Title: Symphony of a Brave Star

Chapter 1: Over the Horizon

Rating: T

Pairings: Yuri/?, Lloyd/Sheena, others.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Vesperia or Tales of Symphonia. I am writing for fun and not profit.

Summary: Of all the outcomes they thought of, all the conclusions they drew and agonized over and made peace with, they never thought dimensional displacement was going to be one of them. And who's the idiot with the wings. VesperiaSymphonia crossover.

AN: Well, what can I say? Vesperia is awesome. Symphonia is awesome. Why not cross them over? I know practically every other Tales game has been crossed with Symphonia, and the cliché has been beat into it with a big stick. But hey, it's kind of a must, right? Anyway, please enjoy. Oh, and spoilers. Those are in here too. Just to let you know.

-o-

They had so many ideas about what would happen during the final battle with the Adephagos. What if the power of the spirits didn't work and the world was destroyed? What if they didn't stop Duke and all human life disappeared from the face of Terca Lumireis? Hell, what if they actually managed to pull it off and save the planet? But in all of the outcomes, all of the conclusions they drew and agonized over and made peace with, they never once thought that dimensional displacement was going to be one of them.

So when Yuri found himself flying through the air, pulled along on waves of spirit energy up and over the horizon of the world, into the darkness of space as his world shrank to a pinprick, unnoticed, behind him, he was not amused. He was especially not amused when seconds later he found himself hurtling towards a giant tree with no way to stop himself.

It took all of two seconds for the small splotch of verdant in the periphery of his vision to become a looming, monolithic tree of epic proportions; and another two seconds for Yuri to brace himself before he went crashing into it with the force of a collapsing Baction Shrine.

He noted, for future reference, that he'd have to ask the Old Man if hurtling into an overgrown bush faster than Karol dropping into foetal position, was anything like having a few thousand tons of rock dropped on his head. If he lived that is. Because at the moment he was pretty sure he was going to die.

This, he thought, is just marvellous. Death by tree. Who would have thought stubborn Yuri Lowell would have had his life ended by a tree? He could already hear Rita laughing at him. What a great way to end the day. At least they destroyed the Adephagos before he was killed by the most non-violent organism in existence.

His moment of chagrined reflection was over as he crashed into the branches of the overgrown plant, snapping twigs with his arms and legs, while he used the rest of his body as a cushion against scraping bark and stiff branches. Because, really, who needed to walk, or grab things, or breath. Yuri didn't, that's for sure.

By the time he stopped falling- or breaking things with his head- his mind was reeling and he was aching from head to foot. He opened his eyes and, after wishing that he hadn't, peered around. The world was spinning and he was pretty sure he hadn't grown four new legs in the span of three minutes, but he couldn't be positive.

There was also a tremendous throbbing in his chest and he could barely catch his breath. Or at least, he thought the pain was coming from his chest. But again, he couldn't be sure. It might have been coming from his feet for he knew. He tried to move and establish his position amongst the tree branches and found that his right leg was thrown over a branch above his head, while his left was tucked up underneath his body at a painful angle.

Thankfully, he didn't think his neck was broken or he wouldn't have been able to turn his head and see that he was half leaning up against the trunk of the tree, with one arm over his chest and the other hanging downwards to the ground.

Wouldn't that have just been fantastic? He thought derisively as the world saw fit to right itself in front of his eyes. He managed to shift his body into a less unpleasant arrangement and let his leg drop from its high-flung position to alleviate the strain on his back, nearly sending himself careening out of his precarious perch as he did. With a hastily flung arm, he hooked a hand on a nearby branch and stabilized himself before he was able to complete his journey to the ground.

He grimaced in severe pain, and the world of consciousness threatened to collapse on him as he took a deep breath. He gently settled back against the trunk of the tree, letting his hand stay clamped on the branch he had snagged, just in case.

Yuri closed his eyes and clenched and unclenched his jaw, as a wave of pain from his chest throbbed, in tandem, to the sudden pounding headache that was busy cultivating at his temples. He groaned, and let his head slump back against the rough bark of the tree, using his free hand to slide tentatively over his sides and hissing slightly in pain as his fingers brushed over sensitive areas.

He didn't feel the sharp ridge of broken bone during his cautious investigation, so when he managed to pull his head forward and his shirt to the side, he was relieved to see only vivid red blotches covering his chest, instead of the dark black bruising of broken ribs that he was expecting. In morbid curiosity, he poked at the swelling flesh on his torso, watching and wincing as it went white under the pressure of his finger, before puffing out again in an angry red.

Yuri sighed and his arm fall back to his side as he wondered where he was. Halure? That would explain the tree. Well, not exactly. The tree in Halure was still in bloom this time of year- at least it was the last time they stopped to pick up supplies. Which was right before they headed to Tarqaron, so unless the Mayor had gone on a harvesting spree for Luluria petals, and stripped the entire blastia of blossoms, this wasn't the same tree.

And he was pretty sure that he had fallen up, not down, from Tarqaron, so he didn't think he was anywhere on Illycia. Or on Terca Lumireis for that matter. Because Terca Lumireis only had one massive tree, and he didn't think this was it.

And wasn't that just a disturbing thought?

Then he stiffened and craned his neck to check the branches nearest him. "Estelle?" he called, his voice thick with pain. "Rita? Boss? Judy?" even as he shifted around- gently, of course, because sharp movements were a bad idea- he couldn't see anything else in the tree with him. "Old Man? Repede?" but there was no answer to his calls, and for a brutal moment, he thought the worst must have happened.

A swell of dread clawed at him, feeling even worse than the pain radiating from his chest. He was about ready to start leaping through the branches of this overgrown tree to try and find them, but then common sense grabbed hold of him and beat him with a reality stick.

If the rest of his group had fallen with him, they would be in the same general area of the tree that he was. And when he looked up and saw that his trail of broken branches and crumpled leaves was the only one hacking up the interior of the tree, he decided there wasn't enough evidence to say that anyone was nearby, so there no use jumping to conclusions.

Of course, the thought that they might have missed the tree entirely, ate at him with relentless little bites. But he tried to ignore it to the best of his abilities.

Well, he wasn't going to find out anything up here, so he sighed and summoned up the effort to pull his right leg over to join his left, bracing himself for the climb down, as he wondered briefly how this was going to work seeing as how the next branch that looked strong enough to hold his weight was a good ten feet beneath him.

He patted the branch he was sitting on, estimating his grip on the rough bark. Should he let himself hang down, drop and hope that he didn't miss the branch below- risk becoming a big messy stain on the ground? He frowned and looked up into the canopy. Or should he try to climb up and around to find another way down? He grimaced, because the thought of scaling branches right now was very unappealing.

And as if the tree was tired of waiting for Yuri's decision, the bough he was resting on vanished. It wasn't just the one he was sitting on, either. The entire tree disappeared and he let out a sharp cry of surprise as he tumbled through the air, mulling over his terrible luck as the ground raced to meet him. He gritted his teeth when he realized that he was still too high above the ground, and that since he didn't have another tree to fall on, this landing was most like going to be the end of him. He wondered cynically, for a moment, if there was any chance of Duke catching him again.

Yuri was really getting tired of falling from buildings. Or floating towers. Or maybe it was just all tall objects in general.

He was desperately trying to think of a way not to die, when a heavy something hit his side and latched onto him. Of course, the heavy grip just had to clamp over his ribs, so he started howling when a dull crunch and a sudden violent stabbing, sent a flood of agony sluicing through his blood, causing pinpricks of darkness to pepper his vision as his breath seized in his lungs.

In a moment of blind and disoriented panic, Yuri lashed out against whatever had a hold of him, snapping his elbows out and spearing them into whatever he could. He was rewarded with a yelp of shock and pain, as well as his third case of vertigo for the day, and then he was tumbling through the air again. His already muddled mind was thrown for a loop- or six- and when he slammed into the ground, after a fall that was infinitely shorter than he thought it was going to be, a tortured cry erupted from his throat.

The world flashed in front of his eyes, changing from the bright blue of the sky to the dark grey of gravel as he rolled end over end, skidding to a stop in a cloud of dust and dirt. Yuri flopped onto his back, teeth gritted together and eyes clamped shut as he tried desperately to breathe, tears of agonized pain coalescing in the corners of his eyes as the brutal piercing sensation clawed through his torso.

When no life giving breath was forthcoming, and tendrils of darkness started clawing at his consciousness, he started thrashing, arms flung out and head snapping back and forth as he clawed at his throat. He groaned a whine of anguished suffering as his sanity was eaten in a wave of torturous fire.

There was someone yelling nearby, but all that he could concentrate on was the pounding in his head. And then something was holding him to the ground, restraining his arms and legs, and Yuri struggled against it, and against the pressure squeezing his chest. And then the shouting was right near his head, and while he could barely distinguish the words from the heartbeat in his ears, he was able to make out a loud "Stop moving!" and a shrill "Do something, Lloyd!" before there was a sharp crack to the side of his skull.

And then everything went black.