Thank everyone who reviewed. I fixed that punctuation error that some of you mentioned. Writing and checking for errors are definitely not my strong point.

…It hurt

It hurt like hell.

Lloyd let out a small groan as he regained consciousness. Pain flared up from every part of his body. He wondered if some of his bones were broken because he certainly felt like they were.

Ugh… His head… it was spinning, and when he tried to lift his hand to soothe the throbbing at his temple, he found out that he hadn't quite got all his feeling back just yet, so he opened his eyes instead and squinted at the surrounding. Black spot dotted his vision; blurry shapes he couldn't make out were hovering above him. Someone was shouting, but shouting what?

He shook his head to get thing back into focus, only succeeding in having another wave of dizziness washed over him. He closed his eyes again and tried to recall what'd happened. Colette missing… the tower… Remiel… Kratos… wings… Yggdrasill…

That's right… Colette and Kratos had gone ahead to the tower. Colette had known from the start that she was going to lose her heart, her life. She smiled throughout the journey knowing all that. And Kratos, he had been playing with them all along.

Lloyd's heart sank at the thought of the betrayal. Did Kratos find it so amusing to toy with them? He must have looked incredibly stupid to have been so eager and excited to accompany his friend to her doom. How many chosen had Kratos "protected" before them? Did the man have no emotion at all? He trusted Kratos like a teacher, a mentor. Yet, because of that heartless mercenary, Colette is…

The thought jolted Lloyd out of his trance. This was no time to be lying around. He had to find Colette and get out of here. He gritted his teeth and tried to sit up using all the strength he could muster. However, he couldn't move an inch. Something big, something heavy was lying on top of him, making it hard to breath.

What the? He used his hands to push the extra weight off of him, but couldn't quite manage it with his still numb limbs. Lloyd blinked and glanced down at the dark shape on his chest. It took a few seconds for him to realize that it was a human. A few seconds longer to recognize the familiar red hair and the face of the person that was resting his head against his shoulder. A horrified feeling took over his sense, Lloyd quickly rolled over, leaving Kratos's body to drop down onto the ground with a thud.

He had hardly managed to do anything but looking around in bewilderment when a pair of strong arms hauled him to his feet and Lloyd as well as the body beside him were dragged away.

This chapter was short and rather pointless, but I had to write it if I want to move onto the next part. This is when Yuan came and rescue the party (yes, he came).

I will continue this story, but I hope it won't get plainer since this seems to happen to all my other stories that have more than one chapter. I'm going to skip the part where Lloyd escape from the Renegade because I have little information on that.