A/N: I'm back! Not that I was ever gone to begin with, but...yyyyeah. I don't even know what to say, honestly.

YES, THIS CHAPTER IS SHORT. It took me forever just to get this far. I just set a deadline for myself and decided that I'd post no matter how long the damn thing was, because I REALLY needed to get through this dry spell. I couldn't put off posting any more, because this week I'm working close to 60 hours between two jobs and I have a feeling just functioning like a normal human being is going to be difficult enough, never mind writing. XD

I know it's been a hell of a long time since my last chapter (January, gah) and I'm sure some of you thought I was gone for good, but once again, let me assure you that that's not the case. This story took up three years of my life. I'm not going to let it fizzle out, dammit. Even if I'm writing it foreverandeverandever.

Anyway. I hope you enjoy what I did manage to get done, even if I'm not especially happy with it. Onward to the chapter!


For the first ten minutes of my reunion with the group, everyone was so busy fussing over me that I could barely hear myself think. I wanted to mull over my conversation with Colette for a while, but that was kind of difficult when there were a bunch of people standing around and treating me like I would shatter to pieces at any moment.

...It was kind of surprising that I didn't, actually. I couldn't really blame them. After what had happened to me, they had all been expecting to find much worse. Something more along the lines of a big red smear on the rocks below.

"I don't know how I survived that," I explained when we finally began walking again. Raine had healed my injuries thoroughly enough, so now I was just sore for the most part. "I blacked out before the impact."

"...Do you think maybe it's your Exsphere?" Lloyd frowned over at me.

"Yeah...that's right. Presea was involved in the Angelus Project too, and she has Angelic strength just like Colette," Genis said.

"Then it would be reasonable to assume your Exsphere is enhanced to some degree," Raine continued, nodding. "It's possible that alone was what saved your life. But I wouldn't recommend testing your limits."

"Don't worry, I don't plan on it," I replied with a nervous laugh. An enhanced Exsphere? It didn't feel enhanced...but come to think of it, it might have saved me when I took that hit for Sheena back at the Temple of Lightning, too.

"I'm glad you're okay," Sheena said with a sigh. "We all thought you were a goner, but Corrine said he could still hear your heartbeat somewhere." She smiled, directing her gaze to the summon spirit perched on her shoulder.

So I really did owe him one. If he hadn't been around to help them find me...would we have found each other in the end? What if I had gotten lost? What if they had thought I was dead and left without me? Whew...that was a scary thought.

"What was up with that earthquake, anyway?" Lloyd's frown had deepened. "That one came out of nowhere, and it was a lot stronger than the one we caused."

"It may have been a result of the mana link we severed," Regal offered, looking thoughtful. "I imagine they will increase in frequency as we form more pacts."

"So it was like that quake we felt back at the Temple of Lightning..." Lloyd nodded. "Okay, we'll just have to be more careful, then."

"And avoid sheer drops," I muttered.

We continued onward through a series of winding passageways and large, cavernous chambers. Colette had to use the Sorcerer's Ring several times to clear the way, but thankfully there were no major incidents. The caves didn't collapse, and falling rocks were easy to avoid; if all else failed, Guardian usually did the trick.

Eventually we made our way out of the gnomelette's caves and into the main passageways of the temple. As we went deeper in, monsters began to appear more frequently. Magic attacks seemed to work best against the rock elementals here, so Genis, Raine and Zelos stayed in the center of our group to cast when we needed them. Lloyd and I stayed up front to serve as meat shields (he still seemed to like using that term, to my dismay), while Regal and Presea guarded the rear.

The fact that we created these group formations without even needing to talk about it was comforting to me. It was second-nature now, with everything we had been through. At least we weren't a group of clueless individuals now; we didn't need Kratos directing us anymore.

The path wound deeper and deeper into the earth, and I suspected we were far beneath the mountains now. Had I ever been this far below ground before? A long time ago the idea might have bothered me, but now it was just an afterthought. We would be going to plenty of other extremes to get to the other seals, anyway.

After what felt like forever, the path finally ended in a large room.

A large, empty room.

"Ah, crap..." I was the first to voice my concerns, looking around the room with a frown.

"A dead end?" Sheena shook her head, confused. "But I thought we were going the right way..."

"Don't tell me we have to go all the way back," Lloyd groaned. This path had been a straight shot for at least two miles. Going back would mean heading almost all the way back to the entrance; I couldn't imagine where we might have taken a wrong turn.

Regal glanced around the room for a moment, and then let out a quiet sigh. "There doesn't seem to be anything here...but this room is free of monsters. Perhaps it would be prudent to take a short rest here while we can."

"I suppose you're right," Raine said. "We should—"

"Hey, losers! You can't just barge in here!"

"Another one...?" Lloyd was unfazed by the newcomer. "They're all over this place."

The gnomelette had entered the room from a crack in the wall that none of us could have fit through. Now he stood there with his hands on his hips, looking quite irked (and of course, not even remotely imposing).

"We don't mean to intrude or cause you any harm," Regal interjected calmly, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace. "We simply wish to meet with the summon spirit that resides here. If you could tell us a way to go further in, we would be much obliged."

I appreciated his ability to be diplomatic—couldn't have said it better myself—but unfortunately the only response Regal's words received was a cocked eyebrow.

"Listen, bub," the gnomelette said, "I ain't gonna fall for that nice-guy act. You want me to just let you through for free? Sorry, but the world don't work that way."

"What do you want, then?" Genis asked.

He stopped to think about it for a moment, and I realized what was coming.

"...Spicy."

"Huh?" Lloyd blinked.

"What is spicy? Does it taste good?" the gnomelette asked. "Gimme something spicy to eat, and I'll show you the way."

"Not again..." Sheena groaned. "Well, does anyone have any ideas?"

"Spicy, hmm..." Genis frowned a little. "That's going to be a problem. Raine used the last of our red satay last week, remember?"

I grimaced a little. Had that been the last of it...? Yes, I did remember her little experiment, but I hadn't realized she had used our entire supply of satay again. That wasn't good...that meant I was going to have to fess up.

"Um, I bought some on our last supply run..." I offered, trying not to sound too timid.

"Back at the House of Guidance?" Genis glanced over at me, surprised. "Oh, now I remember. Since when do you offer to do the food shopping, anyway?"

"I was gonna have another go at learning how to cook," I replied with a sheepish laugh. "The chef at the House of Guidance gave me the recipe for curry, actually..."

"That's perfect!" Lloyd exclaimed, grinning.

"Curry...good idea," Genis said with a nod. "You're cooking, then? I guess it'll be better than Raine—" He was abruptly cut off, letting out a yell when his sister gave him a good whack.

"You're going to cook?" Colette's eyes lit up with delight. "Brittany, I haven't had your cooking in so long! Remember those omelettes you made? I was so sad that I couldn't have one. I bet you'll be really good at it now!"

My face fell. Why the hell did I have to go with the "learning to cook" story? Crap! I had never even tried curry—how the hell was I supposed to know if I was making it right?

Also, Zelos was giving me the worst look. He hadn't even bothered with sarcastic remarks this time; he was just staring. And staring. And staring. I had the feeling that suspicion was starting to evolve into downright conviction, and then I was really going to be in trouble. I needed to set some time aside later and figure out how I was going to tackle that particular problem...unfortunately, spare time was pretty scarce nowadays.

Speaking of which, now was not the time to be worrying about it. I had a different dilemma to attend to.

I smiled nervously. "Uh...well, I mean, I guess I could...it might not be any good though."

"It'll be fine!" Lloyd said happily, clapping me on the back with a laugh. "You always cook better under pressure!"

"I do?" I grimaced. The last time he'd dumped me with surprise cooking duties...jeez, had it really been that long ago? That had been when I'd first discovered the Wonder Chef...

I paused, feeling a slight glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, a quick survey of the area revealed nothing out of the ordinary...damn. No miracles for me today. The chef was probably still put out from our meeting in Meltokio.

After glancing around at everyone, I understood from the looks on their faces that there was no giving in. It'd be a little silly to make a scene over this, as much as I wanted to. I would just have to bear it and do my best...even if my best might turn out awful. On the bright side, at least I couldn't possibly do worse than Raine would.

Genis had already grabbed the wing pack, pulling out a bag that contained our cooking supplies. I let him extract the pot and a few other tools, and he even used magic to start a cooking fire for me. I knew he was doing it in the hopes of minimizing the potential damages, but I was grateful anyway. I probably would've grabbed the wrong pot.

As he did that, the others began to set their stuff down and occupy themselves. To my relief, Sheena actually struck up a conversation with Zelos, successfully distracting him. That was a first—had she noticed his staring? Either way, I wouldn't have to worry about any scrutiny while I cooked. Everyone else was being fairly relaxed.

I pulled out my notebook, flipping through until I found the page the recipe was written on. The chef had relatively neat handwriting, thankfully, so I was able to make out what I was supposed to do without too much trouble. I was relieved to find that there weren't any strange cooking-related words in the instructions that I couldn't understand, either.

Okay...okay. I could do this! Easy as pie!

Finally I read over the ingredients list and began to pull out all of the required items. Then I raised my eyebrows, realizing something. Not only were none of our measurement tools labeled—apparently they belonged to Genis, and he didn't need labels—but half of the measurements were in units I didn't understand. What the hell was a "gill" supposed to be? Some of the units were recognizable, and others were just nonsensical words.

All of the other times I had cooked, I had sort of just winged it—it occurred to me that I had never used an actual recipe from here before. Maybe I should've read the recipe over beforehand instead of assuming someone else would end up cooking...

Whatever! Everyone else was distracted, and I really didn't want to ask a bunch of questions when I was probably going to screw it up anyway. I knew what a cup, teaspoon and tablespoon looked like without needing them to be labeled, so I pulled them out.

I prepared the ingredients according to the recipe, portioning them out as well as I could. The recipe called for a gill of water, so after some hesitation, I poured just under a cup of it into the pot. It was just water, so it couldn't do much harm, right? Maybe if I put too much it'd just boil out or something.

Then the final ingredient called for three saltspoons of red satay. Saltspoons...uhh...teaspoons? Okay, I was gonna go with that. I spooned the satay into the pot and finally sat back, allowing it to simmer for a while. The steam coming from the pot, at least, didn't smell deadly. I took that to be a good sign.

The recipe said to let it cook for twenty more minutes. I nearly smacked my forehead, remembering that I had no way to measure the time. I had learned a while ago to look at the sun's position in the sky for a good estimate of the time, but that only worked in a general sense, and obviously it was useless down here. I began, not for the first time, to dearly miss my cell phone.

Someone like Genis or Regal would probably cook it until their instinct told them it looked done. I was just going to have to guess at it. Either that, or count to sixty...twenty times. Yeah, I'd rather guess.

For a little while I watched the contents of the pot like a hawk, stirring occasionally. I knew it wasn't pasta, but with my luck I kept feeling like it was going to find a way to boil over. Eventually the curry seemed like it had cooked long enough, so I hoped for the best and began getting together some bowls.

"Oh, is it done?" Lloyd asked excitedly. "Great!"

"Sure," I muttered, sighing. It was beyond me why these people ever let me near cooking utensils.

We spooned the curry into the bowls, passing a serving to everyone in the group. The gnomelette got his first, and was already halfway through it by the time everyone else had gotten their food.

"So this is 'spicy'!" he said between bites.

"...Good?" I asked hopefully.

"Oh! Spicy! Spicy!" The gnomelette seemed cheerier than when we'd first run into him, but Lloyd just looked puzzled.

"...He probably doesn't understand what spicy is," he pointed out.

My face fell. "It's spicy, dammit."

The others had the courtesy to wait until everyone was served before eating, so I fixed myself a portion and sat down. Well, at least the hard part was over...now to see if my concoction was safe for human consumption.

"It smells good," Sheena said approvingly.

I was relieved to see that no one was staring at the food dubiously, the way they would have had Raine been the chef. Maybe this was going to turn out okay after all.

"Hey, this is good!" Lloyd said happily after taking a bite.

"Wow, it is," Genis remarked.

I saw everyone else give it a try, forgetting about my own food so I could watch their faces expectantly. It was an interesting reaction, really. Everyone seemed to like it...at first. Then an odd look of surprise showed on their faces, and they seemed to become uncomfortable. I waited for the verdict, wondering just what could induce that reaction. I didn't put laxatives in the food, I swear.

"...It's spicy," Presea said quietly with a straight face, and I figured out what the problem was.

Regal actually coughed a little, fighting a grimace for my sake. "...I-Indeed."

Hold on, had Regal just stuttered? I stared dubiously down at my own bowl, and then glanced at the rest of the group.

"Really spicy..." Lloyd squeaked.

My stomach sank. Okay, that probably wasn't good...

"It's still delicious, though! Really!" Colette insisted. She had a happy smile plastered on her face; it would have been convincing if her eyes weren't watering. Somehow I felt like this was the first time since regaining her senses that Colette wished she couldn't taste her food.

"...It's like eating a condensed version of the sun," Zelos deadpanned, staring at his bowl like the contents were going to attack him.

"Our gnomelette friend wanted it spicy, right?" I piped up, trying hard to salvage some of my dignity.

"Yeah!" the gnomelette backed me up. He was eating the bowl now. Apparently gnomelettes had some kind of personal vendetta against dinnerware.

"See? Now stop being a bunch of babies," I said, glaring down at my curry. Defense mechanism time! If I acted like I thought the food was great and everyone else was crazy, then I could pretend I meant to make it this spicy!

Determined, I took a spoonful of the stuff, shoved it into my mouth, and swallowed.

Holy shit.

Everyone had quieted down, offering me expectant stares. I tried to school my expression into something calm, or at least lacking emotion. Instead I was pretty sure I just looked constipated.

It was so spicy that my eyes were beginning to water, and my nose even felt like it was going to start running.

No, no! This wasn't convincing enough. Take a few more bites, shrug it off, and call it a day! Dammit, Brittany, stop being a wuss!

Taking a breath, I popped another spoonful of the deadly substance into my mouth. I was pretty sure I heard a few of the others gasp a little, and Lloyd paled.

"Is that safe?" he whispered to no one in particular.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. I had to drop the spoon I was holding in order to catch a tear before it fell. I swore profusely under my breath, cursing my poor acting skills. Somehow I managed to swallow the food, and the burning sensation in the back of my throat made me want to break out into a coughing fit.

"...Okay," I admitted after a minute, finding it difficult to talk in a normal tone of voice. "So maybe it's kind of...er, borderline inedible."

"How much satay did you use, anyway? Can I see the recipe?" Genis asked. I complied, handing it over, and he frowned at the paper. "...only three saltspoons? It shouldn't be this spicy."

"Uh, about that...what's a saltspoon?" I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly, and everyone's faces fell.

Genis gave me a funny look. "You don't have saltspoons on Earth?"

"It's not a measurement that I know of," I replied slowly. "...Is it the same as a teaspoon?"

He let out a small groan, rolling his eyes skyward. "Well, that explains it."

"What?" I whined.

"...A saltspoon is equivalent to one-fourth of a teaspoon," Regal informed me.

"You put four times the correct amount?" Sheena cringed.

"If you didn't know what it was, why didn't you just ask?"

"I guess I thought I could wing it," I said. Cue collective sigh from the group.

"Well, I'm getting bored," the gnomelette declared loudly, thankfully taking the spotlight off of myself. We all turned to him, curious.

"If you losers want to go on ahead, here's the way!" he approached the far end of our small room, giving one of the boulders against the wall a good hard kick. There was a sudden shaking, and then the boulder was sliding out of the way, revealing a hidden passage. How had I not seen that one coming?

"No way..." Lloyd murmured.

"Anyway, I'm going! Later!" And with that, the gnomelette had disappeared down the path he had just shown us.

When he was gone, we all just stared at each other for a minute.

"Note to self: when all else fails, start kicking rocks," I remarked.

"Dork."


"...I see. Intriguing...I never imagined just how extensive the differences between our worlds would truly be."

Regal had adopted a thoughtful expression as we spoke. I was grateful for the distraction; the passage we were heading down was the longest yet, and I was bored out of my mind. He had asked me about my cooking mistake, and then had gone on to explain some of the different—and bizarre—measurements that were commonly used here.

"Right down to the last detail, I guess," I said with a chuckle and a shrug. "Then again, we're still speaking the same language. Explain that one."

His brow furrowed. "You have a point. It should be impossible."

"I'm beginning to believe that our worlds are connected in some way," Raine remarked.

"Connected?" Lloyd piped up. "You mean like Sylvarant and Tethe'alla?"

She shook her head. "Not like that. But these odd parallels, coupled with the fact that Yggdrasill chose Earth specifically...it's too much to be a mere coincidence."

"That's true. How did he find out about Earth to begin with?" Sheena wondered aloud.

I shifted uncomfortably at this turn in the conversation. Part of me wanted to say that I didn't know the answer, that there was no logical reason behind the similarities of our worlds. But that wasn't quite the truth, was it?

Everyone here spoke the same language as me because that was how it had been in the game. Angelic and Latin were the same because it was easier to understand that way. A lot of the cultural mannerisms—gestures, facial expressions, and the like—were familiar to me. Many measurements were the same. The geography was similar to Earth's. Logically, if I had travelled to an alien planet, the chances of it having so many things in common with Earth were ridiculously slim.

It was Tales of Symphonia. No matter how many ways I looked at it, the game was the connection. Of course there were similarities—if the designers had made a world no gamers could even remotely relate to or understand, then no one would have bought the game.

But even though the others were beginning to notice the uncanny similarities, I couldn't voice my own thoughts. It sounded far-fetched even in my head, and aside from that, I just couldn't reveal that side of things to them. I just had to hope that they wouldn't expect any answers from me.

"Do you think it means something?" Lloyd asked, and it took me a moment to realize it was me he was addressing.

I just shrugged. "Maybe. But I don't think there's any way we'll know for sure...unless we ask the guy himself, anyway."

"We've learned a lot since we started this journey," Colette spoke, an optimistic smile on her face. "I'm sure we'll find the answer sooner or later. We just have to keep moving forward!"

"Colette's right," Lloyd agreed, grinning easily. "Well, I guess there's no point in worrying about it right now. Let's just focus on making this pact."

"Oh! I wonder what Gnome looks like?" The blonde looked over at Lloyd.

"Well, Volt was a big ball of lightning, so maybe Gnome is...a giant rock or something?" He tapped his chin, not liking this idea. "That's boring..."

The bemused look on Regal's face almost caused me to burst into a fit of laughter.

Genis grinned. "Lloyd and Colette completely derail another conversation..."

"Guys, guys, you're forgetting one very important detail," Zelos finally joined in, his eyes full of mirth. "Undine was a total babe."

Cue Lloyd's face turning beet red, Sheena groaning, and Regal looking...well, even more bemused.

Luckily, before Sheena could ready her fists for another beatdown, we reached the end of the passage. It led into a wide open chamber, one that was even more brightly lit than all of the others had been. The strange platform at the far end of the room was easily recognizable—we had finally arrived at the seal.

"All right! We made it!" Lloyd pumped a fist in the air excitedly, seeming to completely forget about Zelos's remark from just moments before.

Everyone else seemed to breathe a sigh of relief—we had been running around this place for quite a while, after all. Or maybe it hadn't been so long and it only felt like a long time. I honestly couldn't tell at this point; I was always tired either way.

We approached the seal slowly, on guard. It occurred to me that we hadn't even discussed which people would be fighting this time around. Man, how had that conversation never popped up? Well, maybe it wasn't that important; we didn't know that much about Gnome to begin with anyway. Would his body be hard to puncture with blades, like a rock elemental? Or was it really as soft and furry as it looked in the game? Hell, I barely remembered anything about his abilities, so I wouldn't be of any help in that regard.

Out of nowhere, the ground started to shake uncontrollably. I braced myself against Regal, who planted his feet and remained still as a statue, and began looking around for the source of the quake. Too powerful to be the Sorcerer's Ring, but it didn't make sense for it to be another of those mana link-related quakes...oh!

That was when the ground in front of the seal bulged, and a small hand clutching a shovel burst out of the Earth. I almost yelled something about the zombie apocalypse, but then I realized that it was a furry paw, not a hand. And then Gnome himself climbed out of the hole. He began to casually dust himself off, as if he hadn't even noticed us.

"...This is Gnome?" Lloyd whispered disbelievingly. "He's so..."

"Cute!" Colette piped up with a delighted smile, and his face fell.

"Since Volt was Undine's opposite," Genis murmured, "that makes Gnome—"

"Efreet!" Lloyd said. "If we wake up Efreet, that'll sever their mana flow, right?"

"No, it's Sylph!" Raine hissed, clearly exasperated. "Honestly, how many times do I have to tell you before you actually remember it?"

Lloyd's face fell. "Aw...we have to go back to that desert? Man..." The Professor's irritation seemed to fly completely over his head.

"Anyway..." Sheena cleared her throat, reminding us of where we were.

Finally everyone fell silent, all eyes falling on Gnome as Sheena moved to the front of the group with a solemn expression. He seemed to have brushed enough of the dirt off his coat, because now he looked up at us, his whiskers twitching inquisitively.

After a few seconds, he broke into an easy grin. "Hey, guys. What's up?"


A/N: I'm crying inside at how short this is. Alas, it would've taken me another six months to beef it up. Seriously, I feel zero enthusiasm regarding the summon spirit portion of the game, because it really isn't that exciting. I have a few interesting events planned to make it less tedious, but I think I need to figure out a way to go about it so that I don't get bored. XD

I know, next to no plot progression here. Sadface. Hopefully it amused you. Or at least the image of me ripping my hair out through the entire course of writing this amuses you. Hurrrrrr.

Review...if you feel like it!

...it'd make me happy if you did. *attempts to look pathetic and pity-worthy*

Next time: LET'S JUST FIGHT GNOME ALREADY.