A/N: Twenty chapters. Wow. Never thought that Unconditional Love would turn out to be this long. And we still have a ways to go. Many thanks to all of my supporters, both new and consistent. As I've said in the past, it's your willingness to read my works that fuels my will to write. Looking at the new advanced stats feature, I can see that UL is on two C2s, is on the alert list of 12 people, and is on the favorites list of 49 people. 49! I am deeply honored! For all y'all who have UL as a favorite but haven't reviewed yet, please drop me a line sometime!

Anyway, on with the story!

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Chapter 20: Courage

Sheena looked around her surroundings, making sure that the spot was suitable for what she was about to do. She had found a small clearing in the woods behind Colette's house, an area that hopefully wouldn't attract too much attention. It was a quiet spot and only received small amounts of both sunlight and moonlight. Satisfied with the environment around her, Sheena nodded and prepared to do what she came to do: summon Volt and try to talk to him using the knowledge of the ancients.

Her friends might have wondered why she chose to do this, let-alone do it alone. She could have done this a long time ago with the help of Raine. Knowing full-well that she was deathly afraid of Volt, any of her friends would have been willing to stand at her side while she did this. In fact, why was she doing this, they would wonder. The answer was simple: she had to know why Volt went berserk, not once, but twice.

She had to do this alone. She felt that she had to be able to face the subject of her worst fears and nightmares without help from anyone. This was nothing against her friends, of course. It was just a feeling she had, after-all. She hoped that, if anyone did find out about this, nobody would be offended. She felt particularly bad about not telling Lloyd about this. He would have without a doubt stood by her and done everything in his power to ward off her fears.

She shook her head. This was no time to be worrying about such things. She felt that she was merely stalling. Was it out of fear? Of course it was. She was scared to death of Volt. With every passing second, she began to fell more and more just how much of a bad idea this was. At one point, she had even turned back towards Colette's house, ready to return back to her friends who were probably worried about her by now. However, after reiterating to herself that this had to be done so she could rest easily for the first time in almost a decade, she quickly turned back to the clearing and prepared to summon Volt.

She drew a single card from her side-pack and stared at it for the better part of a minute. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and grasped the card with both hands. The circle of power that always appeared beneath her during her summons did so once again as she began to chant. "I call upon the hammer of godly might! I summon thee! Come, Volt!"

Throwing down the card she was holding produced a great flash of light, just as it always did. When the light subsided, Volt floated a mere fifteen feet away from her. It's large, red eyes blinked as it eyed the Grand Summoner. Arcs of lightning coursed all over the mighty summon spirit as it prepared to speak in its ancient tongue.

(A/N: Volt's words will be in italics, since his words are still in his own language and are only translated in Sheena's mind.)

"What is your wish, Grand Summoner?"

Sheena was now overwhelmed with fear. She took a step back, only to trip backwards, leaving her to look up at the powerful Summon Spirit. "A-ah!" She shut her eyes tightly and began to shake her head furiously. "I can't do this! I can't do this!" she kept repeating to herself over and over again. She wanted to cry out for help but couldn't utter a single coherent word.

To her great surprise, a strong, reassuring hand rested itself upon Sheena's shoulder. Her eyes shot open as she felt this. Looking back at the owner of the hand, she discovered that it was Lloyd. He smiled down at her as he offered her his hand. "Need a hand?" he asked.

Still fear-struck, she immediately took his hand, pulled herself up, and got as close to Lloyd as she could. "I can't do this Lloyd! I just can't!"

Lloyd cocked an eyebrow, confused. "Eh? Can't do what Sheena?"

Breaking into a low-whisper, she replied, "I-I want to ask Volt why he went berserk-"

"But you're afraid, right?" asked Lloyd, finishing her sentence.

She nodded. "I wanted to be able to do this by myself. I keep having nightmares about this and I want them to go away, but now, I…I just can't do it!"

Lloyd held Sheena close to himself and rocked her gently from side-to-side. "Alone? Don't be silly Sheena. That's what you have your friends around for." He paused. "That's why you have me around."

She looked into his brown eyes and nodded slowly. "Y-yes of course. I'm sorry Lloyd."

He shook his head and smiled. "Don't be sorry. You didn't do anything wrong. Now then, let's do this. If I woulda known that you were having nightmares about this, I would've made you do this much sooner. The last thing I want is to see you in any kind of pain."

Most of the fear washed away from Sheena's face as she smiled sweetly at Lloyd. "Lloyd…"

He nodded. "Go ahead. I don't think anything will happen, but if it does-" He pounded his fists together and flashed a confident grin. "-I'll make 'im regret messing with you."

Nodding back, she turned back around and took a few steps toward Volt. She composed herself and took a deep breath. "Volt?"

"Yes Grand Summoner?"

Lloyd blinked. "Wow, that's cool! I can even understand him now!" Realizing that he had temporarily forgotten the purpose of his being there, he shook his head and said, "Go ahead Sheena."

Another deep breath. She was unbelievably nervous, even with Lloyd there. "Calm down Sheena," she told herself. "Just get through this and you might be able to rest more easily. It's like Lloyd said back at Volt's Temple: I can't live forever in Volt's shadow or else he'll haunt me for the rest of my days." Yet another deep breath. "Well, here goes nothing." Looking dead into Volt's ominously red eyes, she said, "Volt, I demand to know why you went berserk, not once, but twice. What caused you to lose your faith in the people of Symphonia?"

"…"

Sheena took a step back. "V-Volt! Why won't you answer me?"

Not saying anything but assuming the worst, Lloyd drew his Material Blades and readied himself.

Sheena called out to Volt once more. "Volt!"

"As you already know, I formed a pact with Mithos Yggdrasil four-thousand years ago and served him for many years after that."

Hearing this, Lloyd slowly re-sheathed his blades. "Whew," he thought to himself.

Sheena nodded nervously. "G-go on."

"With the other Summon Spirits of Symphonia, we managed to bring an end to the ancient Kharlan War between the hemispheres of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. We all had so much trust in Mithos and his companions. We had never before been bound to anyone, thus proving just how powerful he was. We had hoped he would continue to use this power for good. We were wrong."

Lloyd walked forward and stood next to Sheena, his eyes darting back and forth between her and the mighty Summon Spirit as he did so.

"Some time after the end of the Kharlan War, Mithos' sister, Martel, was killed by a group of anti-sylvanites, a group of individuals who held an unpopular (at the time) belief that half-elves were not to be trusted and should be ousted from society.. After his sister's passing, Mithos slowly began to turn for the worse. It started with his slaughter of those who had killed his sister. Not knowing what prompted the slaughter of the anti-sylvanites, people all over Symphonia who caught wind of this news grew to dislike half-elves as well. As the atrocities continued, so did the hatred of the half-elves. This all eventually led to the rise of the Desians and the constant racism against half-elves."

Sheena closed her eyes. "So that's why…" She nodded. "Please continue Volt."

"We could not begin to feel the grief that Mithos experienced after the death of his sister. Despite this, we had hoped that he would not do something so rash as to begin slaughtering anti-sylvanites. The killings may have been justified initially, but the aftereffects completely nullified the justification. As such, Mithos dishonored his vows with the Summon Spirits and his pacts with us were considered to be void. It is for this reason that we lost our faith in the sentient life of Symphonia."

Taking another deep breath,Sheena took one step forward and asked, "But why would you hurt people who had nothing to do with those events four-thousand years later?"

"Simple. I did not want our powers to fall into the wrong hands once again. The other Summon Spirits were quick to trust you, but I was not. I would not allow myself to be used as an instrument of wanton destruction once again. In order to defend Symphonia, I felt that the destruction of all those who sought my power must be eliminated."

Sheena looked down. "To protect Symphonia? From us?"

"As I said, I could not take a chance on trusting you. However, after seeing not only your companion Lloyd defend you but also Verius sacrifice his physical form in order to protect you from me, I began to wonder if maybe you really were good people. Unsure of what to think, I held back during our fight. I thought I would give the people of Symphonia one last chance to earn my trust."

Lloyd and Sheena grasped Sheena hands as she continued. "You held back?"

"Indeed. Since Verius is the Summon Spirit of the heart, he could peer into your very soul and instantly tell that you were not like Mithos. When I saw what he did, I knew I at least had to give you a chance."

Lloyd looked over at his lover. "Verius again."

She nodded. "Just how long has he been protecting us?"

"Verius has great faith in both of you. Never before has he seen such a compatible couple of sentient beings. He fully believes that the two of you will be able to do more for Symphonia than Mithos, his companions, or even the Summon Spirits could ever do. I want you to know that, no matter what, you will have my full support. I hope you will grow to trust me. Now, I have something that I wish to say to you, Grand Summoner."

Sheena looked at Volt strangely. "W-what is it?"

"I am truly sorry for any pain I have caused you. Had I known sooner what you were truly capable of, I would have never brought harm to you or those you cared so much for."

Sheena could not believe what she just heard. Volt… apologized? It seemed too radical to be real. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that Volt would ever apologize for what he did, even if it was in what he thought was Symphonia's best interests. "Volt, I-"

"You don't have to say anything, Grand Summoner. Just know that I'm always ready to serve you and Symphonia should you ever need me."

She nodded. "T-thank you Volt. That is all."

That said, a bright flash of light flooded through the small clearing in the woods and, when the light subsided, Volt was nowhere to be seen.

Lloyd smiled and held both of her hands in his own. "You did it Sheena! I knew you could!"

Tears streamed down Sheena's cheek as she smiled back at Lloyd. "I did, didn't I?" She gently rested her head on Lloyd's chest as she sobbed. "Thank you Lloyd. Thank you for being here with me."

The two said nothing for a moment. Both were glad that this was now behind them. Sheena raised her head and locked eyes with Lloyd.

Still smiling, Lloyd kissed Sheena on the forehead. "C'mon, everyone's probably wonderin' where we are. Don't want 'em to worry, eh? Besides, you'll need to get some rest. Remember, we have to transfer the Eternal Sword to my Angel Arm tomorrow."

She nodded and the two walked back towards Colette's house, hand in hand. Sheena took one last back at the clearing where she had summoned Volt and whispered, "Thank you Volt."

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Little longer than I thought. I'm sure most people were expecting this answer but I hope it was sufficient all the same. Remember, lemme know if you wanna see a little Gesea one-shot or not. Thanks in advance for any and all reviews! Stay tuned for the next chapter!