AN: I'm baaack. How is everyone? Doing okay, good. Straight to the acknowledgements.

D.D.Z.: If Namco made something based on this I would have a heart attack! But hey, if your idea of cool puts me in cardiac arrest, then by all means think it to be cool, just don't actually get me killed. I have a thing for living.

Draco Blade: Thanks as always for enjoying. I was happy to help you out.

Luigi III: Your words speak volumes, but they don't say much. Interesting good, or interesting bad?

ShadowDragon6290: Thanks for enjoying.

libby: Yay! Even people who don't like it at first, whined up liking it! Please keep reading.

Silntjr: Glad you liked the fight. With any luck the later ones will make that seem like nothing.

Fan Fan Girl: Yeah, I did kinda go for the honor-bound warrior sort of thing. And in Kratos's defense, he did teach Lloyd to survive.

Wow! Seven reviews! A new personal record! WOOT FOR THE NEW PERSONAL RECORD! Let's try to get more this time.

Okay, now that that is out of my system, I received three votes for my Night Shift story and drum-roll please… oops! I forgot, I don't know how to write a drum-roll… I'll weep at my own patheticness later. Anyways, you guys (and girl) unanimously voted that the unlucky victim shall be… Zelos! Memo to self, must ask perverted friend for help.

Okay then I'm sure I'm stretching your patience with the longness of my rambling but I have one more thing to say. An old friend of mine called The Fey Heretic has offered to me to co-write some fics. We were planning on starting with a Final Fantasy fic, but first we want your opinion on which Final Fantasy to write about. If you care at all about it please give us suggestions when you review this story.

I think that is everything. Alright, you know the drill folks, read, enjoy, and review.

Disclaimer: I thought for a brief moment that I owned 0.0000000001 of Tales of Symphonia. This made me happy. Then I remembered that I don't own anything of it. I then cried for two minutes.

Ch.5 The Cottage

Two weeks had passed since the escape from The Human Ranch, and Lloyd was finally looking like something other than a mal-nourished, ex-slave. He had eaten some good meals, gained some weight, and had even managed to bathe in a stream for the first time in no one wants to know how long.

He was truly beginning to enjoy his freedom. He was also enjoying conversations with Sheena. If they weren't sharing stories of similar experiences, they were making each other laugh at the most outrageous things. Sheena had found the pie religion story to be particularly amusing. Three times since he had originally told her the story, she had asked him to retell it. Lloyd of course was happy to, since it was one of only a few good memories he had at the ranch and such memories were even better because they were at the ranch. No matter how dark the room was, the light always seemed to shine brighter.

More and more they found themselves to be surprisingly similar. Both had lost family, both had strong spirits, and neither of them were ever going to completely trust Zelos again, especially after what he had done to them the one night he was on watch. They couldn't help but enjoy the others company.

"So then," Lloyd was again recalling the pie story. "They get a bunch of slaves together in the back of the slave quarters, and start chanting 'Oh Sacred Pie, fruity god of nourishment. We, your humble servants, beg that you soon bring down upon our oppressors your blade of fruit-filled vengeance! We further pray that tomorrow, it shall rain pie.' And then some idiot in the back shouts, 'I would like pumpkin pie please!'"

Sheena laughed at this part. It was always her favorite. Just then, as if by an act of fate, the sky darkened over and it began to rain.

"Oh great!" Zelos exclaimed with his usual sarcastic tone. "Can we please get out of this rain? It's going to ruin my beautiful hair!"

Suddenly, Lloyd looked over at Presea. He had thought he'd noticed something different about her, but couldn't figure out what it was. Her clothes certainly hadn't changed, she still wore her slave garbs. Her pink hair was up in its normal pigtails. Sure, she had been gaining weight but Lloyd had too. Then he saw it.

It was her eyes! Her eyes had looked dead and soulless since Lloyd had first met her. But now they were brighter, more alive. It was as though the emotional exhilaration from escaping and meeting so many new friends had caused her to gain a soul. Her face was even starting to betray emotion. Right at the moment, she looked sad, depressed, and yet somewhat distant as though she were remembering some painful memories.

"Presea," Lloyd said, "are you okay?"

"Yes," she replied, her voice cracking. "I… I'm fine."

"Worry less about her and more about my hair!" Zelos interjected hysterically. "Unless I find cover soon my hair won't even be fit for a common wig, much less my gorgeous head!"

"There is a small cottage 3 kilometers southwest of our current position," Presea said. "We can find shelter there until the storm clears."

So they walked through the rain, with Zelos half complaining and half urging the others to move faster. Lloyd had on several occasions toyed with the thought of throwing a rock at Zelos's head, and this was one of those occasions. He wouldn't stop chattering on and on and on. It was as though he was born to be on the extremes. He was either extremely happy, or extremely angry, and always extremely annoying.

Just as they reached a small clearing, the rain stopped and left, as quickly as it came. In the center of this clearing was a very old, very disheveled cottage. It was completely covered with moss and other fungi that Lloyd couldn't recognize. It looked like no one had lived in it for years.

"Well, that was a wasted 3 kilometer walk," Zelos mused, a bit happier with the rain gone. "Let's get back on the road."

"May I go inside for a moment first?" Presea asked then added, "alone?"

"Sure," said Lloyd, still trying to understand the significance to the change in Presea's eyes. "We'll wait out here."

Presea walked into the cottage, and the others relaxed.

"Are you sure it's okay for her to be in there alone?" asked Sheena, trying again to understand Lloyds reasoning.

"I've known Presea since my first day at the ranch," Lloyd explained. "She was always alone, so I gave her company. She never spoke much but her silence seemed to speak for her. Something is going on within her. She is talking more. She seems different. Whatever her reasons, that cottage seems important to her, and it may have something for her."

"What would be in there?" Sheena asked.

"I don't know. Maybe her past, maybe an important item. She'll tell us if she wants to."

…2 hours later…

Presea finally exited the cabin. Gone were the clothes that had marked her as a slave. She now wore a dark blue dress with white gloves. In one hand she carried a large ax with a green blade. In the other was a lit torch. She casually walked back to the others and then threw the torch into the cottage and it quickly began to burn.

"When I was a child," Presea was saying, her eyes transfixed by the flaming house, "I lived here with my daddy. We didn't need anyone. My daddy was a great warrior and a lumberjack. He would go out on some days and come back with plenty of food. We were always happy…

…Flashback:16 years ago…

Presea and her father were out on a picnic. Her father, Chet had decided not to bring his ax with him. He hated killing, and never wanted Presea to see such things. So whenever they were out, he left his ax behind, hoping to end any conflict peacefully. They had walked for a few hours and were now enjoying the meal Chet had prepared.

"Enjoy your lunch, my sweet Presea?" Chet asked his daughter.

"Yes daddy, it's great!" Presea replied between mouthfuls.

Chet just smiled. They had just finished the meal when suddenly, a crossbow bolt hit Chet in the arm!

"RUN PRESEA, RUN!" he screamed with urgency.

Presea got up and instantly started running. But she didn't go far. Behind her she heard her father cry out in pain as three more bolts hit his legs and other arm.

"DADDY!" she cried out in horror. Then from behind her, two men grabbed her by the arms and lifted her off the ground.

"Let my daughter go!" Chet yelled, his voice trembling.

"Who are you to tell me, the awesome Lord Magnius, of the Five Grand Cardinals what to do?" came a proud voice from behind some nearby bushes. Out stepped a brutish looking man, with flaming red hair and a terribly scarred face. He wore a purple and white vest with matching pants. In his left hand he carried a bronze shield with spike protruding from the front, and in his right, a cruel looking ax.

"You pathetic inferior beings are so arrogant," Magnius taunted. "Why don't you give me a reason to?"

Before Chet could utter a single word Magnius came down with his ax, and cleanly decapitated the man.

"DADDYYYYYYYYYYY!" Presea screamed. "DON'T DIE, PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD!"

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Magnius laughed cruelly. "Take this one away. She may be useful to Lord Rodyle's Angelus Project."

…End Flashback…

"I was then taken to The Human Ranch, where they placed this oddly colored thing on my hand. I tried to control myself but it was almost like I had become a mere passenger in my own body. I know this is a selfish thing to ask of you all but, when we do go back to the ranch to defeat the Desians, I want to be the one to kill Magnius. He took my father from me as well as sixteen years of my life. He ruined my life. Revenge is all I have left at the moment."

"Of course," Lloyd said, speaking the entire groups opinion. "I will kill Forcystus and get back my sword, and you will kill Magnius and put your fathers memory to rest."

"Thank you."

…That night…

Lloyd was looking at the stars. They were always so calming to him. They were always there to make him feel that much smaller. It helped him to remember that he was just one small man, and could not change the world.

"Hey, mind if I join you?" Sheena asked.

"Sure," Lloyd said, turning his head to see her, "have a seat."

"What kind of experiments do you think they did to Presea?" he asked as she sat down.

"I don't know," she replied, almost concedingly. "It may be that they did nothing to her at all, but something crazy to her exsphere."

"Is that what these things are called?" asked Lloyd, looking down at his own purple orb.

"Yeah, they somehow enhance our strength, and improve our reactions," Sheena explained. "They are usually blue like mine, but on very rare occasions they are red. That usually means it is a cruxis crystal, like the ones on Zelos and Colette. They may have been trying to make one with Presea."

"So what about purple ones?" he questioned further.

"I really don't know," Sheena said. "It may be another experiment."

…Change view: Kvar…

"Oh well, we may as well look on the bright side Rodyle," Kvar was saying as he and his old friend were enjoying a drink together, "at least now you won't look like a fool when it becomes painfully clear that your Angelus Project was inferior to mine."

"Oh not this again Kvar!" Rodyle said. "We both know perfectly well that within the next month or so my project would have created a perfect cruxis crystal."

"I have no doubt about that Rodyle, but all the same, given another year and my project would have been ready for extraction from its host body. Afterward it would begin to evolve rapidly, and within another month would have become far greater than any cruxis crystal. My plan was ingenious."

"We'll probably never know now," replied Rodyle, taking another sip from his drink.

AN: And done. Well I hope you enjoyed. Now then, I want you t look at the little blue button at the bottom of this screen. You see it, good. Now then, click it and review this story. I'm now allowing anonymous reviews also. I would have sooner but didn't know I was even blocking them… sorry to everyone who doesn't have a penname here. And also remember that The Fey Heretic and I want to hear your opinion about which Final Fantasy we should write about. Night Shift will be up fairly soon as well as the next chapter. See you then at Ch. 6: The Ruined City. Now go review please. Laters!