Lyn: Ok, I'd like to thank Vampwriter, Silver and White Angels, Shadow Zeranion, Twlight Angels, Riku Uchiha, and Elonie Kyle for reviewing! We love reviews.
Lea: Ok, Lady and gentleman, this is chapter and the previous are based off the animation, not the game. After this chapter, it's back to the game.
Yuan: You know, in the animation, they made Kratos a bigger jerk then usual
Lea: Ah yes, it makes it better!
Yuan: You know, I don't understand the girl 'bad-boy' thing. I mean, Everyone loves the bad guys, but you don't seem to see many girls liking Regal or Genis.
Lea: That's cause they make jerks and bad guys hot! I mean, come on! Look at Sephiroth!
Yuan: Good point. You win…
Lea: We'll, anyway, Spotlight to Sephiroth!! –Sephiroth emerges from flames with his 6 ft long sword-
Sephiroth: Lea Andrews does not own Tales of Symphonia or me, but she dose own Lyn/ Mira. Burn in the oblivion!
Lea: Ok, thank you Sephie! –Sephiroth vanishes in smoke- No on with the plot!
The next morning, Lloyd woke up to the smell of Bacon and Eggs. Collette, Raine, and Genis were still sleeping, Lyn was up and cooking with Sheena, and Kratos was out in the woods training. Lloyd heard Lyn and Sheena talking, and listened.
"The ranch isn't that far from here. It's leader is Kvar. It's a bit Northeast, about three hours walk." Sheena said.
"That's not bad. If we travel by nightfall, we could meet back here in the morning. Thanks Sheena." Lyn said.
"No problem. But what if the group doesn't want to?" Sheena asked.
"Then I'll go with you while they head to the next seal. I'm not supposed to go with them in there anyway." Lyn said.
"Why not?" Sheena asked.
"Because… Ok, you know about Tethe'alla. Have you heard the stories about the Silver Plains?" Lyn asked.
"Those myths that the Pope banned. Yeah. They have a history about the creation of summon spirits, magic, and expheres. Ancient documents written by the Wind Princess." Sheena said. "That's how I can use guardians. I know how to summon too, but I've only managed to form a pact with Undine from this world." Sheena sighed.
"Yes… The science of Summon Spirits is the only thing I can remember. Everything else I hid somewhere…" Lyn muttered.
"You mean you are Mira!" Sheena yelled with suprise
"Keep it down. I don't want them finding out. I can't remember anything else of value!" Lyn sighed.
"Then you must be the person who developed expheres, magitechnology, and magic study as well. On top of that, you're a sword master and healer and…" Sheena started, getting excited.
"Like I said, I don't remember all of that. I can't remember how Cruxis pulled this off, only a little about why. I put all of my important memories and skills somewhere just in case this happened, but I can't find them where." Lyn sighed.
"Well, if I had to guess, it would be in Sybac." Sheena suggested.
"Anyway, we better drop the conversation before they wake up or Kratos gets back." Lyn sighed.
"What's with him anyway? I mean, why is he traveling with you guys?" Sheena smirked
"He's a mercenary who helped me out. Phindara hired him to guard the Chosen. He keeps to himself." Lyn said.
"So, do you know his story?" Sheena asked.
"Nope. He just fights for money." Lyn lied.
"Somehow, I don't buy that." Sheena sighed. Lloyd finally got up and yawned.
"Hey, something smells good!" He said, pretending as if he just got up.
"Hey Lloyd. Food's ready. Why don't you wake everyone up!" Lyn smiled.
"Ok!" he said, getting everyone else up. "Oh, where's Kratos?" Lloyd asked.
"He left early to train. I know he'll be fine on his own, but I'm kinda worried about him. Maybe I'll go find look for him." Lyn suggested.
"Ok. You do that. I'll clean up." Sheena smiled. "Trust me. And if you don't you're buddies will make sure I don't pull anything."
"I'll be back soon." Lyn smiled, walking out, tossing her apron onto a chair.
"So what were you talking about?" Raine asked, getting up.
"I just returned from scouting. I found the ranch that destroyed Luin. Are we going after it?" Sheena asked.
"It's up to Collette." Raine admitted.
"Yeah, but what else did you talk about?" Lloyd asked.
"Huh?" Sheena stuttered.
"Yeah, that stuff about Tethe'alla?" Lloyd asked.
"You mean the moon?" Genis asked.
"Oh, we just thought it best if we snuck in there at night, especially since it's a new moon." Sheena explained, stuttering a little. "Oh yeah, Lyn and I cooked breakfast. You better eat before it gets cold."
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"Kratos," Lyn sighed, "What was with yesterday night? No." She sighed, talking to herself, "Arg! I don't know what to say. I mean, what was he trying to pull? I'm confused. Um what about… Hay Kratos, about last night, are we friends? No… It's too sincere. Man… What kind of training do you do out in the middle of the forest this thick? I can hardly see the hand in front of me because of all the leaves, and branches, and whatever this stuff is… I would expect a human ranch to be out her, not Kratos… but still. I have too much to say, but… Dammit! Why did you have to scare me like that?! Well, its official, Kratos, I don't understand you, or guys for that matter…"
"What makes you think that?" Kratos asked from right behind her.
"Wah! Where did you come from?! Don't scare me like that." Lyn stuttered. He held in his laughter.
"I was about to head back. Something the matter?" Kratos asked.
"Yes, about yesterday, I…" Lyn stuttered.
"I got a little carried away." Kratos smirked.
"Something tells me you were planning that." She said, bluntly.
"I didn't, but I just let myself get a little carried away. You'll probably never see me like that with the group, or again for that matter." He admitted
"Really, what makes you so sure?" Lyn asked.
"I'm… I'm not aloud to have friends, besides Yuan." Kratos said bluntly
"Really? Why not?" Lyn insisted.
"Because Mithos… He want's me to be his heartless mercenary with no connections or loved ones." Kratos sighed.
"But since when have you listened to Mithos?" Lyn asked.
"Since he… I killed Anna. He's threatened to kill my son if I don't listen to him. I can't fight back either. Every time I do, I am chained and tortured. Mithos told me my son is dead, but…" He sighed.
"But what?" Lyn insisted again.
"Lloyd is…" He stuttered.
"No way! No wonder I thought you two looked familiar." Lyn said shocked.
"Meaning, he can still threaten me. I really do love my son, it's just that I can't tell him or show any affection to anyone, or Mithos will kill them in the worst way possible. I hate this, but the only thing I could do is die, and I'm not even aloud that. Every threat that Mithos has told me, he has done, even if I obeyed him. I can't loose Lloyd, nor you. I am merely his puppet; his black hearted mercenary. The only one he loved besides me and Yuan is his sister, and she's dead. I can't make another mistake. Not again… That is why." He said, looking at Lyn with a blank expression.
Lyn could not read his expression. "Do you feel sad?" She asked.
"I can hardly feel anything. It's a side effect of being who I am." He replied. Lyn walked up and hugged him, nearly in tears for him. "You shouldn't have to cry. I have already accepted this." He said, flatly
"Then why won't you let me help you. Mithos can't touch me. I…" She said, until Kratos put a hand over her mouth.
"Like I said. I have already accepted it." He said, letting her go and returning. Lyn was so furious that she took off the ring and threw it into the ground. She stared at it, and picked it up again. She read 'Kratos and Mira… I shall forever protect you.' Tears were rolling down her face.
"You… Idiot…" She stuttered.
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The rest of the day was uneventful. Ellen left for town at noon; not noticing the hiding party, then came back three hours later. Night came faster then expected. The group packed there things and left for the ranch with Sheena leading.
"Ok, here we are." Sheena smiled as the group saw the ranch. Sheena walked over the door and opened it with ease. They walked into the courtyard where the group avoided that guards and searched for an entrance. While no one was looking Lyn started to get a bad feeling and slowly backed away from the group, and walked around the side of the building. Kratos noticed and said nothing. She found an open window, and crawled in when suddenly; she heard a beeping sound from outside. The guards in the room instantly ran to the front.
Genis accidentally slipped and pushed a button when Sheena was typing in the password. The group was quickly surrounded by desians. Lloyd was hoping to do a charge with Lyn, but realized she was missing. Before anyone else took notice, Sheena summoned a guardian and it took out half of the enemies. Kratos ran in with Lloyd following it, breaking through the remaining ranks. Sheena started decoding the door again, and Kratos and Lloyd ran back to the group to follow them in. Sheena led them through the cracks and crannies to avoid contact with more desians.
Sheena led them through a path to the main room, but the door was starting to close. Lloyd still attempted to get in with Kratos following. Lloyd barely managed to make it, but the door closed before Kratos made it. Kratos backed away, and then looked at the control panel.
"This is to the center of the exphere processing plant, not the control room." Kratos stated.
"It was the same in the last plant I went to. Uh…" Sheena said turning slightly red.
"Find the control room. It should be to the left. I'll try to hack this and get Lloyd out. Meet back here when you find it." Kratos said, pulling up the main screen and pretending to hack.
"Are you sure you'll be ok alone?" Raine asked.
"Yeah. I'll be fine." He said. A desian ran in and was about to attack Raine when Kratos shot him with a fireball.
"I'm sure he will be fine." Sheena said, pulling Raine to the right.
"It's to the left, Sheena." He called to her, still tinkering with the opening panel.
"Ok, fine. We'll go left!" She snapped, leading everyone left. When the group was no longer in sight, Kratos sighed and typed in the password, then walked in.
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Lloyd was wondering down the dark hall, slightly paranoid. He tried to keep his calm, but his mother's exphere was going off, bothering him. He could almost swear he was hearing air bubbles rushing through a thick liquid and screams mixed together. He then saw the lights turn on under the tanks and he looked in horror in fear.
"People are… No way! This can't be possible! No! MOM!!!" Lloyd said in disbelief, grabbing his exphere.
"Why else would we spend time taking and researching you pathetic humans?" Said a man, entering the room. "That exsphere is a result of many years of research. Speciman, femail #A012, human name, Anna, your mother, took it from me and ran. That pathetic woman met a pitiful end."
"You mean… You killed my mother?!" Lloyd said, starting to go berserk.
"I didn't kill him, you're father did." He said, smirking.
"Lies! It's a lie!" Lloyd said, pulling out his swords and attempting to slash his enemy, but his clouded mind caused him to miss. The man hit him in the back of the head and threw him down the hall, then shocked him with lightning.
"Now you will die, like those other inferior beings!!" When all seemed lost, Kratos opened the door, and saw the scene.
"No way. You! What are you doing here?" He asked.
"Well, I finally found you Kvar. And this time, there's no one here to knock me over the head like last time." He said, angrily with extreme darkness and a murderous aura. Kvar started to back away from Lloyd, pulling out his weapon in front of him, and shooting lightning at Kratos. Shocks ran through Kratos's body, but he kept on going as if he hadn't felt a thing. Lloyd started to get up, and looked back and forth between the malevolent Kratos and Kvar. In desperation, Kvar attempted to attack Lloyd, but Kratos shifted in front of Kvar in a blink of an eye and stabbed him.
"Feel the pain…" He started to yell, pulling out his sword. "…Of those inferior beings…" he said, slashing him diagonally across the chest. "…AS YOU BURN IN HELL!!!" He yelled, stabbing him in the heart and sending fire through his blade. Kratos pulled his sword out, and Kvar fell over, dead and with his blood running down his sword. Lloyd just looked at Kratos with shock. He didn't know what Kvar had done to him, but Kratos had gone overkill. Lloyd wanted to know more about his mothers death from Kvar, but is seemed that it was no longer possible.
Kratos dropped his blood covered sword. Neither of them moved. Kratos was afraid of what Lloyd may have been thinking, and Lloyd was afraid that Kratos was still furious.
"Kra… Kratos… Kratos san." Lloyd barely stuttered.
"Are you alright, Lloyd?" He asked.
"Um… yeah…" He said, looking at his feet.
"Good." He said, finally turning around to face Lloyd. Kratos almost wanted to cry. He wanted to hug his son and tell him everything. He wanted to be the father he never had the chance to be, but as fate would have it, Lloyd dropped his swords and walked over to Kratos. Then he fell over and began to cry.
"Mother… Why did they do this to you. Why?... I'm so sorry… mother…" Lloyd said. Kratos walked over to him and hugged him. Lloyd buried his face within his chest and cried. Kratos let him cry.
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Lyn was sitting on a pile of knocked out desians. "You know, killing them has gotten boring. It's a lot more challenging to knock them out without hurting them at all. You have to hit the right place in the head. Geese, I've been in here an hour and still no group. I'm sure they didn't get captured, but I'm really hoping they didn't leave without me. Oh well. You know, it's weird, but I feel like a totally different person. I mean, ever since I got my memories back, I feel evil, like I'm holding grudges. Before, I was a happy-go-lucky girl. The only time I'm like that now is when I discover something new. But even then, I feel as if I know it and could do it better, which frustrates me."
Lyn sighed and walked down the hall. "I'm glad I found this map. Hay, what's this? Exphere manufacturing section, human research? Why dose that seem so…" Mira fell over grasping her exphere. She could hear the screaming and bubbling that Lloyd heard, except for a lot louder. "Exphere research… it's starting to come back to me. Mirror gems from… pure mana mixed in with stardust and dreams of mana from the birth of the world. The more dreams and hopes of the people, the more the earth produces. Mirrors. Energy. Angels? No. That's not right." She stuttered.
Lyn started to hear the screams again. "Mana!" She stuttered in pain. "Wild mana!" She yelled, covering her ears and backing up into a wall. "Calm down!" She yelled. "What on earth? What's causing that? Expheres were fairly new to me. I remember doing some research. I remember the creation process. Only the maker can wield it, but you can't make them too strong or it will cause mana erosion. It is made with several rare concentrations like mana fragments. You had to mix them with tears and then crystallize it. After that, you had to stabilize it with your emotions. Then you had to have carriers made and whatnot just to use it. It took a month just to make the exphere itself, and that doesn't include finding the materials. How can you mass produce them? It's not possible, is it?"
Lyn got up and picked up her map. She walked down the hall, sheathing her sword, she noticed a room with the door left open and something dark coming from inside. She slowly walked over to it, realizing that the room was the source of her bad feeling. Right when she walked in the door, heavy spiritual mana pressure tried to force her down and rip her apart. In desperation, she braced herself, and put her right hand to her left side, and swiped right like a blade, breaking all of the glasses tubes filled with people from the impact. When the pressure let up, her body felt like a noodle, and she fell over, grunting, and then blacked out.
Kratos lifted his head, and Lloyd whipped his tears and turned to see Lyn on the floor and all of the tubes broken with the people in them, gasping for breath and waking up. Lloyd and Kratos stood up as the people started to gather. Finally, the rest of the group went back to the room, and saw Lyn, except Genis who ran in blindly and tripped over her body.
"What happened here?" Sheena said, looking between Lloyd, Lyn, Kratos, Kvar, and the people.
"Kratos killed Kvar who killed…" Lloyd stopped as Kratos put his hand on his shoulder. Lloyd grabbed his hand over the exphere.
"Kvar is dead, and Lyn came in, broke the tubes, and fell over unconscious." Kratos summarized. The group looked blank-faced, and nodded. Genis, Collette, Raine, and Sheena started to round up the people and escort them out. Kratos walked over to Lyn and picked her up. Feeling as if he wanted to die, Lloyd just followed Kratos around sadly, lacking his usual spirit. When everyone was finally out, Raine and Sheena went back in, put the building under self destruct, and left before the place exploded.
"Lloyd!" Collette smiled, running over to him and tackling him.
"You dummy!" He smiled, hugging her. They got up and Kratos watched, hiding a slight smile. All of the people of Luin, left to head back to their ruined town. The group started to head west to the nearby House of Salvation. Lyn woke up and started walking on her own, despite the wishes of Raine and Sheena. Kratos said nothing. Finally, the group was leaving the forest when Lloyd stopped.
"Guys, I have to say something." Lloyd said. "Those people… humans… are being made to make expheres."
"What?" Lyn asked.
"When I walked in, my mother's exphere started reacting, and I started to hear things. They put all the ingredients in liquid form in the tubes, and harvest them in people. After that, they put them to work until they die. Then the crystal is harvested. They are made with human lives. And this is…" He said, falling to his knees, starting to cry again. Collette walked over to him and hugged him.
"No way…" Genis said in shock. "Then this is Marble!!" Genis started to cry.
"Exspheres are magnifiers of the holders will, but they are dangerous and unstable." Lyn started, "You have to put in the right amount of each item, depending on the holders personality. On top of that, there is a high chance that it can cause the user's mana to go wild and turn them into monsters. If a person dies with an exphere, there is a possibility that they will be purified, like your's Lloyd, but that's rare. If the person manages to survive with an exphere, it will eventually purify itself. Then they can then use it to its full extent. Even so, the exphere will be purified at an unknown time, but will leave the perfect exphere."
"You knew this!" Raine yelled.
"I happened to stumble over a pile of research when I went in." Lyn lied. "I honestly didn't want to say anything about it. But now that you know, I thought you would like to know why. They are magnifiers of the soul controlled by keycrests. They were made with other's lives. The closer the two lives are, the stronger the wielder will become."
"This is too confusing." Genis said. "And too depressing…"
"Yeah…" Lloyd sighed. He grabbed the exphere on his hand and attempted to throw it, but Kratos took it.
"Kratos! Why?!" Lloyd yelled.
"It is because of this thing that you are still alive, and this is your mother's life. Do you really want to throw it all away. And if you do, how will you go on?" Kratos replied, placing the exphere back in Lloyds hand. Lloyd looked at it for a little while, and then put it back. It was silent for a few moments. Then the group lifted their heavy hearts and started to head towards their destination. It was silent, until finally, Sheena broke the silence.
"Hay, look guys!" Sheena said, pointing to the mountains. The sun was starting to rise.
"Oh wow! It's, it's beautiful!" Collette said happily. The whole group sat there and watched the sun rise with its beautiful radiating colors. The sunrise seemed to make all of their sadness melt away.
Lea: Ok, thank you guys. Did anyone notice that I didn't ask for reviews last time? Sorry bout that! I was rushing it out cause I was leaving for Christmas with my sister. Anyway, please Review, comment, give suggestions, we love to hear from you! Seriously!
Kratos: Yes, we love to satisfy our readers.
Lea: Yep! We're going back to the game again, except I'm not doing Mr. Unicorn. That's why I gave Sheena the summon spirit before hand.
Kratos: Don't tell them everything.
Lea: Oh fine. I do hope to get to the Tower of Salvation either Next episode or the episode after.
Kratos: I said don't tell them!! –Kratos puts his hand over the author's mouth. The author licks his hand.
Lea: Eew! You're hand tastes nasty! Bleh!
Kratos: Now I've got slobber over my favorite gloves. Anyway, please review before Lea ruins the story!