Me: Hi, everyone! I'm back for another entry. I hope you all liked the previous entry.

Lloyd: Yeah, yeah. Can we just get on with it?

Kratos: Patience, Lloyd.

Lloyd: *grumbles and looks away*

Colette: This person doesn't own anything!

Lloyd, Genis, and Colette walked back toward the entrance to the Martel temple. On their way, they ran in to Raine, Genis' older sister.

Raine seemed to be looking at one of the walls intently when they happened upon her. When she heard Genis, she turned around. "Lloyd, Genis. What are you doing here? Didn't I say to wait in the classroom?"

Lloyd shrank back while Genis got a spanking. This did no help for him though as he got a boot in the gut, sending him in to the wall. Colette ran over to him to try to help Lloyd up. "Raine!" Genis cried. "Don't you know that you just kicked the next chosen?"

Raine looked back at Genis. "Genis, what on earth are you talking about? Colette is the chosen."

Colette shook her head. "Not any more, Professor. Lloyd had more angelic blood than me for some reason."

Genis nodded. "He was kind of vague but maybe it's because Remiel, the angel that came to us, is Lloyd's real father."

Raine shook her head. "Genis, that doesn't make any sense. If Colette was born with the cruxis crystal, it would stand to reason that he would be Colette's father. And even if he wasn't, wouldn't this problem have come up by now with another chosen?"

Genis blinked. Raine was right! Maybe there was another reason why Lloyd had more angelic blood than Colette?

Lloyd got up. "It doesn't matter now any way. I'm the chosen and I'll see this through to the end. Hey, it might be cool to become an angel. I'll have cool angel powers!" Lloyd accentuated his meaning by flapping his arms and smiling.

Raine took a look at the cruxis crystal. "It seems you are the chosen after all. I'm sorry, Lloyd."

Lloyd smiled. "Why are you apologizing? This means I can go on an epic journey! I've always wanted to go on one of those! I can't wait to tell dad!"

And with that, Lloyd and Genis took off, Colette and the Professor sighed, and Colette took off after them. It wasn't hard to get back to town, with just a couple wolves in the way.

They walked in to the quiet village of Iselia. They made their way over to Phaidra's house to drop Colette's house. Colette's house was on the east side of town, nestled away from the hustle and bustle of village life. As they walked up to Colette's house, Genis grabbed Colette by the wrist.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Happy birthday, Colette!"

Colette turned around and smiled. "Thank you, Genis." Lloyd blushed. He had completely forgotten about her birthday. It was so hard to remember birthdays. He didn't even remember his own.

"I made you some cookies," Genis went on and Colette took them from him and tried one. They were chocolate chip, her favorite. "Mmmmm! My favorite!"

"I made you a present too!" Lloyd stammered! "I-It's just not quite done yet!"

Colette nodded. "It's okay, Lloyd. I trust you!" At that, she turned with her cookies and headed inside the door, Genis and Lloyd trailing behind her.

Inside, she set her cookies on the table and hugged her father and grandmother. "Grandmother, father," she said, "I'm not the chosen anymore." Phaidra and Frank were already surprised that Kratos was not with her, but this information really sent them through a loop.

Phaidra was the first to speak. "Did-did you fail the test, Colette?" Colette shook her head.

"I did not have enough angelic blood in my body as another." Colette stepped back and Lloyd stepped forward.

"Lloyd is the new chosen," Colette said. It was so silent in the room you could hear a pin drop. Finally, Phaidra spoke. "Has Kratos decided against protecting Lloyd?"

Genis stepped to Lloyd's side. "He said he had something to take care of but he would be back to talk with you and see if you would still make payment on a different chosen." Genis was smart. He understood adult matters. Sometimes.

Phaidra nodded. "When he comes I will tell him that I will give him payment. We can't have any chosen going out alone, can we?"

Colette stood by Lloyd. "I want to go too."

Frank spoke up. "It will be a dangerous journey, Colette. Please, stay home." Colette hardened her eyes and shook her head. Phaidra knew the exact reason why Colette wanted to go. She wanted to see Lloyd become an angel. She wanted to be with him until it was time.

Phaidra turned to Lloyd and Genis. "Would you excuse us? We have things we need to talk about. We will let you our decision by the morning."

Lloyd and Genis walked out of there hesitantly, leaving Colette behind. "Alright," Lloyd said. "Time to go see dad. See you Genis."

"Wait!" Genis stopped Lloyd in his tracks. He walked up to where Lloyd had started to run off to. "Can I go part of the way with you? I have someone I want you to meet!"

"I didn't know you had friends outside of the village besides me," Lloyd said none too smoothly.

"Let's stop by my house first so I can get my stuff!" Lloyd sweat-dropped and walked to Genis' house where Genis made four beef sandwiches. Lloyd was wondering why Genis was making sandwiches but decided it must be for lunch so he let it go. They hadn't had lunch yet.

They were out of Genis' house in a flash and soon came upon a green and white dog-like creature. "Noishe!" Lloyd spoke in a semi-harsh tone. "You know you're not supposed to come in to town." Noishe was standing at the town's entrance and whining, like he wanted in, though Lloyd didn't know why. Little did Lloyd know, Noishe smelled his old master had been through town and wanted desperately to go chasing after him like long ago.

Lloyd guided the bucking Noishe out of Iselia and in to the hilly Iselia Forest. Noishe, unfortunately, took off at the sight of the forest and Genis and Lloyd were left in the dark forest. Not worried at all and having grown up in the forest, Lloyd was positive while Genis gulped.

They travelled up the hills at a fast pace, Lloyd leading until they got to the top and Genis grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him off to the side. "This way!" It was then that Lloyd's eyes widened and he took a step back.

"Genis! Have you been going to the Desian Human Ranch? You know we're forbidden to go there? Iselia has a peace treaty!"

Genis shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes. "So what? They broke it! Remember when they attacked us and Kratos had to come to the rescue? That was them breaking the peace treaty!"

Lloyd crossed his arms, thought about it for a little while, then nodded. "Alright. But only for a little while." And he followed Genis in to the Desian Human Ranch.

They snuck around the human ranch until they got to the side which had bars which you could easily see through, where they met an old woman. "Marble!" Genis exclaimed while stuffing a sandwich in between the bars, which she took gratefully.

Lloyd looked over to him. "This is your friend?" Genis nodded and smiled.

The old lady smiled as she ate her sandwich. "Hello. Are you a friend of Genis'?"

"Yes. My name is Lloyd." The lady smiled at him a toothy grin full of beef and took another big bite.

Genis couldn't contain himself anymore. "He's the next chosen of regeneration! He's fixing to go on his journey, Marble!" Marble looked up from her sandwich.

"I thought that Colette, the friend you told me about, was the next chosen of regeneration."

Genis shook his head, trying to get her to understand. "The cruxis crystal decided that Lloyd has more angel blood than Colette has. So he became the next chosen!"

Marble shook her head. "Stranger things have happened, I suppose," she murmured. Just then, Lloyd noticed something on her hand.

"Hey, Marble. Is that an exsphere? Don't you have a key crest?" Straight and to the point.

"A key crest?" Both Marble and Genis were questioning him.

Lloyd nodded. "An exsphere without a key crest is dangerous. And it looks like you don't have a key crest."

Genis was panicking. "What do we do?!" Lloyd threw his hands up. "Calm down, calm down. Exspheres are dwarven technology. My dad's a dwarf. I'm sure he'll be able to figure something out!"

Genis smiled. Of course Lloyd would think of something! Lloyd was always thinking of others first. Just then…."Hey, you! What are doing over there?!"

A desian had caught them from the other side of the gate! Marble scarfed down her sandwich and turned to face him while the duo hid in a bush.

While hiding in the bush, they heard something about the desians "taking her to the back." Thinking the worse, Lloyd, of course, had an idea.

"Genis, we need to scale that cliff over there. You throw a fireball at them then get out of here and head back to the village. Then I'll distract them and head the other way away from the village so they won't see my face." So that's what they did. Lloyd helped Genis up the cliff, inch by inch since he was short. As soon as they were up on the top cliff, they found they could look over half of the Desian Human Ranch. And they were hitting the old and frail Marble with whips! Genis immediately each of the three desians hitting her with three fireballs, sending them in to shock. When they came out of it, Genis jumped down the cliff and Lloyd ran the length of the gate, distracting them. They opened the gate. Everything went find until Genis tripped.

Genis tripped, sprawling himself out of the bushes and in to the faces of the waiting desians. Lloyd immediately cut back and went to his rescue, dispatching the three desians with some difficulty, taking long enough to be caught on camera. Afterwards, he grabbed Genis and hopped off the large cliff, sending him hurdling down at top speed where he had fallen as a toddler. But just as before, his velocity slowed and he landed on his feet (where as a toddler he landed on his side and unconscious.)

"That was great, Lloyd!" Genis exclaimed. Lloyd nodded. "We better get out of here." Genis quickly agreed and they quickly went their separate ways, Lloyd to Dirk's house and Genis back to his house. Lloyd had the hardest journey, back past the Desian Human Ranch, but he made it through without incident and he found Noishe waiting for him at Dirk's house.

"Hi, mom," he mumbled under his breath as he looked at her gravestone as he passed it on his way inside.

Dirk was working at the work bench and looked up when he walked in. Lloyd decided to get straight and in to the point. "G-guess what dad?" he stammered. "I'm the new chosen of regeneration…."

Dirk's eyes hardened and he didn't say anything, just stared. Lloyd went on. "Apparently, I have more angelic blood then Colette. And I've found out who my real dad is. His name is Remiel, an angel!"

Finally Dirk decided to speak. "Lloyd that's….great. Bein' the child o' an angel is a true blessin'."

Lloyd beamed but put his hand on Dirk's shoulder. "But don't worry dad. I won't forget the dad that raised me." At this Dirk had to smile. "Now," Lloyd went on. "I was wondering if you would make a key crest for a friend of mine that doesn't have one."

Dirk was agape. "A friend of yours? And just what friend?"

Lloyd didn't know what to say. "A-A new friend."

"And why does this 'friend' not have a key crest? If your friend has an exsphere, it should have a key crest. Only desians have exspheres and if this 'friend' picked one up from a desian, it should already have a keycrest."

Lloyd was at a loss for words and decided to go with the truth. He hung his head. "My new friend is a prisoner at the Desian Human Ranch. I saw her exsphere and-"

"You went to the ranch?!" Dirk was not happy.

"A lot of stuff happened and-"

Dirk softened. "You didn't let the desians see your exsphere did you?"

Lloyd looked at his wrapped hand that hid the blue exsphere that used to be his mother's. "No. But why is it so important to hide this thing?"

Dirk paused. "That exsphere is your mother's keepsake. The desians killed your mother in order to take it from her."

Lloyd's whole world came crashing down. He had no idea what to think. All this time he had thought his mom died in an accident and now to find out his mom was murdered by desians!

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"If I had told you, you would have went out to seek vengeance against the desians."

Lloyd would. "I will destroy them. The entire ranch!"

That is when Dirk brought back his fist and slammed it in to Lloyd's cheek, sending the young boy flying out the door and in to the waiting arms of…

Kratos.

Not noticing Kratos holding him up, Lloyd shouted back to Dirk. "You don't have to hit me!" Kratos could feel himself boiling on the inside. Someone had hit his son. HIS son. By the looks of it, this was the person that had raised him. How long had this been going on? Regret washed over Kratos as he felt sorrow for not looking harder for his son that fateful night.

He heard Noishe howl for him and he turned to see his old friend running up to him. He tried to push secretive emotions out to let the animal know not to pounce on him. Sadly, this did not help as the dog-like creature pounced on the mercenary, who barely was able to keep ahold of Lloyd.

The creature gave Kratos one sharp lick and snuff before pulling back and checking Lloyd out. Lloyd was still in a daze so Kratos sat Lloyd down and Lloyd let him-he had jelly legs. Lloyd honestly couldn't believe his father had hit him. He knew dwarves could be violent-his father had always told him they could. But his father had never hit him before!

"Lloyd. Are you alright?" Lloyd was snapped out of his daze by Kratos' question. Lloyd nodded and stood up. Deciding that he wasn't going to get any more out of him, Kratos turned to the grave by the house. "Whose grave is this?"

"This is my mom's grave," was Lloyd's reply. "All this time I had thought she died in an accident. But she was killed by desians. I swear I will avenge her."

Kratos didn't say anything. So, this was Anna. This was all that was left of her. His heart hurt. His whole body hurt for her. He touched the grave and could've swore he felt Anna's hand holding his back. Though he would never forget her, he would never forgive himself for what happened to her. She didn't have to become a monster. It was because she was running with him that she was used against him. He took his hand off of the grave and wanted to slit his throat right then and there if it wasn't for the young, clueless man standing beside him.

"Lloyd, Phaidra has given me guardianship over you. We will be leaving at first light. Though I wish it otherwise, the young Brunel will be joining us too." Lloyd brightened up at this.

"Really? That's great!"

Kratos chose to keep his emotions intact, for Lloyd's sake. "This will be a dangerous journey. I hope the former chosen knows how to fight."

Lloyd nodded. "She's been training to fight since she was a child."

Kratos frowned. Of course. That was one of the parts to being a chosen, one of the parts that Lloyd did not get to participate in. Of course, he still didn't know how to get Lloyd out of being the chosen. There was no way he would be to bring Lloyd to the Tower of Salvation to sacrifice Lloyd as a chosen. But if Mithos didn't get his chosen, there would be hell to pay and the worlds would never be united. But would he really sacrifice his own son for the sake of the world? Kratos was at war inside.

Kratos turned. "I will wait for you in the village of Iselia. Be sure to pack light."

At that, Kratos walked off, leaving Lloyd alone. Lloyd decided to sneak in to his room by way of the vines and settled in for a nap. He woke up just before midnight and started working on Colette's necklace. It wasn't too technical, so he finished it (thankfully) just before dawn. Then he decided he better have a talk with his dad to clear some things up.

Dirk was in front of his mother's grave laying some new flowers out. "Dad?" Dirk turned around.

"Here." Dirk thrust several apple and orange gels, a life bottle, and a map of Sylvarant in to Lloyd's hands.

"What's this?"

"It's my way o' sayin' I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lash out. I just feel protective o' you. That's all."

Lloyd wrapped the items up and tucked them away for later. "Thanks dad. I'm sorry too. For not listening to you. I know I should've."

Dirk nodded and Lloyd nodded and all was silent. Finally, Lloyd hugged Dirk, Dirk blushed and Lloyd flashed him a big, toothy grin. "Bye dad. I'll be careful. And I'll come back in one piece."

Dirk nodded, taking all the words right out of his mouth. Lloyd took off with Noishe and Dirk was left all alone again.

Lloyd reached Iselia just in time to see it set ablaze. Gasping, he ran in to the middle of the already growing crowd to stand by Genis and Colette, with Kratos nowhere in sight.

"Desians!" Lloyd shouted. "What are you doing here?!" A green haired, one eyed half-elf stepped forward. "Lloyd Irving. We have been waiting for you."

Lloyd paused. "For me?"

Forcystus went on. "You are guilty of breaking in to the Desian Human Ranch and assaulting our guards. You have broken the Iselia treaty. Now we will deal out a punishment we see fit."

As Forcystus finished speaking, a huge rumbling shook the earth and a huge, grotesque monster came in to sight.

"W-what is that thing?" Genis shrieked.

"We have to save the town!" called Colette.

Lloyd took out his swords while Colette took out her chakrams and Genis his kendama. Genis started casting a fireball while Colette defended him and Lloyd took the frontlines, hacking and slashing at the beast. The monster was almost an impenetrable fort, continuing to walk even though Lloyd was slashing at it with all of his might. The monster took a swipe at him and he dodged to the left but the monster caught him in the right side, knocking him off his feet, causing blood to spurt out of his side.

Colette charge in past Lloyd and laid her chakrams on the creature, causing it to cry in pain. She caught it in the head, making it unleash a blood curdling scream. She was knocked backward and Lloyd caught her midair, cushioning her fall. Lloyd was at it again, hacking and slashing at the beast, while Genis unleashed the occasional fireball. Finally, the beast fell, surprising all of the desians, especially Forcystus.

"Grab the exsphere from him!" Forcystus yelled. But before any desian had a chance to act on his orders, the monster got up and grabbed Forcystus by the waist, pinning him. Then, a voice that kind of sounded like Marble's spoke. "Run….away….Genis….Lloyd…..Genis, you were like a grandson to me…..Thank you….Goodbye….."

Then the field was erupted in a blinding light as Marble exploded, leaving nothing but an exsphere behind. Genis picked it up. "Marble…" he whispered, as tears filled his eyes. "Marble! NO!" He shouted her name to the heavens, but it wouldn't bring her back.

Colette went over to Genis and hugged him. The desians disgracefully left, their leader wounded. And the mayor went over to Lloyd. "This is all your fault. If you wouldn't have gone to the Desian Human Ranch, none of this would have happened! Look at our homes! They're all burned to a crisp! This is your fault! You deserve to be exiled!"

At the word 'exiled', Genis looked up. "Hey, wait. I went there too. If anyone deserves to be exiled, it should be me."

The mayor thought about it. "Fine. Lloyd and Genis. I hereby exile you from the village of Iselia. Now get out!"

And the two left, along with Noishe, and unable to wait for Kratos, they headed for Triet.

Meanwhile at the Martel Temple….

Kratos had been almost everywhere in the Martel Temple, but he still could not find what he was looking for…or rather, whom he was looking for. "MARVELOUS!" A sound from deep inside the temple had him going that way until he found the silver haired half-elf. She was surprised to see him.

"I don't believe we have met. I am Kratos. A mercenary. The protection of Lloyd, the chosen, has been entrusted to me." Raine crossed her arms, waiting for him to go on. "The villagers tell me you are a healer, correct?" Raine nodded hesitantly. Kratos went on. "It would benefit us to have a full time healer on our side. I…regrettably only know first aid."

Raine was starting to catch his meaning and her eyes lit up. "Are you asking me to go on the regeneration journey?" Kratos nodded sternly and Raine repressed a jump for joy. How she had wanted to go on this journey!

They travelled towards the outside of the Martel Temple in silence. Once outside, Raine gasped. "Didn't you say you were entrusted the protection of Lloyd?" Kratos didn't get her meaning until he looked in the direction of Iselia. Over towards the horizons there was smoke. And where there was smoke, there was fire.

Me: Long chapter! Kinda boring! But you gotta get through the boring chapters to get to the better ones! Trust me! They'll get much better!

Kratos: ….

Me: Anyway, I hope you liked it at least a little!

Lloyd: Review!