The Eternal Sword hummed in his hands, vibrating through the red gloves on his hands. Origin told him to have Kratos grab him by the shoulder, as if the elder man was about to lecture him. It was a position he was familiar to, Professor Sage having done this before when she was admonishing him for some prank or other such stupid act of childishness that he'd pulled off.

The air around him and Kratos hummed as the particles of light emanating from the sword created a bubble around the two of them. A bubble of light that pulsed brightly for little less than a second. During that fraction of time, Lloyd blinked and when he opened his eyes again, the scenery had changed.

As the sword cycled down, reabsorbing the bubble of light and losing its bright glow, Lloyd released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Kratos released his shoulder and began to look around the small clearing in a grouping of trees that they'd appeared in. The sky above was red and pink with dawn or dusk, Lloyd couldn't be sure.

"That was... impressive," Kratos said. "Though I'm not too surprised, considering what it was the Eternal Sword. I'm... proud to know my son would end up becoming the new Eternal Swordsman."

Lloyd blushed and said, "Yeah... Dad was-that is, my Kratos, was really proud of me too... though that didn't stop him from leaving."

"If he's anything like I am, or had anything like my life," Kratos said, "then I know for a fact that he's the proudest father in the universe."

Lloyd smiled and turned away from Kratos to hide the tear that ran down the side of his face. He pushed his emotions to the side and lifted the Eternal Sword in front of him. He made a small pulling motion on the hilt with both hands, pulling left with his left hand and right with the other. Instead of being futile, the Eternal Sword diffused into the Vorpal Sword and the Flamberge.

Kratos watched curiously, glancing at his own Flamberge during the event. When it was all said and done, the Material Blades sheathed at his waist, Lloyd turned back around and took a deep breath. This was a new world with a new task that promised another adventure, after all.

"Let's go see what this world has in store for us," Lloyd said.

Kratos smirked and nodded, gesturing for Lloyd to lead the way with an out stretched arm. "After you."

"Right," Lloyd said. "Oh yeah. Before we go we should probably ask Origin what he knows. Maybe he has a clue as to what needs to be done."

"A wise choice," Kratos said. "My other self must be proud indeed to have such an astute son as you."

Lloyd chuckled weakly and rubbed the back of his neck, a feeling of shame enveloping him from behind. Kratos arched an eyebrow curiously and tilted his head slightly to the side.

"I... wasn't always the best of students," Lloyd admitted, glancing to the side to avoid eye contact. His Kratos or no, the man's eyes were hard enough to cut through diamond.

"I see..." Lloyd was sure Kratos was about to admonish him, but instead he said, "However, that isn't important now. You're alive and well, so you must have learned whatever lessons my other self was teaching you one way or another."

The way Kratos said those last two words made Lloyd shiver. This really was Kratos, he realized. Even if he was nicer to him and more affectionate than his own father, this man was more than likely no less a tyrant when teaching a student.

"Origin," Lloyd said. "Hey! Can you hear me?" He waited for several seconds. That turned into a minute. That turned into ten minutes.

"Perhaps you require the Eternal Sword in its real form to communicate with him in this dimension," Kratos said. "Unless... something is blocking the communication."

"Maybe..." Lloyd went to grab the hilts of his swords when he heard a scream. It sounded like a girl screaming, or perhaps a small child. Lloyd looked at Kratos and it took only milliseconds for the two of them to bolt from the clearing.

Kratos took the lead, leaping in the air and unsheathing his sword as his feet left the ground. He did a summersault and landed on top of a huge mountain of a man swinging a ball and chain. The blow knocked the man backwards onto the ground with a loud thud, the ball and chain flying from his huge meaty hands.

Lloyd went to do the same move, but his ribbons caught on a tree branch. The twin ribbons choked him and pulled him backwards. He hit the branch, knocking it away. As he went to pull his ribbons free, the thick branch snapped back and smashed into Lloyd's head, knocking him out cold, face mashed into the dirt.

Waking from unconsciousness was like a cold splash of water to the face. In fact it was a cold splash of water to the face. He sputtered and coughed as he floundered around. When he finally got his bearings back, Lloyd wished he was unconscious again.

Staring straight at him was none other than himself, Genis, Colette, and Kratos behind them. For a moment he wasn't sure if he was dreaming or if he was hallucinating. Maybe that blow to the head had done some damage to his brain.

"This is awesome!" The other Lloyd shouted. "I thought you were kidding around, Mr. Kratos, but here he is! Another me! Wow! It's like I have a twin! Yeah! A twin brother!"

Colette watched, but was clearly unimpressed. This was odd to see, because Lloyd didn't think it was even possible for Colette to be anything less than moderately happy. His Colette... was always smiling. This Colette was frowning. Scowling even. Scanning him with eyes cold and alien. Blue orbs that were startling to watch for too long because it made him feel like he was going to freeze to death.

Then there was Genis. He looked... shorter, somehow. Timid. Gone were the wise cracks and the derisive attitude. And the fact that he was hiding halfway behind Colette's back and wore purple versions of his blue clothes drove home the difference.

"I must apologize," Kratos said. "They followed me when I came to find you. Had I known you were unconscious instead of hiding from your other-self, I would have come alone. I was expecting you to have left a message on where to find you once I was free of these children."

"Hey! You can't leave us behind!" The alternate Lloyd exclaimed. "You're our guardian now! Phaidra said so!"

"Hmph," was all Colette said. She rolled her eyes though, adding to Lloyd's suspicion that she really didn't give a rabbits fuzzy tail what Kratos did.

"I... It's... Uh..." Lloyd tried to form a sentence but the words wouldn't come to him. He was confronted with a scene he'd wished many times would have replayed. Just the four of them, sometimes with Professor Sage, together again. Back when everything was simple and Kratos was 'just another mercenary'.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?" the other Lloyd asked loudly, getting up close and into Lloyd's personal space. Nose to nose, his other-self asked, "Are you sick or something? Did you hurt your head that badly?"

"Lloyd," Colette said calmly and almost too quietly to hear. The other Lloyd, though, immediately stilled his rambunctious form and glanced behind him to the blond girl. His shoulders slumped during this silent exchange that took place between their eyes. "What did I tell you about getting into other people's personal space?"

"Oh... yeah," the other Lloyd said. He turned back to Lloyd and smiled in a way quite similar to the way his Colette did and said, "Sorry." Then the boy stood up and backed away, but he looked sad through the mostly genuine smile on his face.

Lloyd shook his head and forced himself to blink. It was like all of their personalities were mixed up. What in the world was going on? Origin wasn't answering either. Something was really really wrong here. Or... it was perfectly normal, for this dimension. Better to start where he knew he could get answers.

"Kratos," he croaked, "What happened after you jumped out of the bushes?"

"He totally kicked Desian butt!" the other Lloyd enthused. Colette shot him a look and he quickly lost his excitement.

"As the young man puts it," Kratos said, giving the other Lloyd a pitying glance, "I defeated several Desians attacking the Martel Temple. We appear to be just outside of Iselia, though these children seem to be determined to call it E-selia. This young lady is the next Chosen of Regeneration. She was headed to the Temple to receive the Oracle when she was attacked by the Desians. Unfortunately, the Desians had killed the priests that would have normally guarded her from the monsters in the temple, so I was asked to protect her instead, at least for the journey through the temple."

Lloyd frowned. This was too much of a coincidence. Origin did say some dimensions would be almost exactly the same as his. But this... it was almost like time had rewound to the very genesis of his journey. It even played out in the same way.

But as he looked up and at the group before him, he realized that this situation was completely different from what he experienced. This Kratos wasn't his father, as much as he'd like him to be. He was too… nice? Understanding? Forgiving?

And then the trio from this… E-selia. They weren't him and his friends. And if anything, the fact that he was facing a younger version of himself kind of nailed home the fact that he wasn't on his world anymore.

"Right," he said after a long pause. "Shouldn't we be getting Colette to the Oracle then?"

Colette's eyes narrowed. "How do you know my name?" she demanded. "You may look like Lloyd, but you're not him. Clearly."

Lloyd sighed. Today was going to be one of those days. He hated those kinds of days. He didn't want to delay the events that needed to take place any further either. So, in the interest of saving time and having less of a headache to deal with, he said, "I'm Lloyd Irving, but not your Lloyd Irving. In my world, Colette Brunel was the Chosen of Regeneration and since Kratos said that's what you are, and you look exactly like my friend Colette, I put two and two together."

Colette arched an eyebrow but remained silent, casting a skeptical look at him. His other-self grinned and hopped up and down a few times. Genis just pulled behind Colette.

"Nevertheless, Chosen," Kratos said, breaking the silence that was quickly becoming uncomfortable, "Lloyd is correct. We should get you to the temple so that you can receive the Oracle."

Colette sniffed, shifting her penetrating gaze away from Lloyd and toward Kratos. With a nod, she turned and walked away, Genis clinging to her white coat and his other-self bouncing along behind her. Kratos shifted on his feet and gave Lloyd a sidelong glance.

"I think for the time being it would be a good idea to remain out of site," he said.

"Yeah," Lloyd agreed, getting back to his feet. He rubbed his forehead and winced as he felt around the growing welt there. "There are already too many questions and no one has any answers. Not to mention that we've got other issues to deal with, like why Origin isn't responding to me or you."

"Indeed," Kratos said with a nod. "I believe it would be wise to split up at this point. You should go search for Origin while I play the part of mercenary escort for the Chosen. We can cover more ground that way and keep up appearances. And now that the kids have seen you, it wouldn't be a good idea to let them run the risk of something slipping out." Lloyd nodded his head in agreement as Kratos continued to speak. "I believe that the first seal we'll head for is the Fire Seal in the Triet Desert."

"Yeah," Lloyd said. "That sounds like a good plan. In my world, we went to the Fire Seal first too, then Water, Wind, and finally the Light Seal. After releasing the seals, we went to Hima where we got dragon rides to the Tower of Salvation. If you stay on that path, which took us almost a year to complete, then I should be able catch back up to you once I find Origin and figure out what's going on."

"A year sounds about right. Where will you head first?" Kratos asked. "I would suggest the Origin's Tablet itself, but there's no way of knowing if you can breach the dimensional barrier between the worlds or if the elves would let you into their sacred forest."

"My first mission, then, will be to get to Tethe'alla," Lloyd said, with a nod. He turned and started walking in the opposite direction of the Martel Temple. Kratos did the same, but in the direction of the Temple. "After that I'll just have to figure a way in. Maybe I'll just fly in. Good luck." That last part he called over his shoulder just as he pushed past a large bush. Behind him he heard Kratos say something similar.

The woods were shockingly similar to his own. No, maybe a better way of describing it was surreal. This world was so different and so similar at the same time. It was giving him chills. Shivers ran up and down his spine as he saw trees he could remember carving his name into along the path to and from his house.

Only here the carvings were much more sloppy and without direction. Some looked more like blobs than anything legible. Could he really be that dumb in this dimension?

Still there and still operating was the Human Ranch. He had to force himself not to go in and bust it up, knowing both that it would get him noticed and that he was probably dooming the people inside to die horrible deaths as they were transformed into Exspheres. It was hard, but by steering completely clear of the Ranch and taking the long way around, he was soon on the edge of the woods and on his way out onto the Iselian Plains.

Oddly enough, there were no monsters anywhere. Not in the woods, nor on the plains. Back home, he'd have seen monsters everywhere, going about their business. But here… it was like there just weren't any monsters at all.

And despite that discrepancy between his own world and this one, the hairs on the back of his neck indicating danger weren't going down. He cursed himself when he realized that he was getting the strange feeling in his gut that he usually got when about to be attacked. That feeling like he was being watched. The whole trip through the woods, he'd been ignoring that feeling and instead wondering at how everything was the same and different.

Now that Lloyd was focused, he reached down to his swords and unsheathed them. The Material Blades glowed in the early afternoon sunlight. Focusing on the feeling in his gut, he readied his stance and tightened his grip on the hilts. Looking back and forth, listening to the breeze on the tree canopy, smelling for anything that was out of the ordinary.

There it was, the smell of sweat. Sweat and hair. Those were usually the two things you smelled from people. And this one wasn't too smart since he was stalking Lloyd from up wind. Then the idle thought entered his mind that possibly this guy knew he was tipping Lloyd off and wanted him to know that he was being stalked, taking joy in the hunt.

Either way, he was done playing this guy's game. "Okay," he said, "I know you're out there. Come out where I can see you!"

"I see, so you knew that I was here." The voice that spoke was at once familiar. The matching blue hair framed face that went with the voice appeared quite suddenly, having stepped from behind a tree two feet behind Lloyd. Lloyd frowned, lowering his guard a little at the familiar presence. "Hmph, you're not much to look at, are you. Imagine my surprise to find not only one, but two of my long dead friend's children in the area where I was to pick up the Chosen. And not only that, but to find my dead friend is actually alive and well. This day just can't get any more… Let's just call it a game changer."

"Yuan," Lloyd said. "What are you talking about? Who's your dead friend, and… wait, did you just say that you were headed to protect Colette?"

Yuan tilted his head with a frown creasing his brown. His sharp eyes were watching him closely, sizing him up or trying to decipher him. Or both. Finally, Yuan said, "I suppose your father was the one who told you who I am. Though I'm a bit confused as to how you knew what I looked like. No matter. If Kratos could pretend to be dead for 14 years, then he certainly had the guile to take a picture of me without me knowing. But enough of this bantering. I need you to take me to see your father. He and I have much to discuss… …like how he survived Mithos killing him." That last part was whispered, but Lloyd heard it clear as day.

Putting everything together, Lloyd assembled a quick summary of what took place in this dimension in his head. This dimension's Kratos had died, fourteen years ago, or he'd led everyone to believe he was dead. It was hard for him to believe someone like Yuan would think Kratos was dead if he really wasn't. Especially, if what Yuan said about Mithos being the one to kill him were true.

Then there was the second part about Yuan being assigned to take Kratos' place in the World Regeneration Journey to ensure that Colette succeeded in releasing the seals and became Martel's vessel. That would probably mean that Yuan wasn't the one running the Renegades, since he probably would have just let his men kill her without putting up more than a token effort to stop them. But that left one question which was now nagging at him.

"Why are you talking to me instead of Kratos," Lloyd asked. "If you need to see him, then why don't you just go and talk to him instead of going through me? He should still be over at the temple right now."

"I would have," Yuan said, nodding. "In fact, I was on my way to do that very thing when I noticed one very odd warp signature that showed up on my scans of the area." Yuan pulled out a small device with a round screen from under his cloak. On the screen blinked several indicators. The one at the center was blinking the fastest and the brightest. "It disappeared quickly when it happened, but the energy trail leads straight to you. And now that I'm close enough to sense it myself, I find that it's a very unique signature that hasn't been seen since your father left us 14 years ago." Yuan paused after he said that, frowning at Lloyd as if he were seeing something that wasn't there before. After a moment of staring, he shook his head and continued speaking, "When he did that, Origin was set free and hasn't been seen since. Yours is the first trace of Origin since then. That, I'm afraid, is a bit more important than talking to your father at the moment. As you said, he's in an easily reachable place. You on the other hand... I had no idea where you were going, so I chose to follow you. Now, it's my turn to ask a question. Do you know where Origin is?"

"I'm sorry, but that's actually what I was going to go find out. I haven't any idea where he is either," Lloyd said shaking his head. Yuan frowned, clearly dissatisfied with the answer.

'So in this world,' Lloyd thought, 'Origin has been released from his seal and went missing. That might explain why Kratos and I can't contact him. Hmm… that will make things a bit more difficult. Where would the Lord of all Summon Spirits go to hide out?'

"I suppose there's no use pushing the matter," Yuan said. "I think I'll go talk to your father now. He may know of where Origin would go to when he was released, seeing as he was the seal for the last 4000 or so years. Also, he should be made aware of how the situation changed after he... died. I don't think your father noticed that those Desians he was fighting weren't with Cruxis anymore."

Lloyd nodded. "That's a good idea- wait, what?"

Yuan glanced sidelong at Lloyd curiously. "Just how much did your father tell you about ancient history anyway?"

Lloyd shook his head and sheathed the Material Blades. "Never mind," he said, "whatever it is you have to say to Kra-err Dad, it's probably best that we all hear it at the same time so you don't have to repeat yourself. We'll need to be discrete because... uhh... my twin doesn't like being seen with me... uh... and... father doesn't want it to be known that there are two of us."

Yuan nodded. "Lead the way."

Written by: I.K.A. Valian

Beta by: Sno Phoenix Group

Author Note: This being the introduction of a new arc and the first dimension based in Lloyd's home, I wanted to emphasize the fact that Lloyd is exactly not home. Sure everything looks the same on the surface, but scratch that surface and it's clear that nothing is the same underneath. Hang onto your hats, ladies, gentlemen, and wookies everywhere, this dimension's going to be awesome ride.

Katnote: Thanks V! And thank you to our new member Moonlight M3lody for her submission as well! :)