Don't lie to me!

Chapter 2

"Are you ok Lloyd?" Colette asked innocently. The whole group seemed to have gone silent as they all turned their heads towards the two of them.

"Uh, what?" Lloyd said, partially confused. Colette sighed and took a seat next to him. She took one of his hands in both of hers and stared into his eyes with concern.

"You haven't been your normal self lately, is everything ok?" Colette asked her best friend.

"Uh, yeah, everything is fine!" Lloyd said with a forced smile. Colette lowered her eyes and broke eye contact as if hurt. 'Crap! I upset her!'Lloyd reprimanded himself.

"Don't lie to me Lloyd, I can tell something is troubling you," Colette said as she adverted her eyes to the ground and let go of his hand. "Don't do what I did and keep everything bottled up, it only hurts those around you, you taught me that Lloyd."

"Colette..." Lloyd started, but he was cut off.

"I can help you Lloyd, you just need to let me!" Lloyd lowered his eyes.

"But, there's nothing wrong Colette, so you don't have to worry, I think it's just fatigue catching up with me," Lloyd lied as he put up another forced smile. He felt guilty for lying to her, but he didn't want her to worry even more than she had to. His attention diverted however, as the gem on his hand began to burn again. 'I'm beginning to hate this thing!'

"Lloyd, please," Colette started as she reached for his hand again, bringing her eyes to meet his. Unfortunately, her soft hands brushed against his exsphere. Lloyd immediately ripped his hand out her reach as searing pain shot through his arm. Lloyd's quick actions caused the young angel to lose her balance as she fell off the back of the log, but what surprised her the most wasn't Lloyd's actions.

'His exsphere, it was burning...' she thought to herself. The angel let Lloyd pick her up as he brought her back up.

"See? I'm fine! Like I said Colette, you have nothing to worry about," Lloyd said. Colette however, didn't look the least bit relieved, but rather sad.

"Lloyd," Colette barely managed to get out before tears began to flow down her cheeks.

"Don't worry! Nothing is wron..." Lloyd started.

"Don't lie to me!" Colette yelled at him before running off towards the river that was just over the hill outside of the camp with tears flowing freely down her face. Lloyd let out a sigh before he turned towards the woods in the opposite direction.

After watching the scene unfold, Zelos, Sheena, and Raine all nodded to each other before breaking off to go and talk to the two teens. Zelos went to go find Lloyd, who was now wandering through the woods, while Sheena and Raine went to go comfort the crying angel.

At that moment a pink haired girl came to the campsite, dragging a giant log behind her. She wore a purple dress with a pink long sleeved shirt underneath. Her name was Presea, and she, despite her appearance as a little girl, was actually twenty years old. She had a look of confusion on her face as she looked between the campsite and where she just watched Zelos chase after Lloyd.

"Did I miss something?" Presea asked.

At the same moment, a tall man with long blue hair and hand-cuffed hands walked into the campsite. He wore a ragged white shirt with equally ragged pants and had a bucket of water held in his bound hands. His name was Regal, and he was secretly the president of the Lorenzo Company. Next to him was a large green and white dog like creature with large wind like ears. It had a rabbit in its mouth, as it returned from hunting. The creature's name was Noishe, and he was Lloyd's dog.

"Why is Colette crying by the river?" Regal asked as he approached Genis and Presea near the campfire. Genis sighed as he felt the need to fill the two of them in on what just happened.

"Ok, you guys know how Lloyd has been acting strange recently?" Genis started.

"Yes," Presea said.

"Of course," Regal added.

"Well, Colette decided that enough was enough and went to go and try and get Lloyd to talk about his problem," Genis continued. He got nods of understanding from his two comrades. "Then they got into a fight and stormed off in opposite directions, Zelos went to go find Lloyd, while Sheena and my sister went to go comfort Colette," Genis finished while pointing in the perspective directions that his two childhood friends went.

"I see," Presea said.

"That makes sense," Regal said.


"Lloyd!" Zelos called out into the woods, hoping Lloyd would respond. Not surprisingly, he didn't. "Lloyd!!" Zelos called out again, louder than before. Again, there was no reply. With a sigh Zelos ventured deeper into the woods, but remained mindful of where he was going.

Not too far away, Lloyd was sitting against the truck of a tree. He was clutching his hand as if it were on fire. The gem was glowing brighter than it usually did when it acted up, and the pain was more intense. Lloyd was hurting both in his arm, and in his heart. "That's it!" Lloyd exclaimed as he reached for the exsphere that caused him such pain. "You've been hurting me for a while now, but making me hurt Colette, that draws the line!" he said as he tried to pull the gem off of the keycrest.

Lloyd's eyes shot open with shock as the gem would not budge. "What the?" Lloyd said out of shock. Unkown to him Zelos heard his last statement, and turned to find him.

"There you are," Zelos said as he crossed his arms in front of the swordsman. "I do not approve of what you did to Colette, you'd better have a good explanation for everything," Zelos said in an almost threatening manner.

Lloyd yet out a sigh, slightly relieved that the gem stopped acting up. "Here, try and take my exsphere off," he said stretching his arm out towards the red haired man. Zelos shrugged and tried to pull the sphere off, but it still wouldn't budge.

"What the?" was all Zelos could say.

"It gets even wore, this thing has been burning my arm and sending pain through my arm," Lloyd said. "It gets worse every time it begins glowing."

"Well, how often does it glow?" Zelos asked, concern rising in his voice.

"It gets more and more frequent by the day," Lloyd answered.

"Any ideas why?"

Lloyd shook his head. "But for some reason, every time Colette gets closer to me, the gem acts up, but my heart hurts even more."

Zelos could only smile as he looked at the teen's worried face. "Whats wrong with me?" he heard Lloyd ask.

"Well, I have no idea about your exsphere, but I do know what is wrong with your heart," Zelos said as he squatted down next to Lloyd, who turned to face him. "You see, your experience something that regular people call love, which is indeed a very wonderful thing if I do say so myself," Zelos began to explain as he was rubbing his chin.

"Don't give me any nonsense Zelos, I'm really not in the mood," was Lloyd's first response.

"Oh, but I'm not joking around. Tell me, how dose it feel when she walks by, or smiles at you?" Zelos watched as Lloyd's eyes dropped even more.

"It feels like my heart stops every time she gets close to me, and when she smiles, I feel like the happiest person in the world. I never want to see her sad. That's why I didn't tell anyone about this," Lloyd said motioning towards his exsphere. "When she began to become sad, I became sad, and eventually, it lead to this."

"By not telling her, of all people, you made her sadder than you could imagine. You should go apologise to her, and maybe we can help you out with this, after all, thanks to our help you gave Colette her soul back!" Zelos encouraged.

"Yeah..." Lloyd said as he stood up with a real smile and a look of confidence on his face. Zelos rose with Lloyd. The two nodded to each other before turning back to where the campsite was. They were only a few steps into their trip when they heard an ominous growling noise behind them. Both of them stopped dead in their tracks.

"Lloyd, did you hear that?"

"Yeah, I think so."


Colette was sitting in front of the calm river as it reflected both her reflection as well as the moon's. The young angel had her knees brought to her chest as she cried on them. "Why Lloyd, why don't you trust me enough to let me help you?" she cried to herself as old memories from her Journey of Regeneration came back to her.

"You don't trust me enough to tell me what's wrong?" Lloyd asked looking sad. Colette turned around, wanting to cry, but couldn't.

"It's not like that! I just didn't want anyone to worry!" the angel defended herself. Lloyd looked disappointed. "After each of the seals that we unlocked, I've been feeling strange. First at the fire seal, I lost my appetite, I couldn't taste anything, and I had to force everything down. Then at the next seal, I lost the ability to sleep, I was always wide awake. Now, after this one, I can't feel anything, and I don't want anyone to worry. I'm sorry Lloyd, I rea-," Colette explained before she was cut off by Lloyd hugging her.

"I'm sorry," he said as he held the angel in his arms. "I'm sorry I didn't notice how much pain you've been in. I am so sorry!" Lloyd said as a tear came to his eye. Colette hugged him even harder.

"Is not telling me anything some sick revenge of yours Lloyd?" Colette asked to no one in particular.

"Colette?" a voice said behind the angel. Colette's eyes shot wide open as she rose and turned with a start.

"Ll.. Oh, Professor Raine, Sheena," she said as she saw the two women in front of her.

"Colette, are you ok?" Raine asked. Colette's eyes lowered to the ground.

"Don't worry about Lloyd, I'm sure he'll come around!" Sheena tried to comfort the blond.

"It's not just Lloyd being uneasy, its because he doesn't trust me enough to tell me!" Colette exclaimed as more tears gathered in her eyes. Both Sheena and Raine went over and hugged the angel, letting her cry on their shoulders. "And, worst of all, he lies to me and says everything is fine, that "I have nothing to worry about," but I just can't understand why he won't just tell me!"

"I think it's because he dosen't want you to worry," Raine said.

"But that's stupid! I'm going to worry more if he doesn't tell me!" Colette argued.

"Lloyd is a boy, boys have been known to do stupid stuff!" Sheena stated almost as if it were a fact. "Now come on, I'm sure it would be better to get back to camp, these parts are known to have large packs of wolves at night," the ninja said.

"When we see Lloyd, we'll knock some sense into him for you ok?" Raine suggested.

"Just don't hurt him too much Raine, I think Colette might want to have kids some day," Sheena said. Raine gave a solid "hmph!" noise while Colette's face turned to a bright shade of red. Sheena couldn't help but laugh at the sight. "Anyway, lets get back ok? I'm sure Zelos brought Lloyd back by now." The other two nodded and the trio left back for the camp site.

On their way back, Raine decided to start a conversation. "So Sheena, you said wolves were common in this region, how big are their packs?"

"Usually, twenty to thirty or so, why?" Sheena responded.

"Oh, just curious," Raine said. Colette was too busy with her own thoughts to pay attention to the conversation.

"Don't hurt him too much... Colette might want to have kids some day."That sentence kept repeating itself in her thoughts. 'Maybe a family would be nice, some day...' the angel thought to herself as a smile swept over her face.

When they returned to the camp site, they found Regal, Presea, and Genis talking around the fire while Noishe was chewing on what was left of its dinner. Regal was the first to notice the trio's return. "Welcome back," he said. Presea and Genis turned around.

"Colette!" the two said in unison.

"Do you feel better?" Genis asked his childhood friend. Colette simply nodded. "Now we just need to wait for Lloyd and Zelos."

"You mean their not back yet!? It's too dangerous to be out for too long!" Sheena yelled. As if on cue, a heart piercing howl came from the woods general direction. Noishe's ears perked up and he began to growl. Colette was stricken with dread and ran straight into the forest.

"Colette!" Raine yelled after the blond as she gave chase.

"Foolish girl!" Sheena added as she to gave chase. Noishe and rose to his feet before charging into the woods as well. The dog like creature easily out ran Raine and Sheena. When he came up to Colette's side he motioned for the girl to jump on.

Colette nodded her head and jumped onto the green creature as it picked up the pace. "Take me to Lloyd!" she commanded. Noishe gave a bark of agreement as the to began to shoot through the forest.


"Well, this looks like fun," Zelos said in a sarcastic manor. "Why am I here again?"

Both Zelos and Lloyd had their weapons drawn and were back to back as they were being surrounded by a rather large pack of vicious hungry wolves.


Well, that was longer than I expected it to be, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, then let me know! In fact if you have any thing to say about it so far then let me know!