It was nighttime; the smell of sea water slowly engulfed them as they began their decent onto Thor's beach. Cress could feel his wings spread, immediately slowing him down from his rapid decline from a height of about 2, 300 feet in the air…wait---wings? Since when did he have wings?

He cautiously looked from side to side, trying to figure out his situation before he reached the sandy beaches; not noticing his comrades closely following behind him with parachutes of some sort.

He landed with a soft thud; so did the other people who were with him.

"Lloyd, over here…This way is clear." One of the men said.

Lloyd? Who's Lloyd? Who was he talking to?

He took a quick glance around trying to figure out who this Lloyd person was.

"Lloyd, are you listening to me?"

Then it struck him. The man was talking to him.

"Me?" asked Cress.

"Yes you. Do you see any other Lloyd around here?"

"Ummm--"

"Stop the bickering you two, you'll blow our cover."

"S-sorry…" Cress stammered.

He followed his men closely…having absolutely no idea were he was going…or what he was supposed to be doing.

Coming close to a building – a store of sorts – he spotted himself in one of the larger windows; he was tall... about 5 feet 11 inches, his hair was a chestnut brown, and so were his eyes.

'That angel,' he realized. He was that angel he saw before! So the angel must be named Lloyd then? Finally! He found out something more about this…angel…but still… why was he here? Maybe if he played along a little while longer he would find his answer.

"Okay it's clear over here too." The same guy called. The rest of them nodded and followed."

They repeated the same procedure for a little while longer before they came to a halt.

"Alright, Lloyd," another man called "the president's office is deeper inside the city… lead us to him."

"Huh?" Cress said worriedly. What was he supposed to do? He had absolutely no idea where he was going.

"You said you knew Thor like the back of your hand…did you not?"

Thor? Yeah of course he knew Thor…he's been through that underground maze at least a dozen times.

He nodded.

"Then take us to the president's office"

The president's office…? What the heck was he talking about? Thor never had a president...yet alone a president's office…Unless he meant that ornate room in the underground maze then he could easily take them there.

"Right!"

Quickly fighting their way through the various traps and machines they reached that ornate room without much trouble at all.

In the back of the room there was a large desk stacked with many papers and books; sitting in a chair behind the mess of papers was a small man with snow white hair…who was obviously asleep.

Cress was the first one to enter the room; day-dreaming and looking in awe at his surroundings.

'It so odd…this place looks so much different then before…' he thought.

"Lloyd! What are you doing!?"

" Huh?"

"Watch out!"

But it was too late. He was tackled by a large man and brought down to the floor. The man pinned his arms and legs roughly against the hardwood flooring.

"Get off!" he shouted.

The man only laughed as he pulled out a small dagger and raised it so that it was pointing towards Cress' heart.

Using all of his strength, Cress managed to doge the blow and slip away from the man's grasp. He pulled out his two swords and got into a fighting stance.

"Lloyd!" His ally called again, "Go, we'll hold them off! Get the others!"

"Right!" He nodded, and ran towards the exit; he managed to get above ground without much difficulty.

He turned back around to make sure that he wasn't being followed…but that was the biggest mistake he could have ever made.

There was a yell behind him and loud footsteps that went along with it. He turned around to see a young boy, about his age, running at him with a sword in hand. Cress tried to doge that attack as well but it was too late. Cress felt a sharp pain shoot through his chest and eventually made its way to his back; the boy had plunged his sword straight through Cress' heart…repeating the stabbing motion a few more times the boy got up and left; leaving Cress to die by himself.

He was in agonizing pain; it felt like all the feeling in his body had left and rushed to that one spot. It was a very unpleasant sensation; and to his relief, a sensation he would have to endure only for a little while longer…but that little while longer seemed to have lasted an eternity.

"Lloyd!" He heard a voice call to him. He was then pulled into somebody's lap and hugged tightly. "Lloyd…it's going to be alright…don't worry." the voice said again; Cress looked up. It was a tall man with auburn hair and ruby eyes…he was crying…The man placed his hand on Cress' wound; Cress flinched but almost immediately got some relief as an odd pressure pushed against his chest. The man smiled as soon as he saw the relief in his 'son's' eyes.

Just then there was a huge rumble that seemed to shake all of Thor…it was kind of like an earthquake; Cress then spotted a huge ball of fire was headed straight for them. But the man ignored it completely trying the best he could to heal his 'son'. Soon enough they, and all of Thor were engulfed in flames.

_____

"Cress, wake up!" He felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped into a sitting position screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Cress, are you alright?!" Mint asked, her hand still on his shoulder.

Cress looked around…He was in the Inn with Mint and a rather confused looking Chester.

'It was just a dream?'

"Yeah…I'm fine…"