Kratos Aurion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
simulsimul) wrote2016-11-02 07:40 pm
simulsimul) wrote2016-11-02 07:40 pm
a thing; w/ ruinsprofessor & conductingresistance
canon
breached
confessed
dadly
future
grigori
mercenary
MEover
origin
reversal
titans
scenario list
canon: Kratos needs to stop running off
confessed: wing reflex
confessed: actual wingpull
confessed: turning Renegade
confessed: son meets father
dadliness: confrontation
dadliness: awakening
dadliness: illness
dadliness: a fundamental lack of understanding on the word 'abducted'
dadliness: updating parameters
dadliness: assassination assignation
mercenary: hiding in the library
mercenary: aftermath of librarian saviour
reversal: oracle destroyed
titans: storming the tower
titans: safety in the canyon
titans: night horrors
canon
- combo of Kratos and Zelos ending
- Zelos does the stupid thing, but not so far as his death, and is still the eighth member of the party to Derris-Kharlan.
scenarios
scenario one: Yuan tracks Kratos down at Dirk's.
breached
- canon right up until after Botta’s death
- no one uses Yuan’s name around Mithos so Mithos walks right into the Triet base with them
- cue an epic OH SHIT in which Yuan gets a lil bit beat up while covering the evacuation of the rest of the base
- until Kratos appears to intervene and have the Chosen group get Yuan out of there
- Mithos gets Kratos tho and he’s a bit mad cos, yanno, traitor and all
- time to be locked up and punished and need to be rescued
- kind of puts a crimp in the creation of the Eternal Ring plans
- mostly cos Mithos turns Kratos lifeless, with some armour to regulate his mana so he remains a seraph. can't have the seal becoming less powerful, yo
- it does mean he can only obey orders tho
- the first rescue fails miserably but at least no one dies and they know they need to reforge his key-crest
- the second rescue attempt (circumstances of canon-point under percolation) goes a little better, though Yuan almost gets killed by Kratos trying to attach the key-crest
- luckily that and the first telepathy in a while gets through and Kratos manages to break out a la Colette, and heal Yuan enough for Raine to get there
- after which, angreh father-son beatdown on Mithos.
scenarios
None yet.
confessed
- almost successful assassination lands Kratos as an injured stranger in Iselia (1-2 years pre-canon)
- recuperation leads to accidental-on-purpose 'holiday' in Iselia
- doubts result in a request for Dirk to make a key-crest like Kratos' own
- oracle room undergoes some stealth sabotage
- regeneration journey is slightly delayed, prompted by Genis and Lloyd being discovered at the ranch
- Triet is awkward. so very awkward. for the Renegades -- whose side is Kratos even on these days and why was he vanished for two years?
- initial overall journey similar to canon, save that Kratos is a bit less circumspect about advising Colette on how to cope with angel transformations
- there are more overt Dun Wanna Feelings
- then Luin, wherein things happen and the group is in town during the Desian attack. the others naturally want to fight but tis a mite difficult against an army and building-destroying magitech. luckily, angel on their side. unluckily, wingpulls in order to muster the power to cover the townspeoples' retreat
- questions and confessions ensue
- Colette rejects the key crest (for the moment) so there's still hopefully maybe ambiguity about Kratos's position re the last seal
- it wouldn't fit anyway, it's modelled for the hand like Kratos's is because he was a derp and did not specify otherwise, so Lloyd needs to make a thing to make it fit
- slow protective retreat toward Asgard.
scenarios
scenario one: Kratos confesses before Salvation; Raine wants to follow up.
scenario two: Raine's examination of an angel; and also Kratos realises how far he's put his foot in it.
scenario three: Kratos goes to taunt Yuan a little, and also ask for his help.
scenario four: in which Raine makes Kratos tell the children all the things, and Yuan takes too much amusement from it.
dadliness
- Kratos retires in Iselia under the name Irving to raise Lloyd after the death of his wife
- no exsphere. ageing occurs! so does a beard and a braid
- teaches Lloyd swordplay, but on the sly, to avoid the other villagers noticing. his daytime job is weaving
- Lloyd finds the box of their exspheres and wants details. after some prodding by Dirk, Kratos explains how exspheres are made and that one is Anna's life. Lloyd is too young yet, but when Lloyd comes of age (~15) Kratos lets him make his own decision re wearing it
- Lloyd chooses not to wear the exsphere
- Genis befriends Marble and Lloyd meets her, as in canon; this happens before the journey begins, with the fallout
- difference being that Colette is still in the village so they can't be too horrible, so they just demand Lloyd be turned over for a flogging
- Kratos stands in his stead because natch. luckily, they're only mooks and don't recognise the bearded weaver as anyone important
- gives Lloyd his guilt complex early tho
- the oracle happens much the same way except Botta doesn't quite recognise the weirdly familiar bearded swordsman
- he does when he's reporting to Yuan tho
'there was an exceptionally skilled human'
/brief physical description/
/did x other faintly recognizable thing/
and both he and Yuan are aware that Kratos has been awol for a while, so there's a moment of pure silence and dawning 'no, it couldn't be'
- but then obviously one of them has to go make sure
- cue an interruption just out of Triet.
scenarios
scenario one: Yuan feels the need to investigate; this results in Kratos injured and abducted.
scenario two: Yuan realises he can't kill Kratos with his own two hands; Kratos gets mothered.
scenario three: Kratos gets sick on the heels of his recovery. Yuan mothers him some more. Botta disapproves.
scenario four: Kratos recovers and makes an escape attempt. Sort-of.
scenario five: Kratos recovers more and talks to Botta, when not needling Yuan about his lack of preparedness.
scenario six: Sheena's contract takes a slight shift into undercover instead of assassination work.
future
- Aselia is Earth ~10,000 years in the past
- all is peachy-keen except the tree is now underground and the elvens/half-elves/some humans are in hiding in the centre of the planet, hidden thanks to the summon spirits
- Colette is working with humanitarian aid in various impoverished nations
- Zelos is a diplomat in West Asia / Middle East trying to keep the peace
- Yuan is a crotchety lecturer at Cambridge who's also HUGE into environmentalism
- Lloyd and Kratos are having family time in space
- occasionally the trio on Earth meet reincarnations of people they used to know
- but rarely at the same time and almost never in a position where they meet
- but then they start meeting them
- lots of them
- all in the same span of years
- they're starting to think something's hinky
- until the space-elves attack
- and then they know something is hinky.
scenarios
None yet.
grigori
- at some point significantly before canon, Kratos actually calls it quits
- the Church's institution calls him a fallen angel of vengeance
- really he's just going around trying to help people and avoiding being taken back to Cruxis
- assigns himself to the Chosen parties whenever he can, up to Colette
- ????? idk some kind of profit somewhere
scenarios
None yet.
mercenary
- when Yuan visits Kratos at the beach when Lloyd is 3 months old, he does not manage to escape before Anna and Lloyd return
- accidental attachment to this kidlet who likes pulling his hair
- three years later, Yuan can't stand to hold back while Kratos fights Kvar, so he throws caution to the wind to help
- Anna is still killed but they rescue Lloyd and Noishe and both are branded as traitors
- Lloyd is raised as a Renegade with Dad, Uncle Yuan and the extremely reticent Uncle Botta (how dare)
- meanwhile in Tethe'alla Yuan infiltrates the castle as the library archivist
- stays out of sight, mostly, but has a good ear around the politics thanks to recruiting Princess Hilda
- also happens to stumble on Zelos hiding in the library right after his mother's death
- look he's got a 'nephew' he can't just do nothing (even if all he meant was to recommend a book)
- unwittingly accidentally 'adopts' the Tethe'allan Chosen by virtue of being the only one who doesn't treat him like the Chosen
- sometimes Kratos brings Lloyd to visit and basically they're all separate pairs of exasperated bros
- by canon Lloyd and Kratos are wandering mercenaries, helping people on the sly while gathering intel to send back to the Renegades
- Yuan and Zelos are actively building resistance to the Church using inside knowledge
- the ninja are all Renegades
- Colette is escorted by Raine and by the priests
- yes the 'chain up the Chosen and drag her to every seal if necessary' priests
- she meets Lloyd randomly in Triet but Lloyd doesn't know her as the Chosen. they're a bit out of touch on the Journey of Regen timeline
- stuff happens and they keep missing each other up until Palmacosta, which is a warzone between the Desians (and Dorr as their figurehead) and the Renegades (with Neil as their leader)
- Colette wants to help; priests say no
- out come the chains
- Raine objects, but she has no exsphere so what can she do
- btw Genis got caught in the Iselian ranch and tossed in as a traitor to be made a host
- he gets sent to the Palmacosta ranch
- right after Neil manages to take the city, after Colette and Raine leave it, Botta takes the Palmacosta ranch and rescues Genis, among others
- Genis becomes his little shadow and is much preferable to Lloyd, in Botta's opinion
- Lloyd and Kratos are still trying to catch up to Colette to rescue her when they drop by
- Genis hears what they're trying to do and insists on coming along.
scenarios
scenario one: in which Yuan accidentally adopts a Chosen instead of a book from a library.
scenario two: in which Yuan is accidentally-deliberately adopted by the Meltokio Castle Knights.
MEover
- Mass Effect crossover someplace in the realm of 15,000 years after TOS canon
- except started before then, cos elves are really from Feros, planet of the cranky telepathic plant
- got decimated by the protheans trying to assimilate them into their empire
- elves objected, got killed a lot, fled Feros and got stuck in Aselia's orbit
- kinda forgot a few things but planted a seed from the Ferosian mother plant on Aselia
- Origin hasn't forgotten tho, kinda has a grudge against grumblegrumbleprotheansgrumble
- the entirety of TOS happened, and then some
- Kratos, Yuan, Lloyd, Colette and Zelos are the only ones left, but tis okay, they have each other
- somethingsomething natural space disaster, Aselia is destroyed but they manage to move Yggdrasill onto Derris-Kharlan and do a quarian by becoming a roaming ship
- mana is a variant of eezo lbr
- Derris-Kharlan's too big to use the mass relays, but c'mon it generates its own mass effect field so they develop tech to do hops on their own
- they're in no hurry tho, i mean lbr primarily angelic, elf and half-elf population
- so they're just bumming around their local clusters doing thorough investigations on all the things
- so much eezo on their ship
- so much
- suddenly the Normandy running from a reapers comes along to hide behind them
- reapers start shooting
- everyone on Derris-Kharlan objects
- JUDGEMENT IN SPACE
- so much profit and judging of reapers.
scenarios
None yet.
origin
- Kratos tells Lloyd the dad thing in Triet
- dad and son feelings ensue
- they culminate at the Tower of Salvation in Kratos stabbing Yggdrasill in the back
- unfortunately he does not quite die but impales Kratos against a wall and goes berserk on the Chosen party to the point of Yuan stepping in to help
- that is, by threatening to stab Kratos in the back while he's vulnerable (with Kratos's permission)
- Yggdrasill calls his bluff and fails, and Yuan does the thing
- while Yggdrasill is distracted the Chosen's group nail him but good and he retreats
- luckily while heart-stabbing happened, Kratos's cruxis crystal is still intact, and between Raine's healing and Yuan's mana transfusion he survives long enough to be taken to the Triet base and a refresher
- stuff happens in some fashion or other up until opening Origin's seal
- as it turns out, the mana tranfusion has fused the lock, so to speak, and Kratos can't unlock the seal even voluntarily
- only way to get Origin out at this point is to let him fuse with Kratos, so Kratos becomes Origin
- stipulation of this: Kratos refuses to let go of his humanity
- luckily Yuan already has a literal bond with him thanks to the mana transfusion, so with him as his summoner Kratos can keep his humanity, and only use Origin's powers when Yuan summons them
- commitment like woah for a literal eternity
- but hey, they messed up but good and it's the only way they can reunite the worlds.
scenarios
none yet.
reversal
~ 2000 years in, Kratos and Yuan conspire to kill Mithos and succeed, sorta
- he's stuck inside his exsphere, possessing people
- but he manages to survive and while Kratos and Yuan claim Derris-Kharlan for their base, he takes most of the angels as 'fallen', as well as the Eternal Sword
- most of his bases are hidden behind dimensional slips created by the sword - Iselia included
- Origin refuses to trust either Kratos or Yuan with the job, anyhow, and they don't have a summoner
- instead they're forced to fight Cruxis, embroiling the worlds in an angelic war between Cruxis and the new organisation of Chayim
- the Chosen bloodlines are more important to Cruxis than Chayim, but Mithos seals the seals so only the Chosen bloodline can flip the mana switch. Kratos and Yuan need someone to do that until they can reunite them, so the Journey remains an institution, just without compulsory death at the end
- there is angelification tho, if only so Chayim gets more soldiers and so the Chosen can defend themselves against Cruxis
- Kratos sends Anna and Lloyd to Iselia, because even though enemy territory, it's the safest place there is for them
- Anna get word to Kratos that the Desians are using Iselia as a long-term cruxis crystal cultivation location, and that the sword is held there
- her spy succeeds but is intercepted, and Mithos locks down the dimensional slip to prevent exit and access by angels for ~15 years
- Lloyd grows up in a town with a heavy half-elf population and believing he's training to help the good guys
- he has his own cruxis crystal as a host, but doesn't tell his mother due to the faith-based propaganda encouraging hosts not to bring it up or risk the powers not taking
- he wants to help though, so he steals a key-crest to ensure he can fight
- Yuan and Kratos plan to assault the town and shrine but Mithos uses the sword to interrupt travel between worlds, keeping Yuan in Tethe'alla and forcing Kratos to attack Iselia alone.
scenarios
scenario one: Iselia is attacked by Chayim to claim the sword, with the sword already gone
titans
- Yggdrasill captures Kratos before Kvar finds Anna and Lloyd, but after Kratos makes an Eternal Ring
- Yuan figures hell no and raises the Renegades to try and take Derris-Kharlan, rescue Kratos and solve the split-world problem
- the attack fails. a lot.
- Renegades are wiped out, Kratos is still in Cruxis's hands, but Yuan manages to escape with the Eternal Ring
- Cruxis follows him to Triet base, which gets destroyed and the few remaining Renegades scatter
- Botta is still around tho, helping out how he can
- mostly Yuan just goes searching for Lloyd and Anna
- doesn't manage to find them before Kvar does tho, and Kratos hears from Yggdrasill that they're dead
- this is slightly inaccurate, cos Lloyd still winds up rescued by Dirk in Iselia
- where Yuan eventually finds him, not knowing that he's 'supposed' to be dead
- so Yuan settles in Iselia for a bit to watch Lloyd and the Chosen
- cuts and dyes his hair, the whole shebang
- learns how to carpentry, invents a new use of magic
- winds up being Genis's role model just because scholar and magic-user and half-elf who can pass but also takes no shit from people
- is one of Colette's companions on the Journey when it starts
- he's been challenging their understanding of the Church's institution this whole time lbr
- Sheena is still a thing because the ninja have taken over the Tethe'allan base, which has survived, somewhat
- a grilling ensues
- sometime just after the Asgard Ranch Yuan does have to drop the bombshell
- about how the Journey is just a front, he and his bestie are angels, btw his bestie is Lloyd's dad
- how they're out to topple the institution of religion
- forget sacrificing Colette for the Regeneration, when they get to the seal they can do that without anyone dying
- and then move straight on to rescuing Kratos in Derris-Kharlan
- then they get to the Tower and realise Yggdrasill has Kratos under a Prometheusesque punishment a la 'impaled on the Eternal Sword to suffer the Seed's pain and watch the Chosen get murdered'
- luckily this does not happen, as they manage to rescue him and escape Yggdrasill instead, barely
- retreat to Botta's hiding-place in Asgard so Kratos can recover
- and also find out that Lloyd is actually alive
- the Chosen group goes around to make as many pacts as they can while in Sylvarant
- they get up to Aska when Yggdrasill sends his angels to attack Asgard
- cue Yuan and Kratos being unstoppable battle gods together
scenarios
scenario one: in which Yuan leads the Chosen's party to the Tower of Salvation to dismantle all the traditions ever, and find Kratos waiting for them in serious need of a rescue.
scenario two: in which being in safety reveals that Kratos is not precisely unscathed, but he's doing his best.
scenario three: in which Kratos is emphatically not okay, but with Yuan's help, could be.
TITANS; storming the tower
[Spirits turn in their slumber; mana links shift their course to account for the movement between worlds; the burden on the Seed eases and its pulse smooths, releasing Kratos from that dizzying pain. Kratos gasps for breath out of instinct and even that slight movement makes the blade grind past his ribs, after having tensed to bear the pain of the worlds moving. The blade doesn't hurt. It hasn't hurt for a long time. He's had his physical pain turned off for a long time.
[But the movement tears open the half-knitted flesh sealed around the tip of the Eternal Sword. Kratos watches his blood drip, falling dizzyingly long to the Tower's floor and fading into the glowing lines of the seal. Drops of his life feeding Origin's latent power, hungry for freedom; never quite reaching release.
[The Healing Circle carved into the dais activates with a hum, closing the wound, stopping the bleeding -- until the next time. Kratos closes his eyes and exhales slowly, shaky, and doesn't inhale again. Even if he can't feel it, there's no point in feeding the seal. The Sword pulses in his body, humming in counterpoint to the seal below -- vying to meet, never reaching.
[From the outside, it looks like a still scene; the platform thirty feet over the seal, the man chained unmoving, head hanging, from its underside; the Eternal Sword, humming, impaled through them both.
[Kratos is aware of the angels watching, very dimly. He's long since stopped trying to reach out to them. To them, his presence is the living fulcrum set between the two worlds, a knot of pain made hard by pressure -- a traitor to heaven. And the worlds are still turning. He braces himself for the shift in balance between them, as he's done a thousand thousand times for the last ... he doesn't know how long. He just has to hold on.
[It's all he's been able to do.
[Just hold on.]
no subject
[Something starts feeling wrong by the time they're halfway to the Tower. It takes Yuan till they've landed, till the feeling's stronger, to place what it is. He's been fifteen years or so without a mind accustomed to telepathy, and this feeling isn't a specific thought, no intentional message to be passed. It finds him as a reaching, something desperate and unmoored and searching for something to cling to, and it shakes Yuan to his core.]
[That faint mental touch has something terribly familiar about it.]
Uncle Yuan?
[With a sharp jerk Yuan comes back to the moment, though the mental tug persists. He couldn't turn around now if he tried.]
[He has the concerned focus of all the rest of the group, from Genis' worried intent to Raine's more reserved, narrow-eyed noticing. As much as he'd like to pass it off as nothing, he can't; but neither does he know how to explain this, either.]
Something's wrong. Things may not be what we've expected, inside, but I can't ascertain enough to say anything more from here.
[This is met with varying degrees of dismay. Raine is the calmest about it, as expected.]
Understood. Until then, we can only operate on the same assumptions, correct?
[Yuan nods to her. The pull is stronger now, and it's taking all his effort just to remain in one place. And why should he? The Tower is traditionally the Chosen's fate to confront, but those are traditions Yuan himself helped set into place, and he plans to pull them down one by one.]
Let's go.
[Lloyd is saying something, but Yuan can't quite hear it as he turns toward the entrance of the Tower, the inexorable thought of holding on pulling at him all the while.]
[He's crossed the path to the warp up, is through it almost too fast for the others to keep up with him, and Yuan knows rushing ahead is a bad idea but he can't quite stop himself. And then--]
[The seal. The Sword. Kratos.]
[Yuan's mind refuses to make sense of the picture presented for too long, long enough he can hear the sharp chorus of gasps behind him when the others arrive. He had not even begun to picture this. Kratos is still alive, or the Sword wouldn't be here, but--]
[Has he been here like this all along? Yuan is sick and numb all at once. Oh, Martel, what your brother has come to.]
Kratos--!
no subject
[Yuan ...?
[For the first time in fifteen years, Kratos's mind cracks open its grim suffering with a dawning of hope which uncoils some of the hard tension in his mental presence. It's of course then that the next shift between worlds takes him, unprepared. This time he cries out with both voice and in mind, his body arching; the Eternal Sword cuts into him as he moves on it, blood rushing along its point to splatter across the ground below.
[Colette's cry echoes his as she claps her hands to her ears, tears already spilling from her eyes.]
Make it stop!
[Lloyd's by her side in an instant, but his face is lifted to Yuan, distress and horror writ large all across it.]
Uncle Yuan! Please tell me that's not --
[It is. Of course it is. 'Kratos', Uncle Yuan had called him -- and Lloyd knows that's his father's name.]
no subject
[For a moment Yuan wonders if Kratos, like the damned fool he is, has still determined to feel pain despite the sword through him; but no, there's something more at work, and in any case the feeling of a sword through one's back is a wrong one no matter if there's pain attached or no.]
[It's Colette crying out that jerks Yuan back into motion instead of horrified silence. They need to move fast, since the presence of people here will have been noted, even if no one should arrive until the Chosen moves to activate the final seal--]
[Yuan will wager that as soon as they start tampering with the bonds they'll get someone's attention. The results aren't likely to be enjoyable for anyone.]
It is.
Colette, I'm going to need your help. I can't get him down by myself.
[This comes out levelly, though Yuan's voice rasps in his throat.]
Raine, Genis-- stay back. Yell the moment you feel any mana fluctuations whatsoever, do you understand? Lloyd, I know you want to help, but stay with them.
[Yuan can protect Colette, and Lloyd can't help get Kratos down. It's the right division of labor. That doesn't mean it'll be easy. The Sages both nod, Raine with the intent that means she is beating down some instinctive reaction, Genis with a pale face and wide eyes.]
[How long has Kratos been like this. Yuan unfolds his wings without a second thought, lavender flowering into broad petal-facets behind him, and he goes to his oldest friend.]
no subject
But I --
[Lloyd starts forward, his gaze travelling back up to the man on the dais, but Colette shakes his head and holds up a hand to him.]
Lloyd, please. He's -- he's in so much pain, and we need to hurry. Please protect Raine and Genis? We'll -- we'll get him down.
[She smiles bravely and Lloyd's objection melts away into a nod. He stills looks pale, but his shoulders are set with grim determination as he draws his swords and stations himself by the Sages. Colette takes off with hardly a wobble, thanks to Uncle Yuan's advice over the course of the journey, and she meets Uncle Yuan up by the dais.
[The situation looks even worse from up here. Now she can see the way the Healing Circle tries to close a wound that can't be closed, and the way Kratos hangs limp in the chains, and -- oh. Colette's heart lurches.]
He isn't breathing.
[He can't be dead, can he? She can still feel his pain, overlaid on everything in the Tower.]
no subject
[Nothing about this situation is fine, but Kratos not breathing is actually fairly low on the list of Yuan's priorities. In fact, it may be for the best he isn't, and Yuan needs to reassure Colette.]
Strictly speaking, we don't need to breathe. It's just habit.
[And Yuan can still feel Kratos' mind, reaching out.]
Here. I don't know what will happen once I sever the chains. Can you hold on to him?
[Prolonged effort over the last several years has taught Yuan something about gentling himself, even when agitation means he'd rather do anything but. He edges back just enough to draw his blade, pulling it from the miniature wing pack that makes it manageable, and angles it toward the first set of chains.]
[This makes the most sense: if there is a fight, Yuan will have his hands free, and Colette has the strength already to carry Kratos. There isn't time or space for sentiment.]
Are you ready?
[Brace yourself, he thinks at Kratos, narrowly intent and hoping it will register. Raine is below, and if they can only get Kratos free-- if they can get out again, they stand a chance.]
no subject
[Colette takes a deep breath of her own, unconsciously a reaction to the idea that she doesn't have to, and moves to hover under Kratos. It's awkward, because he's so much larger than she is; and she really doesn't want to hurt him more.
[In the end she finds a position with her shoulder taking his weight against his chest, her arm wrapped around him, and her other forearm bracing his belly just under the Sword. It means when Uncle breaks the chains binding his feet, he won't fall and have the blade tear through him -- Colette hopes.]
Ready.
[Kratos is caught in those moments of time with the worlds grinding against him from all sides. His mental presence is dazed over the pain of it. He is aware Yuan is there -- vaguely -- but responding is beyond him; and there's someone else, too, someone achingly familiar. Something catches painlessly at his feet and his sense of physical space shifts, though he only notices it because the sword shifts in him too. It's just that he's so far from cognizant that he can't tell what's different.
[But there is something else there, lifting him up from below; and a young voice sounds, tearful but determined.]
Okay, I -- I have him. You can cut the other ones too.
[The worlds settle and the tension releases him, and Kratos opens his eyes to a fall of blonde hair and an encouraging smile which sends recognition blazing all through him.]
It's okay. I've got you.
[His lips move, but the wondering question is half unspoken.]
Martel?
no subject
[Kratos' mistake is understandable, given Colette's breeding. Colette, Yuan thinks at him, providing the amendment in the same medium. There: he can be eased off the Sword.]
[And introductions can be saved for later, when Kratos is actually cognizant.]
Yuan.
[The warning word is Raine, cutting out the specifics in favor of speed. Yuan glances up, turning his attention to the flow of mana in the room, and she's right-- something's coming. Light is gathering.]
[Something has an equal chance of being Remiel or Mithos, right now. Remiel should be keeping an eye on the seal room, but Yggdrasill is the one who's going to have a pronounced objection to what Yuan and Colette are currently doing.]
Colette-- take him.
[Yuan leaves Kratos in her care and hovers a little away, casting as rapidly as he can. Lightning comes easiest to him, as it ever has, and he sees no reason to toy with that now. Light flares; when it clears Yuan sees feathers and recognizes that he's dealing with the significantly lesser threat.]
[Remiel looks angry, but it makes an abrupt transition to shock.]
What do you think you're-- you!
[Hair color and style aside, Yuan hasn't changed all that much, and his weapon is a dead giveaway. He answers this the best way he knows how:]
Thunder Arrow!
[Remiel doesn't wing aside in time, off-guard at the sudden initiation of hostilities, and lightning catches him.]
no subject
[Colette grunts as the other chains break and she takes the rest of his weight, not because she feels it but because their difference in size is so awkward this far above the ground -- and still with the Sword in him.]
I have him!
[It's permission for Uncle to leave them, to defend them against that brewing light. Colette ignores it, trusting that Uncle and Lloyd know what to do. She ignores Lloyd's shout of challenge, and him running toward the podium. She's busy trying to keep Kratos steady while letting herself sink through the air, slowly, easing him off the Sword. She can feel the scrape of bone as they move, but Kratos doesn't flinch, and for the first time during this journey Colette finds herself fiercely glad that angels don't feel pain.
[Then he's free, and Colette lowers them both to the tower's floor, trying to be as gentle as she can.
[For his part, all Kratos knows is that one moment he can feel the Seed's pulse all through him; the next it's abruptly distant. Still there, but like a thunderstorm in the mountains instead of a storm right on him; it's so very beyond his ability to imagine after fifteen years that he gasps for the feel of it.]
It's okay. You're free.
[Colette isn't sure whether he's hearing her as she lays him down on the floor. His eyes flutter but they seem dazed when they're open; and then, of course, there's the great wound through him, bleeding freely now they're away from the Healing Circle.]
Raine!
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[Nurse won't help. What she finally casts is first aid, over and over, a low litany of the most familiar spell she knows, easier then something higher level and wider ranging. It begins to sink in.]
[Meanwhile Remiel is winging aside from lightning strike after lightning strike, till temper and the better sense to conserve his mana for what must be coming stays Yuan from magic. Instead he turns his blade on the angel, counterbalancing the weight of it with his own weightlessness, and strikes hard and fast.]
[He isn't that rusty. Remiel bleeds fast, harried by three blades and Genis' pinpoint lightning bolts.]
[But there's someone else coming. Raine picks it up first, head lifted sharply with indrawn breath, and she calls out again.]
Yuan!
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[Kratos watches her uncomprehendingly, her face turning slowly on its axis over him. Everything seems to be turning on the axis of the worlds. The pulse is closer again now, below him; but at least not in him. When they clash they make him flinch and tense in anticipation of pain which doesn't come except as a distant ringing.
[There's mana flowing over him, barely noticed. Healing mana is ordinary, accepted. Healing mana without the Seed's pulse, though -- that isn't. And yet Kratos can't seem to orient his mind to figure out what's happening. Until mana shifts again, and Kratos draws in a sharp breath, the flinch harder this time; he doesn't actually curl in, but his feet pull up and his shoulders hunch, as though in anticipation of a terrible blow.]
It's you again. I thought you'd have learned better by now.
[Yggdrasill hovers over the warp on the upper balcony Remiel had abandoned in his attempt to escape Yuan's wrath. Glittering pink wings shine in layers, but the face they illuminate is hard as diamond, and his gaze is fixed on Yuan.]
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[Yuan looks up and bares his teeth, some angry parody of a smile in greeting. He barely recognizes the boy he knew in this man, and Yggdrasill addresses him like they barely know each other. Yuan and Colette between them pulled his erstwhile teacher from the damned Sword, and Yggdrasill is inconvenienced.]
[What he should be doing is taking a deep breath, and thinking, and calling on a tactical retreat, knowing he is barely a match for Mithos. Instead Yuan flings a hand out, casting, talking as he does to fill time.]
I guess you never knew us all that well, then.
[Talking escalates to yelling, very quickly.]
What do you think you're doing? How is this-- how is any of this what she wanted?
[Yuan may not be thinking clearly any more.]
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[Talking to yelling to those words escalates the diamond to bitter fury just as quickly, and in an eye-blink Yggdrasill has moved from the balcony to beside Yuan. There's an arte in his hand too, one which bursts to life as he thrusts it toward Yuan, like his rage isn't sufficed by a long-range casting.
[Ice blooms with jagged arches, explosive, and over the sound of it shattering is Yggdrasill's strident voice.]
You don't know anything about what she wanted! How could you? She wasn't yours! You never understood her!
[Down below, Lloyd is trying to keep his eyes on Yggdrasill and Remiel at once -- but with angels in the air, he isn't sure just how he's meant to protect everyone. He's never seen Uncle Yuan lose control like this before, even when he's irritated -- he's never just lost it. He's the one who always reminds them to breathe. It's terrifying, that Uncle seems to have forgotten.]
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[Should have known.]
[But the cold and the wound has him remembering about temper again, and the fact that Yuan isn't alone, can't throw his life away here no matter how furious he is. There's Lloyd, and Kratos, and all the others. He steadies in the air, breathing deep despite that it brings a sharp knife of pain with it.]
If that's true, why are you trying so hard to shut me up?
[He doesn't really think Mithos is going to see reason. That boat left the dock long ago. Instead Yuan provokes him more calculatedly now, sending thoughts downward.]
[Take Kratos, signal Sheena. Start pulling back, now. I'll keep his attention.]
[Raine reaches for the communicator Yuan gave her earlier, deep in her pocket. Genis lets off one last spell at Remiel.]
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[And Yggdrasill is there, furious, artes already in his hands and mana sparking all around him. This one tastes of fire, flames lancing out toward Yuan in roaring billows.]
You're a nuisance. You always have been -- lurking around her, thinking you could take her away from me. I should have killed you a long time ago.
[Colette levers at Kratos's shoulders and this time Kratos actually responds, somewhat, pushing himself up shakily. Lloyd means to join them, but a blast of light makes him yelp, rolling to dodge and taking cover behind a pillar. So much activity here, where it should have been quiet, nearly enough to hide the sound of the Seed beating under Kratos's hands.
['Start pulling back.' No, not again. Last time it had been Kratos holding Mithos's attention.
[Mithos wouldn't keep Yuan alive afterward.]
Mr Kratos, come on!
[The girl -- Martel -- no, Colette -- heaves him bodily up, but Kratos resists it, planting his hands back on the seal. His wrists are still manacled, raw under steel, and the floor is stained with the life that had been pouring out of him -- still is, if much slower.]
Raine! He isn't coming!
[He'll kill you. This, directed vaguely up at Yuan, a stubborn objection to letting him fight Yggdrasill alone. Kratos can keep Yggdrasill's attention better. Yuan's whole party of rescuers -- they shouldn't suffer because of him. He closes his eyes and this time he lets his mana loose, rolling out of him into the seal below.
[Wrong seal. His mana stoppers almost at once, trickling into the seal only because he'd spent such a long time bleeding on it; not enough to unlock anything. But enough to make the lock tremble. The tower rumbles, abrupt, stone cracking and light spurting up from the floor; the stairwell shakes, threatens to destabilise.
[Mithos turns, fury combined with righteous fear.]
Stop that!
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[Maybe Yuan had held out some hope, once. If he ever had, it's surely gone now, in the rush of fire and the solid, sure knowledge that Mithos is going to kill him. So get moving, Yuan flings back, his thought untidy and hurried as he throws himself backward in the air. I can't follow till you're-- what are you doing?]
[Mithos stops. Yuan hangs still in the air, trying to process exactly what Kratos is doing. He can't be breaking the seal, can he? Not here, not like this.]
[It's providing an opportunity. Yuan doesn't think, except for a passing, instinctive thought about how stupid Kratos is being. He flings lightning at Yggdrasill, unornamented and raw, and himself dives for Kratos, aiming to pick the man up on the fly and get moving. Blade in one hand, Kratos in the other won't be comfortable for either of them. Comfortable is a secondary concern right now. Escaping is first.]
Get moving!
[He adds this aloud for everyone else's benefit. Raine, assessing correctly that Yuan will handle Kratos, snags Genis by the back of the collar and turns him around, shoving him toward the way they came before beckoning urgently to Lloyd. Outside there should be a ninja waiting for them. Should.]
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[That should keep him off balance. It's a vague thought, aired without meaning to.
[The very last thing Kratos does before he has no more mana to spare is to reverse the flow between worlds, so the mana from Tethe'alla begins to spill into parched Sylvarant. It's easy for him, like this, now he's not caught between the worlds; now he's got his hands on the seal which has owned his life for so long. That's what Colette is here for, surely. Too important to forget, that. Colette shouldn't have to worry about it anymore.
[Kratos doesn't have to worry anymore. He sinks into a half-state of oblivion, barely noticing Yuan's presence sweeping him up except for the familiarity of his mana.
[The tower trembles as the worlds shake in their moorings. Colette stands up to hurl her chakram at Remiel, and Lloyd takes that measure of cover to sprint toward the rest of them. Yggdrasill vanishes, but only to reappear by the Eternal Sword, still thrust bloodied through the stone dais overhead; too focussed on stabilising the worlds to bother pursuing as the Chosen's party vanishes through the warp.
[But Remiel does.
[Sheena is running up the tremoring stairs when suddenly they appear. She yelps, jumps aside as Yuan blows past with someone over his shoulder, the Sages close behind. Lloyd is last through the warp, barely halting in his run and looking frazzled.]
That first guy's still coming!
I got it!
[Sheena grabs a smoke-ball and throws it toward the warp, and it explodes squarely in the face of -- something with wings -- before Sheena pelts down the stairs beside Lloyd. It isn't a guardian seal, so surely whatever-that-was-that-looked-alarmingly-like-an-angel will get through it soon enough, but they have other problems.]
The rheairds aren't working! I dunno about you, but I don't wanna try and escape these guys on foot!
[They can't fly the rheairds without the benefit of a mana influx. That had been part of the plan -- for Colette to open the seal, so they could escape on the rheairds. The fact that Lloyd blanches at the news does not bode well.]
They're not what?
It's okay!
[That's Colette, soaring past the stairs, turning every so often to throw a chakram behind them.]
The mana's been reversed -- it'll be okay.
[She sounds like she's trying to convince herself, but Sheena doesn't argue, with all these damned stairs. The exit looks large and brightly lit, and too far away. And then it isn't.
[Outside the tower proper, Botta looks up at its height, swaying like a cord under stress; the ground under his feet is unstable, but not dangerously so. The moment he sees the silhouettes of the group in the doorway he mounts one of the humming rheairds, pulling it up and around, an arte already spinning around him. On their heels, his stalagmite erupts from the floor of the tower, and he hears the frustrated shriek from whatever had been pursuing them.
[The other rheairds -- three of them, only -- are waiting at the foot of the stairs. Botta casts again, intending to keep casting until either the doorway collapses or the others are in the air.]
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[His feet don't touch the ground.]
[Botta's stalagmite comes just in time. Yuan counts people with a quick flick of mental attention, from the Sages' distinctive mana to Lloyd and Colette's familiar signatures in turn, to Sheena with that distinctive thread Yuan can only pick out from having known another summoner so long. And Botta, farther down. It's everyone, counting the insensate weight he carries. He doesn't need to go back for someone.]
Don't stop!
[Yuan hovers again, turning to see what the situation behind them is. Below him the Sages are pairing up, Raine thrusting her brother before her toward a rheaird.]
[He counts himself fortunate to have Botta still. Between the devastation he's causing to the outer structure of the tower and the punishment Remiel is taking, it won't be long till they're unpursued. At least for now.]
Sheena, with Botta.
[The ninja is probably the only one who can take the leap to catch that rheaird, anyway, save perhaps Colette. Yuan settles to the last rheaird with Kratos, taking precious seconds to settle Kratos against his chest in a more or less seated position. He couldn't keep up with them flying, not if Sheena summons Sylph to help.]
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I guess the rheairds are working!
[Sheena calls this over the wind, even dampened by the rheaird's wind protection, and angled over Botta's shoulder to the communications on the rheaird's dash.]
I was startin' to get a little worried there. What the hell was that after us, anyway? I call upon thee, three heavenly messengers; come, Sylph!
[This last, as an aside; light shines and Botta nearly startles at the figure shaping itself out of air only a handful of feet away. The summon spirit only winks, and nearly as soon as they've materialised the rheairds' speed picks up to the point of taxing the wind shields.]
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[Yuan sounds displeased as he says this, improbably. He's adjusting his grip on Kratos, steering one-handed; his other is sticky with blood. It might be either of theirs. He isn't sure, and he doesn't care.]
Sylvarant should be, if not flourishing, then at least recovering.
[Genis puts in, a cheerful front over his previous fear.]
I can feel the mana. It's supposed to be like this.
[Raine murmurs a distant agreement, barely picked up by the comms.]
[None of the usual lifesigns are helpful for angels. Yuan minds Kratos' mana signature instead, infinitely familiar despite the time apart. He's fine. He'll be fine.]
As for what was after us, that was Remiel. An angel.
[Yggdrasill was too distracted to follow immediately, luckily for them.]
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[This from Sheena, upbeat in a way that belies the fact that she just helped condemn her own world. She has some mixed feelings about that. But before anyone can answer, the next question comes from Lloyd, raised a bit over Sylph's wind; trying to sound strong, mostly sounding confused and exhausted.]
Is he okay? I mean, it didn't hurt him more or anything, right?
[Given what he'd seen of his father's condition, this is one of those times Lloyd wishes he can sense mana the way Genis can. It'd be a lot of help if he can sense that his father's still alive until he can see it for himself.]
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[Yuan knows this isn't reassuring, but he can't honestly tell anything more. He can't risk closing out other senses to focus solely on mana right now, and Kratos is... not exceptionally responsive.]
[Not as though Yuan can blame him. Fifteen years.]
...Lloyd.
["Don't worry, your father will be fine?" Yuan can't reassure himself of that right now.]
...Unless he's a greater fool than I remember, Kratos hasn't had the sensation of physical pain in years. He'll need to heal, but for now he's no worse off.
[It's all Yuan can reasonably say. He's completely ignored Sheena's half-query to focus on Kratos. Some part of him, long tense, is unwinding; some other part is even more concerned now.]
[Botta turns his head halfway to answer.]
Anyone in Cruxis could. It's usually timed with the Chosen, however.
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[At that, Sheena can only shake her head. There were so many things so screwed up around here. At least one of them is feeling some sense of relief; like Colette, Lloyd finds himself guiltily glad that angels can't actually feel pain. Then it only makes him frown a moment later.]
But something was hurting him! If it wasn't the Sword, then what?
[For the first time since they left the tower, Colette speaks up, a bit meekly at first and then growing stronger as she goes on.]
Maybe it's something to do with the seal? I mean, if it were as easy as anyone touching it, someone would have figured out something, right? But it seemed -- I mean, it felt like it knew him.
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[Yuan shakes his head, nudges the rheaird a little more directly into the created windstream. It's fidgeting, really.]
I don't want to explain this in the air, but I have some theories. For now, suffice to say that there are reasons.
[Reasons which probably boil down to him being Origin's seal. Yuan doesn't know what Kratos was feeling, but it must have been something in his mind or mana.]
There was something odd about the way his mana was flowing.
[Raine sounds pensive, even though the wind and the comms.]
I didn't have enough time to study it, but...
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What was it? I mean, even if he couldn't feel the Sword through him, that doesn't mean he's okay!
[Uncle did not say that he's okay. Lloyd didn't miss that, however he acts. But Colette squeezes his shoulder comfortingly.]
Lloyd, I'm sure he's going to be fine. We've got Raine, and now he's safe. We just have to get to Asgard, and then we can give him everything he needs, right?
I ... guess.
[But still, Lloyd's worried.]
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~finis