tampered | Log; Ongoing

Log; Ongoing

Characters: Mithos, Kratos, Günter
Setting: Near the fountain
Date: October 20
Time: 11:45 PM

The sun had long since gone to bed, and Günter had barely noticed its passing. Despite his own confusion for the past dozen hours, something about the way Zelos has spoken of Mithos had distracted him further. He had never met the boy to find his friends because his friends had come to him--but something had seemed off, something Günter couldn't quite put his finger on. With a sigh, he gently closed the ridiculously wide tomb he was staring through and pulled his cloak around his shoulders, heading down the stairs to exit the library.

Once outside, he found it colder than he'd expected it to be. Even as a trained soldier, the nagging wish to have a thicker cloak tugged at the back of his mind. Heading down the cobblestone streets, the sound of his footsteps was in rhythm with the clock, and he hoped that he would be lucky enough to find the boy before he pulled his own beautiful hair out.

He was just within range of the sound of running water when he saw them.

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Walking with Mithos......at first it had seemed like something out of a dream. A far away memory tugging painfully at the back of his mind, invading his thoughts to remind him of what once was; what he could never have again.

As the day went on, the image solidified, and he was forced to face the reality that, even for a day, his old friend was back. The realization was both wonderful and painful at the same time, as he knew it could never last. Even so, he meant to spend every waking moment he could, simply enjoying the warm, pleasant feeling of a whole in his heart being temporarily filled.

They had been walking for a while, when he spotted the man. By the newly(and rather gaudily) renovated fountain, he was a figure of bright cream white and pale purple in the dim lights.

Mithos would once in a while steal a glance at his friend and wonder, idly, how he could have had memories - such vivid ones - of hurting his friend. True, he remembered the hatred, the anger, the desperation that came with those memories and yet, right now, he couldn't place them. He couldn't accept those memories as his. It didn't add up. And it had been confusing until Kratos gently told him that it had all been a nightmare.

He had doubts, of course. But a part of him stubbornly refused to accept that this Kratos could betray him, or lie to him. Kratos, as he remembered was different... but this one. This one was as he remembered him. Kind. Gentle. Friendly... even for a human.

Once Mithos spotted Gunter standing by the fountain, he took Kratos' hands in his and began leading him towards the pale-haired man.

"Gunter!"

For now, he told himself as he caught the surprised look on Kratos' face, he wasn't going to worry about his conflicting memories, and believe in Kratos.

"Mithos," Günter greeted cheerfully, smiling at the pair. "I didn't expect to find you out so late. And who is this?" He turned to Kratos, expecting that this was one of the friends Mithos had mentioned.

Kratos gave the intruder(he could not think of the man in any other way, not until he knew him better), sizing him up with barely a glance. Willowy, graceful, deffinitely some sort of mage. A physical fighter would have more obvious muscles, a less elaborate, constricting outfit, more armour--

The second the man spoke up, he turned to the small blond who's hand he held in one of his larger one. (It was still amazing, to see that tiny, seemingly delicate hand enclosed in his own)The man obviously knew him, but from where?

"Friend of yours, Mithos?"

"I met him through the journals, Kratos," Mithos answered, slightly amused by his friend's protective nature. He'd always been so jumpy, especially when it came to... to him. Being half-elf, people and elves naturally did not look upon them very kindly. He turned to the pale-haired man, "Gunter, this is Kratos Auron, my friend and mentor. He taught me swordsmanship!"

"Oh, I see." He turned to the taller man with a smile. "My name is Günter von Christ. I am pleased to meet your acquaintance." The way he held himself before the pair showed his many years of royal service, and it was difficult to feel anything but amiability coming from him in waves.

Kratos studied him with a critical eye, trying to find any flaws in the stranger's friendly exterior, not wanting to let a possible threat any closer to Mithos than he already was.

"...Nice to....meet you," he said in a slow, calculated voice, giving Mithos' hand a gentle squeeze.

Cute. Kratos was adorable like that. It... it almost made him forget he was more powerful than the man. He may have started out weak, but after making pacts with the summon spirits, he was more than capable of holding out on his own.

And splitting the world into two seperate dimensions. The memory sent an unwanted shiver down his spine.

"Don't worry, Kratos. We know I can take care of myself," he assured the redhead then turned to Gunter. "He worries too much, don't mind him."

The man laughed quietly, then turned to Mithos with a slightly serious expression. "Now, he's just concerned about you because he cares about you. You mustn't forget that!"

The human turned angel blinked, looking at the man with a curious expression for a minute before the look was gone, replaced by a slightly less severe version of his critical look. "...Hmm."

The man was right, though. He worried about the boy so much. When he was like this, young and seemingly fragile it was hard to curb those instincts. Those gut feelings that made him want to protect the smaller, younger Angel from reality, even for just today.

Mithos smiled charmingly at Gunter. "I know..." he trailed away, remembering fondly the past. Yuan, Kratos and him. The... trio. He paused, wondering why that seemed so odd, and so... inaccurate. Like those memories, the ones that had at first seemed natural, had been tampered too.

The small Angel frowned and looked up to Kratos questioningly suddenly. "Kratos... it was just the three of us, right? You, me, and... and Yuan, right?"

Kratos gave Mithos' hand another light squeeze quietly enjoying the feeling of the blonde's fingers wrapped in his own. Looking down at the ~~boy~~ ~~adult~~ angel, he listened...

..and immediately blanched on the inside, though his face remained the same. "Of course. It was the three of us, together."

Glancing between the two, Günter couldn't help but attempt to piece their story together. There was a third party involved, and something that wasn't being said--only Kratos knew what this thing was, and the mystery only piqued Günter's interest more. He opened his mouth to speak, then thought better of it, shaking his head slightly.

That assured him enough, though the voice was still there telling him something was wrong and that Kratos was lying to him. "Well, I guess it's just the three of us again... nobody wanted to come." Lloyd's silence, everyone's silence made him wonder if those memories were right... but... "I guess you're curious about our story, aren't you, Gunter? Well... believe it or not! I'm a hero! Something like that..."

"Oh? Are you?" Something in the tall man's eyes was disbelieving, but it was hard to catch. He wanted to believe in the boy's words, even if they were misguided. "Yes, I am curious," he admitted, squatting down to his height to speak to him better.

"He is." No matter what anybody said, Mithos was still a HERO. He saved both the worlds from imploding on themselves due to their own idiocy, if THAT didn't count as heroism than Kratos was through with hero's.

Mithos grinned in approval, remembering how they had saved the world, but that smile faltered as he remembered how he had planned to do so exactly. Even before he... in his memories... began doing atrocious things, he'd had those thoughts. They seemed right but...

No he told himself. This can't be true.

Choking slightly, he spoke again. "So what shall we do? There's still time before bedtime..."

Günter caught the crack in the boy's voice with a look of concern. "Well," he considered, "It's probably about midnight now. We should probably go inside somewhere. Don't you think so, Mithos? Kratos?"

"Shall we go get something to eat?" Food sounded good about now, something warm and rich that stuck to your ribs and left you sated long after, food like what Martel made on their jou-- food. Food would be good right now.

Mithos hmmed. And then realized he wasn't really feeling hungry. Which was odd. He hadn't felt hungry all day. "I'm not really hungry.... but food is good!"

He began walking ahead, and then stopped suddenly. "What time is it?"

"Hmm? Well, it--" A loud chime filled the air as a clock, somewhere, struck midnight. "Well...I suppose it's midnight," He stated quietly, a shiver suddenly going through him as he felt something change.

And instantly, Kratos' entire posture changed. Hands went to tangle in his hair, eyes widening as memories flashed into his brain. Brown hair and dark eyes with a sweet smile, bouncing a boy no more then two on her knee as she fed him, looking up and oh god.."Anna."

It was so sudden. A rush of memories, four thousand years of thoughts, feelings, remorse, anger, and hatred flooded back in his mind. Voices. Names.

Martel. Martel. Martel

And then, when the rush finally ended, he remembered where he was, and who he was with. The pathetic lies.

He had been standing, staring off in a distance, when he came back to his senses. And then he threw his head back, laughed uncontrollably. Laughed so hard.

Kratos. Pathetic. Traitor. How dare he.

"Mithos....?" Günter lifted his head from his hand, recovering rather quickly from his own surge of memories. A warning alarm went off in his head, and he straightened, stepping slowly backward.

"Oh god..." This was NO TIME to be thinking about what he had lost. Hissing, Kratos backed slowly away from the laughing child Angel, not making any quick, sudden movements if he could help it.

"Mit-- Yggdrasil." This was not going to be easy. The least he could do was hope Gunter was smart enough to get OUT of here before he got himself hurt, if not worse.

"Did you... did you really think..." Mithos whispered shortly after his laughter tapered off. "Kratos, my traitor. How dare you make a fool of me....haha.."

Pure white, wings made of pure blinding light jutted out of his back. He lifted his hand and orbs of light began dancing above him. "But now that we're here, Kratos, how about I deliver my vengeance? Kratos?" He was going to make Kratos suffer, not only for betraying him, but for making a fool of him today.

"Mitho--" Günter stopped himself, realizing that, indeed, there was more to this boy than met the eye. The beautiful wings unfolding before his eyes spoke of power comparable to a Maou, and at that moment Günter knew that they were fucked.

"Get AWAY!" It was the first thing that came to mind when he looked at Gunter, the need to try and keep the civilian(he was not involved with this, he was a non-combatant, he shouldn't BE HERE) as far away as possible before the shit hit the fan. Though, it already seemed too late for that.

Thin beams of bright light began jutting out of the orbs dancing above Mithos. The place lit up, like daylight, moments after the beams began heading towards Kratos.

Nanoseconds before the beams would have sliced and diced Kratos into an unidentifiable mass, Günter rushed forward and surrounded Kratos and himself with a domed forcefield. It crackled under the force of the beams and the man could tell that his barrier would not last long against an attack of this magnitude.

"Get out of here, you FOOL," he yelled to the man behind him, teeth grit as he stared at the crackling of magic mere inches from his face. "He'll kill you!"

This was a fine mess he'd gotten himself into now. Whipping around to look at Yggdrasil, Kratos readied himself for what was to come.

"My apologies," Günter smiled at Kratos with a bit of strain in his cheeks. "It was instinct."

"You could have gone away, Gunter," Mithos said as he rose from the ground. "I'm not so cruel as to drag into our problem an innocent. But if you insist.... I'll let you have a piece of it."

His lips broke into a devious smile as he added force into the attack.

"Kratos... how hypocritical of you to spout such pretty lies. Be there for me through pain and death-- you broke your promise for a human woman... not pain... nor death! Just like Yuan... liars, you lot. LIARS AND TRAITORS."

"MITHOS!" The name was said through grit teeth, the owner of the voice glaring at the smaller, blond Angel, feeling the heat of his attack against the skin of his cheeks. "I'm......"

What was he supposed to say? That he still, to this day, regretted not doing more when this hard first started, when Martel had first died? That Mithos was still his Important Person, even after this? That the last twenty four hours had made him remember how good it had been with him? How was he supposed to explain all the things even he couldn't figure out?

"I'm sorry."

Mithos let the barrage of the spell stop with a mere flick of his hand. He glanced down at his 'friend' condescendingly as the whole place darkened with the lack of his light.

"What for, Kratos?" he asked in a sickeningly tender voice, taking advantage of the fact that he was still in his original form. "Four thousand years... and only now you apologize? How long were you plotting my demise behind my back?"

Things had suddenly become increasingly awkward, and when it was clear that the attack was not going to immediately recurr Günter allowed his barrier to drop. He felt as if caught in a lover's quarrel that he had no part in, and yet could not tear his eyes away from for fear that he might never discover its resolution. He even felt somewhat guilty, in fact, for remaining glued to his spot and listening. This was not a play, and yet he was an audience; completely and utterly captivated.

Shoulders dropping from their tensed, hunched place when the attack subsided, and Kratos let out a shaky breath of relief. One crisis averted, anyway.

"For....everything." Talking had never been his strong point. Even as a child he had never been good at piecing together his feelings enough to form coherent sentences explaining them, a handicap which he still had not gotten rid of. "I'm sorry for not doing enough when Martel died. I....I should have been there for you, should have helped you through it. I should have done more."

Mithos' expression became unreadable and he was silent for a few moments.

"You were there," Mithos said dully. "You helped me. Then you betrayed me. Do you think it's easy to forget? The betrayal, Kratos? But perhaps all this is just a result of your self-pity. Afterall, it is only after my death that you think so."

He willed his body to take its older form. "You must be disillusioned, Kratos. Fooled by a day of ignorance."

'So, in this case, Mithos--no, Yggdrasil, or--which? Which is it? Is what I am looking at right now Yggdrasil?' Günter mentally flailed to put the pieces together. 'Is that a nickname or a real title? If the latter, then this is even more serious than I thought. There was a double-betrayal between them, it seems.' He glanced between Kratos and Mithos, wishing that he owned a darker cloak so as to better blend into the shadows.

"I couldn't do enough. If I had...if I had done more for you, maybe this wouldn't have happened. I should have been able to protect you from that PAIN." Looking up at him, Kratos ran a hand awkwardly through his hair, sighing. "What I did... Sometimes people do stupid things when they're in love. At the time, it looked like the only way I could be with Anna...and I took it. I realize now though, I shouldn't have done it the way I did. I shouldn't have left you. I should have....should have tried to HELP you."

Fixing his friend-turned-enemy with a measuring stare, he repeated himself, something he usually detested doing. "I'm sorry."

"It's too late Kratos." Yggdrasill glanced towards Gunter, regarding the pale-haired man with a sneer. So much for 'friends'. Deja vu. "Much too late."

"Anticipate my vengeance." And that was that. He felt as if he'd said enough. This was his cue to disappear in a blur of light... but he lingered there, floating in the air, purplish wings of light brightly shining in the dark.

'....He is wavering.'

"It's never too late, Mithos." Kratos was not going to give up, not on HIM. "In this city... Here, is a chance to try things again. To work things out..just give (me) it a chance."

"He is right, Mithos-kun!" Günter protested, looking up at the Angel. "Perhaps you were both called to this city for a second chance."

A second chance? He scoffed. Lloyd... Lloyd had claimed to want to give it to him. But really, did they? After all he'd done? He knew the difference between the way they had treated Mithos and Yggdrasill. Once they knew...

"You have no right to call me that," he told Gunter sharply.

"There is no second chance for me, Kratos." Too much has been done for redemption, he thought, but refused to voice that out loud.

Closing his eyes, bright light exploded around him and when he brightness cleared, Yggdrasill was nowhere to be seen.

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Log; Ongoing

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