Forever Strong

A/N: An awesome glitch in the game! You can get Lloyd to fight with the Eternal sword! If you get a reverse limit, then activate the glitch somehow, Lloyd'll fall having four different colored balls of light circle him, and when you revive him, the Material blades will turn into the Eternal sword. The only bad thing is, you can't do Sword Rain effectively with one sword... There went my whole battle...

By the way, Sunday (tomorrow) is the one month anniversary of this story! Yay! And I'll be off at a college camp to celebrate it for a whole week... not yay. (Yeah, that means another long delay.)

"Wrroof! Aaooof! Wrroof!"

"What? What is it, boy? Where are you taking me?"

The boy's dog ceased his frenzy meters before an opening in the forest; he looked back at his master with a deep whine growing in his throat. The boy struggled to catch up to the mutt, though panting when he finally did reach the dog; he found his breath caught in his throat at the sight that lay in the opening. The boy's eyes widened in fear.

"BANDITS!"

As the boy and his dog scrambled to get back safely to their village, a band of the village guards ran to meet him just before the entrance.

"Boy, 'ow many were there? 'ow many bandit's did ya see?" One of the guards questioned, the boy shook his head frantically. "I didn't see no bandits! But there's a miss out there the bandits got to first! She's all bloody and she's got arrows sticking outta 'er in every which way!"

"Where did you see the lass?"

The boy quivered a bit and spoke in a shaky voice, "In the Flaaster Forest, a manmade clearing! Wit' all this debris scattered around it, there musta been a big bloody fight!"

The leader nodded and turned to his men, "Alrigh', yeh heard the lad! Squadron one surroun' the righ' side! Squadron two aroun' the lef'! The res' of yeh come wit' me! We're gonna go ge' the lass to safe'y! Go!"

The militia resounded a, "Yes, sir!" and parted their designated ways. The group accompanying the leader set out in a beeline for the Flaaster Forest, after all it was basically a resue mission over all else, so they had to be as fast and efficient as possible.

They were about midway into the forest when their leader warned, "This be aroun' where the boy sai' 'e saw the lass, so be on your guar'. The bandits coul' be 'iding ready to spring an attack."

Upon entering the clearing, they immediately spotted the victim. At the sight, one of the men sheathed his weapon in disgust, "Well, I'll be damned! We come all the way ou' here just to save a fla'-chested teenaged girlie!" Another rolled his eyes, "Aye, wha' luck!"

Their leader remained neutral on the subject and moved in closer for a more thorough inspection of the victim. By this time, the groaning and complaining of his men had grown substantially, nevertheless he gained their full attention with a clearing of his throat. "Men, we ain' dealin' wit' a lass..." he announced informally; few of his men grimaced slightly, "...but we shall help this unfortunate soul, even if i' means givin' him a proper burial.

"Stephen, you're the bes' doctor of us all, check his condition."

The solider known as Stephen hesitantly stepped forward into the pool of blood forming around the fallen. He reached out one hand and put it to the man's neck and another to his wrist. He closed his eyes, searching hopefully for a pulse within the cold body. He opened his eyes and spoke with great sorrow, "I've foun' no pulse. We were too late..."

The entire group nodded their heads in respect for the departing soul, some even whispered prayers. After their moment of silence, the leader said grimly, "Well, star' diggin'."

While orders were being given for squadrons one and two to head back to town and summon the priest, two of the men began to remove the arrows pertruding from the corpse while the others dug a grave. As the last arrow was removed, the corpse seemed to flinch, however the two soldiers disregarded it as tricks of the mind. They soon learned that the man was still very much alive when he opened his eyes and looked around in a dazed state, startling the two soldiers so much so they fell over backwards.

Though filled with disbelief at this miracle, the leader called instead for the squadrons to open at room at the Inn.

The man awoke several days later in a soft bed with tight bandages covering him from his lower torso all the way to his left wrist and a smaller one around his right shin. He looked up to see he was being watched over by a young girl around the age of fifteen. She smiled and called to her parents, the innkeepers. They came shortly after her call offering him food and water of which he wordlessly declined.

Still curious as to the odd behavior exhibited by the man, they asked him basic questions, such as his name, his age, and how he got into this predicament. He didn't say a word, but merely averted his miserable gaze.

Just then, they were interrupted by a rude drifter at the counter asking for directions. The innkeepers left their daughter to keep watch over the man while they went to deal with the drifter.

The girl quickly became uncomfortable with the silence between them, so attempted to get the man to open up, "So... you don't hafta talk, if you don't want, but I really want to help you, and I can't do so without at least knowing your name." he remained silent, so she took out a piece of paper and a quill, dipping it in ink, "Well, do you think you could at least write your name for me, please?"

With his uninjured arm, he flimsily grabbed the quill and set it against the worm paper, just holding it there. He couldn't bring himself to even utter his own name, for every time syllables formed that name, an appropriate title of 'failed guardian' followed. He set the quill down and shook his head; the girl however was determined to get somewhere.

"Okay then, I'll just call you 'Sheen'."

That was all he could take, he violently pulled the covers over his head and sobbed into the pillow. Only one thing crossed his mind.

'Zelos Wilder, Failed Guardian, Killer of Sheena Fujibayashi'