Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, the sequel or its characters…

Moonlit Night

It was night time and everyone was starting to fall asleep. Marta and Emil just recently met with the Sage siblings, Genis and Raine, and now the four of them are venturing out together. Emil just recently made a pact with a fire monster so he had it make the fire that they were enjoying at the moment. Emil wanted to savor this moment as once they wake up, they will once again be thrown into battle against hordes of monsters as well as the Vanguard who are still searching for Emil and Marta, as well as Lloyd.

Emil wondered why Colette, Genis and Raine regard him so highly despite the fact that they know what he has been doing. Emil also felt that Genis was the most torn about this as he's Lloyd's best friend, Lloyd would never turn his back on him if he was his best friend right?

Emil was about to fall asleep until he looked around and noticed something was missing.

"Huh?" he frantically looked around to see some of his monsters that he collected as well as Genis and Raine sleeping, but something was missing. "Where's Marta?" He didn't want to bother anyone around so he just stood up quietly and started to search the area. He started to grow more and more worried about her the longer it took. He stopped to take a yawn since he was still very tired and ended up feeling something poke him.

"AHHHHHH!"

"Emil, quiet down, you don't want everyone to wake up now do you?"

"Marta? Where were you?"

"Shhh… come here, I want to show you something."

Emil was curious to where she wanted to take him so she grabbed his hand and took him though the area to a hilltop. There Emil became awestruck, it was a field of flowers that were glowing right next to a cliff with a shining full moon. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life.

"So this is where you were the whole time."

"Yep, but I did feel a little bit lonely looking at this so I went to come get you guys, but I guess I got a little lost along the way. Then I found Genis and Raine asleep and you were missing."

"I was just a little bit worried about you…"

"Aww, that's so sweet Emil!" She ended up hugging him… rather tightly, so much so Emil couldn't breathe well…

"Marta… ack… too tight…"

"Huh? Oh sorry…" She let go of him allowing him to breathe normally again. After looking at the scenery for a while, Emil caught himself staring at Marta. The way the Moon was shining, it made Marta look like an angel. Then he started blushing a little bit after remembering what he talked about with Colette before she left.

"How was Lloyd back then?" Emil asked her.

"Well… during the start of our journey, he was constantly worried about me and wanted to spend time with me as much as he could," she said to him, "I remember one time when he took me out somewhere to look at the moon, well at the time there was only one moon actually but he took me out to go see it one night while everyone else was sleeping. He looked into my eyes and caught me off guard with the thing he did next."

Emil was thinking at this point that Lloyd must have been a pretty romantic person.

"He poked my head, called me a dork for stuff I said earlier and then started messing with my hair."

Okay maybe not…

"But it was special because I got to spend this time with him, after that those moments started to become less and less but I appreciated every moment of those times."

"That's cool I guess."

"I know you guys don't like Lloyd that much but no matter how he is, was or is seen in the eyes of others, I'll always cherish those moments with him." Then she started smiling at Emil and said, "You know, you should also cherish those moments with Marta too!"

"Huh… but we're not…"

"But she's still your friend right? Or is she really something more?"

That conversation started to ring though Emil mind. He really did want to be with her, she was the one that believed in him. He didn't know what he was doing next but he started to inch closer to her. He took his arm around her and pulled her towards him. Though initially shocked, she knew what he was doing so she ended up holding his other hand and then rested her head on shoulder.

"Emil, I think you're getting braver every day." Marta told him.

"You think so?"

"Yep!"

They ended up staring at each other intently, and Marta just ended up smiling at him. They wanted to enjoy every moment of this night as they may not every have a chance to have this time ever again. The both of them felt happy, so much so that they didn't think about everything that was happening to them. Emil thought that this was all a dream, but then he remembered Richter's words to him when they first met and silently said it to himself.

"Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality…"

"Emil, you say something?"

"Hm? No, I was just whispering to myself…"

"…you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm going to be fine." Emil said to her. I want to become brave and strong… so that someday… I can make this dream come true again…