A/N:Hello and welcome to chapter four. If anyone is actually reading this fanfic, sorry about not updating for so long. Holidays are evil, especially with no internet access. Anyway it's here now so hope you enjoy :3

The group arrived at Flanoir around midday, snow covering the entire town and the air still freezing despite the sun beaming down from above. Sheena and Lloyd decided to do a quick sweep of the town to make sure they didn't miss any exspheres strewn about, but as they expected their search returned nothing.

"O.k. I was thinking we would go north to the mountains above Flanoir and then just work our way around the area," Lloyd explained once they were back together. "Check inside all the caves and stuff. Like I said before, there's not much point in looking anywhere else, since people probably don't go spreading exspheres around snowy plains"

"Or… I could go with Regal to the ice temple, and we could work our way round in two teams. It would be much faster" suggested Presea.

"Uuh… Yeah I guess it would. O.k, you guys go south and we'll go north."

"We'll leave something in the first cave we go in to let you know where we started" Sheena added.

"See you tonight then," Lloyd called, waving from his Rheiard. "Oh but don't leave it too late. You wouldn't wanna crash on the way back because it's too dark."

The two teams departed in opposite directions. Presea and Regal travelled in complete silence with only the sound of the wind to break the complete void of sound around them. Neither of them could ever think of anything to talk about, and likewise Sheena couldn't find anything interesting to comment on but the weather, which, to be honest, wasn't very interesting considering the fact that it had been exactly the same for as long as they could remember.

Presea and Regal had decided to get to the ice temple quickly to give them as much time to look around as possible. The snowy plains around the temple were eerily quiet and just as deserted. Even the entrance was difficult to find, since much of it had been covered by snow in the recent blizzards. As they walked inside the icicles around their feet could actually be seen getting gradually bigger, reaching up towards the ceiling like great frozen vines to join hands with those hanging from the ceiling. Everything froze much faster in the ice temple and Regal had made sure to relieve himself before going inside to avoid any rather painful mishaps. Lloyd had found out the hard way last time.

"I think maybe we should split up," Presea suggested. "We can cover more ground that way."

Regal was silent for a moment, as if considering something. "Yes. There don't seem to be any enemies around at the moment strangely enough, so it's unlikely that we'll be attacked if alone."

"O.k. I'll… Head towards the shrine room… You take those caves over there," she said, pointing towards a passage that split off away from the main temple.

"Right. If anything happens… Shout for me."

"And the same for you," she said, before turning around and walking away into the frozen caves.

Alone… Finally… At least he had not decided to follow her. She wanted to figure this out on her own. Right now it didn't seem like that was going to happen though. Nothing made sense. Why had she been having these dreams? She was almost certain the exsphere she had found was the green orb from her dreams, but there was still the voice. Plus when she touched the exsphere not only had the green glow stopped, but she had seen the ice shrine. At least it certainly looked like the ice shrine…

Presea suddenly snapped out of her own head. She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to be looking for exspheres, and glanced around quickly to check that she had not missed anything obvious. It is unlikely that we missed any last time anyway… she thought to herself. Besides, she couldn't stand not knowing what this was all about. And that voice…

She quickened her pace, occasionally glancing round for anything of interest, but didn't find anything. It had been getting even colder as she moved into the temple and she was now shivering, her breath visible in small clouds before her. Presea could see the light from the shrine, not far off now. Her pace quickened even further. Suddenly she noticed a slight tugging on her clothes, as if pulling her towards the room. She reached into her pocket, withdrawing the exsphere and as she had suspected it was being carefully pulled from her grasp. She held on tightly, the pull getting stronger as she neared the room.

Once inside the pull on the orb was too strong for her to control, and it was torn from her fingers, rushing towards the centre of the room, and then suddenly stopping. Presea was frozen on the spot. She waited for what seemed like an age, staring at this mesmerizing green orb floating calmly in the centre of the room. All of a sudden green light erupted from it, almost blinding Presea, filling the room and spreading outwards to squeeze itself into every hole and crevice within the temple.

She knew what to do here and slowly inched her way towards it, one hand in front of her eyes to block out some of the overpowering green glow. She carefully raised her hand to take the green orb once again, but as soon as she touched it the glow stopped. She shrank back away from it, scared that she had done something wrong, when all of a sudden the green ball rushed towards her. It hit her hard in the centre of the forehead, pushing her backwards and pinning her against the wall. Immense pain exploded throughout her entire body as the thing melted into her head like butter in a hot pan.

"Re- gal…" Her voice came out hoarse and weak.

She screamed as loud as she could, before she blacked out.

Regal had been far more thorough in his searching, checking under rocks, and in several small holes around the caves. He had been having second thoughts about letting Presea go off alone, but then she was an incredibly strong girl, and he was sure she could take care of herself. He had his own things to worry about anyway…

On several occasions… Well… He was sure it was madness, but he thought he had seen the shadows move. There it was again! It looked like the tall thin shadow of an icicle, but then out of the corner of his eye he had seen the top of it bend. He knew he had seen it…

Drip… drip… drip…

Well there was nothing he could do about it now. He should just press on

A high ringing assaulted his ears, stopping just as abruptly as it had started. "What the-" The entire cave was suddenly bathed in a green light, tendrils creeping into the shadows above and below him. "What on earth?" he muttered, looking all around him for a source of this strange glow. He was on his guard, ready for something to happen, but instead he heard a scream. "Presea!" he shouted, starting towards the tunnel he had entered from.

Suddenly an enormous, sharp icicle thrust out towards him, missing him by millimetres as he bent backwards. He quickly jumped out of the way, and shouted "I knew it!". The icicle melted, and the water trickled back to form reptilian legs and a tail, thick powerful arms and a round shimmering head.

"Aah, no wonder I heard dripping. I thought it was a bit odd that it wasn't frozen. Let's make this quick shall we?" Regal said through gritted teeth. "Assss you wissssh" came a voice that seemed as if submerged and ran a chill down Regal's spine.

He lunged towards the beast, spinning in the air to kick it twice in the head. His feet hit nothing but air however, as the thing merely morphed around his legs. "Hmm…" He jumped back again. The monster's leg stretched out to kick him, Regal moving out the way easily, before it froze into a long sharp blade of ice and rushed towards him. Regal ducked underneath it just in time and brought his leg down on it as he stood up, shattering it into small pieces.

"Niccccce try," the thing laughed, the ice melting again and sliding back over to him. Regal growled and rushed towards it unleashing a barrage of kicks, all of them hitting nothing. He spun round attempting to kick it once more, but as he missed the beast wrapped it's arm around his leg, freezing it in place and smashing Regal against a wall, fragments of ice slashing at his skin as he fell.

He climbed slowly to his feet, a deep cut in his arm. "Why not tryyy using your handsssss?" the beast grinned. Regal stood up straight, closing his eyes and not moving. "Giving up ssso easssy?" the creature gurgled, lashing it's arm towards him. Regal opened his eyes, bringing his hands up to face the thing as a huge wave of white hot energy erupted from them, completely evaporating the creature.

"Well… You did ask for it," Regal shrugged, before the realisation suddenly dawned on him. "Presea!" he cried, and once again ran off through the tunnel towards the shrine room.

Lloyd and Sheena had been surprised to find an exsphere early on in the day. They had left one of Lloyd's swords stuck into the ground outside of the first cave they came to to let Presea and Regal know where they had started, and other than the first exsphere finding the day had been incredibly uneventful.

"So where do you think we'll be going next?" Sheena said, desperate to break the silence.

"Well… I was thinking maybe Altamira? That's pretty close to here," he replied after trying to remember the world map. He was never very good at Geography… Or any subject…

"Aaaah, just wanna see me in my swimsuit eh?" she laughed.

"Well… I suppose it was pretty cool," he smiled.

Wow! That was almost a compliment on my body… Where the hell is the real Lloyd? Sheena laughed.

"What?"

"Huh? Oh… Err… Nothing," she said, blushing slightly

"You haven't been drinking again have you?" Lloyd laughed

"What do you mean again?"

"Err… You-… Umm… It's getting kinda dark. Maybe we should head back," he said, genuinely noticing that it was around dusk, but congratulating himself on his quick wit at changing the subject.

"Yeah I suppose… Man I'm freezing," she replied, her teeth chattering.

They left the cave they were searching, Sheena leaving a bit of purple cloth in the cave this time to remind them where they had stopped their search, and hopped onto their Rheiards.

"Don't go too fast," Lloyd suggested as he squinted through the snow. "Wouldn't want you crashing on me."

"I am not gonna-" she started, when suddenly a bolt of purple lightning flashed past her, narrowly missing her Rheiard. Another one struck closer as she veered away towards Lloyd to avoid it. More and more appeared out of nowhere, striking again and again as Sheena steered wildly trying to avoid them, almost crashing into Lloyd. The sixth one clipped the left wing of her Rheiard however, piercing straight through it and sending her veering towards the ground. "Grrh- Damnit!" Sheena cried as she struggled to keep altitude, but the controls were completely stiff and she was forced to jump off just before her Rheiard crashed heavily into the ground, rolling in the snow before kneeling beside her Rheiard clutching her arm.

"Sheena!" Lloyd shouted, landing his Rheiard and running over to help. "Are you o.k?" he put his hand on her shoulder as he arrived.

"Yeah… Nngh… I'm fi-". She stopped. Lloyd's hand had suddenly tightened on her shoulder. "L- Lloyd?" Her instant thought was that Lloyd had a knife to his neck. She started to turn her head.

"Don't! Move…" came a voice from behind her. Lloyd's hand clutched at her even tighter at the sound of it.

"No…" She whispered.

Lloyd swallowed, his throat scraping the sword as he did. "D- Dad?"

A/N: GASP! Who'd've thunk it? Yes I don't think I'm very good at being dramatic, but leave your comments and hopefully I can improve :p