And I'm back. Thanks for all your reviews. And...um...Here's the next chapter!

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Lloyd woke up with a start. He had a troubled sleep. Kratos kept flickering in and out of his dreams, sometimes giving them help and directions, but others he had come to attack them, and seize Colette. However, the dream that caused him to awaken so abruptly, was not with Kratos attempting to kidnap her...but trying to kill Sheena. He had seen her lifeless eyes stare in fear, as Kratos' blade pierced through her stomach.

He swung his legs out of his bed, and placed his hands on his forehead, feeling the cold sweat dripping down his face. Though he knew it was only a dream, it felt so real, and it scared him beyond anything they had yet to encounter.

Upon realising he was not able to return to sleep, he walk to the balcony, and stared out towards the beautiful landscape before him. The sun was still low in the sky; it must be early morning. After a couple minutes he got dressed, and headed downstairs, towards the kitchen.

"Mornin', lad." Said Dirk, as he entered the kitchen, "Yer' up early. What's eatin' ya?"

"Hey, dad." He replied, "Just a bad dream, nothing to worry about."

"Well I'll 'av yer' breakfast ready in a few minutes, if yer' willin' to wait."

"Thanks, dad." And sure enough, a few minutes later, Dirk had put a plate full of eggs, bacon, sausages, and bread, but Lloyd was barely through his bread, when he was unable to eat anymore.

"Ye sure yer' alrigh'?" asked Dirk, as Lloyd pushed his hardly touched plate of food away from him, "I 'avn' seen ye eat tha' little since..." he trailed off, as if trying to remember a time when Lloyd had eaten so little.

"I'm fine, dad." He answered defiantly. "Hey, I'm off to meet Sheena, can you tell the others for me?" and without even waiting for a reply, he rose from the table, and walked out the door. After seeing him, Noishe quickly galloped towards him, "Stay here Noishe." He said, without even patting him on the head.

'It was just a dream.' He thought to himself, 'Just a dream.' But no matter how many times he told himself this, he knew he had to see it for himself, he had to see Sheena, just to prove it.

After what seemed like a lifetime of walking, he finally made it out of the forest and entered Iselia. "Hey," he started, as he got within earshot of the two guards, thankfully the same two as the other day, "Can you guys tell me where my friend Sheena is?"

They looked at each other awkwardly before saying, "Um...I'm sorry, Lloyd, but your friend hasn't turned up."

"What! Are...are...are you sure?"

"We're sure!" said the other guard irritably, "We were on the night shift, and no-one came at all."

Without giving thanks he had rushed away from the village and pulled out his rehaird. He zoomed off towards the nearest House of Salvation. 'No problem.' He thought desperately, 'She was just too tired and rested in there for the night.'

Ten minutes later, he landed, and burst through the doors. The Priest looked shocked at this sudden and fairly loud entrance. After hearing what he had to say, he replied simply, "I'm sorry, my boy, but no-one has checked in or out recently. May Martel..." but before he could finish, Lloyd was out of the building, and back in the air, heading towards Triet. 'It's not that far out the way.' He thought desperately.

As soon as he reached Triet, however, he knew she couldn't be there. A huge sign was placed on the door of the inn.

"Our apologies to all weary travellers, but due

To severe illness, the inn will be closed for an

Undetermined time."

There was a date a few days prior, and despite many strange and disapproving looks from many of the towns' people, he cursed loudly and took off again, without waiting to exit the town. There was nothing else to do, he had to go back to the Remote Island Ranch.

After what seemed like hours of flying, he landed outside the entrance, and what he saw made his heart drop, lower then the depths of hell. The door had been blast open. He was still staring at this, unnerving sight for barely a second, before he drew his swords and charged in.

It didn't take him long to see that the door was not blast open by accident, what seemed like hundreds of renegades bodies were scattered throughout the Ranch. Cut could be seen all over their bodies, and blood was staining the walls.

Still horrified by this sight, he jumped in shock, and alarm as a hand grasped his ankle. He looked down to see a highly cut and beaten Renegade. "Yggdrasil." He gasped with what seemed like excruciating effort.

Lloyd bent down, and grabbed him by the shirt with both hands," Where is Sheena?" But it seemed too late, he soldier had said his dieing word. "WHERE IS SHE!" he shouted, as he shaked him back and forward, though he knew it was no use.

Dropping him suddenly, he ran as fast as he could, through all areas of the Ranch, trying to find any trace of Sheena. At last, when he reached the highest place in the Ranch, he saw too objects on the floor; the bow Sheena uses to keep her hair in a ponytail, and her cards.

Picking these up as if they were the most cherished things in his life, he whispered, "Sheena, no." Desperately, he looked around; there was no Sheena's body, and he did not see it anywhere else, does that mean she's still alive, his spirit lifted slightly at the thought. Then, anger boiled up inside of him. "Yggdrasil!" he growled, and he charged as fast as he could, back through the Ranch, onto his rehaird, and zoomed back to his father's house.

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Raine had just entered the kitchen of Dirk's house, "Morning, Dirk." She greeted as she saw the little dwarf.

"Mornin', Raine." He replied.

"I don't suppose you know where Lloyd is? I noticed he wasn't in his bed."

"'E go' up early so he could go meet tha' lass of his. 'Twas a couple hours 'e left. Thought 'e be back by now." He seem to hesitate before asking, "I don' suppose you know if he's bin alrigh' lately? Only, 'e didn' seem to be 'is usual self this mornin', barely ate anythin'."

Raine thought for a moment, pondering this. "Well, he seems to be getting very close to Sheena lately. He actually yelled at Genis yesterday for..." She cut off as she heard something. "Why was it necessary for Lloyd to use his rehaird? Honestly it's only a few minutes walk."

"Well 'e didn't use it to get there. I saw 'im walk off." The sound of the rehaird seemed to halt, and then the door was smashed open.

"Dad, Professor!" he yelled as he entered the room, "I need you guys' help! Sheena's gone! Cruxis have her!"

"Calm down, Lloyd." Soothed Raine, "Now tell me, what happened?" And so Lloyd hurriedly began to explain how he went to Iselia, and all the possible places she could've stayed at. How he got to the Ranch with the door blast open, with the dead Renegades, and how one told him it was Yggdrasil.

"So you see?" Lloyd asked desperately, "Cruxis have Sheena! She needs our help!"

But if he was hoping Raine would quickly jump into battle, and wake everyone up telling them to be ready to charge Cruxis, he was terribly disappointed. "Lloyd, you do realise, that Sheena is most likely dead?"

"WHAT!"

"Lloyd, think. Why would Cruxis kidnap her in the first place?"

"I don't know!" he exclaimed as if this shouldn't be a question to ask, "They want to use her summoning abilities to harm people?"

"That would be pointless, as all her pacts would be broken the moment she tried to do something like that." She stared at the gaping Lloyd for a moment, before saying, "If there was any reason for Cruxis to do such a ludicrous thing, it would probably to try and trap Colette."

"So we should go save her, so they don't get a chance to do that!"

"Even IF, she is still alive, I do not believe going to rescue her is the best option. I think we should just leave her, Colette is sick right now, and we have to go to Tethe'Alla to find a cure."

"WHAT! We've got to save her!"

"Lloyd listen," Raine seemed to be getting irritated now, "we don't need her now, sure the loss of her summoning abilities is annoying, but we no longer need them to complete our quest, we've severed the links now."

"I don't believe this!" shouted Lloyd, "You're making it sound like we were using her as a tool!"

"Lloyd listen..."

"NO! YOU LISTEN! The night before we set out to make the pact with Luna and Aska, I was talking to her!"

"Hey," said Lloyd, a he sat down next to Sheena, in front of the camp fire.

"Oh, hey Lloyd!" she replied trying to hide her tears, "Sh-Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing. You need the rest most of all." He placed a hand on her shoulder, "Are you alright?"

Sheena wiped her eyes before answering, "It's nothing. I've just been thinking."

"What about?"

She paused for a brief second, "Lloyd? Am I...Am I just a tool to you?"

"What?" Lloyd was really taken aback by this.

"It's just, ever since I was little, I've felt that I was just a tool for people to use. Mizuho used my abilities to try and form a pact with Volt. After I failed, I was sent to Meltokio to prove that Mizuho was still faithful to them. When I was first sent over to Sylverant, they didn't care what happened to me, as long as I killed the Chosen. But ever since I met up with you and became friends, that feeling was gone, I had people who cared about me." She saddened a bit before continuing, "But now, that we've been forming pacts with all the summon spirits, that feelings come back, and that after I make this final pact maybe I won't be needed anymore and be shunned again." More tears started to form in her eyes, but she didn't bother wiping them away.

Lloyd had placed his other hand on her other shoulder, making sure Sheena was looking directly into his eyes. "Sheena, listen. You're a great friend, a really great friend. The fact that you have summoning abilities makes no difference to me, and it shouldn't matter to anyone else either."

Sheena wiped her tears away after this, "Thanks, Lloyd. I mean it, thanks. That's what I needed to hear right now." And she gave Lloyd a hug in gratitude. She didn't let go after Lloyd said "Don't worry." But seemed to fall asleep in his arms.

Carefully, so not to disturb the sleeping beauty, he picked her up and carried her to her tent. "No matter what anyone else says." He whispered, "You'll always be important to me."

"That night I convinced her we saw her as a friend! Don't tell me it was in vain!"

"Lloyd, DON'T let your feelings for Sheena cloud your judgement! We still don't stand a chance against all of Cruxis! We only just defeated Forcystus, and he was just a Grand Cardinal! We still have four seraphim to defeat! We'll be slaughtered if we charge in!"

"Three seraphim; Yuan's on our side."

"Just because he's against Cruxis doesn't make us allies. Besides, Colette needs help too, and we can help her."

"So you're saying we can sacrifice Sheena so Colette's safe. Do you even know why we're at this point of our journey? We didn't let Colette sacrifice herself to fulfil the world regeneration, so we could find a way so no-one gets sacrificed to save both worlds. That includes Sheena!" Raine did not answer this, but glared at Lloyd. Realising that she was not going to give in, he yelled. "FINE. If you won't help me, I'll go after her myself!" and he stormed out of the house, and returned to the air.

"That boy needs to get his priorities sorted!" snarled Raine.

"No." Said a voice from the stairs, she turned to see Regal on the staircase. "He's just in love."

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Kratos was walking the streets of Welgaia, towards the main computer systems.

"Ah, Kratos." Said a voice, Yggdrasil was there, apparently waiting for him, "I was looking for you."

"Lord Mithos." He replied. No matter how many millennia had past, he still was not used to calling his old companion 'Lord'.

"I have something that you might want to see." And he walked off, obviously wanting him to follow. To Kratos' surprise, they were headed for the dungeons. "Allow me to present," he said, holding up an arm, pointing to a specific cell, "the person your son loves most."

Kratos gasped. He looked towards the cell Yggdrasil had pointed. Inside, lay an unconscious, purple clad ninja; Sheena.

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There you go chapter 2. I'm getting proud, these two are my longest chapters in any of my stories. Well I hope you enjoyed. Please review and I'll update soon.