Disclaimer: You know the spiel.

Warnings: Bad language, lack of memory when it comes to names, a little short.

Number the Stars

Chapter Four

After waiting for Collette to pack up a few changes of clothing, some gels, and some ingredients for cooking, Kratos and Raine left for Lloyd's home. Kratos supposed that it was the solitary house he'd seen north of the Iselia Forest while he flew around the region early in the morning. He assumed that Lloyd's father was some sort of craftsman and he hoped that the craftsman was a good one so he could save himself the trouble of looking for one on the road to teach Raine and Collette about gems and expheres and such.

Kratos was delighted that Raine was extremely competent because she was doing most of his job for him. He was also thankful that Collette was so eager to make everyone happy and that she was proving to be very cooperative. After spending only a few hours with them, Kratos had concluded that all he would have to do is make sure that the Chosen didn't die and he would be back in his room at Derris-Kharlan in no time.

He was actually feeling quite content because his job was proving to be much easier then he had first assumed. Or at least, he was quite content until the three of them ran into a bunch of wild animals from the forest of Iselia. Raine was a good magician; she avoided close range fighting and stayed behind casting simple supporting magic and healing whenever necessary. Needless to say, Kratos had no real problems himself but he made sure not to seem too strong in front of Raine.

The problem was Collette. In his infinite underestimation of just how stupid people could be, Kratos assumed that the Chosen had been trained for battle at some point. Now, as he looked at Collette put herself in the middle of all the animals, he realized that he was mistaken.

The kid has some potential, or at least she will once the angel transformation begins. Kratos quickly dispatched their attackers and took Collette to where Raine was standing while she healed her.

"Why wasn't she trained for battle?" he asked Raine, feeling exasperated. "Didn't people know from the beginning that she is the Chosen?"

"Collette has been taught all about the Church of Martel," answered Raine as she healed some of the minor injuries Collette had taken. "She even knows how to read angel language."

"That's great, and all," responded Kratos feeling even more annoyed. "But how is it going to help when she is in the middle of a fight? Really, what did they think they were preparing this girl for, a worldwide sermon?"

For once, Kratos hoped that he was exaggerating and that they would not have to fight too much. In any case, it never hurt to be prepared so Kratos leaned down and tried to wake Collette. The girl, who thankfully came out of the fight with only minor injuries, blinked and sat up gingerly while Raine asked if she was feeling dizzy or if she was having trouble seeing correctly.

"No, it's okay Professor Sage," said Collette and plastered on her big, obviously fake smile. The kid really needed to drop the martyr act, but Kratos wasn't there to be her counselor; just her bodyguard until the right time for her death came.

"Chosen," began Kratos and Collette automatically turned her head in his direction and smiled. Kratos suppressed and frown and picked up one of Collette's weapons. "What is this?"

"It's my weapon," she said uncertainly.

"And what are you supposed to do with it?" asked Kratos.

"Kratos--," began Raine gestured for her to be quiet.

"I defend myself from the monsters," answered Collette with a small voice.

"From where?" continued Kratos, quite happy with employing the 'ask them until they find the answer themselves' teaching method.

"The one closes to me," or maybe the 'ask them until they find the answer themselves' was not so good in this situation.

"No," corrected Kratos. "This is a mid-range weapon. You stay in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by your allies and support those in the frontline. Namely me. In this case, you are supposed to remain behind me, in front of Raine and attack the enemies that I am attacking. You're supposed to protect Raine and help me, understand?" Kratos waited until Collette nodded and handed her back her weapon and asked Raine to lead them to the brown hair's father's house.

Before the trio finally made it to the house, they encountered two more groups of monsters. Collette was not particularly useful in those two fights, but at least she did not get in the way. Kratos supposed that he should be happy that the girl was actually a fast learner and good at following orders. A few minutes later, Kratos spotted the edges of a modest, clean house and heard a voice that he recognized as brown hair's shout "you don't have to hit me."

Wonder what the idiot did. Bemused, Kratos watched brown hair stormed out of his house with an angry expression on his face which quickly turned to embarrassment when he saw the newcomers.

"Hi, guys," he said and rubbed the back of his head. "What are you doing here?"

Collette smiled and brightly and told him that they were there to gather weapons and other supplies for the Journey of Regeneration. Then she asked him where her birthday present was and brown hair revealed that he forgot to make it again and that he was so sorry. Eager to get away from all the tragic romance, Kratos motioned for Raine and they entered the house. It was obviously a place that lacked a feminine touch (or paid servants), but it was clean enough. Lloyd's father apparently took his craft seriously; there were tools scattered all over the place, all well-used and taken care. Abruptly, Kratos was reminded of his own father and how seriously he used to take farming.

That was strange; it's been literally centuries since I thought of my father. He shook his head and watched as a dwarf walked into the room, shaking his head and looking quite worried. Raine greeted him and introduced Kratos absentmindedly and began to question him about the weapons he had forged for their journey. It took Kratos about forty seconds to realize that this dwarf's was supposed to be Lloyd's father and about forty more seconds to arrive to the conclusion that the brat was obviously adopted. He took a few seconds to berate himself for being even more disoriented than usual and excused himself to go for a walk.

He walked outside and decided to explore the small patio a little. It'd been so long since he'd been outside and not on the run that he'd forgotten how much he enjoyed just being by himself and getting in touch with nature. Nature was very easy to get along with, no need for talking or birthday presents. The only thing a pet needed was food, shelter, and some affection and they were happy. His best friends (before Martel, Yuan, and Mithos had been his father's hounds).

All right, stop thinking about all that crap. None of it matters anymore. Gods, freedom does crazy things to a man's head, even if it is fake freedom.

Kratos worked a little on clearing his head (just recite all the perfect squares up until three thousand, from greatest to least) until he noticed a small mural in the edge of the small patio. Sometime in the near future, Kratos would regret letting his curiosity get the best of him instead of turning around and asking Raine if they could go already. Unfortunately, he just walked towards it and read the inscription on the stone.

Here lies Anna, the woman who has given me my son.

Kratos just stared at the words Anna and son for about three minutes. His mind went completely blank without the need of scrambling numbers around for the first time in four thousand years (much like the way his mind used to clear when the sounds men screaming from pain during a particularly bad epidemic of the black fever that killed about 35.61, or so he calculated, of the people in his village—his mother included). He assumed that even Raine would have noticed the look of horror that settled over his face as the impact of what he saw really hit him.

Like any normal person, Kratos just had a mild nervous breakdown when he realized that he was a daddy again. Except that this time there was no hint of happiness under the immediate panic that Anna's "we're going to have a baby" had resulted in seventeen years ago. Thankfully, the Kratos's human subconscious decided to intervene before Kratos shut down and immediately began to find a way to ignore this. He sat down and began to have a garbled monologue with himself in order to deny that Lloyd was his oh shit, son.

All right, just breathe---even if you don't need to. This is no proof that the he's mine. Many women are named Anna, and this world is just full of orphans. This is the declining world, for mana's sake. Unless he shows some sign of having a Cruxis crystal or any other indication of being special in any way, this doesn't mean anything.

If Kratos were lucky at all, that would have been the end of it. He would have gone back for Raine and Collette, gotten the Chosen to the end of the regeneration trip, watched Yggie fail once again and returned to his room in Derris-Kharlan to waste away countless centuries. But Kratos had not been lucky since the day he decided to help Mithos, so at that precise moment, mystical that he presumed dead with Anna and his son approached him and began nuzzling his hair. Kratos simply looked at it for a few seconds before mentally exclaiming oh, fuck me.