. Being a fighter from Mizuho, a native of Hiemdall, and a former angel that broke the curse due to love... Yes. I chose you from every other fighter due to your one, single flaw. You were the most dedicated to anyone that I had seen... and because I was able to chose you, Mithos rewarded me a position in the Desians." He said to her, as if she could actually hear him. "Because I knew in the end, you would be coming back to me." Rodyle sighed, noticing how close they were to his secret place. "And here you are! That child in your womb growing should have... that child should have been mine..."
The dragons landed without being ordered to. Yuan and Kratos were still both out of it, and Rodyle had a few of his waiting henchmen grab them. They knew where the guests were to go, and so they had no orders exchanged between the master and the little servants.
"Just lay them down. They must find each other when they wake, or they won't cooperate," Rodyle ordered sharply, placing Ran-Chan on a pillow top upright operating table. "That should be rather comfy," he said to her, strapping up her arms and legs to the table. "So I'll just remove that Crystal while you sleep, if you don't mind."
"No!" Ran-Chan screamed in her sleep. "Kratos-sama...!"
Rodyle flinched and stared at her curiously. "Perhaps she would be more still if she was awake," he thought aloud, glancing over to see that Kratos and Yuan were waking up slowly, though they were strapped to the wall. "And she could see he was alive," he finished, glancing back over to see Ran-Chan's eyes were open.
"Rodyle?" she asked tiredly. "What are you... doing alive!" Ran-Chan had not yet noticed she was bound to an operating table or that Kratos was against the wall across the room from her. "Why did you kill..."
"You mean your dear Kratos. He's alive," Rodyle said very quietly. "How am I alive? I'll just tell you that the hatred for Yggdrasil, the hatred of that Lloyd, and the burning desire to rule the planet with all of the Desian goody-two-shoes dead made it so easy to revive me." He ruffled her hair and then whispered, "so did my desire to finally have a woman that could assist me in my dream."
Ran-Chan's face revealed total disgust. "I'd never," she said, feeling her head hurt again. "I'd never.. ever... EVER assist you."
"Not even if... I spared your friend's lives?"
"Yuan... Kratos..."
"You'd kill them once I gave you what you want, you pointy nosed bastard!"
"Don't tease me about my nose. I severly advise you not talk anything about my nose," Rodyle said angrily as he used a finger to run along her face. "I hate that," he added quickly, using the fact that she was bound to his table to force a kiss on her lips.
She felt as if she was going to shrivel up into a prune and then dry up into dust after that kiss. "Rodyle, you chose me to bear the Blood Seal. You made me into your ginuea pig to see if it would work. Mithos believed in your theory and with Altessa's help, you made me into what I am," she said with her eyes closed. "You didn't know if I was going to succeed... I want... peace. That's all. I'm human again. Kratos helped me break my curse... what do you want with me now, Rodyle?"
"Your Cruxis Crystal."
"That's all?"
"I'd love to take advantage of you at this very moment, but I feel as if my triumph over the world is much more important than some mortal instinct," Rodyle added carefully, picking himself off of the chair he had been sitting on. "I'll leave you to think about it. Your Cruxis Crystal is all I ask and I will let all three of you go. Right now, I've got to take care of other things."
Another Authoress Note: I hate stories without a villain, so I really had to make a true villain. Now Rodyle's starting a world domination spout, and I know exactly what you all are thinking. "Rodyle is dead." "This story shouldn't even be!" "RAWR you ate my donuts!" Well keep your thoughts to yourself... unless it's a good one. Then you should review.