The Search is Over
by: Mylinda Antoinette

Summary: The worlds have been saved, and Sheena is back in Mizuho. One night, a person she thought was dead returns. How will Sheena react to this surprise?

Author's Note: For the purposes of this story, imagine that Lloyd went out with Kratos during the night at Flanoir.

This story idea was sparked when I was listening to the song The Search is Over by Survivor. The title is reminiscent of that. This is the first TOS one-shot I've ever written, and I hope you will enjoy it!

Also, it's been seven months since the final fight with Mithos.

I would like to thank Kuruk, my beta-reader, for all the suggestions he made to help the story flow better! It's now about a million times better than it used to be, so thank you very, very much!

It was a cold, clear night in the village of Mizuho. The stars shone brightly across the half of the sky that wasn't already covered with clouds. A storm was rolling in, and as it did so, each twinkling light dimmed and then disappeared, knowing that as soon as the storm was gone, it would be safe to reappear in the night sky.

Sheena stared out her window at the storm looming over the village. Not for the first time, she felt the familiar pang of loneliness run through her...

Since the worlds had been saved, she had been too busy with her new duties as the Chief of Mizuho to visit her old friends... If she was lucky they would pass by to say hello, but she would be far too busy to even properly catch up, let alone have meaningful conversation.

With a sigh, she let herself admit that it wasn't only her friends that she missed...

It was that feeling of acceptance that flowed freely between them... that understanding and trust they all had in each other. It was one of the best feelings in the world, knowing that people trusted you, loved you... especially when you felt the same.

Truly one of the best feelings...

But it only made it that much harder when you were suddenly deprived of it.

Even though she was Chief and one of the world's saviors, some of the villagers still resented her for the incident with Volt. They would give her the respect she was due, but she could see the resentment that would poke through all of their hollow respect. She heard their bitter whispers when she had her back turned...

She pretended she didn't, but that didn't mean that she actually didn't hear it.

Or that it hurt any less...

Perhaps it was a bit melodramatic, but it pained her. Physically. It was like a dull ache in her chest that would throb when she would fake a smile, or pretend that most of the village respected her...

Or when she tried not to think about... him.

As her thoughts flitted to him, the ache spread to her lungs. Suddenly she was suffocating... The town, the responsibility, everything... it was smothering her, and in desperation she made a decision.

She needed to get away...

Not for long... Her responsibilities as Chief kept her tied to the village, and she could not be gone for long... but still, he needed to get out of there, at least for a little while...

So she did just that.

She would leave for a while, she told herself, maybe see Lloyd and the others. That would make her feel better.

It would... if only she could bear to be around her friends again...

And it was all because of him.

That stupid, red-headed Chosen, who always acted like he was God's gift to women. He was so arrogant, such a jerk... his faults could go on and on, Sheena knew.

And yet deep down, she knew that the reason that she missed him so much was... well, because she actually loved the idiot.

She just couldn't help it. Everytime she was around anyone from the old days, she was reminded of Zelos, and just like that she became sullen, the fact that she was seeing her friends again not enough to lift her spirits.

She was surprised to hear, during one of these reunions that Kratos had returned, and was traveling the worlds with his son to finish their quest of destroying all the exspheres left in the worlds.

Certainly if Kratos could come back, why couldn't...

Sheena couldn't finish the thought. She was suddenly exhausted, and she dropped to her knees, collapsing by a large rock that her vague sense of direction, though impaired by her current state of mind, told her was about half-way between Mizuho and Gaoracchia Forest. She burst into tears out of pure emotional exhaustion. She just couldn't take it anymore...

"Sheena?" she heard a faint voice call as the first drops of rain began to fall. Sheena's head shot up as she looked around. The voice was all too familiar, bu she quickly shot that thought down. He was gone, so how could she hear--

"Sheena?" the voice came again, but this time louder. It seemed as though it came from right behind her. Sheena whirled around...

And there he stood.

The Chosen One of the world known as Tethe'alla.

Zelos Wilder.

Sheena's heart skipped a few beats in shock. "Z-Zelos?" she asked, daring to hope that the figure in front of her would speak.

"Good Goddess... it's really you..." he murmured, drawing closer to her. "I've been wandering for weeks now trying to find you... I kept thinking that maybe I was close to Mizuho but I never seemed to find it..."

"You... how is this possible?!" the dark-purple haired woman exclaimed, not knowing what else to say. "You're... we thought you were... aren't you supposed to be..."

"Dead?" Zelos finished softly. "I thought so too... I was sure I died in the Tower of Salvation. The next thing I remember seeing is waking up somewhere, lying in a bed in a warm room somewhere I didn't know. Someone was there with me... I didn't recognize him at first because I was so confused. I'd been hurt pretty badly, but the guy told me he'd given me some of his mana just in time to save me, and he set about healing my wounds. Once they were healed, he brought me back to the place which I later learned was an inn in a place called Asgard..."

"You mean the tourist city in Sylvarant?" Sheena asked, gradually coming out of the state of numbness she had found herself in for the past few minutes.

"Yeah, that's the one," Zelos confirmed. He turned and sat on the rock Sheena had collapsed by, facing away from her. "He explained everything to me, but he didn't stick around for long. After that, he brought me food twice a day, usually a bowl of some kind of soup or pasta. It certainly wasn't what I was used to, and it didn't always taste that good, but it sure helped me feel better... It must have had some kind of medicinal properties.

"Because of how badly I'd been hurt in our fight, it took me months to become myself again. When I regained every last bit of my memory, I recognized my savior as Yuan."

"Yuan?!" Sheena exclaimed. "No wonder we didn't hear from him much for the last few months..."

"Anyway, I couldn't figure out why the guy saved me, especially considering I'd wanted to die in the first place... he told me that even though I felt unneeded, unloved by anyone, there was at least one in this world who truly cared for me, who needed me. I couldn't imagine who he meant. I thought through everyone I'd ever met. My sister couldn't possibly love me or need me... that girl can take care of herself, she's always been able to. None of you guys needed me... or so I thought."

Yuan himself had lost Martel, the love of his life. Sheena remembered when he told the group of the locket, how his hard eyes would soften when he opened the locket and gazed at the picture...

If anyone knew about living on when they had no one to live for anymore, it was Yuan.

"As time went by," Zelos continued, breaking Sheena out of her reverie, "Yuan brought me back here to Tethe'alla to finish my recovery; even though I'd gotten my memory back, I knew I couldn't hold my own in a fight. I could barely stand by myself. I started to hear reports of Mizuho, that they were making final preparations to move to Sylvarant. I kept tabs on you guys as much as I could. I knew that as soon as I was able to do stuff on my own, I'd come to see you."

"But... why me?" Sheena asked weakly. The redhead stood up again and turned to look at her, gently gripping her arms and pressing his lips against hers in a kiss that was soft and sweet. Sheena's eyes could only widen at the action, her body useless.

He broke away a few moments later, staring at her with a soft intensity that showed he meant what he did with every bone in his body. Sheena shivered.

"Does that answer your question, Sheena?" he asked softly, reaching forward and tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear. They were both completely drenched by the rain now, but neither of them cared. They were too wrapped up in themselves to even notice their soaked state.

"Wh- What was that for?!" Sheena exploded in surprise. How could this be possible? That womanizer... he had just... the nerve!

"I love you, Sheena Fujibayashi," Zelos explained in a low, solemn voice that Sheena could barely hear over the drumming of the rain. It was the first time that she had ever heard him sound so serious, but she just couldn't bring herself to believe him. And while deep down inside her, she knew she felt the same way, she didn't want to believe that, either.

"I... I can't... coming from you..." she stammered to the boy in front of her. "I just can't believe that coming from a guy like you," she exclaimed determinedly. She was not going to allow him to draw her in. She would not let herself become another victim of his little game; she wasn't that type of girl. "If you're going to try to seduce someone, why don't you just go find one of those 'voluptuous hunnies' of yours? I'm sure any of them would be happy to go out with you, and then you can leave me the heck alone!"

Zelos seemed stunned by this outburst. He took a few steps back, then turned around as though trying to compose himself. His effort proved to be in vain, however, as he slammed his fist into the rock next to him and whirled around ferociously to face his companion, an anguished look on his face.

"You just don't get it, do you, Sheena?!" he cried out, his voice broken. Sheena just stared at him in shock, quietly trying to determine whether the drops rolling down his cheeks were just raindrops or if there were tears mingling among them. "Sure, there were others! But they weren't what I wanted, not really!" his eyes crackled with emotion, " I wanted someone like you, Sheena. You're the one I want... the one I've always wanted."

This surprised Sheena more than anything else he'd said so far. It didn't make sense...

The sound of the rain pounding down all around them made it hard to think, and her hands flew up and cradled her head, the dull ache having reappeared in her head...

"But why?" she protested. "If I'm really the only one you wanted, why did you go after all those other girls? And why in the world..." her voice trailed off as she took a few unconscious steps towards him. Tentatively, she let her hand reach out to his cheek, surprised to find that the liquid there warm... not cool like the rain. He really was crying, she thought... "Why me?" she asked simply, her voice soft and plaintive.

"Believe it or not, Sheena... it was because of how you despised me," he replied softly, reaching down and picking up both of her hands in his own.

"Ha, yeah right," Sheena scoffed, yanking her hands out of his and turning away from him. "Who ever heard of a guy getting turned on by a girl who hated him?"

"Well, I did," Zelos insisted, drawing closer to Sheena and resting his hands on her shoulders. "You didn't fawn over me just because I was rich, like all of those other girls did. You saw past my title and the money that came with it. You were the only girl who ever saw me. Those other girls... they meant nothing to me. But ironically, the thing that made me fall in love with you was the very reason I thought we would never get together. So I started spending even more time with those worthless noble girls. I just wanted to find happiness, but the only time I was ever happy was when I was with you," he gently leaned around her neck and placed a kiss on her cheek, making her shiver. "Like now," he added quietly. "I don't expect you to believe me. I don't even know if we'll make it as a couple. We can both be pretty stubborn, and we both have tempers," he admitted with a smirk, "But it's like they say. We'll never know unless we try. Please, Sheena... give me a chance to show you the man I can be... instead of the boy I used to be." He turned her around and gazed into her deep violet eyes. "Please, Sheena," he pleaded. "Please give me a chance."

Suddenly, Sheena felt as if she just couldn't take it anymore, and she threw herself, sobbing, into Zelos' arms. Zelos was surprised by this, but he recovered quickly and slid his arms around her, gently rubbing her upper back in an attempt to comfort her. "Shhh, Sheena..." he whispered soothingly, "It's gonna be okay, you'll see..."

It took a few minutes, but Sheena finally began to calm down. Zelos withdrew a bit, and gently tilted her head up to look at him with a single finger under her chin. "I... I've never felt this way before. It's kind of scary," he admitted, "But I want to try. I lived for a reason... and I want that reason to be you."

Sheena hesitated a moment before responding in a voice that was a little hoarse from crying, but was otherwise soft and gentle. "Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt to try..." she whispered in response.

Zelos' emerald eyes lit up-- not the way they used to with a mischievous glint-- but a true light, as if something inside was radiating its own light.

It was beautiful, Sheena thought as he embraced her. She did not protest, resting her head against his chest, delighting in the beating of his heart.

Because that meant that he was real.

They were both content to stay like that, but with a sigh Sheena pulled away. "I have to go, Zelos... I've been away from the village far too long already," she said softly. "W-would you like to come back with me? I haven't eaten yet, and if you're hungry..."

"I'm famished," Zelos replied with a boyish grin on his face. Sheena smiled back at him.

"Well then, it's settled," she decided firmly. "Come on, Zelos!" She took his hand and they began their trek back to the village.

"So," Zelos began, that familiar cocky tone returning to his voice, a smirk on his lips, "What shall I call you? My Busty Summoner?" Sheena's eye twitched, her free hand curling into a fist, "Or perhaps my Voluptuous Beauty? Or maybe--"

Zelos yelped when Sheena suddenly struck at him. "Sheeeeeeenaa..." he whimpered, rubbing his reddening cheek.

The summoner simply growled and stalked away in the general direction of the village. "Idiot Chosen..." she murmured.

Unlike other times, Zelos did not whine. He smiled and walked after her.

Sheena too, soon found her murderous look dissolving into a grin, especially when Zelos caught up with her and wrapped his arm around her waist.

It felt nice... so she permitted it.

Some things never change... and some things do.

This time, though, as the rain cleared up and the full moon shone its pale light down on them, Sheena thought it was for the best...

I hope you all enjoyed this story! Please leave a review on your way out!