Hikaru: Have any of you noticed anything … familiar about Frio's initials?

--

"I don't see a need to."

"You're being selfish! Now that your goal is accomplished, it's fine for you to just sit back and watch the world you helped go up in flames?"

"Yes, perhaps it is selfish. But now that the world is in its original form and the Giant Tree thriving, I don't see a need to help those miserable creatures. It's their nature to burn in the flames they themselves set."

" … I know you cannot mean that, Yuan."

Yuan glared at Kratos, an unwelcome visitor in his midst. He had been rather enjoying this new life of solitude with Martel in spirit, if not in the flesh. He had no more worries, no longer was he entangled in the great web of the world's intrigues. As far as he was concerned, he was dead to the world.

And now Kratos, who after four thousand plus years, still had in him the human nature that was harder to kill than a cockroach. He was still attached greatly to the world, still human in nearly every aspect.

Yuan tapped his fingers rhythmically on the polished wooden table, stealing a glance out the window. In the distant clearing ahead stood the Giant Tree, thriving quite nicely, although it would be at least a few centuries before it would attain its greatest heights.

"But I do, Kratos." Yuan replied, raking a hand through his aqua blue hair. "I'm very tired. I've been fighting against impossible odds for four thousand years constantly, and now I need to fight no more. I just want to be with Martel in peace."

Kratos, in a rare flash of anger, pounded a fist on the table, making Yuan jump slightly.

"Martel is dead."

Yuan leapt to his feet, slapping a hand on the table in the same angry manner Kratos had.

"I don't need you to tell me that!" He yelled, fingers curling into fists.

"Then is this how you honor her memory?" Kratos pressed. "Is this how you honor her sacrifice? She's suffered all this time, four thousand years of constant pain, and it was her own brother that had done so much wrong! She had suffered more than any of us had, and yet you refuse to allow her to rest in peace!"

Yuan's eyes were wide. Kratos's words were sharp as the sword he carried, and those words just now cut him deep, to the core.

"You have no right to tell me how to honor the woman I love!" Yuan screamed back, clenching the hand on which he wore his engagement ring.

Here Kratos donned a coy smile.

"And yet you had no problem telling me how I changed once I got a family."

Yuan averted his gaze, brow furrowed, teeth grit together.

"At least you had the opportunity," he muttered heatedly. Unlike Yuan, Kratos had been able to form a family with the woman he loved. They'd had a son. And now he was a grandfather! It was almost insulting.

Kratos took a step toward Yuan, his voice softening and becoming more gentle, the kind of fatherly tone he would use when speaking to Lloyd.

"Martel is still alive in some way. She can see, can feel the world and its goings-on. Even now she may still be suffering. Think: would Martel want you to stay holed up in this little shack of a home while the pillars supporting the world collapse around you?"

Yuan wanted at that moment to scream at Kratos to get the hell out and leave him alone, that Kratos seemed to have no problem playing protector of the world, so why won't he run off and save it again? It seemed this world needed constant saving.

" … She would want me to get out there and put a stop to it." He said finally, knowing full well that Kratos would know this as well. Kratos had been somewhat of a loner, keeping mostly to himself as the only human among a group of half-elves, but he still knew each and every one of them well.

Too well.

A small smile tugged at the corners of Kratos's mouth.

Yuan sighed, rubbing his temple as if trying to assuage an oncoming headache.

"It won't be easy. Mithos destroyed the Renegades through Nemesis and its sub-divisions. I am now alone, one man. I cannot do everything …"

Yuan caught Kratos's gaze—he looked ready to start exchanging blows over this if he didn't hear from Yuan what he wanted to. Yeesh, humans were so hotheaded and irrational.

"… but still I can do something."

This time Kratos did not suppress his wide smile, the smile that Yuan remembered when they had first met when Kratos was but a young teenager, no older than Lloyd had been at the start of their journey.

"That's the spirit," Kratos laughed, clapping Yuan on the shoulder. "That sounds like the Yuan I remember."

Yuan gave an irritated growl.

"You're more like your son than you let on, you know that?"

At this Kratos laughed again, giving Yuan a playful punch on the arm.

"Then perhaps you can guess why I don't let it on."

Yuan stared out his window, at the Giant Tree. He wished the guardian Spirit would appear so that he might at least attempt to speak with Martel's soul in the mesh of life force that manifested within Tabatha. But the Spirit never appeared now, ever since Mithos had tried to capture it.

And that had been over seventeen years ago.

But Yuan knew this was the right thing to do, Martel's wish or not.

"What would you have me do, Kratos?" Yuan asked, turning to face him again. "The Renegades are gone; I have no troops at my disposal. I can't exactly distract Tethe'alla's troops away from your grandchildren and by extension the Eternal Sword. And from what I heard about the new king, no one can dissuade him from the warpath."

Kratos cupped his chin in a hand thoughtfully.

"True. Not even the Queen—but I won't lie, Queen Hilda doesn't exactly have the head of a true ruler on her shoulders. She still adores Zelos … but if Zelos tried to ask her to talk to the king about stopping the war, he'd know something's up. Zelos is known as a Sylvarantian sympathizer of sorts."

But Yuan had an idea. His face cracked into a mischievous grin.

"… I know a way."

Kratos quirked an eyebrow, lips parted as if he were going to ask … but was in actuality afraid to ask.

Yuan paced around the room, arms folded, still smiling.

"If the king were to … disappear for a while … but still gave orders for the war to stop …"

Kratos froze, seeming to at last know what Yuan was getting at.

"You're saying we need Raine."

Yuan's grin grew broader.

"Not Raine, per se, but rather the company she's keeping. Do you know where she's been of late?"

Here Kratos's face fell.

"No. Raine visited us little in New Mizuho, and even less in Iselia. What about Genis? He lives near here, right, to study mana?"

Yuan groaned.

"He's at the Palmacosta Academy, teaching there as a professor. The research he's obtained about mana is very valuable, so he's staying there for a while. And with this war, it's more than likely that the Sylvarantian Council will seek to use Genis or at least his research to counter Tethe'alla's magitech weaponry or buff up their own."

Kratos shook his head.

"Lloyd, Sheena, Colette, and Noishe are part of the Council. There's no way they'd let Genis be exploited like that."

Here Yuan gave him a curious sidelong glance.

"But in these extreme situations, is it better to be good or useful?"

Kratos didn't answer.

"Anyway," Yuan continued, "Genis is the only one who knows where Raine is, so we'll need to make a trip to Palmacosta."

"Actually," Kratos said, garnering Yuan's attention, "unless you wish to accompany me, I have to make a trip to Old Mizuho first. One of theirs made an act of aggression against New Mizuho, and I have to find out if it was of their own or the whole of Tethe'alla's accord."

Yuan quirked a brow. "Really?" He murmured. That sounded very interesting—the elder clan challenging the younger and more radical.

"Could it be under Kuchinawa's orders? Could the Old Mizuho Chief be still feeling resentment toward Sheena?"

Kratos frowned prominently at Yuan's suggestion. "That's what I aim to find out. Will you come with me or go see Genis about Raine?"

Yuan considered for a time before finally deciding.

"No, I'll go to Palmacosta. As father of one of New Mizuho's leaders, chances are they'll let only you in their village. Besides, it'd be faster this way."

"All right," Kratos made his way to the door, calling over his shoulder, "Where do you want to rendezvous?"

"Hmm … how about the Council in Luin?"

Kratos grinned halfheartedly.

"A fitting location."