Summary: It is never the right time to tell your estranged son that when you first met his mother - and for several years afterwards - she was pretending to be a man.

Timeline/Spoilers: This story is set after Tales of Symphonia, but before Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Therefore, it is suitable for readers who have completed the first game and do not mind minor spoilers for the second game.

Disclaimer: Namco owns Tales of Symphonia and any related characters. I only own this plotline.

Author’s Notes: Because my love for the gender bending genre knows no bounds. You may blame the lack of canon for Anna. Or the Tales of Dressing Room roleplaying community, whatever you like. Thanks to my courageous beta Elaienar and my buddies on LiveJournal for editing/nitpicking this first chapter.

“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”

-- George Bernard Shaw

For the Record

A Tales of Symphonia fanfic by isadorathegreat

One: Prologue and Epilogue

The ex-Seraph searched through the bookshelves of his office with single-minded purpose. He had returned to the Renegade base in Triet for only a few hours today, to give orders to the Sylvaranti half of his troops and to find a book on various barrier spells. There had to be one large enough to keep prying eyes away from the Tower of Salvation’s ruins … and whatever else that happened to be nearby.

“Yuan? Are you here?”

Yuan sighed imperceptibly to himself before turning around, annoyance clear on his face.

The figure in the doorway didn’t look much different from the first time he had barged into his office. At the moment however, his shoulders drooped slightly, his atrocious clothing was more worn with travel, and his expression betrayed nervousness, not blind defiance.

“Lloyd,” said Yuan, acknowledging the boy (or was it man?) with a short nod. “Do you need something?”

‘Please not another Rheaird, I can’t afford to keep repairing them,’ he thought to himself.

Lloyd chuckled weakly as he walked forward, a hand coming up to scratch the back of his neck.

“Always straight to the point with you, huh …?”

“If you’re going to continue to waste my time, leave,” answered the half-elf brusquely. “I have work to do and you have exspheres to collect. With one of your friends, I believe.”

“Y-Yeah … but we’re on a break right now, so I thought I’d come here. There’s this … I’ve been thinking a lot and I thought you might know something about what I’ve been thinking … about.”

The pause between them stretched out as Lloyd fiddled with the hilt of one of his swords. Yuan sighed again, wondering why he had to deal with idiots on a daily basis.

“Lloyd-”

“Do you know anything about my mom?” he blurted out. Yuan almost stepped back at the intensity of the question. “I mean, you were Da- you must have met us back then or kept an eye on us or something-”

“Lloyd, would you-”

“It’s not like we could have hid in the forest the entire time, someone had to have seen her and-”

“Be quiet!” Yuan barked.

Lloyd’s mouth snapped closed. Yuan moved over to his desk, opening one of the bottom drawers and digging through its contents. The swordsman, shoving away his sudden fear and replacing it with curiosity, tiptoed over to get a closer look.

A loud thud had him almost jumping out of his suspenders. Yuan had dropped something on his desk - a book. Lloyd stared, wondering what he was supposed to do with it.

“There. Kratos left that here before he ascended to Derris-Kharlan. He asked me to give it to you once you started asking about that woman.”

Trying not to bristle at the way Yuan was referring to his mother, Lloyd lifted up the book. It was brown, leather-bound with no title, and heavy with the thick parchment that lay between its covers. He pried open the pages, noting that the book was handwritten. Lloyd was about to begin reading when-

“This isn’t a library.” Yuan’s dry voice grabbed Lloyd’s attention and dragged it back to the present. He flushed.

“I-I know, it’s just-”

“It would be more appropriate if you went back to Iselia to read it,” interrupted Yuan. “And take Noishe with you. He’s bothering my guards again.”

A startled look crossed Lloyd’s face - really, did the boy think Yuan wouldn’t hear the whining outside his front doors? - before he nodded meekly. Lloyd’s footsteps echoed softly as he made his way out, but stopped short at the doorway.

“Uh, Yuan?” he ventured. The angel flicked his gaze away from his shelf and towards Lloyd again. Yuan’s eyes widened slightly at the boy’s gentle smile. He had never seen Lloyd like this before but it was all too familiar.

“Thanks.” The sincerity barely registered before Lloyd left, white ribbons only a second behind him.

Yuan leaned against the edge of his desk, arms crossed. He tried not to scowl as a long ignored memory played itself in his mind.

“… It looks like he inherited more than her colouring. Unfortunately.”

It was warm for a spring day. Warm enough for Lloyd to sit outside for a few hours without catching a cold.

The fact that he was beside a magical fire sword didn’t hurt either.

“Hi Mom,” he said quietly. Lloyd did not crouch in front of his mother’s gravestone as he normally did. Instead, he sat on the stone’s foundation, his father’s sword glowing faintly at his elbow.

Noishe had already disappeared into his doghouse and he could hear Dad in his workshop. The rhythmic banging of the blacksmith’s hammer almost drowned out the birdsongs of the forest. The wind rustled the leafy branches above him and spots of sunlight moved across his skin with the motion. Lloyd let his eyes slide shut.

“I visited Yuan today. I wanted to ask him about you, I guess. Did he ever meet you? What were you like? That sort of thing.” He was silent for a moment, trying to put words to the thoughts he had been having more and more often. “I … I don’t think there are a lot of people who know you anymore, Mom. But … I want to know. I want to know all about you. More than what I’ve already learned.”

Lloyd pulled out the book from his bag of supplies. Despite the few grains of sand still clinging to the corners, it had weathered the journey across the desert well.

“Yuan gave this to me. He said Dad left it for me and I think it might be about you. Is it alright if I stay here to read it?” he asked politely. Lloyd never expected a reply from his mother, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t listening.

Crossing his legs and setting the book on top of them, the young swordsman peeked at the exsphere - his mother’s memento - that was attached to the back of his hand. Scrunching up his eyes, he opened the tome with a flourish and began to read the smooth handwriting marching across its pages.

‘This book is spelled to be read only by my blood relatives. Should anyone else attempt to, it will shut itself despite whatever body parts that may be in the way.’

Pursing his lips, Lloyd tried not to snort. This might explain why Yuan’s nose was covered in bandages a few weeks ago.

‘As I write this, a new age is being ushered in. The two worlds have become Aselia once again, restored to its original form. I am not sure how many days it will take for Lloyd and his friends to reassure the populace of their safety and continued existence, so I must complete my task quickly.

I have made my decision. This world no longer needs me. I often wonder if it ever did. Yuan and I have both agreed it would be best if I were the one who will go to Derris-Kharlan and make certain that the comet and its residents no longer interfere with the affairs of Aselia.

Before I depart, I wish to leave a record for you, Lloyd.’

“Damn it …” Lloyd wiped away a tear that had fallen onto the page before the words underneath it were blurred. “You stupid …!”

He broke off, his entire body shaking with the effort to control himself. Some time later, Lloyd was calm enough to pick up the book again.

‘You have met me and have made your own judgement of me as your father, for good or ill. However, you will never have that chance with your mother. The little I have told you about Anna is not something a son should hear, no matter how necessary it was at the time. I wish there were more people who knew her as well as I did, that this task should not fall solely on one who is bound to leave this world. However, her family died years ago. It is unlikely she has any friends left that remember her, and the brief time Yuan and Anna met was an event I believe both of them would prefer to forget.

You deserve to know what kind of person your mother was, Lloyd. In preparation for the day you would want to know who she was, I have left this book with Yuan to give to you. Perhaps one day you will read some of it to your

I suppose I should start at the beginning. I knew Anna for many years, since she was sixteen years old. For much of that time, she insisted her name was Andrew Wellum.’

Lloyd stopped. He read the last sentence again. And again. And once more, just to be sure. It still didn’t make any sense. He turned to gravestone with bewilderment.

“Mom … were you like Zelos, except the opposite?” he murmured. Lloyd frowned in thought. “You don’t really look like a guy in the locket. Your hair wasn’t even that short.”

There was no answer of course. The glow of Flamberge rippled and the exsphere’s surface glittered, both in such a way that they seemed to be laughing at him. At least, Lloyd thought he saw it happen. ‘I must be dehydrated from the desert,’ he reasoned.

After getting a few drinks of water and saying hello to Dad, Lloyd nestled next to the gravestone with his father’s book. He read on with growing fascination of how his mother and father first caught each other’s attentions …

TO BE CONTINUED