This one is for @ghostsndghouls with the prompt 3. [I] trusted [you] + Zelloyd, because this is literally the defining point of the ship. I have to say, deciding exactly which moment or scenario to write here was difficult because there are just so many to choose from. So I wrote two. The first one is from the Kratos route and the second one is from the Zelos route. Major spoilers for the first Tales of Symphonia game just in case anyone still cares!
1. dissonance
There was pity, and there was heartbreak, and they were stitched together with desperation to keep Zelos on his feet just a little longer. Just long enough that it would seem like a real fight. Maybe Lloyd would learn from this, become a little more shrewd and a little less loving so that no one else would ever be able to shock him like this. Because that’s what life was, after all, a series of betrayals each a little easier to take than the last as each one turned the body and soul to metal, twisted to imitate a person.
He trusted me, Zelos thinks again, watching the way that Lloyd and Lloyd alone hesitates to strike him. The worst part is that Lloyd wasn’t wrong. Zelos doesn’t want to win this fight or for Cruxis to succeed, and it’s not even really about giving his sister this burden of a destiny alongside his corpse--that’s just a bonus, or maybe a final, petty act of farewell. He doesn’t want to kill Lloyd, just hurt him enough that maybe next time, Lloyd will be smart enough to defend himself.
It’s only as one of Lloyd’s blades carves into his side--an accident if the horror on Lloyd’s face is anything to go by--and Zelos sees that unwavering light flicker that he wonders if there’s really a difference.
2. harmony
He trusted me, Zelos thinks, and it sounds like those stupid piano exercises from when he was a child, playing the same handful of basic notes over and over and over until the sound was hollow and yet ingrained into him. He trusted me, he trusted me, he trusted me. It’s the past tense that sounds the most bitter.
He trusted me, and even though Zelos has no way of knowing if anyone, let alone the one who matters most, will believe it, Lloyd wasn’t wrong to do so. His hands move quickly over the confusing light projections that Cruxis likes to use to control their machines, setting the others free from the personalized hells that pass for “traps” here, guiding them to where Lloyd will be next so he won’t face this alone. So he won’t have to.
They can’t see him do this, so it’s possible no one will know. But that’s the funny thing about trust--stupid though it might be, Zelos holds onto the hope in his chest that Lloyd will believe his goal was never to stop them. Because Lloyd trusted him, and Zelos might not be worth it, but for the first time in his life, he thinks he could start to be. Lloyd, of all people, deserves to know his goodness is not wasted.