Imbalancer :C2

AN: Hey guys and gals. Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter, I really appreciate it. Mad props to Thunderstrike, who pointed out some of the stuff I missed, and then modded the first chapter accordingly. Some men call him Thunderstrike, I call him 'Dave'. He's told me he's going to have some filler for this story for me, so look forward to that, I just know it'll be good. Why do I need filler? Failsafe, my friends, failsafe. I have a notoriously poor record at finishing stories, and while I will try my best with this one, I'd rather not keep you too long before instalments whilst I try and finetune the next chapter. But yeah, thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: Performs an interpretive dance depicting how he doesn't own the copyright to Tales of Symphonia, and how this saddens him. Laugh, cry, life changed, next.

Chapter Two: The Legend of Niblheim

Somewhere out in the sea Lloyd Irving, wielder of the Eternal Sword, leaned idly forwards, arms crossed and elbows resting on the starboard railing of the small vessel. Not too far over the horizon, he calculated, he would find the recently repaired port of Palmacosta, where he planned to take on supplies and try to get a little light work to get him by. He still had a lot of Gald left over from their epic quest to defeat Mithos, of course, but Lloyd wasn't the sort of person who could simply lie back and relax in the lap of luxury without going mad. He looked over his shoulder at the small forge in the back of the boat. He'd kept it in good repair, but it wouldn't hurt to give it a brief once-over when he pulled in to port. His gaze proceeded to wonder fondly over the small boat that was his home, place of work and means of transport all rolled into one. The Anna Aurion, as he had eventually decided to name it, in commemoration of the mother he could hardly remember. He felt he owed her that much at the very least. Her timbers were stout and well cared for, and the small cabin was cosy if a trifle cramped, but it was his home almost as much as any place had ever been and far comfier than the EC had been.

Of course, the EC was unusable to him now that he and Sheena had gone their separate ways, taking the power of Undine with her. His thoughts turned to the dark haired Summoner, and he wondered how she'd been doing in her training to be Chief of Mizuho. They really didn't meet up enough these days, he mused.

At that thought, something, perhaps some near instinctive battle reflex, prompted him to turn his head again to gaze out to sea. He narrowed his eyes. Out there, at the threshold of vision, was there something there? There was. A speck, a blur, moving towards him at an incredible rate, fast enough to split the waves in a broad wake behind it. He tensed, and his hand strayed down to the hilt of one of the swords at his waist. In just a few short seconds it had nearly halved the distance between them and was coming ever closer. The size of the thing seemed to waver from moment to moment, and Lloyd tried his best to concentrate to see if he could actually determine the size of the creature that was bearing down on him at reckless speeds.

With a jolt, he realised. The creature was a figure wearing a familiar blend of purples, pinks and dark colour, with an instantly recognizable mess of black hair whipping in the wind. The speed of her movement and the colouring of her clothes explained why her size had seemed to waver – the colours were, in places, too close to the colours of the water, all alight with the glow of the moon. He just had enough time to smile and untense his body before Sheena, her feet skimming just above the waves, launched herself into the air, grabbed the guard rail of his boat, using the beam as an acrobat would, turning her forward speed into upward movement as she swung further into the air, before landing gracefully on deck in a deep crouch, dissipating the rest of her excess momentum. Lloyd was sorely tempted to break into applause, and therefore did so, for he was a creature of instinct.

Sheena flushed awkwardly at the praise as Lloyd, grinning from ear to ear, whooping and whistling. Her melodramatic streak came to her rescue, and as she rose to her feet she turned the motion into an extravagant bow.

'Thanks, Undine' she called to the water, straightening up.

'It was not a chore, Pact-Maker.' the water spirit said simply, and Sheena thought she saw her smile faintly, although it may simply have been a trick of the light. 'In truth, it feels good to let myself go in such a fashion every once in a while.' Undine said shyly as she disappeared slowly from view. Sheena blinked and turned back to Lloyd, rubbing the nape of her neck, embarrassed and her current problems currently forgotten.

'Hi, Lloyd.'

'Hey, Sheena! What brings you here? To my boat? In the middle of the ocean?' he said, sounding faintly amused.

'Oh. Yeah. Uhhh….'

'Is something wrong?' he asked, some of the sparkle fading from his expression. Sheena took a deep breath.

'You could say that.'

'Give me a minute. I'll drop the sea anchor, and then we can talk about it inside.'

It was some minutes later that Lloyd sat down, and handed Sheena a ceramic mug filled with a hot, sweet liquid. She sniffed it curiously.

'What is it?'

Lloyd grinned. 'Hot Chocolate. It's something they drink down in Flanoir, but I think the beans come from down by Altimira.' he nodded encouragingly at the mug. 'Try it. It's really good.'

'If you say so.' Sheena said sceptically, and took a cautious sip. She cursed in an unladylike manner, coughing and sputtering and trying to fan her mouth in a way that may have been comical had it been happening to anyone else. Lloyd looked embarrassed.

'I heated it on the top of the forge, so it may be too hot right now…Sorry, forgot to mention.' He set his own cup down next to the ceramic bowl which held the rest of the scalding drink. 'I'll get you some water.'

Sheena waved a hand at him desperately.

'No, no, it's fine! I just scalded my mouth a bit, that's all!' Actually, it felt as if she'd scoured every taste-bud off her tongue, but when it came to talking with other people, especially Lloyd, she had an annoying tendency to underplay anything that befell her.

'Well…Go on, then. What's happening?'

Sheena closed her eyes. She didn't want to tell him. Come to that, she wished she didn't know it, either. 'There are problems in Niflheim.'

'Niflheim? I don't think I've ever been to – wait a minute. The Netherworld?'

'Yeah. Shadow told me about it last afternoon, and I've been looking for you ever since…You remember Abyssion?'

Lloyd shuddered.

'How could I forget?'

'Amen to that. Well, apparently, when we destroyed both him and the Necronomicon, we finally put the Dark Lord, Nebilim, to rest. Beforehand, he'd been trapped in Niflheim, fighting for supremacy with the, uh, 'locals'.'

'So…how does Shadow know all this?' Lloyd interjected. Sheena looked surprised, but recovered quickly.

'Oh, that's right. You wouldn't have known. Well, there's an ancient legend in Tethe'Alla that…Well, basically, it says that once upon a time, demons tried to invade the world and drag everyone down to hell, aided by the greedy sorcerer, Nebilim. The great Summoner Raphael, and his true love Elisa fought the demons tirelessly, aided by the Summon Spirits Gnome, Volt, Celsius, as well as Origin and Maxwell. It's even said the Gods themselves aided them. Anyway, in the end, they were victorious, and they banished the demons back to hell, along with Nebilim. But Raphael and Elisa were dragged down with him. To make sure their sacrifice would not have been in vain, and to keep such a tragedy from ever happening again, the Summon Spirits and the Angels of Martel-' Sheena winced '-bent their will upon the earth. Gnome dug deep into the earth, and Celsius poured her mana into crystals of icy beauty. Origin filled them with holy light that would be harmful to the demons, should they ever rise again, and Maxwell created the temple of Darkness out of insubstantial air. Then the Angels created Shadow to be the Summon Spirit of Darkness, to keep watch over the Hells and reinforce the barriers.'

'So…We weren't the only ones to make pacts with the summon spirits…' mused Lloyd, and a grin temporarily stretched across his face. 'Cool!'

She took a breath, and risked another sip from her mug. It was cool enough to drink now. She nodded appreciatively at Lloyd.

'You're right. It's nice. Anyway, that's how the legend goes. Of course, we know it can't be true now, but it seems there may be elements of truth in it. Shadow said that since we thwarted the return of Nebilim and closed his door behind him by destroying the Necronomicon, and defeated the Living Armour, the power balance in Niflheim has been greatly disrupted. Normally, the denizens of Niflheim contest with each other for glory and dominion, but this time, they seem to be rallying behind one, and the barrier is weakening in the temple of Darkness. Shadow insists that I have to do something. The Pact goes both ways like that in times of need.' She paused. 'And I need help.'

'Do you need the Eternal sword?' asked Lloyd.

'Yes. But that isn't all.' She admitted. Lloyd was about to ask what she meant when, with great reluctance, her hand moved to a small pouch at her waist, tightly bound and sealed with what he recognised as a Mizuho charm to protect against evil. Since this was Sheena, it was probably more effective than normal. An intense silence washed over the boat as her nimble fingers undid the sturdy knot that held the top firmly in place. When it opened she dipped her hand in and retrieved an all-too familiar deck of angular cards, each displaying a picture of a large evil-looking bird perched on a large gothic arch.. As they watched, the sky behind the bird flickered and raged, forever trapped in a moment of hellish chaos. The bird moved across the paper, ruffling its feathers and looking out with eyes that glowed a wicked, roving red. The Gates of Hell. Lloyd looked at Sheena, an unspoken question in his eyes.

'We need the Devil's Arms.' Sheena said sadly.

AN: Well, there you go! The proper second chapter! Sorry again for chapter 1.5, but there was no way I could update with this chapter, which was immensely frustrating to me, as you can imagine. Anyway, review or whatever, and thank you for reading! Hopefully I'll have the next one ready for you soon. Fingers crossed, eh?

This chapter Beta-Read by Thunderstrike! Curse him and his hatred of the common comma! Shakes fist

Peace Out, DC