Disclaimer: I don't own any characters of Tales of Symphonia, I only own Saphira really. There might be a handful of new characters later on and, if you do not recognise them, then they belong to me.

Eyes of a jewel.

The thunder crashed, lightning enveloping the entire land below as the skies cried with rain. The rain was heavier then weights and hammered the whole entire village of Iselia, pelting everything in sight as it almost flooded everything.

Even the roads were flooded and if anybody was brave enough to treat against it, it would have at the very least been shin deep...and the current was extremely powerful, it could easily sweep a whole army of twenty away and cause them to drown.

In the meantime, inside of the Irving/Aurion/Brunel household, Lloyd sat on the sofa beside Saphira whom huddled close to him for protection. He held a book on his lap, each hand latched tightly on to each of the binding so the pages sandwiched in between could be easy to read and focus on. The little girl leaned heavily against his left side as her eyes were heavy and droopy, signalling that it was getting close to her bed time.

Despite doing as much as he could to take care of his and Colette's little bundle of joy, that feeling gnawing at his soul didn't go away. It was an oppressing feeling in his chest and his heart was stirring as if it were trying to tell him something which he couldn't quite hear yet.

A soft amber glow coming off of a nearby lamp lit up the room and provided a soothing atmosphere despite the fact that the rain was basically hammering down outside. It also made at least one of the two extremely drowsy as she was falling asleep right beside her father, whom smiled gently at his daughter upon feeling her body warmth next to his.

While he couldn't shake that feeling of dread that was brewing deep inside his gut, he was just happy to be there with his little Saphira...

He let out a long yawn himself as he stretched just a little bit.

Maybe a little sleep would take his mind off of this...

Lloyd started to close his eyes and drift off into a deep sleep. He actually felt content for a bit as he felt his arm lamely pick up and wrap itself around the little child beside him and he could not help but smile in his sleep when he listened to the sounds of her soft and gentle snores. He held her even tighter when thunder boomed from outside.

Despite the storm outside, Lloyd knew that his daughter would be fine. She was brave and courageous and was just like her mother...only with his stubborn attitude.

His world became engulfed in blackness as he finally started to drift off into slumber deep. He kept his arm wrapped around his daughter so he could keep a close vigil on her just to be safe, his heart was warming up as he knew that this precious little girl as well as his wife and the rest of his loved ones had a special place in his heart.

He kept a smile stretched on his lips as he slept, humming in contentment as he rubbed his cheek against Saffy's forehead.

It felt like only a few minutes went by when the swordsman with the spiky brown hair opened his eyes with a snort as he heard some knocks on the door, this eliciting a heavy moan from the man as he scrubbed at his face with his hands in an effort to get some of the sleep out of his eyes.

He groggily climbed to his feet with his mind fuzzy and his actions slightly delayed. He couldn't comprehend much as he had just been awoken but then he started looking down at Saphira who had shifted in her sleep upon feeling the loss of warmth from where he was. She seemed a bit unsettled, just like he was feeling at that moment.

He started to amble out of the room with his eyes still a bit heavy and he was still having trouble getting a good focus on things even though he was becoming steadily more awake as each second passed.

He quickly turned to gaze at the cuckoo-clock hanging on the wall and noticed it read 12:20 AM. It was already passed midnight, it seemed, so this was an extremely odd visit indeed for someone to be knocking at this hour...although when he thought about what such a late-night-visit could mean, it amplified his feeling of dread.

Lloyd walked over towards the door and slowly pulled it open, wincing when a huge gust of wind hit him in the face.

He planted his feet firmly on to the ground by pinning them both to the floorboards that made up this house. His feet were so tightly glued to the ground that the friction from the soles of his shoes made a painful screeching sound that was like listening to nails being scraped along a chalk board. He desperately hoped that it didn't wake up Saphira.

When he got over the powerful winds that almost knocked him off his feet, he looked up to find that Genis was standing at the door with a look of horror on his face. He wore a hood and matching cape to try and shelter himself from the storm as he held a lantern up so he could see through the dark. But the fact that his eyes were wider then saucers actually sent shivers down Lloyd's spine.

"Lloyd! I-Its Colette! She was attacked on her way to Triet!" The young half-elf exclaimed, hoping to be heard over the horrendously loud whistling of the wind. He ducked his head in between his shoulders in a brusque attempt to warm and avoid the whole lot of yelling that was undoubtedly about to come from his best friend.

"WHAT!?"

Genis meekly nodded and continued, pointing his lantern over towards the gates that Colette had exited from just that very morning. He wore an understandable concerned expression as he looked towards the direction the Chosen of regeneration had gone.

"Yeah...she was attacked apparently and her driver had been killed! Who knows where she is now, that's if she's even-" Genis started to say sadly but only for Lloyd to sharply say otherwise as he kept his head down and his lips tight.

Genis watched sympathetically as Lloyd slammed his fist against a wall in frustration.

"No! She's alive...she has to be..." Lloyd said sternly, looking back over to Saphira whom was still sleeping. He felt his stern gaze melt when he saw the little girl fast asleep, blissfully oblivious to what was going on. He felt his battle-hardened heart ache whenever he thought of looking after that girl all alone, without a mother to sing her lullabies or a mother to play with and be by her side to soothe her hurt whenever she has a rough day.

He honestly couldn't and didn't want to think of it.

But then he noticed something as he felt his trousers suddenly become wet. He looked down and noticed that water was starting to come into the house, soaking the floor. Looking again proved something far more disturbing as he squinted his eyes towards the outside world of the village...and he was horrified whenever he came to the startling realisation that the town was actually beginning to flood rapidly!

His heart went into overdrive as he started to panic. Lloyd quickly reached over and snatched his friend by the wrist before pulling him inside the house and slamming the door closed in one fluid movement, the time it took to accomplish this being in a split two seconds.

It was when he and Genis turned that they were greeted by a familiar face.

"AHHHHHHH! KRATOS!?" Genis yelled, almost falling backwards from surprise.

Lloyd just didn't say a word.

He just raised a nonchalant brow at the swordsman with the spiky burgundy-coloured hair that looked almost exactly like Lloyd's. His somewhat gentle yet authoritative eyes locked on to the fellow sword-wielder's as the two shared a glare with each other.

Neither of them said a word until Lloyd decided to speak first, his tone slightly casual but most of it serious "..What are you doing here?"

Kratos smiled and turned his back on the younger man, a content smirk on his faces as he closed his eyes whilst he pressed a finger against the side of his head for emphasis "I sensed that you were in need of some assistance. My son, your feelings are not easy for a father to ignore whence you pick up a sick sense for it."

Lloyd rolled his eyes. He guessed that this was Kratos' -his real father- way of telling him that his father senses were tingling and he just decided to nonchalantly pop in. He had admittedly grown used to the ex-mercenary he called "father" just showing up out of nowhere without rhyme or reason, he even knew that the man mostly wanted to see how Saphira was developing.

Even though Kratos tried denying it, everyone knew that the man had a soft-spot for the child which was his granddaughter.

Kratos continued, opening his eyes and frowning a little "Your soul was calling out to me and you knew something like this was happening, I can't just ignore my family being in danger."

The two sword masters both sighed and looked away from each other awkwardly. Lloyd had to admit that he never thought that Kratos would actually say something so...uncharacteristically cheesy. He smiled sincerely at his father and sighed with a slight roll of his eyes, but then he gave a serious look to both Kratos and Genis which told them both the exact same thing, letting them know what he was doing instantly.

"Lloyd Irving! are you crazy!? That's a suicide mission!" Genis exclaimed in an effort to dissuade his friend from doing anything dangerous but was stopped right when Kratos intervened blocked his path by grabbing his shoulder suddenly. The young half-elf looked up at the much older half-angel and gave a small glare to him which Kratos blatantly ignored.

"He will be fine. I have faith in him." Kratos whispered to the worried half-elf to try and get him to calm down. He knew it didn't really help dispel the worries that the intelligent elfish teen was feeling but he didn't have a single doubt that his son would perish, even if it were a chance.

He didn't wish to stop his son from doing the right thing.

But, before the master swordsman went to leave, he retreated back towards the sofa where Saphira was still sound asleep. She was frowning a bit in her sleep as she curled up into a tiny ball which was so cute that it made the girl's father smile softly down at her.

Lloyd wished he didn't have to wake her up but he didn't want her to worry so he knew he had no choice otherwise she would be scared out of her mind.

Lloyd used the softest hushed tone he could possibly use as he ruffled her hair a bit to arouse the sleeping toddler "Saphira, sweetheart, wake up..."

Saphira stirred a bit to her father's voice and weakly cracked her eyes open to look up at his face. She reached up to rub her eyes to wake herself up more and she wore a little confused expression as she asked with the fact that she was mostly limp giving away that she was still half asleep.

"Papa?..." She asked, blinking weakly.

Lloyd stroked her forehead gently, knowing that his daughter was still very sleepy, and he wore a very apologetic smile on his face. He a pang of guilt for waking up his baby girl but he knew that he had to in order to avoid stress. He continued to stroke her head with his palm, his fingers delicately brushing along the silky strands of brown hair covering her head.

"Daddy's going to go and look for mama, I'll be back soon..."

He frowned inwardly. In truth, he had no idea if he would come back alive. If that storm is as heavy as it sounds and if the ground was flooding before as well as the fact that if Colette's attackers were still at the scene, he knew that there was a slim chance he wouldn't come back. It may have been a small chance but that chance was still prominent.

But as long as he followed Kratos' advice about studying your enemies, he knew he would be fine.

Saphira asked weakly, reaching up for her father's face "...Do you have t' go?"

Lloyd wanted to say no. He wanted to stay by her side and never leave it as well as hug her tightly. But he couldn't, he couldn't just sit back and watch his wife die! He just wouldn't ever forgive himself if she died because of a selfish mistake.

Lloyd fought back tears as he stroked his daughter's cheek whilst caressing it delicately in his palm "Sorry, Saffy, I have to go and get your mother home."

He gently nuzzled her forehead, instead of kissing it, and he stood up.

Before he left, though, he looked over towards her "Now be good for your grandfather, alright?"

"Awright, papa...wuv you."

"Love you too, Saphira."

And with those last sword of words said; Lloyd travelled back towards the door and grabbed his sword holsters from a little shelves atop of some cupboards in the kitchen. He slowly buckled them into place so they could be placed on each side of his waist. He even gave his hair a bit of a run through, to make it all the more spiky, and he went towards the door.

He sent a look over towards a worrying Genis and Kratos before opening the door, only to be knocked off his feet slightly as wind blasted through the house and water started to basically pour in through the front door.

Thankfully, Lloyd was caught by Genis who gave him an encouraging push back to his feet as he pushed himself out the door while fighting against the raging winds and water. He felt like he was being wrapped up by a sub-zero freezing moisture and he knew his body went numb from the water embracing him.

He hurried so the two could close the door behind him and prevent flooding the house.

When he was outside he got a good look at what this storm had done to his once peaceful home.

Homes were already beginning to be swallowed up by the flood rushing across the earth, signs were already nearly under the water, people had evacuated up to the rooftops just encase, shouts of panic and fear filled the air as to indicate that the townsfolk were unharmed but seriously shaken by whatever was going on.

It was then that the man sought out his companion.

Noishe was still alive and kicking after all these years, it was like any time had hardly gone by for him (especially not years) and he was being kept in a pen so he wouldn't cause any trouble for the townsfolk -even if they were to care at this point in time -and be disruptive.

But Noishe was freaking out whilst yowling and yipping as if trying to get out despite the fact that if nobody were there with him, he would most certainly be dragged down into the streaming rapid roads to drown.

Lloyd frantically pushed through the flooded road, the water swallowing his whole body up to his shoulders and neck as he tried to get to the frantic Noishe's stable.

The canine-ish creature reared and yowled in panic, whining as he tried to escape the holding pen he was locked up in.

The swordsman desperately shoved through the rushing water as he tried his best to each his essential guardian and canine-like friend.

"H-Hang on, Noishe! I'm almost there!" Lloyd exclaimed, reaching out for the startled Protozoan as he tried to grasp hold of the wooden door which was only just above water.

Lloyd didn't even waste time until he actually made it to the stable and used his finger to latch around the little hook that kept the door closed. He held on to it tightly to avoid being swept off by the currents and he grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes closed to try and think of his wife and daughter, trying to be strong for them.

He felt his heart thump as a lightning of voices spun around in his head, mostly the voices of those he had met on his adventures.

Suddenly his eyes shot open and a new fire of determination sparked in his brown pools.

With the hook unlatched, the red swordsman quickly wrapped his arms around the dog-like creatures neck. Of course Noishe's ears flicked as he gave a whine of confusion before he bolted out the stable and started to run on all fours on to the path where the village connected to the Iselia forest.

'I'm coming, Colette! Hold on!' He thought desperately, gripping on to the creature's ivory fur as he mounted on his back whilst he was bouncing with every leaping stride it took to carry the both of them towards the forest.

Lloyd just hoped that his wife was alright...

A/N: Alright, this was originally linked with the next chapter but I thought that it was quite confusing with one big chapter. I thought that I should edit some chapters to make it fit the story together and make it flow much better.

Anyways, let's see if Lloyd can make it to Colette on time! Can he?

-Chloemcg