There was something important in this. Kratos rarely explained anything unless he felt it was worth his time to do so, something he thought Lloyd needed to know. Even then, he almost never came out and said anything directly, leaving Lloyd the frustrating task of trying to piece it together himself. There was something in this.

Something off.

Something was wrong. Kratos never sounded like that when he'd explained anything before. Lloyd's heart beat faster though he didn't know why yet. He felt like he was about to touch something that would turn the ground to sand. Exspheres. Cruxis Crystals. Zircon. A simple question. Why would they use zircon?

Pieces started to fit. "Are you," he choked. "Are you saying my father had a Cruxis Crystal on him?" His eyes fell to the damning stone on his hand, but he couldn't see any difference. He never had been able to see one, except when there was an obvious difference in color or shape. It just looked like any other Exsphere to him - an Exsphere surrounded by a zircon plate. "But... That would mean..." He looked back up at Kratos with dawning horror in his face. Horror and pleading. Pleading with him to take back what he was saying. "You think my father was part of Cruxis?"