Okay, it's time for an update. I hope that you're all enjoying this story. I had a few more ideas today but they're for later in the story, but you'll find out about that later. I think you'll be surprised with the end of this story. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 14: Something There

The group had traveled towards the Tower of Mana in hopes of finding another crystal shard, but when they arrived there they realized that it would be easier for them to summon Aska and Luna before they arrived. So, once the tower was within sight Sheena summoned the two spirits. The group then knew why it was such a good decision to summon them earlier when the two informed the group that there was no crystal in or neat the Tower of Mana.

"Well, that saved some walking time," Genis pointed out as he tried to cheer the group up a little as they began to make their way towards the Earth Temple on the Tethe'alla side of Symphonia.

The group walked for the rest of the day and after getting close to the temple they decided that they would walk the rest of the trip the next day. They set up camp and had dinner, compliments of Genis. As soon as dinner was over Storm walked away from the rest of the group by herself. Zelos had been nagging at her lately as she was tired of him always checking up on her and trying to get her to sleep or eat more. She wanted to be left alone, she didn't want anyone to worry about her, she was fine.

Zelos was sitting by a small fire that he had built by him at the top of a hill he was sitting. He could see everyone in below from the hill. He saw the group of friends hanging around by another fire, laughing and having a good time, and then there was Storm, sitting by herself lost in thought. Zelos sighed as he looked at his wife, wondering what could be troubling her. He knew that he couldn't help her anymore, for some reason he was unable to talk to her like he used to. Suddenly, he felt a pair of eyes staring at him as he stared back towards the larger group and met eyes with Yuan. Zelos thought for a moment before realizing what he had to do, he knew what was best for Storm. He waved Yuan towards him and the man responded to his gesture as he began to make his way up the hill.

When Yuan came over he sat down next to the red-head and looked at him. Zelos was going to have a hard time with what he was going to do, but he knew it was best for his troubled wife. He couldn't look at Yuan, his outgoing personality suddenly left him. Instead he decided to stare at the small fire burning in front of him as Yuan followed suit. Finally, Zelos sighed and began to speak.

"Yuan, have you noticed Storm's behavior lately?" he asked him.

"Well, she's been a lot less social," Yuan replied.

Zelos' eyes watched the dancing flames as he picked up a small twig on the ground and began to break small pieces off and toss them into the fire, causing it to jump a little. "She's been fighting so badly because her mind is somewhere else. She doesn't eat as much and she can't sleep because of these horrible nightmares about Mithos that she has," Zelos told him. "I'm worried about her, it can't be healthy for her. She's going to get hurt soon."

"You're right, she's letting everything get to her. She thinks it's all her fault," Yuan told Zelos.

"That's Storm. She always puts the blame on herself," Zelos told him.

"So, what do you propose we do?" Yuan asked him.

"Well...I was thinking...maybe...you could talk to her," Zelos strained to say. He had a hard time asking this man to help his wife. He felt as if there were no one else for her to talk to and he only wanted her to be happy again. He realized that there would be a point in time when he would tell her to leave him and she would most likely leave with Yuan. He had to start thinking more about this and getting ready for it, no matter how hard it was for him. He only wanted to see her happy. He wouldn't want to be with an old woman, so why would she want to be with an old man?

"You want me to talk to her?" Yuan asked, quite shocked by Zelos' decision.

"Yes, I already tried to talk to her, but she won't say anything, she only pushes me farther away. Maybe she'd talk to you," Zelos told him.

"I'll try and see what I can do," Yuan assured. "And don't worry, you can trust me," Yuan told him after seeing his worried face.

"I know, and I think it would be best to talk to her when everyone else is gone, I think that she might relax a little more," Zelos told him, knowing that the rest of the group sometimes made her nervous and a little more self-conscious.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do," Yuan told him as he patted him on the back. Zelos and Yuan were finally able to befriend each other after all those years. They had finally realized that they were both working towards making Storm a happy person.

"Thank you," Zelos told him as Yuan got up and headed back towards the others at the other fire. Zelos looked down at Storm and looked at her sadly as he was able to sense her pain.

"I hope that I'm doing the right thing," Zelos muttered to himself as he got up to put out his small fire before going to bed.

The next day the group received their news from Gnome that there was a crystal inside the Earth Temple. Storm was the first to speak up at this news.

"You can all go inside because I think I need a break from all this fighting stuff. I'm still trying to get the smell of squid slime out of my clothes," she said as she sat down right where she was.

"Well, we're not going to leave you alone here," Raine told her.

"I'll stay with her," Yuan told the others as he looked at Zelos who nodded to him signaling his approval. Kratos glared at Yuan who saw his look and understood what the threatening stare meant and he took it to heart.

"Well, I guess we'll be back then," Sheena said as the others walked off towards the temple.

About ten minutes went by before either Storm or Yuan decided to speak. It was a very awkward situation for the both of them, but finally the silence began to drive the two crazy.

"So, why did you decide to stay?" Storm asked Yuan, wondering what his real motive was for hanging around her.

"I was worried about you being by yourself besides I didn't really want to fight another monster," Yuan told her.

"I am quite capable of taking care of myself thank you very much," Storm said angrily. She had a feeling that Yuan was really staying around for something else and she wanted to know why. "So, why are you really here? You know damn well that I can defend myself just fine."

"Well, I wanted to talk to you," Yuan finally gave in. "You haven't been acting the same lately. You don't socialize with anyone anymore. It's like you're afraid of someone or something. It's like you're trying not to get too close to anyone," Yuan said.

"That's the problem, I'm already too close to them. If there's one thing that I haven't forgotten, it's how Lord Yggdrasil told me not to trust anyone too much, it only leads to pain. Maybe you should try that to, don't trust anyone," Storm told him. She figured that if she betrayed the group and he decided to kill her she could get out of the deal with Sutra and Mithos couldn't be revived. If she wasn't around, then there wasn't a reason why Anna would have to be held hostage, she'd be nothing to Sutra.

"Don't talk like that. You know better than to listen to what Mithos taught you. I thought you had gotten over all of this," Yuan said desperately.

"Some things can never be forgotten, and my childhood is one of those things. I would love to forget everything, but I can't I never will be able to," Storm told him.

"What is it that you're so afraid of!" Yuan finally yelled at her, tired of trying to beat around the bush.

"You wouldn't understand," Storm said stubbornly as she faced away from him. Yuan wouldn't take this as an answer as he grabbed her shoulders and faced her towards him to look at him. She struggled a little against his grasp but soon accepted it.

"I would if you just told me," Yuan replied. "Why don't you trust me anymore?" he asked her softly.

"It's not like that, I just don't want to hurt you," she explained to him as she looked away from him.

"Why would you hurt me. You're hurting me already by not telling me what's bothering you," Yuan shouted at her.

"I can't...," Storm whispered as a her eyes began to well up with tears.

Yuan then realized that he wouldn't be able to help her or find out what was wrong. She was too stubborn with this issue and she wasn't about to budge for anyone. He let her go as she moved away from him wanting to be alone for the rest of the day.

When the group arrived back from the temple Storm and Yuan came up to them to see how they had faired. Lloyd held up the shard and Storm's eyes gazed on the crystal, knowing that with it she was one step closer to rescuing her daughter. Yuan walked over to the side with Zelos to talk to him.

"Well, how did it go?" Zelos asked him impatiently.

"Not too well, she's as stubborn as ever. She's not going to tell anyone, but she's definitely being bothered by something. I tried as hard as I could," he told him.

"That's all right, she come around eventually," Zelos said confidently, but secretly he feared that Storm would never actually tell them what was wrong, that is until it was too late.

Meanwhile Storm was still talking with the others in the group. "So, what was the monster like this time?" she asked them, wanting to know exactly what she had missed out on.

Sheena and the others avoided eye contact with Storm for a few moments as they stared at each other nervously.

"Well...," Storm said, her patience beginning to run short.

"You see...there wasn't any monster there. We walked in, looked around for a while, found the crystal, picked it up, and left," Sheena explained to her, hoping that she wouldn't explode too badly.

"What! You mean that I go through all kinds of stuff to get these crystals and when I finally decide that I'm going to take one break, there's no monster. This is ridiculous!" Storm yelled.

The others laughed at her, but Yuan and Zelos knew that inside her outgoing, carefree mask Storm was actually depressed and suffering, they just wished that they knew of some way to help her.

Well, that's it for this chapter. Wow! This is a lot longer than I thought it was going to be! Anyway, I hope that you like this chapter. I think it shows a little bit more of the angst and the drama, which I wanted more than the action. The action should be back in the next chapter so hold on. It's the Shadow Temple next so get ready. Anyway, tell me what you thought, reviews are very important to me. I think that there will be about eight to nine shard total for those of you who were wondering. The score is currently Storm: 4 Sutra: 2 So, that means that there's two or three left depending on what I want to do. I don't know, maybe I'll get another idea and there will be more. Who knows, anyway please review and let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading!