Tales of Symphonia Story, Sylvarant Chronicles (1)

QUIZ START: Once you get out of the temple and down the pathway Colette collapsed again.
"Colette!" Lloyd exclaimed.
"It must be the transformation. Lets set up camp for the night" Genis suggests.
"If this happens every time Colette releases a seal, she's going to have a tough journey. For now I'm going to call the phenomenon Angel-toxicosis." Raine said. You all clear out of the area around the geyser. And after walking a short distance through the forest, you find a clearing, and everyone sets up camp. After you do your 'assignment' you leave, and go for a walk. You climb up to about the middle of the tree, and stood on one of the branches, leaning against the trunk to watch the sunset.

BACK AT THE CAMP:
"Hey, where did Aura go?" asked Lloyd, noticing that she was gone, as he poked the fire with a stick to help get it started.
"I don't know, she said she was going for a walk." Genis answered, "But...that was a little while ago..."
"Its getting dark. Lloyd, lets go and see if we can find her." Kratos said
"Right" Lloyd goes 1 direction in the forest, and Kratos goes another. After walking a short distance, he began calling
"Aura? ...Aura? Where are you?" still no luck. He stopped under a tree, and looked around.

Trying to find Aura like this...just made him think of when he lost her. After she ran, he tried as hard as he could to find her. Kratos remembered well the last place he looked. He remembered yelling for Aura, yelling 'Answer Me!' and letting it die away. And he remembered how sad he was when there was no response.
The Mercenary shook his head roughly *Stop it!!* he yelled in his head, *Stop thinking about that! I need to find her! She just went for a walk! This isn't like last time! ....But where is she?* while both wondering, and fighting away painful memories, he looked up. And there was Aura, watching the sunset
"Aura...!" but she apparently didn't know he was there, that startled her and she fell out of the tree.

BACK TO BEING YOU: Out of nowhere, you heard Kratos' voice call,
"Aura...!" that scared the living daylights out of you
"Ah!!" it startled you enough for you to lose your footing and fall out of the tree. But luckily Kratos caught you, quite easily actually. You blush alittle, you look meekly up at him and giggle weakly, "Uh...heh...th-thanks..."
"...You need to be careful." he sighed patiently, not sounding mad at you at all.
"R-right--right, I will." you promise quickly.

The Mercenary set you down
"Sorry for startling you." he apologized, you brush yourself off
"Its alright, at least you caught me when I fell." you tell him.
"...What were you doing up there?"
"I was just walking, when I climbed that tree. And I was just watching the sunset." you told him,
"I see...Next time you shouldnt run off. We were all worried about you."
"Sorry," you tell him, rubbing the back of your head anime style "I didn't mean to worry you guys."
"...It's alright. Lets find Lloyd before we head back to camp. He set out in a different direction."
"Ok." Then you both set out in search of Lloyd.

You're still looking for Lloyd. But you've been looking for 10 minutes and haven't been successful.
"Ah... Where can he be?" you ask.
"Good question..." Kratos responded simply, glancing around the increasingly dark forest,
"...Do you think he's at the geyser?" you suggest,
"No..." he responded, "The geyser closed a while ago."
"Oh yeah..."
"Lets head back to the camp. He might have gone back already. And if not...well, he will come back eventually." Kratos said.
"Yeah." you agree, relieved that you can give up this wild goose-chase, finally.

While you're walking back it felt like the roots were trying to grab your feet; you tripped and stumbled into the Mercenaries back,
"-!" he wasn't prepared for your unexpected weight and fell forward, landing on his hands and knees.
"S-sorry!" you apologize quickly, "S-sorry-Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine." he sighed, sounding slightly annoyed at you. He turned to a sitting position and brushed off his knees. You took a step forward and extended a hand towards him; however a root grabbed your ankle, causing you to fall and land on the man you were about to help up.
"Ugh!" the man groaned when you landed on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him.
"What is wrong with me today...?" you murmur, then apologize, "I'm sorry--Mm!" he clamped a hand over your mouth, his other grabbing your wrist and keeping you against him so you couldn't get up,
"Be quiet." he ordered. You fell silent, wondering what was going on. He glared at the dark forest, straining his ears to listen. He thought he heard someone.... After a few minutes of silence you twist your mouth away from behind his hand,
"Kratos?" you whisper, "What's wrong?" he silenced you with another 'quiet' and continued to listen to the quiet forest. After a few more minutes he shook his head,
"...Never mind." he released your wrist, and gently pushed against your shoulder, telling you to get off of him.
"What? What happened?" you asked, moving off of him so he could stand,
"I thought I heard something," the Mercenary responded, looking back down the path, which was just barely visible. He extended his hand, and helped you up, "Be careful, understand?" you nodded,

When you get to the camp you hear a voice demand.
"Where is she? I know she is traveling with you to!!"
"Desians...?" you whisper. Kratos quickly grabbed your wrist, and pulled you with him when he ducked behind a small hill on the edge of where you made camp.
"..." you heard him mumble 'I knew I heard something...'
"Where is who?" asked Genis' voice.
"You know who! Aura Asakura!"
"What do you want her for?" asked Lloyds voice.
"That is no concern to you. Now where is she?" asked another Desian
"...We don't know." Raines voice answers.
"You lie!" said another. "We have been following you since the House of Salvation! We know she is with you!"
"We have to help them," you whisper to Kratos, you put your hand on your sword handle ready to draw your sword, but the Mercenary clamped his hand over yours and stopped you.
"No."
"Wh-what?"
"You wait here. You'll just put yourself in danger. I'll help them; you stay here until I come back."
"But--" you stop yourself, you know that its no use arguing. You nod reluctantly. Kratos released your hand, drew his sword, and jumped over the hill,
"I advise you, leave while you can." he warned,
"Kratos!" you hear a battle take place, swords clashed, arrows snapping. You peek over the hill top; they aren't faring to well because two archers standing out of range of attack have everyone pinned down. *I've gotta help!! I wont just sit here!!* you take a step from behind the hill and call,
"Hey Desians! Over here!" They all look your way
"Aura!" exclaimed Colette, confused as to why you came out of hiding
"Get her!" you take off into the forest, running as fast as you can to try and stay out of range of the Desians arrows.
"Stop!!" ordered an archer. When you don't, they start firing arrows, 1 grazes your right shoulder, barely leaving a scratch but tearing your cloths. Your body moved on its own and threw you behind a tree; you caught your breath as silently as you could while the Desians rushed by *Gotta get back...to camp...* you think, and begin to run back, doubling back the way you came.

You thought you had lost the Desians, and left them running the wrong way, so you stop after a few minutes to catch your breath. When an arrow grazed the tree next to you
"There she is!!" *No!* you keep running dodging all the arrows; you draw your sword, giving it mana and turning it into a staff. You blocked the sword attack of the Desian that caught up with you, and quickly sent him to the ground with a hard hit from the blunt end of your staff. You thought you were in the clear until the two archers and last sword-wielder finally caught up with you. One aimed the bow ready to shoot you. A red blur flew from the trees, striking the Desian down, *Lloyd!!* Then Raine's magic killed the other archer. Kratos outmatched the remaining Desian easily, and he was soon dead as well.
"You guys...?" you ask them,
"We followed you to," said Lloyd
"Where are Genis and Colette?"
"They are both waiting back at the campsite" Raine told you.

And you all head back to the campsite, being careful in case there were more Desians. Once you get back to camp, Colette and Genis bombard you with questions.
"Don't worry! I'm fine!" you insist.
"We should go to sleep." Raine said. Once everybody else goes to sleep, your still up...
"Aura" Kratos asked, You look over from where you're laying down, and sit up.
"...Yes?" he didn't sound too happy with the stunt you pulled earlier.
"Why did you do that?" he asked seriously,
"What?" you ask.
"I specifically told you to stay hidden behind the hill." he told you, "Why did you come out? You put yourself in danger."
"I didn't have a choice. You guys were loosing, and you needed help. Besides...ah, never mind..."
"What?" *Well, now is as good as ever...
"No--nothing, really."
"...I see..."
"And something else...you're gonna think I'm crazy, or just weird..." you mumble
"You'd be surprised." you tell him about the vision you had in the water temple, then...
"And I think that we...somehow knew each other before we met each other that day in Isealia..." you wait for him to say something like 'Thats just weird' or 'Your crazy' but he doesn't say anything. You look at him, what you said didn't even faze him. "You don't think thats weird?" you ask, just making sure.
"No." he responded simply You gave him a weak smile as thanks before lying down and going back to sleep. However, your dream was, once again, visited by the Kratos formed from your past memories.
"Um...hi..." you greet, almost awkwardly,
"Now that your finally remembering, I should tell you..."

"Both you and I..." he trailed off, and seemed to reconsider what he had been about to say,
"Please, what?"
"...We used to be..." he stopped, "We...Never mind. You'll discover it for yourself."
"W-what?" he shook his head,
"It's something you need to find on your own."
"Is it something about my memories...?" Kratos nodded his head. You were going to ask him if he could tell you more. But you didn't get the chance, because you woke up with a start. *What the...?* it's early in the morning. You decide against going back to sleep, and just stretch. *How the hell am I gonna tell Kratos this?* you think, as you watch the bright sun rise up over the ocean and forest.
Kratos and Raine were the next up, then Colette.
"Why...why do those Desians keep coming after me?" you ask Rain, "Is it because of something I did?"
"I'm afraid only the Desians would be able to answer that." the Professor told you "But...I doubt they would share any information anyway."
"Yeah... You're probably right."