Sorry for the long wait, but I had my exams this week and I'm finally getting around to typing this up. Anyway, exams were bad and I'm hoping I didn't do as horrible as I thought I did. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews and I hope everyone enjoys this chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Running Away

It had been a long time since Yuan had seen Storm. He wasn't sure at this point if he really wanted to be around her, or maybe it was the fact that she didn't want to be around him. The fact of the matter was that it had been about a year since he had even seen her. The other issue that had come up that prevented him from seeing her was something that Kratos had told him a few months back. Storm had run out of Meltokio without anyone knowing where she was going or that she was going at all. Storm had run away and no one had seen her since. Kratos was worried about her, but Lloyd had kept him from going too insane. Storm was tough and could take of herself pretty easily, but no one really understood what she was running away from.

After a year of not seeing Storm, Yuan had had enough. He had to see her and he was going to go out and find her, even if she didn't want him to find her. He was going to see her and he had his mind made up about that. He left the Triet Renegade base as he set out to find her. He decided to begin his search in Triet and see if anyone had found her or seen her anywhere.

As he walked into the desert town he couldn't help but think of Storm. Her comments about how she would rather live in the Triet base than the Flanoir base made him wish that she were there at that moment. He was able to take Flanoir our of his list of places to look for her at. There was no way with her hatred of the cold that she would live there. He walked through the town, asking a lot of the people he saw in the streets if they had seen her. He gave them all her description, but no one seemed to have seen her. One man, though, told him to go and ask the fortune teller on the other side of town if she knew anything.

Yuan made his way to this fortune teller, not really thinking she would no anything about Storm either, but decided that it couldn't really hurt to try. He walked into the tent and began to wonder if it was such a good idea to come in the first place. The place was so strange feeling and he couldn't help but feel strange as the woman turned to him. Yuan wasn't one who believed in this kind of thing, but he was up for it if it held any sort of chance of working.

"Ah...come in, come in," the woman beckoned as Yuan came in completely to the tent. He sat down on a chair that she had sitting in a corner as he brought it closer to her table. "You come seeking knowledge, correct?" she asked. "Knowledge about someone very close to you?" she added at the end.

"That's right," Yuan said, a little surprised that the woman had figured that much out on her own. "A very good friend of mine...she's missing," Yuan told her.

"Yes, yes...a very good friend of yours. I know, I know. Let me see...I'm sure you want to find her then," the woman said. Yuan had a look of shock on his face as soon as he realized this woman realized he was talking about a woman, and that they were very close. He nodded his head as the woman closed her eyes and began to concentrate. "Hmmm...very interesting..." the woman said softly before she opened her eyes.

"What's interesting? Do you know where she is?" Yuan asked anxiously.

The woman chuckled a bit. "For someone who didn't believe in this when you came in you seem to believe in me now," she said as she smiled at him. Yuan couldn't believe it, she knew that he didn't trust her at first. "Your friend is in a small village near a large body of water."

Yuan thought for a few moments before he finally realized what she was talking about. "That has to be Izoold," he said as he got off his chair and threw some money on the table.

"She seems distressed somehow. This is not a normal distressed either. Not anger, not depression, not loneliness, but distress. I cannot explain this feeling," the woman said.

Yuan looked at her, hoping that there wasn't something terribly wrong with Storm. She hadn't been acting quite like herself and now he was beginning to worry about her. But now he had a place to start. He thanked the woman and ran out to head to Izoold.

Storm headed back to the small cottage that she was renting out. It was getting windier and it looked like it could storm at any second. She wanted to get home before she ended up being caught in the rain.She had just gotten back from unloading the day's catch from one of the fishing boats at the dock and she was tired. She had to admit that she kind of enjoyed the small town life, but she couldn't enjoy it like she wanted to. He was still hanging over her, trying to get into her thoughts and get her to go back.

She had to run away. Every time she saw someone she knew and cared for Mithos' voice would come back and try to take over. She was afraid that he would completely gain control of her body and she would do something horrible to someone she loved. She didn't want to see anyone die again. She couldn't bear the thought. So, one night, she packed some stuff and left Meltokio without telling a single soul. She made it to Izoold where she found a cottage to rent out and her job so she could support herself. She didn't need a big job, Zelos had left her enough that she could have easily supported herself, but she didn't want any of the villagers to wonder where she had gotten so much money from. She wanted to fit in. She was afraid of causing a lot of trouble, afraid that he would get back in her mind and make it worse. But she was content except for the fact that she was constantly in fear of losing control, but she felt as long as she didn't see anyone she knew, or got to close to anyone here, she would be all right.

As she was walking along, she heard the villagers begin getting all excited over something. She looked over to where some of them were pointing and saw none other than Yuan talking to one of the villagers. Her eyes grew wide as she realized that he had been looking for her and had managed to find the right village. She ran behind a sign and hid, hoping that he wouldn't see her and would leave. It killed her to hide from him, but it was for his own good that he didn't see her.

She peeked out and saw that someone was pointing him towards her house. She watched as he walked towards her home and began to desperately knock on the door. She wanted to see him so badly, but she knew that she couldn't.

"Why don't you go over and see him? You know you want to..."

"No, I thought I got rid of you..." Storm cried under her breath. He came back and he was going to try and take over. She wasn't going to let him hurt Yuan too. She wanted to get away, but she couldn't let Yuan see her.

"Oh never mind, she's over here," someone called out as they pointed to where she was hiding. Storm looked at them, terrified as she got up and ran. She ran into the woods nearby. When she got up from behind the sign she saw as Yuan looked right at her before she was gone. She heard the roll of thunder as the rain began to come down while she ran into the woods.

"Storm!" she could hear him calling for her as she ran past the trees, looking for some place to hide from him. Finally, she saw a small cave in the distance. It could get her out of the downpour and provide a place to hide at the same time. She made it to the cave as she ran in, hoping that Yuan didn't actually try and find her. She realized that once she ran, Mithos' voice was finally gone.

Storm shivered a little as she wrung out her hair and some of her clothes. She was soaked and now cold to add to it. She thought she was safe after a few minutes, thinking that Yuan had given up the chase. Suddenly, a crack of lightning lit up the cave for a second as a figure appeared in the entrance of the cave. Storm squeaked out as she realized that Yuan had, in fact, found her. She backed up farther in the cave as Yuan made his way towards her.

"Storm, what is the matter with you?" he asked as he came over to her. It wasn't completely dark outside because it was just in the afternoon, but it was getting harder to see. Storm stood up as she kept backing away from him.

"I told you to leave me alone!" she yelled at him. He took another step towards her when he realized that she had reached the back of the cave. It wasn't a very deep cave and she had run out of room to run. She was going to have to face him eventually, she just didn't want to face him.

"Storm...you can't expect me not to worry about you. You disappeared, what did you think I was going to do?" he asked her as he came even closer.

"He didn't worry about you, he just wanted to get back together. He thinks that you've forgotten Zelos already. Doesn't that make you upset?"

"Did you think that this all was going to come easily for me? Geez, you're always in such a rush to get back together," she yelled at him, Mithos was winning against her.

"That's not what I'm here for Storm. I want you to come back. Your father and all your friends are worried about you, and I was too," he told her as he reached out to embrace her. She pushed herself farther against the wall as he tried to come closer to her. Yuan moved back when he saw her reaction, she seemed almost afraid of him, but she couldn't figure out why.

"Kill him!"

"No, I can't...I won't..." Storm thought, but she watched as her body began to betray her. She slowly began to reach towards her sword.

"Storm?" Yuan asked her softly as he watched her hand slowly go to her sword. Why would she try to hurt him even if she upset with his actions, this was nothing like Storm. Something was terribly wrong with her and he wanted to help her through it.

"Run away..." she struggled to say to him as her hand reached the hilt of her sword. She grabbed the sword and could hear it rattle in the sheath as her hand shook. She was using all her will power to try and fight Mithos' power.

"Damned wench, do it!"

"No...I won't...stop it..." Storm thought, but realized that Mithos' hold was finally in control as her sword was pulled from the sheath. Yuan jumped back just in time as she swung at him.

"Storm, stop this," he said as he jumped back and grabbed her sword. She pulled back from him, pulling out of his grasp before jumping back at him once again with the sword. She managed to slice through his outfit, not cutting into him though, right by his chest.

"Storm, I really am sorry for what happened to Zelos, but you shouldn't let that make you hate everyone around you," he told her. "I love you and I won't let you do this to yourself, I care about you too much," he told her. "And I won't run away anymore from you," he finished as he stopped moving, knowing that she could kill him, but he wanted her to know that he didn't care anymore. He couldn't stand seeing her like that anymore.

"Do it now!! Kill him!!"

"No!! I love him!!! Now, get out of my head!!!" Storm thought before she slammed herself against the cave wall. She cried out from the force of her impact but went ahead and slammed into it once again. Soon, she began to slam her arm into the wall, hoping to knock the sword out. She cried out in pain every time, but she just couldn't get herself to let go of the sword.

Yuan stared in horror as he watched Storm throwing herself into the wall. It tore him to pieces to hear her cries of pain and he wondered exactly what she was going through that made her do this. "Storm, stop it!" he called to her, but she paid no attention as she clenched her teeth and threw her arm even harder into the wall.

"Damned wench!!"

Finally, the sword flew out of Storm's hand with one more crash into the wall. It clattered on the ground as Storm stood still, panting heavily. She wobbled a bit before she began to fall. Yuan saw her and ran to catch her as he held her up to support her.

"Are you okay?" he asked her as he placed her head into his chest.

"It's gone...Mithos' voice has finally stopped..." she whispered as she buried her head deeper into his chest.

Yuan slid to the ground, his back against the cave wall as Storm went down with him. He put her on his lap and her head on his chest as he stroked her hair trying to calm her breathing. She was still breathing hard and he wanted to relax her a bit.

"I'm so sorry..." she whimpered softly.

"I should be saying that I'm sorry. I couldn't realize that there was something wrong with you..." Yuan replied as he rested his head on top of hers. "We should get you back to see your father," he finally said once she had finally relaxed.

She slowly nodded her head as he helped her up. She had some trouble standing up and he went to grab her arm. When he grabbed it she whimpered in pain. He brought his back and looked at her to see what was wrong.

"I...I think it's broken..." she whispered still feeling the pain of the injury. "I'm okay...really..."

"No you're not. We'll get Raine or Kratos to heal it for you. We need to get back there," he said as he reached under her and scooped her up to carry her.

"I don't need to be carried for a broken arm!" Storm yelled at him.

Yuan smirked a little. That sounded like the Storm he knew. "I know, but I don't want to let you go," he said.

Storm smiled at this and didn't fight him anymore. It felt good to be held and cared for by someone again. She wouldn't complain, not this time at least.

Okay, well that's the end of this chapter. Oh, and this story isn't over yet. I know it sounds like it but there is more. After all, we gotta find out about Anna. Mithos was just a distraction, right?? Anyway, thanks for all the reviews again...you are all awesome. Anyway, thanks and please remember to review!!