Hey.
Yeah, yeah, I know. This chapter's late. So sue me, I have lots of other things going on right now that (Unfortunately) take high priority over fanfiction. I apologize.
I do not own Tales of Symphonia. Aaron, Kyle, and Orois are mine.
Two Worlds, One Soul
Chapter XI – Infiltration
Kratos fell to his knees. No…not Lloyd too…I've lost him again. Please Martel…don't let me lose him again…don't let me be all alone…
"Kratos…" said Aaron.
Either Kratos didn't hear, or he didn't listen.
"I think it's best if we give him a little time first. Let's get the others." Said Sam.
The three terrans made their rounds about the house to rouse the unconscious Symphonians.
"Ouch…my aching head." Said Genis, holding his head and sitting up.
"Mmph. Hud hoo meeze gemmof huf hi?" said Presea, whom Genis was still groggily sitting on.
"Oh!" said Genis, hurriedly standing and helping Presea to her feet. "I'm so sorry about that…" he said, his face flaming red.
"Do not worry, I am fine." She said. Nevertheless, she staggered back when she tried to move. Genis caught her and handed her an ice pack.
Sheena came to slowly, and with the help of Kyle, stood shakily, looking around for her cards. Kyle handed her the shredded pieces.
"Sorry about those, I hope you have more with you." He said.
"Ah, that's okay…too bad though, these were some of my best…I'll get that bastard for this!" she muttered.
Regal and Raine came to quickly, which was fortunate, as their healing abilities were sorely needed. The terrans could deal with lumps on your head, sword wounds were beyond what they usually dealt with.
Raine, after dealing with the numerous slashes on Yuan's body, attended to the rest of the company. Meanwhile, Aaron collected the steak knives from the living room, despairing when he found one stuck in the drywall.
"Crap, I'll have to patch that up before Dad sees it and totally flips out." He lamented.
"Could everyone please come into the kitchen? We need to make a plan." Came Yuan's voice.
They were all gathered at the table in a few minutes, minus one stoic Seraphim.
"Where'd Kratos go?" asked Colette.
"I thought it would be wise to leave him alone for a while…he's not in the mood to talk right now…" said Raine.
"So…what do we do now? We have no idea where Orois went, or what he'll do next," said Genis.
"Actually, we might." Said Kyle.
"What do you mean?" asked Sheena.
"Well, from what I heard of his conversation, he's following something done once by a man named Enishi…I had always though he was made up, but I guess I was wrong." Said Aaron.
"What do you mean 'thought he was made up'? Is he some sort of legend?" asked Yuan.
"Not really. Have a look at this." Sam said, producing a volume of Rurouni Kenshin manga. "He's copying this story, which we supposed was fiction, but now I guess isn't."
Kyle continued. "Enishi tried to get revenge on the main character, Kenshin, for a misunderstood killing long ago. His revenge was called Jinchu, and it involves psychologically tormenting your victim before slowly killing them."
"Our guess is that he's going to do something else that will torment Kratos, possibly something about Anna." Said Aaron.
"What he has in mind, we have no way of knowing. Our best bet is to track him down before he can do any more damage." Said Sam. "It's a pity we have no idea where he went."
"That's not exactly true, you know." Said Sheena. "There are guardian tracers on all of us, just in case something like this happens."
"But didn't you say before that the signal was too weak to detect?" asked Colette.
"That was when Lloyd was in a separate universe." Said Zelos. "It's a little bit different now."
"Orois' mana amplification will also make it easier to detect the tracer." Said Regal.
"Hey, you're right! Wow, we'd better go tell Kratos the good news!" said Genis.
"No. Let's locate Lloyd first. It would do him good to be alone for a while." Said Yuan.
Sam and Sheena looked doubtful. "If you say so, Yuan." Said Sam.
Kratos was still on the deck, half sitting, half standing, and still staring at the spot where Lloyd had vanished. He was shell-shocked to the point where he was numb, and not just from his Cruxis Crystal. This was beyond physical pain, just physical hurt. He felt that, once again, a piece of his soul had been ripped out. As he sat and stared, he felt something stirring inside his chest. Where there was previously nothing but cold, sturdy resolve, there was now doubt.
His emotional shell had cracked.
With that chink in his psychological armor, the emotions came forth in a flood that almost overwhelmed him. He finally succumbed, and a single tear appeared on his cheek. But he was not one to cry. He struggled to compose himself, and shakily rose.
He looked up at the sickle moon above, and he felt a surge of flaming hatred for the man who had vanished at that spot. He would be found. He would pay.
"You've made a fatal mistake, Orois. Nothing will stop me. I will chase you to the ends of this earth if I have to. You will not escape me." He swore darkly.
"I call upon the source of Heaven and Earth and everything in between. The King of all, I summon thee! Come! Origin!" called Sheena.
I have come. What do you require?
"Lloyd Irving is missing, kidnapped. Please, search for his signal."
As you wish.
Origin focused his power. A bright white beam shot off into the distance. Origin nodded.
That is where he can be found.
"Then please, take us there!" said Colette.
I dare not.
"What? Why?" asked Raine.
"I would assume it is because of Orois' amplification field." Said Yuan.
"If the king of the Summon Spirits were to get to close to him, the Mana that radiates from him might have disastrous repercussions." Said Regal.
You are correct.
"Well, he appeared in close quarters before, why didn't anything happen that time?" asked Genis.
There was some effect. My strike was far more powerful than I intended. It was meant to root him to the ground, instead it picked him up and threw him.
"Odd…very odd…" muttered Raine.
"Well, can you at least take us close?" asked Kyle.
If you will it.
"Then let us go." Said Regal.
Origin began to cast the teleportation spell, but Aaron stopped him.
"Hang on just a minute. Let us get some weapons before we go. We're not going to let ourselves be a liability for you guys, and there's no way in hell you're leaving us behind."
"Well, hurry then." Said Raine.
The three rushed off and in a few minutes returned. Aaron bore a pair of serrated kitchen knives long enough to be shortswords and a dozen shorter ones in a makeshift carrier on his belt. Kyle had two long seven-iron golf clubs across his back and a steel baseball bat in his hand. Sam carried a vicious-looking three-pronged garden digger-thing.
"Shall we?"
In a bright flash of light, the fourteen companions vanished.
They appeared at the top of a pine-covered ridge overtop a mountain-ringed valley. Looking down, they saw a large, mansion-like structure, which they assumed to be Orois' headquarters. It looked, for all intents and purposes, to be the mountain retreat for some rich company exec, but they knew the truth. Origin could not be mistaken. This was the base of their enemy.
As soon as Origin dissolved into motes of light, Kratos' azure wings flared out and he lifted off, overcome with his newfound battle-lust. Yuan quickly jumped up and grabbed him by the leg.
"YUAN! RELASE ME!" he roared, the fires of rage in his eyes flaring even brighter.
"Quickly! Help me hold him down!" called Yuan.
The companions struggled to restrain the seraphim. It was no easy task, Kratos fought them like a madman. Which, for all intents and purposes, he was. His legendary self-control was gone, snatched away along with his son.
"I know just the thing to fix him." Said Genis. "SPREAD!"
The icy-cold jet of water brought back enough of Kratos' sanity for him to calm down. They spared no expense, however, and tied him up too.
"Sorry." He said simply. Looking down at his bonds, he added, "But is this really necessary?"
"I'm sorry, old friend, but yes. I can certainly understand your feelings, but you're going to have to keep a cooler head to get through this." Said Yuan.
"The last thing you want to do is go in there with absolutely nothing but rage. You'll get yourself into a trap so fast you won't know what hit you." Said Kyle.
"You have to remember, that's exactly what he wants." Said Sheena, nodding sagely.
"Hn." Said Kratos. (Yeah yeah, I know…Heero's line…so sue me. Well, don't really…)
"Now…how do we get in?" wondered Genis, "I don't really think we should go waltzing in the front door, that's never a good idea."
"And from your story, Dad, the roof is probably not too safe either…"
"Let's just go down there and look for an opening. Knowing him, he'll have a small army of followers, so one of them will probably have a map of sorts we can use." Said Kratos.
"And between Raine and me, we can probably hack a computer." Said Sam.
"Since when can you hack a computer?" asked Aaron.
"I can do lots of stuff you don't know about." She said.
"Umm, moving on, let's go already!" said Zelos.
"Agreed. Any time we waste could be harmful to Lloyd." Said Presea.
They started down, in silence, toward the enemy's lair.
Sneaking from tree to tree, they made it to the walls of the house without detection. Yuan peeked up over the windowsill, and saw nothing.
"I'm going to open this window and see if there's anyone inside." He said. "If it's clear, we'll get in through here."
He lifted the latch, and swung the window out slightly. Ducking his head in, he quickly glanced from side to side. There was no one there, so he opened it the rest of the way and vaulted inside. He motioned them to wait, and they did so. He crept down the hall and peeked around the corner. Creeping back, he motioned them inside.
The remaining members of the party vaulted the window and entered the hall. Looking around, they noted all semblance of a private vacation home ended at the outer walls. Here it was all gleaming metal, very similar to the renegade bases.
They moved slowly down the gleaming hall, carefully on the watch for enemies.
Aaron began to hum 'Mission Impossible'
Kratos looked back and cocked an eyebrow. Aaron merely shrugged and kept humming.
They passed several doors, but upon further investigation, held nothing of interest, not even guards.
"Odd…it's like he wants us to find him…" murmured Yuan.
Kratos had a flashback to his first time he invaded one of Orois' strongholds. At his suggestion, they doubled their lookout. It was lucky they did, because Regal saw a tripwire not moments later.
"Careful." He warned. They slowly stepped over, but in the process hit a security laser. An alarm immediately began blaring.
They heard the tramping of booted feet on metal, and suddenly seven men in blue-black uniforms emblazoned with a silver sickle moon.
Silently, they drew pistols and knives and opened fire. Zelos quickly took a hit, and the idea behind the design of the corridors became quickly apparent. There was no cover whatsoever, even the doors were flush with the walls.
"Guardian!" cried Kratos, shielding most from the fire. Genis took potshots from behind the field with fire and lightning, melting and blasting the weapons. Several soldiers dashed out, slashing wickedly with their knives. Deflecting a bullet off his shield, Kratos slit one man from hip to opposite shoulder. He fell with a scream, his blood pooling. When one man took an all-to-lethal interest in Colette, Aaron flung one of his short knives, which struck the man's temple handle first. He crumpled without a sound. Somehow shunting a bullet off his bat, Kyle brought it smoothly down on his assailant's head. Raine hit one man in the groin with a well-placed staff blow, and a recovered Zelos finished the job. Colette and Regal took hits to the arm and leg respectively, and Raine made short work of getting them back into the fight. Presea bisected the remaining three men in one clean stroke.
Blood was everywhere as a result of the finishing blow, and the easily squeamish Aaron felt like he was going to faint. Genis cleared the mess with spread, and a recover spell courtesy of Raine, and he immediately felt better.
They moved on, encountering several similar troops of men. Raine dutifully healed the unfortunately numerous gunshot and knife wounds that resulted.
"Man… I hope we get to the control room soon, I can't take much more of this…" groaned Zelos. Genis nodded assent. They were all battered and bloodied, run low on mana and weapons. Aaron only had his two long knives left, refusing to pull the others from dead corpses. Kyle's bat was a bent mess, one man had worn a helmet that resisted his best efforts.
"Plus, this siren is getting really annoying," said Sheena, gesticulating to indicating the wailing klaxon that hadn't ended since the first fight.
"I'd have to agree with you there, honey."
"This is not the time for idle talking. We must keep moving" said Kratos.
They eventually came to a door that had a black crest embossed into the metal.
"This could be important." Said Aaron.
"Let's take a look." Said Sam.
They opened the door.
Colette screamed.
That's all for now folks, please review until I get the next one up!
