Okay, it's time for the next chapter. Hopefully this will be a good chapter, but it's up to you guys to judge that for me. Anyway, this should be the last pure angst chapter. After this, the real plot begins when we find out about Mithos' plans. Well, enjoy!

Chapter 6: Total Control

"Here we go," Zelos cried as he unsheathed his sword and rushed into the battle as the large group of Desians began to charge at the group.

"Brace yourselves," Kratos warned the others as he unsheathed his own sword and held it high, ready to bring down any enemy that took him on.

Yuan and Lloyd prepared themselves for the battle as they followed Zelos and Kratos onto the battlefield. Yuan took on two Desians, one on either side of him. He had out his giant Double Saber as he prepared for one of them to make a move. Suddenly, one grew tired of his waiting game and decided to rush him. The soldier on the other side decided to take the opportunity to make his move as well while Yuan was distracted by the other one. Unfortunately for the two of them, Yuan was ready for both of the soldiers, swinging his saber around in a large circle, slicing through both of them. He then pulled it up and swung it down hard on a third soldier that tried to throw him off guard.

"Lightning Blade!" Yuan called as his saber made contact with the unfortunate soldier, throwing him back across the field. He landed a few feet away, knocked completely unconscious from the attack. Yuan went to help some of the others in the battle.

Lloyd was doing fairly well with the small group that he was taking on. He ran up to one soldier and used his Sword Rain attack multiple times until the soldier finally gave in and fell over. Suddenly, Lloyd felt a sharp pain in his arm. He looked at his arm and saw that it had been sliced open while he was distracted with another soldier. He looked behind him and found the culprit. He flew at the soldier and used his Beast attack, followed by his tempest attack, knocking the soldier off his feet. Lloyd saw someone coming at him from behind, but as their sword flew down to come in contact with Lloyd's back Lloyd launched his defense.

"Guardian!" he yelled as the soldier's sword was deflected by a barrier of mana. Lloyd smirked at the look on the soldier's face as he spun around quickly and attacked him with his Double Demon Fang, ending their short battle. Once he was through with this soldier he turned his attention back to the soldier he had knocked over and pointed his sword at his throat. Lloyd stared him in the eyes and saw the fear written all over it. Lloyd understood what he was going through and he decided to do the soldier a favor.

"Get out now while you still can," Lloyd growled at him as he pointed an exit out to the soldier with his sword.

"W...what?" the soldier stammered.

"Just be glad that I'm doing you this favor and get out of my sight before I change my mind," Lloyd ordered him.

The soldier wasted no time in getting as far from the battle as he could. He ran away from the area, not even going back to the Renegade base. It was obvious that he had changed his mind about the Desians and about Cruxis.

Zelos was so angry about letting Storm get into trouble that he decided that he could take it out on these Desians. He wasn't about to let them get away with stealing her away from him. He wanted to get rid of these pawns and make his way to Yggdrasil himself. He was going to save her, she was alive no matter what anyone said. Zelos jumped into the air and flew down with his Hell Pyre attack, slamming a Desian into the ground, causing a large crater to form where he was lodged. Two soldiers came at him at once, but Zelos was ready for them as he prepared his next attack. Once they were close enough Zelos let loose his attack.

"Eruption!" he cried as an explosion was created all around him, sending both of the soldiers flying. Zelos looked around for any other soldiers that he could defeat. He wanted to get this battle over with as soon as possible.

Kratos was dealing with about three soldiers at the same time and he was getting pretty tired of them. He decided it was time to end the back and forth battle so he signaled to Yuan to buy him some time. Yuan ran over and began to battle with the soldiers, more starting to appear when Zelos and Lloyd both came over to help as well. Finally, Kratos began to finish his incantation.

"Sacred powers, cast thy purifying light upon these corrupted souls. Beware sinners! Judgement!" he called as the sky grew dark and rays of light began to pour down from the heavens. These lights managed to hit the remainder of the soldiers as the guys were left with an empty field.

Just as they were about to continue on Kratos was suddenly hit by an arrow in the shoulder. The others looked to Kratos who was pulling out the arrow. He looked at it as he held his wound with his other hand. Everyone looked to where the arrow came from and saw Sutra standing across the field with a small group of angels behind her, ready for round two.

"This is it Storm. This is the last person who wants to speak with you. I know that you've already seen quite a bit today, but believe me it will all be worth it in the end. You'll see that you don't need any of them anyway. This will only make you stronger," he told her in his most soothing voice. To Storm his voice didn't even belong to Yggdrasil. To Storm it was her own mind, her own thoughts that she was hearing. She was beginning to become disconnected with the outside world.

Storm was seated in another chair as they waited for the last speaker to come. Finally, Storm saw someone that made her blood boil, that made a chill run up and down her spine. It was someone she hated worse than Yggdrasil, someone she'd hated before she'd even met them. She saw Pronyma, and Pronyma looked ready to dish out some punishment. But what Storm didn't see was that Mithos had actually placed a Desian soldier behind this image of Pronyma. Storm was actually confusing a soldier for Pronyma, thanks to the Derris Emblem. Mithos knew that Storm would most likely snap with this visitor so he needed a solid body to take whatever she would dish out. If he didn't then she would realize that everything had been fake.

"Pronyma...," Storm growled at her enemy. "I thought you were dead," she added.

"Well, what can I say? No matter how hard you try I just keep coming back. You should just stop already," she told her.

..tell her how you feel about her. It won't be that hard. Tell her how horrible she's made everything for you. All the pain she's caused, tell her how you really feel...

Storm tried to contain herself. She wanted so badly to let Pronyma know exactly how she felt about her, but at the same time she knew that something was wrong with her and that she shouldn't give in to what she was thinking. All of the anger she was feeling, she could tell that it was taking over. She couldn't let that happen, but she felt like she was losing.

"What? Too sad to tell me what you're thinking maggot? Now that you're pathetic family is gone you're too upset to let me know all about it, huh? Well, I say that they're all better off without you anyway. Of course, they're all just worthless human, they're not even worth being upset over," Pronyma mocked.

That was the breaking point for Storm. She could stand people putting her down, but she wouldn't stand for anyone putting down her family. She stood up quickly and got right into Pronyma's face as the world around her began to fade again. She could feel herself slipping to the increasing darkness. It was overwhelming her as she felt her body take control. She could feel her mouth moving and knew that she was talking, no yelling, but she couldn't hear anything. Soon, she was surrounded by the darkness, it was almost drowning her to the point where she couldn't comprehend anything going on around her and she couldn't wake up from it, she couldn't find the light. She knew that she had let herself lose to her own darkness.

"You have no idea what you've done to me Pronyma! You've made my life a living hell and then you come back and mock me and my family. I won't have it. I'm going to send you straight to hell and make sure that you never see the light of day again!" Storm yelled as she launched herself at Pronyma, or rather the Desian guard who was put in her place. She slammed her to the ground and gripped her by the throat. She then used an Outburst attack, forcing her deeper into the floor without letting go of her grip. She then used another Outburst attack, then another. She picked her up from the floor by her throat and without even a thought threw her into the nearest wall. The soldier crumpled to the floor as Yggdrasil walked over to her and found that Storm had actually killed the poor girl.

He looked Storm in the eyes and realized that he had completed his goal. Storm's rage was in complete control of her body, but with his voice being her guidance, he was really in control.

...good work. Now we have some people we need to find and take care of Storm...

"More fighting? I thought we were done. We need to get to Storm, I'm worried about her," Zelos complained when he saw Sutra and her little army.

Sutra saw the look on the men's faces as she thought about what Storm was going through back on Derris-Kharlan. These people weren't trying to hurt the half-elves or even the Desians. They were trying to get back someone they loved, and Sutra could understand how that felt. She understood then what she needed to do.

"You really want to get Storm back?" she asked them.

"Yes, and we'll do what we must to get there," Kratos responded as he raised his sword as a threat to anyone willing to take him on.

"I know where she is and how to get there. I can help you," Sutra told them.

"Why would we believe you? Why would you want to help us? You're the one that got us all into this mess in the first place," Lloyd accused her.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I understand now why you all got rid of Mithos in the first place. He's not as great as he was supposed to be and he's not going to do anything to help the half-elves. I feel so horrible for what's been happening to Storm and I want to help you rescue her," Sutra replied.

"Well, even if that's all true, how do we know that we can trust you?" Yuan asked her.

"There's nothing I can say here that will make you trust me, but I hope you will take my word for it," Sutra replied.

"I say that we let her come along," Lloyd spoke up after a few minutes.

"Lloyd, you've been betrayed by so many people and yet you still are willing to allow someone untrustworthy to join our team. How do you manage to do that?" Kratos asked his son.

"I can tell that she's telling the truth. I don't know how, but I can. Besides, deep down I always trusted everyone who's betrayed me and they've all been proven to be trustworthy. I gave a lot of people second chances, so why not Sutra?" he asked.

Kratos couldn't fight that. Lloyd had given Zelos, Storm, and him second chances to gain his trust after they all betrayed him. He looked at his son and realized that either he was really one of the wisest people he'd ever known or the most gullible. Kratos nodded his head as he looked over at Sutra who realized that she was going to be allowed to join.

"What about the angels? They don't look like they want to join our group," Zelos pointed out as they looked at the group and saw that they were starting to come towards them without any command from Sutra.

One of the angels was about to attack Yuan when an arrow flew through it's chest, killing it on contact. It dropped to the ground with a thud and the battle began.

Well, that's it for this chapter. I really hope you liked it. It's time now that we find out about Mithos' real plans. But, that's the next chapter. Well, till next time. Please review and tell me what you thought. Thanks!