Hello again. Just to let you guys know, today, August 29, is my last day of summer vacation. Yup. Unfortunately, it's back to reality after today for me, so updates could come a bit slower over the next few days. (or ironically, it might make me write faster) But the bottom line is, this could be the start of slower updates. Luckily, I don't think I could write a better chapter to close my summer vacation than this one. I have a feeling that this chapter will make my summer writing go out with a bang.

But I also have some other news. The other day, an idea just came to me: why not write a Kingdom Hearts story? I've been playing those games since March now, and I ended up liking them a lot. And let's face it, writing the plot to one would be very easy compared to what I've had to do to get the plots straight to other stories. (this one, for instance) I actually already have an idea for it in my mind, and it could start very soon. (as early as this weekend if I feel like making the effort) But don't worry, Tales of Symphonia is still better than Kingdom Hearts. Nothing beats ToS. You hear that, you Final Fantasy fanboys/fangirls! Nothing!

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Lloyd started off the fight by taking out his two blades and started making his way right to Kayne. Kratos followed up by getting ready to start casting a spell. But Kayne was just a little too fast for either of them.

When Lloyd swung his Flamberge at Kayne, Kayne jumped out of the way and rolled onto the ground. Pulling out his double-pronged sword, he got up as if it was no trouble at all and he started fighting back.

Realizing he wouldn't have the time to finish casting his spell, Kratos just decided to fight physically instead. Relying completely on his agility, he ran towards Kayne and started violently clashing his sword.

Now Lloyd saw Kayne was at a disadvantage. Fighting Kratos was hard enough, but if Kayne had to fight Kratos and Lloyd at the same time, then Kayne would be all but finished.

But Kayne seemed ready for this. He ducked just as Lloyd swung his Vorpal Sword at his head, narrowly missing the icy blade.

But as Kayne sprung back up, Lloyd stuck out his leg and gave Kayne a solid kick in the stomach. Kayne moaned in pain as Kratos smashed Kayne's back with the handle of his sword.

Kayne was knocked onto the ground and Lloyd had the Flamberge at his throat. Lloyd was about to make the final cut and finish Kayne right then and there, but Kayne swung himself around and hit the back of Lloyd's ankles, tripping him.

As Lloyd plummeted rear-first onto the ground, Kayne shot himself up and got back on his guard.

Kayne then started taking the fight with Kratos. Both of them took their long, sharp swords and started clashing back and forth with them, sometimes hard enough to cause a spark or two.

Kayne and Kratos finally just mashed their two swords together and neither one of them backed down. Both used every ounce of strength they had to try to push their enemy's sword away. But both turned out to be strong enough that the swords remained completely neutral and evenly in between both of them.

Kratos and Kayne both started sweating heavily as they tried to push their sword into each other, but this contest was clearly not going to be decided very soon.

Lloyd got up while this was going on and tried to think of what would be the best move to make while Kratos was doing his best to hold off Kayne. Since Lloyd couldn't use magic, it was going to be hard to attack with getting in Kratos's way.

Lloyd eventually decided to just go in there and start attacking as aggressively as he could.

The entire space station filled with the sounds of metal clashing together and a few grunts. But none of the three fighters actually spoke; their facial expressions and their grunts did all the talking for them.

Finally, Lloyd and Kratos had enough. They both sprouted their wings and tried to attack Kayne from the air, giving them more maneuverability and making it harder for Kayne to hit them.

But Kayne got lucky with one hit. He smashed the side of Lloyd's head when he was coming down for an aerial swoop, but with the more blunt side of his sword.

Lloyd let out a loud moan of pain as the blow sent him flying into the wall, and he slowly slumped onto the ground, unconscious.

But Kratos wasn't willing to go down so easy. He started firing rapid fireballs at Kayne, hoping to hit him with one and be finished with him.

Kayne was able to stay fast, however. Every single time Kratos launched a fireball at him, he would jump out of the way a split second before he would have gotten hit.

Growing more and more frustrated, Kratos tried a more destructive spell: judgment.

Somehow, Kayne was able to weave his way around the spell as pillars of light started firing down at him. But he was getting worn out, which is exactly what Kratos wanted.

Meanwhile, Lloyd was slowly starting to get his senses back. He slowly opened his eyes, and for a moment, everything around him was a complete blur. He had to blink hard a few times for everything to come back into focus. When he saw that Kayne was giving Kratos a hard time, he wanted nothing more than to spring up and rush to Kratos's aid. But as he tried getting up, Lloyd still felt a throbbing pain in his head from when Kayne hit him. Lloyd had little choice but to sit back down and wait for the pain to go away. He wouldn't be able to fight his hardest if he had that pain while battling.

Meanwhile, back on Aselia, people were becoming less and less hectic and more so just panicking. They saw the laser on the space station was getting larger and more charged. In just minutes, they knew the laser would fire and wipe them all clean.

The only person in the crowd who wasn't shaking or cowering was Yuan. He wasn't afraid of getting killed (mostly because he had his teleporter in case he had to use it to escape getting destroyed), but he also had confidence in Lloyd and Kratos.

"You honestly can't think this guy's a challenge after what you did to Mithos, can you?" Yuan asked softly as he stared at the space station.

"How can you be talking to yourself at a time like this!" a frantic villager screamed when he saw Yuan saying things only he could hear himself.

Looking a little embarrassed, Yuan stuttered, "I…wasn't talking to myself."

Back on the space station, Kayne and Kratos were looking more violent than ever. Even though they were both tired, they were pushing themselves way past their limits, which only caused them to exert more energy.

Kayne did one sneaky move where he spun around and swung his leg up in the air, knocking the side of Kratos's head with his foot.

Kratos got knocked off balance with this move, and when he let his guard down for that split instant because of it, Kayne seized the moment.

Taking his double pronged sword, Kayne stuck the blade of it right through Kratos's gut.

Kratos's eyes widened, and suddenly, the entire space station became dead silent. Lloyd's eyes, as well as Kratos's, were wide open in disbelief at what just happened. The unimaginable had occurred.

Not having any strength left in him at all, Kratos fell on his knees and groaned softly. He took his hand off where he had just gotten stabbed, revealing a giant patch of blood where he had been wounded. Then, he just collapsed on the ground and stopped bleeding.

Lloyd sprung up, furious about what just happened.

"You bastard!" he screamed, louder than he ever had before. Completely ignoring the pain in his head, Lloyd sprung up, unsheathed both of his material blades, and ran into Kayne with such force he knocked him down.

Lloyd began savagely sticking his flamberge and vorpal sword into Kayne's gut and ripped them out violently and painfully. He stuck each sword in over ten times before he finally stopped.

Breathing heavily over what just happened, Lloyd looked at Kayne's dead body, lying on the ground in a puddle of blood.

After what seemed like the longest time, Lloyd ran over to Kratos and started nudging him on the shoulder.

"Kratos?" Lloyd asked, nervously. "Come on, Kratos! Wake up! Please, wake up!"

Kratos slowly groaned as he looked at Lloyd. He finally managed to choke out "The time…look at the clock…"

Lloyd realized Kratos was talking about the countdown clock that would signal when the laser would fire and destroy their world. Lloyd saw to his grave misfortune that the laser would fire in just one minute.

"Kratos, we gotta get the crystal! Without it, the station won't be able to fire the laser!"

"It's no use…" Kratos choked. "We won't…find it in time."

Kratos leaned over onto his side and pointed his sword at one of the panels on the wall. He fired a blast of magic at it, and it started causing the system to short circuit.

A computerized voice suddenly rang out, "Station override. Electricity overload. Station to be destroyed in…ten seconds."

"WHAT!" Lloyd screamed when he saw that Kratos had caused the entire station to go critical and get ready to explode on itself. Lloyd saw Kratos's logic: causing the station to destroy itself was the only way they'd have time to insure the laser wouldn't fire. They wouldn't have enough time to find the crystal, the laser's power source, and remove it.

Thinking fast, Lloyd ran over to Kratos and grabbed his arm. Using his free hand, Lloyd pulled out his teleporter and hit the button on it. The lights took Lloyd and Kratos out of the space station and back to Aselia.

Lloyd and Kratos appeared in the middle of the crowd, right next to Yuan. Yuan was evidently shocked to see them there. Yuan looked even more shocked to see Kratos's wound, along with the fact Kratos was no longer conscious.

"Lloyd! What happened?" Yuan asked desperately.

Yuan's attention was diverted when a loud banging sound was heard. He looked up at the space station and saw it was now nothing more than a giant fireball in the sky. The space station was gone; the laser wasn't going to destroy the world anymore. The space station was destroyed, and everything onboard along with it-including the crystal. And with the crystal, all hopes of resurrecting Anna and having a happy ending were gone.

The entire crowd let out a giant "Oooooooooh" as a sigh of relief when they saw the space station had been destroyed and wasn't a threat any longer.

Yuan and Lloyd immediately rushed Kratos to the Renegade base and laid him down on a bed in there, hoping for his recovery. Lloyd and Yuan waited outside the room.

Lloyd was tired of having to wait inside the Renegade base all that time and decided to step outside to get some air. When he got outside the base, he saw that everyone from their journey of regeneration was there. Genis, Colette, Raine, Zelos, Sheena, Regal and Presea were all standing there, with looks of sorrow, pity or sadness all written across their expressions.

"Guys…thanks for coming," Lloyd weakly said when he saw all his friends were able to make it.

"Is Kratos okay?" Colette pleaded as she wringed her hands together in fear and anxiety.

Lloyd shook his head. "No way of knowing yet. Yuan and I are still waiting for a response or something."

The group went dead silent but cast nervous looks at each other, trying to non-verbally ask, "What do you think is going to happen."

Any life at all in the group died down when Yuan walked out of the base. He had his arms crossed and his cape blew softly in the draft that he created as he walked. "Lloyd…Kratos wishes to see you."

Getting excited that there might be hope, Lloyd ran inside the base and rushed into Kratos's room. Kratos was barely conscious, but he seemed to have just enough energy left to talk to Lloyd.

"Lloyd…my son…" Kratos moaned.

"Don't force yourself to talk, Kratos!" Lloyd ordered.

"…it's too late," Kratos said lowly.

"Don't say that!" Lloyd insisted. "You're not going to die!"

Kratos looked like he tried to say something. His chest was moving up and down very quickly, and it looked like he was going through a lot of pain to get any breath in at all.

"…don't die before I do, Lloyd…my son," Kratos said.

Lloyd's eyes were open wide, but showed little emotion. Lloyd continued staring at his father in complete disbelief.

Slowly, Kratos's body started disappearing and a few sparks of light appeared around him. In no time, Kratos's entire body was almost completely invisible. Small sparkles of light came from Kratos's disappearing body and made their way into a small ball that had started hovering in front of Lloyd…Kratos's Cruxis Crystal.

Knowing there was nothing else he could do, Lloyd took the Cruxis Crystal out into the next room, where Yuan awaited him. Yuan didn't have to say a thing; Lloyd's look told the whole story.

Without saying a word, Lloyd opened up his gloved hand and dropped the Cruxis Crystal, but the crystal remained in mid-air between both of them.

"Lloyd, surely you wish Kratos to go when he's still himself?" Yuan asked, hoping for a positive response from Lloyd.

"Yeah."

"Then you know what must be done."

"Yeah."

Another long silence followed as Lloyd and Yuan continued staring at Kratos's Cruxis Crystal, which was the only thing that was keeping Kratos alive right now. Finally, Yuan spoke up.

Putting out his hand and charging a ball of energy in it, Yuan aimed it at Kratos's Cruxis Crystal and said, "Very well, then."

But Lloyd put up his hand in front of Yuan's, blocking him from firing it.

"I'll do it," Lloyd coldly said, not taking his eyes off the crystal.

Yuan looked surprised at this, but backed down. Lloyd pulled out his Flamberge and started getting ready to use it.

"Goodbye," Lloyd said. After easily eight seconds, Lloyd finished his sentence. "…Kratos."

Lloyd swung his Flamberge at the Cruxis Crystal, shattering it like it were nothing. Instantly, small balls of light started swirling around Lloyd, and they then proceeded to going into his own Cruxis Crystal. Just like that, Kratos's life, after 4,000 years, was over.

Lloyd walked outside to where everyone was standing. They were all smiling and had hopeful looks on their faces, but one look at Lloyd caused it all to fade away. Lloyd merely just shook his head at everyone as he closed his eyes and stared at the ground. And then there was silence.

Later that day, Lloyd, Yuan, and everyone who accompanied Lloyd on his journey, were standing outside Dirk's house. (Dirk was out there himself) Lloyd had built a second monument next to the one in memory of his mother, Anna. The grave next to it was meant for Kratos.

Lloyd stared down at the grave with grave depression while everyone else bowed their heads in honor. Out of all ten of them, not one said a word.

It was really bittersweet. Yes, Lloyd and Kratos had once again prevented the world from being destroyed. But this time, the price was higher than before. Now Kratos was dead, and due to the crystal being destroyed on the space station, any hopes of reviving Anna (and now Kratos) were gone forever.

One by one, people started leaving Dirk's yard and made their way home. Lloyd was standing there a while after everyone left, though. But he still did not utter a word as he stared at Kratos's grave.