This a little late up, because:

1) I'm trying to complete Sonic Adventure 2 Battle,

2) I needed to find out the colour of Yuan's wings,

3) I've just finished reading the Darren Shan books, (OMG! They are awesome. Read, now!)

4) I'll think of number 4.

I don't own Tales of Symphonia! (Why must I put this every chapter?)

A voice, unlike Mithos' or mine broke through the darkness.

"Nia, we've come to help you."

I recognised the voice. "Lloyd!"

Mithos wasn't so happy. "We were having a debate!"

Then Lloyd appeared in the dark space that, apparently, was my mind. (Although I don't quite buy the fact that my mind is completely black and featureless.) Another square opened in the wall and we found ourselves unable to look anywhere else.

I knew this was Mithos' memory, but I found myself looking at everything from outside Mithos, through my own eyes. I realised that I was standing where Lloyd was or would be standing in the game. A lifeless body lay on the ground. She had been a beautiful woman around 28, but now she was just a beautiful corpse.

"You killed my sister!" Mithos shouted. It seemed directed…at me!

"You would sacrifice her life in order to gain control of the mana flow?" Kratos sounded disgusted. I couldn't blame him.

I wanted to protest, but knew it would have no effect. Lloyd, on the other hand…

"Kratos, what are saying? It's me, Lloyd!"…was simply clueless.

"Lloyd, this is Mithos' memory of when Martel died. Don't let it get a hold on you. Remember, the past is over." I said.

My mind turned back to black, with the exception of Lloyd, Mithos and I.

"Lloyd, you'd better have a plan." I said.

"I'm working on it."

"My mental health is at stake here! I'm hearing voices in my head; I daren't say anything because somebody will hear me, that's paranoia; and the voice in my head wants to bring back his dead sister!"

"Nia, we've worked out that you either need a shock to get back in control, or a lot of strength emotionally. Which would you prefer?" Kratos' voice asked.

So Kratos had joined the group…I was glad. Although we still had Zelos. But, back to the Mithos problem…

"Force him out emotionally, please. How exactly do I do that?"

'Nia, it's like using emotions while communicating telepathically.' Stephen 'thought' to bring his point home.

'Stephen, since when did you know a long word like 'communicating'?'

I heard a sigh. 'Really not the time. Unless you enjoy having Mithos inhabiting your body?'

'Ew…'

I thought hard, trying to block out Mithos, pushing him out, but I couldn't.

"I know I'm going to regret this…shock me."

I felt a strong electrical current rip through me, and I knew even before it ended that it wouldn't work.

"He's still here." I informed everyone.

"Nia, can you make it so that only Mithos can feel pain?"

"Yes." I half-guessed what Stephen was up to.

I withdrew from any possible sense of feeling I may have had. Since pain needs to be felt, Mithos' conscious was automatically 'sucked' to the nerve endings.

"Now!" I shouted.

Stephen shot some water onto my hand. Mithos screamed in agony and retreated back to his Cruix Crystal.

"Stop, STOP!" I shouted, having regained full feeling in my hand.

"Please, someone, I need fire." I said as I examined my hand.

It wasn't too badly damaged, but the skin was raw and close to drawing blood.

Someone cast a fire spell – I wasn't sure who – then my hand fingered the Cruix Crystal that had attached itself to the base of my neck. I knew without trying that it wouldn't come off. That still didn't mean I didn't try, though.

Eventually we moved on.

I whistled softly at the sight of the massive room the warp pad had taken us to, and the massive dragon guarding our way forward.

"Do we have to fight it?" I asked.

By now, everyone was tense, so I shouldn't have been surprised when Raine snapped at me, saying, 'No, Nia, we don't have to fight it. We didn't have to save you and we don't have to save the worlds!"

I had to bite back a childish retort.

"Internal strife is pointless. Nia asked an obvious, but civil question. We should try to provide a civil answer." Kratos stated, in full mercenary mode.

Was Kratos defending me?

A wise decision was made – namely that we would rest in Derris-Kharlan for the night. I hoped it would de-stress everyone.

At first I was surprised that it was evening. It's quite like the feeling when you wake up a five a.m. and think to yourself, 'What time is it?' I think that was due to Mithos.

We set up a fire using some of Derris-Kharlan's books. Raine wept for the loss of knowledge. I would have got her a book to distract her, but I hadn't forgiven her for earlier.

Later, Stephen and I had a chat, mentally, so no-one could hear us.

'Stephen, remember when we first played Tales of Symphonia? We hadn't got to the Tower of Salvation yet, so we believed it had stairs…'

'Yeah, and I said that right at the top, Lloyd set a slinky off down the stairs!'

I cast my gaze over the group. 'Lloyd has grown up a little since then. And so have we.'

'What's got into you?'

'It's nothing. I'm just wondering, "Why us? Why have we got these powers? For what reason?"'

'It almost sounds like you don't want this.'

'I like travelling around worlds, and I want to carry on doing it, but sometimes I wish I could be entirely truthful with my friends or that I could eat or drink whatever I want. I can't go swimming, or walk outside in the rain.' I remembered the memory Mithos and I had seen. 'Just something simple like washing the pots.' A tear slid down my face. 'Hell, I can't even cry anymore!' I shouted mentally.

'Nia, you think you have it so damn hard. We are both in the same situation here. Shouting and crying won't change anything.'

'I guess that makes sense.' I reluctantly stopped the tears.

'Oww, that hurt, you know.' Stephen rubbed his head.

'When I shouted? I'm sorry.'

'Don't worry. What are we going to do about Naois?'

'What do you mean?'

'She hasn't done much, so I'm guessing that she's building up her strength. I also guess that she's going to fight us at the same time as Mithos.'

'Okay, I'm scared. A super-charged Naois and Mithos? We'll be lucky to live through this.'

'I think I have a plan.'

Stephen and I argued mentally for a while, until Kratos called Stephen over to talk about something.

That left me to my own devices. Everyone had already had dinner, so they were getting ready to sleep.

"We need someone on lookout throughout the night. This room looks safe enough, but I'd rather not take the risk." Raine said in a loud voice.

"Stephen and I won't sleep anyway, so we might as well." I volunteered.

Raine looked at me, trying to decide whether we'd slit their throats in the middle of the night. From the look on her face, I think she came up with the wrong answer.

"If you don't trust us, Kratos will always be awake so…never mind, you probably don't trust him either. Well, you're more than welcome to stay up with us."

In the end Raine decided that her sleep was more important.

The night dragged by slowly, like normal. Stephen, Kratos and I chatted quietly to pass the time.

"What are you going to do once this is over?" Kratos asked.

"The normal. Go back home, to school, family and friends. Live a normal life…for a week or so. Then…" I hesitated, thinking carefully.

"I'd like to go to Hyrule." Stephen offered.

"How many worlds have you been to?" Kratos asked.

"The first was Agorned…" Stephen said sadly.

"Then we went to the Soul Calibur world, where we learnt to fight better than we had already. Then we went to Midgar…"

"FF7," Stephen interjected.

"…where Stephen challenged Tifa to a fight, and lost. He would've fought Cloud if it weren't for me stopping him."

Stephen knew that Kratos would need an explanation. "Cloud uses a very big broadsword, which can split into two smaller swords. He's as good, if not better than you, Kratos."

"Then we went to…"

"Darren Shan!" Stephen shouted out.

"Hush! They're asleep, Stephen."

"Sorry, but that was a really cool world."

"Everyone dies."

"Not everyone."

"I can name at least five good people who died. In Darren's case, twice!"

"Um, yeah, so then I went to the, um…" Stephen coughed, "world."

"Which world would that be? I didn't quite catch the name." I asked, grinning evilly.

"You know which world I went to."

"Kratos doesn't."

"I would like to know the name."

Stephen sighed. "Althea. Winx Club. But that is much cooler than it sounds."

(A/N. Stephen is actually writing fanfics for Winx Club under the name BusterDragon, but when I search, his name doesn't come up. I'll put him on my favourite authors page if anyone is interested. That is yet another fanfic I've had to do grammar and spelling for! I should really charge.)

"While he was at Althea, I was at Tortal. The Immortal's quartet in particular."

"Wait, when you say quartet…" Kratos started.

"Never mind. Anyway, after that, we came here." I said quickly. "Hang on, I think I have had a sudden flash of inspiration."

I faced the Dark Dragon blocking the way forward.

Like I said at the beginning, sorry that this is up late. I had some serious writers block, I had to pave the way for certain events in the next two chapters (I think there will only be two, but possibly three.) In short, it was determined not to happen.

Reviews please. Thanks to Sunfrost and GenisAddict (Who's reviewed more times than I thought.) Bloody Jack Lover, if you're still reading, please let me know. And I think that's it.

Oh, just one fact. There are 1420 hits but only 26 reviews! Come on. This story's almost finished and I'm only going to keep writing if I manage to get…say, 30 reviews. That'd make me happy. It's only four more.