Well, now that everyone, including myself, has recuperated from the last chapter it's time for the next one. I know this is a depressing story, but bear with me. There is something important at the end and I will need everyone's opinions so please keep going through this story. So, with that in mind, time for the next chapter.


Chapter 8: Hollow

Lloyd returned followed by the rest of their group. Everyone there were all heartbroken with the passing of their comrade. Considering the situation that caused his premature death, everyone was especially depressed when they arrived. They all arrived and were met by Yuan and Kratos who had everything prepared for the funeral.

Raine came up first and hugged both of them before looking around a bit. "Where is Storm?" she asked sadly when she couldn't find any sign of her anywhere.

"It seems that she ran off somewhere," Kratos said as he looked around, realizing that she was gone. He looked over to Yuan who shrugged his shoulders. Kratos motioned for him with a twitch of his head to go and find her. She needed some sort of comforting and couldn't sit and wallow in her grief by herself. He wasn't sure if he trusted her being alone completely at a time like this.

"I just can't believe that Anna would actually do something this horrible," Genis said as he looked to the ground sadly. It was apparent that the entire party was still in shock from the news.

"I know, I can't either. She won't be getting away with that so easily though," Kratos told them.

"You mean that we're going to go after her? We're going to attack your granddaughter?" Sheena asked wildly, shocked that this was the course of action the group was deciding on.

"Well, it seems as if she is not to be trusted. I don't want her to end up like another Mithos," he explained to her, emphasizing the importance of finding her.

"This is all my fault..." Sutra whispered quietly under her breath as she looked to the ground sadly.

Yuan went off to look for Storm as Kratos greeted the rest of the party. He hoped that Storm hadn't done anything drastic while they weren't watching her. Why would she run off when her husband's funeral was about to begin? This would be her last chance to say goodbye, she had to be there. He walked through the woods that were behind the house, hoping that she ran in there for some sort of privacy.


Storm was sitting deep in the forest under a tree as she began to cry once again. She was beginning to think that she didn't even have any tears left to cry, but yet she always, managed to continue crying. Her eyes, red and swollen, burned as the tears made their way down her face. She was definitely depressed, she didn't want to keep going on living. Everything seemed meaningless at this point. First, her daughter betrayed her and tried to kill her, but then she actually went and killed Zelos. She thought the pain of being betrayed by Anna was hard enough, but it couldn't compare to Zelos losing his life to her. She couldn't help but feel angry and she didn't know why.

"You know that it's all their faults..."

Storm stopped crying and wondered if she was beginning to hear things. It sounded like Mithos was speaking to her. This voice wasn't the voice of the kinder Mithos that she had finally put to rest not long ago, but rather the dark and evil Yggdrasil that haunted her during her childhood and beyond. He was back in her mind and was beginning to work at taking her over again. She realized this was why she was feeling so angry.

"Who's fault?" she asked out loud, wondering what he was talking about. She took a gasp of breath as she attempted to slow down her sobbing.

"Everyone's. Your father, Lloyd, and Yuan...they weren't there to stop her. They said they didn't make it in time, but they did. They just didn't want to hurt Anna. You knew she was out of control, but they didn't want to stop her."

"Why would they let him die?" she asked quietly. "I don't believe that," she added at the end.

"Look deep down, you know you believe it. Yuan was jealous, wasn't he? There was an agreement that you two would get together when Zelos passed on. Kratos trusts his best friend more than the failed Chosen of Tethe'alla. Why would they care about his life?"

"No! You're lying you bastard! Get out of my head!" Storm screamed as she held her head. She hated that he was in control when her emotions were already very weak. She couldn't handle all this, not now.

"Fine...a little longer grieving, but I'll be back Storm."

Finally, things seemed back to normal. She wasn't as angry anymore and Mithos' voice was gone. She would have been happy if the fact that Zelos was dead didn't come back into her mind. She was in this forest and he was about to be cremated, his funeral close. She didn't know if she could go through with it all, she wanted to give up and join him. It pained her too much to even think of living without him.

"Storm..." she spun around at the mention of her name, jumping a little in surprise.

When she saw Yuan standing behind her she turned back around and buried her face in her hands, not wanting him to see her tear stained face and swollen eyes. Besides this, seeing him reminded her of the fact that everyone was waiting for her to begin the funeral.

"Go away, I don't want to come," she said, muffled through her hands.

"Storm, you know you should come," Yuan sighed as he came closer to her, his voice softening at her condition.

"Why should I come? I don't think I can, it's too hard," she told him, wanting to know if there was any way she could escape it.

"Storm, it's your last chance to say goodbye. If you don't come now, you'll regret it forever," he told her as he touched her shoulder gently.

"Fine, I'll come," Storm replied coldly as she got up quickly, distancing herself from Yuan and walking back towards the house.

Yuan watched her walking away, wishing that he could do something to help get rid of her pain. She seemed to be getting much colder towards him, and he hated seeing that side of her. He snapped out of his thoughts as he hurried to get back to the house for the funeral.


Storm finally made it to the house. All conversation stopped as everyone looked at her as she walked to where Zelos had been placed. She blew past everyone, eyes hollow, as she walked past them. Sheena attempted to touch Storm's shoulder to comfort her, but Storm moved her shoulder to get away from Sheena as she continued to walk past her. Sheena pulled her hand to her chest as she watched her friend walk to the area where Zelos was.

Zelos was placed in an area where he was ready to be cremated. He was on top of a pile of hay that was to be burned and the area was surrounded by sand from the beach nearby. Storm walked over and placed her hand on his chest. She stared at his face once more before she bent over and kissed his cheek.

"Goodbye Zelos, I can't wait until the day we're reunited," she said quietly as she walked over to get ready for the cremation to begin.

Everyone took their places for the funeral to begin. Kratos looked over at his daughter sadly before he came up to her. "Is there anything that you think needs to be said before we begin?" he asked her.

"No, he speaks for himself. I don't want to hear any of it," she said without even looking at him.

Kratos sighed before he walked back over to where Zelos was at. Lloyd walked on the other side of Zelos, down by his feet. The old woman from the house brought two sticks, lit from the fireplace in their home, for them to begin the process. Kratos thanked her as he and Lloyd each took a stick.

"Goodbye Zelos, you were a good friend," Lloyd said under his breath as he threw the stick on top of the pile, followed soon after by Kratos' own stick.

Storm watched as the hay caught on fire, Zelos along with it. She felt it, the tears coming to her eyes again. She couldn't hold them back, she didn't want to. She fell to her knees and began sobbing out loud. Kratos saw her and ran to her to help her. He wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed into his chest.

"No...he can't leave me...no..." she cried as she leaned farther into her father, finally accepting someone's comfort.

"I know...I'm sorry Storm..." he told her as he stroked her hair, trying his best to soothe her, but he really didn't feel as if he was too good at consoling his daughter. He, after all, could barely handle Anna's death and he didn't think that he was one who knew how to make her feel better. He still was trying to get over it even this very day. He wanted to make her pain go away, but he couldn't if he couldn't get rid of his own.

After awhile the cremation was finally completed and all that was left was to spread his remains out in the ocean as Storm had wished. Storm went with the entire group, her father supporting her. She was very weak physically from her crying and her injuries, and was drained emotionally from the events from the last few days. She was going to see this through no matter how painful it was.

The entire group, save Raine, climbed on board of an EC as they began to travel into the ocean. Lloyd was holding a small jar which held Zelos' ashes as he prepared to finish out the ceremony. This was very painful for him because he had grown especially close to his brother in law and he really didn't want to be the one to spread his remains. He had to remain strong through this entire thing for Storm. As her big brother he had to stay strong to help her through it all. He took a deep breath, knowing what he had to do.

Soon, the EC stopped and everyone made their way to one side of the ship. They stared down into the water as Lloyd slowly began to sprinkle the remains on the water.

Storm began to stare into the water as she watched Zelos' ashes gently land on the water, some more blowing farther along in the ocean. Her mind was so drained and she felt so depressed as she stared into the water, her eyes hollow. She didn't think she could handle being without him. She knew that she couldn't, she had to be with him.

Just as Lloyd sprinkled the last of the remains into the water Storm fell completely forward, off the EC, and into the water. Everyone watched in shock as she hit the water and began to sink towards the bottom. Bubbled came up, letting everyone know what she was attempting to do.

"Storm! No!" Sheena cried as she watched her sinking towards the ocean's bottom.

She could finally be free, she could be with Zelos and have no more pain. She was tired of all the pain in her life and she wanted to make it go away. She released her breath slowly as she began to sink into the watery abyss that would soon become her tomb along with Zelos. She watched as she began to see the EC disappear before things began to go dark.

"Damn it Storm," Yuan growled as he jumped into the ocean without a second thought. He dove in and swam after the dark figure that was going deeper and deeper into the cold water. Finally, he caught up and grabbed her arm, pulling her up until he could grab her around her waist. He swam up to the surface as fast as he could, hoping that he wouldn't be too slow.

Finally, they hit the surface as air filled his lungs. He lifted Storm out of the water as far as he could as Lloyd and Kratos grabbed her from under her arms and pulled her back onboard. Kratos laid her on the deck, waiting for her to breath. When she didn't he began to push on her chest to get some of the water out. Lloyd helped Yuan out of the water as everyone gathered around to see what the fate of their friend would be. Yuan began to pace behind the group, hoping for something, he couldn't handle losing her, not now, not like this.

Suddenly, Storm began to cough, bringing Yuan out of his pacing as he pushed through the group towards Storm. Storm coughed out some water as she groggily opened her eyes. When she did, she seemed a little disappointed with what she saw. This wasn't exactly where she was expecting to wake at.

"Storm, why would you do that!?" Yuan yelled at her. "Why would you try and kill yourself? How stupid is that!? Don't you dare try and throw your life away like that again!" Yuan yelled at her.

Storm barely reacted to his words as she squinted her eyes and turned away from him. When she did this Yuan grabbed her chin and pulled her to face him.

"Don't look away from me Storm!" he yelled at her as she stared a him, seeing that he was completely soaked. She knew who had rescued her. She glared at him, getting angrier at his actions and his words.

She smacked his hand off of her chin, causing him to reel back in surprise a bit. "Don't touch me," she growled. She slowly got to her feet as she went down inside the EC so she could be alone. "Everyone just let me do what I want with my own damn life," she remarked to the entire group as she walked away from them, not even turning to face them.

"This is bad," Lloyd pointed out once she was gone. Yuan sat on the ground as he watched where she had left.

"Storm..."Yuan said as he shifted his gaze down to the ground sadly.


Well, that's the end of this chapter. Of course, it's still not happy I know, but like I said just bear with me. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews and I hope you liked this chapter as well. Thanks and please remember to review.