She's Alive Again! Colette's Return!

Lloyd, his friends, and Reiko soon came to the summit of the Fooji mountains. When they arrived, a strange, familiar feeling came over Lloyd. It was quite similar to the feeling that he had felt the night before Iselia was devastated, the night when he was talking with Colette on the balcony. That same comforting feeling that he had then, when Colette was with him. Lloyd looked over at Colette. "You'll be back to normal soon… I promise," he quietly whispered. She didn't respond. "Hey Zelos, how are going to move these things?" He asked, referring to Rheairds.

"Oh, I'll show you, come over here for a sec," Zelos said, motioning for the group to follow him.

Then something caught Reiko's eye. There was a round orange disc, it was seemingly out of place on the top of the Fooji mountains. "Wait, no! It's a trap!" He yelled, but before anyone could react, the trap sprung, and everyone except Colette was trapped inside a force field.

"You've walked right into my trap, fools!" a voice called. It was Lord Yuan, the leader of the Renegades. Everyone turned to face Zelos, who had led them right into Yuan's trap.

"He just called you a fool." Lloyd said to Zelos.

"Zelos… is clumsy." Presea said, in a monotone.

Zelos hung his head, and sarcastically said, "Gah… I'm so sad now."

Yuan looked over at his two loyal soldiers. "You, retrieve the Rheairds."

"Yes sir." One of them replied.

"This time, you're mine Lloyd!" Yuan said.

"… Damn!" Lloyd shouted. He was trapped, there was no way out of the force field. Suddenly, a woman, wearing red and dark blue clothing, with an intricate golden ring that surrounded her appeared.

"Oh? Lord Yuan, what brings you to this place?" she said.

"I think I've seen that lady somewhere before…" Genis said to the group.

"I should ask you the same, Pronyma! The role of you Desians is to wreak havoc upon the declining world." Replied Yuan.

"I have come on Lord Yggdrasill's orders to retrieve Colette. Please turn her over to me." Pronyma told Yuan.

"Fine. But in exchange for handing over the Chosen, I'm taking custody of Lloyd. I trust you have no objections."

"I have received no orders in regards to him so. Please do as you wish my lord."

As Pronyma floated over to Colette, to take her to Derris-Kharlan, Lloyd fell to his knees. He had been able to stop her from being taken to become Martel, but now, he had no way to save her. "Colette… don't go!" he desperately cried out, in an attempt to spark something…

"Hahahahaha! A futile effort. Your words cannot reach a chosen who has lost her soul." Pronyma laughed at Lloyd's vain attempt to stop Colette from being taken away. She then looked down, towards Colette's neck. "What is this! Why is there such a crude key crest upon the Cruxis Crystal? … How pathetic. I shall remove this ugly thing at once!" She said, but as she reached down to remove the Crystal, something quite remarkable happened.

"N…no!" Colette's unwillingness to part with the necklace that Lloyd had made her, empowered the Key Crest that was on the necklace. "This is a birthday present that Lloyd gave me!"

"Colette… spoke!" Genis shouted.

At that same time Reiko also shouted, "She… spoke, plus her eyes changed from red to blue."

"Colette! Are you back to normal!" Lloyd shouted, forgetting about the force field, Yuan, and Pronyma. He was simply ecstatic with the fact that Colette was herself again.

Colette turned around, and faced Lloyd. She saw the force field. "What? Why is everyone inside that thing"

"Impossible." Yuan said, stunned by the fact that Colette had regained her heart. "There's no way a pitiful Key Crest like that could restrain the Cruxis Crystal."

"Wow… not bad Lloyd." Zelos said, regarding Colette's return.

"Heh… success." Reiko added.

"How could this happen! Still, in the end, it is a worthless bauble. It shan't last long. Now come with me!" Pronyma demanded, reaching out to seize Colette, and to take her away to Derris-Kharlan where she'd meet her demise. Colette, not wanting to die, hit Pronyma with her Chakrams, knocking Pronyma back.

She shouted, "Let me go!" quite loud. And as she yelled, she stumbled backwards, tripping over the force field generator, breaking it. She didn't know what the device was. "Oh no. I broke it." She said.

At that time, Pronyma had recovered, and was going to take Colette away, but Reiko threw one of his Raiden daggers at her, striking her hand. Lightning hit her. "I do believe that Colette didn't want you to take her away!" He shouted.

Lloyd ran over to Colette, and hugged her, something he wasn't able to do when she didn't have her soul.

"Lloyd, thank you for the present! I was so happy… I was really happy, there just wasn't anything I could do at the time." Colette said.

"It's okay! Don't worry about it." Lloyd told her, just glad that she was back.

Pronyma had gotten up, and was on the attack again. "BEHIND YOU!" both Reiko and Raine shouted.

"You impudent! Prepare to die!" Pronyma yelled, readying for a fight. "You'll pay for making a fool of me!"

Lloyd moved to defend Colette from Pronyma. He quickly attacked Pronyma.

"Leonazium!" Pronyma shouted, knocking Lloyd back. She then began to cast a darkness spell.

Lloyd continued his offense, now aided by Colette, Zelos, Sheena, and Reiko.

"Burn! Eruption!" Genis shouted, and the ground broke open, and molten lava blasted out, scalding Pronyma.

"Ray!" Raine cried, and many beams of light slammed into Pronyma, inflicting massive damage.

But Pronyma's spell wasn't stopped. "Boom!" It began to rain an eerie, red, liquid.

"Armor eating acid!" Reiko shrieked. That liquid was disintegrating his metal armor.

"Agarazium!" Pronyma shouted, and wraithlike rings of light knocked Lloyd into the air.

"Explosive Surge!" Reiko yelled, driving his sword into the ground, knocking lightning-charged chunks of rock into the air, shelling Pronyma.

"Para Ball!" Colette yelled, throwing these special spiked balls at Pronyma, causing lightning to strike her.

"You can use Para Ball as well?" Reiko inquired. "Uh-huh!" Colette replied.

"Dark Sphere!" Pronyma got another spell off. This time, darkness surrounded Colette, hurting her, quite a lot.

"Ow!" Colette cried.

"You bastard!" Lloyd shouted, angry that Pronyma had hurt Colette. He rushed her. "Sword Rain! Tiger Blade! Sword Rain: Alpha!"

"Why you impudent little-"

"Take this! Lightning Fang! Lightning Blade! RAIDEN!" Reiko continued the attack.

"Ugh…" Pronyma groaned. She started to cast another spell.

"Not again. You aren't getting another one of those spells off. I'm not going to let you!" Reiko stated, but Lloyd was the first to get the offense going again. He repeated the same attack combo as last time, but Reiko did something different. "Lightning Fang! Lightning Strike!" he used his own Demon Fang variant, and then swung his sword downwards. This caused lightning to hit Pronyma four times. Then he lifted his sword up, and it began to glow, then, Reiko let go of it. It continued to float. He also began to lift up, and then he shouted, "Guardian Shield!" Suddenly, a glowing magic circle appeared, and a large number of tiny beams of light shot up. Pronyma was hit multiple times.

Pronyma was beaten. She could no longer keep up the fight. She collapsed. "I'm sorry… Lord Yggdrasill!" she cried out, as she fell.

"This is the perfect opportunity! Yuan, I'm going to settle our score right now!" Lloyd shouted, as he rushed to attack Yuan. But Kratos appeared, and blocked the attack, stopping Lloyd. "Kratos!" Lloyd yelled.

"…Kratos what are you doing here?" Yuan inquired. "Leave Yuan. Lord Yggdrasill has summoned you." Kratos replied.

"Grr… Are you taking the Chosen?" Yuan scowled.

"No. We'll leave her for now. It's the toxicosis." Kratos responded.

"…I see. Lloyd our battle will have to wait." Yuan then turned around, and leapt into the heavens, for he, like Kratos, Yggdrasill, and Colette, was an angel.

"He's an angel too!" Sheena asked, shocked to see that Yuan also had the same glowing wings that the evil Lord of Cruxis had.

"Dammit, Yuan wait!" Lloyd shouted, ready for a fight.

"What are you doing?" Kratos asked Lloyd.

"What?" Lloyd retorted.

"Why have you come all the way to Tethe'alla?"

"I'm here to save Colette."

"What good will saving the chosen do? The relation of the two worlds vying for each other's mana will not change. Their positions have merely been reversed by the regeneration ritual."

"Has Tethe'alla begun to decline?" Sheena interrupted.

"The Tower of Salvation can still be seen from this side. As long as that can been seen, this world is still flourishing. But in the event that the Chosen becomes Martel's vessel, Tethe'alla will surely bid farewell to its era of prosperity." Kratos replied.

"Dammit! Isn't there anything that can be done! That Yggdrasill guy built this twisted world, right?" Lloyd asked.

"Lord Yggdrasill does not consider it twisted. If you want to do something about it, use your own head." Kratos answered. "I thought that you weren't going to make any more mistakes."

"Right! I'm going to change this stupid system in order to prevent anymore chosen, like Colette!"

"Go ahead and try." Kratos and Pronyma then took off, in the direction of the Tower of Salvation.

"What was that all about? First we get trapped, then some Desian lady appears, tries to take Colette, then some blue-winged angel guy appears, orders the guy who trapped us to leave, and something about preventing anymore chosen? What?" Reiko questioned.

"I'm not going to let the evil Cruxis kill or harm anymore innocent people, like Colette." Lloyd replied. He then turned to face Colette. He stared into her shining blue eyes.

"What's wrong Lloyd?" She asked, wondering why Lloyd was staring at her.

"Colette, welcome back." He happily said.

"Hehe… Glad to be back!" She giggled.