Sorry that it took so long for me to update but I've been super busy lately. Anyway, here's the next chapter. I did get some new ideas for the story while I was waiting for time to write this chapter but they won't be till later in the story. Anyway, here you go. Enjoy!

Chapter 8: The Martel Temple

Sheena couldn't believe that she was about to see Verius again. It had been almost sixteen years since she last visited him and she hadn't realized just how much she had missed him. She really hoped that he could help them find some of the pieces of Mithos' Cruxis Crystal or at least help them figure out if Sutra could actually revive Mithos. The group were at the bottom of the long flight of stairs that led to the Martel Temple. The temple was surprisingly unharmed but their were no people near it. Sheena wondered how the temple had managed to remained untouched with all of the chaos going on outside its walls.

"Wow, the Desians must not have looked inside of the temple," Sheena said to the others, which everyone could tell was a relief to her.

"Perhaps, or maybe someone or something kept them out," Kratos considered.

"Like what?" Storm asked him.

"There could be some sort of a monster in there, protecting the temple and the Desians would have just decided to leave it for the time being," Raine told her.

"Exactly," Kratos added.

"So, in other words, we should be ready to fight?" Lloyd asked as he drew his sword.

"I wouldn't count it out yet," Zelos told him as he pulled out his own sword.

Sheena and Storm rolled their eyes at the sight of their husbands as they began to ascend the long flight of stairs. The others decided to follow them. As they walked up the stairs Colette looked over at Lloyd who was taking in the scenes. Genis was on the other side of her as she looked at him too, his own mind wandering.

"Doesn't this bring back memories?" Colette finally spoke up. The question caught Genis and Lloyd off guard as they suddenly looked at her before observing the surroundings a little more closely.

"Yeah, I guess it does. This place hasn't changed at all since we first came here to take you to the oracle. With all the destruction going on around here it's kind of peaceful to see this and think back on it," Lloyd admitted.

"Yeah, who ever would have known what we were getting ourselves into," Genis added with a large grin.

The group finally made it to the top of the hill and were at the entrance again when Colette began to reminisce again.

"Hey Kratos! This is where we met you for the first time. I sure am glad that we met you," Colette said happily as she looked at Kratos whose face wasn't quite so animated. He finally gave into the girl's happiness and cracked a small smile.

"Yeah, I am too," Lloyd added. Kratos looked at his son. His years of being with Yggdrasil often made him look as if he didn't care about anything or anyone, but he couldn't help but love his two children. He was so overjoyed that Lloyd had finally learned to accept him as his father despite everything he had done to him in the past.

"Well, are we going to think about the past all day or are we going to worry about what's going on now and get in there to fix it?" Zelos asked the group as he marched towards the entrance to the temple.

The others shrugged their shoulders as they decided to follow Zelos into the temple, hoping to find some sort of good news inside.

They walked inside and couldn't even find any traces of any of the monsters that had once ruled the halls of the sacred temple. The didn't even pay attention to the fact that they were being followed inside by two men. Storm had never been inside of the temple but for some reason the inside reminded her of a dungeon. She couldn't believe that something like that had been named after Martel. The inside of the temple even reminded her of the dungeon cells she had to spend the nights in after beatings from Yggdrasil and Pronyma. She shivered a little bit at the thought and grabbed Zelos' hand and pulled closer to him. He looked down at her and gave her a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand making her feel more secure.

Finally, they reached an altar without being attacked by anything as Sheena called for Verius. Suddenly, a bright light appeared all around the altar and the outline of Verius began to glimmer in front of them. Finally, Verius took shape and appeared in front of the group.

"It's been a long time old friend," Sheena smiled as tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Yes it has. I assume that you have business that brings you to this sacred temple," Verius bellowed.

Sheena looked sadly at Verius, realizing that it wasn't the same creature that had once accompanied her for so many years. Corrine was gone and Verius had taken his place. She didn't care though, she still cared about him no matter what he was. "Yes, the destruction in Symphonia by a girl named Sutra has brought us here. She wishes to revive Mithos Yggdrasil by collecting the fragments of his Cruxis Crystal and providing enough mana to them to revive him. We wanted to know if there really are pieces of this crystal, and if so, where they are," Sheena explained to him.

"Yes, there are crystal shards scattered about Symphonia, but these shards did not fall randomly. These are scattered close to temples and where the different summon spirits watch over them. All of the spirits with you can sense their presence and most likely they are near their temples," Verius told her.

"Is there one here?" Storm asked, getting impatient with the long answers.

"Yes, there is one here in this temple. It is near the resting place of the Sorcerer's ring which was taken from here so many years ago. There are no monsters in this temple. I was able to protect it, but your other spirits temples may not have been as lucky. Iselia was not hit hard and I doubt that I will have to offer up much protection for this temple. You may take the shard, but be wary of what you may run into at the others," Verius warned the group.

That was all that Storm needed and she was off to find the crystal shards as Lloyd decided to follow her since he knew where the Sorcerer's Ring was once at. The two of them went farther down into the temple and Storm was getting more and more impatient by the second. She wanted to get all of the pieces before Sutra could so she wouldn't be able to use Anna as a weapon to get her mana. Storm wouldn't allow Anna to be used as bait for that sick woman's game.

Finally, Storm and Lloyd were staring at the floating crystal up where the ring once was. It was floating in the air as it glowed brightly. Lloyd walked over to it hesitantly as if slowly reached out to touch it. When he did, it instantly stopped glowing and dropped to the ground. He stared at it, thinking that something else would happen, but bent over to pick it up when he realized that nothing would.

"Lloyd, we have a piece. Maybe we can stop Sutra," Storm said happily and hopefully.

"I know we can," Lloyd told her as he handed her the crystal.

"Lady Sutra we have found the secret to finding the crystals," one Desian told a holographic image of Sutra outside of the Martle Temple not long after the others left.

"And that is...?" Sutra asked them, her voice growing more irritated by the second.

"They are by the temples of the summon spirits and the summon spirits can sense them," another Desian replied for the other one.

"Well, I guess that means we'll let their group do all the dirty work and we can take all the prize from them. Where are they going next?" Sutra asked.

"They're going to the Fire Seal," the Desians both replied.

"Very good, we'll gather a good party to wait for them once they get out," Sutra said as she laughed at the idea of getting her crystals.

Well, that's it for this chapter. Next chapter will take place in Derris Kharlan when Sutra and Anna use the Cruxis Crystals for the first time. Anyway, I hope you liked it and remember if you have any comments or questions just go to the Storm Aurion Wilder forum and talk there. Thanks for reading.