I have so much stuff I need to update... including an unfinished gift fic.
I'm terrible. (-angsts-)
But the story moves along, and I get to introduce a bunch of new OC's! Yay!
Disclaimer: Tales of Symphonia and its characters, plot line, and locations, all belong to Bandai-Namco, or whatever it is they call themselves now. But all the OC's in this story are mine, and if you steal them, I'll come after you with a club that has a nail in it, hear me? Rawr.
Chapter III: Fly Away
Kvar stared at the ceiling. He was bored. It was just… one of those days. Even torturing some of the more rowdy host bodies didn't lift his mood, and that usually cured his melancholy. He sighed, he hated days like this.
He stood up and walked to a window that looked out at the fields where the host bodies were put to work. He smiled a little as he watched one get whipped by one of his men. Human suffering. How delicious.
Maybe he would call A012 for an extra 'examination'. Yes... that would be fun. He liked watching her squirm.
He opened the door to his office and called two of his men over, "Bring me the Angelus Project."
Then he closed the door again, leaving the men to do as they were told.
Anna quickly discovered that attempting to hide a heavy knife underneath her thin raggedy dress was harder than she had originally thought. At least if they try to kill me for having a weapon, I can use it for the purpose Kratos intended, she thought bitterly.
She and the other captives had been herded back into the cells. But before cell door was even closed, two more Desians entered the prison.
"Lord Kvar wants A012," said one.
One of the prison guards, looked right at Anna, having learned that this particular host body was special, and it was important to know which one she was. "Get out, human," snapped the guard.
Why would Kvar want to see me now? Wondered Anna, doing as she was told. She tried to shift her arms so that they would not see the shape of the knife she pressed against her body with her arm. All she had to do was reach inside her sleeve to retrieve it, but she didn't want to spoil her chances. She obeyed her 'masters', following the two guards out of the prison to whatever fate Kvar had in mind.
She followed them down a long, and mostly empty corridor. Anna kept her head down, desperate to keep from drawing attention to herself and her contraband. She kept her pace slow to not seem too eager to see the lord of the ranch. But her speed did not satisfy her guards.
"Hurry up, human!" snarled one, grabbing her arm and jerking her forward.
There was a clatter.
The guards looked down, and saw a knife and its empty sheath lying on the ground. They looked at Anna, her face pale.
"Where did you get that?" demanded one guard. He shook her violently when she didn't answer, "Tell me! Where did you get that knife?"
She bit her lip, hoping that they would not force her to reveal Kratos as the one that gave her the weapon. The Desian threw her to the floor in anger. This was a mistake that cost him his life.
His comrade watched in mild horror as the host body picked up the knife and, jabbed wildly at the first guard, who fell to the ground with a wet gurgle. Anna looked in sickened horror at the fallen half-elf, then at the bloodied blade she had in her hand.
The first guard backed away a step, wondering if the human was capable of killing him too. She looked at him, and shakily stood up, waving the stained blade in front of her.
"S-stay away from me!" she stuttered, not sounding fierce at all.
When the Desian didn't move, she turned and ran from him as fast as she could, gripping the knife as tightly as if it was the only thing that kept her from dying at that very moment. She had to find a way out, but how? She couldn't just run out the front gate, and the fence around the ranch was electrified. Maybe an air duct could get her out of the main building, but what then?
She found an entrance to an ventilation shaft near the end of the corridor. She almost threw herself at it, clawing at the grille until she had pried it off. It wouldn't get her out of the ranch, and she could already hear shouting behind her, but maybe she could hide somewhere until she thought of a better plan.
She just barely squeezed into the shaft. If she had not been starved the way she had, she probably would have gotten stuck. She crawled on her hands and knees, trying to worm her way through the narrow shaft. Every moment she was sure she would feel a hand snatch her ankle and drag her out of the safety of this narrow place and back into the cells.
How long she stayed in that dark, cramped space she would never know. After what felt like a century, she saw a small speck of light ahead. She crawled just a little faster, almost tripping over her own hands and feet in her race to reach the light. The light soon formed into another grille, that looked out onto a grassy field. As soon as she reached it however, she realized that there were trees outside too. Bewildered, she slammed the grate with her shoulder and all the force her little body could muster, and toppled out onto the grass. She breathed heavily for a few minutes, trying to regain her breath. As soon as she sat up, she realized that she was no longer inside the fence. The shaft had led her to a small hole several yards away from the fence.
She stood up, not allowing her mind to linger on this miracle. She saw a dirt path and started running down the barren stretch as fast as her legs would carry her. She wanted to be as far away from her prison as she could ever be, she wanted to reach the end of the world, if she possibly could.
She left the knife behind.
Kratos heard the runner long before he saw who it was. His angelic hearing picked up on the stumbling footsteps and the desperate labored breathing long before he saw its source. Kratos rested a hand on the hilt of his sword, turning toward the source of the sound. Dropping into a ready fighting stance, he waited patiently, looking down the path for the approaching sound, prepared if the sound should come his way. It did.
Anna fell more than ran through the trees, terror egged her on, and fear sustained her flight though the forest. She tore past the trees and the bushes in her desperate bid for freedom. She looked over her shoulder trying to spot her invisible pursuers when she ran headlong into something. She fell to the ground with a thud, and stared up groggily at what she had collided with.
It was a very surprised looking Kratos.
"I think I heard something! Over there!"
Anna turned in the direction of the voice. They're catching up! She thought in a panic, I have to get away!
She felt strong hands pick her off the ground, cover her moth, and hastily carry her off the path. She struggled and writhed automatically, before realizing that it was Kratos who had picked her up and hidden behind a larger tree at the edge of the path. He turned his head in the direction of the footsteps his keen ears heard. As if on cue, a group of five Desian scouts ran down the path.
"I could've sworn I saw something..." said one scout lamely.
"You idiot!" snarled a second, "We don't have time to waste! Do you have any idea what Lord Kvar will do to us if we return and say that we've lost the Angelus Project?!"
The Angelus...? Kratos looked down at Anna, a feeling of horror growing in the pit of his stomach. He knew about the Angelus Project, and he knew that it was extremely important. Of all the prisoners he could have possibly encountered, it just had to be the Angelus Project!
He was waist deep in trouble now.
"Shut up, the pair of you!" snarled a third Desian, "Ever moment you twits spend arguing, the further away the Project gets! Now MOVE IT!"
The chided Desians murmured angry retorts under their breath, but ran on down the path, utterly failing to notice their target hiding behind a tree just a few feet from where they had stood.
Kratos did not release Anna until he could no longer hear the footfalls of Anna's pursuers. When he did, he glared down at her.
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
"I..." she started shyly. Then she rallied, what right did he have to ask her something like that? "I'm escaping!" she said defensively.
Kratos glanced in the direction that the Desians had run. That explained them. "That was very foolish."
"Why?" snapped Anna, "That I got away from the bastard who were going to kill me anyway?! You don't know what it's like in there!" her eyes started to fill with unbidden tears with the memory of life inside the human ranch, "You don't know what it's like, living every day with the threat of death hanging over your head! Never having any privacy, you're never clean or well fed, or... or..." she trailed off, completely dissolving into tears.
Kratos was taken aback by this sudden change in mood. Crying women was something he rarely had to deal with. So he fell back on a well-used tactic: not caring.
"Tears will not win my sympathy," he said coldly.
She glared at him, her face tear-stained, "I d-don't want y-your sympathy!" she said. She had tried to snap, but the sentence came out as a chocked sob.
Kratos made a displeased 'hmph' noise. "Say what you wish," he said, "But if you remain here for much longer, you will be recaptured, and no doubt they will put you down."
"P-put me down?!" said Anna, her eyes wide.
"Were you not aware that is the standard punishment for trying to escape?" said Kratos.
"I g-guessed that!" said Anna, wiping her face with a dirty sleeve, "B-but why did you say 'put down'? I-I'm not an a-animal!"
Damn. "The term I use to describe it is irrelevant. It will be your fate if you linger here."
He stepped out onto the path, and turned back to look at a still teary Anna, who had not moved. "I thought you wanted to escape," he said, when she didn't follow him.
She stared at him, "W-why are you helping me?" she asked meekly.
There was a whine behind her. She turned to see Noishe, who had finally worked up the courage to leave the underbrush he had been hiding in. She gingerly reached out and patted him on the head.
"I have my reasons," said Kratos, trying to regain Anna's attention, "You are an escaped prisoner from a Desian Human Ranch. I'm sure that you have a family somewhere that misses you." Anna was completely taken back by his response. But as it turned out, her surprise was wasted, "...And I'm sure that family is willing to pay for your safe return," finished Kratos.
Anna glared at him. "Is that all you can think about?!" she yelled, her outcry making Noishe whine, "Money?! Is that the only reason you're helping me?!"
"Originally it was pity," admitted Kratos, "But now that you have escaped, I'm sure there's something to be gained by helping you." He frowned at the livid look on Anna's face, "I'm a mercenary. It's how I make a living. If you want my protection for your journey home, then I would advice that you keep your holier-than-thou lectures to yourself."
Anna balled her fists, but knew that striking the man would not help her get home, or away from the ranch. She would be almost totally at the mercy of a bastard who was only helping her for monetary gain. Wasn't there anyone in the world who wanted to do good because it was good? She was almost sure now that she would never meet anyone like that.
She was hurt by his callousness, but said nothing. She walked shyly over to him, careful not to look him in the eye. She tried to swallow back her tears.
"Good," said Kratos, ignoring her obvious distress, "Get on Noishe. We'll head to Luin. It's the nearest town, and we can pick up supplies there."
"Luin is my home," said Anna.
Kratos sighed, "That's still close to the ranch. But if that is where your home is, fine. Then this journey shall be quick."
Anna nodded, and then turned to Noishe. The 'dog', lay down on the dirt road, and with a tilt of his head, invited her to get on his back. After a nervous hesitation, she did so. Noishe stood back u with surprising ease, as if his burdens (Anna and the saddlebags) weighted nothing. Anna felt the the rhythm of Noishe's trot as he followed his master down the dirt path.
Anna watched Kratos walk ahead of her. He didn't even turn his head to see if she was okay. She looked down at her hands, why was she so upset by his attitude? Maybe she had believed Evelyn, if just a little bit, and only in some lonely corner of her soul. Maybe some small part of her had believed that he was her savior. That he would sweep her off her feet and carry her away from all the terrors, from everything that was dangerous and scary. Maybe she had believed that he could be... may be... her soul mate.
With hindsight, she realized what a stupid notion that was. He was a mercenary. His skills were for sale, not his loyalty. He had no reason to care. She was just a stupid, hopeless girl who wanted to see something special in a man she had seen only twice before.
She bit her lip. Soon he would lead her home, and then he would get his money and he would be gone from her life forever. Then she would never have to think about him ever again.
The sooner he disassociated himself from her the better.
Kratos knew that he had put himself in an extraordinarily dangerous position. He had heard about the Angelus Project, the brainchild of Cardinal Kvar. He had not realized before that this girl was a part of the Project. No doubt Kvar would use all his resources and men to find her again. If they found Kratos with her, Yggdrasill would discover that his precious seraph had run away, and then Kratos would have no place to hide. There would be nowhere in either world Kratos would ever be safe from Cruxis. The sooner he brought Anna to her home, and the sooner he left the better. The incident would be forgotten, and his cover would be unharmed.
Traveling with Anna, while not actually unpleasant, wasn't something he particularly wished to repeat. She was silent for most of the short journey, content to keep her head down, submissive. The fire he had seen in her seemed to have died down. On one hand, that meant he didn't have to try to control her, on the other, her behavior did not make her good company. What Noishe saw in her Kratos thought he would never know.
It took three days to reach Luin. On his own he could have made it in one, but Anna, even while riding Noishe, lacked the fortitude to travel at his pace. And she had to eat and sleep, he had discovered, something that he usually never bothered with. Noishe seemed to have taken on the roll as mother hen, and encouraged Anna to eat the food Kratos provided from the saddlebags. Noishe let Anna sleep on him at night, and let her play with his big ears while they traveled. She was certainly easy to amuse, at any rate.
All the while Kratos tried to minimize contact with her. He talked to her only when it was necessary, and even avoided looking at her. As long as she stayed out of his mind, and as soon as she was out of his life, he would be out of danger. He wondered if she realized that she would never again be out of danger. The Desians would hunt her for the rest of her life. Recapture was almost inevitable. They would always be after her, and all it would take, would be just one mistake.
He was relieved when he finally saw Luin in the distance. He himself did not recognize the city himself, but he didn't have to. The native identified it for him.
"It's Luin!" shouted Anna excitedly.
Kratos looked out at the distant buildings. He couldn't recall if he had been to Luin before. He had been to a Luin, but the city had been destroyed and rebuilt so many times he didn't trust his memory of the place. Perhaps it had been razed and repaired since he had last been to Luin.
"C'mon Noishe!" Anna urged, "Faster!"
Noishe whined, and then bolted. He turned into a screaming green blur that rushed in the direction of the city. Kratos sighed. The protozoan wasn't going to get his dinner for running away from him. Why did Noishe have to be so reckless? It certainly didn't help Kratos at all.
Anna screamed in terror, clinging to Noishe as tightly as she dared. "SLOW DOWN!" she yelled. Noishe complied, apparently a little disappointed that he didn't get to show off. Noishe trotted up to a small wooden bridge over a little river that led to Luin. Anna's heart leaped into her throat, almost chocking her with happiness and nostalgia. She recognized this place. She was home.
Anna almost tumbled off Noishe in her haste. Noishe whined in alarm as he saw his charge sprint off into the city. He ran after her.
Anna paid no attention to the 'dog' as she ran into the city that was her home. Tears rolled down her face, as she ran onto Main Street, the old familiar buildings seemingly untouched by the passing of eternities she had spent in the ranch. People in the street turned to see this strange, dirty girl fall to her knees, sobbing wildly into the cobbles.
She felt something cold and wet on her face. She looked up to see Noishe, who was giving her a comforting nuzzle. She hugged him with surprising strength for someone so thin, beaten, and weak.
"I'm home!" she sobbed into his fur, "I'm home! I'm home!"
"Anna?"
The prisoner looked up at the sound of her name. The woman looking down at her was a familiar face; long blond hair, bright green eyes, and the book that was forever glued to her arm. The bookish woman had been a childhood friend of Anna's. Anna had not seen her in years.
"J-Jess," she sniffed.
"I thought you were dead!" the one named Jess shouted, "They took you off to the ranch! How'd you get out?"
"I..." she choked on the words.
Jess dropped down at Anna's side, "You poor thing!" Jess said, fussing, "You're skinny as a twig! We'll get you to your mother's and we'll get you fixed right up! All right?"
Anna nodded, and murmured a slightly strangled "T-thanks."
"ANNA!" roared a booming voice. A huge man almost knocked the crowd forming around Anna over in his haste to reach her. He stared down at the relatively diminutive girl, his brown eyes wide, a smile appearing behind his rough brown beard.
He scooped her up in his huge, hairy, muscular arms, "YOU'RE ALIVE!" he bellowed, nearly crushing the poor girl.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his chest. "I missed you too, Bruno," she snuffled.
He put her down again, "You had us all worried sick, little sister," he said, though he didn't sound upset now that his sibling had returned, "How did you get out of the ranch?"
Bruno's eyes slid off of his sister when he heard Noishe whine behind her. Anna turned to see Noishe giving Kratos a friendly nuzzle. Kratos gently shoved Noishe away. He didn't look up at her. He and Noishe were completely alone on a deserted street for all he seemed to care.
"Who are you?" demanded Bruno, "I haven't seen you around here before."
Kratos looked up, apparently unimpressed by Bruno, "My name is Kratos Aurion, and I am a mercenary. Before you make any more judgments, perhaps you would like to know that it was I who brought miss Cole here after she escaped from the ranch."
Bruno narrowed his eyes. He had never once met a mercenary he had liked. "Then I thank you for helping her," he said with forced politeness, "I imagine you expect payment? Fine. We aren't a family of means, but I'm sure I can produce a sum to your satisfaction."
Anna didn't look at Kratos. She made an active effort to completely forget about him. She was home now, she didn't need him anymore. Then, once again she heard someone call her name. She looked behind Bruno at the crowd that had formed. She saw another man trying to shove his way through the crowd. Unlike Bruno, he lacked the bulk to shove his way through the crowd, and was far too polite to try.
Anna recognized him immediately.
He stumbled over to her, blushing slightly at his graceless entrance. He pushed his glasses back into position, and gave her a shy smile. Her brown eyes looked into his green ones. He pushed some of his dark brown hair out of his face, while trying to think of something to say.
He didn't have to say anything. Anna nearly toppled him with the force of her hug, once again finding herself burying her face into a familiar shoulder.
"I missed you so much, Willace."
After Willace regained his balance, he hugged her back, "I missed you too, darling."
Anna knew she was safe now, because she was in the arms of her fiancé.
A/N: LE GASP!
As far as I know, the 'Anna's already engaged' thing has never been done before, so I'm quite proud of it. I like Willace though. I like Bruno too. Dunno about Jess, she was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing.
I know Anna's escape was kind of half-assed, using Pietro's tunnel thingie. I couldn't think of anything better.
Is this story going kind of fast for anyone? I want to keep the pace up because I don't want this to be too long or dull. Please tell me if I'm going too fast.
Reviews make me happy. Please review.