Chapter 35.5: AKA: The New 36: Akzeriuth Falls and MORE KRATOS!

There was a warm hand holding his.

Kratos's eyes, lost in a view he couldn't place, turned to a familiar smile under brown eyes looking directly at him. Her short brown hair flew with the light breeze as it reflected the light. Unlike his last memories of her, she wasn't sickly pale nor emaciated, there was no accursed gem in her left hand, and she was standing there on her own instead of being forced to ride on Noishe to be able to move.

Anna, his dear lovely Anna.

Her smile grew when he looked at her. Kratos returned the smile, one he was sure his muscles didn't remember how to do anymore.

They stood in that place for a while, never moving, just looking at each other. Kratos relished in that stillness. He didn't wish for more, there was no need to as long as Anna was by his side. It was selfish to wish time would stop there, just so they could stay like this, together in eternity.

"Dad! Mom!"

The happy cries of a boy caught his attention, looking away from Anna. A 4-year-old Lloyd was running towards them, his baby blue sweater and black shorts covered in dirt and grass, while an excited Noishe followed after him.

Kratos was overjoyed and let go of Anna's hand to receive his son in his arms. Lloyd crashed on him, laughing loudly. Kratos lifted him in the air, his smile bigger than ever.

Protect him.

Kratos's eyes widened. That voice… it had been a long time since he heard her speak. He looked at Anna once more, whose warm smile had shifted into something different.

I know you can do it. I love you.

Even now, she didn't judge him for anything. She never did.

Kratos blinked.

The mineshaft ended in a cavern where an arched doorway led deeper underground. Up ahead, Raine saw the dirt and moss illuminated by a blue light peering through cracks in the walls. Was that were Asch had gone? The ground showed bared spots of a dark wine-red material and before she knew it, the dirt was no longer there. The dark material was a man-made structure with human-sized eternal lights built into the walls.

Even as they ran as fast as they could, Raine wanted to admire the architecture of what was clearly ruins. From the size of it, she was reminded of the Zao Ruins and the massive structures beneath the land. This time, though, the structures weren't made of sandstone. She had no idea what it was but she could always check later once they've stopped Van.

Then she felt a rush of fonons, just like what she felt at Katsbert and between Asch and Luke at Zao.

Well that couldn't be good.

The tunnel broke out into a chamber that she could've sworn was larger than Baticul. Down below, on a walkway sticking out into the middle of the chamber, she saw Luke collapsed on the floor with Van standing over him and a light just in front of them both dissipating above an abyss too dark to see down. What just happened? Where was Ion? She couldn't see him anywhere but she knew he came this way with Luke. He had to be here somewhere.

Guy broke away from the party and ran for Luke. Natalia and Anise followed him down the path until they disappeared below. If Ion was there, they would be sure to find him. Asch struggled in the grip of a massive bird. He looked like he was trying to punch the thing to drop him.

"Let me go!" Asch hollered. "I'm going to die here, too!"

"I'd intended to save Ion with that, but now I have no choice." Van said. He climbed aboard a second bird, which flew into the air. "I can't afford to lose you."

The ground started vibrating. Raine stayed with Tear and Jade, unsure what to do. She peered over her shoulder to head back the way they came, but the tunnel disappeared as its ceiling collapsed.

They were trapped.

"Van!" Tear ran towards Van but there was only so far she could go before she reached the edge of the path. "I knew it! You've betrayed me. You said you were going to preserve these Outer Lands."

"Outer Lands?" Jade asked, though he didn't get a response. Raine really didn't like the sound of that either. Outer Lands had an implication she didn't want to think about. The ground vibration grew more intense.

"What about the people of Akzeriuth? The Oracle soldiers in the Tartarus? They'll all be killed!"

Van didn't seem disturbed by the idea as he sat calmly on his flying bird. "...Mystearica, someday you'll come to understand the folly and ugliness of this world. I want you to live, at least long enough for me to see you come to your senses. You have the fonic hymns. Use them..." And with that, Van flew the bird up towards the ceiling. Oh, no… What was happening?! With the earthquakes, there was landslides happening all around them and the beautiful structure Raine only moments ago admired began crumbling.

"VAN!"

"Damn!" Jade swore as he, too, turned back towards the tunnel. "The tunnels are blocked." Anise and Natalia brought Ion and set him on the ground near Jade and Raine. Oh good, they found him. But what happened to him? He was unconscious and didn't look too good. Jade pulled Ion onto his back with Anise's help. Guy panted up the path with Luke draped across his back and Raine ran over to help.

"Is he heavy? What do you need?"

"Everyone, come close. Hurry!" Tear hollered for everyone to come to her, and like everyone else, Raine didn't argue.

"No, I'm fine," Guy replied. Raine could tell pure adrenaline was his fuel. Even so, she ran with him until they reached Tear and everyone surrounding her.

Tear then began singing a hymn. A barrier appeared around them, protecting them with its sheen of translucent purple.

Before Raine's mind could even register it, the ground gave way beneath them, shaking tremendously. The familiar pull of gravity that meant she was falling fast brought the bile up from her stomach.

The ground is gone. This is it. Raine closed her eyes. And Genis had no idea where she was, no idea how to find her. Goodbye, Genis. She cried silently. How could she ever survive this?

We reached the passage ring, and with Master Van's help I caused a hyperresonance. There was a blinding flash of light and an incredible wind. I felt some sort of power flowing out of me, and I couldn't stop it. The whole place shook and started to fall, passage ring and everything. Just then, Tear and Asch arrived too. I don't understand what happened after that. Master Van called me "replica Luke." Asch yelled at me, "that was why I told you to stop"... Akzeriuth collapsed, disappeared, and I lost consciousness...

The ground shattered into an ocean of mud. Raine slammed into the ground along with everyone else. Her lungs choked from the new poisonous air that surrounded the new island. It was definitely thicker here than in the mines.

Raine raised her head. The aching all through her body told her she wasn't dead. What happened? Why wasn't she…?

She stood up and looked around. The world had changed beyond what she could've imagined. Storm clouds all around lit up with lightning strikes, and everything around her cast a purple hue that reminded her of the breath of a poisonous asp. Smaller islands of land gradually disappeared into the mud. When she looked straight up, she couldn't see where they had fallen from. How in the world did she survive that fall?!

It had something to do with Tear, but that was all her brain wanted to comprehend. Tear! That's right. Raine searched for her and found her in the center of untouched land, collapsed and unconscious. She was breathing, though. Raine glanced around. What about the others? Were they okay?

Jade struggled to his feet, grimacing as he reached for his arm. Anise helped an unconscious Ion to sit up so she could look him over while Guy leaned over Luke who remained unconscious as well. Were they okay? Based on how Guy carried him when they fell, one of the two had to have been crushed against the ground. The relieved look on Guy's face told Raine that Luke was fine, but what about Guy himself? His body had to feel as tender as hers. Natalia rose to her feet and checked the health of the nearest miner. There were several of them surrounding the party, outside of the circle of land protected by Tear's barrier.

The miners! How were they doing? Raine hurried to check on the one closest to her.

He was dead.

"Oh, no…." Raine ran for the next person. He was also dead. "What have we done?" Through blurred vision, she hurried to help Natalia with her patient, but Natalia was crying over his corpse too.

"We couldn't save them…"

The only reason they survived… Raine looked around… Yes, the only reason they survived was because of Tear's fonic hymn. Raine laid a hand on Natalia's shoulder and squeezed. "We tried. Martel knows we tried."

Natalia looked up at her, but Raine was already distracted. "Martel?"

Jade walked over to Tear and gently shook her shoulder. "Tear? Wake up." Tear began to stir. Oh good, she was waking up. Raine hurried to help her sit up. With Jade's bad arm, it would hurt him to try. "Are you all right?" Jade asked.

"Yes," Tear said as she sat up. She shivered from her own aching and soreness. It took her a moment to realize what had happened. They were surrounded by purple and everything around them was destroyed, except for the patch of ground on which they stood. Only the place where Tear cast her arte had been unharmed by the fall. Though Raine had no idea how long that would last, judging from watching everything around her sinking into the mud.

All except one thing. A giant mechanical ship sat on the mud without sinking and by some miracle it was close enough to reach if they hopped onto the next island over. Why? What was it? How did it get here? It certainly didn't look like anything she'd seen in Akzeriuth.

Luke moaned and sat up, holding a hand to his head. "Damn. What the hell just happened…?" He looked around, horrified. "What the…? Where are we?!" He stood up and noticed the miners laying motionless around them. Luke ran to one of the fallen men and knelt for a better look. He shook him. "Hey, wake up." Everyone else looked on, already knowing. "Come on, wake up!" But the man wouldn't, and Raine knew why. She didn't have to check them all to know. All of the miners were dead. Luke stood up and stepped back.

"But…. This…" He looked around and then ran to the next miner. "Hey!" He wouldn't wake up either. "What's going on? This wasn't supposed to happen. I used hyperresonance to get rid of the miasma in Akzeriuth, and then the mine collapsed... and then..? Damn it, what happened?!"

"I failed to protect Akzeriuth," Tear said, not expecting anyone to hear her. Raine did, though. Then she heard someone moaning.

"There's someone there!" Tear pointed towards the voice, and Raine stood up to see them better. It was a small child trapped under a miner with a scuffed up yellow hat. Wait—

"John?" Raine ran towards them, but there was no way she could reach them. "JOHN!"

"Raine wait!" Someone grabbed the back of her clothes and tugged her back. She shook him off.

"Hang on!" Natalia cried. "I'll save you!" Tear grabbed Natalia by the wrist.

"Stop!" Tear shouted at her. "That's a bottomless sea of mud and miasma! You'll die if you jump in there." That argument stalled Raine, too.

"Then what can we do for that boy?!" Natalia demanded. Trapped beneath his unconscious father, he cried for his parents. But he was way over there, out in the middle of the mud, laying on a door with Pyrope sprawled across him. Apparently John survived the fall because Pyrope took the brunt of the impact. But from way over here, Raine could only use her light artes and those wouldn't do him any good. Pyrope was probably already dead.

"No! He's sinking!" Guy ran to the edge of their island, too.

"No!" Jade echoed Guy.

"Mommy!" John cried. "Help. Daddy… help…." His voice grew weaker.

"Hang on, John!" Raine knelt on the edge of the island, reaching for him, but he was too far away. "We—" But the door John and Pyrope were laying on sank until nothing was left on the surface. Raine couldn't even see the yellow of Pyrope's hat. "We're here to help…." Tears streamed down her cheeks. She had promised she would help him. She had promised she'd take him back to Engeve! Instead, he just died! She let him die. There was nothing any of them could do.

"Is this place going to break apart, too?!" Anise asked.

"We'd better get somewhere safe," Jade said, clutching the wound in his arm. "Let's get on the Tartarus. The emergency buoy is operational, and it's managing to stay above the mud. We can discuss things there."

"The Tartarus?" Tear looked around and saw the Tartarus nearby. That was the landship Tartarus? As confused as she was to see it, Raine felt gratitude that it could save them. Fear and instinct agreed with Jade. If the Tartarus had a hover drive, it was the safest place in which to be.

Raine walked with everyone else in an almost stupefied torpor. Enough that Guy eyed her with concern and she didn't notice how close he was to her.

The thought had occurred to her before, but it was in this moment that it felt real. The thought scared her more than anything.

I could die here. And Genis would never know what happened to me.

Kratos opened his eyes slowly. He was still sitting on the bed inside Ozette's inn, sword in hand as he faced the only window. It was quite dark outside already, so it hadn't been even a day since he arrived there. Kratos blinked. A dream... how careless of him.

Never lower your guard when on the battlefield.

Words ingrained so deeply inside Kratos, to a point he insisted on repeating them to Lloyd so many times back in Sylvarant. All that, and he'd dared lower his guard when his mission was more precarious than before. Or maybe his mind was more exhausted than he'd deemed in the evening.

Still, Kratos would never sneer at anything that involved his beloved. It had been many years since he had been able to see a dream, let alone one as peaceful as that. Although the time he slept was less than adequate for a human body, for Kratos's body, it was as if his millennia-old bones were rejuvenated back to their peak.

That was a power only Anna's smile had on him.

Kratos got up from the bed while leaving the sword on the bed. From the window entered only dimmed moonlight, its glow blocked by the massive tree branches, giving the room and the town below an eerie atmosphere. Many would not agree with him, but Kratos found comfort in that view; even with the lack of clear light, it still surpassed the artificiality he was surrounded by whenever he stayed in Welgaia.

In the past, Kratos would have considered Ozette not a safe place at night in the most practical terms, however, Anna, a true angel in soul, went to great lengths to teach him many things.

Look beyond a battlefield, Kratos. See all the little things? There's more that lets us know there's life flourishing in this world.

Kratos struggled with these words at the beginning. Being a soldier was all that defined him for millennia, even before he joined Mithos, meaning he had let go of many things normal civilians would take for granted. It wasn't that he didn't see life as something beautiful; Kratos enjoyed many moments of peace and joy with his former companions, most of those thanks to Martel, but after years of looking behind his back when even those close relationships fell apart, Anna's words felt foreign to him.

A worldview like that didn't develop out of nowhere. Anna had been submitted to the worst horrors imaginable, some she would never be able erase from her mind.

The freedom she was granted was only by a miraculous meeting and accident, and Anna had decided to not waste that chance. When Kratos informed her that she would not live a long life due to the exsphere in her hand, Anna took it in stride and did a list of things she would complete before dying. Anytime she fell sick from the effects, she would complain as if it was just an annoying illness instead of a life-ending condition. Anything that Kratos thought would depress or make her want to give up, Anna kicked it in the figurative head and continued to enjoy life.

He was jealous at first of how carefree she turned out to be after getting over the shock of escaping a living hell.

In spite of that, the more time he spent with her, Kratos's heart opened once more to the beauty of life, enjoying the little things, and actually living in the moment.

When Kratos decided he wanted to prolong Anna's life, it was out of the blue. They had become friends after a while, which couldn't be avoided when hiding together from the Desians, but it turned out different. Kratos didn't want to save Anna because she was his friend, but... something else. Something he thought impossible for his cold-stone heart.

Kratos fell in love. But not only him.

It didn't take long for them to realize they belonged with each other. And so, their real life together started. At the turn of a certain spring, the biggest proof that they were alive, that they loved each other, was born.

Kratos brought the golden pendant out, the first gift he gave to Anna after Lloyd's birth and opened it. Inside was the only existing picture of the three together, the proof that always reminded Kratos of his happiness back then. Lloyd was still a baby when he had it made, but it still brought him so much joy to look upon that small human with Anna's hair and his eyes.

That joy was tenfold now. His son was alive and well, having grown into a remarkable boy that unknowingly mirrored Anna's smile.

Lloyd… as much as he didn't have the right to, he prayed for his safety every day. And that they didn't meet again; the guilt would grow deeper the more Lloyd came to understand himself and this twisted world.

This whole mission was for his son's sake, not for his redemption, because it wouldn't erase all the horrible things he did. In Lloyd's eyes, he was an agent of Cruxis, a cruel enemy who betrayed them and hurt one of his most precious friends…. Everything Kratos had gone through together with Lloyd was worthless now: the months of traveling, the lessons to help Lloyd's fighting technique grow, being a voice of reason due to Dirk's absence during the hardest moments.

If by any miracle he found Raine Sage alive and returned her to the group, it would not change the fact Lloyd hated and would never forgive him.

However, he could still fight to make sure Lloyd succeeded. Kratos put his hand with the pendant against his forehead, the image of that dream in his head.

Protect him.

Anna's words invigorated him. None of his doubts mattered. For the sake of his beloved, he promised to do so as the boy's father even if he didn't have the right to be one to Lloyd.

This was a promise Kratos could keep to her because his love for Lloyd, for their son, went beyond the despair that filled his heart every single day.

A/N: And there you go! I wanted to post 35 and 36 together because it was too long to be one chapter. I didn't want to break up the flow too much, so here we are. Enjoy! :)

37 still needs some love still, but I'm hoping to get it posted before March. It's not in as much distress as 35/36 was, so it shouldn't be too long of a wait. We'll see how it goes, though.

A/N: Update 2.21.23 - Some of you guys are so dedicated! I just love you. :) You keep coming back and checking for these kinds of updates, so I'm happy to tell you that there is a lot of progress. I'm not sure if I'll make the March 1 deadline but, here's a snippet for those who deserve a treat for constantly checking the last chapter:

"Better than some of the others, I imagine," Raine said. "I was actually thinking we should see if the Tartarus has any food stores." It had been a while since anyone had eaten anything, and she could tell now that the stress of what happened died down a little. Her own stomach rumbled from being empty far too long.

"Yeah, I'm starving!" Anise spoke for everyone.

At first, Natalia and Jade seemed to hesitate but then they followed everyone else down the hall to the cafeteria. As soon as Guy opened the door to it, he took a step back. The Tartarus had been shaken like a can, and this room was the first room they saw that looked like it. Cabinet doors were opened and dishes shattered, pans and pots lay scattered all over. While the spoons and spatulas looked simply tossed, some forks and knives stood up as if someone had been throwing them at specific targets while failed attempts rested on the floor. Even some of the food, bruised from the fall, had a sour smell to it, but that was probably from it looking more like a brutal slaughter than the buffet the former occupants had no doubt been used to. Raine's eyes rolled up to check on the ceiling and sure enough, the splattered stains from everything colliding dripped onto the floor.

"Man… what do the sleeping quarters look like?"

"This probably," Raine said. "Now move from the doorway before I decide to shove you clear of it myself."

A/N: New potential posting date... maybe: March 25. Unless AngelAdept is right...

A/N (3/25): Yeah... you know this routine by now. :( I'm sorry. I'll be able to make more progress on it tomorrow (Sunday), so hang in there! It is priority number one.

A/N: (4/16): First off... I really thought I posted this update a long time ago... Not sure what happened. Anyway... so I really hated the draft I had and I reworked it. Now I think I need to flesh it out a little more. It is getting a lot better though. :) So, in honor of those who keep checking, here's another snippet!

"You know, I'm kinda curious about something," Guy said. Raine acknowledged him by nodding but she said nothing. He took it to mean he could ask. "What is Martel?" Raine kept her silence, staring at some unseen thing right in front of her. Damn. She shut down on him. But she didn't quite invoke the pact…. Not really. "You said it was a name, but was it the name of a person?" She turned thoughtful, perhaps weighing the pros and cons of telling him. A small nudge shouldn't hurt, right? "It's okay, you can tell me."

~~End blurb

Okay! So my new deadline is April 23rd because I'm finally breaking through the barriers, and I should be able to make it this time. I'll keep in touch! :)

~~Kat and Raven