Kayne looked hopefully at the two young, skilled fighters in front of him, hoping desperately for their assistance to aid him the war his world was currently waging with theirs.

Lloyd and Colette looked very uncomfortable with the situation. Both of them wanted to help, but at the same time they didn't want to help. If Kayne's army won, then what would become of their own world? Would it be thrown into chaos and death like it was before their journey of regeneration?

The two teenagers kept casting quick glances at each other, seeing if the other had any idea what they should do or what they should tell Kayne. Colette became very nervous when it became apparent Lloyd had made a decision.

Lloyd looked down at the floor and closed his eyes, then shook his head. Out of his mouth came the words, "I'm sorry."

Kayne looked very upset and disappointed with Lloyd's answer, but still kept his eyes on the swordsman. A few seconds later, Lloyd looked up.

"We can't help you, Kayne," Lloyd said

"But Lloyd…" Colette whined, "what about all those innocent people on Tiberia? I don't want them to die if Kayne loses the war!"

"I don't want them to die either," Lloyd said. "But these guys are fighting our world! What will happen if we lose? I don't want all our hard work over the past few months to go to waste if we help this guy out."

Kayne looked like he wanted to say something, but Lloyd started speaking again before Kayne could.

"Besides Colette, we have our own path to follow, remember? We were supposed to be collecting exspheres and destroying them."

"But Lloyd, these guys saved us!" Colette insisted. "Don't you think we should at least do something to thank them for getting us off that island?"

"I do, but what can we do?"

"You could always keep an eye out for Stromm or any of his men," Kayne suggested.

"It looks like that's the only thing we can do," Lloyd input. "Sorry, Kayne."

"It's all right," Kayne said, trying to take the disappointment of Lloyd and Colette not allying with him as well as he could.

There was a short but awkward silence that followed. Stromm's ship had apparently gone away after someone spotted something in the distance in the water, so everyone on board was now calming down a little.

"Can you take us to the mainland?" Lloyd requested after a disturbingly long silence.

Kayne quickly nodded his head and walked away into the front of ship where the captain was driving it. He said that they're "guests" requested to go back to the mainland, and it looked like the captain agreed to it.

Instantly, everyone felt the boat turn around and head its way back towards land. In just a few minutes, the ship had docked on a beach and Lloyd and Colette were allowed to get off.

"Remember," Kayne said to Lloyd and Colette as they hopped off the war ship, "if you have any information on Stromm or his plans, come find us immediately!"

"We will," Lloyd promised. "And thanks again for rescuing us."

Kayne didn't reply by doing anything except walking back inside the ship. Slowly, the ship started floating backwards and into deeper parts of the water, and then it started to drive off. The entire time, Lloyd and Colette just stared at it as it disappeared into the horizon.

After the ship was out of sight, Lloyd and Colette looked at each other, then looked around them to see where they were.

"…where do we go now?" Colette asked.

"Well, I think it's best that we start looking around," Lloyd suggested. "What do you think?"

"Oh…okay," Colette agreed without much trouble.

The two started hiking and looked for any familiar landmarks or places that would give them an indication where they were. After walking for a while, Lloyd saw something that jolted something in his mind.

"Colette!" he yelled, "look!"

Colette looked ahead of them and saw what looked like a huge desert in front of them. She started screaming out in panic, "Lloyd! I think I'm having those hallucinations when people are about to die from lack of food and water, because I only see sand in front of us!"

"You stupid dork," Lloyd said with a small smile, "that is what I'm pointing to. Don't you know what that is?"

"Uh…"

"Colette, have you really forgotten? That's the Triet Desert, and you know what that means, don't you?"

"…no."

Lloyd looked like he was starting to get frustrated by Colette not knowing what he was getting at. "It means we must be close to Iselia!"

"Really?" Colette asked, excitedly clasping her hands together. "Can we go there?"

"Of course," Lloyd said with a pleasant look. "It'll be good seeing that town again after all these months, don't you think?"

"Yeah! Come on, let's go Lloyd!"

The two of them trudged their way through the desert, trying their best not to let the extreme heat get to them. They had to fight a few monsters as they passed through, but it was nothing that they couldn't handle.

They passed through the city of Triet and stopped to rest there for a while before they recovered their strength and headed out again. Another thing they passed as they approached the end of the desert were the remains of the fire seal, the first seal Colette broke on her journey to receive the power of angel wings. Just when they thought they saw the last thing that there was to see in the desert, Lloyd spotted a giant building with a fortified entrance.

"Hey Colette, you remember that place?" Lloyd asked, pointing to it.

"Yeah! That's the base where Yuan and Botta were!" Colette said excitedly as the memories came rushing back to her.

Colette seemed to be thrilled about recalling her first trip to the base, but Lloyd thought otherwise. He remembered his first encounter with Yuan there with a rather bitter talk between the two of them. Then a question popped in Lloyd's mind: what was Yuan doing now? Was he on Derris Kharlan with the other angels of Cruxis?

They finally made their way out of the desert and were only a short walk from Iselia now. Lloyd knew the way back very well, and he led Colette back to their home. (Although Colette didn't really forget the way back, either)

In no time, the two of them were back at the entry way to the place they called their home: the Town of Oracles: Iselia.

Lloyd and Colette walked in, hoping to have the memories stream back. But it was hard, because the two of them were in complete awe about what was around them. Iselia looked like a completely different town from when they last left it.

When the two went on their journey to rid the world of exspheres, the town still looked burnt and ruined from when the Desians attacked. There were burnt down houses and charred remains of them all over the place when they left. Now, the town looked as good as new with rebuilt buildings, and even some new ones.

"Wow!" Colette said excitedly looking at the new and improved town in front of them. "Maybe the mayor decided to do something nice for a change!"

"Please, don't remind me of that jerk," Lloyd coldly said. "If that mayor gives anyone ANY garbage, I'm gonna punch him in the face."

"Lloyd, that won't help," Colette said. She then let out a loud yawn. "Wow, I feel so tired. Can we rest somewhere?"

"You know, I could go for some rest too," Lloyd said. "Would your dad let us rest at your place?"

"Oh!" Colette said happily, looking behind both of them. "It looks like they've even built an inn here! We could stay there!"

Lloyd turned around and was surprised to see that Colette was actually right. He never thought that Iselia would ever feel the need to put somewhere to rest for the night there, but apparently, they did.

The two walked into the inn and shelled out as much money as they needed to in order to spend the night. They quietly went to sleep, trying to recover their strength after the long day they had.

When morning finally came, they walked out of the inn and walked outside, breathing in the fresh morning air. Iselia looked so much more beautiful and peaceful that it was hard to believe it was a pile of smoldering ash just a while ago. The grass was green and the sky looked a dazzling and beautiful shade of blue. The entire place looked more peaceful than it did before Colette received the Oracle on that day, all those months ago.

"Where are we going to go now?" Colette asked.

"I wanted to stop in and say hi to dad," Lloyd said. "I mean…not my real dad, but…"

"It's okay Lloyd, I understand," Colette cheerfully replied. "I'm fine with seeing Dirk."

Lloyd quickly nodded his head, then the two left Iselia through the back entrance. They followed the trail through the woods where Forcystus's ranch used to be and left out the back way. There, sitting on top a sturdy foundation of bedrock was a small hut where Lloyd's foster father lived.

The two crossed the bridge that had a stream drifting peacefully beneath it and headed towards the small example of a home. But just as they were about to walk in, Lloyd suddenly stopped. Confused, Colette stopped and turned around. "Lloyd? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Lloyd said, turning away and walking to the side of the house. "I just want to see something. You can go inside."

Colette slowly walked into Dirk's house. After Lloyd saw her go in, he turned away again and walked behind the house. There he saw a pile of dirt, and forced into it was a slab of rock that resembled a tombstone. Lloyd slowly walked over to it with sorrow filling up his face.

"Well mom, I'm home," Lloyd said in a low and sympathetic tone. When he was only a step in front of the grave, he knelt down on one knee and stared right at the stone. It was a small memorial to dedicate to Lloyd's mother, Anna. Lloyd considered himself lucky he had no recollection of his mom dying, and especially happy that he didn't remember his father, Kratos, being the one to do it…

After staring at the stone for a while, Lloyd got up and walked to the front of Dirk's house and stepped inside. He was greeted by a short but strong man with a long bushy beard.

"Welcome back," said the man in his dwarven accent. It was Dirk, the one who took Lloyd in and raised him.

"Hi dad," Lloyd said in a non-caring tone as he spotted Colette in a corner.

"How's your journey going?" Dirk asked in his odd-sounding accent.

"So far, it's going pretty good," Lloyd said in a slightly optimistic tone. "Colette and I have been to four cities and located all the exspheres in them."

"I'm proud of you, son," Dirk said as Lloyd told him his story.

"Thanks," Lloyd said, pretending to be scratching the back of his head.

There was a bit of an awkward silence, and for half a minute, no one said anything. Lloyd turned his attention towards Colette sitting in a corner of the house and said, "Well, I think it's time we go on our way."

"Hold on a minute," Dirk said, stopping Lloyd in his tracks. "There's somebody here who wants to see you."

"Really? Who?" Lloyd asked, curiously.

Dirk looked up at the stairs and into the room where Lloyd used to sleep when he lived there. Instantly, footsteps were heard walking down the stairs. They creaked as whoever was on them came down, slowly but surely.

Thoughts were racing through Lloyd's mind. He didn't know who could be waiting for him at his old house, considering all of his companions from the journey (except for Colette) were far away from him now and had their own matters to tend to.

When the person was all the way down the stairs, Lloyd looked into the person's eyes with complete surprise. Lloyd choked on his breath and couldn't bring himself to say a thing when he saw who his surprise visitor was.