Ok so I took a few days to update. So sue me. But I was at a place where posting wasn't possible since I was to busy hanging out with Lece. And as for my week excuse… hehe… new boyfriends have to be broken in you know. Especially highly trained military killing machines capable of great cuddles and kisses ! Ok girly moment over.

Reviews:

The Common Wind Deity: I swear to you I took no offense to your review. That was the kind of constructive criticism i was looking for. Thank you for giving it to me. You were not rude in any way, and that is how a review should be. Thanks for the advice! . Have a homemade chocolate chunk cookie!

This chapter, Lloyd and Rave's shared past is finally revealed! Yay. Not like you guys haven't figured it out already…

The M rating comes into play for this chapter do to Rave's potty mouth and my twisted sense of humor. While writing this, I'm drinking way to much caffeine. I blame a case of Dr. Pepper. Thus, the crack-ness. You'll see what I mean.

Dart and Rave charged after Lloyd with the others not far behind. Their eyes widened as wings formed on his back. He fired a fireball at Dart. "NO!"

Rave shielded him. They both flew off the side of the cliff towards the magma. Lloyd shouted in horror and shot after them. Dart was able to grab onto a rock. Rave, however, kept falling.

Chapter 7 An Old Friend?

Before her body could hit the magma and suffer a horrible burning fate, she was caught. Her head rolled against Lloyd's chest. Dart, clinging to the cliff as he was, could only shout at Lloyd. "Don't you dare hurt her!"

Lloyd rolled his eyes and shook his head. She groaned and touched her head. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared up at him. He sighed in relief and smirked. Rave's eyes widened. He flew them over to a conveniently placed shelf on the cliff. She swayed when he sat her down, so he helped her lean against the rock. "You're safe now," he said, "I'm sorry, I never meant for you to be harmed by that attack."

She still stared at him. He was tempted to feel his face to make sure he didn't have a snot trail on his nose or something gross like that. "L-Lloyd…" she said, "W-where we ever camped out in a forest together?"

His eyes widened slightly. "You remember…" he said softly.

He cupped her cheek and smiled warmly. "I'm so glad…"

She jerked away, smacking at his hand. "N-no!" she shouted, "I'm not… I can't be… your… you killed Lavitz!"

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "A fact you'll never let me forget, I'm sure."

She glared hard at him. "I should kill you right here!" she shouted balling up her fists.

He looked at her with something akin to sadness in his eyes for a few moments. Then he closed his eyes and stepped back. "I am going after the final Moon Object," he said softly, "After that, you can kill me."

He disappeared.

Rave shivered as another gust came up. "Here," Albert said, "Wear my cape, it'll do better for you than your outfit."

She wore a tight black halter top and baggy black cargo pants. Her hair was pulled up in a sloppy bun. She smiled at her former king and wrapped herself up in his cape. "Thank you."

The glacier was cold. Really cold. Like freeze the urine in your bladder cold. (Got that one from a YuGiOh fic on Don't remember the author but if it's you sorry!) "Stupid glacier. Who the hell builds a tower in the middle of a fucking glacier?!"

Miranda, the Shana replacement who Rave admittedly liked more than the younger woman, shook her head at the dark haired woman. "It was meant to float in the sky. It crashed here. Then we never really did anything with it."

"Peachy," Rave said, "Hide a powerful object in a glacier. Pass another down to a princess in disguise. Implant the last in the back of the king. Haven't you people ever heard of a really thick safe?"

"Someone's in a bad mood," Meru prodded, "What exactly happened between you and Lloyd while you were down that cliff? Huh? Huh? Did he… you know, profess undying love to you or something? Cop a feel?"

"He killed my best friend," Rave said through gritted teeth as the Tower of Flanvel came into view, "I think I'm allowed to have a pissed off moment every now and again!"

The twists and turns of the tower's teleportation device did nothing to improve Rave's bad mood. "Someone build a fucking elevator! Hell, a flight of stairs! Something!"

"Calm down," Haschel said, "You can't fight when you're so pissed off."

Rave took a deep breath as they finally reached the top. Then let out a yell of frustration as they saw Lloyd get the Moon Mirror. "So… they come…" he said.

"Great! Just fucking GREAT! Just what we need! The final fucking moon object in the hands of a homicidal maniac!" Rave yelled.

Lloyd raised his eyebrow at her actions. "Time of the month, princess?" he asked.

She glared at him. "No," she growled, "You just push my PMS button!"

"Do you… uh… need a Midol or something?" Dart asked.

"GRRR! SARCASM, DART! S! A! R! C! A! S! M! GODS! WHY IS IT THAT EVERY TIME A GIRL HAS A PROBLEM MEN ASSUME IT'S MENSTRUAL RELATED?!?! CAN A GIRL NOT HAVE A BAD DAY WITHOUT IT BEING PMS?!"

Even Kongol took a step back. Rave seethed for a few seconds before Rose knocked her in the head with the hilt of her sword. "I believe the answer to your crankiness is to hand Lloyd's ass to him on a silver platter."

Lloyd shook his head in amusement. "So, Rave, did you come here for answers to your memories?"

She glared at him for a few seconds before her entire attitude changed. She slumped her shoulders and said, "Guys… I… I can't fight him…"

"WHAT?!?!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Dart said, "Weren't you saying a few hours ago that he had to die? What's going on?! Are you bi-polar?!"

"No!" Rave said looking down, "I… I'm sorry guys… I can't…"

"Why?" Albert asked softly.

She closed her eyes. "He knows who I am. My past… before I was a knight. Before I came to Bale. Before all of that."

"Your past is just that," Rose said, "Past. That cannot change the present. And he killed Lavitz, Rave. Whoever he was to you back then matters not. Now you must fight. Or have you forgotten he killed the man who loved you?"

"You think I don't know that?!" Rave shouted.

She raised her head and they were shocked at the tears in her eyes. "I dream of Lavitz every night! I see him every second of every day, dying in my arms!"

She fell to her knees. "Before I came to Bale, I had nothing. No past, no future, no one to care. What if I have a family?! What if there are people who care?! How can you ask me to kill the only man who knows that?!"

"If you won't," Dart said drawing his sword, "Then I will! I'm sorry, Rave. But I cannot forgive him for what he's done…"

He charged at Lloyd. Lloyd lowered his sword and closed his eyes. 'I deserve this. I hurt her… forgive me… your past shall remain a mystery it seems…'

But he never felt the blade hit. He heard a thunk, and felt something against his chest. Confused, he opened his eyes. Rave's eyes were shut, and she was biting her lip in pain. Albert's green cloak turned red. Dart's sword was embedded in her back. Dart jerked it back in horror. Rave collapsed against Lloyd's chest. She weakly tried to push off, but the pain made her whimper and stop. Lloyd helped her stay standing with his arms around her. "Why… Rave… no…"

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "You… you saved my life. I owed you. So… I've repaid my debt…"

Her eyes closed and she fell against his chest fully. She breathed in a scent she hadn't smelled since she was a child. The scent of winter. Then she welcomed the total darkness. There, she didn't feel the pain.

Lloyd picked her up bridal style and said, "I will take you to my boss. The one who's been pulling the strings. The man who now has Shana."

He looked down at the bleeding woman in his arms. "But only after she heals."

Rave's eyes slowly opened. The others were gathered around her bed looking worried. When her eyes settled on them, they all breathed a sigh of relief. "Rave ok?" Kongol asked.

She nodded. "Lloyd healed you," Rose said crossing her arms and leaning against the wall.

"Where is he?"

"Right here."

He stepped from the back of the group, where Meru had been standing with her hammer over his head in case he tried something. He came up beside her and looked down at her as she sat up. "Hey guys? Can we… have a minute alone?" Rave asked softly.

"We'll be right outside," Dart said with a warning glare at Lloyd.

They all filed out. Rave looked up at Lloyd, once more studying his features. "You wish to know about your memories?" he asked.

She nodded. Lloyd sat in one of the small wooden chairs and said, "You are over a hundred years old. But in Wingly years, you're only 18. Many years ago, a female Wingly brought a human male to the forest we later lived in. The woman was banished, but only after she'd had her child. Guess who? At the time, I was about two. I lived in an orphanage. You were brought in right after you were born. Your mother and father had left and were killed by humans. I remember the first time I saw you. You were so small and delicate. And you wouldn't stop crying, no matter what the ladies of the orphanage did. I remember sneaking into the nursery and looking down at you. You looked up at me with those big violet eyes and just stopped crying. I think… that's when I began to live for someone other than myself. By the time you were old enough to talk, the other kids started picking on you. I would take up for you, and get us in a lot of trouble for fighting. The head mother determined that when you were old enough, we would marry."

Rave gaped at him. "Yeah," Lloyd said, "We're engaged. Arranged marriages are common in Wingly culture. Anyway, after a while, I saw you as my friend. We would go off and explore the forest, right up to the barrier."

"The forest… was it the same as the one Meru is from?" Rave asked.

"No," Lloyd said, "Ours was farther towards Zenebatos. When you were 5, we fell through the barrier into the human world. Rules were, you fall through you're stuck. Had we gone back in we would have been killed. You had hit your head really hard and lost your memories. I was the only one who could protect you. For two years we stayed in the forest living off fish and berries. But I started to see you as so much more than my friend. And you told me you loved me. That terrified me. The thought of another depending on me so much, when I was so young… I couldn't do it. I wanted you to have the chance to live a normal life. So I led a group of hunters to where you were sleeping and hid myself. They carried you to the nearby human village where you started to live as a human. But they would start to notice you didn't age. So I would do something to drive you out. One day you spotted me and called out to me. I… I had to erase your memories again. You didn't even remember me anymore. I had to stay away from you for a few days to keep from calling out to you. In those few days, you left the village and vanished. For years I searched. Then Emperor Diaz approached me with a plan. In setting it in motion, I found you again in Bale. With Dart and the others."

Rave sat in silence for a few seconds. "So… I'm half-Wingly?" she asked softly, "But… I've never noticed how time passed…"

"Winglies don't feel the passage of time. Nor do they notice it," Lloyd said.

Rave sighed. "So confusing…"

Lloyd said, "I would gladly stay by your side forever to explain…"

Her dark eyes faded. "No…" she said, her voice cracking, "You… you killed Lavitz. I can never forget that."

Lloyd sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I know…"

The blizzard roared outside the cave. After Lloyd had told them all about Emperor Diaz approaching him about making the world better, Dart suggested they all rest. Rave had only told Meru and Rose what Lloyd had told her. Now she slept beside Meru near the fire. Lloyd, when threatened by the men, slept near the entrance. Far away from Rave. The cold seeped past his armor and made him shiver violently. So naturally he was unable to fall asleep. He stared up at the ceiling of the cave and sighed. A whimper made him sit up. Rave was fidgeting in her sleep, tears beading on her lashes. He crept over to her and touched her cheek with his frozen hand. She leaned into his touch, stilling. He smiled gently at her. "I'm sorry…" she mumbled.

"There is nothing for you to apologize for," he said quietly.

"I'm sorry… Lavitz…"

Chapter 7 complete! Not very easy with a curious kitten crawling over the keyboard. Phew. 6 pages… Rave was very vulgar in this chapter. Sorry about that. Dr. Pepper brings out the evil in me I guess. I know you guys are probably thinking how stupid this story is. But I will see it out till the end! Which is only like… what… 8 or 9 more chapters? Can I last that long? Next chapter Lloyd dies! Oh no!

Next Chapter: Loss.

See ya!