A/N: Hello. This is my first time on this site, so please bear with me. This is the prologue of a story I've had in mind for some time now. If you like what you see, please review and let me know, and if you don't, please review anyway and tell me why. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Tales of Symphonia belongs to Namco, not to me. However, any characters I introduce and any changes I make to the plot are my own, as are my personal interpretations of the canon characters. Also, the premise of this story, which relies on reincarnation of a sort, does not in any way represent my own beliefs or lack thereof, and is simply utilized as a plot device.

Note: I know a prologue isn't exactly much to go on, so I plan to add Chapter One soon.

Prologue

Chicago, Present Day

The young man did not want to die.

In fact, dying had been one of the greatest fears of his life. As a young child, he had researched whether scientists had yet found a path to immortality; as an adult, he despaired to find such methods himself.

Yet on the first day of October in 2015, at the age of only twenty-five, he sat on his cot, staring at the medical syringe in his shaking hand.

You see, even when seriously contemplating death – something he would never have seen himself doing before this week – he was still a coward. He'd decided to die, there was no possible better way out of this than to just die, and yet he couldn't stop his fingers from quaking like they were having an epileptic seizure. Or maybe they just wished he'd drop the syringe.

He didn't.

Slowly, painstakingly, but deliberately, he twitched his fingers so that the needle pressed against the visible vein in his left wrist. A bead of blood appeared on his pale skin, perfectly round, like a marble. He wondered at the deep crimson color. Was blood really supposed to look that way? In fact, the dark red against his now paper-white skin, coupled with the blue veins, made an oddly mesmerizing picture. Maybe he should take up painting.

His vision blurred, and he glanced at the syringe only to find it empty. When had he injected its contents? Well, no matter. That was what he had set out to do in the first place, was it not? Now he was drifting away…dying…

Dying. In a moment of lucidity, his eyes jerked open and he remembered what had driven him to this. Curse you, whoever created this miserable existence, he thought venomously.

Then the anger melted away. In the last moment before he drifted away, panic gripped him. No. I take it back! I don't want to die. Please…save…But even as he thrust the silent words from his mind, they were swallowed up by an infinite darkness.

And all was still.

…Too still, really. Wasn't he supposed to be dead? He still felt alive, just as if he was floating in space. He looked, but there was nothing to be seen; he tried to move, but it was as if he were disembodied. Where am I? he tried to shout, but there was no method with which to make sound, no medium to transmit it, and nobody to hear it.

After what seemed like eternity staring at nothing, hearing nothing, feeling nothing, a time in which the man thought he must surely have gone utterly mad, a voice – no a presence – rang through his mind. You dare take your own life, it said, but not in so many words. And he shivered at hearing it, although he did not know why.

Are you… he began tentatively, hoping that he…it…could hear him.

You have no need to know my identity. Just know that someone has seen fit to give you a chance to become a human being, to realize that the value of the world lies in more than your own success, your own knowledge, your own family. The world is not necessarily unfair or wrong because you feel you have personally been shortchanged. The world does not end when you die.

He became somewhat irate. Who the hell are you, anyway? If you're just going to spout idealistic nonsense you can get out of my head.

The voice ignored him. You'll be given one more chance before your fate is decided, in a world familiar to you, although not your own. You should be thankful for this. I personally think you don't deserve it, so I'd advise you to keep your mouth shut.

You – he began, but the voice overrode him once more.

I have one last piece of advice. I don't know whether you will be able to remember your past once you are reborn, but if you do, do your best to forget it. Nothing good comes out of living in the past.

With that, the darkness exploded in a whirl of color. And the man as he was…was no more.

Palmacosta

Raine Sage, although only thirteen years old, thought of herself as a responsible adult, hardened to anything the world might throw at her. With good reason, she would argue. After all, she had been taking care of both herself and her baby brother Genis since she was eleven and he was only an infant. And everyone knew that half-elves mature quickly. But when she opened her door that morning to drop some books off at the academy and instead found a sleeping toddler at her feet, she had no idea what to think.

He was a small boy, appearing no more than two or three years old – about the same age as Genis – with hair as silver as Raine's and ears as pointed as an elf's. Despite his elfish appearance, however, Raine immediately sensed the odd mana signature that was the trademark of half-elves; not quite elf, yet not quite human. She gasped almost inaudibly, and then for once acted without thinking. She picked up the toddler in her arms, glancing around for any sign of his parents or other townspeople, and retreated back inside. In her distracted state she forgot about the loose floorboard near the door and almost tripped, noisily knocking over a chair.

"Raine...?" came Genis's sleepy voice, and Raine cursed inwardly, realizing she'd woken him. The two year-old tottered a bit unsteadily out of the room where they both slept, rubbing his eyes. Then he looked up at the other boy and his blue eyes became round. "Who?" he asked, wide awake now. Raine sighed resignedly.

"Genis," she began gently, "I found him outside. He is a half-elf, like us."

The little boy's eyes widened even further. He clapped a hand over his mouth, then looked all around the room as if he were afraid someone was hiding there and would overhear. "Really?" he said in a hushed and awed voice. He had never encountered another half-elf besides his sister. "So he'll be an elf with us?"

"Yes, Genis," Raine said softly, kneeling and placing the boy on the soft rug. "Remember, nobody can know that we are half-elves. All of us are full-blooded elves." She sat down next to him.

Genis nodded solemnly and immediately with the air of having heard the same thing many times before. Then his gaze brightened. "So will he be my new brother?"

Raine hesitated. She doubted that this young boy's parents would be coming back, considering that they had abandoned him so neatly on her doorstep. "Yes, he can be your brother," she said at last, smiling gently. It would be difficult to take care of yet another little boy, but she knew there was no way she could abandon a half-elf child who would be eschewed everywhere he went, or in the worst case – she shuddered – taken in by the Desians. She thought briefly back to the time when the Desians had tried to recruit her and Genis…

Genis's voice broke into her thoughts. "What's his name?" the boy asked earnestly, oblivious to his sister's disquiet. Raine glanced at the sleeping half-elf.

"I don't know," she admitted. "We will have to ask him when he wakes up. It seems someone may have put a sleeping spell on him."

Genis frowned. "That's not nice."

Raine smiled and ruffled her brother's hair. "It should wear off soon, but you're right; it's not," she agreed. "But we'll be his family now, okay Genis?"

"Okay!" Genis agreed happily. "I've always wanted a little brother!"

Just then, both half-elves heard the little boy stir and turned to look at him. His eyes opened and Raine noticed that they were green, which was not too unusual for a half-elf. He seemed to focus on Raine's face, and confusion crossed his expression. The boy sat up.

"Where's Father?" he asked, directing his question to Raine. Raine sat back in surprise. The reaction was not one she would have expected from a toddler who suddenly found himself without his family. He seemed very mature for his age, but she couldn't help thinking there was something else off about him.

"Who is your father?" she asked, carefully. "And can you tell me how old you are?" she added as an afterthought.

The boy blinked. "Everyone knows Father, and I'm four. Where is this?"

"You're in Palmacosta, a port town," Raine explained, watching his expression a little anxiously. "Do you know where your father lives?"

The boy stared at her for some time, as if thinking over what she had said. "Father couldn't tell me the location because it could compromise the safety of the organization," he recited dully, as if it were a sentence he had memorized. "He couldn't tell me his name either. That's sensitive information," he added, as if he thought Raine needed more explanation.

She was taken aback by this. "…I see," she said, at last, unsure of how to respond. She was about to continue, but the boy spoke again.

"This isn't where Father lives." It wasn't a question.

"…No, I don't think so," Raine agreed. Genis was listening intently, she noticed.

The boy closed his eyes, and for a second he looked like he might cry. The expression passed as he swallowed and seemed to make an effort. Then he said with a slight tremor in his voice, "Father said he might have to get me away. Some people there were bad. But he said people down here are bad too, if they know you're a half-elf." He opened his eyes and gave Raine a serious glance. "Do the bad people know you're a half-elf?"

Raine hid her surprise that such a young child could recognize her mana signature, filing away what he had said for future rumination. "No," she said slowly. "I'm an elf."

He nodded, unfazed. "That's right. I'll be an elf too, okay?" He paused. "Father said if I had to come down here, he might not be able to see me again. Will you take care of me?"

The more the child spoke, the more shocking his words were. Raine could hardly believe his calmness, but she answered immediately, "Yes, of course. Do you want to be Genis's new brother?" She put her hand on Genis's shoulder as she spoke.

The boy looked at Genis. "Hello," he said. "I'm Rai."

Genis grinned. "Hi!" he exclaimed. "I'm Genis and I'm two, so you're my big brother!"

Rai smiled.

A/N: Please review!