BLM: Woo. Writer's block does strange things to the brain, so when the muses say "write", I write. Lest my inspiration be gone forever… Anyway, I've gotten ToS addicted, which is why I'm not working on PCFT right now, please forgive me. I was inspired by the skit you get after you beat the Lightning Temple between Lloyd and Sheena over Corrine's death, so here you go. And now, my muse, say the disclaimer!
Kratos: -poofs- You are truly evil, you know? Anyway, she owns nothing, not the game, not the characters, not me…
BLM: But I DO own your little fairy-patterned boxers, heh heh. -waves them around-
Kratos: What the-! GIVE THOSE BACK!
BLM: Review please! And then maybe I'll give Kratty back his boxers!
/Sheena? Why are you shaking/
Looking back at the ground behind her, Sheena stared at the small fox Summon Spirit. "I'm scared, Corrine. What if I fail with Volt again? The rest of the village might be wiped out!"
/Don't be scared, Sheena/ Corrine purred, ruffling his tails and rubbing himself against Sheena's leg. /If it looks like you're going to fail, I'll save you/
"Thanks Corrine, but I don't think you'll be much help here…" Sheena sighed, scooping up her friend and setting him on her shoulder. In front of her, the small shrine of the Mizuho village sat in the shade of a tree, an arrangement of stone tablets ground into the earth.
"Sheena? Are you ready to go?"
Appearing behind them, Lloyd stopped a short distance from the shrine and waited respectfully. He did not want to force Sheena into doing something she did not want to do, but they needed that pact with Volt to get the Rheairds working so that they could save both Sylvarant and Tethe'alla.
Sheena turned to look at Lloyd, and gratitude slowly spread across her face. "Yeah, I'm ready…let's go get that sparkplug."
After a quick trip in the EC they arrived at the Temple of Lightning, on a small mossy island just north of Mizuho. The temple itself really wasn't much to look at. It was just a cracked stone pillar, covered in vines and shrouded in mystery.
The group slowly approached the entrance and went in. Halfway up the first hallway Sheena stopped cold, dread racing through her. This setting invoked horrible memories of the first time she tried to make a pact with Volt. Only then, her grandfather was with her, but he had not been able to withstand the explosion of Volt's power. Now he lay in a coma, sleeping endlessly in the village…
Sheena hugged herself, scared, and then looked up in surprise as Lloyd put a hand on her shoulder, as if to steady her.
"C'mon Sheena. I know you can do it." He grinned. "After all, you made the pact with Undine. Why should Volt be any different?"
"I…I don't know." Sheena stammered, looking up the path to where lightning streaks shot out, sizzling the air around them. "This place just gives me the creeps…"
"Sheena. We need you for this." Lloyd begged, looking worried. Sheena looked at him, and then at the others, and sighed.
"Alright, I'll do my best…but I can't promise anything."
With confidence renewed, the party set forth again, ducking under the lightning streaks in front of them to reach a split in the road. From there, it was up to the left fork to raise a lightning rod, then up the middle to raise the rod there, and then down the right fork to lower the last lightning rod. When that was done, Lloyd led the party down a small right path, and ran into a monster.
"Raine…I hope you're remembering what these things are!" Lloyd prompted the resident healer-mage as he parried a snaky woman's tail thrust.
"Don't worry, I've got them down… One Lamia, two electric swords and a lightning bird! Genis, no lightning attacks!"
"Now she tells me." The little white-haired mana master muttered as he canceled his Thunder Blade attack and sent out an Eruption instead.
The enemies fell to the ground, deep-fried from Genis' attack, and melted away into the ground to clear the path. After checking to make sure there were no more monsters, the group ran along until they came across a Sorcerer's Ring device.
"Cool! I wonder what it does now." Lloyd mused, and nearly fried Genis and Colette with a blast of lightning from the ring.
"Hey! Watch where you point that." Genis growled, casting a quick Spread on his smoking clothes. "That hurts."
"Whatever." Lloyd muttered, and shot some blocks up ahead to clear a path, down which was more lightning barriers and two chests. Opening one chest, Lloyd grinned as he lifted out a particularly shocking kendama. "Does this make up for being shot with lightning, Genis?"
"Ohhh yes." Genis grinned evilly, flipping the new weapon around a bit before shocking Zelos in the butt with it. "I love it."
"YEOUCH! Save me from these barbarians, Sheena!" The redhead Chosen yelped, diving behind her as he made a face at Genis. "They have no education and they're jealous of my beautiful face."
"I'm sure they are." Sheena muttered absently, and then noticed Zelos looking down over her shoulder, drooling.
"What the- ZELOS! YOU PERVERT!"
Slap!
"Let's keep moving." Sheena muttered darkly as she stalked past Lloyd back the way they came. After looking at the twitching heap on the floor that was Zelos, the group was more than happy to comply with the female ninja's wishes.
As they went further in, it became clear that getting through the Lightning Temple would be no easy task. Volt's altar was blocked by three large blocks, colored red, blue, and yellow respectively. Lloyd shot the red block with the Sorcerer's Ring and destroyed it, and then they were forced to move on.
After fending off another monster attack on an upper tier, the group appeared in a dark room, with only lightning flashes to show the way as they groped along to another door. This door led out into a block puzzle, which was more like a roller coaster ride.
Lloyd shot blocks, which would drop chests, and then they'd have to raise or lower lightning rods. It was quite a tedious task, not to mention the fact that in order to get down to another level, they'd have to drop with a block. For those who couldn't land properly, that meant sore bottoms before long. However, the chests found wielded much treasure for the party, like a new staff for Raine and a new sword for Zelos, which Sheena said he didn't deserve.
"And you don't." she growled at him as he whined and fussed and tried to tell everyone how cool his new sword was. "I still don't get why little pervs like you get all the fun new toys anyway."
"Maybe because the hunnies just looooove me?" Zelos grinned, and that earned him another slap on the other cheek.
Slap!
"Moving on..." Sheena muttered as they exited the room and went back to Volt's altar.
From there they went down into a water-filled room to raise a lightning rod and found a new Sorcerer's Ring device. Now the ring shot yellow lightning (with which Raine and Presea were nearly fried.)
"Lloyd! Watch where you point that!" Raine snapped, and whacked him over the head with her new staff.
"OWW! Professor…" Lloyd whined, rubbing his head. "Why do you have to be so violent? That probably hurt more than the lightning blast!"
After a few more whacks from Raine, Lloyd finally shot the blocks overhead that blocked the path and the party moved on, into another dark room. That led to more stumbling around perilous ledges and staircases until they exited out into another room.
In this room, a block puzzle presented itself, but was unsolvable until Lloyd shot and dropped blocks down from certain levels and activated a machine, which in turn did something to all the lightning rods they'd messed with in the temple. After that, Colette found another Sorcerer's Ring device when she fell over it, but they couldn't do anything with that yet, so it was back to Volt's altar again to fry another block.
With one block to go, the party backtracked to the puzzle room and Colette fell over the device again, so now the Ring shot blue lightning (which almost caused Regal and Zelos' end) and everybody headed back to the dreaded altar to shoot the final block.
"Alright, I'm gonna shoot the final block now. Sheena, are you ready?" Lloyd asked, turning to look over his shoulder at the rest of the party.
"U-u-um yeah!" Sheena stuttered, shaking once more. "Just hurry up so I can get this over with…" Lloyd cocked an eyebrow in confusion, and was about to suggest that Sheena stop hyperventilating before they awakened Volt when Corrine appeared in a puff of smoke on the ground, and tapped Sheena with his tails.
/Hurry up! Saving the world waits for no one, y'know…/
"You're right Corrine." Sheena sighed, patting her friend. "Go ahead Lloyd, I'm ready now."
"Okay…here goes!"
Zap.
The last block fell in shattered pieces from the altar, and mana began to well up. Slowly, a little ball of energy formed, and then he was there- Volt, Summon Spirit of Lightning. Resembling a sphere of static electricity with red eyes, Volt stared down at the group, apparently saying nothing.
Sheena gulped, and then stepped forward. "Volt! I am Sheena! I wish to form a pact with you!"
…
"Dammit! It's just like last time!" Sheena growled, stamping her foot on the ground. "I can't understand a word he's saying!"
"Calm down," Raine soothed. "I'll translate."
"You who possess the right of the pact. I am already bound to Mithos."
"Wow, Mithos made pacts with Tethe'alla Summon Spirits too?" Genis mused, interested.
Sheena sighed. Not back to this again… "Volt! I ask that thou annulst thy pact with Mithos, and form a new pact with me."
…
"No."
"W-what? Why?" Sheena squeaked, staring up at the electric ball in disbelief. Rotating downwards to look at her, Volt's red eyes narrowed into thin slits.
…
"I have no desire to form any more pacts with humans. Begone."
"Come on! We need your help if we're going to save the world! Please, Volt!" Sheena pleaded, her sentiments echoed very loudly behind her by Lloyd and Genis. Volt seemed to sizzle a bit, and then a bolt of lightning shot out at Sheena.
/Sheena! Look out/
"Corrine!" Sheena gasped, as the little fox spirit took the blow and fell to the ground twitching. The hit was more than a manufactured Summon Spirit could withstand, apparently, and Corrine began to fade, an indication that he would soon die.
"Corrine! No! Why did you do it?" Sheena knelt on the ground next to her friend, cradling the fading spirit in her arms.
/Sheena…I told…you… If it…looked like you were going to fail, I'd…save you…/ Corrine gasped, smiling up at Sheena. /Don't worry…about me…make the pact…/
"But Corrine-"
"SHEENA!" Lloyd jumped in front of her and deflected another lightning bolt from Volt, who was now hovering around the room randomly zapping things, as it seemed he'd gone out-of-control. "We have to do this now! Before Volt destroys the place!"
"There's no way, Lloyd. I'm not strong enough!" Sheena wailed, clutching Corrine and staring tearfully at Volt. "I can't do this!"
"Yes you can!" Lloyd insisted, blocking another bolt. "If Volt won't listen to reason, then subdue him by force!"
"But…" Sheena stared down at Corrine, who was by now nearly gone. "Corrine…"
/Please make the pact for me/ Corrine whispered, waving one of his tails. /You can do it, Sheena/ The little bell around his neck rang, and then the Summon Spirit disappeared, the golden bell falling neatly into the palm of Sheena's hand.
"Corrine..." Sheena whispered, tears running down her face as she clutched the bell tightly in her palm. Behind her, Lloyd was still blocking Volt's attacks, and apparently, the others were coming to help too. "This is for you. VOLT!" she yelled, standing to face the frenzied Summon Spirit. "This is it! Gimmie your power!"
That declaration resulted in all-out war between the party and Volt. The lighting spirit was beset on all sides and seemingly overwhelmed for a moment, but quick bursts of lightning repelled all except Lloyd and Sheena, who guarded and continued their assault.
Pounding on Volt was like trying to pound on nothing but air. However, Genis soon took to casting 'Icicle' and 'Ice Tornado', freezing the Summon Spirit for minutes at a time and allowing the other party members to hack, slash, kick, and pummel him. Eventually, they unison attacked him while initiating Lloyd and Zelos' 'Cross Thrust', which sliced the half-frozen lightning ball in two.
Falling to the ground, Volt hovered up moments later as a non-threatening ball of static electricity.
…
"He says make your vow." Raine translated, sighing in relief. Sheena set her jaw and stepped forward.
"Right now, there are people who are suffering. I vow to save those people…in the memory of the ones I love." She added softly, clutching Corrine's bell tighter.
…
"I accept your vow. Please do not betray me again."
Volt's power formed into a small glowing orb and drifted down to Sheena, who went ahead and absorbed it into her body. As she did so, there was a sudden rumbling in the temple, and Undine appeared opposite to Volt upon his altar.
"Undine? What are you doing here?" Sheena gasped, as she had not summoned the Spirit of Water.
/A mana link has been broken./ Undine stated, looking across at Volt. /Never before has anyone ever made pacts with Summon Spirits from two worlds./
"So, what does this mean?" Raine asked, about to go into psycho-scholar mode. Lloyd and Genis looked at her cautiously, and then sought shelter in the back of the line.
…
"Hmm. He doesn't know, but all he is certain of is that a mana link has been severed." Raine mused. "That may or may not be a good thing…we need to find someone who is knowledgeable about the gap between the worlds to find out."
"But not until we get the Rheairds!" Lloyd yelled from the back of the line, and shrank back to hide behind Regal as Raine turned her withering glare on him.
"Well, apparently we're done here for now… Let's go." Raine sighed, motioning to the others before walking out of the altar room. Sheena bid goodbye to Undine and Volt, and then raced after the others, Corrine's little bell tinkling in her hand.
Once outside the temple, the party stopped to rest for a little bit and enjoy the ocean scenery. Genis and Colette were down wading by the shore and trying to get Presea to join in, which wasn't working, Raine was talking to Regal about Summon Spirits and mana links, and trying to avoid Zelos in the process.
"I didn't know Zelos was so fond of older women." Lloyd remarked, coming up behind Sheena and sitting down on the ground. She chuckled slightly, looking over at Zelos and Raine, before sighing deeply.
"It's Corrine, isn't it?"
"…yes." Sheena looked down nostalgically at the little gold bell in her hand, and rolled it around a bit, listening to the noise it made. "It's just so hard to believe he's gone…I keep thinking I can summon him here, but I can't…"
"Sheena, I'm sorry." Lloyd sighed, giving her a sympathetic look. "I know how it feels to lose a loved one. But believe me, Corrine's not gone."
"He's not?"
"No, he's not. Corrine's still with you and you can talk to him at any time." Lloyd said, pointing to the bell Sheena held, and then at his Exsphere. "Just like me…mom is here, and I can talk to her whenever I want. Corrine gave you the bell so you won't forget him. Use it."
"How?" Sheena asked, looking curiously at Lloyd and then down at the bell again. Lloyd smiled.
"Try praying to the bell. If nothing else, it'll make you feel better."
"Thanks, Lloyd." Sheena smiled back, and then both of them cringed at a yelp from Zelos.
"Oops, gotta run…must save Zelos from the Professor." Lloyd chuckled, getting up and running down the hill towards the others, where Raine had Zelos in a headlock and Genis was cheering her on. Sheena watched him with a laugh, and then turned back to the golden orb in her hand. Closing her eyes, she focused only on the bell and prayed.
Goddess Martel…if you can hear me, please keep Corrine safe. If anyone deserves a place in heaven, it's him…
/Sheena/
Corrine!
/This is great! Now I can finally say goodbye to you…/
Her eyes jerking open, Sheena stared in amazement at the surface of the bell. Reflected in the sunlight, she could make out a pair of ears, eyes, and a nose- Corrine's entire face!
The spirit stared back at her from the bell's surface, his tiny face curving into a wide grin. /You're okay, Sheena! I knew you would make it…why are you crying/
"Cuz' I'm happy, Corrine. I'm happy to see you again." Sheena replied, wiping a tear from her eye. "But I don't want you to go…"
/Sheena, I have to. Happy voices are calling me, and I don't want to disappoint them. Please don't cry for me. I'm happy here./
"Happier than with me?"
/I was never happier than when I was with you. But I have to go now, Sheena, so please be happy./
"Happy? I don't know if I ever will be truly happy again." Sheena sighed, sniffling. The face in the bell frowned, as if something was hurting it.
/Please be happy for me, Sheena. This is my final wish…goodbye…/
"Corrine! No!" Sheena exclaimed, but the spirit's face faded and was gone, replaced by the sheen of the golden bell. Turning it over and over in her hands, Sheena looked for some sign that the fox spirit was there, but it was truly gone.
Sighing, she looked down the hill at the others when she heard them laughing and Raine yelling as she was splashed with salt water, her worst enemy. Cracking a sad smile, Sheena considered how happy they were, and then flopped back on the grass to stare up at the sky.
Floating high in the clouds, she thought she saw something resembling Corrine's wavy tails, and sighed. Perhaps there was something to her friend's request after all…
Please be happy for me, Sheena.
This is my final wish.