Author's Note: Oi, I'm tired. However, I must continue for the sake of plot bunnies haunting me and an excessive amount of caffeine.

Genis: You should probably stop with those chai drinks. You had one today, two yesterday, three the day before and two the day before that.

Me: NEVER. Also, a huge thank you to Symphoniafan and silent romantic for reviewing, plus thank-yous for all of you who read, favorited, alerted or a combo of the aforementioned.

Disclaimer: I don't own ToS, try as I may. If I did, I wouldn't have to disclaim myself.

Chapter Four: Surprises for the Seraphim

By the time Lloyd finally regained consciousness, morning had come and gone in the Gaoracchia Forest, replaced with a gray and completely dismal afternoon. Patches of light soared in the boughs of the trees, but for the most part, it was dark, desolate, and not exactly pleasant to occupy, especially not alone. The small boy blinked an eye open as he rejoined the world of the living and groggily glanced around. His head stung like crazy, and his body cried out in protest as he struggled to get up and out of the bramble bush that he had passed out in.

"Yeow!" Lloyd yelled when a particularly nasty thorn snagged his hair and pulled him back down towards the sticker bush. Pushing his sleeves back, Lloyd clumsily untangled his spiky hair from the branch, the thorn not wanting to leave without a fight. Once he finally rescued his hair from the bush, Lloyd pulled himself out of the shrubbery and looked around as he sat on the dirt floor of the forest. He didn't see any renegades swarming the area, which was a good sign, but he also didn't see any of his friends, which wasn't as comforting.

"Guys?" the small boy called out, but no one answered. Standing up, Lloyd frantically looked around for any sign of his friends, but saw nothing in the dark depths of the forest that resembled them.

"Guys, where are you?!" he yelled out, but only silence answered him. Nothing, no sound of Zelos yelling that Sheena had hit him, no voice of the professor chastising the pair of them, not even a sound of Colette tripping over nothing. He was alone, alone in the Gaoracchia Forest. Lloyd took in a breath and trotted back towards where he had come, determined to find his friends.

"Guys... where are you.. say something.." He muttered worriedly. He knew that his friends could have been anywhere by now, since they'd all been attacked by the Renegade ambushers out of the blue and that was enough to jolt anyone's system to running blindly into the forest. The Renegades had ambushed them and they all had scattered in confusion, but why the Renegades had attacked them he didn't know. They were now supposed to be allies, so why would Yuan order his troops to attack them like that? It didn't make any sense to the short boy as he stomped down the trail, his bare feet kicking up dust as he went. Lloyd glared daggers at the empty wood and clenched his tiny hand into a fist.

"They'd better be okay... Yuan, if anything happens to my friends, I'll-" Lloyd snarled, but was cut off when his face burned with agony, his pulse pounding in his ears. Clutching his head with his tiny hands, Lloyd crouched down and groaned as searing hot flashes echoed in his head.

"Ow... the hell?" Lloyd moaned, as his head throbbed when he lightly brushed his fingers against the skin of his forehead. As he tried to remember what had happened, a warm sticky substance trickled down his forehead and coated his fingers. Taking his hands away from his face, Lloyd gently touched his index finger to his thumb and sniffed it.

'Blood.' Lloyd sighed in his head. 'Great. That's just what I needed.' He wiped his bloody hand on his crimson smock and then brushed the sleeve over his face in an attempt to get any blood off it. It didn't get much off, the patch of blood on his forehead clung to his skin like a barnacle on a pier, refusing to come off.

Pushing back his sleeves again, Lloyd looked up at the sky, which was gray, cloudy and thoroughly depressing. Running a hand through his hair, his head swearing at him with each stroke, Lloyd began to think in an attempt to remember what had happened when the Renegades attacked.

"Okay... we were walking. Zelos said something about a 'mascot'," Lloyd snorted. That was NEVER going to happen. "Okay, they showed up, banter happened and then... then what?"

He knew he'd run down the path trying to get away, but after that was a blur. He couldn't remember what had happened after he'd decided to go back. There was just a blank chunk in his mind and it infuriated Lloyd to no end.

"I bet that whatever happened is why my head hurts like I got hit with a kendama.." He added tiredly, his eyelids heavy. Thinking of a kendama made him think of Genis and the others, whether or not they were okay and where they were right then. Lloyd sighed sadly and continued down the path. What if something had happened to them and the Renegades got them or worse... what if Cruxis got them? They wouldn't be able to fend them all off on their own and.. he'd never forgive himself if they got hurt because of him.

"There's nothing I can do about that now. But I'll find them. It may take me a while, but I will." The small boy flexed a fist through his shirt sleeve and nodded, solidifying his resolve. He then stretched a little and glanced at the sky above him.

"I wonder where they are." Lloyd mused to himself as he walked, his eyes still fixed on the sky. "If I knew, that'd probably be a great help when I look." As he watched the stone sky, a droplet of water fell out of the clouds and hit him squarely between the eyes. His head groaned in agony at the feeling of anything touching it and made Lloyd blink, trying to salvage his vision. As the rain began to strike the ground faster and faster, the tiny boy pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Great, I'm alone, my head hurts, I'm six and it's raining." He muttered crankily to himself. "Can this get any worse?!" Shoving his hands into his pockets, Lloyd grudgingly turned and trudged down the path, which was now a road of mud and slime.

However, the sound of a squelch of mud made Lloyd halt in his tracks. Lloyd looked down at the ground around him and frowned. He hadn't made that sound, at least, he didn't think he did. It hadn't been in his cadence of walking, nor had he been stepping in a patch of mud at that particular time.

Another sound of a twig being walked on made Lloyd jump and he shot his head up in hope. Maybe it was one of his friends who had managed to get away from the Renegades too.

However, Lloyd's insides ran cold like ice when he saw who it was standing on the edge of the road in front of him.

There, standing down on the tip of the path, was Kratos Aurion, one of the four Seraphim and the man Lloyd had once considered to be his teacher. His dark and spiky auburn hair seemed to be brighter in the gray air and his light skin was much paler in contrast. The older man wore the belted outfit that signified his ties to the angelic order of Cruxis and the hilt of the Flamberge glistened in the dank light of the wood, though it probably shone by itself. He even possessed the stoic and cross expression he always wore, though Lloyd believed that was the only expression he was actually capable of using.

There was no mistaking it. That was Kratos.

And he was looking straight at Lloyd, parachute smock and all.

"K... Kr... Kra....KRATOS!" Lloyd squalled in terror, his eyes the size of dinner plates and his voice worthy of a soprano. Jumping backwards, he landed in a fighting stance and quickly reached for his swords, but froze when all his hands drew was air. His eyes shot to his hips, and the rest of him turned to stone when he realized that there were no swords to draw. Lloyd swore in his mind as he remembered he'd had to leave them behind during the renegade attack and desperately wished he'd taken at least one of them. But then again, how was he to have known that he'd would run into one of his most powerful foes in the middle of the Gaoracchia forest alone while in the body of a grade school kid.

To top it off, he was a small boy standing before an incredibly strong enemy, unarmed, exhausted, AND bleeding from his head.

'I.... I'm so screwed...' Lloyd swallowed hard. 'I don't stand a chance, not now.' He shifted and looked up at Kratos, who was still eyeing him through his curtain of auburn hair.

'Well... I didn't then, but now it's way worse.' He justified crankily, but his internal monologue sharply silenced at a crack of another twig. His eyes soared to the source of the broken stick to see that Kratos was walking towards him, his hand firmly attached to the hilt of his sword and eyes fixated on Lloyd.

Lloyd's throat clenched shut, his eyes dilated again, and his blood froze in his veins. Hands rattling, he forgot how to breathe and let out a strangled scream of horror, barely able to move. All he could do was stare at the angel lord in front of him and shake, blood seeping down his face as he did. Kratos stared back, having stopped for a moment, just watching the terrified looking boy in the curtain of a shirt as he shook. Lloyd wasn't sure what Kratos was going to do, but he wasn't about to stick around to find out. Once he finally got his body to cooperate, Lloyd took a couple small steps back and away from the encroaching seraph, his eyes still fixed on Kratos' sword.

Turning on his heels and sinking the pads of his feet into the slick mud of the forest floor, Lloyd dashed down the path as fast as he could, his oversized smock's sleeves flapping in the wind behind him. He knew he had to run for it; he wouldn't normally have a stood a chance against Kratos in his actual body, let alone that of a first grader.

'... it probably didn't help me much by pointing at him and screaming, though.' Lloyd thought bitterly as he ran through the water soaked path, his ankles caked with mud.

A stabbing pain in Lloyd's head, however, made the miniscule boy lurch forward violently and threw him off balance. When he crouched forward suddenly, a stray tree root snagged the top of his foot and sent Lloyd flying into the air. His tiny body went into an arc and landed on the earthen floor with a sickening squelch of the mud that broke his fall. When he hit the soggy ground, more blood trailed from the crown of his head and trickled down his cheek, his head still throbbing in a stinging cadence.

As he laid there in the mud, the rain pouring down in buckets, Lloyd let out a small groan and glanced up from his new dirt bed. Blood covered a good portion of his face like a crimson curtain, and his vision was hazy and blurred. He blinked once or twice, but a heavy feeling washed over his body and made it practically impossible for him to move, let alone see. He tried stretching out a hand to grip some of the clay in front of him, but he could just barely move his arm before it collapsed onto the ground, despite its meager weight.

'Not good... No.. not giving in...' Lloyd grunted, stubbornly shoving his hands underneath his shoulders and pushing himself up, only to slip on the mud and be sent careening back down into the thick muck below him. His legs, arms and body refused to work, and all the adrenaline that he was gaining from his run in with Kratos clashed dangerously with his agonizing headache.

"I can't give up, I won't!" Lloyd yelled into the air and tried again to get up, but his elbows gave way and sent him hurtling back to the ground. He hit the mud with another squish, and felt the mud soak through his pants, chilling his skin in the process. The cold water from the ground coupled with the freezing rain pouring from the darkened sky drenched Lloyd's clothes, making them cling to his body, despite the difference in size of the huge clothes and the tiny boy. Shivering, Lloyd felt his whole body go numb, the only sensation that remained being the agonizing throbs of pain in his head.

Turning his head to the side, Lloyd could hear footsteps steadily coming towards him, each step curdling his stomach. He couldn't see who it was walking towards him, but he had a pretty good theory it was Kratos. His heart thumped in his throat and his limbs wouldn't respond to anything that he told them. They just laid there in the muck strewn windsocks of sleeves and parachute legs of pants, completely useless and lifeless.

'N... no... I can't... die here.. everyone..not now...' He moaned in his mind, his vision waning and foggy at best. Bleeding, covered in mud, unable to move, and scared out of his mind, Lloyd finally gave in and lost consciousness again, collapsing in the slime underneath him.

Exhaling tiredly, Kratos walked down the path of the Gaoracchia forest, his eyes fixated on the sky above. It was incredibly gray that day and the way the air smelled signaled that it really wanted to rain. Having travelled down the path many times before, he could tell what the weather wanted to do by the way the air smelled next to the wood. Still, he didn't have time to stop and enjoy the scent of the forest. He had much more important things to do, such as collect sacred wood.

He'd gone to the quaint village of Ozette in order to procure some wood for the ring he was making, but he'd found the village in ruins. Apparently the cruxis angels had gotten to it before he had. Since the village had been destroyed, the grove of sacred wood had been caught in the blazing fires of the attack and had been burnt to the ground, just like that of the village.

Cursing his bad luck, Kratos continued stalking down the path out of the forest, deep in thought on where he would be able to get some of the wood he needed.

'Perhaps the church... no, I would prefer to use that only as a last resort.' He thought to himself. Even though he knew that the church was only a ruse in order for Cruxis to gain power and influence over the people, taking sacred wood from a church just seemed... blasphemous.

A droplet of water striking his nose drew him out of his thoughts and reminded him that he needed to focus on his goal. If he was to help Lloyd stop Mithos' age of lifeless beings, he needed to gather the materials as quickly and quietly as he could. He couldn't let Mithos know about what he was doing and sadly enough, he couldn't tell Lloyd either. As much as the seraph wanted to let Lloyd know about his plans to aid him, he couldn't without placing Lloyd in harm's way, because knowing the boy, he would probably want to help. Kratos snorted.

"Would have wanted' would be a better choice now.' He smiled bitterly to himself as he made his way down the path. Because he had been forced to play out his part as an angel at the tower of Salvation in order to save Lloyd from dying, he had been forced to betray Lloyd in the process, something for which he would not forgive himself. The look of horror and hurt on Lloyd's face when he'd revealed his relations to Cruxis seared itself into his mind and wouldn't let him forget, as much as he had tried. Because of his betrayal, Lloyd hated him for it, or at least, that's what Kratos figured.

'It's better he hates me.' he told himself as he continued. 'It will make things much easier for him.'

He resumed his walking up the hill that led down towards the exit to Sybak, but paused when he noticed motion down the hill a few yards away.

Down the hill stood a small boy, who looked to be about five or six, with spiky brown hair and a gigantic red shirt that was barely staying tucked into his pants. Kratos frowned. He'd never seen a child out in the Gaoracchia Forest, let alone one who was by himself.

"A mirage, most likely." He told himself, resuming his strides down the path, his hand on the hilt of his sword. Gaoracchia Forest was well known for its shadows playing tricks on the eyes of travelers and Kratos was not going to let himself be fooled by something so trivial.

Upon closer inspection, the mirage did look a great deal like Lloyd did when he was the tender age of three. Kratos glared at the mirage as he walked towards it.

'My mind is becoming weak by being in this place.' He hissed at himself. 'Must my memory continue to haunt me with visions like this?' His boot caught a stray twig as he walked and snapped it under his weight as he stepped on it. When the sound of the twig snapping hit the air, the mirage wheeled around, face smiling, but froze in terror when it saw Kratos standing there.

"K... Kr... Kra....KRATOS!" The mirage bellowed in horror and jumped back, reaching for its sides as it did.

Kratos was over four thousand years old. He'd seen a lot of things. However, never once had he ever seen a mirage stare at him in horror, point, scream and then try to draw imaginary swords at him. The mirage then froze when it didn't have said swords and, during its revelation, a glint of light shone from it's left hand.

Kratos' eyes shifted to the source of the light and paused when he saw that on the mirage's hand sat an exsphere. Though it wasn't any exsphere. It was Lloyd's exsphere, blue and shiny, sitting precariously mounted on a keycrest on the mirage's hand.

'Lloyd?' Kratos asked in his head, but then shook the thought from his mind as quickly as it had come. Lloyd wasn't six for one, and secondly, he would have been surrounded by his friends. Still... there was something off about the mirage.

He started towards it, eyes locked on the small boy, and stepped on another twig. The boy's head shot up suddenly, eyes wide and filled with terror and he began to shake. Not because he was cold, but because he was scared to death. Kratos paused when he saw the boy shake and watched him for a moment, unsure of whether or not to speak, but before he decided, the boy spun around and ran the opposite direction, the sleeves of his red shirt trailing behind him.

Kratos frowned and started off after the boy, determined to find out if the tiny first grader had been Lloyd and, if it was, why he had the body of a child in the first place.

When he finally caught up with the boy, he was lying unconscious in a puddle of mud and muck, his clothes completely soaked through by the rain. Kratos looked down at the boy and held out a hand so it hovered over the boy by a few inches. Closing his eyes, Kratos began to sense the mana signature that the boy exuded and remained that way for several minutes.

Opening his eyes again, Kratos sighed and felt his shoulders slump. He'd sensed his own mana when he had read the signature of the boy's and the exsphere on his left hand confirmed it. It was Lloyd, no doubt in his mind. Though, Kratos couldn't tear his eyes away from the fact that his son, while he had been only a child to begin with, was now the size and stature of a six year old, with the voice to match.

"Lloyd... what happened to you?" He asked the unconscious boy as he bent down to pick up the boy. Upon being moved, Lloyd unconsciously moaned in pain and shifted out of his grasp, lying firmly in the mud. Frowning, Kratos firmly, yet carefully picked up the drenched child and carried him over to a drier part of the path, one that wasn't just a mushy sea of mud and earth. Setting him down, Kratos looked around briefly for any sign of an emissary from Cruxis who might have been tailing him. Once he was satisfied that no such emissary was present, he kneeled next to the small boy and turned him so he could examine Lloyd properly.

Lloyd was a mess. Thanks to being splattered with mud, his once rich chestnut hair was dull and dirty, mud and blood smudged all over his face and neck. Trickles of dirty water from his hair ran down his neck into the back of his shirt and the huge drape of a shirt was soaked through, revealing how small he really was underneath it. Lloyd's arms and legs were caked with mud, and he looked as though he was wearing boots because of all of the earth that had clung to his feet and ankles. Dirt, debris and mud covered Lloyd's gigantic clothes as they hung off him and he laid there listlessly on the ground, completely helpless and out for the count.

As he examined Lloyd, Kratos frowned when he saw the dried blood patch on Lloyd's face, though more blood trailed down his nose and onto his cheek. Bending down, Kratos gently brushed some of Lloyd's hair out of his face and his eyes flashed in anger when he saw the wound on the tiny boy's head.

A large, raw and bloody gash sat on the top of Lloyd's forehead, bits of twigs and dirt lodged in the crevices of the wound and in his hair. It bled steadily, a stream of the red liquid pouring down the bridge of Lloyd's nose, and dirt mixed with the blood so it splattered itself about Lloyd's face. Kratos watched the wound sharply and moved some more of Lloyd's unruly hair out of his face.

'This is probably why he passed out.' He thought to himself, taking the sleeve of his uniform and batting some of the twigs out of the wound with it. 'I wouldn't be surprised if he has a concussion as well. How did he acquire such a wound?' He parted some of the spikes of hair out of the way and peered closely at it. There wasn't an angled edge to the wound, so a bladed weapon wouldn't have been the culprit, yet it was pretty deep.

'It must have been blunt." He mused. 'But no one in the Renegades, Cruxis or otherwise has a blunt instrument user that would make that kind of damage, so how....' Kratos paused as a giant tree branch came crashing out of the boughs above and landed with a hard crack in the middle of the forest floor. Blinking once, he stared at the branch and then looked back down at Lloyd. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Kratos pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.

"...all that training and you get felled by a branch." He sighed, "You're quite something, Lloyd."

Kratos paused as he examined the unconscious boy and glanced around. He'd expected Lloyd's friends to dash out of the woodwork to save him at some point, but there was no one around. Besides Lloyd, himself and the small monsters in the area, he couldn't sense anyone who could have resembled his friends, or even anything humanoid for that matter.

'They would never leave his side, especially not in this condition.' He thought, wiping some of the blood away from his son's face with his sleeve. 'Perhaps there was a reason they had all scattered, like an ambush.' He glanced down at Lloyd again and frowned. 'Though, I was not aware Cruxis had planned an attack on them at this stage and time.' He thought for a moment and then his face darkened.

'Renegades.' He glared. 'Though, I thought that they had entered into an accord with Lloyd's group. Why are they...' Kratos looked down at Lloyd and shut his eyes in anger.

His small size and diminished age were why. Lloyd would have been a much easier target to capture if he was too small to use his swords and couldn't defend himself if he didn't have them.

Glaring at the prospect of anyone taking advantage of Lloyd's current predicament, Kratos gently picked up his miniscule son and set him on his lap, propping him up with his left arm. The seraph then pressed the pads of his right index and middle fingers on the bleeding wound and green sparks emitted from the tips.

'Regardless of their reasons, the fact that he is alone and injured is more pertinent.' Kratos replied to himself, charging up the green mana. 'He needs to be treated properly and soon, lest his wound becomes infected.' He flexed his fingers a little as green mana crackled under his fingertips and replaced them on Lloyd's gash.

"First Aid." He murmured quietly, the light from his fingers flowing onto the boy's forehead. The green healing light covered Lloyd's wound and stopped it from bleeding. Although it had ceased pouring blood, the wound was still there, angry, deep and raw.

"Tch." Kratos grunted annoyedly when he saw the wound was still present and dusted some of the dirt off the gash with his hand. When he did, Lloyd let out a small whimper of pain and latched his hand onto Kratos' shirt, his tiny fingers digging into the folds of the fabric.

Kratos blinked in surprise as Lloyd turned and snuggled into his chest, curling up in a ball as he did. The older seraph looked down at Lloyd in astonishment as the small boy sniffed once and whimpered again, his grip on Kratos' shirt tightening. He sat there for a moment, watching the unconscious boy rest in his arms practically snuggling him, and a small, yet warm, smile lingered on his face while his mind was rushed with a barrage of memories.

Lloyd had done that before when he was three. Occasionally he wouldn't be able to sleep and would toddle over to Kratos, who was always awake, and would sit in his lap without warning. They would talk about several different topics, ranging from the stars and the summon spirits to how disgusting tomatoes were and why Noishe got into trouble for eating the jacket that Anna had hand sewn.

However, regardless of the conversation, Lloyd would always end up curled up in a ball against Kratos' chest, his fingers latched into the folds of his shirt.

Kratos sighed tiredly and looked up at the sky, which was turning grayer by the minute as the rain pelted down droplets. That seemed like a different lifetime. But then again, there Lloyd was, fingers locked in his shirt, so perhaps it wasn't so different after all.

'Heh.. it seems not much has changed, Lloyd.' He thought warmly to himself, gently running a hand through the small boy's hair. 'Even if you are the size of a six year old.' As he ran his hand through Lloyd's hair, he noticed an unusually hot spot on Lloyd's forehead and pressed his hand firmly against his skin. Lloyd moaned a little at the pressure on his forehead, but Kratos held firm and then took his hand away.

Lloyd's forehead was on fire. He had a fever. Kratos exhaled tiredly and patted Lloyd's forehead gently, before he stood up, the boy locked firmly in his arms. Frowning, Kratos looked down at Lloyd and then up at the path in front of him.

'I cannot take him with me while I search for the materials I need. It is too dangerous for him to be around and Yggdrasill cannot find out what I am doing. He would be too much at risk and he is far too important. Yet..'

He looked down at the small boy with a pained look in his eyes. Lloyd laid limply in Kratos' arms, completely unaware of where he was or who he was with. He looked tired and worn, and would have looked completely peaceful if he hadn't been covered in muck, slime and blood. His fingers were still entangled in Kratos' shirt and his small head rested heavily against the seraphim's chest, his fever radiating so much that Kratos could feel it through his shirt.

'I cannot leave him alone. Not in this condition.' He thought forlornly, dirt from the boy's face smudging his belted shirt and coat. Lloyd inhaled sharply and relaxed into Kratos' arms, the hand with his exsphere resting on his stomach. Having started just a little when Lloyd inhaled suddenly, Kratos let out a sigh and held the boy tighter to his chest with one arm, the other on the hilt of his sword.

Checking that the coast was clear from desians, angels, renegades or otherwise, Kratos started walking up the muddy path of the forest, his tiny charge in tow. The ancient swordsman glanced down at Lloyd as he walked, his eyes holding hints of remorse, and resumed his stare at the rest of the forest, eyes steeled with stoicism once more.

'Not this time.'

Yuan sat at his desk, hands folded behind his head, and looked thoroughly smug. He'd just received word from the commander of the troops sent to retrieve Lloyd had been successful in the capture of two boys. He'd checked to see if they had captured a half elf, since one of the boys traveling with Lloyd had been a half elf, and was very pleased to hear that they were without a doubt two humans.

'Lloyd, you're as good as mine.' He gloated, his blue bangs falling into his face. Humming a tune to himself, he got out of his chair, crossed the room and began rearranging some files that he'd left out by the windowsill because they'd acquired a musty mildew smell.

As he put the last file back in the cabinet, the intercom in his room beeped and glowed a bright blue, signifying that the troops in question had finally arrived back at the Flanoir base. Letting out a shallow exhale, Yuan strode to the intercom, flipped up the receiver and pushed the button.

"Sir, we just arrived back at the base." The voice of the commander floated through the speaker. "What is your next order in regards to the quarry?"

"Bring them to my office." Yuan ordered, his finger firmly planted on the intercom button.

"Yes sir." The commander replied, his voice sounding like he was saluting with it. Yuan removed his hand from the intercom and ran it through his aqua bangs. He waited next to his desk, cape serenely perched on his shoulders and stared at the door expectantly.

Fifteen minutes later, Yuan was still standing, though he'd leaned onto his desk slightly, and drummed his fingers against the hard surface of the desktop.

"What's taking them so long?!" He muttered bitterly, staring at the door. "Surely hauling quarry here can't take this much time."

As he finished crankily muttering, grunts, cries, yells and swearing echoed through the hallway outside of his office door. They grew louder and louder with each passing moment and a loud tapping sound rapped on the door to his office.

"Enter." Yuan commanded, regaining his composure and flicking his hair out of his face. The renegade door slid open and three renegade tromped into the office, one carrying one bag and the other two wrestling with the other. They were having quite the time trying to contain the protesting bag that was swearing at them as it kicked, punched and fought from inside the bag.

"Your orders, sir?" The commander asked, who was holding the limp bag. Yuan looked at both of the bags and gestured at the floor.

"You may leave them here. I will deal with them personally." He replied. The commander, the two other soldiers and the fighting bag all paused.

"Yes sir!" The two soldiers saluted and unceremoniously dumped the fighting bag on the floor, letting it hit the ground with a dull thud. A loud 'ow' followed by a stream of insults radiated from the bag and Yuan raised an eyebrow at it. The commander then gently set down his own bag and saluted Yuan as well. Yuan glanced up from the bags and nodded to all three of them.

"You may go." He dismissed them. The two soldiers quickly scurried from the room, while the commander seemed a little apprehensive. Still, orders were orders and he left the room without another word.

Yuan, smiling just a little, walked over to the bag that had been fighting the entire time and began to untie the knot on the top of the bag. It took him a while, since the knot that had been used was fairly intricate, but with some work, he managed to slip off the knot and open the bag.

A fist soared out of the bag and squarely hit Yuan in the jaw. He reeled back, clutching his face, and his eyes flashed venomously when he regained his senses.

"Why you little-" He began, but stopped when a pair of turquoise eyes glared back at him, accompanied by a shock of red hair.

"-chosen?" Yuan blinked in surprise.

"The hell is your problem?!" Zelos demanded, his red hair whipping about his face as he climbed out of the bag and dusted himself off. "What the hell are you doing stuffing people into bags, especially gorgeous people like me?!" He stood there, his hands on his hips, glaring daggers at the angelic Renegade leader. His gigantic dress of a vest piled on the floor in folds upon folds of fabric and his pantlegs, having come out of the rolls he made, matched it as they puddled on the floor.

Yuan snorted at Zelos and dusted himself off, not acknowledging that he'd been struck by a second grader and that it had hurt quite a bit.

"If you're in there, then Lloyd must be-" He ignored him and pulled out the less intricate knot on the second bag. The bag fell to the ground to reveal a very scared, very sensitive looking Colette sitting on the floor in the middle of where the bag had been.

"-not here." Yuan finished as he looked down at Colette and smacked himself in the forehead. He'd heard that they'd gotten two boys, but he'd never would have thought that they meant they had gotten two children who had similar builds to boys. Given the Chosen's notorious lack of chest, it was very likely that they had thought they had snatched two boys.

Groaning and feeling another migraine coming on, Yuan pinched the bridge of his nose and paced back and forth. As he did, Colette gingerly got up, her dress trailing to the floor so it was hard to tell when it actually hit her ankles. Zelos leaned against the wall with his arms folded, watching Yuan as he did.

"So, what now, o great leader?" Zelos asked. "Surely you have a plan to fix your latest blunder?"

Yuan glared at him evilly and fumed back to his desk, thoroughly incensed with himself. Now Lloyd knew that they were out for him, so the element of surprise was officially shot and he'd ruined his chance superbly.

"Perfect." Yuan snapped aloud as he sat in the chair. "Not only did I not get Lloyd, but I managed to get the loudmouth moron and the flat chested Chosen, both of which are completely useless to me now."

"... flat.. chested?" Colette repeated, her eyes wide. Yuan looked up from his paperwork.

"Yes, flat chested." He repeated irritably. "Like a ironing board." He then glanced back at his paperwork, determined on how to locate Lloyd now that he knew they were on his trail. Colette sniffed, her eyes puddling with tears and her lip wavering. Falling to the ground, the tiny kindergardener began to cry, small sobs echoing through the office.

Hearing the tiny wails from the small girl, Yuan glanced up from his paperwork and his eyes widened when he saw that she was actually crying. Zelos looked at Colette pityingly and then glared at the Renegade leader.

"Well, good going Blue Boy, you made sweet little Colette cry." Zelos pointed at Colette, who had tears running down her cheeks and sobbed into her sleeves. Yuan blinked in surprise at seeing the tiny chosen bawling and was taken aback by it, not sure how to react.

"What are you waiting for?!" Zelos demanded, waving his seven year old finger at Yuan. "Make her feel better! You have to at least know that much." Yuan glared at the pushy second grader, and then looked back at Colette, who was huddled on the floor, her blonde hair draping all over her face. He'd never once gotten of a report of the chosen from Sylvarant ever being anything less than annoyingly cheerful, but there she was, crying up a storm right in the middle of his office, and he'd caused it.

He crossed the room silently, and approached the shrunken chosen, who didn't look up when he stood next to her. A curtain of hair shielded her face from view, and, with the exception of the sobbing, she did a very good impression of a mop that was stood on it's handle.

Yuan bent down so he was kneeling next to her and sighed a little when she didn't look up at him. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a clean and crisp handkerchief and held it out for Colette.

"Here." He said curtly, the white handkerchief fluttering a little. "Take it. I.. I apologize for making you cry. It was not my intention." He felt incredibly awkward as he held out the handkerchief for the young girl, but it was his fault she was so distraught, so he told himself to suck it up.

Colette looked up from her sleeves, her eyes were red and tears that stained her face as she stared at the handkerchief Yuan had offered her. Sniffing once, she took it from him and held it in her tiny hands. She sniffed once as she felt the lacy border of the handkerchief and her deep blue eyes shifted to Yuan. Yuan looked back at her, the awkwardness building in his chest.

".. what?" He asked. "Is there something you wish to-" He was cut off when Colette launched herself at his chest, hitting him squarely in the ribcage. Losing his balance, Yuan landed sharply on the ground of his office, his tailbone squealing in pain when he hit the floor. Feeling dazed, the Renegade leader blinked and it took him a moment to realize what had happened.

Colette was hugging him around the middle, with her fingers bunched in his cape. Sitting squarely in his lap, her hands were latched onto his shirt and cape and she had reconvened crying as hard as she could. Snatching a handful of his cape, he cried into the velvet folds and blew her nose right into the center of his cape.

"Aah, not the cape!" Yuan exclaimed in horror that someone had deigned to blow their nose in his precious cape. However, Colette was far too upset to care. Wiping her nose on it, she then continued to bawl into his chest, her tears soaking his shirtfront.

Yuan watched her for a minute in a mixture of astonishment and horror before he brought up his hand and awkwardly patted her back.

"There there... it's not so bad. You.. uh.. don't really need a chest right now. It.. uh... wouldn't be aerodynamic." He said, trying to sound comforting, though he sounded more confused that comforting. It had been over four thousand years since he'd tried to comfort a female, so saying that he was rusty would have been a drastic understatement. Plus, the female in question hadn't been five, so that didn't help matters much.

A roar of laughter erupted from the corner, and made Yuan's head practically swivel around in anger. Zelos was on the floor laughing hysterically, his small face red from not being able to breathe.

"Smooth runnings there, Mon' Capitan!" He howled, rolling from side to side. "Man, I think GENIS could've done a better job 'n you."

Yuan glared menacingly at Zelos and stared back down at Colette, who hadn't relinquished her grip and didn't look like she planned to anytime soon. He then looked at the ceiling and sighed.

'What have I gotten myself into?' he groaned, still patting Colette's back as she wailed into his cape.

Me: Gah, chapter finished... sleep now.

Genis: Caffeine wear off, huh?

Me: .... I shan't admit anything.

Genis: Please review!