Hi everyone. I just want to continue thanking Leppers and Christoph for reviewing this story. As you guys know, reviews mean a lot to me and they keep me going, especially when writing a story like this one. However, I think there's something you guys should know. Tomorrow I'm going to Florida, and I'm going to be there for about a week. That means that a week is going to go by without an update for this story. Just thought you guys should know.

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Lloyd and Kratos didn't know what to do. Cesara, their only ally in Tiberia, had just been kidnapped by Kayne. The father-son duo wanted nothing more than to charge after Kayne and beat him to a bloody pulp, but now that he was threatening Cesara's life, they didn't think going after Kayne would be the smartest move.

"Dammit!" Lloyd said when Kayne was out of earshot. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

"We cannot risk her life," Kratos calmly stated. "I think we should just look around to see if the crystal is here and hope for the best."

"But Kratos, we can't just leave Cesara to die at Kayne's hands."

"Lloyd, we need to find the crystal," Kratos persisted. "That's our main objective right now. If Cesara's life is sacrificed when trying to obtain, then that would be unfortunate indeed. However, we need to set our sights on what we're really trying to save."

Lloyd thought Kratos was sounding a bit colder and more determined than normal. And there was something in his voice that made him sound more obsessed with finding the crystal. Why didn't he have this kind of enthusiasm before?

"Fine," Lloyd said. "But I don't think we should head after Cesara right now. Kayne's probably still expecting an attack from us and he's probably still on his guards."

"For once Lloyd, I think you said something smart," Kratos said as he crossed his arms.

Lloyd immediately started looking defensive. "What do you mean 'for once'!"

Without answering, Kratos walked out of the room and down the long hall. (leaving Lloyd rather ticked off for not getting an answer)

In a matter of minutes, Lloyd and Kratos were out of the headquarters and were outside on Tiberia's streets again. Both of them looked around as they silently started thinking about what they should do next.

"What now?" Lloyd asked.

"I presume we should spend the night somewhere where we won't be seen," Kratos deduced in a reasonable tone.

"Like where?" Lloyd asked.

Kratos turned away from his son. "Probably somewhere on the outskirts of town, like a campsite or something like that."

"Uh…all right," Lloyd said, not sure he knew why Kratos was suggesting somewhere like that.

Kratos started walking away from Lloyd and looked through the entire town, hoping to find an exit to the town. It took the two quite a while as they pushed themselves through the town and often times wound up going in circles.

After the longest time, Lloyd and Kratos found their way out of the fairly large Tiberian town and saw that right in front of them was a large field of lush, green grass. The entire place looked beautiful and seemed like an ideal place to relax.

"I can't even imagine Stromm wanting to destroy a world like this," Lloyd said, entranced by how peaceful the entire place looked.

"Lloyd, we can't worry about that now. Stromm is dead and there is nothing we can do about that," Kratos reminded.

The day slowly wasted away. The sun went down, and the sky in Tiberia was soon thrown into night. There were stars in the sky, and being in an open field just made the entire scene look much nicer.

Lloyd and Kratos were going to sleep out in the field that night. They had gathered some wood and Kratos used some of his magic to ignite it, creating a small fire that would keep them warm when the daytime air died down.

As the day came to its close and the stars started filling up the sky, Lloyd and Kratos both were lying on their backs and just staring up at them. Kratos's fascination with the stars seemed to have rubbed off on Lloyd, because Lloyd looked like he was looking for some sort of message within them.

Kratos seemed to be grunting for a while, and Lloyd was getting pretty curious as to why. When asked, Kratos started acting a bit defensively.

"Lloyd, we need to find that crystal," Kratos urged.

"Of course we do!" Lloyd said. "If we don't get it, Aselia is doomed!"

"Yes," Kratos replied. "We must get it now."

Lloyd was now hearing some determination in Kratos's voice that he had never heard before.

"Kratos…is something wrong? You sound like you've got something on your mind."

"I'm fine. Now if you'll excuse me…"

Kratos got up and started walking away from Lloyd, but not too far away. He then just started staring up at the stars again, and it sounded like he was muttering something a name under his breath. It sounded like he was muttering "Anna…"

Lloyd forced himself up and stormed over to Kratos. "There is something wrong! Now what is it!"

"It's nothing," Kratos said, trying his best to shrug the matter off.

"Yeah, right!" Lloyd snapped. "Why did I just hear you mumble mom's name? And why do you seem like you're so deep in thought? What are you thinking about?"

Kratos sighed. He then sat down on the grass and looked down at the ground. "If you must know…"

Lloyd gently sat down next to his father on the cool grass and listened to what he was about to hear.

"Lloyd, as you're aware, that crystal that Kayne manipulated us into stealing has very great power inside of it," Kratos said, making sure Lloyd understood everything.

"Of course I am," Lloyd answered.

"Lloyd, I've thought about it. What if that crystal did indeed have the power to revive Anna?"

Lloyd froze up, and suddenly it felt like everything in his body completely froze in its tracks. "Wh…what do you mean?"

"I mean, if that crystal can power a giant weapon that can completely destroy a planet, would it not make sense to assume it has the power to awaken the dead as well?"

Lloyd never thought about it like that. Kratos did have a point, though. Wouldn't it be logical that a tool like that mysterious crystal would have the power to revive someone? It was definitely worth a shot.

"You're right," Lloyd said in complete amazement. "We could do that! You and I could steal that crystal back from Kayne, stop him from destroying our world, and then resurrect mom with it! Kratos, you're a genius!"

Kratos smirked at the compliment. "Let's worry about the matter at hand right now, though." It was obvious that he had the thought of bringing back his wife on his mind much more than he did saving the world. But then, who could really blame him?

Not only did that seem like a brilliant idea, but now Kratos and Lloyd had more motivation than ever to steal the crystal back. Maybe getting that crystal back really was the answer to them becoming a happy family again like they were all those years ago before Kvar interfered.

"All right!" Lloyd said. "What are we waiting for? Why don't we bust into the headquarters now?"

"That would actually be a good idea," Kratos admitted. "It's unlikely they'll be expecting an attack from people like us during the night."

"Great!" Lloyd said. "Let's go!"

In order to avoid detection, the two of them found their way back to the town and quietly snuck in. The town looked like it had a very small amount of night-life to it, with only a few lights being on in the houses and the public buildings.

They saw the massive headquarters at the head of the town when they had walked though it enough. There were obviously a few guards standing there and making sure no one got in, but Lloyd thought he had a plan to avert this.

"Watch this!" Lloyd said. He then jumped in the air and tried to sprout his angel wings, only to find that once again, he couldn't. He ended up just falling flat on his face on the hard, cobblestone ground.

Kratos only groaned with embarrassment as he covered his eyes with his hand, looked down at the ground and shook his head. He was shocked to see Lloyd was still making mistakes like that.

"Gah…dammit!" Lloyd screamed when he got up off the ground with a fairly visible ground imprint on his face. "How come my stupid wings won't come out? Kratos, try yours!"

"Lloyd, mine won't come out either," Kratos assured.

"Why not!"

"No time to explain that now. Right now, we must focus on our main objective, and that's finding a way inside that headquarters and stealing the crystal."

Saying this, Kratos just walked away. Lloyd continued staring at Kratos, very confused. But now he was a bit concerned. Kratos must really have wanted to see Anna again. Exactly how far was he willing to go to see it happen?

Kratos and Lloyd went up to the headquarters and saw how menacingly it was looming.

"And to think…something that could destroy our world AND resurrect mom is in that building," Lloyd said as he stared at it with wide eyes. "This is it, Kratos. Are you ready?"

"Ready," Kratos said in a decisive manner. "I'm ready for this thirteen-year nightmare to come to an end."

He and Lloyd immediately started charging forward into the headquarters, quickly slicing through the two guards standing at the door. When both of those guards fell, Lloyd and Kratos ran inside the headquarters and started looking for the crystal and Kayne. (hoping he hadn't done anything to Cesara)

After the two of them charged in, several more guards started charging right at them inside. It looked like there were easily fifteen guards, greatly outnumbering Lloyd and Kratos.

"Give them no quarter!" Kratos commanded as he started charging in. He drew his sword and started clashing his with all the boomerangs that the Tiberian grunts were throwing at him.

"Got it!" Lloyd said. He unsheathed both of his material blades and started running at all the soldiers that were coming towards him.

Lloyd made one quick slash after another as he sliced across all of them that got to close to him.

One Tiberian decided throwing bladed boomerangs wasn't going to do him any good and instead tried to stab Lloyd with the end of it. But Lloyd saw this coming and was able to duck out of the way at the last moment, causing the Tiberian to get his weapon stuck in the wall. Before he could pull it out, Lloyd stuck his Vorpal Sword right into the Tiberian's gut and pulled it out forcefully, leaving frozen blood on the blade.

The fight continued until Lloyd and Kratos had managed to finish off the last of the Tiberians. Then the two of them continued running down the long hall to the headquarters as fast as possible.

"Kayne must be on the top floor," Kratos concluded.

"You think so?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes. I'm guessing he's where the weapon is, and it would make sense for the weapon to be on the top so it can get the greatest view possible from the base."

"I guess," Lloyd said. "Okay then, let's get to that top floor!"

Both of them started running their hardest up some of the flights of stairs until they saw an elevator at the end of one of the hallways. They started running towards it until another wave of Tiberians shot out from the side rooms, armed and ready to annihilate.

Lloyd and Kratos got on their guard and immediately started swinging their swords as quickly as they could, making swift and painful cuts across any part of the Tiberians that they came into contact with.

When there was only one Tiberian left, he obviously looked scared when he saw Lloyd and Kratos practically uninjured. (not to mention seeing all of his comrades lying on the floor in a puddle of blood)

The cowardly Tiberian soldier started to run away, but Kratos just pointed his sword at him and cast a quick air thrust, dicing the Tiberian to pieces in mid air.

"Nice work, Kratos," Lloyd said after the last enemy had been defeated.

"No time for that," Kratos insisted. "We have to get to the elevator now. We have to stop Kayne before it's too late."

"Right. Let's go!"

Lloyd and Kratos started charging at the elevator, but just as they got to it, the doors opened on their own. Standing in the elevator almost as if he were waiting for them was a man with messy black hair and skin that was so tan it was practically gold. His teeth were grit, showing how dirty they were. It was Skelter.

"Move out of the way," Lloyd threatened as he pointed both of his material blades at the pirate.

Skelter started sneering at Lloyd, then drew his own scimitar and pointed it back. "This is as far as you go, kid!"