All right, it's time to update the story. I know that there's not that much suspense because you all know that she lives because the story takes place in the past. The important thing is that this is what brings them together, right? He thinks that she could die, and she probably could have. Anyway, glad that you're still enjoying this and I hope it's answering some of the questions you had before I started this. Here you go!


Chapter 6: Bruised

Yuan rushed into the camp with Storm limp in his arms. The rest of the troops would hopefully be back soon, and Magnius would most likely escape. Yuan didn't really care at the moment, all of his attention was to Storm. He was careful not to move any of the arrows in her back, afraid that if he did she would bleed more than she already was. The large gash in her back was bleeding pretty badly and Yuan could feel that it was soaking through his own clothing.

He ran to the one of the infirmary tents and called someone from his medical staff. Yuan had been using some of his healing techniques on Storm as he carried her to the camp, but he was never really great at the healing arts. That was always Martel and Mithos' speciality. Kratos had learned how to use it a little as well when he used the Aionis when he joined Cruxis, but Yuan didn't have any exceptional, nature talents with healing. He really wished that he did as he saw the injured Storm in his arms. There wasn't much he could do but bring her back to camp and pray that she would be okay.

"She's been injured really badly and she needs help right away," Yuan told one of the nurses frantically. They took a quick look at her and saw that she was indeed in a great deal of danger.

"Bring her inside," they told him as Yuan walked into one of the tents with Storm in his arms. They put a blanket down and had him place her on her stomach on it. She was completely unconscious and didn't make a sound as he placed her on the blanket. Two of the workers looked at their leader as he stared down at Storm.

"You'll have to leave while we work on her. We'll let you know when we're done," they told him. Yuan looked up at them in surprise before nodding as he allowed them the room to work as he stepped outside.

Yuan didn't stray too far as he sat down outside of the tent as he waited anxiously to hear about her condition. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her. He knew that Magnius wanted to kill her off more than anyone, except Lloyd, and that he distracted everyone else so he could get a clean shot at her. With his archers ready, there was no way that Storm could have possibly beaten him.

"Sir?" one of his soldiers asked him as Yuan snapped out of thought and looked up. Most of the troops were coming back, a lot of them needing their own medical treatment. It was a good thing he brought along a lot of medical officers. Yuan looked at the man and realized that he was looking at him strangely.

"What's wrong?" Yuan asked him questioningly.

"Are you all right sir, you're bleeding," the soldier pointed out. Yuan looked down and saw the blood that was soaked all over the front of his shirt and armor. It only made him remember Storm's condition even more as he looked at her blood all over him.

"I'm completely fine, you should be more worried about Storm. What happened back there?" Yuan told him before attempting to switch subjects.

"He escaped for now. We don't know where he went to, but we can find him," the soldier informed him. Yuan nodded before the soldier began to walk back towards the others. He stopped short before turning around slightly.

"We'll all pray for Storm," he said quietly before returning to the others.

Yuan sighed loudly as he went back to sit down across from the tent while he waited. He knew he was worried about Storm and he had a right to be. After all, she could have died then and there, and there was still a possibility that she wouldn't make it. There was something about the feelings he was having that made it different than if he was worried for someone else's safety. He pushed aside those feelings, blaming it on the fact that he had watched her grow up for so long that he couldn't picture her not being around. There wasn't anything else to it.

Finally, after a few hours, one of the doctors came out of the tent. He looked exhausted as he looked to Yuan. Yuan saw him come out and jumped to his feet to find out how she was.

"How did it go? Is she going to be all right?" Yuan asked him, anxiously awaiting the news.

"She should be okay, but she needs her rest for awhile. She still hasn't woken up, and when she does she'll probably be pretty sore. She lost quite a bit of blood so it'll be awhile before she's up again. Besides, we want to make sure her wounds heal and that she doesn't get anything infected. So, there will be no fighting or traveling for awhile for her," the doctor told him. He knew how his leader was and figured that he would want to leave her there while they went and searched for Magnius.

"Well, then I suppose we let her rest. We'll look for Magnius when she's well again," Yuan told him. This shocked the doctor, but relieved him that someone other than his nurses would be around to care for her.

"Very well sir," the doctor said as he went off to the next place to help one of the other soldiers that had been wounded in battle. Yuan stopped him before he left though.

"Can I go in and see her?" he asked him cautiously.

"Yes, but like I said she's not awake yet," the doctor told him before he continued on his way.

Yuan walked into the tent slowly to see how she was doing. There were two female nurses inside cleaning up around the tent from after the procedure. There were three arrows sitting on the floor not too far from where Storm was. He couldn't believe that she had been hit by three of the four archer's arrows, then there was the slice in her back from Magnius.

Yuan looked down at Storm's sleeping form. She was still on her stomach and she was bandaged from under her arms down to her waist. He could see that her bandages were becoming soaked from blood and he knew that the nurses would have to change them soon. He knew that they wouldn't let him inside when they did that so he knew his time was short.

"I'm sorry Storm..." Yuan said quietly as he looked down at her. He wished that he could have done more to keep it from happening to her, but he could only make it up to her at this point.


Yuan was watching Storm again. It had been two days since the battle and he wondered if she would be waking up soon. He sat next to her whenever he wasn't working with some of the other soldiers. He really wanted to make sure that she actually did wake up. He had been waiting there awhile that day and was getting ready to go back to his own tent for awhile when suddenly he heard a soft moan.

Yuan's head snapped up at the noise and he looked over at Storm, whose face was away from him. He wasn't sure if he had actually heard the noise or not, but soon saw that her arms moved shakily next to her.


Storm opened her eyes slowly as she tried to figure out where she was and what had happened. As soon as she opened her eyes she felt a small amount of pain flowing through her back. It was then that she remembered what had happened, and she realized that she had managed to survive it all. The last thing she remembered was being carried by Yuan before she blacked out. She tried to sit up as she placed her hands next to her attempting to lift herself up. Her arms were pretty shaky as she pushed up weakly. It was then that she felt the pain rip up and down her back. She flinched and whimpered a little at the unexpected surge of pain before she set herself back down.

"Try not to move, you'll hurt yourself worse," Yuan told her in a voice that she wasn't too used to. He sounded like he was concerned about her. She didn't want his sympathy and she didn't want to be immobile at all. She attempted to get up once again, but failed at it once again.

"I told you not to move. You're so stubborn, can't you tell that you need to rest," Yuan yelled at her. He was past concern and worry and had moved on to irritated and upset.

"I'm fine, I've been through worse," she said stubbornly as she managed to move herself so she could at least look at him. She glared at him angrily, not wanting to be told what to do.

"I really doubt that you've ever been injured this badly. Why don't you just listen and rest?" he asked her angrily.

"I have been through worse, but you wouldn't understand that anyway," she told him. "I don't need sympathy and I don't need everyone sitting around waiting for me to get better," Storm said as she managed to push herself through the pain as she sat up. She could barely hold herself in a sitting position, but was too stubborn to let him know that. "I'm fine, see?" she said as she winced a little.

"Oh yeah, you're completely back to normal," Yuan said sarcastically. "Lay back down and get your rest. You can barely sit up," he yelled at her in as much of a stubborn tone as she had given him.

She growled a little under her breath as she slowly eased herself back to the ground. She sighed loudly as she pulled her blanket closer to her head and turned away from him again.

"Fine, are you happy?" she spat at him angrily.

"I am," he answered her. He looked at her in silence for a few moments before he asked the question that she had brought to his mind. "When were you ever injured badly?" he asked her.

"You can't tell me that you never saw what they did to me?" she asked him. It was rough for her to admit these kind of things to people, but she knew that she could trust Yuan. He had saved her life and she had known him almost her entire life. He deserved to know.

"What who did to you?" he asked, obviously confused by her question.

"Pronyma and Mithos. The way they always taught me when I was little. Believe me, I think I'll make it through this. I've been beaten pretty badly and never had any medical attention. Occasionally Mithos would use some healing on me just to keep me alive, but I usually had to move through it all," she said sadly, still facing away from him. She didn't want him to see her face. "Of course, I've never been shot by that many arrows before," she said giving a small, fake chuckle.

"Why didn't you ever tell me or your father?" he asked her sadly as he looked down at her.

"Why would I? There was nothing I could do, and most of the time it was for things I deserved," she told him.

"There is nothing that you could have done that would make you deserve something like that!" Yuan yelled at her, completely shocked that she would ever believe such lies. There was nothing that someone could do to deserve such torture, especially not a child.

"I'm sorry that I brought it up," Storm said softly. "I shouldn't have said anything, forgive me," she said.

"Why are you apologizing?" he asked her. "I wasn't mad at you, I'm upset with Mithos. He thought that he could do something like that to you. I suppose it was to get rid of your emotions. I should be apologizing Storm, I never saw it and tried to stop it," he told her.

"I'll be fine," she said in almost a whisper. She didn't want him to see how the tears were welling up in her eyes. No one had ever said anything like that to her before, not even Zelos.

After a few moments of silent after her statement, Yuan decided to leave her alone. "I'll come by later and check up on you," he told her.

"Thank you Yuan," Storm said quietly before she heard him leave.

Yuan walked through the camp, still upset with what Storm had told him. He couldn't believe that both he and Kratos had missed the fact that she was being tortured and beaten on a daily basis in Cruxis. She was bruised and battered in more than one way now. He felt so useless at that moment. There wasn't much he could do for her either way.


Well, that's the end of this chapter. Wow, it's longer than I thought it would be. I hope it was good. So, yes, there will be more talking, angst, romance stuff in the following chapters, but the action will be back before the story's over. Anyway, tell me what you thought and review! Thanks!