AN: Well it's time for me to write and for you to read. Thanks to my reviewers, I hope you keep sending them.
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I don't own the computer I'm writing on. I do however own this story and the freakish dream that inspired it.
Ch. 3: A Good Change or Just a Change
Another day passed. People went to work, left work, and did whatever else they did, in the same normal fashion they always did. The street gangs fought, the students attended their classes. Everything seemed normal, but a great shift had occurred somewhere, and barely the slightest hint of it could be seen.
To Lloyd, things were just the same as they had been since he had first taken up his job at the crane, three years ago to the day. He still ate his dinner with Sheena at Regal's Café, they were still living in the same poor conditions as before. Not much had changed.
The only difference, was not really so different anymore. He hadn't seen Zelos since the funeral. Rumors said that he had died, or had managed to gain passage on a ship, no one could say for certain. All anyone knew was that he had disappeared.
Lloyd's thoughts were broken suddenly, as Sheena sat down in the seat across from him. "What's for dinner?" She asked.
"Regal got some beef in this morning, he says it's a middle quality!" Lloyd replied excitedly. "I figured we could try some beef stew. I heard that he's got a pretty good recipe."
"Sounds great," she smiled. "How was work?"
"Quiet day. Nothing in, nothing out. Good thing I'm not paid by how much I do, but by being there."
Sheena laughed at the small joke. Lloyd could always get her to laugh, even if he wasn't trying. It was one of many reasons for which she loved him.
"How was your day?" he asked cautiously. Sheena worked at a small makeshift hospital that was more useful mending broken bones than curing illness. Some days were horribly bad, and others were good. It all depended on how many people died.
"It was better than yesterday. An old man died of… something. But other than that, it was just a few kids with scraped knees."
"Kids scraping their knees," he mused. "That brings up a few memories."
"What?" Sheena asked in mock astonishment. "You mean to tell me you weren't always invincible?"
"Oh I always was and still am!" Lloyd retorted with laugh. "It was Zelos, always tripping over nothing. He might have been a ladies man, but he was as tough as paper."
Sheena then thought of something she had heard earlier today. "Did you hear about what happened to Varhley?" she asked.
"No, what?"
"He's dead. One of my friends has a radio, and she says that it was on every broadcast that Max Varhley was dead. Apparently his heir has already taken his place."
"Varhley had an heir, and he's dead!" Lloyd exclaimed, astonishment painted on his face. "When did all of this happen?"
"Just last night apparently. No one knows how it happened, but it happened."
The news traveled through the diner like a wildfire, and soon everyone was gossiping about the mysterious death of their self-proclaimed dictator. Some were saying that he probably choked on a turkey wing, others said he was assassinated by a foreign government. The tales were growing taller and taller with each new telling of it and it had only been an hour since Sheena had mentioned it.
While all of this was going on around them, Lloyd and Sheena sat at their table, eating the beef stew. The meal tasted great, and was made all the better by the good mood they were in. With Varhley dead, his heir might turn out to be a decent man, and maybe grant them some freedoms his mentor had withheld, or possibly even open them up to a less restricting economy.
The jovial atmosphere of the diner suddenly changed to fear as two men in suits entered the diner. "We're looking for Lloyd Aurion," one of the suited men declared. No one was going to tell a lie to the mafia's secret police, so everyone in the diner pointed in Lloyd's direction. "Come with us please. Our employer wishes to meet with you."
Normally, when someone mentioned an employer, they would be referring to Varhley, and this knowledge sent a chill down Lloyd's spine. But then when he remembered that Varhley had just died, he wasn't quite as frightened anymore.
"What does he want?" he inquired.
"It's not your place to ask questions, just come with us."
"Okay okay," he said, holding his hands up in resignation. He then turned to Sheena. She was scared, she couldn't even speak. She had gone numb with fear. Lloyd smiled at her reassuringly and said, "Keep the light on for me, I'll be home soon." He then followed two men out of the diner and into a car.
The atmosphere in the car was something completely different from that of the diner. It was quiet, oppressive even. The two men with him were staring at him, waiting him to make a move, perhaps hoping for a reason to shoot him. It was therefore to Lloyd's great relief that the car stopped shortly after leaving the diner, at the tallest building in the city. A place known to the people as the "Money Tower." Wherever money went in the city, it always wound up here, the center of Varhley's little empire.
The next leg of the journey was to the top floor of the building by elevator. Up, up, and further up the elevator went, until it seemed to Lloyd that he was at the top of the world. And the elevator kept going higher, and higher, until it finally stopped at the top. The doors slid open, and sitting at desk to the side of a large set of double doors was a secretary, typing away diligently at a keyboard.
"You must be Mr. Aurion," she said, looking up to Lloyd, "I'll inform the boss that you've arrived."
She then turned to a speakerphone to her side and said into it, "Sir, Mr. Aurion is here to see you."
"Send him in please," the speaker replied in a somewhat familiar voice.
"You may go in sir," she said, turning back to Lloyd.
Lloyd walked through the double doors and into a lavishly decorated office. There was a coffee table to one side surrounded by leather sofas, and on the other side, an automatic piano was playing a soothing tune. At the far end was a large, polished oak, desk with a leather chair behind it facing out toward the window.
"C'mon in, have a seat," came the familiar voice again from behind the chair.
Lloyd sat down in a comfortable chair on his side of the desk and waited. A few minutes ticked by, and Lloyd was getting nervous. Why had he been called here? What was this guy waiting for? Lloyd's questions were answered when the man spun his chair around to face him. Sitting there was a man with long, flaming red hair and a smirk on his face. He wore a black suit that contrasted his hair so much that he seemed to want it to stand out. "How've you been Lloyd?" Zelos asked.
"Zelos!" Lloyd stared in shock. "You're Varhley's heir?"
"Yup, pretty sweet, huh?" Zelos said.
"When did all this happen?" he asked.
"I went looking for a job here after your dad's funeral," Zelos explained. "Varhley noticed my money skills pretty fast, and I shot through the ranks even faster. Next thing I know, the old man starts calling me his apprentice and teaching me how to run this city. When he died last week, I quickly seized control and established myself as the new boss."
"Wait, I thought Varhley died last night," Lloyd said.
"Yes well, I wasn't ready to let anyone know then, now I'm building up suspense so that people are shocked when they see that I'm in charge." Zelos replied. "This time next week, people will by crushing there own skulls just to figure out who's running the company. Can you imagine their faces when they realize it's me?"
"You and your theatrics," Lloyd chuckled.
"Yeah well, it'll be worth it I think," Zelos replied.
"So then, why did you call me up then," Lloyd asked. "I figure the goons were to keep up your act, but why call now? It's been three years Zelos."
"That's why I called you Lloyd," Zelos replied. He then got up from his chair and walked to the window, staring down at the city. "It's been three years," He said in a sadder tone. "Three years away from my best friends, my hunnies, but most importantly, my old lifestyle. I've been out of the loop for three years now. Sure, I know what Varhley was doing, but he's dead so I can fix what he did. But what I don't know is what has been happening to the people. Lloyd, I want to offer you a job."
"Slow down Zelos," Lloyd said. "I have a job already, remember. I still work the crane. That's a fulltime job in itself."
"This is a job that wouldn't interfere with the crane," Zelos explained, turning back to Lloyd. "All I need you to do is listen to people. I want you to be my eyes and ears in the streets. You see or hear about something on the streets, and you tell me about it. I then proceed to deal with the problem in the best way I can. You would of course be duly compensated."
"It sounds like a pretty good deal," Lloyd admitted. "But I don't want to be paid, I'd feel like a spy or something."
"I knew you'd say that," Zelos laughed. "You're way to predictable. But I need you to accept the payments."
"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.
"It's my plan to deal with the poverty," Zelos said. "I plan on pouring more money into various company ran businesses and use that money to give pay raises. The workers at the places that are affected by this plan will naturally spend more with all the money they'll be getting. They will pour their money into other establishments, and the money will circulate back to here and we repeat the process. This will work in nearly every district of the city but yours. I don't have enough people there, so I need you to accept some extra gald."
"You realize of course that this plan is almost crazy enough to work." Lloyd said smiling. "Alright, I'm in. But I do have one condition."
"Name it."
"I never did like that law that said the crane worker couldn't marry," Lloyd said grinning.
"Neither did I really," Zelos grinned back. He then pulled a wallet. Inside was more gald than Lloyd had ever seen. Zelos pulled out several notes, handed them to Lloyd and said, "Make sure you get her a nice rock."
"Rock nothing!" Lloyd nearly shouted. "With this, I'll be able to get Sheena twenty rings!"
"Good, now then, let's have a drink," Zelos said.
"That works," Lloyd replied.
For the next few hours Lloyd and Zelos talked, mostly about what had happened to them over the past three years, but also about old times. They talked about memories that seemed to be from another life. When they got around to talking about Zelos' twenty girlfriends, Lloyd told him that they were all a bunch of ugly prostitutes working corners, Zelos just smiled and said, "I'm glad I got away from them when I did."
After they were done catching up, Lloyd left the Money Tower with renewed hope for the city. He could already see the smiling faces, and he believed they would soon be real.
AN: Well, that took forever to write but it is here and done. There probably won't be too many more chapters in this story and I don't know when I will write them but I will. Now please review. Next chapter will be called "The Rotten Fruits of A Good Mans Labor." Laters!