I'm baaaaack...

(Dew/Char): *groan*

(Dew): Haven't you learned your lesson by now?

What lesson?

(Char): That writing these things can be hazardous to your health.

Oh, I've learned that.

(Dew): But you're still writing!

*nodding*

(Dew): But if you're still writing... that means...

(Char): That means...cliffhangers?!

I didn't say tha...

(Dew): MORE?!

(Char): You don't learn, do you?!

^_^;; hehehe....



Okay , welcome to my new fic! This isn't going to be anywhere NEAR as long as FoW (only about 5 chapters I think)... darn writer's block. One day, someone needs to invent a pill to remove writer's block. Whaddya think?

Okay, the fic is going to seem heavily Sheba-based, but I don't know how long that'll last. Again, darn writer's block. Okay, then, here we go...

Oh, and I know Faran is Sheba's adoptive parent, but I couldn't remember the name given (if any) of her adoptive mother (again, if any) so, for all purposes and intents, she has an adoptive mother and her name is Leia. Understand? Cool.



Disclaimer: Tell you what. I'll make you a deal. We'll save everyone's time with this. If you ever need a disclaimer for any chapter, read just this one, which reads as follows:

I DON'T OWN GOLDEN SUN.



...that feels so good to get out of the way...



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Night-time. It was a quiet night. Luna gave off a small amount of light, just enough to light the way of the common passerby.

The common passerby, in this case, was Sheba. The young Wind Adept walked slowly along the streets of Vale. After such a long quest to light the four lighthouses of Alchemy, it was nice to have a little time to relax and think. The eight adepts that had fought so valiantly atop the Mars Lighthouse now all resided in the quiet mountain village. They had formed such a strong friendship that none of them wanted to fracture it, and so they remained together.

So she meandered along the many twisting paths and roads of Vale, all the while her overactive Jupiter mind working in overdrive. First she thought back to her days in Lalivero, and that fateful night that changed her life, and caused her destiny.

********************

[Lalivero, 1 month before the Venus Flare]

Sheba lay awake, her mind reeling before she slept. Life in Lalivero could be quite boring sometimes, sure, but it was quiet, and she appreciated that. She was always a kind of quiet girl growing up, which made the residents of Lalivero think she was a goddess child even more. Of course, they didn't realize that she was merely an Adept, but even if they knew, her miraculous survival from falling from the sky to them may have convinced them to nearly worship her anyway.

But on this night in particular, Sheba was wondering about her family. No, not Faran and Leia. Those two, her adoptive parents, had always been kind and wonderful to her. But they could never be her real parents, could they? Although, really, she often wondered how she could get along without them, but she could never really call them mother and father. They were always Faran and Leia to her. They couldn't replace the feeling, the connection she would feel with her biological parents. Her thoughts turned to her real family, whoever they were.

'Mother...father...' she thought. 'Why have you left me here? What did I do to warrant your desertion...?"

Tears slowly began to well up behind Sheba's eyes, but she quickly suppressed them. 'No sense in getting worried over something like this,' she supposed. Sheba turned over in her bed, pulled the sole blanket a little tighter over herself against the cold night desert wind, and closed her eyes. She would have drifted into an uneasy sleep, but for the ominous sound of thunder approaching. She looked to the sky, but there were no clouds present. Worried, she looked out the window.

And gasped.

At the edges of the city was a whole group of well trained soldiers. There were tens and tens of them, maybe even a hundred! Sheba took a step back, worried at the sight she saw. She saw her father, Faran, run out to speak to the leader. They exchanged some words, and Faran appeared to be getting more and more visibly agitated. She gasped as the soldier knocked her adoptive father to the ground. Leia ran out to him, and about ten of the soldiers calmly walked past them to their house. Sheba heard footsteps rising up the stairs to her room. Each step of their feet seemed to mark another beat in her heart, beating faster and more frantically with every thud of the foot falling on the stairs. Sheba shrunk to the back corner of her room opposite the door, eyes wide in fear.

The door flew open, and two soldiers appeared in the space the door had just occupied. Seeing Sheba, they walked over to her.

"What do you want?" Sheba asked meekly.

"We're not going to hurt you," one said calmly. "But you need to come with us for awhile."

"Why? I don't want to!" she cried.

"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice," the other replied, grabbing her gingerly by the arm.

"Let me go!" Sheba cried, struggling. But the other man was far older than she. Sheba would have had more luck knocking down a great oak tree than escaping him.

The soldier dragged her kicking and screaming out to the street, where Leia was slowly helping Faran to his feet.

"Sheba!" Faran cried. "Run! Run away!"

"I can't! Help me, Faran!!" she cried in panic. Faran dashed toward the soldier holding her, but before he could even take a step, another soldier had knocked him to his knees. "Faran!" Sheba yelled. The soldiers didn't stop. They dragged Sheba past him and then past Leia. As they passed her, Leia slapped the soldier with all of her might. A large red mark appeared on his cheek. Angered, he knocked her to the ground with a mighty swat. She fell, and didn't seem to be able to get up again.

"Leia!!" Sheba cried. Leia turned to her stomach and looked at her with watering eyes. She tried to be reassuring even through her fear, and looked Sheba right in the eye.

"It'll be okay, Sheba, it'll be okay..." she slumped to the ground again.

"Le...Lei..." Sheba cried. "Mother!!!"

"If you want your Child of the Gods back," the captain said loudly, "you may want to get started on that lighthouse..." They dragged Sheba out of the little village, the whole while staring at Faran and the very still Leia.

"Father!! Mother!!"

********************

[Vale, Present]

Sheba smiled sadly as she remembered that memory. She hadn't seen either Faran or Leia again. She heard atop Venus Lighthouse that Faran was looking for her, but heard no mention of Leia. Maybe she was...no, she hoped not.

In the meanwhile, there was always the future to look forward to. Sheba rested on a large rock near the plaza, and reminisced some more. She seemed to be in the mood for that, tonight. This time, she let her thoughts roam back to another place...

********************

[Mars Lighthouse, 10 minutes before the Mars Flare]

"It's too late, Kraden, we can't get away from it now!!" Garet yelled over the roar of the Doom Dragon. This last obstacle on their quest was easily the most dangerous. The floor of the aerie was slippery, and one false move would result in a lot of time to ponder where the mistake was made on the way down to the ground. In addition, the outside temperature was extremely cold, meaning the Adepts had valuable little time to work with.

And of course, the Doom Dragon, the greatest fused creature any of them had ever seen, was standing in front of them, ready to crush them with one sweep of its tail.

Isaac opened the battle with a Megiddo attack, which bounced off one of the dragon's heads. It left it looking rather frazzled, but otherwise unhurt. Mia and Picard tried a double Douse attack, hoping the Dragon's vulnerability to Mercury spells would aid them. A veritable torrent of water washed over the Dragon, but when the attack subsided, all the damage that could be seen to it was a little steam rising from its mouths.

The battle raged back and forth with close calls haunting most of the Adepts. Felix was nearly impaled by the large teeth of the beast, and Ivan very nearly lost everything to a Cruel Ruin attack. And Garet...he tripped over the Doom Dragon's tail and nearly fell over the edge of the lighthouse.

Sheba raised her staff and focussed her energy into a Spark Plasma, but before she could unleash it, the Doom Dragon slashed at her with its huge claws. Sheba felt herself get cut and gashed in several places, and fell to her knees. Ivan cried out to her and ran to her as fast as he could, but he wasn't fast enough to stop the Doom Dragon from impaling her with a large claw. Sheba looked down and saw a hole in her stomach, and felt herself hit the cold aerie floor. Her eyes went black, and she felt her life slipping away from her.

She felt Ivan lift her up into his arms, crying, begging her to hold on, but she could do so no longer, and finally succumbed to death.

The next thing she knew, she was staring into Ivan's eyes, a discarded jar that had previously held the rare Water of Life in it off to the side.

"Ivan..." she began, but he put a finger up to her lips to tell her to be silent.

"Don't...scare me like that, Sheba," he whispered.

"I won't," she promised. Ivan helped her slowly to her feet, and she realized that the battle was over, and there were a few extra bodies laying around the beacon pit. Ivan looked deeply into her eyes. He spoke directly to her mind.

'Sheba... I never had the chance to tell you... I...' she cut him off. 'I know,' she replied. 'Me too.' And he kissed her lovingly.

********************

[Vale, Present]

'I may not have my real family," Sheba thought, 'but I have Ivan. And I have the others, too. I suppose they're my family, now.' She smiled inwardly, happy that she had finally found a family to share her life with. Maybe the world wasn't such a cold place after all...

Interrupting her thoughts, a shattering of glass sounded from the plaza. Wondering what it was, she grabbed her staff and made her way slowly there, only Luna above lighting her way.

When she arrived at the plaza, she found a break in the glass of the window at the weapon shop, and the door wide open. It was far too late for the weapon smith to be working, so she concluded that there must be a thief about. She took her Salamander Rod (she had always hated the fact that her best weapon was aligned with Mars and not Jupiter) and edged towards the door. She crept in and saw a hooded figure pouring over the weapons.

"Stop," she said simply. The figure turned to face her. She couldn't make out his (or maybe her?) face, but she could see two glowing red eyes glaring out from under the hood. The figure raised a staff. Sheba recognized it as a Clotho's Distaff. "I don't want to fight you."

The other person disagreed. He lunged at her, and they locked staves, muscling for position. Even closer, Sheba still couldn't see who it was under the hood, so she decided not to worry about it until after she had defeated him.

Sheba spun her Rod around, trying to wrench the Staff from her adversary's grip. Unfortunately, he would not let go. He delivered a very fast spin kick that Sheba, even with her Jupiter-gifted speed, had a hard time dodging. They locked staves again, but the mysterious figure forced her back.

Sheba cast Impact on herself to increase her strength. They crossed staves and she easily forced him back, but he wasn't out of tricks yet.

The cloaked figure shone a faint purple, and cast Impact on himself. Sheba sighed inwardly. She was pitted against another Jupiter Adept. That meant that he would be resistant to her spells, so she would have to rely on strength to win, but she was never very strong. It wasn't looking good for her.

Deciding to stop fooling around, Sheba raised her Salamander Rod and called, "Shine Plasma!" Bolts of electricity arced from Sheba to the sky and back down, but amazingly, the figure dodged all of them. Sheba had never seen an opponent who could dodge lightning, but she was determined not to give up until she at least knew who her opponent was.

That could be a task easier said than done, however, as her enemy called, "Spark Plasma!!" and sent a stronger version of her attack back at her. She tried to dodge the attack, but it caught her, and she buckled to one knee. Determined to keep going, she dashed at him and swung with all of her might and the increased power of Impact.

The cloaked figure dodged underneath the attack and swung his leg along the ground to trip her up. She fell to the ground and rolled to avoid his downward smash. She rolled to her feet and faced him again. She was breathing heavily, and realized that she needed to end this fight soon. She cried, "Tempest!!" and forced everything she had into the awesome wind Psynergy. The wind howled like she had never heard it before, rippling her clothes and blowing the hood off of the cloaked stranger.

Sheba recoiled in shock.

"Ivan?!" she cried. Using surprise to his advantage, the Red-Eyed Ivan cast another Impact and smashed her in the temple. She dropped to the ground and didn't move. Ivan leaped over her and ran into the night, having failed at getting his item. There would always be another chance...

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(Char): Hey, I always liked Sheba!!

(Dew): How could you do that?!

Do what?

(Dew): Force her to relive her past, then her death, and then THIS?!

That's not... that bad!

(Char): I can't believe you!

Believe it.

(Dew): You know what scares me?

(Char): What?

(Dew): This is the cliffhanger for the first chapter.

(Char): NO!!

Well, I warned you... To the rest of you, that just happened to seem like the best place to start at. The cliffhanger was... accidental. Yes. Accidental...

Now, you know what to do!! Review!!