Imbalancer C3

AN: Wow, chapter three. Being at home must really get my creational juices flowing. Insofar as inspiration can be counted as a liquid, which to be fair, isn't very far. Anyway, I'm writing this before chapter two is up, so I hope you enjoyed that one. And now onto the third, uh, bit.

Disclaimer: I own many things. The sun, for instance. That was mine, but I didn't get the idea to the patent office at the time, largely because there were no patent offices, or even patent clerks, so it's quite likely that I'll not see a penny for inventing the sun. However, even if I do own many things, I don't own the rights to Tales of Symphonia.

Chapter Three

Lloyd had levered up some of his floorboards, and Sheena realised that there was a small compartment in the floor, something like the smuggling cabinets the Mizuho intelligence network sometimes used. As she watched, he lay down flat on the remaining floor space, and reached in. With a slight grunt of effort, he pulled out a small crate. She could faintly hear a rhythmic thudding and slithering from the inside. Lloyd grimaced.

'I hoped I'd never have to set eyes on these again.' He said quietly. He shrugged and smiled faintly at Sheena, showing her a glimmer of his usual exuberance and carefree spirit.

'Oh well.' He muttered, and grabbed the crowbar he had used to pull up the decking, and effortlessly pulled open the top of the crate, the nails offering scant resistance to his immense Exsphere-granted strength. To Sheena's surprise, the crate was stuffed with hay, unrefined wool, and old, threadbare clothes. She looked at him curiously.

'I thought that these would muffle the noise, but it only sort of worked. I can still hear it sometimes.' He said, almost as if he was apologising to her. He reached in to the crate, clearing packing out of his way as he searched. The muscle of his shoulders tightened as his hands made contact with a hilt and slowly, with great reluctance, he pulled out the Nebilim blades. One was a gruesome parody of a human spine, the blade made of interlocked bone and cartilage, a tiny, fanged mouth working soundlessly on the guard, bony teeth gnashing at the air. The other was a tentacle of purple sinew and muscle, forever swaying and searching in invertebrate slithering. A small green stone was set in the guard, a grotesque parody of an eye. A shiver shot up Sheena's back, as it normally did when she looked upon the Nebilim blades. They gave of a sense of malice and it took a truly incautious or uncaring individual to look upon them without revulsion, and Sheena was neither incautious nor uncaring.

'So, why do we need these…things?' Lloyd asked, packing the Devil's Arms securely into a roll of tough leather and twisting it firmly shut with wire. Sheena bent down to the pack, busying her hands and eyes with the business of fixing each end with the potent Mizuho charm that restrained her own.

'Well…as far as I get it, the Devil's Arms are the locks on the seal of Niflheim. Or keys, I'm not really sure. You know what Shadow can be like.'

'Yeah.'

'Anyway, the Devil's Arms were created to keep the door from being opened by accident on this side, or forced open from…the other side.' Sheena stood up, satisfied with her work. The Nebilim blades had stopped moving, from what she could tell.

'So they get taken away and hidden and even if they were found, mostly people couldn't get to them, and it's not like anyone knew what they were for anyway, right? But that all messed up when Abyssion found the Necronomicon, a book that Nebilim's meant to have written himself. It was sort of like a failsafe in case his plans went bad and he got banished into Niflheim, which he did. It told Abyssion where the lock was, what he needed to say, and what the locks were. But because he got tainted by the contact with the forbidden book, he couldn't touch them himself. He didn't have the power to make the keys obey him. But he wasn't weak. He broke into the Shadow Temple and smashed Shadow into pieces, and then he tried to force the door with just the words. But it didn't work, because that's how the Devil's Arms work. When they gate is locked, they just have to be, and they'll be strong. But when someone from either side tries to force the gate, they divert their energy into reinforcing the seal. In the end, he tricked us into getting the Devil's Arms for him. He couldn't open the door properly and unleash Niflheim, but he could force it open enough to let Nebilim back into the world through his body. This made the Devil's Arms so weak that he managed to control them. If we'd lost, he'd have probably unleashed Niflheim again. But we won, and because we burned the Necronomicon his spirit couldn't get back into Niflheim, and the Dark Lord died once and for all, along with Abyssion. Then the seal slammed shut again, and the Devil's Arms began to get stronger again as their power returned.' Sheena continued as she packed up the Gates of Hell and her needle and thread, with which she had bound Lloyd's. He looked as if he was struggling to take all of this in, but indicated that she should continue and so she sat down.

'Anyway, the problem is…his escape attracted the attention of the demons of Niflheim. Now they know it's possible to force the seal, and they're gathering as one force, which they've never done before. Normally, the tribes fight for dominion over all of Niflheim and stuff, or who the King of Niflheim is, so they were never strong enough or organised enough to do any real damage. Now they probably are, so...' Sheena took a deep breath and paused, looking at the floor, uncertain as of how to continue. '…I have to go into Niflheim and try to stop them. I don't expect you to go with me.' She said quickly. 'It's just, I need to get the Summon Spirits in. They can't get in there by themselves because it's not part of this dimension, but if I go in, they can enter through my body.'

Lloyd was giving her a really strange look.

'Do you really think I'm going to let you go in alone?' he said, obviously bewildered. 'That's kind of insulting.' he said, making a face.

'Sorry.' she said apologetically 'that wasn't how I meant it.'

'Yeah, I know. But, still…' she lapsed into silence, trying to put what she wanted to say into words that would fit. 'It's going to be really dangerous. Even if I succeed I … I probably won't be coming out again, thanks to the seal. I don't want to put anyone else in danger…' Least of all you, she thought to herself, glancing slightly at Lloyd, who caught her eye and grinned wholeheartedly, offering her his hand.

'What's a little mortal peril between friends?'

She caught the full force of that smile and all the trust it conveyed right in her heart, and smiled despite herself. Maybe he was right. Maybe there wasn't anything they couldn't do together. Or maybe his optimism was simply infectious.

'We'll see.' she promised. 'So what's next?'

'Well, I need to call into Palmacosta and resupply, so either we go there and then move on from there, or stop there for a while and try and figure out who to get first. Or I guess we can restock on the way.What do you think, Sheena?' he asked earnestly. She considered carefully.

'I think we should move on as fast as we can. We don't know how much time we have…'

'I guess not…Well, from here Colette would be the easiest person to collect first.'

'Yeah.' Sheena agreed. For some reason, she wasn't entirely happy with the idea of Colette joining them so early. Perhaps it was because she was her closest rival in regards to Lloyd. That thought brought her up short. Did she really think that way about Colette?

No, she resolved, it would be good to see the blonde-haired Chosen again.

Yeah. Good. It'll be fine. Yeah.

For that matter, what had she meant by 'rival for Lloyd'? She forced down the treacherous thought, back to the depths from whence it had come. She didn't think about Lloyd like that, either.

She realised with a start that Lloyd was looking at her. She must have started drifting off into a reverie.

'Are you OK, Sheena? You looked kinda distant there, and… Was one of the Summon Spirits talking to you or something?'

'Uh…yeah.'

'So what did they say?' he asked in a mildly curious fashion.

'Uh…That…we shouldn't…waste time?' Sheena faltered. Come on! You're training to be the head of a clan with a huge network of informants and spies, and that's the best you can come up with? She thought, berating herself. Thankfully, Lloyd didn't seem to notice anything amiss in her statement and nodded amiably.

'Yeah. Well, we should probably rest now, we can start travelling to Iselia in the morning. We should get there by mid afternoon, since it isn't too far.' He grinned unashamedly, and looked fondly around the cabin of the tug-like Anna Aurion.

'She isn't as fast as the Rheiards or even the EC, but I'm still fond of her. Anyway, let's get some sleep.'

Sheena's blood seemed to turn to ice. Looking around the cabin, she could only see one bed. One bed, two people. Unbidden, a blush rose to her cheeks as she looked to the floor.

'So…how are we going to do this?' she asked, forcing herself to look up at Lloyd. He grinned at her, and crossed over to the bed. With a flourish, he tugged at some partially concealed catches her eyes had missed before. There was a wooden thunk, and another frame dropped down from the wall. From under the main bed, Lloyd pulled a bundle of thick covers, sheets, and pillows, and laid them on the bed with an extravagant flourish.

'Ta-da!' he said, grinning at her from ear to ear. 'I made it myself! What do you think?'

Sheena was impressed, to say the least.

'Wow, Lloyd! I didn't know you did woodwork as well!'

'Well, I kinda dabble…' he said, smiling happily. 'You want me to take the top one?'

'Nah.' Sheena dismissed that idea with a flick of her hand. 'It's your boat, I'll take the top one. When have we ever stood on ceremony, anyway?'

'CEREMONY….'

'Shadow, this isn't the time.'

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AN: Oh, that wacky Shadow. Thanks again to Thunderstrike for Beta-reading this piece, and hopefully I'll see you next chapter, where we start gathering our heroes. And if all goes to plan, there'll be a DIRE OMEN OF THINGS TO COME! Or Zelos rising as a zombie and getting smacked with a shovel by a comical gravedigger, whatever works.

Peace out,

DC