Before The Battles

by DarKFaeries

...They were all just teenagers going to high school. ToSSCBKFF 7102. Rated for language and alcohol later on.

BEFORE THE BATTLES…

Chapter one: Starting the first day

Hi! I'm DarKFaeraes, and this is my first solo fic on in the fic:YOU LIE! YOU LIEEEEE!

Heavy sigh okayyy, that's not the entire truth. I did sorta have my own fic a long time ago on here, but I was running out of ideas for it, and I didn't get any love for it anyway…so I dropped it. 

But! I am back with a vengeance, with a new and hopefully even better fic! It's an extremely AU high school fic with crossovers from Final Fantasies VII-X2, Soul Caliburs 2-3, Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos! I really hope you like it! Now, before I get sued, um, you there! Yeah, you! Moogle-person! Do the disclaimer!

Random Moogle: DarKFaeraes doesn't own anything, kupo! Namco owns Soul Calibur, Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos, kupo! Square Enix owns all the Final Fantasy games, kupo! She just owns the idea for this fic, kupo!

Oh, and by the way, some of the characters will be acting quite OOC due to their teen-ness.

Now, on with the ficceh!

Raine Sage, 16 year-old and soon to be officially a junior or Symphonia High, just had the most intriguing dream of her life.

"Hello? Is anybody here?", she called as she walked through the hallways of the school that she knew so well.

And then, without warning, she heard a voice. A voice that was familiar, that she was used to hearing every day, but she didn't expect to hear it that very moment.

"Raine?"

It was Kratos Aurion's, her 17 year-old classmate/best friend (AN- yes, I know that he wouldn't be a teenager during the time that Raine was, but that's why it's called an AU fic.) It seemed that the young swordsman was behind her the entire time, just waiting for her to notice him. Then, all of a sudden, what at first was a dream became a lot like a romance movie, as romantic music started playing and rose petals began to fly everywhere.

As Raine was blown away by everything that was happening, it took her a while to say what she had to say.

"K-Kr-Kratos?"

The slightly older of the two simply smiled and said "Raine…there's something that I've been dying to tell you…"

And at that very moment, almost every possible thought went through Miss Sage's head, most of them relating to the whole 'OMG, is he really going to propose his love to me of all people?', and the like. I mean, this is kind of how some girls always dream of getting asked out.

"Wha…what is it?"

And then, in a fast yet gentle movement, Kratos grabbed Raine by the waist and touched her cheek, saying

"That…I've fallen madly in love with you."

Hearing this, of course, made Raine feel even more nervous than she already did. "EH! I-uh-I-I-I…don't know what to say…", she said while she wore an expression that looked just about like this: O.O. But as she tried her very best to get other things off her chest, the young man merely silenced her and got closer to her for reasons obvious. But, soon after Raine found herself closing her eyes, ready for impact…

…Nothing happened.

Yep, that's right, 'cause soon afterwards, she had to open her eyes in realization that whole thing was nothing more than a dream sequence. I mean, did you guys really think I'd let it end in a non-abrupt manner? Ha!

So anyway, she got up realizing that it was all a very good dream, but a dream all the same, saying "Aw, MAN!"

But then, as she checked the alarm clock that was on her nightstand, she became even more upset, as it was already a whole two minutes after she had planned to get up that morning! It was going to be her first day of 11th grade, and she was late getting up by two minutes! Oh, the horror! (Note the sarcasm)

Well, it was a horror to the poor, hardly tardy Raine, so she instantly got up, screamed "Ahhh, I'm going to be late!", changed into her clothes and shoes so that she was wearing white boots, black jeans, and an orange button down sleeveless shirt. Instantly after, she brushed her hair, went to the bathroom to brush her teeth, put a tiny amount of makeup on, get her white backpack on, and ran to the kitchen to get breakfast as though she was on fire.

And just that second, as Raine tried to put a piece of bread in the toaster as though her life depended on it, the pitter-patter of little feet could be heard through the entry of the kitchen. It was little 7 year-old Genis' feet, and he was wearing blue footsie pajamas, with one of his tiny hands rubbing his tired and adorable chibi eyes while the other was holding onto a small blanket (AN- Awwww! X3). After a short time of watching his big sister panicking and trying to pour a glass of orange juice, the miniature mage finally spoke up and greeted her.

"G'morning, sissy."

Raine then stopped what she was doing, if only for a millisecond or two, to smile back at her little brother and say "Good morning, Genis."

Genis took a look at the digital clock that was on the microwave of the house and said "You're only a couple'a minutes late, sissy. What's the rush? You got plenny'a time." But then Raine, being as panicky as she was, said back "I can't take any chances, Genis! I have to get to the bus stop before I'm late!" So she then set down a bowl of cereal for her little brother, gave him a good bye kiss on the forehead, grabbed a piece of toast out from the toaster, ran for door and said "Bye, Genis!"

"Bye, sissy!"

"Have a good first day at school!"

"You, too! Bye bye!"

And with that, Raine shut the door behind her and ran to the bus stop. Only to discover that even with the missing two minutes, she was still the first one standing at the stop.

Meanwhile, Kratos was having a similar dream to the one that Raine had. He too was in a hallway that he knew far too well. In short, the hallway that he took to walk from his first period class from last year, to the main office. Anyway, he looked everywhere for a sign of life, saying "What am I doing here on a Sunday night? And where's Yuan?"

Now, this time, it was not himself that snuck up on the unsuspecting dreamer, but instead it was the other way around. Raine was creeping up to Kratos in a seductive manner and was wearing…

A white silk nightgown.

'Cause, really, Kratos isn't really a perverted teenager. If it was Zelos on the other hand, she'd be wearing a whole lot less, and I'd have to boost the freaking rating.

So, anyways, Raine crept up to the swordsman, draped herself over him and said "Hey there." Kratos was taken aback by this, you could obviously tell by his shocked and blushing face. He scratched his head and said "Raine? Would you happen to know why we're both here?" Fortunately or unfortunately for him, her only response was "Kratos, there's something that I just need to tell you?"

"Whazzat?"

"That I need you. I need you bad."

Yep, now's the time where he makes the 'OMG, WTF' face. "EH! Um, I don't know if that'd work out, I mean--"

But Raine then shut him up by grabbing his head and demanding that he "Shut up and kiss me, dammit!" "Okay!" he said, I mean, it's not like he had much reason to object. But as their lips came close…

You guessed it. He woke up.

So then, Kratos realized that he was still in bed; after doing so, he cursed up a storm. "CRAP! Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!", unlike what Raine did, since she kept it PG. So, after finishing his curses of fury, he took a look at the alarm clock, and suddenly his eyes bugged out. He was in a pretty panicked state, but he decided that the first thing he should do is try to wake his room mate/best friend Yuan up. "Yuan? Hey Yuan, wake up!" he said, but all he got was a "Zzzzzz…" from the other side of the room. This time he had to pull out the big guns. Or in other words, the megaphone that was kept somewhere on their floor. Kratos somehow managed to find the megaphone on the floor, turned it on and shouted "YUAN!" in it. Kratos' half-elf friend promptly woke up, shortly thereafter screamed "I DIDN'T DO IT!" Yuan then realized that he was just in his room with Kratos and calmly said "Oh. Mornin', Kratos."

Kratos nonetheless kept his bug-eyed-ness and replied "Uh, Yuan?"

"Yeah?"

Kratos then showed the blue-haired teen the problem with all this. The alarm clock. According to it, it was only ten minutes until the bus left for the first day of school. The two screamed in unison and jumped off their separate beds like it suddenly sprouted spikes. Then they got their clothes and ran to their bathroom as fast as they could. Yuan beat Kratos to it and pulled off a Nelson laugh. (AN: Y'know, that 'Ha ha!' laugh that kid from The Simpsons does?) Kratos was obviously not happy about it.

"Yuan! Open up!" He shouted as he pounded on the bathroom door.

"What? You want to take a shower with me? Hell no!" Yuan said back through the door.

"Yuan, if you don't open this door right now, I'm gonna kill you!" Okay, so maybe Kratos didn't really mean it, but Yuan was semi-convinced that he was.

"You can't do that!"

"And why not?"

"Because not only am I your bestest friend, but I'm also the guy that pays rent around here!" Yuan had a point. Who in their right mind would kill the guy who pays the rent for you? So right then, Kratos had to wave the white flag.

"Oh…oh yeah."

"So…go make breakfast or something." Kratos quickly obliged. But not before going to his room for one thing or another.

000

Now at this point, the two were dressed and they had everything they needed together. Kratos was wearing a black trench coat, a shirt with the symbol for A Perfect Pentagram, (AN: I don't own the band whose name I'm playing off of. And if you know what band I'm talking about, then here! Have a cookie!) with black jeans and boots. Yuan was wearing a black t-shirt with red sleeves coming out from it, faded blue jeans and black and white checkered Vans sneakers. Kratos tossed Yuan his old black backpack saying "Here, catch!" Yuan caught his bag and asked "You made breakfast?" Kratos replied "It's in the toaster!"

"Something you had to put in the toaster again?" 'Cause truth be told, he was getting kinda sick of eating pop-tart after pop-tart and bagel after bagel.

"Well, it's not like we have time for anything else!"

"Ah, well."

So they both grabbed yet another pop-tart from the toaster and would've set off if Kratos hadn't remembered that he had to feed Noishe. In what seemed to be a split second, he fed the protozoan/dog/ and Kratos quickly said to his pet "Later, Noishe!" and the green animal barked as an answer.

So finally, the two teenaged fighters were able to set off. However, unfortunately for them, the bus left as soon as they shut the door. Their jaws suddenly dropped to the ground and Yuan said with a hint of bitterness "You just had to feed Noishe." And Kratos shot back "Well it's not like I could just leave him there to starve!" Yuan soon realized that arguing wouldn't help out their situation, so then he deducted that " Well, now we'll have to take the rehards (Sp?) to school." So he pulled out his wing pack to pull out his flying vehicle. Kratos did the same, but not without asking "Hey, why don't we usually take the rehards?" And Yuan answered "Because we don't have our licenses yet, remember?" with an 'as-a-matter-of-factly' tone.

"Oh yeah…so how do we get past the cops?"

"Simple, we fly so fast that the cops can't even see us!"

"Good idea!" Well, you can't really blame the guy, I guess. I mean, after all, he is a teenager, and we all know how bright we can be at times.

Meanwhile, as the two guys were starting to fly, Raine was wondering where she should sit. It not like there wasn't a bunch of open seats in there, because there was, but she was looking for one seat in particular.

Just then, a hand was raised, asking for Raine's attention. It was Martel's, one of Raine's long-time friends. She was wearing a black hair band in her light green hair, a green cashmere sweater, a long, black skirt and green slip-on shoes.

"Hey, Raine! Over here!" She said, as she kept smiling and waving. The teenage healer then called her name and walked up to her seat to sit down. She took her white backpack on her lap and asked "How've you been?", initiating a long stream of girl chatter.

"I've been pretty good, and you?"

"Not bad. So how was Altimira?"

"It was great! Mithos had a lot of fun there!"

"See? What did I tell you? Now you owe me ten gald for doubting my good judgment!"

So then the two giggled until the green-haired female pointed out "Oh hey, here come the guys!" And soon afterwards, the bus stopped, letting a few other passengers board. The first one that stepped foot on the bus was one of the guys that Martel had been talking about. He had short periwinkle-colored hair and was wearing a white t-shirt, camouflage patterned jeans and big black boots with leather leg guards over the front. He walked by where the two girls were sitting and sat in the seat right in front of them, and greeted them in a gentlemanly manner that was unusual to hear from a guy his age. "Good morning Raine, Martel." And in turn, the two girls smiled and said "Good morning, Regal!" in unison. Now after that, Martel was the first to speak. "So how was your first summer as a duke?"

"It was…busy. To say the very least."

"So why aren't you dressed for your roll?"

"Because I don't need to be. It's just school, besides, those clothes they made me wear made me look like I was gay. I don't need to show off…"

Just as Regal's speech was finished, a certain red haired chosen walked onto the bus, while wearing the most expensive labels possible, I might add. "Hey, my hunnies!" He shouted as he waved to everyone and sat beside Regal, who added "Unlike the chosen." To what he said earlier. Zelos ignored the comment and turned to face Raine and Martel to say "So, how are my two all-time faves?" Raine meekly shook her head and replied "Zelos, we already told you, " and with that, Martel joined in to say the following "We're not interested." But you know Zelos. He refuses to give up on a girl until said girl is lacking a pulse. "Aw, come on. You know you're gonna give in to me eventually. All girls do. You may as well give into the inevitable. Raine shot back "Something that will never happen in a million years?" Then Martel shot back with a "No thanks!" Zelos backed down, but he still refuses to give up. "Well, alright, if you wanna wait, that's okay, we'll wait." Regal then added his own 'denied' cough, causing the girls to laugh.

After taking the time to laugh at poor Zelos' sad attempt to win the girls over, Martel added "Besides, I'm interested in someone else." Her longtime female friend gasped at the fact and said "Really? Who?" So then Martel started to whisper in her ear and after a couple of seconds, Raine said "No! Really? Him? That'd be sooooo cute!" Meanwhile, Zelos asked the one sitting next to him "Hey, can you hear what she's saying?"

"Y'know, she's whispering for a reason."

"…You're no fun."

Suddenly, Regal realized something. "…Say, where are Kratos and Yuan?" This being said, everybody realized it.

"Hey, you're right, I didn't see them come on the bus with you, Raine."

"Well, it does explain the lack of noise."

That was the time that Zelos decided throw his own discouraging words in there. "Y'know, I'll bet they're ditching. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to drop out!" Martel, the always positive one, defended them. "Aw, come on, Zelos, I'm sure they just missed the bus." Raine, on the other hand, offered Zelos the brutal truth. "Yeah, and besides, they both know that if they did something like that, then I would have to teach them a…" she cracked her knuckles before she continued "Lesson."

"Oh."

"Ow."

"I'd hate to have to be in their position. Heheh."

As the school bus was soon to reach its destination, Kratos and Yuan had already landed in the parking lot. Their ride was somewhat smooth; they didn't get caught by any cops, however, Yuan got into a hit and run accident with a light pole. Fortunately for him, there were only a few scratches on the side that weren't too significant. Yuan was the first one to get off his rehard while yelling "Move it, Kratos!" to his friend beside him. Kratos immediately got off while yelling "I'm moving it, I'm moving it!" back to the other. They then put their flying machines back into their wing packs and continued to run like hell to their school. Unfortunately, as they ran up the stairs leading to the school's entrance, they ran into…two of their archrivals.

One of them had long blonde hair, icy blue eyes with a scar across his left one, and silver armor covering his body up to his neck. The other was wearing azure armor that covered his entire body except for his huge demonic claw and his blood-red eyes. Both were carrying huge zweihander swords on their backs. As the armored teens saw that their enemies had arrived, all four of them were locked into a glaring contest. After a few seconds of attempting to glare fireballs, the one in azure armor was the first to speak.

"Symphonian bastards…"

The next one to throw out an insult was Yuan. "Calibur assholes…"

Then the guy in silver armor spoke "Y'know, that eternal sword trophy we won off of you guys kinda, well, really, sucks." The two along with the entire team from Calibur High have been winning the Symphonia teams' trophy off of them every single year for longer than they had known. Yuan and Kratos, along with the rest of their team have been sick of it. Kratos retaliated by saying "You're just saying that because you guys don't know how to use those kind of swords!" The azure-armored then insulted Yuan by saying "At least we know how to use swords, unlike girly-boy over here!" Yuan defended himself by saying "I can still burn you to a crisp! Wanna see!"

"You wouldn't ever have the chance!"

Just as the argument was heating up, Kratos then saw the ultimate payback. It was coming right for the two armored brothers. "Well neither would you." The one in silver armor asked with a tinge of paranoia in his voice "And just what is that supposed to mean?" Kratos chuckled at his question and said "Well let's just say that if I were you, I'd be looking behind myself." Kratos and Yuan's enemies said "Huh?" with a crooked eyebrow and took his advice, only to find that the blonde's fangirls were running right up behind them, and as usual, ol' red-eye was not going to be excluded from the mob. They would've cursed and then run away, but all they had time to do was say "HOLY SH--" For they were unfortunately (For the Calibur kids, of course) overrun by the rabid girls. By the time they all left, nothing was left of their rivals. Kratos and Yuan then took the time to roll on the floor and laugh, but then Kratos stopped to say "Man, that was sweet." Yuan said "You bet it was."

Raine, Martel, Zelos and Regal, who had seen what had happened from where they got off the bus stop, all ran up to their two friends. "What exactly happened up here?" Raine said worriedly. Yuan answered by saying "Oh, some jerks from Calibur came picking a fight, but we got rid of them."

"Oh, really?" Raine said with a raised eyebrow.

"It looks more like those fangirls got rid of them." Said Regal.

Kratos said "Eh, well, we got rid of them, the fangirls got rid of them, who cares as long as they're gone?"

"Yeah, I guess you have a point; though why those guys have fangirls is beyond me."

Martel then remembered why they were in such a hurry; they had to be at the beginning-of-the-year assembly, which was where they got their schedules for the year. "C'mon guys, we have to get to the assembly before all the seats are taken up!" She grabbed Yuan's hand and ran with it, leaving Yuan able to do nothing but say "Uh…" and blush. Raine then started to giggle at this, leaving Kratos completely clueless.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, it's nothing! Come on!" And then she did the same thing that Martel did; only she pulled a lot harder, practically dragging him, leaving Regal and Zelos all alone. Zelos groaned and said "Man! What is with everyone today!"

"Heh…I've got a feeling that this will be an interesting year…"

Finally! The fic is done! Though I'm pretty sure that I messed up a bunch. But that's what your reviews are for! Yes! Please review so that you can correct my errors! If you do, then you get to spend the day with the bishie boy/girl of your choice!

R&R!