Part 2 Revised (Watch)

It was snowing outside. Even in his drowsy state, how could hear the sigh of a dying snowflake pounding against his trained ears. It was these times that Lloyd regretted honing his senses so much that even the littlest sounds felt like thunder ripping through him. He felt the starched covers of the bed on his bare chest and back and a hint of disinfectant wafting into his nose from the air.

His eyes were still half-closed. Peering through the narrow slit of his lids, he viewed the cuckoo clock hanging over the door. It was late morning, nearly an hour before noon. Suddenly, a loud, dull thud immediately shook him out of his daze. His head spun left and his eyes darted on the crash. It was that girl, and she'd tripped face down onto the wooden floor. Over what she tripped on, not even she knew, but Lloyd, without thought, rushed over to her and propped her up to her knees. He felt strange doing this, being in close contact with another person. It was all a blur to him, nothing more than some instinctual reaction.

One good look at her, though, and he saw her smiling, relatively uninjured with a blush on her face. She was okay, except for a tiny drop of red splashing onto her immaculately white nurse uniform. Mindlessly, he took his thumb and gently rubbed away the blood dripping from her nose, helping her up as he did it.

"Um… Are you okay?" he asked. He realized that his right hand had been resting on her shoulder for the whole time, a tangle of her soft, golden hair trapped underneath his fingers. He let go tentatively and let the hand fall to his side, though he still kept the sensation of her still resonate in his palms.

"I should be the one asking you if you're okay! Thanks," she replied. Making her way to a small wash basin, she took out a small cloth and wet it. She dabbed the stain away.

Lloyd stood stiffly, observing her careful movements at removing the blood from her clothes. Even when she was cleaning herself up, albeit it was merely a drop or two of blood, she still had a tiny smile as she did it. She seemed nearly oblivious to her pain and kept on cleaning; her nose even started to let off a little more blood. She sniffled a bit and dabbed her nose with the clean side of the cloth. Far less pained, Lloyd's mind conjured images of the angel he'd known long ago. Mind calmed from the long hours of recovery, he focused his thoughts on his caretaker, the girl who appeared too much like a shadow of the risen angel he'd had his heart for, but could never be. She could never replace her, no matter how much she reminded him of her.

She was probably still alive somewhere, but as things turned out he never found her again, even after he spent months looking for her. He had forgotten what he'd been looking for. He felt distraught, of course, yet the hollowness of the missing memory seemed to have little importance to the quest at hand.

She felt his eyes on her, for she blushed when she met his gaze and looked away. She was a very beautiful, kind girl, he thought. It was little wonder that he would think that she'd be another angel, but his heart was such that it would not be won over so easily by a mere look. Ever since that time when he lost her, all that he'd felt and known was rejection, a dearth of any sort of warmness towards him. People had not known what he and his friends had done to save their lives and the life of the world itself, as they saw the fusion of the worlds as a matter of inconvenience, as entire regions were reformed and places that were and were not became and disappeared. This was what brought death upon his faith on all people, and he learned never to expect anything from anyone. Now, here was this girl, seemingly oblivious to the ubiquitous hatred of him all around her, it would be little wonder that her pure, sincere smile would be the chisel that would strike at his weather-beaten stone heart.

She smoothed herself out and walked towards him, taking his arm along the way and moving him towards his bed. Her grip was not restraining, it didn't feel like she was moving him, rather, it seemed she was moving with him. He sat down and wordlessly nodded in thanks. She smiled in return, hesitating to leave his side.

"Don't mind me for saying this, but you do remind me of someone I met before," Lloyd said, moving himself under the blankets.

She let off a tiny giggle, "I do?"

"Yeah. A girl I knew a long time ago… But she's gone now. I never found out what happened to her," Lloyd replied, eyes moving distantly to the window.

"Ah…" she said. She gazed at her hands, but quickly met his eyes and said, "Well, I'll be back to check up on you in a few hours. After today, I guess you won't need to be here, anymore."

Before he could respond with thanks, the door clicked shut.

When Lloyd received the okay about his health, he thought no more of his fruitless Exsphere journey. He would go on, thank the nurse girl and the doctor, and be on his way. Where he would go and what he would do, he thought little of but he had hoped that someday, he'd gain his old memories back. Whenever he slept, he felt more and more of him became lost in that mental black hole. He felt he needed to be alone, in solitude, in order to get his old self back. Maybe, he thought, that would bring back the memories of that girl once again. He set his mesh armor on and draped his freshly washed red clothes over them. He strapped on his boots, secured his weapons and belongings, and, with a final check of his appearance, he made his way for the door.

As he opened it, he saw the nurse girl again, bundled up in a snow jacket with a sizeable rucksack on her back. Lloyd was about to set his bag down and give her the payment, when she suddenly dashed over and sealed his mouth with her hands, forcing him around a bend and behind the receptionist's desk. He gasped, surprised at her strength, as she managed force him onto the floor. She looked worried, an expression unfitting for a face that was usually serenely cheerful.

"Listen, there's no time to explain. Just get over to the other room and climb out of the window. I'll meet you inside the Church of Martel, got it?" the nurse huffed. She pulled him up and rushed him through the door amid his protests of "What the…?" and "Why?" She immediately shut the door, sending him stumbling over a loose plank of wood in the dim room.

Lloyd recovered and immediately walked over to the door, demanding an explanation. The nurse only replied, "Hurry up and get to the church!" She clicked something on the other side of the door, locking it.

He grunted in frustration and searched the room, heaving his backpack. He scanned the room and listened as the nurse opened the main door of the clinic, letting in an uncountable amount of angry voices. The nurse argued back at them, but their verbal battle was muffled by the rattling of the only window from the night's bluster. He clambered over the crates conveniently stacked beneath it and lifted it open easily. He turned back only to hear a loud crash and someone yelling. That was warning enough for him to roll out of the window and land back first into the snow mound beneath.

He kicked up off his back and onto his feet and took a quick look at his surroundings. It was evening and another one of Flanoir's famous snowstorms roared through the streets. He quickly hid in a small crowd of people gathering outside a store and wiggled his way through the maze, checking back at the clinic with the corner of his eye. Surely enough, the door to the outside was open and an unrecognizable dark-clothed female figure stood guard outside the door. He tried to get a better look through the bobbing heads and the incessant snows, but everything whited out as the natural to and fro of the crowd pushed him out. He hid his face in his white scarf and shuffled as quickly as he could, dodging people and snow mounds as he made his way for the Church.

If there was anything from his journey that was still welcoming, it was the sanctuary he felt in the Church of Martel. While the building itself was unchanged, the people attending the service going on were still praying as fervently as ever, even though the truth behind the whole institution had been nothing but a lie. He remembered the Giant Tree and Martel's words to keep the tree alive by having people continue to live and work together, and he kept his word as he traveled around. Some things he hid, but to see the kind of faith the people brought out with them and to others calmed his mind a bit. He settled into a back pew and listened to the clergyman go through the motions of the prayers and hymns and relaxed.

He idly stared at the different sculptures of previous Chosen and depictions of Martel and others from the stories of the Church. So much of Martel's life, he realized, was wrought in condemnation by others, yet she still kept on being kind to others. He chuckled at himself. Had he been on the road so long that he had forgotten that very fact that was drilled into his head from childhood and was solidified even further when he learned of the secrets of the Martel Church? He wanted to hit his head on the pew just for being so dense! He muffled a chuckle, closing his eyes in silent meditation, just as the priest requested the congregation to do.

It wasn't long until the nurse arrived as quietly as a spring's breeze. Lloyd awakened from his half slumber during the meditation when he felt the slight groan of the wood from the added being sitting on it. The nurse's cheeks were bright red and a small layer of snow-dust flaked off her coat onto the floor as she patted herself. She sighed, slouching into the warm seat. She whispered, "Sorry I'm late and for making you rush out of there, but it was something very important I had to deal with." She silently plopped her bag on the floor.

"I would say 'It's okay,' but what I want to know is why I have to climb out of a window in the middle of a snowstorm?" Lloyd replied, sending the nurse into a slight blush.

"I'm sorry. I'll tell you everything once the service is over, okay? I think it would be good if we both prayed, don't you think?"

Lloyd agreed.

They exited the Church and she willed him towards her tiny rented room in a home nearby. She had a moderate amount of belongings, supplies to keep her going along with countless trinkets. Other than that, Lloyd noticed, was that she kept a corner of her room bare, with a wooden post marred by chips and was even reattached in a few places. They were clean cuts made by an object that would have traveled very fast with a very fine edge. He would have to expect the unexpected.

Though the room was well lit by the outside lights, she lit a candle and shut her curtains, telling him to sit down. They both sat across from each other on her only wooden table. "I'm really sorry, but would you mind keeping your voice low?" She whispered. "Sure. But before we begin, what's your name? I never found out."

"Oh, sorry. My name's Col… Colleen. My name's Colleen," she replied. She scanned the room, eyes narrowed. Lloyd looked at her expectantly and sniffed to grab her attention. "Sorry! Okay, before we begin let me tell you that no matter what happens I am not going to leave your side. That's a promise."

"Okay…" He hardly knew her, yet she hung on to him like a magnet to iron. How could he trust her so easily? She may have heard about his traveling to get and destroy every single last Exsphere. If he trusted her, he imagined, he could end up in some interrogation room with a bunch of suits blasting him with questions and who knows what else. Exspheres were as prized as a military secret, especially in the new world!

"And another thing: I've heard all about your travels and how you want to get rid of all the Exspheres in the world. I want to help you. I want to help you so that we can get rid of those things. I know how they're made and what gives them their power, so, Lloyd, I have to go with you!" Colleen's pleading eyes looked as if she could cry twenty rivers, but she held them back. Her lips were trembling and she hit the table so hard that the candle nearly toppled over. "Please, Lloyd, just trust me! I can help you!"

"What? Colleen, I--"

A loud, dull bam-bam rang from her door. Colleen reflexively pushed Lloyd down and shushed him. She stood straight up and ripped off her coat, outer clothes and snow boots leaving a rumpled pile in front of him. Her socked feet jogged their way to the door. Colleen answered it with a cheerful, yet sleepy sounding, "Hi Lauren."

"Sleeping, huh? Sorry about that. Hey, listen, we're gonna go on tomorrow's ship out to Royal Academy, and then we're going to head for Meltokio. You up for it or are you working?" Lauren asked.

"Tomorrow would be great! Oh, and would it be okay if I brought a friend, too?"

"Yup, of course. We'll be at the Eastern Dock at around nine in the morning. The boat leaves at half past. Good thing you're sleeping now, you'll be up early. I'll go sleep now, too, so good night, Col." Lauren yawned as her heavy footsteps reverberated away.

"See you tomorrow, Lauren!" Colleen called out cheerfully, closing the door carefully. She turned back and whispered, "Lloyd! It's okay, it wasn't them."

Lloyd hesitated to stand up. He tilted his head upwards just so there was no chance that he'd see her… indecently. She giggled when he did that, taking two fingers and pulling his chin down, revealing that she was wearing a full-bodied night gown.

"You think of everything," he laughed, echoing his thoughts. "But Colleen, I can't just take you along. Besides, you'll grow sick of it after the first stop. I don't know if I'm even going to finish the job."

Colleen plopped onto her bed and sighed. "Long ago, I told myself that I would stop running away, because in the end I knew that people would die. I also did it for myself, just so I prove to myself that I truly was worth something. And you know what? It worked."

Lloyd felt the pangs of guilt starting to gnaw at him. He used to say those things a lot, but he wished the days would feel as easy as it did back then. He wanted that idealism back, that veil that if he tried hard enough, he could do anything. He wanted to be back on that mission to save everyone just for the sake of goodness, to lift the spirits of others when they felt their lowest. He looked at her looking at him, waiting for his answer. Maybe it was his longing for his hope. Maybe it was that this girl reminded him of the one he lost so long ago. Or maybe it was just because he was lonely. Whatever it was, Lloyd agreed. "All right, Colleen, you convinced me to keep going and to keep my spirits high, and I'm going to rely on you to keep it that way. I won't promise you that I'll do the same, though."

Colleen leapt up and squeezed him against her as tight as she could. He found it strange that she was so ecstatic, and pulled her away from him and held her at arm's length. She was beaming. Lloyd let off an uncertain chuckle, not knowing how he would say it, so he decided to say it bluntly. "Colleen, seriously, if you ever, by some random act of chance, ever do betray me, you will never find me by your side again. I'm sorry I had to say it, but I can't trust anyone so easily anymore."

Colleen visibly shivered, but nodded. He nodded back. "I was serious when I said I would never leave your side, too." She said sternly. She faced away, her voice nearing that to a near mumble, continued, "I just hope that you find out who you really are before it's too late."

"Colleen?"

She smiled once again at him, folding her fingers together and exclaiming, "Oh it's nothing! Anyway, it's time to go to bed. We gotta be on that boat early." He laughed and started removing his coat and belongings far from her view.

"By the way, where WILL I sleep," Lloyd asked, peeking from out of the corner.

The faint candlelight reflected off a mischievous smile. "The floor, of course."

"I'm already starting to like this adventure," Lloyd groaned.

Colette waited and waited until his snores were loud enough to rattle the icicles from her windowsill. She sat up and peeked out of her curtains, eyeing the blank streets carefully. No, they had not followed, but then again they always liked to show up in the strangest times and tonight she wondered if she made a mistake bringing him to her home.

She looked at his crookedly flat body, his drool ruining a blanket she washed the other day. No matter how accomplished a swordsman he was, he couldn't save himself from them.

She realized that he didn't know who was after him; she hadn't told him at all when she promised to. Whenever that day came when he would come to his senses and realize the just who were the ones who went after him, she knew she would have to do something drastic. Probably even worse than what they would plan to do with him.

For now, she was satisfied that he would be safe for just one more night under her watch. She was his angel after all and she'd never betray him, even at the cost of the friends who had loved them all so dearly.