Hmmmmmmm…no reviews. Not exactly the kind of "welcome back" I was hoping for, especially considering the cliffhanger I thought I was leaving. Oh well, on with the story. (please keep reviewing. I know you guys are reading this, the stats page for this story says that you are!)

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"Don't think I'm gonna hold back," Kratos warned.

"I know you're not," Lloyd said. "And neither am I."

So for the fourth time Lloyd was fighting Kratos. He started the fight by charging in and swinging his flamberge right at Kratos's head. Kratos had to instantly duck from getting struck by the sword that was once his own.

After ducking very quickly and dodging Lloyd's swing, Kratos made a quick jump backwards and pointing his sword at Lloyd. With conviction in his voice, Kratos bellowed, "Air thrust!"

A swirl of violent winds suddenly clouded around Lloyd and lifted him up a few feet into the air. Lloyd could feel the fierce winds as they felt like sharp knives as they raced around his body. After a few seconds, the attack stopped and Lloyd was dropped onto the ground.

Lloyd was a little bit injured, but he was far from losing. He got up and started running at Kratos with his two blades pointed right at him. Kratos dodged the blades at the last minute and tried to strike the back of Lloyd while his son was still running.

But Lloyd was able to turn around at the last second and put his vorpal sword up to block Kratos's attack. Before either of them knew it, it was Lloyd and Kratos locking swords and trying to push the other's away.

Lloyd and Kratos seemed to be putting up a challenging fight for each other, but after a long struggle, Lloyd was able to push Kratos's sword away and send the Seraphim hurtling to the ground.

As Kratos staggered up, Lloyd ran over to his dad and forcefully planted his foot on Kratos's chest, keeping him down. Lloyd then proceeded to putting his flamberge to Kratos's throat.

"It's over, dad," Lloyd said coldly.

But Kratos thought different. He used his two feet to kick Lloyd hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Kratos sprung himself up and was back on his guard.

Lloyd let a low growling sound come out from his mouth when he saw that Kratos wasn't going to go down so easy.

With both of them back on their feet and full of energy, they both started clashing their swords together in a violent fashion. For over a minute straight, the two did nothing other than swing their sword, have their opponent block it, then have their opponent try to attack and then parry it, and the process repeated itself over and over. (of course, it was all happening in less than two seconds)

But a good while into the violent clash, Kratos did a surprise attack and kicked Lloyd in the stomach, knocking him onto the ground.

When Lloyd fell, Kratos ran over to him and prepared to put a last strike on Lloyd to keep him down.

In one last desperate attempt, Lloyd sprouted his angelic wings and flew up into the air at the last possible moment.

Kratos responded by sprouting his own angel wings. In no time, the two of them were now taking their fight to the sky and clashing in mid air.

But Lloyd was clearly at a disadvantage now that they were flying. Kratos had the ability to cast long-range magic with his sword, but all Lloyd could do was physically attack. And since they were in the air, pulling off a successful physical attack would be much harder.

Kratos launched a quick fireball at Lloyd, but Lloyd had no trouble dodging it. But he did have trouble when Kratos started sending a stream of fireballs at Lloyd.

Instead of dodging them, Lloyd instead had to rely on his reflexes to deflect them as well as he possibly could. Lucky for him, he was able to reflect all of them.

Lloyd was starting to show signs of exhaustion, but Kratos was still going strong.

Kratos started putting Lloyd in a very difficult situation when he started centering all his magic on fire and releasing a series of eruptions right out from under Lloyd.

Lloyd had to dodge the giant explosions that were forming under him, as well as missing the blast of fire that was coming down from the sky that Kratos needed to cast the move.

Lloyd weaved his way around all the giant pillars of fire that were starting the explosions, much to Kratos's surprise. By the time Lloyd got through all the explosions and made it to Kratos, Lloyd's adrenaline made it impossible for him to stop.

Lloyd started kicking and smashing Kratos violently, and hearing the grunts from his father seemed to do nothing to stop him. Lloyd finished him off by taking his flamberge and reaching around, smashing it right into Kratos's back. While at the front, Lloyd simultaneously took his Vorpal Sword and smashed it over Kratos's head.

Kratos groaned in pain as Lloyd cast that move, and then his angel wings folded up and he fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Without even checking to see if his father was okay, Lloyd landed on the ground and started hurtling towards the headquarters.

When Lloyd finally made it there, he was still pumped from his fight with Kratos. He ran right into the headquarters and stuck one of his two material blades right through the gut of any Tiberian that tried to stop him.

After getting inside, Lloyd made his way down a long spiral staircase and into the dungeon. He was horrified at what he saw when he walked down. Cesara was chained to the wall, looking terrified and like she had just been through something awful. Kayne, meanwhile, was standing right in front of her, looking like he had just done something bad but was proud of it.

"Kayne!" Lloyd yelled full of rage.

Kayne slowly turned towards Lloyd. "Well, well, well, look who decided to show," Kayne said. "I guess it's clear you don't care about Cesara at all. I thought I told you she'd die if you followed."

"Yeah! Well, you can't expect me to do nothing, can you!" Lloyd screamed. He once again drew his material blades.

"You think you can stop me?" Kayne asked in a surprised tone but still retaining the smile on his face.

"I don't think I can…I know I can!"

Kayne chuckled. "Big words for such an amateur swordsman. Where's your friend with the red hair?"

Without even answering his question, Lloyd charged in and started swinging his material blades at Kanye. The fight with Kayne, the one who betrayed them and set them up to have their world destroyed, was finally on.

Kayne drew his sword as well. Since his had two prongs on the side, Lloyd had to be especially careful when battling him.

Kayne and Lloyd started exchanging swings as loud clinging sounds filled the rooms and bounced off the stone walls. Cesara, meanwhile, was screaming in terror at seeing the fight that was going on in front of her.

Lloyd and Kayne continued fighting like fierce gladiators. At one point in the fight, Lloyd jumped on a rickety wooden table where there were numerous instruments of torture.

Lloyd picked up what looked like sharp needles with prongs on the end and started throwing them like knives at Kayne.

Kayne had to continuously duck and move out of the way. Lloyd could throw the prongs surprisingly well and he was launching them very fast and hard. Getting hit with a prong would certainly mean either death or a serious cripple.

Kayne eventually found his way to a corner and he picked up a large wooden pole with a pointed end. (it wasn't a spear, it was a device used for gauging peoples' eyes out) He started forcefully pushing it forward, trying to stab Lloyd with it.

But Lloyd didn't have a lot of trouble stopping the attack. All it took was a few quick swings of his material blades through the wooden pole to chop it off as if his swords were lasers going through foam.

Kayne realized that Lloyd was going to be a worth opponent, but he didn't let that intimidate him. Both of them continued fighting hard and strong.

Kayne jumped on the table that Lloyd was standing on and both of them started dueling on top of it.

As Lloyd and Kayne clashed their swords together, some of the clashing was actually drowned out by Cesara's screams. She sounded like she was horrified about what was happening around her. Sounded like it.

The fight on the table continued with Lloyd and Kayne just exchanging swings until Kayne got the upper hand. He managed to clash his sword with Lloyd's material blades too strong for Lloyd to handle. Lloyd got knocked off the table and onto the floor on his back.

As Lloyd started to get up, he saw Kayne leaning over the end of the table with his sword pointing right at him.

"Game over, Lloyd!" Kayne screamed. He was about to jump off the table with his sword going right through Lloyd, impaling him to the floor.

But just as he was about to jump off the table and do just that, a familiar voice screamed out, "Lloyd!"

Kayne turned around and got blasted by a quickly formed bolt of lightning. He was knocked off the table and started smoldering a little.

Lloyd looked up and saw Kratos standing in the doorway to the dungeon, not a moment too soon.

"Kratos!" Lloyd yelled, relieved to see that his father had just saved his life.

"I won't let you die, Lloyd!" Kratos said loudly as he ran into the room.

Kayne slowly got up and gave Lloyd and Kratos a nasty look. "Fine! I'll take on both of you at once if I have to!"

Just by saying that, Kayne was back on his guard and got ready to start attacking once again. But Lloyd and Kratos were now stronger as a team and weren't about to let Kayne win.

Kayne tried his best to keep up with Lloyd and Kratos. But he had a hard enough time keeping himself alive when fighting Lloyd alone. Now that Lloyd had Kratos to back him up, things were pretty much looking hopeless for him.

Realizing this, Kayne turned his back and he started fleeing for the exit to the dungeon. Lloyd started to chase after him, but Kratos stopped him.

"Lloyd, let him go. There's nothing he can do to us now," Kratos assured. "Why don't we just save Cesara and see if she learned anything useful."

Lloyd groaned that Kratos had possibly just blown the ideal time to kill Kayne, but he thought that maybe Kratos was right.

"All right."

Kratos went over to Cesara and undid the bolts that were chaining her to the wall. When she was released, she started breathing heavily and clasping her wrists, which were still aching from being trapped in the locks bolted onto the cold walls.

"Cesara, are you all right?" Lloyd asked, concerned.

"I'm fine, thank you," Cesara said. But Lloyd wasn't too sure; Cesara sounded like she was hyperventilating.

"Cesara, were you able to learn any information at all from Kayne about what he wants to do?" Kratos asked, staying dead serious and making sure they didn't get distracted.

"Yes, I did, actually," Cesara said, sounding like she was calming down a little.

"Really?" Lloyd asked, now gaining interest. "What did you find out?"

"Yes," Cesara said. "I found out that Kayne is planning on completely destroying your world with a giant space weapon."

"A giant space weapon?" Lloyd asked. "That has the power to destroy an entire planet?"

"Yes," Cesara said, starting to sound a little nervous. "After his promotion in getting the crystal from you, Kayne was put in charge of making sure that mission was a success. But that crystal turned out to be critical for the mission. That crystal has enough power in it to charge up the main weapon in the space station, and now that he has it, all he needs to do it use it."

"Dammit!" Lloyd said. "So that's why he wanted the crystal so much! Erg…and to think I thought we were saving his world by getting that crystal for him!"

"Lloyd, we did save his world. Make no mistake about that," Kratos tried to say calmly. "We just had no idea it would in turn put ours at risk."

"Well…isn't there anything we can do about it!" Lloyd screamed.

"Actually, I know someone who has the necessary equipment to make you better weapons that will be useful for destroying the space station," Cesara chimed in, trying to sound helpful.

"Are you serious?" Lloyd asked with some life returning to him.

"Yes," Cesara said, smiling. "But it will take overnight for me to get them. Why don't you two get some rest?"

"Good thinking," Lloyd said. "Come on, Kratos. Let's find somewhere to crash for the night."