A/N I apologise if the middle bit is confusing. Its Lloyd's POV, so has some purposeful bad grammar, and it's in the 3rd person.. hope it makes sense! Enjoy!

'I don't see why I have to do this...'

'Come on, Zelos, keep moving.'

Kratos watched the disgruntled Chosen of Tethe'alla scowl at him and resume clearing the path of monsters and fiends. Kratos hopped on the spot to reposition the unconscious body of Lloyd, whom he was carrying on his back. The teenagers arms were slung around his neck, and his chin rested on the Seraph's shoulder. Kratos decided that it was best to heed Lloyd's warning and head back to Dirk's to check on Collette, as well as to find a place for the twin swordsman to rest until morning.

'Nearly there, Lloyd,' Kratos mumbled as a small cough escaped from his son.

'Run, Horsey!'

Lloyd let out a small squeal as large hands grabbed his feet and his 'horsey' sped off into the forest. He could feel himself being lifted off the man's shoulders every time the man took a stride, and so grabbed the large tufts of auburn hair before him for support.

'Be careful you two,' A voice called from behind.

But Lloyd was laughing too much to hear. He was a knight, ready to rescue the princess with his trusty steed - Daddy. The castle would have fire, and a dragon, and a drawbridge, and a king, and be made of stone, and have a moat, and a circular staircase, and...

Lloyd's thoughts were interrupted as his 'steed' abruptly came to a stop. Lloyd looked up and saw a group of the nasty men he had seen before stood in front of them. He put his head on the top of his Daddy's, and gripped him round the chin.

'Daddy...'

Daddy didn't answer him, but turned and sped back off in the direction he came from. Lloyd shut his eyes to block out the shouts that came from behind him, gripping his Daddy's chin as tightly as he could.

'Kratos?'

Lloyd felt some hands grab him round the waist and haul him up off his Daddy's shoulders and into his Mummy's arms. Daddy drew his sword like he did last time, and Mummy brought him close to her chest.

'They've found us,' Daddy said, looking at Mummy, 'Take Lloyd and run towards Iselia. Noishe, come with me.'

'Kratos...'

'Just go, Anna!'

'Daddy?' Lloyd looked up at Daddy, biting his lip to stop himself from crying. Daddy was scary when he was angry.

'Be good for Mummy, okay Lloyd?'

Lloyd nodded bravely, trying to disguise his shaking lower lip. He wanted Daddy to see that he was not scared of the nasty men, and that he would look after Mummy until Daddy came back.

'Good boy. Be careful, Anna...' Lloyd looked between Daddy and Mummy, who were staring at each other, but felt Mummy turn away, 'Noishe!' Daddy motioned to the Protozoan and the two ran back towards the nasty men in the forest.

'Anna?!'

'DADDY!!'

Lloyd struggled in the arms of the nasty man as he heard his Daddy's voice. Him and Mummy had run through the forest for what felt like a long time, Mummy's feet must have been getting tired. Then someone shouted at Mummy and Lloyd, calling them 'in-feen-ior beans'. Mummy got scared, which made Lloyd scared. Mummy started calling Daddy, but Daddy didn't come. So the nasty men caught Mummy and Lloyd and took Lloyd away from Mummy. He got scared but tried not to cry, and kicked the nasty man in the shins. Nasty man didn't like that and Lloyd managed to run away, but another nasty man grabbed Lloyd's hair as he was about to rescue Mummy. This made Lloyd cry, but he still struggled when he was picked up by one of them.

A really ugly man with no eyes had grabbed Mummy, who was also crying. Lloyd wanted to help Mummy, and started shouting at the ugly man, who laughed at him. Lloyd thought this wasn't very nice and so bit the nasty man that was holding him, but the man didn't like it and hit Lloyd on the head. Then Lloyd heard Daddy's voice, so shouted to him.

'Lloyd?! Lloyd where are you?'

Daddy ran into the clearing where Lloyd and Mummy were. Lloyd saw lots of that red ketchup on Daddy, and it scared him. But he was a brave boy and tried not to be too scared when his Daddy looked at him.

'Daddy! The nasty men and that ugly man took Mummy!' Lloyd pointed at the no-eyes man.

'Kvar...' Daddy held his sword up as the ugly man started laughing. More nasty men went towards Daddy, and Daddy swung his sword at them.

'Now, now, Kratos.' The no-eyed ugly man said to Daddy, holding Mummy by the hair, 'We wouldn't want anything to happen to your son now, would we?'

Daddy looked straight at Lloyd as the nasty man holding him pulled Lloyd's hair more. Tears escaped from Lloyd's eyes as Daddy said something that he had always told Lloyd was a naughty word and never should be said.

'Leave my family alone, Kvar.'

The ugly man laughed again and pulled Mummy hand. That special stone that was attached to Mummy was special, Daddy said. Lloyd wasn't allowed to touch the special stone, it was naughty.

'No!' Daddy held out his hand to Mummy. He looked scared and Daddy never looked scared. This made Lloyd cry more and he wriggled as best he could in the nasty man's grip. The ugly man said something Lloyd didn't hear, and pulled the stone off Mummy's hand. Mummy screamed and Daddy said a naughty word again, but Lloyd noticed the ugly man started to walk away with the special stone. That stone was Mummy's and he shouldn't be allowed to take what isn't his!

Lloyd bit down on the nasty man's hand again, and was dropped to the floor. Daddy had started swinging his sword at the nasty men again, and Lloyd tried not to look as red ketchup hit him on the face. He ran as fast as he could towards the no-eyes man, who was watching Daddy fight the nasty men.

'That's...Mummy's...stone...' Lloyd managed to shout as he ran past his Mummy, who was shaking on the floor. He heard Daddy call his name but kept running towards the ugly man. The ugly man laughed and kicked Lloyd in the chest. Lloyd skidded backwards and put a hand on his poorly chest. It hurt and there was some red ketchup on it. This made Lloyd cry, and he heard his Daddy shout again. But suddenly, Noishe came out from behind a tree and rammed the nasty man in the back, causing the stone to fly out from his hand. It landed by Lloyd, and he picked it up. His poorly chest hurt a lot, and Lloyd was crying a lot, but he managed to turn round to crawl back towards Mummy.

But Mummy was gone! There was a bit giant monster there instead. It was scary. The most scary thing was that it was wearing Mummy's clothes. Lloyd gripped his poorly chest as the scary monster looked at him.

'Mummy...?'

The scary monster was going to hit Lloyd! But Noishe was there and got in the way. The monster hit Noishe and Noishe fell in front of Lloyd. But Lloyd also felt the ground rumble, causing his teeth to hit against each other. Suddenly the bit of floor Lloyd and Noishe were sitting on fell! And Lloyd and Noishe fell! Lloyd didn't know what happened but held onto the stone as he heard Daddy yell his name.

But he was going to try and stop crying, because he was a brave boy.

Lloyd stirred.

He was lay on his own bed, on his right shoulder. It was still dark outside, and Lloyd heard footsteps and talking from down the stairs. Across the room from him, someone else was laid under a cover on the floor, although Lloyd's eyes weren't working well enough for him to tell who it was.

He just lay there. He didn't know why, he just did.

Maybe it was the faitgue. Or maybe it was his mana loss. Whatever it was, Lloyd just lay on his side, staring vacantly at the spot on the other end of the room.

You are running out of time

Lloyd closed his eyes, almost sighing to himself in frustration, 'I thought I told you to get out of my head,' he thought to himself.

She's still alive, you know.

Lloyd lifted his head of his pillow in surprise. He forgot about Collette! He tried to shuffle round and pick himself up out of bed, but he stalled as purple and orange swarmed in his line of vision, and caused him to put a hand to his head.

You wont be for long, unless you get yourself a key crest.

Lloyd squeezed his eyes shut, 'What are you going to do with her? Let her go!'

You could do a better job than your father.

'What are you talking about?'

I know what dream you just had.

'Lloyd?'

Yggdrasill had gone, and Lloyd was half sat up in his bed as a concerned looking Kratos came up the stairs to check up on him. Lloyd let himself fall back onto the pillow, head poinding. He closed his eyes.

'She's still alive.'

'What?' Kratos had sat down on a chair next to the bed, resting his elbows on his knees.

'Collette,' Lloyd whispered, 'Yggdrasill is keeping her alive.'

'Lloyd, what the hell happened?'

Lloyd's eyes snapped open, 'He's been talking to me.'

'Mithos?'

'Yeah. Lots.'

Kratos rested his chin on his palms for a second, not quite sure how to deal with the situation. The two remained silent, ignoring the sounds of the others coming from downstairs.

'I had a dream.' Lloyd broke the silence.

'A dream?' Kratos raised his eyebrows.

'A dream,' Lloyd confirmed, 'I've never had a dream about that day before.'

Kratos remained silent.

'I always wondered how I got that scar on my chest.'

'Oh, Lloyd,' Kratos rubbed his eyes with one of his hands, 'Did you remember all of it?'

Lloyd hesitated, '...I stole the Exsphere from Kvar. Then the floor between me and Noishe collapsed. I don't remember anything else, just the feeling of trying to stop crying.'

'...I'm sorry.'

For the first time, Lloyd looked into Kratos's eyes.

'Don't be,' he said firmly, wincing slightly as he pushed himself to a sitting position, 'Collette is what's important now.'

'We'll go and get her, Lloyd. I need you to stay here.'

'Who's that?' Lloyd motioned at the other person lay across the room. Kratos turned.

'Presea,' he said calmly, 'after the fire erupted in Iselia, we left Dirk, Presea, Regal and Colletter, basically all the non-mages. They were going to gather some supplies and some tools for rebuilding and bring them over later. Thanks to your warning, myself and Zelos managed to get back here in time to heal Presea, who had been badly hurt by the angels.'

Lloyd nodded in understanding, looking left and right for his belongings.

'I can't let you come, Lloyd.'

Lloyd caught his father's stare, and returned it with equal intensity. He reached out to his right and grabbed his trademark red outfit that he had dumped on the floor 3 nights previously. Kratos continued to stare at Lloyd, as the teenager took the purple hat off and rubbed a hand through his hair, messing it up in its classic style.

'I'm not going to make any more mistakes. And I don't want Mithos to either.'

A/N That last section makes me cringe. Its sooo hard to make Lloyd and Kratos sound convincing. I mean, Lloyd hasn't really know Kratos as his father for too long, so you have to try and avoid the 'OMGZ DADDY!' thing, try and keep Kratos in character, which is hard enough as it is, and explain enough of whats going on without A) boring the reader and B) leaving any plot holes. So yeah, its frustrating, but I hope it passes as adequate enough! Please review!