I thought I might as well try my hand at a Cruxis!Lloyd fic...with a few twists, of course. Hopefully this will be a little different from what people are used to seeing-- if that's a good thing.

Pairings will be announced as I think of them; hold your horses, everyone.

Standard disclaimers apply.

Never Forget

"Do not forget, Lloyd."

"Do not forget who you were and who you are now."

"Do not forget what brought you here."

"Never forget."

There had been more words included in his father's terse lecture, but those phrases in particular had stuck themselves in Lloyd Aurion's head. He had been only three, standing in the hallway of someplace strange and dark before a tall and imposing door. His father had his hand on the knob of that door, but suddenly stooped down to look his son in the eyes, clasp a gloved hand to his shoulder, and then charge him with a mission:

Never forget.

Lloyd was very young, yes, but he could feel the weight in every word: his father often looked somber and stern, but never so much as in that moment. Even after he had uttered a solemn "Yes, Daddy", Lloyd could still feel the grip of his father's hand on his shoulder even after the taller man removed it and straightened up.

"Don't get into any trouble, now. I will be back soon."

"I won't. Promise!" Lloyd grinned.

His father smiled back and ruffled his hair briefly before turning the knob and walking into the room, closing the door firmly behind him.

Lloyd had been left to stand in the hallway, standing straight as a rod beside the door, watching as tall and lifeless beings swept by him. They did not stop to give him any notice, and he instead had fallen to a combination of boredom and childish curiosity: inching nearer to the door, he pressed his ear to the crack and strained for any snippet of conversation he might hear.

"…you run, you hide, and then you have the nerve to stand here and ask me to let a human stay here?" The first voice sounded nothing like his father's imposing tone. It was young, and at the moment, angry.

"Mithos, you don't understand. I have an obligation." His father's voice was nearly pleading.

"No, you don't understand. If it weren't for our past relationship and the fact that you are Origin's seal, I would have had you and your brat erased in a heartbeat- personally."

"Then you might as well get on with it; I'm sure it wouldn't be hard at all to find a suitable replacement for me."

The younger voice broke out into uncontrollable laughter. "Forgive me, Kratos, but you must understand: you are the only person suitable for the seal. No one else has quite the capacity for loyalty as you do, as I'm sure your late wife understands—ah, ah, ah, no need to start so. I've already heard the whole story thanks to a report from Cardinal Kvar. Quite surprising that he even survived, given what you did to him. Ah, I suppose a decade or so and he'll be right as rain."

"You…" Lloyd shuddered; he knew that tone. It meant that his father was reaching the edge of his patience.

"You've only yourself to blame; you know that. I've told you time and time before: there is nothing left for us in those despicable worlds."

"Mithos…"

The younger voice continued on, as if it hadn't bothered to listen to his father at all. "Ah, and of course I can't use Yuan. I may not think very highly of you right now, but I trust Yuan even less. He's always absent on these 'business trips'."

"Mithos, the issue at hand, please."

"Hm? Oh yes…your son." There was an unhealthy pause. "I suppose a master must throw his dog a bone once in a while. Do what you will with the boy, but keep him out of my sight. Understand?"

"Very well." His father's voice suddenly sounded tired.

"That's more like it. You're dismissed." There was a hesitant step. "Don't stand there, fool. I've nothing more to say. Get out of my sight."

"As you wish." Lloyd gasped and swiftly moved away from the door as the knob turned. He couldn't be caught eavesdropping!

"A moment, Kratos," the younger voice said.

"Sir?"

"The Angelus Project- I would very much like it back now that you have properly gallivanted around with it. The girl might have been of little consequence, but I do want that Cruxis Crystal."

"I hear and obey." Lloyd stiffened into his original position by the side of the door as his father stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. The older man stood there for a long time, but finally he turned to his son with a long, drawn-out sigh.

"I'm glad to see you haven't gotten into any mischief." He cracked a smile, although it did not completely reach his eyes. In all honesty, it was more for Lloyd's sake.

"See? I was a good boy!" Lloyd stretched out his arms and on cue his father swept him up, seating the boy on his shoulders.

"I'm proud of you, Lloyd." His father set off down the hall, the winged beings gliding through as well only pausing for a second to wonder what was clinging to Lord Aurion.

Lloyd kept quiet as they moved through the dark halls until they arrived at another door. His father slowly set him down and fumbled with the keypad. The boy looked around. Used to the vibrant colors of the outside world, he couldn't understand why they weren't going back, now that Daddy had finished his important meeting. "Why aren't we going home?"

His father stopped dead. "Lloyd," he began slowly, "we're going to be here for a while."

"Why?"

Kratos Aurion could not bear to look into his son's inquisitive eyes. "…You'll understand when you're older."

The flow of time never ceases, but if Lloyd knew rightly, it would only stop on Derris-Kharlan. Never did things seem so dreary and stuck in the mud as on that stupid floating ice ball he called home. It had been fun and games when he was younger, hiding in all the nooks and crannies of the vast palace-like structure and exploring the countless rooms, but now he knew them all like the back of his hand, and there was only so much a conversation-starved, gregarious seventeen-year-old could do with a crowd of lifeless angels.

And his dad, but he didn't really count, especially when said father tended to act just like the angels around him. Well, he technically was one, but at least Kratos knew how to actually smile. Not that there were a lot of times that he did so, but sometimes he managed to surprise his son. Recently, though, the two had been growing a little distant. Lloyd was tired of life on Derris-Kharlan- for good reason too, in his opinion. His father, patient and subservient as always, had essentially told him (in a cultured way, minded) to suck it up and that one had to play with the hand Fate had dealt them.

Fate- a useless ideal he hated within his very core. Lloyd did not want to accept that his destiny had already been marked out for him, especially since that seemed to mean "with luck Yggdrasill will put you out of your misery in only a couple of years or so." The angel had it out for him; this he knew very well. Whenever their paths crossed (which Lloyd took care to make as infrequent as possible), the blond man would send him a look which clearly said only one thing:

You're an eyesore, and if it weren't for your father you'd be dead by now.

And Lloyd, as far as he could tell, had done nothing whatsoever to merit that kind of hatred. Unfortunately it was there, and he had to deal with it, just like he had to deal with boring, bland food; dull books; and a complete lack of interior decorating sense. At least he didn't have to deal with skin-tight uniforms; his father had had the decency to get clothes in a style that Lloyd preferred: stuff that wasn't too baggy but still gave him room to breathe—all in nice, bold colors, like red. Yes, red was so much better, so much more manly. It ended up, however, being just one of a myriad of things that marked him, plain as day, as an outsider. He was that kid, that weird kid who actually had feelings. (And what, for that matter, were those?)

Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered maintaining his personality. It seemed so easy to just drift along with the rest of boring old Derris-Kharlan. Then again, it was kind of pointless to try: when he was younger, he had tried to emulate the behavior of his father, all stern and cold. It hadn't worked. Lloyd had a penchant for friendliness, something that Kratos completely lacked. He also found that he liked talking, to the alarm of many an angel, all of whom had been unused to sudden barrages of words.

In the end, though, it was true that he'd been forced to become more reserved than the scamp of yore: chattiness died quickly in Derris-Kharlan, replaced by a reluctant bookishness. His father probably liked it more that way, come to think of it. Kratos always acted so stiff whenever his son tried to engage him in small talk- really made things difficult. What the guy needed was a—

"Lloyd."

His father's sharp voice shocked Lloyd out of his thoughts.

"Huh…whazzat?"

"You've been stirring your breakfast for about five minutes now—with the same vacant expression, may I add?" Kratos said caustically.

Oh for the love of…it was way too early in the day to get a lecture. "Well, I was just about to get to eating," Lloyd replied, eyes daring Kratos to bear into him. "Besides, a guy's allowed to think deeply, right?"

Sometimes Kratos wondered why he tried with this child, who was so willful, who refused to be squashed. It didn't help that Lloyd was a teenager now, and in the most headache-inducing phase of life ever. "I wasn't aware you regularly engaged in such an activity," he shot back.

"Well I do. Besides, I'm not that hungry," Lloyd said, although right then his stomach chose to say otherwise. "Er…"

"What were you thinking about?" Kratos asked, and now his voice was a lot softer; he'd discarded the authoritative edge.

"Stuff. Stuff that doesn't concern you." Unconsciously Lloyd gulped down a spoonful of the glop populating his bowl.

"I'm sure it does." There was very little that Lloyd thought about that didn't concern Kratos.

"This time it doesn't."

"Interesting."

"Yeah, huh?"

And that ended that. Kratos sat in silence across from his son, arms crossed. Lloyd continued to slurp down his breakfast, glancing up every now and then to shoot a glare at his father.

This carried on for about five more minutes, until finally Kratos shifted uncomfortably and said softly, "Well if you're not going to break the silence, I will." He paused. "Yggdrasill's sending me out on a mission."

"How long?" Lloyd seemed unfazed, and Kratos suddenly longed for the days when the boy had actually taken an active interest in his father's looming absence. Or at least had acted like he did.

"I'm not sure. A few months, give or take."

"That's not a very good deadline."

"I'm supposed to be acting as a guardian for the Chosen of Sylvarant; you know what that means."

"Definitely a few months, then." A few months, and what was he supposed to do with himself in the meantime? Lloyd would never actually say it, but he really did miss his father when the older man was sent out. There were precious few who would actually take the time to talk with him- no, there were no others who would. He would have to spend some unknown length of time once again holed up with…something.

"I suppose."

"So why's Yggdrasil making you play babysitter anyway?" Lloyd stood up to dump his bowl and utensils in the sink. "Why does he need to keep track of the Chosen? Aren't there supposed to be priests or something going along on the journey of world regenerationn?"

"I don't know the exact reason, but I believe I can hazard a guess," Kratos replied, looking down.

Lloyd knew the answer before his father even said it: "It's about Mom, isn't it? And me too, I guess. He's trying to test you, isn't he? To see if you'll try to run off again."

The man sighed and shook his head. "Who knows, Lloyd. There's a chance that I might come back with a sibling for you. History does have a tendency to repeat itself."

"Dad!" Lloyd sounded shocked.

"I was joking," Kratos said irritably.

"Well, I can tell that," Lloyd replied. "It's just that…you know, you actually made a joke."

"How kind of you to notice."

Lloyd didn't respond. "Hm, let's see, well, whoever they'd be, they'd be my half-brother—or my half-sister. I think I'd like a half-brother better…"

"Lloyd…"

The boy laughed. "C'mon, learn to take a joke, Dad!"

"An eye for an eye, I see," Kratos observed, but Lloyd could tell that he was smiling- just very minutely.

"You know, I wouldn't mind a souvenir, though."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, like another adventure novel. You won't believe what kind of stuffy material they've got hanging around here; I can't spend all my time reading that!"

Kratos laughed softly. "I'll see what I can find that's age appropriate."

"I'm not asking for porn, Dad," Lloyd said flatly.

"Did I say you were?"

Lloyd smacked a hand to his forehead. "Oh please…"

Kratos stood up now as well and walked over to his son. He ruffled the boy's hair fondly. "You know I only mean to jest."

"Well it's kind of hard to tell when you're joking and when you're actually being serious, if you haven't noticed." Lloyd scowled (he wasn't a little kid anymore!) but didn't try to jerk away.

Kratos backed off. "I'm sorry it was on such short notice."

Lloyd blinked. "Why? When are you leaving?"

"Soon. They're arranging the portal as we speak."

"Why didn't you say that in the first place?!"

Kratos looked apologetic. "It slipped my mind; forgive me."

Lloyd was about to yelp out more of his indignation when suddenly there was a sharp rap at their door.

"Lord Aurion!"

"And there's my escort," Kratos said quietly. He picked up the Flamberge from its place by the door and turned back to his son. "I'll try to get the Chosen to break the seals as fast as possible- just for you."

"Get serious! And…and don't get yourself killed!" It was kind of any empty charge, considering his father's skill. Still, Lloyd had always suspected that some of Kratos's moodiness sprang from certain…tendencies. The swordsman never hinted at inner turmoil, but his son knew very well that he was constantly battling his demons.

"I hear and obey," Kratos said with a wry smile and a mock salute before he swept out of the room.

"Hey, wait—oh, damn." Too late. Lloyd had started to move toward Kratos, had wanted to maybe give him a quick goodbye hug (nothing like shocking his father's escort with a good dose of family love, after all), but…he'd missed his chance. And now Kratos was gone, unable to be spoken to for who knew how long.

Lloyd stood blankly for a couple moments, staring at the door through which his father had just disappeared. Soon, however, he shook himself out of his funk. "Get real, Aurion," he muttered. "It'll only be a few months. Yeah, just a few months. And weren't you just thinking a few minutes ago how hard it's been getting to deal with him? Yeah, you're just getting ahead of yourself…"

Still muttering, he retreated to his room. Maybe a little training would take his mind off things.

Yes? No? Should I even bother? I know it's moving kind of fast right now; I'm kind of pulling things out of thin air.

And if you're bummed out that Lloyd isn't tagging along with Kratos, just know that there'll be plenty of intrigue going on on Derris-Kharlan. The kid's got a brain.

Upcoming: Lloyd takes his frustrations out on a dummy, Yuan tries to set things in motion, and Kratos deals with more (groan, wheeze, gnash teeth) teenagers. (GOSH DARN THEM KIDS.)