Sheesh. Two chapters in a row with no reviews. I hope this isn't turning into another Descendant's Curse. Well, I can only hope for the best review-wise now.

------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------- ---------

Lloyd and Kratos walked away from Cesara and made their way towards the small town that was close by the Tiberian Headquarters. They both made their way down the night-time streets, which were practically deserted. The only signs of life were some lights glowing inside private homes and any companies that might have still been open. One of the lights that remained on was one in an inn.

"Great," Lloyd said when he saw the inn. "We can sleep there."

Kratos and Lloyd walked into the inn and talked to the man behind the counter. After agreeing to pay for one night, Kratos and Lloyd headed into a small room with a cheap, but attractive looking carpet and plain walls. There were just two beds with nothing special about them.

When both of them were in their separate beds, Lloyd couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned for a while, but he could sense that something wasn't right. He looked over at Kratos's bed and saw that Kratos was sitting up, staring outside and at the Tiberian Headquarters.

"…Kratos? Aren't you going to sleep?" Lloyd asked.

"I don't need it," Kratos calmly said. "Besides, I have too much to think about right now to sleep."

"Really?" Lloyd asked. "Like what?"

Kratos groaned. "I shouldn't have said that. Go back to sleep, Lloyd."

"Come on, Kratos. You can tell me. What is it? What's on your mind?"

Kratos remained silent.

"Kratos!"

Still silence.

"Does it have something to do with mom?" Lloyd asked, almost sounding sad.

Kratos sighed and turned around, then looked Lloyd in the eyes. Still, he didn't say anything for a long time.

"Don't worry," Lloyd tried to say lightly. "I know that we can not only save the world from retrieving that crystal from Kayne, but we can also bring mom back from the dead with it, right?"

"If he put that much power into the crystal, then yes, I would think so," Kratos answered.

Lloyd looked confused. "He? Who's 'he'?"

"Never mind," Kratos answered. "But yes. Finding that crystal and hoping to resurrect Anna has given me more motivation to do something that I've had in a long time. This is one time when I seriously do not want to fail. This mission means everything in the world to me."

"That's the spirit!" Lloyd said proudly when he saw how determined Kratos was to retrieve the crystal for the safety of the world and for his own benefits. "I got a feeling we're going to get a happy ending out of this."

Kratos looked concerned. "Lloyd, this isn't a fairy tale. There's no telling whether or not my plan will actually work or if we can get the crystal back. In fact, something even more drastic could happen."

"Aw, come on, Kratos," Lloyd said. "We've taken on tougher opponents than a guy like Kayne before."

Kratos only let out a small hmmmmmmm as he turned away from Lloyd and continued staring at the headquarters. Tomorrow would be the day they were attack Kayne and get the crystal back, not only foiling his plans to destroy Aselia, but to bring Anna back and to hopefully make them all a family again. Tomorrow would be the final battle.

When the morning finally came, Lloyd and Kratos headed back to the front of the Tiberian Headquarters. Cesara was standing there, smiling at them as they approached.

"Hi," she said pleasantly. "Did you sleep well?"

"Fine," Lloyd said, not really caring. "Do you have those weapons?"

"Yes, I do," Cesara smiled as she pulled out the items that she acquired. She had one sword with a really long, thick blade, which was for Kratos. She had two slimmer blades which would go to Lloyd. And she also appeared to have some very small bombs.

"Thanks," Lloyd said as he took his new swords. "Where'd you get these?"

"I spent all night getting them in Tiberia Tower," Cesara said, sounding a little exhausted.

"Tiberia Tower?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes," Cesara said as she nodded her head. She turned around and pointed to a very tall tower in the distance. It looked like a normal building, except for a pointed top. The rest was just a skinny rectangle.

Lloyd decided to study the weapons more carefully. His sword had a piercing white blade with a mysterious red glow around it. Lloyd didn't know what was with the red glow, but he thought it looked cool, and that was way more than enough for him. (being the simple minded person he is) Kratos's sword looked pretty much the same, except the blade was thicker and heavier.

The bombs, on the other hand, looked just like little black boxes. REALLY LITTLE black boxes with a small, red flashing light on one part.

"Those are special detonators," Cesara explained. "They're capable of completely destroying anything they explode on, no matter how thick or strong."

"Awesome!" Lloyd said, pushing his fist in mid air. "We got this fight in the bag!"

"No need to get overconfident, Lloyd," Kratos said. "This is still going to be a tough fight, and Kayne is not one to be underestimated."

"Whatever," Lloyd said. "Let's just go!"

Lloyd and Kratos started running into the headquarters. "Good luck!" Cesara called after them.

In no time, both Lloyd and Kratos were inside, ready to fight Kayne one last time and make sure Tiberia would no longer be a threat to Aselia.

Lloyd and Kratos ran all the way up the winding stairs to the top of the headquarters, where Kayne was sure to be. When they both got to the door with Kayne behind it, they both took a deep breath.

"This is it, Kratos," Lloyd said. "Are you ready?"

"Lloyd, I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to retrieve that crystal," Kratos coolly said.

"All right!" Lloyd said, drawing the two swords Cesara had just given them. (they left their old weapons hidden under their beds in the Tiberian inn they slept at the night before)

Lloyd kicked the door open. The giant door flew open, showing Lloyd and Kratos that Kayne was staring out a giant window, but he knew they were there.

"Kayne, this is your last chance!" Lloyd yelled as he got his two red glowing swords in a fighting position. "Give us the crystal now or prepare to die!"

Kayne laughed and he slowly turned around. He saw the determined looks on Lloyd and Kratos's faces, only making him laugh a bit more. "You think you can stop me?"

"We don't think…we know!" Lloyd threatened.

Kayne sneered. "I see you're about as original as you were when I was fortunate enough to stumble upon you and your little friend on that island."

"Kayne, I'm serious!" Lloyd yelled. "What good will come out of you destroying an entire world of innocent people!"

"I don't have to listen to you," Kayne said. "Our space weapon is going to completely annihilate your planet. I shall give you the option of either watching it get destroyed or dying before it's destroyed, though, just because I'm so merciful."

"It's not going to get destroyed. Period!" Lloyd yelled.

"You even seem to lack that space station you speak of," Kratos pointed out.

An evil look spread over Kayne's face. "Really, then?"

He went over to the wall and lifted part of it up, revealing a button underneath it. The button was bright red and Kayne mashed it with the side of his fist. A loud buzz sound was heard, and suddenly the entire room started to shake and rumble loudly. Lloyd and Kratos tried their best to stay on their feet.

Suddenly, they felt as if the room they were in had lifted off the ground. Kratos and Lloyd stumbled for a little bit as they tried to stay on their two feet, and when they got control again, they ran over to the giant window Kayne was staring out of.

To their shock, Lloyd and Kratos saw that they were no longer on Tiberia. Now, they were in outer space, seeing a never ending black abyss littered with white, shining stars. Right in front of them was a fairly large planet.

"Ha ha ha," Kayne said. "Now can you see the space station!"

Lloyd couldn't believe it. He didn't think it was possible, but the Tiberia Headquarters was the space station. The giant weapon must have been armed somewhere on it.

"Don't think you've won!" Lloyd yelled as he and Kratos drew their swords. "Prepare to die!"

Kayne pulled out his heavy, long, two-pronged sword and got ready to fight both of them. For some reason, he looked surprisingly confident.

"Well then…shall we?" Kayne said, getting his sword in fighting position.

"Bring it!" Lloyd screamed.

Lloyd and Kratos charged into the battle, ready to slice up Kayne as much as they had to in order to win. The stakes of losing were so high that neither Lloyd nor Kratos even wanted to consider it a possibility.

Unfortunately for them, that didn't look like it was happening. As soon as Kayne took one swing at Kratos's sword, Kratos's sword snapped in half like it was a twig.

"What the…" Kratos said in disbelief.

Lloyd didn't pay any attention to this, though. He started going after Kayne with his two swords. Unfortunately for Lloyd, once Kayne parried his two swords, Lloyd's two swords also snapped.

Lloyd gasped when he saw that he and Kratos were now completely unarmed. In a fit of rage, Lloyd screamed at the top of his lungs, "CESARA!"

Grunting quickly, Kratos reached into his purple outfit and pulled out something small and threw it across the room. He then turned his attention to Lloyd and said loudly, "Lloyd, use your teleporter!"

Without even saying anything, Lloyd reached into his woven red shirt and pulled out the small little black box that functioned as their teleportation device. Lloyd pressed the button on it just as he was about to get stabbed by Kayne's triple-pointed sword.

Lloyd and Kratos were both whisked away by the bright lights, befuddling Kayne. When he saw the bright lights, he didn't know what was happening, so he stood away for his own protection.

When Kayne saw that the lights had disappeared around Lloyd and Kratos and the two of them were gone along with the lights, he slammed his sword on the metal floor. "Damn!"

Meanwhile, Lloyd and Kratos were just appearing on a solid rock platform overlooking a dark abyss. There were swirling clouds coming up, creating the illusion that the rock slab was actually falling in the abyss when really it was the black smoke that was rising.

"Are we in Derris-Kharlan?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes," Kratos said. "I threw me teleporter onto the floor right before I told you to push yours. That way, we can get back onto that space station whenever we want just by using yours."

"Oh. Good thinking," Lloyd complemented. "But what are we doing here?"

"I'm going to talk to Yuan about what just happened," Kratos said. "I want to make sure he understands everything that's going on."

Lloyd and Kratos walked down the solid Derris-Kharlan ground, not saying a word. Lloyd was too angry to say anything. Plus, all the thoughts about what just happened were running through his mind.

Kratos finally led Lloyd to Yuan, who was standing there with his arms crossed. Almost like he was expecting them.

"Kratos. Lloyd. What happened?" Yuan asked.

"We were just on Tiberia trying to fight Kayne," Lloyd said before Kratos had a chance to say anything. "But it turns out we were tricked."

"What do you mean 'you were tricked'?" Yuan asked.

"Cesara was helping us track down Kayne and find ways to stop him," Kratos explained.

"You mean that woman who you brought here a while ago?"

"Yes. Lloyd and I thought she was helping us out, when in reality, she was working with Kayne and probably alerting him on our every move."

"Yeah!" Lloyd yelled. "She was setting us up that whole time I'll bet! Dammit!"

Yuan smirked. "That's what you get for trusting a complete stranger. Lloyd, I'd at least have thought you'd be smart enough to not trust someone who just pops up and says they're on your side after what Kratos did to you during the Journey of Regeneration."

Kratos seemed to get really tense when he recalled what Yuan was talking about, but before he could say anything to respond, Lloyd spoke up.

"It doesn't matter what happened on that journey anymore! Cesara set us up and almost got killed by Kayne. That must have been why she didn't look like she was in any physical pain when I rescued her from the dungeon just a little while ago: she wasn't tortured at all!"

"Heh," Kratos sneered. "She deceived us from the very beginning. And to think we actually fell for all those screams she made when Kayne was abducting her."

"She's a hell of an actress," Lloyd coldly said.

"And just what good are you doing here, talking to me about this?" Yuan asked. "Shouldn't you be more worried about getting back to Kayne and making sure he doesn't blow up your world?"

"Yeah, you're right," Lloyd said, ashamed of how side-tracked he had just gotten.

"Then why don't we head back to the inn we slept in last night and get our real weapons back?" Kratos suggested. "We can warp back to the space station from there."

"Space station?" Yuan asked. "I guess those guys really mean business."