Copyright: I own nothing.

Her first stop would be the Trient Ruins in the desert far south of Iselia. After that, she would have to cross the ocean to visit the Thoda Geyser and the Balacruf Mausoleum after going over the mountain pass. She would then visit the Tower of Mana and finally the Tower of Salvation where her journey would end.

End the suffering of the world and her own life.

Despite knowing since she was ten that this was her fate, Colette Brunel was frightened and guilty for feeling that way. She was afraid to die, even though not dying would lead to the suffering of the world. She had been chosen for this task and no other could do it for her.

If that was the case then why was she sitting outside of Iselia crying? She shouldn't feel that way! She had to fulfill the will of the goddess or else, she had to follow the teachings of Cruxis.

Yet even as she said those words to herself, she didn't stop crying as she lied in the grass. How could she be so selfish?

As she wept more quietly, she felt a warming presence sit beside her and take her into his arms.

"Hey Colette." Lloyd softly said as Colette's fears were replaced with new ones while she selfishly took so much happiness from him just being there, "You're up a bit early..."

"Lloyd?" It was almost like a dream, but no, it was no dream. Colette quickly threw on her mental mask, the one she had sworn to use to keep anyone else from sharing her burden. As Lloyd released her, the girl giggled nervously, "Just...getting an early start for the day..."

"Funny," Lloyd lied back on the grass as Colette sat next to him wandering what he would say about-, "I thought that you wouldn't be leaving until sunrise."

Did he find out? Yes, she did lie to him, but he didn't know. She didn't want him to be grieved by what she would have to do. But now that he knew that she had lied to him-

"Oh well, you probably gave me the wrong time on accident..." Lloyd had really come out here by mistake? "It's gotta be hard keeping up with things now that you've gotta save the world from the Desians."

"I didn't forget about you Lloyd..."

"I know you didn't," This had to be a dream, because Lloyd had just grabbed her hand and was using the other to brush her hair out of her pleasantly stunned face, "That's why I remembered you and got here to make sure that I didn't miss you."

"That's what makes you such a great friend..." Colette squeezed Lloyd's hand as she gave a true smile, "Are you sure that you want to go with us?"

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't." Seeing that someone was coming towards them, Colette abruptly released Lloyd's hand, perplexing him for a moment before he noticed and followed the glance of her eyes, "Hi Professor!"

"Lloyd?" Professor Raine, robed in her usual orange robes was politely pleased but also confused that Lloyd was here, "What are you doing here?"

"I woke up early so that I wouldn't miss you guys from leaving."

"I told him that he could come, Professor..."

"Colette..."

"Why not? Lloyd is strong and otherwise there would only be three of us." Colette knew that Raine was only going along with Colette's original desire, but now that he was here anyway, there was no point to him knowing the truth.

"Though if his abilities are still at question." Lloyd stood up as Kratos joined the conversation, his stoic face did not show anger but it did not give off a pleasant reaction Lloyd's unexpected presence, "It would be better if there were only three than traveling with a liable member."

"How about testing me then?" Lloyd offered lightly was Colette frantically looked between her dearly cared for childhood friend and the older man who was barring his way into this journey.

She mentally slapped herself for being so selfish but she couldn't help it. On one hand, she wanted Lloyd at her side, to give her strength and to be with him before the end. But on the other, she wanted Kratos to stop Lloyd and prevent him from feeling more pain from what was to come.

"Lloyd!" Raine stood before her teacher in panicked outrage and disapproval, "I understand that you want to help Colette, but recklessly challenging another swordsman is no way to-"

"I have no objections." Kratos stated much to Colette's increased shock, "But blame your fate if you are proved to be unworthy."

"This shouldn't be long, Colette..." Rolling her eyes and muttering something about "the male specimen", Raine just sat on the side as Lloyd nodded to Colette and addressed Kratos, "It's only a spar, we'll stop after three blows, deal?"

"Agreed."

"Be careful..." Colette said to Lloyd as Kratos started walking out into the field.

"You Dork...relax..." Lloyd's smile vanished when he noticed that she was even more worried, she didn't mean to. But this was all her fault, "I will be careful, Colette." Seeing him smile again cheered her up, but that good feeling faded away when he ran off to catch up with Kratos.

"Don't blame yourself for this..." Raine told Colette while nursing a budding headache in with her head.

"I'm the one who lied to him..." Colette sadly said as she watched Lloyd and Kratos pace out into the field, "Why couldn't I just say no?"

"Because you're Colette." The Professor was right of course. Colette couldn't bring himself to tell Lloyd that he couldn't go with her.

Because she wanted him to go. But at the same time, she needed to make him stay...why couldn't things be easy.

"What's going on?" Along with Lloyd's large green and white dog Noise came Raine's younger brother Genis. Confused at the battle that started out in the field, Genis sat down next to his sister, "Is that Lloyd?"

"Fighting Kratos, yes." Raine mildly answered as if she was not surprised in the least as Genis' eyes nearly fell out of their sockets, "Oddly though...this doesn't seem out of place."

"Raine..." His mouth ajar, Genis motioned again to his sister, "Do you-"

"Goddess...I do..." Raine slapped her face again and put on a concerned but serious face as the three of them watched the duel progress, "I'll have a few questions for him when this is done."

"Why?" Colette asked, concerned that Raine would ask an impossible question to keep Lloyd from coming or worse, "Did Lloyd do something wrong?"

"No Colette, he just seems to have practiced a lot and we need to make sure that he isn't sleep deprived."

"Oh no..."

"You dirty half-breed monster!" Yuan regarded the cowardly mayor as an insect yelling loudly at the foot prepared to crush it. If he had any true decency, he would have died trying to stop Forcystus' guards from "relieving" themselves with the mayor's secretary.

But no, he just stood there and watched as the guards took turns. The coward kept watching, he didn't even try to grab her after they were done. He just stood there while the human woman's flower overflowed with the essence of her attackers, he didn't even try to stop the guards from killing her.

To him, this man was a sick dog barking at the moon.

"Would you like to know how many have said that to me before?" Yuan asked the man, satisfied when he smelt that the fool had wet himself, "Probably not."

"Likely as much as you deserve!" The man shouted, as though the greatest crime here was that half elves had broken in rather than the rape of his young secretary, "Well whats the problem? It's not like it isn't-" His patience thinned, the grand cardinal of the region slapped his golden arm cannon across the mayor's face and slammed the fool into the wall. Likely breaking a bone and another was sure to be broken when the green haired cardinal lifted the human up by the fool's throat.

"That'll be all Forcystus." Yuan stated, the desian grand cardinal spat in the human's terrified face as he threw the human down, "As I was saying, it is my displeasure to inform you that Lord Forcystus will soon raze your village to the ground for a Code Red-4 violation of the non-aggression treaty that you worked out between yourselves."

"What if we just gave you-"

"Therefore, I believe the death of the Chosen will suffice as payment along with the death of every man, the enslavement of your children and the shrill shrieking screams of your women as they are violated by us dirty disgusting mal-willed half-breed demons."

"You...You can't..." Now the mayor noticed two things, one was that his secretary was never there, not even the stains from her assault were ever present. Two, Yuan was holding out his hand and charging a small orb of man that gave off sparks of electricity, "But you said-"

"I said that Forcystus wouldn't kill you." Yuan clarified as he fired his attack through the human's chest, blasting out bone, muscle and blood onto the wood wall behind the fool and causing the coward to fall forward dead before he struck the ground, "I never said anything about myself, human."

"Shall I destroy the village-"

"No...only the Chosen's group." Yuan stated to the Desian Grand Cardinal, "Capture the Angelus Exsphere and the Chosen's Cruxis Crystal, the rest are expendable."

"Even the boy-"

"All who stand against Lord Yggdrassial are no different in his eyes." Yuan said, never making eye contact...otherwise Forcystus would figure out Yuan's intent, "I hope that you understand."

"Of course, Lord Fa-Kai." With that, Yuan didn't move as a rune appeared on the ground beneath him and he teleported out of the small town of Iselia as Forcystus stood up from where he knelt.

"Sir..." The green haired Desian turned to his waiting subordinate, "Everyone is positioned as you requested."

"Tell them to stay in their places until I give the signal." The soldier appeared shocked by his leader's orders, but was too frightened to speak of them, therefore Forcystus choose to humor himself, "Is there a problem?"

"Permission to speak freely?"

"Granted."

"My lord, this is madness..." The soldier slowly answered as if afraid that any wrong word would invoke his leader's wrath, "Why are we being ordered to kill the Chosen? I thought the Chosen was to be brought to Lord Yggdrassial as an offering to restore mana to the land."

"That is true, however," Forcystus worded his answer carefully to keep from revealing his own confusion, "I have been informed that this Chosen was...ill-chosen. In short, the humans deceived us into chosing the wrong girl and now we will amend that problem."

"How?" The soldier asked, unable to believe that the humans could have deceived them or Cruxis, "How could we be deceived by these disgusting humans?"

"I don't know." The grand cardinal admitted, there was something about the way that Lord Yuan relied his orders, "I intend to inquire of Lord Yggdrassial myself after this is concluded. For now, to your place."

"Yes my Lord." The soldier leapt out the open window into the forest as Forcystus shook his head at the mess that Lord Yuan had left. Fortunately, Lord Yggdrassial's edict had been copied and posted to the man's frightened skull and charmed to ensure that blood would not obscure his lord's command.

To say that Kratos stunned would be an understatement.

He was amazed. He knew that he had felt something last night, something had happened to Lloyd. Of course it was the same seventeen year old boy with dual swords and a head strong will that wasn't very surprising now that Kratos knew where the boy got it from.

No, Lloyd seemed more focus.

His stance was a complete 180 from the mess that it had been during the battle with the "desians" and he was choosing his attacks more intelligently as well. Not to mention the calculated force in each of the boy's blows.

Blows that bore the unmistakable signature of mana.

Wielding an exsphere betrays that some mana would be used. But only elven blooded individuals could do so in an obvious manner befitting of a mage, sorceror, or an explicit magic user.

And now this child was somehow channeling mana through his body to his sword. As if he were channeling a spell through the blades themselves. Where did the child learn such a thing in one night?

As the dual drew on, Kratos also noticed that Lloyd himself was stunned at times by the mana that was flowing through his attacks. That proved that whatever had happened was nothing that Lloyd had initiated, at least nothing he initiated knowingly. He could press the boy for more answers, but Kratos realized that lengthening the match any further may draw unwanted attention.

Specifically from those who still seek for Lloyd's now very active exsphere.

"Very well, we will call it a draw." Kratos sheathed his sword as Lloyd stood up relaxed in confusion, but not in disagreement.

"Fine with me." Lloyd flung around both blades before sheathing them, convincing Kratos that the child's newfound focus had made an impact on the child's maturity.

"I am satisfied, Lloyd." Kratos stated as the two of them began to walk back to the others, "Despite your clumsy stance, defense and pace; You do possess adequate speed and attack, not to mention your determination in the face of infavorable odds. You were also able to adapt very well to unforeseen attacks and my spells."

"Does that mean I can go?" There was desire in the boy's voice, but also determination. If he was not allowed to accompany the Chosen, then he would follow her to the ends of the world and beyond.

"It was the Chosen's decision, I was merely testing to ensure that her judgement wasn't misplaced."

"You mean Colette?" There was the hint of a threat in the boy's voice, but the threat was not an misguided one. The boy meant what he had said, "That is her name."

"True." Kratos stopped walking as he prepared to give this boy one final test to confirm his suspicions. He swiped out his sword and watched Lloyd swerve back from the attack, duck under the blade while drawing his swords and brandishing the blades in a defensive stance as Kratos' suspicions were affirmed.

"What was that for?"

"To test your awareness." Kratos stated as he sheathed his sword and watched Lloyd do the same, "Well done."

"Thanks," Lloyd replied with a smile, "Sometimes you just realize stuff right out of nowhere."

"Like what?"

"I just decided to be there for Colette." Lloyd answered, "So I took the initiative and got up early, if I had just went on what Colette had told me then something might have happened that made you guys leave me."

"I see. So long as you do not interfere with the will of Cruxis."

"No promises." Kratos watched Lloyd stalk towards the others at a faster pace, anger burning off of his mood as Kratos maintained his own pace in thought as an unlikely but viralant thought came to his mind.

Did Lloyd Irving know the truth?

If so...who told him?

Author's Notes:

For the record, I still plan on having the party take the journey of regeneration, but with Lloyd knowing the truth about it, he'll take a few matters into his own hands to twik a few details for Colette's well-being.

Note: First experiment into an M-rated dark fic so feedback is very much appreciated.