A/N: From the idea that my friend's OC, Reimi, has to undertake her own 'trial' in Welgaia just like the main characters i.e. Zelos, Seles. Sheena, Kuchinawa. Raine, Virginia. Genis, The Mayor of Iselia. etc. While I wrote this I imagined it to take place in one of those many empty rooms you reach through the elevator in Welgaia.

Slowly gaining consciousness, her eyes fluttering open, Reimi awakens to a terrible aching at the back of her head. She brings her hand to the afflicted spot, in an attempt to dull the throbbing, squeezing her eyes shut from the pain.

After a short time, she wobbles to her feet using a nearby wall for support, the cold feel of it jolting her awake slightly. Her eyelids begin to peel open little by little, gradually letting light flood in to sting her eyes. And as they strain to adjust, she finds herself in a corner of a completely empty, steel room.

Unable to remember what had happened or how she got here, (although her injury giving her a few ideas) she wanders over to the metal door, still holding her head. However, just at the moment when she extends her hand out for the handle, a strange 'womming' noise starts to emanate from behind her.

Spinning around defensively, Reimi freezes staring at the centre of the room where she'd just walked by to see some sort of contraption. Somehow the 'machine' had managed to materialize itself into the room without any operators to be seen. Giving it a better once-over, Reimi notes that it consists of a large, thick metal circle that is filled with a reflective light-blue material, almost like a mirror, however, with a more liquid-type substance. And it sat on an attached huge, flat rhombus as its base, keeping it balanced.

Taking a cautious step closer, Reimi gazes curiously into the gooey middle, trying to identify what it could be.

And as if that wasn't enough, Reimi's ears twitch suddenly as she hears a shuffling from the corner she had previously been 'sleeping' at.

'What now?' she thinks apprehensively.

Although as she turns around she's pleasantly surprised to see Lloyd standing there with a small smile on his face.

"Lloyd! How did you get in here?" Reimi calls out eagerly, relief clearly showing on her face as she smiles at him, "Where are the others?" She asks, looking at him hopefully.

Titling his head slightly, he responds in his familiar dumbfounded way, "Huh? Why?"

Reimi's brow furrows slightly as she looks at him, "What do you mean 'why'? They might be in trouble. We need to find them."

"I'll save them, don't worry." He proudly beams, "But first, we need to get you home." He says turning towards the blue portal.

"Home? W-what?" Reimi stutters feeling a pang of panic as she also faces the portal.

"This will take you back to your world." He tells her simply.

"B-but…you…Lloyd, didn't you say I could stay?" She reminds desperately, trying to hide her hurt.

Suddenly alarms bells ring in her mind as she sees his smile disappear and replaced with a distant, bothered expression. Stumbling backwards Reimi braces herself by pulling out her umbrella positioning it in front of her protectively.

"You're not Lloyd…are you? Who are you?" Reimi enquires aggressively taking a step away from him.

"Who am I?" Lloyd echoes strangely, "Tell me your name and I'll give you mine." he laughs taking a step closer to Reimi.

All of a sudden, Lloyd has a snarl plastered on his face, "Who are you anyway? What are you even doing here?" he probes accusingly.

BANG BANG BANG

Reimi jumps, hearing something banging on the other side of the door.

"W-what's that?" she panics, her hand flying to her chest in a feeble attempt to calm herself.

"Don't you think it's time to go home?" Lloyd coos, appearing to glide forwards a little towards her, "You had your fun. Your childish adventure but you're not helping anyone by being here." His way of speaking is nothing like Lloyd's and his words are slow and menacing but Reimi can't look past his appearance. And she can't help but listen.

"That's fine for you too, right? I mean, you never trusted me either." He drawls nonchalantly stepping besides the portal, making Reimi's head snap up in shock. She tries to respond but only an utterance of a sound makes in from between her lips.

"And no one would really notice anyway." He carries on as the door which has been constantly banging from before suddenly grows louder and more violent while the portal's constant pulsating starts making Reimi slightly woozy, "You've just been an unnecessary, useless add-on."

Reimi's nausea grows worse, though she knows that isn't the reason she's having trouble finding her voice.

"Hurry up now. That door won't hold much longer." He warns calmly, keeping his place besides the portal. Reimi only manages to give him a questioning look.

"I don't think it has a name. I don't think it's been discovered yet." He answers plainly, "Like the Mana that radiates off the very earth of the two intertwined worlds Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. The Summon Spirits themselves have always emitted some sort of invisible plasmid that, like Mana, is everywhere. And just as the Summon Spirits are able to sense the balance of the two planets, the mysterious plasma has always protected the worlds in a similar yet much more unknowing way."

Reimi listens on with confusion, finding herself in a crouching position as the dizziness overcomes her.

"To be honest, I don't even understand entirely but what I do know is that it is able to find….errors and get rid of them." He pauses for a moment, "And you…" he points flimsily at Reimi suggestively.

"T-there's no such thing…" Reimi tells him weakly.

'Lloyd' had been growing more and more…lazy in his actions, similar to being drunk as he sways left and right and his concentration seems elsewhere. So, it worries Reimi how his head snaps towards her in reaction to her words. To be honest, Reimi had been quite scared of this person for a while now. They show such calmness but…they're truly manic.

"Haha, no, no, I'm sure there isn't." He laughs….seemingly genuine, "but does it matter?" he continues to chuckle.

Reimi hates how she instantly knew what he meant and slowly begins taking steps towards the portal while 'he' just found a spot on the floor to stare at as he leans against the metal ring that encloses the portal, apparently no longer interested.

Just before her foot meets with the metal panel of the portal the banging on the door suddenly seems to form some sort of familiar voice, "Reimi, it's the same for me too!"

Reimi turns to look back at the door, "Beatrix?"

"It's fine that we're just doing what we want to do, we're not making any trouble!"

"And I think we have made an impact here! If you leave, there'll be a bunch of people left sad! They'll all miss you! And Raine will be furious if you don't say goodbye!"

Reimi finds herself moving closer to the door every time Beatrix speaks.

"It's easy to leave like this. To leave and never try because you're scared that your fears will come true. But if they don't then just imagine how happy you'll be. How will you be able to contradict your fears if you don't face them?"

"And I'll always be here for you. For when you face them, for when the beat them….and for when you don't."

"I'll always be there."

Reimi places her hand on the metal handle of the door. Not as afraid of the loud bashing that continues to pursue.

"Hey," 'Lloyd' calls quietly from behind her, making her look back round cautiously. "I know you love him," Her heart gets stuck in her throat. "The one who has this face." He says lazily gesturing towards his features. "I-"

But before he can continue Reimi pulls the door open and a massive mass of transparent, gloopy-looking matter floods the room aggressively almost knocking Reimi off of her feet. Luckily, she manages to brace herself, covering her head with her arms and keeping her knees bent to keep balanced.

She must have stood there for five minutes before it stops pouring in.

Slowly, she stands upright and lowers her arms to see no evidence that that thick fluid had ever been there. She turns around, and finds that the strange see-through substance was not the only thing to have had disappeared.

'He' and the portal were nowhere in sight.

"Reimi?"

At the sound of the familiar voice, Reimi's chest fills up with relief, and she runs out the door into her sister's embrace.

"Thank you." Reimi breaths out as the tension leaves her.

"Are you guys okay?" Lloyd calls out running to meet them, ahead of the others.

For a moment Reimi finds it hard to find her voice seeing Lloyd again but quickly recovers noticing Lloyd's natural demeanour. It's strange how well she's come to know Lloyd even just through his body language and mannerisms. She smiles at him.