Me: Kira's back!

Kira: (looks wet and moody) Hi.

Me: What's the matter?

Kira: Your Caribbean cruise!

Me: Well, it was a cruise.

Kira: It was the Disney boat ride 'the Pirates of the Caribbean!'

Me: You have to love the movie though.

Kira: A little kid pushed me in the water!

Me: Any chance of a disclaimer?

Kira: You must be joking!

Me: Fine, I'll have to do the disclaimer. I don't own Tales of Symphonia, but the takeover happens in an hour.

(Hour later)

Me: No! Not the lawsuit!

I was feeling a little weak, since I hadn't touched any 'real' fire for what seemed like ages. I was standing in Sybak's university, listening to the reasons Colette was a soulless angel.

"…Both of these crystals are like parasites fusing with other life forms." The researcher droned on.

'I'm sure this is interesting enough for the group, but after nearly memorizing the script by going through the game countless times, I'm bored!' I complained to Cyclone.

'Well, why don't I give you a quiz?'

'Fair enough. I can answer any question you can give me.'

'Number one, what is Presea's surname?'

'Too easy. Combatir.'

'Question two, what is a protozoan, and I want details on evolutionary forms.'

'A protozoan is a creature that spends most of it's life evolving. It starts as a single-celled organism, and ends up as a human who exists to fight evil. Some of it's forms include the bird-like Areos; the fish, Aquan; and a dog-like Arshis.

'Alright, if you're so clever, what are they going to have for dinner today?'

'How am I supposed to know? That's a horrible question.'

'So, you know everything that's going to happen, but don't know what's for dinner?' Cyclone said smugly.

'If you insist on rubbing it in, there'll be one less dragon in the world.' I mock threatened.

"Maybe we can get a Key Crest around here somewhere." Lloyd ended the conversation and we went to find a Key Crest for Colette.

Five minutes later, we were in Sybak's town centre. I could see the Key Crest from here!

"Maybe we should try the shops." I subtly suggested.

"You're just obsessed with shopping." Stephen teased.

'Have you forgotten where the Key Crest is?' I asked mentally.

'Yeah, so?'

'The Key Crest is on the junk stall, remember?'

'Oh…whoops.'

"I still think we should try the shops." I insisted. Everyone ignored me.

Five minutes later, we'd found the Key Crest and got it for free with a bit of bartering. Lloyd needed to repair it as the charm was worn out. We were waiting in the University's main hallway for Lloyd.

Genis broke the silence. "Why did Cruix turn Colette into an angel?"

"They wanted her as Martel's vessel. They said so themselves." I said regretfully.

"But why are they trying to revive Martel?"

"I…" I started.

'One more word and…' Stephen left the threat in mid-sentence.

"I don't know."

'Why are they trying to revive Martel again?'

'You've forgotten! Martel is Mithos' sister.'

'Yeah, and?'

'You my friend are an idiom.'

'What's an idiom?'

'My word for idiot. Idiom really means a saying.'

Lloyd came into the room.

"I didn't think I'd be giving your birthday present like this. I've attached the Key Crest to your necklace. It's late, but it's my present for you." Lloyd muttered as he gave Colette the Key Crest.

"Colette? Can you hear me?" Lloyd's concern went unanswered.

"How is it?" Genis asked.

"It's not working." Stephen said. "What's wrong with it?"

"The charm on the Key Crest looks very complicated. Lloyd could have messed up, or it simply won't work on Cruix Crystals." I pointed out.

"How about asking Dirk for help?" Raine suggested.

Genis was quick to find fault in his sister's plan. "But Dirk's in Sylvarant and the Rheairds are out of fuel."

"Maybe the people here at the academy might know of a way." Lloyd thought aloud.

"They would never help us. Remember that Zelos is supposed to stop us from going to Sylvarant." I said.

"Zelos is kind to girls, right?" Raine had the beginnings of a plan.

Genis cottoned on to his sister, "Yeah, it's to save Colette. You'll keep quiet about it for us, right?"

"Aw, great. How am I supposed to snitch after hearing that?" Zelos was trapped by his own personality.

"Okay, now all we need is fuel."

A group of Papal knights stepped out of the shadows behind the huge skeleton and surrounded our group.

Although they all looked identical, I assumed that the first one to speak was their leader. "Chosen. We heard what you said just now."

By this point I was cursing mentally, already knowing what would happen.

"We hereby declare you and your companions to be traitors attempting to destroy Tethe'alla."

"Well, that was perfect timing." Zelos said sarcastically.

"It's by the Pope's orders. We are to watch you for suspicions of plotting against the throne."

"Now that's amusing. I'm the one who's plotting against the throne?" Zelos put emphasis on the 'I'm'.

"Restrain them and take a sample. Don't touch the angel." The leader Papal knight ordered.

'Which angel?' I thought, 'They have enough to choose from.' My remark drew sniggers from Cyclone.

One of the guards grabbed my hand and pressed a tube against one of my fingers. He pressed a button on the tube and a second after he'd taken the tube off my finger it ached and started bleeding. (The finger, not the tube!) He then put the blood off my finger into a tube with some kind of liquid in. The liquid turned bright, unnatural red. I could see everyone else's test tubes from here. Lloyd's, Zelos' and Presea's were crimson, the colour of their blood, whereas Raine's, Genis' and Stephen's were the colour of their mana signatures, their auras.

Lloyd complained about the blood test, but nothing was really done about it.

"Sir, we've found several matches." A guard piped up, referring to Raine, Genis, Stephen and I.

"What? Genis! Raine! But Nia said…" Lloyd began.

"I lied to help them. I'm sorry." I explained.

"Half-elves? Is that true?" Zelos accused. His hate for half-elves was understandable. I didn't know all the details, but his mother was killed by half-elves.

"That's right." Raine had given up trying to conceal it any longer. "There's no point in trying to hide it now." Raine whispered to herself.

"These pathetic half-elves have engaged in shameless caste deception." A guard announced.

"What did you say! The Professor, Genis, Nia and Stephen are much better people than you!" Lloyd was furious. "Who cares if they're half-elves?"

'Yay! Go Lloyd! You tell 'em!' I thought.

Zelos then explained how half-elves were the lowest rung on the ladder and how they are executed without exception if they are guilty of crimes. Lloyd thought that was crazy.

'Too right! Time to liven this up a bit!' Stephen worried me with his words.

'What are you up to?'

'You'll see.'

'Uh-oh, that's never good!'

My sudden feeling of dread proved to be right. Stephen teleported up on to the platform above the skeleton.

'Martel help you if ever I get my hands on you.' I threatened, which didn't do any good.

"How did he get up there?" One of the guards asked.

"The same way as you're going to: up the stairs." Stephen said, pointing to the stairs.

The guard ran up the stairs quite slowly because of his armour. When he got to the top, Stephen teleported back down again.

"How did you get down there?"

"Simple, I jumped."

The guard stupidly jumped off the platform. Normally it wouldn't be high enough to do any damage, but the guard had a layer of chain mail on, underneath his plate armour. He dropped like a stone.

Stephen was then confident by his success and tried to bring the skeleton decorating the hallway to life. The dragon bones shuddered and roared then became still and lifeless once again.

"Just a little…tired." Stephen said before collapsing.

Apart from the guard that jumped off the platform, the Papal knights surrounded the half-elves and took us away. I knew that the humans would be taken to an underground laboratory where the half-elves worked and there they would 'stay'.

I also knew that Kate, one of the scientists, would let them out after finding out that Lloyd wanted to help his half-elf friends, namely, us. However, I couldn't tell Raine and Genis that. Right now, they believed that they we going to die.

It wasn't too bad until we got onto the bridge. The bridge seemed to last for miles…what am I saying? The bridge was miles long. But the bridge was where the guards started to taunt us.

"So, you're a pretty little thing, aren't you?" The remark was directed at Raine.

As a reply, she supported her weight by leaning back on the guard behind her, and kicked the idiom knight in the head. Unfortunately he was wearing armour on the head.

"Metal is a very good conductor of heat. Unless you want third degree burns all across your body, you will leave my friends alone." I threatened.

"We've got a couple of violent girls here. Still, they're better sport than the two boys."

I realised that Stephen hadn't said a word since he had collapsed.

"Stephen, are you still conscious? Can you hear me?" I asked, worried about him.

'I'm fine. I just ache all over.'

"Thank goodness for that." I noticed that Genis and Raine were looking curiously at me. "He's alive. That's why I said thank goodness."

"Well, it doesn't really mean a lot if we're going to die at Meltokio!" Raine started off angry, but trailed a little after die.

"Don't say things like that, sis. We're going to be fine." Genis insisted.

"Fat chance, runt. Enjoy your day, it'll be your last." A guard taunted.

'Cyclone, do you know any words to describe these…things? It makes me sick to call them human.' I asked.

'Try yerui – a devil ghost that lives only to destroy.'

'Thank you.'

Before anyone else had a chance to speak the guards had given the order for the bridge to be raised. I strained my neck to look backwards for the humans who should have caught up by now. From what I could see, they hadn't.

'Stephen, let's give them some trouble.'

He just groaned.

"Raine, can you…" I struggled for a way to communicate with Raine, without alerting our captors of my plan. "make use of one's mana to use techniques discovered by Boltzman, on Stephen?"

'What on earth did you say?' Stephen asked.

'I asked her to heal you.'

Raine got my 'code' and began casting First Aid. With Stephen at full power, we could create some problems.

'Remember, delay, not defeat. Got it?'

'Yeah, sure, whatever. Let me kick some butt!'

'I have a bad feeling about this. Okay, Cyclone, I need a distraction.'

Cyclone appeared from that mystical place, 'wherever-guardians-appear-from' and swiped at the guard nearest me. Stephen got the message and summoned Izarax.

Not to brag, but we could have defeated those knights between the two of us. It was only the fear of changing events in this world that prevented us from doing so.

Once momentarily freed from my guards, I prepared to fight and summoned fire to my hands. The nearest knight rushed at me, leaving Genis completely unguarded. I dodged round the knight to try and hit his weak spot, the leather guard on his back. However, the knight was protecting his back well, and was starting to fight with his pikestaff. The blows were easy to dodge, so we were at stalemate. Neither of us could attack the other.

A voice shouted up suddenly, "Want a charge?"

I laughed, knowing what came next.

"Spark Wave!" Genis cast the thunder spell.

A sphere of electricity surrounded the papal knight.

"Mary had a little lamb…" Stephen started and grinned.

"She put it on a pylon," I continued.

"A thousand volts shot up it's bum,"

"And turned it into nylon!" (Sorry, but I just had to put this in!)

I heard the mechanical groan of the bridge being drawn up. My eye's scanned the top for a glimpse of red. I got whacked on my side by a pikestaff and fell over. One of the guards had obviously noticed my attention wandering from the battle and taken advantage of it.

I jumped back on my feet and kicked the offending knight in the helmet, which drove him back by about two millimetres. This was so unfair. Me, with absolutely no armour or weapons, against a trained papal knight, with a huge metal axe-on-a-stick, not to mention the three layers of steel armour!

So when the twin swordsman joined the fight, I was more than slightly relieved. Lloyd slashed the knight in the back, then used tempest, launching himself upwards, spinning. The guard didn't get up after that.

The other guards had already been defeated by the combined forces of Raine, Genis, Presea, Zelos, Colette and…

'Sheena? Wow, I'd forgotten that she'd rejoined the group at Syback.' Stephen said.

'I knew you weren't that intelligent, but really…'

"Lloyd! Everyone!" Genis shouted, running up to the humans.

"You came to rescue us." Raine had a hint of doubt in her voice.

"Thanks." I added.

"What took you so long?" Stephen asked. I glared at him.

"Of course we'd rescue you. You're our friends." Lloyd said confidently, ignoring Stephen.

"But, we're half-elves." Genis protested.

"And?" Lloyd obviously didn't mind.

"What about the Tethe'alla half of our group? Do you mind if we join up with you?" Raine asked.

I already knew the answer.

Sheena said, "I'm from Mizuho. We're not exactly mainstream either. We're not that different."

'Besides, she's got elven blood.' I thought aloud.

'She has?' Stephen was bewildered.

'Keep up.'

It was Zelos' turn next. (They all speak on cue…scary.)

"To tell you the truth, I can't say I'm really kosher with this." (I don't want any reviews about kosher food! We did that in RE!) "Then again, people have always treated me differently, saying that I'm a descendent of angels, so in a way we're a lot alike."

"I just want to go home." Presea said in that tiny voice that made her sound fragile and lonely. It's hard to think of a person wielding a giant axe as fragile!

"I see. All right then." Raine was almost too stunned to speak, she actually believed her friends would just shun her because of her blood.

"By the way, why is Sheena here?" Genis asked.

"I have orders from my chief. I'm supposed to observe your activities."

"That's typical of Mizuho. They're trying to decide if they should side with the king or you guys." Zelos commented.

"So now we have two people keeping tabs on us." Genis, again.

"But I'm not trying to do anything or get in your way or anything! So…" Sheena trailed off. It was hard to believe that at one time, she'd tried to kill Colette.

"We know that already. You're an honest person, perhaps to a fault." Raine. (Will everyone quit talking!)

"At this point, I'm okay with anything." Lloyd smiled. "Now we just need Sheena to form a pact with Volt and we can get the Rheairds working!"

Sheena gasped. "Volt!"

"Sheena?" Presea asked, still not displaying many signs of life, but better off than Colette.

Sheena's childhood kicked in. "Ah, nothing."

"Shouldn't we go and get the Rheairds first?" Zelos asked.

"Yes, but shouldn't we rest first too? I have a feeling…" I began.

'You've said too much, just warn them off and don't tell them Pronyma is up that mountain, whatever you do.' Cyclone said.

"Yeah, we shouldn't get the Rheairds just yet. This is the perfect place to stay the night and relax, you know?" Stephen rescued.

"Sure, we could all do with the rest."

And that's how we almost destroyed Symphonia for the second, but not the last, time.

Reviews! I am the all mighty review monster, who needs them to sustain her writing! I know that there are people out there, not reviewing. Around 160 hits and only three reviews? 5 people have put into favourites! I really want to hear from the non-reviewers so far. Also, if any members can tell me where to find anon. reviews block, I'd appreciate it, because right now, I don't know whether it's on or not!

Also, I know about most of the mythology. (Yggdrasil, Asguard, Vidarr, Idun, Heimdall Norse; mana Hebrew for 'what is it?'; etc) But if anyone can tell me where Naois is from I'll,

Be impressed (although you could just search on the 'net…damn!) and

Give you a plate of imaginary cookies! (any flavour!)

I'm starting the next chapter right now.