Okay, it's time to update this story. I said this for my last story and now I will say it here. Where is everyone? I mean everyone. Hopefully I don't have to use names as examples. I haven't heard from some of you guys in awhile and I'm wondering if you're still alive out there, or maybe I did something that made you stop reading the story. Sorry if it stinks guys, but I'm really doing my best. Anyway, this chapter skips out now in the story because Storm and Zelos really don't have a lot of interaction between the last chapter and to where this chapter starts at. So, don't worry, you're not missing something that you wouldn't find in my first story or in the game. Lots of summing up in this chapter, if not for you guys then for me. Oh, and I'm gonna switch up the conversation a little. I hope you don't mind if it's not word for word the same as in my own story. It would be boring if it was, if that's what you wanna see then go and read the first story. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this.


Chapter 11: Confessions

So much had happened since the group had stopped the twisted mana tree. They had made their way to Derris Kharlan, were captured, and managed to escape from Cruxis all to help save Colette from a horrible fate. Her Cruxis Crystal caused her body to begin to crystalize and a cure was necessary to stop her. Unfortunately, it was exactly what Mithos wanted as the group was led closer and closer to Derris-Kharlan. Lloyd and the others collected all the necessary ingredients for the cure and brought them all to Derris Kharlan while getting their last item. They were captured as they prepared to cure Colette then use her body to revive Martel.

With Lloyd's determination though, the group managed to escape and even trick some of the angels in Welgagia to give them the last item they needed. Then all they had to do was go to Altessa's and he would cure her. Problems solved, right? Well, the others weren't planning on what would happen next.

Before long Yuan showed up at Altessa's and he had a very drugged up Storm with him, as well as a very worried and confused Kratos. Yuan brought Lloyd outside with him once he was sure that everyone else in the house was knocked out from some more drugs. With Kratos caught, and his two children in front of him Yuan spilled the biggest secret of them all. Lloyd and Storm soon discovered that they were brother and sister. Yuan ordered Kratos to give up his own life in order to save his children's.

Lloyd and Storm were both shocked by the discovery, but they didn't have to worry about their lives or Kratos'. Mithos soon entered the picture when he revealed to Lloyd that he was in fact also the Lord Yggdrasil that he had come to hate so much already. Altessa and Tabatha were hurt when Mithos unleashed his power on the group before leaving with Storm and Kratos in tow.

The group felt as if they had been sucked into a whirlwind and spit back out after the events over the past few days. Altessa's health was the most important concern at the time as the group rushed to Flanoir to find the best doctor there. Once they hired the doctor a few members of the group remained behind while the others accompanied the doctor back to Altessa's. Lloyd had stayed in Flanoir, but Zelos went back to Altessa's. He was afraid that he would be receiving a message from Cruxis after everything that had just happened. He didn't really want Lloyd to find out and he felt safest to go where everyone was more concerned with the doctor and Altessa to notice if he went missing for a little bit.

Just like Zelos had anticipated he soon received information that Storm would be arriving to discuss the plans for the next day with him. He agreed to meet her in the woods next to Altessa's home. He then wandered out while Raine, Presea, and Regal stayed behind to watch over the dwarf.

Zelos reached the woods as he sat on log that seemed to have been on the ground for quite a long time. He took a deep breath and sighed loudly as he looked into the dark forest.

"So this is going to be it then. I suppose tomorrow my time with this group will end, and my life will most likely end with it," Zelos thought to himself almost sadly as he looked down at the ground. After a few seconds he looked back up and saw Storm coming into the small area. She almost looked like she had been crying. Her eyes looked like they were welling up with tears. He wondered what happened to her. He knew that she wasn't one to cry, and he wasn't even sure if she could.

"Are you all right?" he asked her as she sat down next to him silently. She waved it off as she looked at him, trying to regain her composure.

"You probably know why I'm here," she said with her standard Cruxis voice, the emotionless voice that he knew was just a fake act that she put on when she was doing business.

"I suppose you want me to lead them to Derris Kharlan," he answered her with the same stoic attitude. Even though their voices were emotionless, they could both feel the depression in each other as they spoke.

"That's what Lord Yggdrasil wants," she added to his comment.

"I suppose after that little episode last night," Zelos said with a fake chuckle.

There was a long silence between the two of them. There was so much that each of them wanted to say to each other, but the masks that they wore wouldn't allow them to be themselves. Finally, Storm decided to go against her own good judgement and say something that had been bothering her.

"You know Zelos...you don't have to do this. You can still get away from it all," she told him. "You don't have to kill Lloyd and the others," she added, letting him understand how extreme the consequences of his actions could be.

"Yeah, I know, but this is what I want," Zelos told her. Storm seemed a little confused as to what he was talking about at first. He wanted to kill Lloyd? "I have to lose this Chosen title. It's made my entire life a joke, and it's made it a living hell," he clarified after seeing her confused expression.

"But you always seem so happy. You don't seem like you're life is all that bad," Storm told him. She was trying to find anything that would convince him to change his mind.

"That's not who I really am. This is who I really am, right here with you now. I'm only popular because of my title and I let my life become revolved around that after..." Zelos said, but he cut out at the end. Something that he was going to say apparently caused him a lot of pain.

"You let yourself become popular because of your title because you never showed anyone who you really are. What happened?" she asked him as she stared at him trying to dig into his very soul.

"It happened when I was little. There was a day with red snow," he said quietly. Storm cocked her head at his response.

"Red snow?" she asked curiously, urging him to continue.

Zelos looked at her and realized that he had no way out of finally revealing his story. The only other person who knew it completely was his butler at his mansion and maybe Seles, but he figured he could tell Storm. After all, she was the only person that had cared about him enough to even discover that there was a story to tell.

It was the first snow that the young nine year old Zelos had ever seen. The entire ground was covered with the white, sparkling snow. Zelos was in awe at the sight of his village completely covered, so he miraculously managed to convince his mother to go outside with him in the snow.

Once they got outside, Zelos decided to make a snowman, his first. Once the snowman was completed Zelos stood back to admire his piece of artwork. Unfortunately, when he looked back he noticed that his snowman wasn't exactly a masterpiece. It was actually pretty ugly and was even pretty out of proportion. Oh well, he could live with the fact that his snowman was unique.

Suddenly, there were red spots all over Zelos' snowman. Zelos thought the snowman was ugly, but he had liked it. He was upset that someone would splatter red all over the snowman he had spent so much time on. He turned around to find who ruined his creation. When he turned around he saw something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

There behind him was the source of the red spots, his mother. She was killed, and before she died she managed to tell Zelos the one thing that was on her mind...

"Zelos, you never should have been born..."

"Zelos..." Storm said softly as she gently placed her hand on his shoulder. She had never known that he had such a horrible past. To have a parent tell you that you shouldn't have been born was as bad or even worse than the torture that she had gone through. No wonder he was so depressed all the time. She then understood why he always acted like a pervert, he wanted to keep the world away from him and keep himself from getting close to anyone. He was afraid of being hated by the world, so he found a personality the world really liked and he stuck to it.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you that," he said as he looked at her sadly.

"I know how losing a parent feels although I was too young to remember her too well. I still wish she was around though, she would know what I should do," Storm told him as she looked down at the ground again before she stared up at the stars through the holes between the trees. "I used to think that my brother was dead too, but last night came as a shock. Of course, that only made things worse," she said. Zelos could see that when she mentioned Lloyd she got the same look on her face that she had come with.

"That must have been rough for you last night. First you find out about Lloyd, but then that also revealed what happened to your mother," he said to her.

Storm drew her attention back to Zelos in surprise that he had remembered that she didn't really know anything about what had happened to her mother. She looked down at her hands, trying to find something comforting to look at.

"Yeah, I never really knew what happened to Mom, but when I found about what Dad did...I wasn't mad at him, he had no other choice...I wish he would have told me about her and Lloyd," she said sadly.

"You know, I think that you'll be just fine Storm," Zelos told her as he touched her hands, making her look back up at him.

"What are you talking about?" she asked him curiously. He was always so confusing to her.

"I think that you're going to make it out of all of this just fine. I just run from everything. I'm not even strong enough to have a normal life. I want to be normal and maybe...have a family someday," he told her. At this point he knew his dream was impossible, but it was a dream.

"You...a family?" she asked him in complete and utter shock.

"Yeah, why not?" Zelos as he thought about it seriously. He couldn't help but glance at the look Storm was giving him and chuckle a little. He played with her a little by putting his hand on his chin as he pretended to seriously think about it.

"Well...I guess I just never really pictured you the type," she replied honestly.

He looked to her as she caught gazes with him. He smiled at her softly before he chuckled a little at her answer. "I told you, I'm not always how I appear," he said.

"No...no you're not," she said softly as she stared at him a little longer. "So, I suppose that you won't consider going against Yggdrasil?" she asked him before looking back to where Altessa's house was.

"Probably not. It's not like I have anything going for me anyway. My parents hated me and I have no one else who cares about me," he told her as he shared her gaze to where the house was.

Storm looked at him angrily. "There are people here who care about you," she yelled at him, trying to remind him of all the people in the group who considered him a friend. Surprisingly enough, he had managed to make friends with Sheena even.

"What does it matter? They'll all hate me soon enough too," he told her, he didn't even bother to look at her as he answered her. What he didn't realize was how close Storm was getting to him. He finally looked over at her and saw that she was merely inches from him. She had a sad and concerned look on her face that he had never seen before.

"Tell me that you'll at least think about what I said," she told him as she put her hand to his cheek gently. She was so close to him that he could feel her breath on his lips. He knew that he wouldn't consider her request. He had already made up his mind about Cruxis and his fate and he remained silent.

Storm was able to read his answer in his actions as she pulled back from him before standing up. She realized what her emotions had almost gotten her into. She almost kissed him, but then she soon realized that he hadn't tried to kiss her. There was something there between the two of them, but she wasn't able to talk him out of his decision.

"I suppose this is where we part ways," she told him with her back to him. She didn't want him to see what his decision was doing to him, after all, it was his choice.

"Yeah," he said as he stood up. "Good bye Storm," he told her as he walked back towards Altessa's.

Storm turned back around as she watched him walk away from her. "Zelos..." she whispered into the night before she pulled out her wings to return to Derris Kharlan.

"Damn him," she thought as she flew back.


Well, that's it for this chapter. I hope that it was good enough. I really enjoyed kinda rewriting that chapter. It was a little different than the version in my first story, but I think I got the emotions better this time. The plot and most of the lines were the same, but I took some stuff out and added a lot more emotion into it. I like it, it was fun. Well, tell me what you think, especially all of you who haven't reviewed in forever and those of you who've never reviewed before. I do take anonymous reviews too you know! Thanks and review please!