There are times when life is little like what you expect.

As I stood in front of Altessa’s house, with a guard of Cruxis on either side of me and Yuan quietly barking orders at my back, I realized that this was one of those times.

The moment was tense and seemed to hang on for an eternity.

How had I arrived at this situation? I couldn’t really say, but I knew what would happen next.

Lloyd…

I knew he would find out a truth so terrible that he might lose the fragile hope he had for this world.

Please Lloyd…

I hoped that he had learned better than to be that foolish, but there were no guarantees.

…don’t give up Lloyd…

***

24 hours earlier

***

I was nearing exhaustion, but I couldn’t rest yet. Shaking the feeling away, I concentrated again. If I recalled correctly, there was something they wouldn’t be able to do on their own. Something they needed to rescue Colette…

***

“But the snow witch said this would work!” Mithos cried, slamming his fist into a nearby tree. “She said it would cure her!”

“Calm yourself Mithos. Perhaps there is something we haven’t done right,” I stated, examining the materials and Martel’s half crystallized body.

“Yes, like killing that stupid witch. We should threaten to if she doesn’t…” Mithos growled, a vicious glow in his eyes that I had rarely seen before.

“Mithos, please…” Martel murmured feebly. “…she tried her best… don’t hate her…”

Mithos sighed, bowing his head in defeat, and said nothing.

“Fire,” Yuan finally said, drawing all of our attention to his pensive gaze. “Think of it like preparing dinner. We have collected all of the ingredients, but if we simply sit them all next to each other, nothing will happen.”

He gathered the materials together, crushing them and spreading the paste on the crystallized parts of her body. Gently, he placed his hands on the green scales infecting her skin. “Mithos, on three, cast resurrection.”

Knowing that I could not do anything more to help, I watched as Yuan concentrated, closing his eyes as he gathered mana at the tips of his fingers. Meanwhile, Mithos had clasped his hands together, starting to murmur an ancient chant.

Yuan counted slowly,“1… 2… 3!”

Simultaneously, Mithos cried “Resurrection!” and Yuan pushed the salve into the pores of her body with his mana.

Martel screamed…

***

It was morning.

I rolled over on the grassy knoll where I had apparently slept for the night.

Wait…. Morning?

I shook myself awake, groggily wiping the chilly morning dew off my clothes. This was bad. Very bad.

Were my memories really becoming so powerful that they could steal away my consciousness for hours?

Aggravated, I flew determinedly to Meltokio. I needed to accomplish my tasks, and now there was even less time to do that. Go figure I would run into Lloyd. Again.

After looking through the castle, to no avail, I stood by the entrance, debating where they would store the sacred wood. I could practically feel his presence behind me.

Actually, I could. And that of the rest of his group.

“What the… why is he coming out of the castle?” Lloyd said.

“Who knows? Who cares? It’s not like this is the first time he’s done something weird.” Zelos responded flippantly. He still appeared cross with me.

“We can’t just ignore it. If the King turns out to be working with Cruxis, that’d be a disaster. Let’s follow him!” Ugh. Lloyd had made the decision to follow me again, hadn’t he? Just great.

Zelos sighed, responding, “Okay, fine. I guess you’ve never heard that wise men avoid danger.”

Wonderful. They were officially following me. Oh well, there was no helping it. I needed that sacred wood. What did it matter really if they trailed behind me just a bit?

I arranged for a worker in the church to carry the wood outside the city before Lloyd confronted me.

“Kratos!” He said, discontent evident in his voice. I could see his hands reaching for his twin blades, which puzzled me a bit.

“…do you intend to fight here?” I asked him bluntly, wondering just why he had become so aggressive.

“What are you going to use the sacred wood for?” he demanded, visibly forcing his hands away from the blades. Very hot tempered.

“You do not need to know.” I responded simply. Oh did that irk him.

“…sacred wood burns several times hotter than normal firewood,” Presea provided the information in her monotonous voice.

I could see the wheels in Genis’s head turning. “Are you…. are you going to melt Aionis?”

Raine tossed Genis a reprimanding glare. “Aionis is a fictional ore.”

“…yes… so they say.” I muttered, not really wanting to divulge any more to them.

“Stop being so mysterious about everything!” Lloyd shouted again.

Best to walk away.

However, as I did, Lloyd called me back again, “Wait!” He ran after me, blocking the exit to town.

“Move…” I sighed, fixing him with a glare.

“I said, wait!” Lloyd was being quite insistent today.

“The more time passes, the less likely you will be able to cure the Chosen’s illness.”

That seemed to stop him. “What?!”

Taking that as my cue, I ran for the exit to town…

…and nearly ran into the large closed doors. Oh yeah, the town was still under high alert right now, wasn’t it?

At the last moment, I summoned my mana around me, closing my eyes as I willed myself to somewhere that wasn’t a large wooden door.

I ended up atop one of the homes in Meltokio close to the gate, breathing a sigh of relief as I listened to their chatter.

“Kratos…” Lloyd murmured, looking sad, which made little sense. Wasn’t he just upset to see me?

“…I hate to say it, but he’s right.” Zelos finally decided to stop being an idiot and to push them in the right direction. “Let’s hurry up and save Colette, okay?”

“…yeah.” Lloyd agreed and walked away.

I sat atop the building for a few minutes, thinking things through in my mind. Lloyd would have to go to the Tower of Salvation as the final step to cure Colette. Zelos would lead them in that direction if they didn’t figure it out themselves. It would only be a matter of time before I ran into them again. And by that time… I had better have things prepared to cure Colette.

But the “thing” that was missing wasn’t exactly a thing. It was mana. Skillfully wielded mana.

There was only one half-elf I knew who fit the description.

I groaned, shutting my eyes and shaking my head. This day was just getting better and better…

***

Some time later, I found Yuan lounging in the café in Welgaia. Some things never seemed to change.

“Kratos?” the blue haired half-elf inquired, setting down his cup of tea when I approached. “Why are you here? Don’t you have some secret mission you’re on?”

He was cross with me. Great, this wasn’t going to be easy. “Yuan, I need a favor,” I said bluntly, sitting down in the other chair at his table.

Yuan snorted in response, rolling his eyes at me. “And why would I want to do any favors for you?”

“I did just help you out of that mess you created with the fake Kharlan tree,” I pointed out thoughtfully. “It did destroy Palmacosta.”

Yuan waved a hand in the air. “Who cares about Palmacosta? They’ll rebuild the city again in a few years. It always happens to that Luin city…”

I leaned in closer. “I could tell Mithos about your failed attempt to revive the tree against his wishes.”

Yuan stiffened for a moment, then seemed to relax just a bit, pointing his finger back at me. “And then I could tell him about your involvement in it too.”

Ouch. That wouldn’t be good.

The half-elf leaned against the arm-rest of his chair, facing me with a devious look in his eyes. “And… I could also tell him about all the times that we’ve…”

My eyes widened and I quickly interrupted, “No! That…” I wasn’t entirely certain where I was going with this, but at least it had stopped Yuan from saying any more. “…that would be bad for you too. Think about it.”

And he did think about it, finally nodding in consent afterwards. “Mithos is the jealous type. You’re right.”

Of course I was right. I sighed, “Will you at least listen to what I have to say?”

Yuan returned to his tea, circling his hand in a motion that said “go ahead and tell me, you bastard.”

“Colette is afflicted with the same crystallization disease that Martel had long ago,” I explained. “To cure her, she will need a large infusion of mana.”

Yuan had become quiet, his obstinate behavior suddenly vanishing. Good.

“I am not skilled enough to collect such a high concentration of mana in one place, but you are. Can you cure her?” I asked.

“That’s it?” Yuan asked afterwards, then indicated towards a building in Welgaia. “You know, we have mana fragments now that will do the same thing. You don’t need me to heal her. I’m surprised you didn’t remember that.”

“I am too.” All this time I could have avoided talking to Yuan? I shook my head at the ground. This memory issue was really becoming a pain.

Sensing that I was about to leave, Yuan held up his hand again. “Kratos, if you would wait a moment…”

“What?” I asked, deciding that I didn’t like the tone of his voice and probably wouldn’t like wherever he was going with this.

“Lloyd needs to know the truth about you,” Yuan finally said, his piercing aqua eyes fixed on me with the utmost seriousness. “You can’t hide this secret from him forever. He will find out sometime soon.”

Instinctively, I backed into the chair away from him. “No… Lloyd can’t know yet.”

“So when should he know? Whenever Mithos feels like telling him?” Yuan gave me a reproving glare. “No, he needs to know soon. If you won’t tell him, then I will.”

I felt like I had already heard this threat from Yuan before. Sometime not too long ago…

“I’m wasting my time here,” I stood from the table, tiring of Yuan’s insistent pestering. “Thank you for your information, but that is all I will require of you.”

I started walking away.

“Uhh, Kratos?” Yuan called after me.

I turned around.

“The mana fragments are that way. You do remember that from literally a minute ago, right?” he asked, pointing towards the same building he had indicated to just a minute ago. “And you know, warping is faster than walking.”

“Yes, I haven’t gone that senile yet,” I smirked. Deciding that Yuan was right about warping, I readied a circle around me. “I may as well let you know… I plan to bring them up here to retrieve it themselves. Don’t give them too much trouble when they escape.”

“Great, more work,” Yuan fell back into his chair with a groan. “Kratos I think I hate you.”

“I know I hate you,” I replied just before warping back to the world below.

***

I didn’t have to wait long in the Tower of Salvation before Lloyd and Co. arrived. Their enthused conversation about the similarities between the Sylvarant and Tethe’alla towers seemed almost juvenile.

Then again, when you are one of the people who helped build the tower, it takes some of the mystery away.

I stepped out from behind a pillar, approaching Lloyd and Mithos’s oddly glowing sword. “The two worlds are connected here. Of course it’s the same place.”

“Kratos, it’s you again,” Lloyd spun around, looking at me through different eyes. “Who are you really? Are you really one of Mithos’s companions from 4000 years ago?”

For a moment, I wondered why he hadn’t brought this up when he found me collecting the sacred wood in Meltokio.

Then I remembered that it was Lloyd.

“Good. Since you figured that out, it saves me the time to explain,” I said, thankful for the storyteller. “We will take the Chosen as the new body for Martel.”

“You’re still trying to do that?” Lloyd cried. “Are you so intent on resurrecting Martel that you’re willing to distort the entire world in the process?!”

I pulled my firebrand sword from it’s sheath. “I nave no need to explain.” And I didn’t really want to either. The sooner we finished this, the sooner I could bring them to Welgaia.

“So in the end, you really are our enemy! I kept thinking, hoping that you might be good, but you’re not!” Lloyd growled.

“I should think that would be obvious at this point,” I murmured, ready to get started.

Lloyd drew his swords, pointing one at me as he said, “Don’t hold back this time!”

Their skills had improved, but not quite enough to win.

When they were all sufficiently weakened, I summoned some of the lifeless beings from Welgaia to surround them. “I would advise against resisting, for there will be no mercy this time.”

Not that they could resist at this point anyway. I had them placed into two of Welgaia’s holding cells. Most of them were barely conscious, but the most important member, right now, was still somewhat ok.

Raine.

She stared at me with icy blue eyes. “Kratos, why are you doing this?”

For some reason, I felt compelled to answer her. “Mana fragments…” Then, I recalled that I shouldn’t slip them too much information.

Never one to miss a vital clue, her eyes widened. “So that’s…! Kratos, you really aren’t a bad guy, are you?”

“Don’t lose sight of your goal,” I responded coldly. “I would suggest that you attend to your friends before they lose consciousness forever.”

Realizing that I was right, she turned quickly to heal the closest person to her, which happened to be Regal.

As I left I glanced back one last time at Raine and Duke Regal Bryant. He only stared back with calm blue grey eyes. He would be able to get them out of their prison soon.

Quickly, I teleported to the watch tower, throwing the normal guard on duty out of the room. Taking a seat in front of the camera screens, I monitored their progress through the rooms after Regal helped them escape from their cells.

They seemed to realize how stupid the lifeless beings were, as they followed Colette, pretending she was an angel of Cruxis and they were her prisoners. Of course, the lifeless beings didn’t know the difference until…

“ID?” the angel guarding the mana fragments asked.

“ID?” Lloyd responded brightly.

“Yes, I must see your identification for verification,” the angelic guard asked again.

Realizing that they were in a tight spot that they likely couldn’t get out of without alarming all of Welgaia, I stood, pressing the watch tower’s holographic communicator button. “Guard. We require a fragment of mana for the ritual of the Chosen. I am sending a courier to retrieve it. Send it as soon as possible.”

I didn’t wait for his response. I never did. Instead, I watched as the flustered angel gave the fragment to Lloyd and allowed them to proceed on their way.

They ran into a few rough places but seemed to navigate their way through Welgaia fairly well. Once they had left the city, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“There. They escaped with relatively little hassle.”

That voice behind me…

I spun around in the swivel watchman’s chair then stood. “Yuan. So you were watching them too?”

He nodded. “And turning aside any high level lifeless beings that tried to blunder in their direction. Far more work than you did, I might add. You so owe me.”

I ignored his comment, ready to walk past him and move onto my other tasks, but he held out his hand, catching me before I could leave. “Might I suggest where we go next?”

I furrowed my brow. “What are you talking about?”

Without explanation, he formed a warp circle around us, whisking us away so quickly that I barely had time to realize we were in the Tower of Salvation again. He grabbed me by the shoulder, pushing me down onto the ground.

Something about the way he grabbed me stung, and I was about to complain but he hushed me with a single finger, pointing to the scene below.

We were on one of the high ledges of the tower, the same one in fact that we had watched Remiel’s battle with Lloyd the first time. Yuan was laying on the ground to avoid notice, and now that he had pushed me down, I was too.

Yggdrasill had again cornered them in the tower. This was bad.

I started to stand, getting ready to buy them time to escape, but Yuan pulled me back down. “Just watch,” he insisted. “I think you’ll find this interesting.”

He was right. Mithos had yet to attack them. Instead it seemed almost as if he were trying to… convince them? If Lloyd was anywhere near as stubborn as I was myself, that would never work.

It didn’t work. He did manage to explain part of his reasoning for splitting the worlds, shedding some light on their views of war and death.

The conversation quickly dissolved into a battle. I watched with wide eyes as they fought. I knew their skill and that they could never hope to win right now.

Something seemed a little different about this fight, though. Mithos seemed to be avoiding hitting certain people…

“He’s protecting Raine and Genis…” I murmured.

“So you’ve figured it out,” Yuan replied.

“But… why?” I asked, watching as he plainly attacked Lloyd and ignored Genis’s spell casting. “It can’t just be because they are half-elves. He could care less about the people of Exire…”

“Keep thinking,” Yuan encouraged me annoyingly.

“It must be because…” I gasped lightly. “He knows them.”

Yuan nodded. “Yes. He knows them… better than just as a random enemy he has met only once before.”

I turned to the blue haired half-elf next to me. “And if he knows Genis and Raine that well, he must know the others.”

“Keep going,” Yuan continued to encourage annoyingly.

I did, indeed, continue to muse, “he must be in regular contact with them somewhere. Somewhere that I have not watched them and in a way that they don’t know it’s Mithos…”

But how could that be? Sure, there were plenty of places I didn’t watch them, but how could they not know…

“He’s been deceiving them with his child’s form,” I murmured, the realization hitting me suddenly like an icy cold ocean wave. “They have been talking to him this entire time, spilling their secrets to him, and they don’t know who he is…”

I was suddenly very thankful that I had kept up the charade of being their enemy. Mithos wouldn’t be any the wiser when I turned against him someday.

Before I could muse any longer, Pronyma appeared by Mithos, causing me to shiver instinctively. Next to me, I noticed that Yuan was also cringing away.

She tried to shoot Genis, but Yggdrasill blocked the shot, confirming my thoughts from before. He was definitely protecting them. He definitely knew them. And he was definitely deceiving them to learn their secrets.

Mithos and Pronyma left suddenly, to my relief. The others exited the tower too, leaving Yuan and I alone in the Tower of Salvation.

I took a deep breath, trying to grasp and sort all the thoughts in my head. My mind was spinning with the realization. “This is… this is absurd… it’s insane…”

Yuan touched my shoulder, and I felt a light warp circle surround us again. “I understand Kratos, but this isn’t the place for such thoughts. Let’s go.”

I immediately found myself on the rug adoring Yuan’s office floor. Yuan stood and motioned for me to sit in one of the seats next to his desk. Without thinking, I did so while he sat in his own comfy looking chair.

“Kratos, do you know what’s really scary about this situation? At least, it should be for you…” He said, picking up a letter opener and toying with it aimlessly.

I glanced at him, still feeling overwhelmed, “what?”

“You already knew that they had befriended Mithos,” he pointed the letter opener at me and stated with an air of finality and certainty. “In fact, you even know where they are hiding him.”

“How do you know all of this?” I asked cautiously, ever suspicious of Yuan and his reasons.

“Because I watched you watch them,” Yuan commented offhandedly. “But I couldn’t watch everything because Pronyma found me.”

“No…” I murmured, trailing off at the thought. My memory had failed me again?

Yuan gazed at me critically, walking over to where I sat. “You’re not ready to talk yet, are you?” He pat my shoulder unsympathetically. It seemed to hurt slightly more than usual. “Then I’ll give you ten minutes. Try to remember, Kratos, and don’t go anywhere until I can talk some sense into you.”

While he vanished off somewhere, I partially wondered why I was listening to him, but it didn’t matter. What was ten minutes in the long run? Lloyd had probably been in collaboration with Mithos for days already…

Wait a second… didn’t Yuan just say I already knew this?

Horrible and gut-wrenching pain suddenly stabbed through my head. I clutched my head tightly, leaning over.

Another memory hole… no, not another one!

I had to remember. I had to.

Concentrating on the thought of child-form Mithos befriending Genis and Lloyd, I closed my eyes. Pulses of throbbing lightning seemed to assault my skull, but I did my best to ignore it. I had to remember… I had to remember…

***

“Mithos, you should come with us.” Lloyd decided.

Mithos looked uncertain, almost afraid. “But I’m a half-elf and…”

“That doesn’t matter. Besides, what are you going to do if you stay here and the angels come back?” Lloyd argued, encouraging him to join them.

“Lloyd’s right!” Genis quickly piped in. “Let’s all go together!” He smiled as he held out his hand towards Mithos, then took Lloyd’s hand.

***

My memory of that time came flooding back to me. So that is what happened…

I blinked, my blurred vision slowly coming back to me. There was blood on the floor before me. My blood.

I touched a hand just below my nose, finding that was the source of the bleeding. Looking around for something to wipe it from my face, I settled for one of Yuan’s scarves. He wouldn’t care about it too much.

A girlish shriek filled the room. “AAH!! Kratos is that my chenille custom-made scarf?!”

Ok, so maybe he would care about it.

Crossly, he tapped his foot, waiting for me to finish with it, then yanked it from my hands. “I’ll have you know this was not easy to get.”

I glanced at him with an arched eyebrow, aggravated that my vision still hadn’t completely returned. “Yuan. You are one of the four seraphim… now three… that guide this entire world. I’m sure you can find another one.”

He pouted, but didn’t say any more about the scarf. Instead, he sat across from me, gazing critically at me again. “Why are you bleeding?”

“My memories… you were right. There is something wrong with them. Some of my memories are...” I paused, looking for the most appropriate word. “Blocked. Whenever I remember something, there is some sort of consequence.”

Yuan’s eyes widened. “Mithos got to you again, didn’t he?”

“Mithos?” I asked, perplexed. Why was the world still spinning…?

He shook his head. “Nevermind. That isn’t important right now. What is important is your relationship with Lloyd.”

“My… what?” I asked, still holding my head to ward away the ache.

“You and he are on terrible terms. That’s hardly fitting for a father and his son,” Yuan chided.

“Yuan, now is not the time,” I growled back, closing my eyes. The lights seemed so bright for some reason…

“Tell me Kratos… you’re not feeling very well right now, are you?” Yuan said the words slowly, cunningly.

My eyes snapped open, trying desperately and failing to focus on the blue-haired half elf in front of me. “You…! What did you…” I tried to stand up but fell rather ungracefully to the floor instead.

“You’re a difficult man to poison, Kratos,” Yuan explained, taking his time as he walked around his desk to stand next to me. “But even your cruxis crystal can’t protect you from my mana poisoning.”

I recalled suddenly the slightly painful times he had touched my shoulder: once in the Tower of Salvation and again just a few minutes ago. Leave it to Yuan to figure out how to poison me with mana. “But I’m still…”

“Human?” Yuan snickered. “Of course you are. You’re one of the seraphim charged with guiding this world, after all.”

He seemed to relish throwing the words back at me. “Why… are you…?”

“You killed Forcystus,” Yuan responded quietly.

“He was… going to kill Lloyd…” I muttered weakly, feeling the poison sapping my strength by the moment.

“Which is an excuse that would work, if you showed that you actually cared about him. You haven’t even told Lloyd who you are yet,” he continued crossly. “Kratos. I’m doing this for your own good, and you know it.”

I gasped again. “No!”

“Yes.” He snapped his fingers, summoning his renegades to either side of me, hoisting me up. “Tonight, we’re going to tell Lloyd you’re his father.”

***

There are times when life is little like you expect.

I didn’t expect to be poisoned and abducted by my best friend. Yuan had been secretly plotting this for quite some time, but I was far too focused on everything else to notice.

Now, it seemed so obvious. Why hadn’t I picked up all of the little signs? Why hadn’t I noticed?

Oh yeah. Maybe my irritatingly failing memory had something to do with it.

Mana poisoning burned me inside. Every part of my body felt like it was being squeezed and lit on fire at the same time. Damn that Yuan…

Speaking of which, I heard Yuan moving inside the house, and then Lloyd’s exclamation, “My body! I can’t move!” Just what was he doing to my son?!

“Do you want to meet your father?” He asked simply. I could hear the crackling of an electricity spell in his hands.

“What have you done with my dad?” Lloyd demanded.

Immediately afterwards, Yuan appeared back outside. At least my vision had returned enough to see him glance at me with a snide grin before facing the door again. “Well Kratos? Are you ready to meet your son?”

Technically, I had “met” him twice already this day.

They walked outside, and Lloyd gasped in shock. “Kratos! The Renegades and Cruxis are enemies, aren’t they?! So why…?”

“Quiet,” Yuan commanded, interrupting Lloyd’s blathering. Then, he seemed to consider his reasoning. “Of course, the drug should have everyone sleeping soundly.”

“Drug?” Lloyd seemed to be digging back deep into his memory. His eyes squinted as the faintest glimmer of recollection hit him. “Where’s my dad? If you’ve done anything to my dad, I’ll tear every last one of you to pieces!”

At first, the comment startled me. Then, I realized he was referring to Dirk. Of course.

“Now, now. Is that any way to act when you’re about to meet your father for the first time?” Yuan smirked, throwing a devious glance in my direction. The way he looked right now… so familiar…

“So it was you… you’re the assassin who tried to kill me at Hima.” I murmured, finally piecing together a puzzle from long ago.

Yuan threw me that “don’t play games with me, you asshole” look. “Kratos. If you value your son’s life at all, do as we say.”

“What are you… talking about?” Lloyd sputtered, looking frantically between the two of us.

“Release Origin’s seal,” Yuan commanded, catching me off-guard. He knew I couldn’t do that…

Though he seemed quite menacing, when he turned to face me, I could see it in his eyes. He was bluffing. “Otherwise, Lloyd will die right here.” Still bluffing, but…

He had said it.

Yuan had indirectly told Lloyd who I was.

Time slowed, and I became aware of my own heartbeat, pounding loudly in my chest as that horrible moment clung for what seemed an eternity.

“No… Kratos can’t be my dad…” Lloyd’s voice was quivering.

I chanced a glance up at him. As our eyes met, I could tell that he was simply petrified at the thought. My God, how horribly I must have failed for my son to say a thing like that.

I couldn’t meet his terrified eyes any longer. Casting my gaze to the ground, I only listened while he continued, “I… I can’t believe that… I won’t believe that!”

I never thought rejection could hurt this much. It was worse than the mana-poisoning by a hundred-fold.

There are times when life is little like you expect.

Lloyd certainly didn’t expect to be my son.

LateNiteSlacker's Notes:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is my present to those of you who still love reading about Kratos and his angstful adventures.

A bit of news: I will not be updating the sequel to this story until I finish playing Tales of Symphonia's true sequel, Dawn of the New World. Speaking of which, if you haven't picked it up by now, find it in your local game store and play it! What I've played so far (15 hours) is quite good.

As always, review with your Love or Hate. I still enjoy reading both! =)